Good Afternoon!

**Please make sure that your child has their winter snow attire (snow pants, boots, winter coat, gloves, hat) here this week. Thank you.

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We read, ‘But No Elephants’ (a childhood favorite of mine!) in K/PREK1 group today. After we finished reading the book, I introduced a new activity into group that we will be using on a consistent basis. Each child got a bracelet that had the same five colored beads on it. Kids asked, “What do we do with these?!”, which prompted our conversation about the poster on the chalkboard and the book that we just read.

I asked Lucy to find her white bead. After she identified it, we referred to the chart and I told her the white bead represents characters in the story. She started listing all of the characters that we learned about.

We continued on with each color and talked about ‘beginning’, ‘middle’, and ‘end’ of the story and how we identify each part.

Together, we were able to retell the story in detail.

K.RL.2.2: With support, retell familiar stories, poems, and nursey rhymes, including key details.

K.1.4: Identify and order events that take place in a sequence. (2006 standard)

Miss Kim had each PREK2 friend pick out a toy which they used to help tell a fiction story. Miss Kim started by creating the first sentence. Ruby used her bear to come up with the next sentence. At the end, PREK2 group had a story that they wrote!

There was nothing better this morning than being able to head outside. We walked (okay..ran) outside and the sun hit us right on the face. We moved throughout the yard with our friends, happy to get fresh air.

Several of our friends have a small fascination with beads so today, we used them in a different way. Children came to the table to see playdough and long, wooden sticks on trays. Our fine motor skills were hard at work as we took the beads on put them on the wooden stick, one by one.

Before we headed outside, we were in a fine motor zone. Fine motor activities aren’t just limited to paper and pencil.

Fine motor activities are any activity that require use of small muscles in the hands.

For example, as Penny was transferring water color from one jar to another with a syringe, she was using small muscles in her hand.

LEGO’s are a challenging fine motor activity because it requires controlled hand muscles. Grady and Maxwell used small LEGO pieces to build their tower this morning and noted how challenging it was to connect the pieces together.

https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/help-your-child-build-fine-motor-skills

“Children are like snowflakes. They are pure. They are beautiful. They are unique and they each sore at their own pace. Don’t try to compare them.”

-The Pinterested Parent

Breakfast– Kashi Blueberry Clusters and fresh oranges.

Lunch– Shredded cheese OR hummus on whole wheat tortillas, fresh apples, and fresh carrots.

PM snack– Cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese and banana.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/broccoli/cauliflower.

Have a terrific evening.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/19

Good afternoon all. I hope you’re all enjoying the beautiful sunshine.

“We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.” ~Maria Montessori

We have been reading a book called, The Mitten by Jan Brett as you all are aware! Well today, Miss Rebekah and our friends thought it would be a great idea to do some painting with mittens.

Sensory activities are always fun and we all love to paint with our fingers, hands and paint brushes, but today was much more exciting as we have never painted with mittens on our hands before. Just look at those happy faces!  

In the Wee Wee classroom we always like to have our little guys start learning and understanding self-help skills. Whether that means having them take their own shoes off, put their coats on, eating with a fork or a spoon, or just cleaning up after themselves this is something we all work very hard on achieving.

Evie is working hard on cleaning up her books after she has finished reading them. After she finishes she tells teachers, “I picked all my books up.”

Engaging in these skills will help build your child’s self-esteem, and independence. We all love to feel great about ourselves and the milestones we accomplish! Great Job Evie!!!

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix and apples.

Lunch: Whole grain tortillas with hummus, sweet potatoes, and oranges.

Snack: Whole wheat cinnamon raisin bagels with butter and apples. 

Have a great night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljbcw4FZGe-wchXxODg

Happy Monday!

**The weather looks favorable this week so please make sure that your child has all of their winter gear here (hat, gloves, snow pants, winter coat, snow boots).

In K/PREK1, we read ‘The Grouchy Ladybug’ which focuses around time. We noticed that each page had a clock displayed in the corner. Lucy said, “A clock helps us tell time!”. As we went through the book, it got later in the day. Friends did a great job expressing how the lady bug must have felt as it came upon larger animals.

Afterwards, we completed our daily calendar exercise which usually involves saying the month, date, and year aloud. Friends also observe the calendar and point out any interesting things that they see. Today, we acknowledged it was President’s Day!

As friends were asked to roll up their mat, they had to tell us one thing they do in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night time (or evening). We noticed that some friends have the same routine during certain times of the day!

K.M.2: Understand concepts of time, including: morning, afternoon, evening, today, yesterday, tomorrow, day, week, month, and year. Understand that clocks and calendars are tools that measure time.

PREK2 group read ‘The Rainbow Fish’. They took four important events that occurred and put them in the correct sequence, or order. This book brought up a conversation about how to treat peers.

In the story, the rainbow fish doesn’t want to share any of it’s shiny scales which makes his friends sad and ultimately, they don’t want to play with him. Towards the end of the story, rainbow fish changes his mind and shares his scales which not only made him happy to share but his friends were grateful to him.

We translated this into the Wee Friends world. Children shared stories of when they’ve shared before or how a friend made them feel when they wouldn’t share. We emphasize social skills daily and continue to work through problems and issues that arise by using our words—they are so powerful!

Here are a few pictures from the rest of our day.

We want to send a sincere thank you to every parent who attended conferences on Friday!

Breakfast- Whole wheat cinnamon raisin bagel with butter and banana.

Lunch- Whole wheat pasta with butter and shredded chicken, fresh apples/oranges, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack- Whole milk yogurt with banana.

Wee Sprout- Fresh carrots/cucumber.

Have a great evening!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/18

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend.

“The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences. ~Maria Montessori

We all love our quiet spaces and sometimes our friends just need some alone time. Evie took full advantage of the cube area this morning with her good friend Bear and a few other stuffed animals to get just that!

According to the website www.howwelearn.com, quiet time can help in these areas:

1. Increases focus and attention

2. Rests little minds, allowing a time for quiet and avoiding periods of overwhelm

3. Mindfulness

4.Builds confidence

5. Builds independence and lastly

6.  Increases creativity

Meanwhile, Jack and Daniel were cooking up good things to eat and feeding the babies in the dramatic play center. We are never hungry here in the Wee Wee classroom.  

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with butter and oranges.

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with butter and shredded chicken, peas, and apples.

Snack: Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Corn.

Have a great night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljbZRwRO-9pJVttPA-g

Good Afternoon!

In K/PREK1, we used three different signs to complete the math problems that were on the chalkboard. The first problem we completed together. We identified each number and first asked ourselves, “Are those two numbers the same?”. If they were the same, we taped an equal sign in-between the numbers. If they weren’t the same, we talked about which number was bigger. We pretended the greater than and less than signs were an alligators mouth. A friend said, “The alligator would eat the number 8 because it’s more than 6!”. Each child got to complete one equation but friends jumped at the chance to help out a peer.

K.NS.7: Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the numbers of objects in another group.

Our PREK2 friends had an assignment: pass the heart to the friend next to you and say something kind about them. This gave us an opportunity to tell our friends how much we love and appreciate them!

We made homemade strawberry banana bread for our afternoon snack. It was delicious!

Breakfast– Kix and fresh pears.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded pork, fresh strawberries/banana, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack– Homemade strawberry banana bread with block cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/cherry tomatoes.

Have a great night! See everyone tomorrow for conferences!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/14

Good Afternoon and Happy Valentine’s day!

“Peace is what every human being is craving for, and it can be brought about by the humanity through the child.” ~Maria Montessori

We Look forward to seeing you all at the parent-teacher conferences tomorrow.

Today our friends were very excited about Valentine’s Day and being able to give their Valentine cards to their friends in the special made bags they all created. The classroom was filled with love, joy and excitement.

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with butter and cinnamon with pears.

Lunch: Whole grain rice with shredded pork, carrots, and pears.

Snack: Whole wheat/grain Ritz crackers with hummus.

Wee Sprouts: Corn.

Have a lovely evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljbVyM9AbWWekfATmZQ

Good Afternoon.

“Imitation is the first instinct of the awakening mind” ~ Maria Montessori

Today friends enjoyed using the dot paint markers to decorate their Valentine’s Day bags. After they were done decorating their bags they used the markers on blank pieces of paper and LOVED every minute!

We will hang the bags on their cubbies tomorrow morning to allow the children to place any Valentine’s cards they receive into their bag!

Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast with butter, peas, and banana.

Snack: Pretzels and block cheddar cheddar

Have a wonderful evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljbUZdfssmytSQjhMkQ

Good Afternoon!

Enjoy the pictures from our day!

Link to pictures: WF 2/13

Breakfast– N/A because of delay.

Lunch– Scrambled farm fresh eggs, whole wheat bread, fresh pears/oranges, and fresh cherry tomatoes/carrots.

PM snack– Air popped popcorn with butter and fresh apples.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrot/cherry tomatoes.

Have a fantastic night.

-Mindy

Good Afternoon!

K/PREK1: We read ‘The Big Bad Wolf and Lil’ Wolf’ during group time. Afterwards, we were able to pull out specific events that happened in the story. Friends went into great detail about the events and without any prompting, shared who the characters were as well as the setting.

A friend raised her hand and made a connection to the story, ‘The Three Little Pigs’. She shared, “The Three Little Pigs had the same setting in the woods AND it has the Big Bad Wolf as a character too!”.

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

In PREK2, friends completed a web that focused on the book that was read during group. They read about secrets in the earth and reiterated those secrets to fill in the web. When each friend shared, they talked about that topic and what they learned about each!

Even with a late start to our morning, our friends were able to dive into their morning. We chose an array of activities that ranged from building with pegs to writing our own book to team building with trio blocks.

Breakfast– N/A because of delay.

Lunch– Black beans and shredded cheese on whole wheat flatbread, fresh carrots, and applesauce.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagels with cream cheese and banana/fresh oranges.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/pepper.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/12

Good Afternoon All.

“The role of education is to interest the child profoundly in an external activity to which he will give all his potential.” ~Maria Montessori

Enjoy the pictures from our day!

Lunch: Whole wheat/grain flatbread with black refried beans and shredded cheese, corn, and strawberries.

Snack: Whole grain bagel with cream cheese and oranges. 

Have a wonderful night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljbRjrBcsMLdNbqRQig