Good Afternoon!

All areas of the environment were full of thriving, involved children. On the building rug, a large group of children used a mixture of Legos and trio blocks. Grady commented, “Look at my robot. He has special powers.”. Not only were children building individual creations but each child’s imagination shown through as they talked about what they made.

Chloe explored various aspects of language today. She sat with Miss Melinda has they read a variety of stories. Shortly after, she dabbled in the art area where she talked about letters with an older peer before completely an alphabet puzzle. She stated each picture that was on each letter. We also talked about peers names who start with a specific letter.

The front science area offered several activities for children to explore. Our newly four year old David attempted to learn about the wood working bench while Lucy and Anna sorted different manipulatives by color.

To celebrate our kindergarten graduation today, we decided to make our own english muffin pizzas! Children got to choose their toppings: cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, turkey sausage, and turkey pepperoni were available. There were tons of different pizza creations!

Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and PPC banana.

Lunch– Homemade english muffin pizzas, PPC banana, and PPC broccoli/cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Goldfish and block cheese.

Wee Sprout– PPC broccoli/cherry tomatoes.

Have a fantastic weekend.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/17

Hello and Happy Friday!

“Time spent playing with children is never wasted.” ~Dawn Lantero

Thank you Ben and Jack for the yummy fresh doughnut peaches and blueberries….We loved them.

Today we give a very bittersweet goodbye to our friend Mack! Monday, Mack will now be in the preschool classroom learning all kinds of new and wonderful things. He will rock it out and move mountains in his new classroom. We will miss Mack and his bubbling personality, and all of his silliness!!! He brought a lot of excitement and joy to the WWF classroom over the last couple of years.

The “teacher books” were requested this morning by a couple of friends. I didn’t know at the time of the request that our early literacy time would turn out to be such a wonderful extended learning experience. We read and learned about our numbers, colors, the difference between big and small, as well as day and night.

“Studies show that reading with your child from an early age promotes not only language development but emotional awareness and quantitative skills.”

According to CBC (Children’s Book Council), here a a few concrete benefits of early literacy.

~  Vocabulary Building

~ Brain Development

~ Academic Success

~ Multi-sensory Development

~ Increased Quantitative Reasoning

~ Emotional Awareness.

Breakfast: Whole grain English muffins with butter and cinnamon with banana.

Lunch: Whole grain English muffin pizza with marinara and shredded mozzarella cheese, carrots, and fresh doughnut peaches.

Snack: Whole grain cheese crackers, and fresh blueberries.

Have a fantastic weekend! See you all on Monday.  

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljNNH5Ah1fKrAfb_TmQ

Good Afternoon!

Enjoy the pictures from today!

Breakfast– Whole grain Cheerios and PPC banana.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded turkey, PPC banana, and PPC cucumber/fresh carrots.

PM snack– Whole grain crackers and pumpkin seeds.

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumber.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/16

Happy Rainy Thursday. Rain Rain Go Away!

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. That more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” ~Dr. Suess

Enjoy the pictures from our Thursday.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and Chex with Apples.

Lunch: Whole grain rice with shredded pork, peas, and fresh PPC pears.

Snack: Whole wheat crackers with hummus.

Wee Sprouts: Mixed veggies.

Have a fantastic evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljNMEntFLUHf144lxtg

Happy Wednesday!

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” ~Maya Angelou

Today was a very busy Wednesday! Our little guys sure did make the most of their morning. Fine motor, gross motor, cognitive, and early literacy activities were in full swing! There are always many choices that our friends can engage their minds and bodies in every day in the WWF classroom.

Offering choices to children is imperative for their development as it aids in respecting their individuality.

According to an article from YC it states that, “It is important to offer choices to children- especially infants because they don’t have a lot of choices. Offering choices for anything that involves them gives children power. They can see and feel how powerful they are when they make decisions that directly affect their well being.”

There are many choices in the outside world as well. Life is full of choices, and our friends love being in control of their own choice destiny!!!

 

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix and apples.

Lunch: Scrambled eggs, fresh WF garden cucumber, whole wheat bread with butter, and apples.

Snack: Pretzels and mozzarella string cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Cooked carrots.

Have a fantastic evening.  

Marty 

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljNIM7Wwmo8KZanq36w

Good Afternoon!

There were several manipulatives that were requested at the circle table. Maxwell used the white tiles to create a design. He counted each row and used that knowledge to complete his design that had the same number of tiles in each row.

Franklin and a peer explored coins. They talked about the differences that they saw in each coin, color being the biggest difference that they noticed.

We have a small group that’s been fascinated with making necklaces/bracelets lately. Not only does it put our fine motor skills to work when we put each bead onto the pipe cleaner but children discuss different colors that they use. Our older friends bring patterning into their creations which allows us and our older friends to talk about what patterns look like. Our older friends love these teachable moments that occur!

This article attached goes into detail what fine motor skills look like at this age and why they are just as important as gross motor skills. It also gives a few tips on how to strengthen young children’s fine motor skills as well as fine motor skills that children should be working on.

“In fact, research shows that emphasis on purely intellectual activities—memorization of letters and numbers, for instance—is far less useful at this stage than pursuits that encourage fine motor abilities and hand-eye coordination. These skills—rather than counting or reciting the alphabet—lay the foundation for academic learning in later years.”

https://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/development/physical/child-developing-motor-skills/

Our garden has given us quite a bit of vegetables this summer. Lucy and Anna helped Miss Hannah gather some tomatoes that were ready. We’re anxious to try them this afternoon as a Wee Sprout.

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and PPC pears.

Lunch– Scrambled eggs, whole wheat tortilla, PPC peaches/pears, and PPC cucumber/cherry tomatoes.

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

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumber/PPC cherry tomatoes.

Have a fantastic night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/15

Good Afternoon everyone!

“Only you can control your future.” ~ Dr. Suess

Today we had our new friend Evie visit our classroom. She will be starting WWF full time beginning Monday. We look forward to getting to know Evie and her family.

Miss Rebekah and friends had a GREAT time playing Ring around the Rosie. A friend had asked Miss Rebekah to hold hands, and that got things in motion! All of our WWF’s LOVE interactive play and the best part of this song and movement activity is the…“We all fall down” portion  

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix and Cheerios with fresh PPC pears.

Lunch: Whole wheat flatbread with hummus, corn, and fresh PPC pears.

Snack: Whole grain bagels with butter and cinnamon, and fresh PPC grapes.

Wee Sprouts: Peas.

Have a fantastic evening,

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:   https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljNBp7II1HIP3NN1oOQ

Good Afternoon!

Our dramatic play center, or housekeeping as we call it, is vital to child development and children’s time here at Wee Friends. It may look like children are just playing with dolls but actually, they’re using/perfecting a slew of practices and techniques that they’ll need later on. For example, dramatic play teaches conflict resolution. Disagreements will often pop up especially when there’s a bigger group playing. When these situations pop up, children have the opportunity to use their words and work through their differences while hopefully coming to a compromise.

Below I’ve attached an article that goes into slight detail about the importance of a dramatic center in the early childhood setting.

https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/why-dramatic-play-matters/

Miss Kim gathered several friends at the island who helped make homemade pretzels!

We helped measure out ingredients and help mix the dough in plastic bags. Once the mixing was done, we had to wait a while for the dough to come together and rise.

Anna and Lucy helped Miss Kim roll the dough into pretzels. They really worked on their rolling technique since the dough had to be a little thinner to make the pretzels.

When we went outside, a few friends gathered up rocks and talked about the similarities and differences between them. A few ideas that were stated concerned their size, color, and different noticeable marks on each rock.

Breakfast– Kix and PPC peaches.

Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat flatbread, fresh apples, and fresh carrots/PPC cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Fresh, homemade pretzels with block cheese

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/PPC cherry tomatoes.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/14

Happy Monday! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend.

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out!” ~Dr. Suess

On Saturday, our friend Mack celebrated his birthday. Happy 3rd birthday Mackadoodle!!!  We LOVE you buddy!!!!

Today we had a very special birthday snack. Mack brought in some yummy fruit yogurt granola snacks today so we could help him celebrate his special day. Thank you Mack and Mom (of course). Just look how Mack has grown of the last couple years of being at WWF.

Our friend was greatly utilizing his gross motor skills today inside and outside. Climbing up onto things is a huge part of our play at WWF.

According to a Luckey Climbers blog entry, “Climbing plays a key role in early childhood motor skills development. A study from PlayCore found evidence that climbing at a young age helps hone spatial and directional awareness, and also boosts physical skills such as balance, hand eye coordination, and agility.”

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with Sunflower butter and apples.

Lunch: Whole wheat/grain pasta with marinara sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese, mixed vegetables, and fresh PPC pears.

Snack: Whole milk  frozen yogurt with blueberries, and granola. (Mack’s special Birthday treat)

Wee Sprout: Corn.

Have a fantastic evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljM9kfH_Vgv80132-pg

Happy Monday!

Here are a few pictures from our day.

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with peanut butter and PPC pears.

Lunch– Whole wheat noodles with marinara and shredded cheese, fresh vegetables from our garden, and PPC grapes.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with mango.

Wee Sprout– Fresh garden vegetables.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/13