Good Afternoon!

*HALLOWEEN time! This year for our Halloween celebration, we are asking those parents who are willing and able to come join us at 4:00 on Monday, October 31st. We are going to get dressed up and depending on parent involvement, we will either parade through Wee Wee and through the backyard or take on the whole block! Since we have a younger crew, we will keep the plans up in the air for now until we know how many parents will be joining us! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Here are the FAB’s for the upcoming week:

K.RL.2.4 Make predictions about what will happen in a story.

K.RL.2.1: With support, ask and answer questions about main topics and key details in a text heard or read.

K.M.1: Make direct comparisons of the length, capacity, weight, and temperature of objects, and recognize which object is shorter, longer, taller, lighter, heavier, warmer, cooler, or holds more.

This mornings welcome activity involved rulers and the measuring of connectable blocks. Children used the ruler to see which stack of blocks was longer, shorter, or equal. (K.M.1)

The art table was open this morning after breakfast for friends to cut their pumpkins out that they made on Friday! Children focused on cutting out their whole pumpkin. Our fine motor skills were put to the test.

Our outside time was so valuable this morning. With a little nip in the air, it was absolutely a gorgeous morning.

In large group, we read another ‘Tacky’ book titled, ‘Tacky Goes To Camp’! Before I read the story, we brainstormed about what the story would be about. Throughout the story, we stopped periodically to guess what was going to happen next! We predicted various parts of the story and then continued reading to see if we were correct in our estimations! (K.RL.2.4)

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with butter and kiwi.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with shredded cheese and chicken, peas, and plums.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with raspberries.

Wee Sprouts– Pickles.

Have a terrific evening.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 10/10

Enjoy the pictures from last Friday and today!

Breakfast was toasted whole wheat bagels with butter and apples. Lunch consisted of whole wheat pasta with cheddar cheese, apples, and corn. Afternoon snack was wheat crackers and block cheese.

Link to photos:

10/07 https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulhss0wjQ7fvUErDTIow 

10/10 https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulhss4arY80ZtbIzpR8A

Have a great night!

Amanda

Happy Friday!

Here are a few pictures from throughout the day!

Breakfast– Rice cakes with cream cheese and kiwi.

Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat bread, cantaloupe/grapes, and cucumber/cauliflower.

PM snack– Colby Jack block cheese with pretzels.

Wee Sprouts– Cauliflower.

Have a great weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 10/7

Good Afternoon!

**If any families have any grocery bags that they’d like to donate, we’d gladly take them off of your hands! –thanks!

The art table was buzzing with excitement this morning as the art easel was open as well as various activities occurring at the art table! We received a donation of envelopes that our kids have been using to create with.

The sensory table was made available upon request. When a child needs to work with their hands, the various materials in the sensory bin are great to do just that!

Sensory balloons are always an option as well.

As we headed outside, children noted how dark the skies were. We watched and observed to see if it was going to rain. Thankfully, mother nature allowed us a good amount of outside time.

..BUT the skies did all of a sudden open up on us so we headed to the housekeeping area where we sat with the door open, listening to the rain. We had a discussion about whether or not the rain is a good thing. We heard the following things:

“The rain helps the plants grow.”

“It feeds the food.”

“It’s good to play in!”

There were many topics that we talked about including how the rain changes form once the weather gets much colder. We discussed how we were watching the rain come from the clouds. But in the winter time, the rain freezes up and that’s when we see snow!

After the rain discussion wrapped up, children split off into various parts of the house until lunch was ready. A group sat in the science area, continuing the rain talk while looking at a couple of resource books that they found. We had a short music time where we listened to silly songs. We had to listen to the words and follow along! We creeped, tip-toed, and practiced being TALL!

In kindergarten today, we read a couple of stories in the science area. We used the calendar as a resource. We buffed up our calendar language by connecting day/week/month to our previous knowledge. (K.M.2)

In large group, we read two stories, ‘If You Give A Moose A Muffin’ and ‘Bumblebee Girl and the Bug Squad’. Not only are we discussing stories after we read them, picking out important events and putting them in order, but we’re also focusing on looking at clues within the story to predict what’s going to happen next. Also, we’re looking for facial cues to figure out how specific characters may be feeling in a given scene. (K.1.4) (K.RL.2.2)

Breakfast– Kashi’s Blueberry Clusters and pears.

Lunch– Organic, brown rice with cooked broccoli and melted cheese (a new dish..more than half of our friends loved it. That’s all one can ask for right? ), banana, and cucumber.

PM snack– Triscuits and pumpkin seeds.

Wee Sprouts– Cucumbers.

Have a lovely Thursday evening.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 10/6

Enjoy the pictures from today!

Breakfast was Whole Grain Cheerios and pears. Lunch consisted of whole grain brown rice with broccoli and cheese, peas, and pears. Afternoon snack was pretzels and string cheese.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulhslxb9hx-aEhp4yXQA

Have a great night!

Amanda

Today we did activities in the kitchen…

Drew with chalk…

Met a puppy…

Climbed in, out, and on the big blocks…

And relaxed together with some stories!

Breakfast was Cheerios with grapes. Lunch consisted of egg casserole, grapes, and corn. Afternoon snack was wheat crackers and block cheese.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulhsgdM_QObWfV-XSxTg

Have a great night!

Amanda

Good Afternoon!

**If any family has any grocery bags that they would like to donate to us, we’d be very appreciative!

Our morning was jammed packed full of activities that children could choose from.

The welcome activity allowed for every child to explore! Rosemary asked, “Is this a big kid game? Can I play?” I told her that it’s suited for all of us. However, the open end-ness of it allows for extensions to be added for our older friends.

For our younger friends, it allowed them to focus on putting the gems along any given line that was made available, or anywhere really! Addi chose to extend this experience by not only tracing the lines with her gems but adding a pattern to it. After she chose the pattern ‘green, blue, yellow’, she transferred it to a line that she chose.

Our new play dough was put out at the table where friends could head if they needed a great sensory experience.

Miss Melinda headed up a music activity this morning where we listened to a variety of Halloween songs. Some songs were slow and scary while some were fast and goofy. We took broom sticks and road around the house as well as stirring our brew! “Yum! Soup!”, said a friend as they stirred their dish.

One of the songs requested scary faces. This is Rosemary’s interpretation of a scary face .

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with raspberries.

Lunch– Scrambled egg casserole with whole wheat bread, kiwi/strawberries, and cauliflower.

PM snack– Hummus on whole wheat crackers.

Wee Sprouts– Peppers.

Have a fabulous night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 10/5

Enjoy the pictures from today!

Breakfast was Corn Chex and banana. Lunch consisted of whole wheat flat bread with refried beans and cheese, pear, and green beans. Afternoon snack was toasted whole wheat bagels with cream cheese.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulhsYhoYEdJ3Hd-bTEkQ

Have a great night!

Amanda

Hello!

Journal time was requested this morning before swimmers went off to the Y. After completing a journal, children will either explain their journal using their own words or have a teacher help by dictating their words.

There are many times throughout the day where children request stories be read to them. The amount of print that friends see throughout the day allows them to become aware of letters, sounds, and print in general.

Our goal is to foster children’s love of learning day in and day out. We don’t force a child to do anything as far as curriculum; it should be something that they’re excited, willing, and interested in doing. Doing it this way creates such a stronger bond to the topic and makes it MEAN something to our friends.

Here’s an informational article I found that focuses on reading and writing. There are a few suggestions as how to foster the incredible love that children have for reading, and later on writing.

https://families.naeyc.org/everyday-steps-to-reading-writing

We made new play dough today. Children pitched in, suggesting what colors we should make the different batches of play dough as well as measuring out the ingredients.

One batch of play dough was made available at the art table. Maddie offered cookies to teachers and friends!

In large group, we read ‘Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse’. After the story was finished, we looked back on the story and picked out the most important moment which was when Lilly’s teacher took away her purse in class. She LOVED this purse so we talked about different events that occurred after this moment. We listed them in the order in which they happened. Jackson said, “She was mad because her teacher took her purse. She cried.” So, we discussed how Lilly’s problem was fixed. In unison, children said, “Her teacher gave her purse back to her!” (K.1.4)

Throughout the week, we’re looking at different stories and focusing on pulling out important events that occurred throughout the story and putting them into order.

Everyday in large group, we look at the calendar to see what day of the week it is as well as the month and year. We talked about October specifically and counted to see how many days are in this month. All of the swimmers know that the Tuesday column is the ‘swim column’. We also counted down the days until Halloween.. . (K.M.2)

Breakfast– Chex and blackberries/raspberries.

Lunch– Refried bean and shredded cheese quesadillas, banana, and cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagels with cream cheese.

Wee Sprouts– Cherry tomatoes.

Have a terrific night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 10/4

We had some silly friends in the habitrail area this morning! I think everyone was happy to see each other after the weekend. They all enjoyed climbing the ladder, standing on the big blocks, going down the slide, and chasing through the habitrail together.

Then we moved on to stacking the small blocks. Our friends love to build! They like to stack the blocks high, say “big tower!” and then demolish it by knocking it over!

We also enjoyed our time together outside. Most of our friends started at the slides before moving around the yard to other activities.

Breakfast was whole wheat bagels with butter and pears. Lunch consisted of whole wheat pasta with mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce, oranges, and peas. Afternoon snack was cheese crackers and pears.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulhsR0LNqr2ho1P5zeqQ

Have a great night!

Amanda