Good Afternoon!

We began our morning dancing to the song, Listen and Move by Greg and Steve.  We also watched the fish swim around in the tank.

Miss Bekah went to the preschool classroom and borrowed magnets, magnetic fish and a magnetic fishing pole.  We used our pole to work on catching the fish using our magnet.  We also built with the magnetic blocks to connect them together in a long line.

We then headed outside to enjoy the sunshine.  We engaged in many of our favorite activities.

Breakfast:  Oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and bananas.

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs, fresh cucumber slices, bananas and whole grain wheat bread.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole grain wheat Ritz crackers with guacamole and mild cheddar cheese slice or 1/2 a mozzarella cheese stick.

Wee Sprouts:  Red bell peppers.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-02

Good Afternoon!

In PREK1 group today, we read ‘Ruby Finds A Worry’. Throughout the story, Ruby’s worry changes size based on how much she’s worrying about it and at the end when she finally talks about her worry, it goes away! It must’ve struck a cord because several friends chose to journal about a worry! Before we read the story, we talked about the word ‘worry’ and what it meant. Friends shared when they’ve had a worry and how it was able to get better.

At the art table this morning several friends were thinking about the upcoming festivities of Halloween!  Some friends spent all morning making pictures of Halloween, as well as some other holidays that came to mind.  When finished, some chose to make their pictures into a holiday book!

We explored a sorting/counting welcome activity this morning.  We chose from three different sorting trays.  After sorting our objects and counting them, we found we had groups of 10!

PREK2:  During group today we read the story “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”.  After the story we talked about the sequence of EVENTS that took place.  We each thought of something that happened in the story.  We talked as a group about whether the event happened first, next or last.

Breakfast– Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh banana.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat flatbread, fresh pineapple/apple, and fresh cucumber/pepper.

PM snack– Air popped corn with raisins.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a wonderful night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures:2024-10-02

*As the weather gets cooler, please remember to bring a jacket/sweatshirt for outside play everyday.  You are welcome to leave one in your child’s cubby. *

Happy 1st day of October!

We have fish in our classroom again! Our friends checked out the new fish yesterday and this morning. Our friends worked on counting the fish in the tank (we have 3 fish).

Charlotte and her friends brought down the liquid squares and stepping stones. They laid them out all over the floor and took turns walking on them. We watched as the liquid in the liquid squares shifted as we stood or walked on them. Our friends also felt the different textures of the stepping stones underneath their feet as they stood on them.

We then made our way outside to push bikes up the hill, play in the housekeeping area, ride teeter-totters with friends or on our own, and explore the dragons and dinosaurs in the sandbox.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with fresh nectarine slices.

Lunch: Whole grain wheat flatbread with refried beans and shredded mozzarella cheese,  yellow bell pepper and fresh strawberries.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat bagel with cream cheese and fresh apple slices.

Wee Sprout: Mini cucumbers.

Have a beautiful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-01

Good Afternoon!

We focused on identifying settings and characters today during our sign in activity as well as our PREK1 focused group. We used one of our favorite books, ‘The Rainbow Fish’ for sign in today. Children identified the setting of ‘The Rainbow Fish’ and signed underneath it.

Later on in PREK1 group, we read one of our favorite stories from our MACK collection, ‘What Should Darla Do?’. Throughout the week, our MACK focus is on handling and dealing with strong emotions in a productive way. In the story that we read in group, we got to make choices to Darla to see how it would affect her day. We often have conversations with children throughout the day about choices that they could make. There’s often a few different choices such as using words with friends OR hitting when frustrated with a peer. We decided to do a pattern of good choice, bad choice, good choice when making Darla’s decisions!

When we were done, children identified different characters that were in the story. We also shared a few different settings in the story.

K.RL.2.3: Identify important elements of the text (e.g. characters, settings, or events).

We took our first fall visit to the farm with our older friends this morning!  We met all kinds of farm animals including sheep, horses, goats, chickens, turkeys and cats.  We helped out with some farm chores like moving a mother and baby chicks into a new home.  We also discovered some eggs in strange places which the kids were ecstatic about finding. It’s great to see how our once youngest kids returning as the oldest this fall boldly showing the younger kids that interacting with the animals at the farm is a wonderful and connective experience! 

Please enjoy some more pictures from our day!

Breakfast: Cheerios with fresh cantaloupe.

Lunch: Peanut butter on whole wheat bread, fresh peppers/cucumbers, and fresh strawberries/watermelon.

PM Snack: Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh cucumbers and bell peppers.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-01

Happy Monday!

Miss Ashley’s first day was today! We enjoyed getting to know her and we’re so excited she’s a part of the Wee Friends teaching team!

This week, we’re going to be introducing greater than, less than, and equal to. When PREK1 kids came to sign in this morning, we compared two groups and had to determine which group had the most. Tomorrow, we’ll introduce the greater than, less than, and equal to signs.

Before we journaled, we read, ‘Elmer and the Lost Teddy’ in PREK1 group. Before we started reading, we talked about characters and the setting in stories. Once we were done reading, we talked about the characters that were in the story such as the lion, baby elephant, and Elmer and his cousin Wilbur!

This morning several of our friends enjoyed sorting costume jewelry during our welcome activity.  The activity encouraged sorting in a variety of ways.  Several chose to look for pairs and sort in groups of two.  We also found that some objects could be sorted into larger groups.  Other friends sorted by size.  Later on, couple of friends suggested that we turn the activity into a store, so they could pretend to buy and sell what they had sorted.  We put out some pretend coins and bills out and everyone enjoyed an imaginary business exchange for the rest of the morning!

PREK2:  Today we read the story “A Tale of Two Beasts”.  After the story we talked about the two characters and how their perspectives were different.  At the end of group time, we picked our favorite character from the story and put our name next to that character on our board. 

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with peanut butter and fresh watermelon.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce, fresh strawberries/cantaloupe, and fresh peppers/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with granola.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-09-30

Good Afternoon!

This morning several friends were busy in the housekeeping area.  Charlotte was eating an apple, Eleanor was cooking on the stove and blowing on her food to cool it down, and Charlotte and another friend were going on an adventure carrying their purses.

We then headed into the kitchen to engage with playdough.  We worked our fine motor and hand-eye coordination skills as we placed golf tees, while another friend pulled pieces of playdough off her big piece to make smaller pieces.  Another friend filled his plastic egg half with playdough to make a mold of it.

We then headed outside to get some fresh air and play with our favorite activities.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat bread toasted with peanut butter and fresh apple slices.

Lunch:  Whole grain penne pasta with shredded roast beef , mini cucumbers and fresh nectarines.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and fresh strawberries.

Wee Sprout: Yellow bell pepper.

Have a great evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-09-30

Happy Friday!

PREK1 friends wrapped up their week by completely sign in earlier today. Each friend had to find their name on the board along with a group of shapes that were specific to them. There was one shape in their grouping that didn’t fit. They had to figure out what shape didn’t fit into the group and share why. Albert said, “This one is a circle and it’s not a triangle like these.”. Everyone was able to quickly identify their ‘misfit’ shape and explain why it didn’t fit into the group.

K.DA.1: Identify, sort, and classify objects by size, number, and other attributes. Identify objects that do not belong to a particular group and explain the reasoning used.

We’ve been focusing on book genres all week in PREK1 and we finally came to the final genre: nonfiction! We have a few different animal life cycle representations that are displayed in the science area. One of those displays is the life cycle of the ladybug. So, we dove into the book ‘Ladybug Life Cycle’ and used the displays to help us get a close look at each stage. Friends were interested to find out that ladybugs aren’t just black and red but yellow, brown, and white!

K.RL.3.1: Recognize familiar narrative text genres (e.g. fiction, nonfiction, fairytales, poems).

A couple of our young friends came up with a project idea earlier this week.  The project, referred to by its creators as “hook things together inventions”, was brought up yesterday afternoon in hopes that it could continue.  We brought the materials back out so the kids could continue to experiment and see the project through until they felt they had investigated all avenues!  Today we explored both new ideas and innovations to the old ones. Among our new ideas were an air plane with jet engines, a tiny umbrella and a pumpkin.

There is continued interest in the written word at Wee Friends!  Several kids have been very interested in a spelling game, using word cards and letter dice to sequence words.  Paige was clearly very pleased with her work!  Many of our younger journaling group have taken a leap from scribbling to making deliberate representational pictures and are beginning to write letters! It’s very exciting to see!

PREK2:  In group today we compared sizes.  We read the story “The Big Guy Took My Ball”.  We talked about the descriptive words large, small, big, little, and medium.  At the end of the story we came up to the board and picked a small, medium, or large “marble” to sort into a chart.  We used marbles given the strong interest in marble runs this week!

Breakfast– Brown rice cakes with cream cheese and fresh grapes.

Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat tortilla, fresh cantaloupe/grapes, and fresh pepper/cucumber.

PM snack– Goldfish and cheddar block cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-09-27

Happy Friday!

Today we….

built with the waffle blocks…

worked on matching the bead colors to our pattern card and stringing the beads onto a pipe cleaner…

and then headed outside to ride bikes down the hill, practice our balancing skills on the balance beams, scoop in the sand, cook in the kitchen, and explore and point to all the different colored jewels in the cement.

Breakfast:  Whole grain brown rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh apple slices.

Lunch:  Hummus on whole grain wheat flatbread, fresh cucumber slices and cantaloupe/tangerine slices.

Afternoon Snack:  Ritz crackers and Mild cheddar block cheese slices.

Wee Sprouts:  Mini sweet peppers.

Have a great weekend!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-09-27

Good Afternoon!

We’ve been working on sorting things this week based on different attributes. Today, PREK1 group members sorted food into different food groups such as fruits, vegetables, and sweets. We sorted foods such as a donut, strawberry, green bean, and carrot into the appropriate group!

Later on in group, we checked ‘poetry’ off of our book genre list by reading ‘It’s Raining Pigs and Noodles’. Each friend got to pick one poem to read so we read a total of six plus I read a few of my favorite poems from the book. A friend shared, “That looks like a long chapter book!”, before we started reading the book. We talked about the difference between poetry books and chapter books.

K.DA.1: Identify, sort, and classify objects by size, number, and other attributes. Identify objects that do not belong to a particular group and explain the reasoning used.

K.RL.3.1: Recognize familiar narrative text genres (e.g. fiction, nonfiction, fairytales, poems).

This morning we offered a ‘sorting by size’ welcome activity that came with the option of open ended imaginative play.  Friends enjoyed finding a small, medium, and large size of each animal.  Not only did they sort the animals, they buried them in sand, built them houses and made small, medium, and large foot prints with them.

Everyone was overjoyed to be back outside after all of the rain!  Friends played tag or hide and go seek, played in the sandbox and road bikes all morning!

We hope you enjoy a few more pictures from our day!

PREK2: During group today we read the story, “When Sophie Gets Angry”.  After the story we talked about what happened at the beginning, the middle and the end of the story.  We made a list on the board, creating a simple sequence of when things we remembered from the story had happened.

Breakfast– Whole grain cheerios with banana.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded turkey, fresh pineapple/pears, and fresh carrots/pepper/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat round crackers with peanut butter and sunflower/pumpkin seeds.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrots/pepper.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures:2024-09-26

Good afternoon!

Our friends enjoyed dancing this morning. We followed along to “Listen and Move” and “We All Fall Down.” They walked, galloped, tip toed, hopped, ran and skated all around the front of the classroom with their friends.

We also read books on our own or with Julie, our visiting IUSB student. They all chose different books from the shelf for her to read to them.

We made our way to the kitchen to engage with some sensory play. Miss Bekah gave each friend some shaving cream and then sprinkled baking soda and added a little water on it to thicken the cream. Our friends mixed it together and watched as it crumbled into small, white pieces that we could manipulate.

We chose bears from the basket and listened to “Going on a Bear Hunt” with our friends. We walked around the front with our bears or snuggled with them on the reading step. Julie tickled Eleanor with one of the bears, which made her laugh.

We then made our way outside to play. We rode bikes down the hill, practiced our balance skills on the balance beam course, scooped sand in the sandbox and explored the logs in the log area.

Breakfast: Whole grain Puffins cereal with fresh cantaloupe.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded chicken, sweet potatoes and fresh pear.

Afternoon Snack: Sunflower seeds with whole grain wheat Triscuits crackers.

Wee Sprout: Red mini sweet peppers.

Have a terrific evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-09-26