Good Afternoon!

First off, we want to send a huge WELCOME to Emma who transitioned from Wee Wee Friends today! Her old friends were anxious to reconnect with her while new friends were excited to get to know her. We’re so happy you’re here!

Today, our three oldest friends started kindergarten!

We incorporate curriculum through our FAB’s (Framework for Academic Balance). It is a teacher organizing tool that makes certain that our older preschoolers and kindergarteners are offered activities that encompass the Indiana Academic Standards for Kindergarten.

This week, the FAB that we’ll be working on is:

Social Studies: K.3.6 Identify and compare similarities and differences in families, classmates, neighbors and neighborhoods, and ethnic and cultural groups.

In large group, we read ‘The Story of Ferdinand” which focuses on the main character, Ferdinand, who is his own self. Ferdinand does what makes him happy, not other people. Instead of participating in bull fighting like his peers, Ferdinand sits under his favorite tree and smells flowers all day long. At the end of the story, we talked about what makes us happy. We found that what makes Lulu happy may not make Maxwell happy. As a group, we discussed what makes us the same and what makes us different.

Here are some of the things that make us happy:

“I’m happy when I’m running.”

“I’m happy when I’m smelling flowers.”

“Playing with my friends makes me happy.”

Our five oldest friends sat on the deck waiting for the clouds to clear to see if we could see the Solar Eclipse. While we did see the sun, it wasn’t quite eclipse time.

However, after nap time we were able to see it! Maddie, Lulu, Lucy, and Max each took a turn going outside to observe the solar eclipse. It was AWESOME!

We are so thankful we got this opportunity. These kids were pretty amazed at what they saw!

While we were outside this morning, we picked through the garden and boy did we get a Monday harvest. Between cherry tomatoes and cucumbers, we’re going to be set for the next couple of days!

Breakfast– Cinnamon raisin bagels with butter and PPC grapes.

Lunch– Whole wheat noodles with shredded chicken, PPC pears, and cherry tomatoes/cucumbers from our garden.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with PPC grapes.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.

Have a lovely night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/21

Mack and Aggie decided to play with the baby dolls this morning. Mack was a helpful friend and brought Aggie her own blanket and diaper for her baby.

Rose and Mack had fun on the slides outside. Some of their big kid friends came over and joined them.

Daniel and Aggie enjoyed picking the colorful connecter links out of the basket together. They were very interested in the shapes and textures. Aggie went to housekeeping later to pull out the toy food from the cubbies, while Daniel was in the story area pulling the books off the shelves.

Breakfast was whole wheat toast with butter and cinnamon and banana. Wee sprout was corn. Lunch consisted of whole what pasta with chicken, grapes, and corn. Afternoon snack was organic whole milk yogurt with strawberries.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuliM4hP1YZEw34HccCsQ

Have a good night!

Amanda

This morning we climbed on the habitrail ladder like monkeys…

Emptied the ball baskets and chased the balls around the classroom…

Enjoyed our favorite outside activities with friends…

And appreciated the beautiful flowers growing in the backyard!

Breakfast was Kix and banana. Wee sprout was corn. Lunch consisted of hummus sandwiches, peas, and banana. Afternoon snack was cheese crackers and string cheese.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuliMx30bHb0dgSLKVk1A

Have a good night!

Amanda

Happy Friday!

Maddie and Lulu manipulated rubber bands this morning using plastic boards. First, they started making basic shapes such as a square before they expanded the amount of difficulty; snowflakes in a trap! It takes concentration to put multiple rubber bands on the board without them coming off.

The rest of our morning was full of stories, experimenting with the piano, and building with various building materials such as the trio blocks!

Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and pears.

Lunch– Homemade egg salad on whole wheat bread, PPC banana/grapes, and fresh carrots.

PM snack– String cheese and graham crackers.

Wee Sprout– Carrots.

Have a lovely weekend.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/18

Good Afternoon!

**The following six children are signed up for swim class at the Y: Riley, Maddie, Lulu, Maxwell, Anna, and Nina. Swim class will start on Tuesday, September 5th. We will leave promptly around 9:35 for every class. Please make sure that you dress your child in clothes that they can easily take off and put on themselves. As always, we will provide towels! I’ll send out another reminder closer to the first swim class .

**Please clean out your child’s art cubbie at pickup. Thanks!

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In large group, we read a story titled ‘If I Had A Robot’. Throughout the story, the main character shared activities that he would have a robot do for him. For instance, eating his vegetables for him! After reading the story, we closed our eyes and thought of one thing that we’d want a robot to do for us. We made a web of our thoughts. Friends also came up with a name for their robot!

The Britton family brought in corn on the cob today so our older friends went outside to shuck it so that we could have it for lunch. YUM!

Lulu, Lucy, Anna and a few other friends sat at the art table this morning working on invitations. They made scribbles on paper for the words which prompted an experiment!

Miss Melinda grabbed the wooden pre writing tools and held them up. Using a piece of paper and a marker, friends looked at the pre writing tool and tried to draw it on their paper. We did an excellent job looking at the specific details of the lines.

Paint was requested again today so the easel was opened up. Friends waited patiently for a turn and took advantage of it! A few children used all of the space available on their paper.

When we headed outside, we heard BIG and LOUD noises. A house across the street was getting a tree in their backyard cut down. While we couldn’t see it being cut down, we could see the branches falling! This kept our attention for quite a while!

Breakfast– Whole grain cheerios and PPC green grapes

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded turkey, PPC cantaloupe, and fresh corn on the cob (thanks Britton family!)

PM snack– Peanuts and goldfish

Wee Sprouts– Carrots and PPC cucumber

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/17

Today we played catch…

Cooked a big meal…

Had a dance party…

And swung on the swing!

Breakfast was Whole Grain Cheerios and banana. Wee sprout was corn. Lunch consisted of whole grain brown rice with shredded beef, banana, and corn. Afternoon snack was wheat crackers with sweet pea butter.

Link to photos:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuliMtmI6Ae162OB3QG1w

Have a good night!

Amanda

Good Afternoon!

Lately, we’ve been working on independent tasks that children can do on their own. For example, putting on shoes, wiping noses, and buttoning pants just to name a few. I mention this because I found this quote that fits perfectly to what we’re trying to accomplish:

‘Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.’  -Maria Montessori

We are here to set children up to succeed!

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Children were invited to the art table today to partake in a process art experience. Paper, paint, and paintbrushes were made available along with no guidelines. It’s an experience that any friend can do no matter their age. We had many friends come to the table this morning while a few chose not to which is perfectly OKAY! Sometimes, children don’t want to leave what they’ve been working on; why would we want to interrupt that?!

Our younger friends experimented with the paint brush on their paper. Four of the colors were regular tempera paint while one of the paints available was a thicker paint that was glittery. This was interesting for friends as they experimented with it.

Our older friends took this opportunity to paint a picture and do an experiment; mixing the colors! When Maddie got to the table and saw the colors available, she said aloud, “I wonder what color I could make if I mixed all of the colors together?!”—So, she completed her thought! After mixing all of the colors together, she shouted, “I made brown!”

I know that I’ve attached this article before but if you haven’t gotten a chance to glance over it, it talks about the importance of process art vs product art.

http://www.naeyc.org/tyc/article/process-art-experiences

The rest of our morning consisted of fresh (and warm) air as we moved throughout the yard. The art table became a busy place towards the end of our time outside where children used glue, stencils, and scissors to create.

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and PPC cantaloupe.

Lunch– Scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, whole wheat bread, PPC strawberries/pears, and PPC cucumber/carrots.

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

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.

Have a lovely night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/16

Enjoy the pictures from our day!

Breakfast was Kix and banana. Wee sprout was corn. Lunch consisted of farm fresh eggs, whole wheat bread with butter, banana, strawberries, and corn. Afternoon snack was wheat crackers and hummus.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuliMszAeydYQ-w8U-Lug

Have a good night!

Amanda

Good Afternoon!

This mornings table activity went along with the message on the message board. We put out the apple pie sets and the children were able to work on some math skills. The children  could take pieces of pie away to see how many pieces they had left in their pie.

We made some homemade cinnamon banana muffins for snack this afternoon.  They were delicious!

Before going outside this morning we had a discussion about our piano. Miss Melinda shared with us that the piano repair man just tuned and fixed our piano. She played the high and low notes for us as well as Twinkle, twinkle little star. We enjoyed singing along.

We then headed outside and enjoyed many of our favorite activities.

Breakfast:  Corn Squares and bananas/plums.

Lunch:  Turkey and cheese on whole grain wheat tortillas, bananas/strawberries and PPC cherry tomatoes and peppers.

Afternoon Snack:  Homemade cinnamon banana muffins and colby jack block cheese.

Wee Sprouts: PPC cherry tomatoes.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuliMk1i1VcETUdoaxP9Q

Sophia and Mack made colorful collages today. Their favorite part was spreading the glue with a paint brush. They laughed together over how sticky their fingers became after touching the glue!

Breakfast was Kix and banana. Wee sprout was peas. Lunch consisted of whole wheat tortilla with turkey and cheese, banana, and peas. Afternoon snack was pretzels and string cheese.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuliMlu5UXkPb4mtA6oYQ

Have a good night!

Amanda