WF, 5/16/2016

Happy Monday!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

**Thanks to Tate’s family for our afternoon treat today! His birthday is tomorrow but we were able to have his birthday treat today! (yummy applesauce that was a hit!)

As a child said this morning, it was a “teacher extravaganza!”

Miss Rebekah started at Wee Friends today! We enjoyed getting to know her and for her to get to know us!

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Miss Katelyn started her summer practicum this morning. She’s a student at IUSB and is going to be with us through the middle of June!

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This week’s fab is as follows: K.1.5 Explain that calendars are used to represent days of the week and months of the years.

During large group, we read ‘A Child’s Calendar’ which introduced the months of the year. We started out by becoming familiar with calendar language. Throughout the week, we will dive deeper into why we use a calendar and the important information that it tells us!

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Puzzles were requested all throughout the morning. There were varying degrees on difficulty with each puzzle and our older friends were great at lending a hand if needed.

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Feathers were of interest this morning so Miss Melinda set up an activity where children could come to the art table to paint with the feathers. We experimented with different parts of the feather as well as using the feathers in our artwork!

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Breakfast– whole wheat bagel and grapes.

Lunch– whole wheat pasta with red beans, oranges, and carrots.

PM snack– Tate’s birthday applesauce with block cheese.

Wee Sprouts– carrots, broccoli, cauliflower.

Have a lovely night!

Link to pictures: WF 5/16

WWF 5/13

Emma has discovered a love for the teeter-totter! She was laughing and saying “Weee!” the whole time she was on it!

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Franklin got a game of peek-a-boo started this afternoon! He and his friends all giggled together when he popped out from the other side of the curtains. Ruby and Sophia each grabbed their own curtain and joined in on the game!

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Sophia spent a lot of time in the dress up section this week. Today she found a scarf she liked and tried it on a few different ways!

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Breakfast was Chex and pears. Wee sprouts was broccoli. Lunch consisted of whole wheat tortilla with hummus, grapes, and broccoli. Afternoon snack was mozzarella and cheddar cheese, blueberries, and grapes.

Have a great weekend!

Amanda

Link to photos: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A58B8C61670EC2D4!89867&authkey=!AJZzOC2SOuh5Gy0&ithint=folder%2cJPG

WF, 5/13/2016

Happy Friday!

Choices. Our day is filled with them. Children have their favorite spots and activities, whether it’s snuggling up with a friend or sitting on a teachers lap to read a story.

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Also, having the free reign to get down a puzzle, coins, or a discovery box.

Our friends are continuing to acquire a special skill which is regulating their bodies. We have certain places throughout the environment that are considered ‘alone’ spaces. When children need some down time or just simply want to be alone, they know they can go to these places.

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We have the option to discover new things; to learn at our own pace. The exploration of coins and the manipulation of Montessori numbers occurred today at the round table.

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When a child or a group of children show interest in a topic or activity, we go full speed ahead.

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Our large group learned the coin song this afternoon. Whenever coins are brought up in the classroom setting, we can get this song out to remind us about the certain coins and the properties of each coin!

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We had a fantastic day. Sounds like the weekend should be interesting for some of you! Smile

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Have a GREAT weekend!

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Breakfast– rice cakes with hummus and PPC peaches.

Lunch– hummus on tortillas, PPC watermelon, and broccoli/cauliflower.

PM snack– pretzels and cottage cheese.

Wee Sprout– green pepper and snap peas.

Link to pictures: WF 5/13

WF, 5/12/2016

*We’ve been hearing from many children about planned vacations for the summer. If you know the set dates for any vacations, we’d greatly appreciate getting those dates so we can put it on our calendar Smile. Thanks!

Our day started by assessing children’s knowledge of coins. There’s been conversation that’s taken place this week about coins and money in general. I don’t know about our group of parents but I know that I mostly use a card to purchase items. In our society now, how often are coins and money used? We started with the foundational knowledge of coins and what they’re used for. From there, we built onto that knowledge.

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In Kindergarten today:

We continued on investigating our fab for the week: K.4.1 Explain that people work to earn money to buy the things they want. Introduce money names and values.

Elliott became interested in the many differences in each coin. So, we started to do a coin rub activity using colored pencils. We found the perfect paper and Elliott got to work. He split the paper into four sections for each of the coins. He said, “We’ve got a process going here!” We sharpened seven different colors to see what color worked the best!

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Using kid spelling, he wrote the names of each of the coins at the top of the paper. While he was in the midst of the activity, we observed the coins he was using. I pointed out that each coin has a date on it, the year that it was made. The penny that we were using was made in the year 1985 to which I pointed out, “This penny was made before I was born!”

We discussed the terms ‘heads’ and ‘tails’ and observed the difference between the two.

The final product! We’ll use it tomorrow in large group as we’re going to learn a song about coins.

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In large group, we brought back our grocery list from yesterday. After going to the grocery last night, I wrote down all of the prices for the items that we had come up with. Our total was $23.50. The question, “Is this a lot of money?” was proposed which brought about the conversation of “What is a lot of money?”

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After picking out a couple of poems in ‘Pigs and Noodles’, we had our Thursday Poetry Corner. Elliott suggested the title, ‘Pigs on the Run’. The story just took off from there Smile.

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The geoboards were brought out this morning where children worked at their level using the rubber bands and boards. We didn’t get to capture a picture but Maxwell quickly found out that when you stretch the rubber band, it tends to spring back at you!

The geoboards allowed for differentiated instruction. Our younger friends worked on their fine motor skills and simply put the rubber bands on the geoboard while our older friends used the rubber bands to create patterns.

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WALK? WE GET TO GO FOR A WALK?!

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It was a gorgeous morning for a walk. We gathered up the troop and started heading down the alley. We took a vote. Should we go this way or that way?

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We smelled flowers.

We held hands with a friend.

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We picked many dandelions and saw a ‘bridal vail’ bush.

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On the last leg of our walk, we stopped at the church down the road. Every day at noon, the church bell rings to let us know that it’s time to clean up so we can go inside for lunch. We observed the bell and many questions were asked such as, “How does it ring?” Here were a couple of the thoughts we had:

“Maybe some stands up there and rings it.”

“An alarm is probably set for it to turn on.”

“Someone pulls that rope.”

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Breakfast– corn chex and PPC peaches.

Lunch– brown rice with shredded cheese, snap peas, and PPC watermelon.

PM snack– triscuits, blackberries, and sunflower seeds.

Wee Sprouts– red pepper and carrots.

We had a FABULOUS. We hope you did too!

-Mindy

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Link to pictures: WF 5/12

WWF 5/11

Hello, everyone! Today we had a musical morning…

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An indoor sandbox…

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And spaces to explore in the fresh air!

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Breakfast was whole grain oatmeal and bananas. Wee sprouts was green beans. Lunch consisted of whole wheat tortillas with turkey and cheese, peaches, and broccoli. Afternoon snack was graham crackers and string cheese.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Link to photos: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A58B8C61670EC2D4!89499&authkey=!AJup8s2fTqxlbrQ&ithint=folder%2cJPG

WF, 5/11/2016

Good Afternoon!

While the older group was off at the farm, Rosemary, Tate, Lucy, Anna and Max helped me make lunch! We set the table and started lunch prep together! They gathered around the island where we made our sandwiches and prepared the veggies! What BIG helpers we have!

We headed outside where much of the morning was spent in the sandbox or searching around the outside environment for any sort of bug! When we saw the wee-hicle come down the alley, we got BIG smiles on our faces Smile.

In Kindergarten:

We read two stories that focused on the grocery/buying items angle. Friends had to think about the ONE thing they would buy at the grocery store. We wrote everyone’s responses down and I’m going to head to the grocery tonight and see how much money we would need to buy everything on this list!

We will continue with this topic tomorrow!

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Breakfast– oatmeal and banana

Lunch– shredded cheese and turkey on tortillas, bananas/strawberries, and cherry tomatoes/cucumbers.

PM snack– homemade popcorn and PPC peaches.

Wee Sprout– cherry tomatoes.

Have a terrific night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 5/11

WF 5/11/16: Farm Group A “Oh,The Mud Puddles”

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Today farm started out rather chilly and foggy, but quickly turned around to be a very nice day to explore the farm!  While there we:

  • met the newest baby lambs
  • held some young chickens
  • petted the cats and the bunny
  • examined several very cool spider webs covered in rain (or dew)
  • saw and talked about the decaying cow out on the prairie (died of natural causes & is naturally returning to the earth, but leaving a full skeleton for future students to examine!)
  • found a goat skull while looking at another spider web and brought it back to WF for further exploration
  • saw many awesome spring plants coming alive
  • Oh, and the mud puddles…there were lots of mud puddles to splash through today! 

Here’s a link to the photos from our trip.  Farm 5.11.16 Sorry there aren’t more today…our camera battery went dead after just 2 photos so we have a limited number from my phone.

Tami

 

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WWF 5/10

The rain may have kept us inside today, but our friends were still lively and active in the gross motor section! The habitrail was a busy place!

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Breakfast was toast with butter and bananas. Lunch consisted of whole wheat tortilla with turkey and cheese, pears, and green beans. Afternoon snack was toasted whole wheat bagels with cream cheese.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Link to photos: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A58B8C61670EC2D4!89381&authkey=!ACDFT-esmoAfVwE&ithint=folder%2cJPG

WF, 5/10/2016

Hello!

*FINALLY, it looks like we’ll have good weather for FARM tomorrow. Group A will be going (Clara, Elliott, Riley, Eren, Jackson, Addi, Emerson, Daniel, Elizabeth). Weather permitting, we plan on taking Group B next week.

Miss Tami relayed that swim lessons went great today! Children are continuing to push themselves and learn new skills each week. A friend was overheard telling another friend, “It’s like riding a bike.” Given that the swim group is mixed with different ages, our older friends are taking great leadership and helping their younger peers.

While the swimmers were away, a group of children requested to do journals. It’s a great time for us to put our thoughts down on paper. A teacher is available to write down children’s thoughts if they’re not quite able to do so yet.

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Many different building materials were used today. Collaboration was prevalent when friends were building with their peers.

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In Kindergarten today:

We continued to explore our Social Studies fab of the week (K.4.1 Explain that people work to earn money to buy the things they want. Introduce money names and values). After reading ‘Angelina’s Birthday’, we discussed several topics that were offered up in the story:

*I asked for a show of hands how many of our friends do chores around the house. After giving a few examples, children took turns explaining what they did around the house to help their mom and dad. Elizabeth brought up the term ‘allowance’ which was then discussed!

*The overall understanding of working to earn money was a hot topic as children started raising their hand, offering up ways that their parents hard earned money is used. A few examples that were given were groceries, house payment, and “money for Wee Friends because if we didn’t pay, we couldn’t come to school!”

To end our discussion, I had everyone close their eyes. “If you were given ten dollars to do whatever you want, would you buy something with that ten dollars or save it?” After tallying up everyone’s answers, we’re mostly a ‘save’ group Smile.

“We save money so that we can buy something that is more money than what we have!”- Wee Friender

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Breakfast– cheerios and mixed fruit.

Lunch– egg and cheese roll-ups, fresh PPC watermelon, and cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– english muffins with no-nut butter and colby jack cheese.

Wee Sprout– cucumbers and red pepper.

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Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 5/10