Good Afternoon!

We were SURE that the caterpillars would emerge from their chrysalis while we were on vacation but we walked in this morning, and THERE THEY WERE!

We spent the morning observing them, watching as they slowly started to move around their enclosure.

Right after breakfast, children who had been documenting the physical changes of the caterpillars headed to the art table where they completed one last entry into their journals. We started observing them when they were monarch caterpillars that a child had found in the backyard.

As the caterpillar’s physical characteristics started changing every few days, children would document the changes with a picture and then either kid spelling the description or having a teacher help them write their words.

The last step in our journey: releasing the butterflies! When they both were moving around in the cage, we knew it was time. Our four older friends helped as we slowly took the butterflies out of their cage and let them fly away when they were ready.

We are so thankful we were able to experience this before we left for summer vacation!

Breakfast– Whole grain cheerios with banana.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded turkey, fresh watermelon, and fresh cucumber/green pepper.

PM snack– Albert’s birthday treat: dried fruit and sesame sticks along with string cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a lovely night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-06-20

Good afternoon!

Our friends started off their morning with loose parts. Miss Bekah gave all of our friends different wooden shape pieces, miniature farm animals and wooden people to play with. Our friends identified the farm animals they had and stacked the shape pieces.

Our friends were also really engaged with building with the Duplos this morning. Two of our friends, Eliza and Ben, worked on stacking them to make towers. Their friends helped them stack additional Duplos and they competed to see who could build the tallest tower.

Our younger friends played with the wooden peg boards and the assortment of wooden beads, rings, and shape beads. They stacked their items on a peg board scale that went down as they increased the items on one side. After our friends were done building and stacking, we got the tunnel back out. Some of our friends who weren’t here yesterday got a turn at crawling through the tunnel first.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with fresh pears.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded turkey, watermelon slices, and carrots.

Afternoon Snack: Sunflower seeds with whole grain Triscuits crackers.

Wee Sprout: Orange bell pepper.

Have a wonderful evening!

Tina and Rebekah

Link to pictures: 2024-06-20

Good Afternoon!

Today we….

looked at books with a friend on the reading step…

built with the hollow blocks…

went outside early to play…

danced while shaking our scarves to Shake Your Sillies Out…

and worked on our balancing skills while walking on the BounceBlocks.

Breakfast:  Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and bananas.

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs, fresh cantaloupe/pear slices, sweet potatoes and whole grain wheat tortillas.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole gain Ritz crackers with hummus.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers.

Have a wonderful evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2024-06-19

Good Afternoon!

**We are planning a pajama day for this Friday for any child who wants to partake as a kickoff to summer vacation!

Wee Friends were enjoying work in the art center this morning.  They used a mixture of paint and glue to create artwork that was sticky!  They used sequins and confetti to add to the sticky paint surface.  Some kids made five or more paintings!  These kinds of activities engage so many parts of the brain simultaneously, increasing cognitive abilities from attention and focus to executive planning.  Activities that hold the attention and stimulate multiple senses at once, teach the brain to function as one, while strengthening the overall mind body connection.  Sometimes it’s good to remember how much is happening in the young child’s brain during what seems like simple play!

Trays with wooden pattern shapes were made available at the circle table and after we came inside from an early outside experience, Hannah and Nesta set up camp and started creating. They initially started making parallel creations where if they did something to one side of the creation, they did it to the other side too!

Then, they moved onto creations that intertwined: a ship and a kingdom!

Nesta created a ship that was moving towards Hannah’s kingdom. We love the imaginative play that comes from open ended activities such as this one. Just by simply looking at their engaged expressions, you could tell that they were extremely focused on planning their next move.

Breakfast– Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon and banana.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs, whole wheat tortilla/flatbread, fresh cantaloupe/oranges, and fresh cucumber/carrot/pepper.

PM snack– Air popped popcorn with butter and raisins.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrot/pepper.

Have a great evening!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-06-19

Good Afternoon!

It was a six legged kind of day at Wee friends as we found ourselves studying the insects of South Bend all led by the curiosity and questions provided by our kids!  Outside, Asher noticed that there were many insects on a tall milkweed plant.  We discovered that there are many different kinds that all called the plant home.  Many of our friends became very interested in a bright gold colored beetle we found under one of the leaves.

Next, as Asher continued to investigate the small details of Wee Friend’s outdoor space, he discovered a small hole in the sand box.  I pushed a bit of dirt into the hole to see if it would draw the inhabitant out…which it did.  It turned out to be a small solitary insect which quickly dug out all of the sand I had pushed in.  The insect, quite dramatically, kicked the dirt out with its back legs.  The kids were captivated and we repeated the experiment several more times as nearly the entire class gathered to watch!

Inside we continued with insects as some of the class worked on their butterfly metamorphosis journal.  They drew what they saw inside the cage and tried to pay close attention to the details they observed.  They saw two chrysalises inside the cage and noticed that they both had a gold line across them.  We learned that all monarch chrysalises look this way.  Afterward we used kid spelling or teacher help to describe what we saw with words. 

During group time today PREK2 read the book “The Life of a Monarch Butterfly”.  At the end of the story we talked about our Monarch caterpillar.  We looked at what we saw in the cage and picked which stage in the life cycle the caterpillar was in right now.

Breakfast: Kix cereal with fresh pineapple.

Lunch: Peanut butter on whole wheat bread, fresh cantaloupe/pineapple, and fresh cucumber/carrot.

PM Snack: Whole wheat bagel with peanut butter.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh carrots.

Have a great day!

~Wee Friend’s Teachers

Link to pictures:2024-06-18

Good afternoon!

We went outside early again this morning to enjoy the cooler weather. We helped our friends grab tools to play with in the sandbox, rode the teeter totter, and sat or walked around the log area.

We then made our way back inside to explore drums. Our friends used their hands to make loud drumming noises and then used one finger to make quieter tapping noises with the drum.

Miss Bekah got out the tunnels for our friends to use. They took turns crawling through the tunnel and later connected the two tunnels to make a long one.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios with fresh cantaloupe slices.

Lunch: Whole grain wheat flatbread with refried beans and shredded mild cheddar cheese, fresh pear, and corn/peas mixture.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout: Cucumber.

Have a wonderful evening!

Tina and Rebekah

Link to pictures: 2024-06-18

Good Afternoon!

*Wee Friends will be closed starting Monday, June 24 through Friday, July 5th. We’ll reopen on Monday, July 8th. Thanks!

What a hot day!  We got outside early and it was already very warm…so we got some water stations going to keep cool while we played!  Some of our friends took it upon themselves to bring some extra water to the plants in the play area and in the garden since they “had to be out in the hot weather all the time!”. It’s wonderful to see that blossoming empathy for other living things!

As the temperature rose we went inside to explore some cooler activities like building with colored playdough.  There were many ideas about what to make including a tri-colored unicorn and a magic wand!  Imaginative play is great…but it takes a whole other level of creative thought and ingenuity to first plan, create and then play!

Breakfast– Whole wheat bagel with butter and banana.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with black beans, fresh oranges/pineapple/banana, and fresh cucumber.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with granola.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-06-17

Good Afternoon!

This morning we altered our routine a bit and went outside earlier than normal to beat the heat.  While outside, we rode on teeter totters,   Eden engaged in the rocks at the balance beam, Ben and Eliza engaged in driving the trucks and all of us engaged in water play with the sea animals or in the play kitchen.

After coming inside, Eden peeked at Charlotte through the fish tank. Charlotte engaged in spinning the letters on the Zany Zoo Activity box and friends enjoyed having Miss Bekah read books to them.  Miss Tina also pulled down the sheer curtain for us to run through around the circle.

Miss Tina also helped Ben build a zoo out of wooden blocks. Ben had pointed out that a lot of the plastic animals could be found at the zoo. His friends helped place the animals in their ‘rooms.’ They then placed Duplo people near the ‘rooms’ and said they were “watching the animals.”

We then engaged with the object permanence boxes.  We worked our fine motor skills to place the coins and the balls into their slots and open the drawers.

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

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat penne pasta with black beans, fresh cantaloupe and broccoli.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts:  Orange bell peppers.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2024-06-17

Happy Friday!

Enjoy a few pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and banana.

Lunch– Turkey and cheese sandwiches on whole wheat bread, fresh banana/pineapple, and fresh cucumber/pepper.

PM snack– Goldfish crackers with fresh pineapple and Colby jack block cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a wonderful weekend and a Happy Father’s Day to all of our Wee dads!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-06-14

Happy Friday!

This morning we were dancing to music while shaking our dancing scarves.

We then engaged in building with Magna-Tiles.  We enjoyed building towers and Eliza and Milo worked together to build a very tall tower, but unfortunately it was too tall and heavy and fell over before we could get a picture.

We then engaged with books on  the reading step.  We looked at books independently or Miss Tina read them to us.

We then headed outside.  We engaged in digging in the wet sand, pushed our construction trucks in the rocks, dug with the excavator bucket and peeked out the window of the little house.

Breakfast:  Whole grain brown rice cakes with cream cheese and bananas.

Lunch:  Ham lunch meat on whole grain wheat tortillas, fresh pear slices and sweet potatoes.

Afternoon Snack:  Goldfish crackers, bananas and mozzarella cheese stick.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers.

Have a great weekend and Happy Father’s Day to all of our wonderful daddies!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2024-06-14