WF, 9/3/2019

Happy Tuesday!

Today, we officially kicked off our newest asset to the our classroom: Mindful Attention with Curiosity and Kindness Curriculum (MACK). In our classroom, social and emotional learning opportunities are always present. Our MACK curriculum provides us teachers with direct-teaching learning goals in 5 areas over a 12 week cycle, similar to our FAB’s.

As Tami was creating our MACK curriculum, not only were various resources added to our environment but she added more than 60 books that we’re able to pull from which cover our MACK topics:

  • Mindfulness: Paying attention on purpose in the present moment with kindness and curiosity.
  • Emotions: Recognizing and naming emotions in themselves and others.
  • Acts of Kindness and Friendship: Defining and demonstrating kindness and exploring facets of friendship.
  • Peace and Diversity: Celebrating the differences and similarities that connect all people.
  • Gratitude: Learning about gratitude and recognizing things they are grateful for in their lives.

The books we’ve added to our environment for our MACK curriculum can be found on the blog! We’re thrilled to add this to our resources and our every day life here at Wee Friends!

We (Mindy, Kim, and Annastecia) can’t thank Tami enough for all of her hard work this summer to get the MACK ready for this Fall!

The MACK we’ll be focusing on this week:

MACK Week 1: Children will learn that mindfulness involves paying attention on purpose in the present moment with curiosity and kindness. Children will use their senses to describe what they are feeling and seeing in the world around them.

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In K/PREK1, we read ‘Yoga Bunny’ which went along with our yoga session that Franklin headed up!

Afterwards, we started talking about syllables and how we figure out how many syllables are in a word.

Each member of our group got to pick one word and we read it aloud together before they tried to figure out how many syllables were in their word. Once they did, they taped their word under the correct category.

Two ways we can figure out how many syllables are in a word:

  • Chin method!: Place your hand under your chin and count how many times your chin moves when saying the word.
  • Clapping method! Clap how many singular sounds you hear in a word. For example, ba-nan-a.

K.RF.3.2: Orally segment words into syllables.

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In PREK2 group, children used ants to cover individual pieces of food that were at the picnic! On Mack’s watermelon, he had to match the number that was present and place 10 ants on his watermelon. This activity focused on children’s one to one correspondence skills as they placed each ant on the picnic blanket.

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A peak into the rest of our day!

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Breakfast- Quaker Oatmeal Squares and fresh apple.

Lunch– Melted shredded cheese on whole wheat tortilla, fresh oranges, and fresh carrots.

PM snack– Raisins and whole wheat english muffins with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.

Have a terrific evening.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 9/3

WWF 09/03/2019

Good Afternoon.

Today friends noticed rather quickly that new pictures of them were placed in the photo frames around the classroom. They LOVED seeing themselves and their friends. When a certain child would notice themselves or a friend, they would point to that picture and happily say the name of whom was in that specific picture. Smile 

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We then went into the kitchen area to do a fun art project with Miss Annastecia. With the Fall season quickly approaching, we engaged in sensory and fine motor activity. We painted with Duplo blocks onto leaf and pumpkin shapes. We were also able to talk about the recognition of the paint colors we used.

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Breakfast: Whole grain Chex cereal with apples.

Lunch: Whole wheat warmed tortilla with shredded mozzarella cheese, peas and clementine’s.

Snack: Whole wheat bagels with cream cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots.

Have a nice night.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljsdK9IabxT4qORrTwg?e=Bd4KU4

WF, 8/30/2019

Happy Friday!

**Reminder: Wee Friends is closed Monday, September 2nd for Labor Day. Thanks!

On Sunday, Evie will celebrate her birthday—she’s turning three! We enjoyed her birthday treat and she enjoyed some extra birthday love! We hope you have a fantastic birthday, Evie!

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Enjoy a few pictures from our day!

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Breakfast– Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh pears.

Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat flatbread, fresh apples, and fresh carrots.

PM snack– Evie’s birthday treat: banana muffins and block cheddar cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/peppers.

Have a terrific weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/30

WWF 08/30/2019

Good Afternoon.

Please enjoy the pictures from our day!

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Breakfast: Whole grain brown rice cakes with peanut butter and banana.

Lunch: Whole wheat/grain flatbread with hummus, peas and banana.

Snack: Whole grain cheese crackers and mozzarella cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers.

Have a fabulous Labor Day weekend and we’ll see you on Tuesday.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljsZCH4_vhqpkSRdGvQ?e=3a2cmz

WF, 8/29/2019

Good Afternoon!

Our morning was full of fine motor work!

Emma and Sophia collaborated to make a color pattern using the pegs. As they placed the pegs into each space, they talked about what color they wanted to do next.

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Chloe asked for the white tiles and pretended to make sandwiches in her sandwich shop! She placed the white tiles in a specific order to replicate sandwiches.

Jack’s fine motor skills were engaged as they connected small LEGOS together. The small LEGOS require quite a bit of fine motor strength.

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All of these fine motor activities strengthen our fine motor skills which are essential for writing!

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Breakfast– Kix and fresh pears/banana.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh oranges, and fresh carrots/pepper.

PM snack– Wheat thins and cashews.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/pepper.

Have a lovely night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/29

WWF 08/29/2019

Good Afternoon.

Blog for the day…. SHEER HAPPINESS!! Just look at these happy smiley faces. Smile Smile There is nothing better and more rewarding as a teacher than seeing these types of faces on our friends every day!!

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Breakfast: Whole grain Chex and apples.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded chicken, corn and clementine’s.

Snack: Pumpkin seeds and whole wheat Ritz crackers.

Have a wonderful evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljsVew-018SpAds-Bcw?e=bLz7UP

WWF 08/28/2019

Good Afternoon. What a gorgeous day.

This morning we had a great time enhancing our fine motor skills coloring with markers in the outdoor environment. We LOVE to color and it’s even better when we can color outside enjoying all the fresh air.

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We also really enjoying engaging our hands in using the tiny child sized brooms to sweep up all the pea-gravel that gets pushed up onto the concrete portion of our bike trail. Friends absolutely love the brooms.

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Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and banana.

Lunch: Scrambled eggs with whole wheat buttered toast, fresh cucumbers and pears.

Snack: Blue corn chips and refried beans.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh Red pepper.

Have a wonderful evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICRUES: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljsROv3JG_tiFxLwrag?e=H6CiBf

WF, 8/28/2019

Good Afternoon!

Enjoy a few pictures from our day!

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Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and fresh cantaloupe.

Lunch– Scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, whole wheat tortilla, fresh pears/banana, and fresh snap peas.

PM snack– Popcorn & Raisins

Wee Sprout– Fresh snap peas.

Have a terrific evening.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/28

WWF 08/27/2019

Good Afternoon.

Our Infants have their own style of engaging in play, and boy oh boy is it a fun one!

Today, two baby friends pulled many books off the book shelf, pulled many dramatic play objects off their shelf onto the floor and had a good ‘ole time doing it too! Infant play at its finest! Smile 

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Breakfast: Whole grain Chex and banana.

Lunch: Whole wheat/grain tortilla with refried beans and shredded cheese, snap peas and banana.

Snack: Whole wheat toast with peanut butter.

Wee Sprouts: Mixed vegetables.

Have a wonderful evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljr5ty6RdtOQicbY5kA?e=FobAgr

WF, 8/27/2019

Hello!

During our yoga session in K/PREK1, we really focused on our deep breathing. Several friends were breathing with a ton of emphasize on the breathe out. So we practiced together as we were in one of our yoga poses. We really got the hang of it towards the end.

I asked the question “What is a community?”. Penny was quick to share, “It’s people that share and help each other!”. After we worked together to define ‘community’, we added several community helpers to our web. We’ll extend on this topic tomorrow!

Social Studies: K.2.1 Give examples of people who are community helpers (inside the classroom and outside the classroom) and describe how they help us.

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The morning activity was focused around shapes. The following shapes were made available to fill in laminated shapes: hexagon, rectangle, trapezoid, square, and triangle. Friends talked with one another about the characteristics they saw in each shape such as the number of sides.

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Our dinosaur fossils from yesterday were ready to paint! Children used the three primary colors to cover their dinosaur fossil. There were a few different techniques that we saw that included mixing the three primary colors to make other colors or just strictly using the primary colors by themselves.

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Breakfast– Whole grain Cheerios and fresh pears.

Lunch– Shredded cheese and refried beans on whole wheat tortilla, fresh cantaloupe, and fresh cucumber/pepper.

PM snack– Whole wheat english muffins with cream cheese and string cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/27