Today we welcome Anna to the Wee Friends classroom. We are so excited to have Anna be part of our community. She has already made herself quite at home exploring the environment and joining in some group activities this morning!

This morning started off with lots of fine-motor work. Children were invited to the art table to work with plastic beads and pipe cleaners, creating unique bracelets. The house was unusually quiet as many friends focused on stringing the beads!

The pegs and pegboards were also brought out. Some children chose to work with only certain colors of pegs, while others made it their goal to fill the entire board. After completing her creation, Rosemary said, “I made a beautiful castle!”

Kindergarten: Today our kindergarteners and older preschoolers gathered in the science area for a reading of the Magic School Bus book about the solar system. Besides generating lots of laughter, the book also inspired further curiosity about the planets! After seeing a model of the solar system in the book, they decided to create their own. Working together, they created various planets using paper, markers, and yarn. This is an ongoing project (they’re currently working on it right now!) so we’ll post updates tomorrow. Completed planets: the Sun and Mercury.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Toasted whole wheat bread with butter and fresh oranges. Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with red beans, fresh broccoli/cauliflower, and apples. Snack: Organic whole milk yogurt and homemade cinnamon honey granola.

Link to the photo album: WF 4/4/2016

Stay warm out there! –Jessica

The time has come to say farewell to our Anna Girl. She will be transitioning over to the preschool site on Monday. She has been with WWF since she was baby and has made our classroom full of laughter, excitement, and pure joy. We will miss her sweet face and personality. However, we know that she will move mountains next door and flourish tremendously.

What a fun Friday we had!

We read stories together…

Were silly on the habitrail…

Started a zoo…

And explored sight and sound with the sensory tubes!

Breakfast was Kix and pears. Lunch consisted of whole wheat tortilla with cheese, pears, and mixed veggies. Afternoon snack was string cheese and pretzels. Wee sprouts was carrots.

Have a great weekend!

Marty and Amanda

Link to photos: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A58B8C61670EC2D4!84397&authkey=!AM3Mpkd39hy0Cjg&ithint=folder%2cJPG

What a wonderful first day of April it has been! Today started off with lots of exploring at the piano and puzzling action.

Yesterday afternoon, we opened a special delivery from Amazon: new T-rex dinosaurs. It seems like our persuasive letter to Tami worked! The new dinosaurs have been a popular toy option today. Children have taken to calling the new green dino below the “poop dinosaur” because it came with a “genuine dino poop fossil.” You can check out the poop for yourself in a jar up front in the science area  

Many friends chose to work with the Connect 4 set today as well. It was so interesting to see the many ways in which children chose to use the chips: balance them on their sides, put them in the game board, or stack them!

Today our pickled beets were ready for us to try! While they looked very colorful, most friends agreed that they liked the beets better before they were pickled.

Although eating the pickled beets may not have enticing to most friends, painting with the beet juice certainly was!

The finished products were quite unique:

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers and pea pods. Breakfast: Kashi’s Blueberry Clusters and bananas. Lunch: Whole wheat tortillas with cheddar cheese, carrots/cucumbers, and fresh apples. Snack: Block cheddar cheese and fresh pears.

Link to the photos: WF 4/1/2016

Have a great weekend! –Jessica

Good afternoon! Enjoy the photos from our day!

Breakfast was Whole Grain Cheerios and banana. Lunch consisted of whole grain brown rice with shredded beef, banana, and mixed veggies. Afternoon snack was crackers with sweet pea butter. PM Wee sprouts was green beans.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Link to photos: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A58B8C61670EC2D4!84254&authkey=!AG1lxmMzLtxDGFw&ithint=folder%2cJPG

This morning friends were invited to come to the round table to work on sewing with yarn. This fine motor skill activity was inviting to friends of all ages! Everyone concentrated really hard on getting the yarn through the hole.

 

 

Our kindergarten students took this work to a more advanced level and worked on creating an even border around the entire board. They even designed their own patterns!

 

 

 

We read lots and lots of stories and got cuddles at the same time.

In addition, Miss Mindy turned our watercolor coffee filters from yesterday into beautiful butterflies. Spring is here!

One of our favorite books to listen to is Robert Munch’s Mortimer. In this story, Mortimer sings a catchy song:

Clang, clang, rattle-bing-bang, gonna make my noise all day!

Clang, clang, rattle-bing-bang, gonna make my noise all day!

We’ve read and listened to Robert Munch read this story several times. Needless to say many children have learned the words to this song. Today our friend Lulu spent over 10 minutes singing it at the top of her lungs. Gotta love having an outdoor space where children can fully (and loudly) express themselves!

Wee Sprouts: Green and yellow bell peppers. Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and fresh plums. Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded beef, bell peppers/tomatoes, and oranges/apples. Snack: Pumpkin seeds and wheat thins.

Link to the photo album: WF 3/31/2016

See you in April! –Jessica

Today we painted in the kitchen. But instead of using only paint brushes, we also offered a variety of sponges! Our friends really enjoyed trying each sponge and seeing the different ways the paint went on the paper. They enjoyed covering the sponges with paint and squeezing it between their hands before swiping or dabbing it on the paper. David used one sponge to apply paint to another one before using both! Each painting turned out colorful and unique!

Enjoy the rest of the photos from our day!

Breakfast was whole grain oatmeal and pears. Wee sprouts was peas and corn. Lunch consisted of farm fresh eggs with whole wheat bread, bananas, corn, and peas. Afternoon snack was rice cakes with hummus. PM Wee sprouts was mixed veggies.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Link to photos: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A58B8C61670EC2D4!84054&authkey=!APkOeOlSfnYRlVo&ithint=folder%2cJPG

Good Afternoon!

Today in Kindergarten: K.W.1: Write for specific purposes and audiences.

In our large group, we talked about writing for specific audiences. Today, we specifically focused on writing to our moms and dads. The phrase ‘informative writing’ was discussed along with how we go about writing in an informative manner. After reading the story ‘Bob the Dog’, we talked about certain points that we thought were important for our parents to know! When we came to the closing, different children gave multiple examples of closings that we could use. For example, ‘Sincerely’, ‘From’, and ‘Happily Ever After’ were suggested .

It was a building type of morning! A group gathered in the habitrail area where they constructed various structures with wooden blocks.

Maddie showed great focus as she built a tower with magnatiles that ended up being taller than she is!

An art activity was made available at the table this morning where we took coffee filters and added water color to them! Children talked about what happened when they mixed two different colors together.

Today, we’re letting them dry and then tomorrow, we’ll finish the rest of the activity! Hint: it’s spring related .

We had a great time exploring the back yard on all fours today!

Wee Sprouts: Cherry tomatoes.

Breakfast: Oatmeal and PPC plums.

Lunch: Homemade egg casserole with bread and cheese, broccoli and cauliflower, and banana.

PM Snack: Tortilla chips with black beans.

Hope everyone has a relaxing evening.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 3/30

Our friends enjoyed their time in the sunshine today! The outside world offers opportunities to observe, discover, and learn that aren’t found indoors. It also provides more opportunities for large muscle development because of the space and freedom given to crawl, walk, climb, run, and jump!

Breakfast was Corn Chex, blueberries, and pears. Wee sprouts was peas. Lunch consisted of whole wheat flatbread with hummus, snap peas, and pears. Afternoon snack was toasted whole wheat bagels with cream cheese. PM Wee sprouts was mixed veggies.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Link to photos: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A58B8C61670EC2D4!83853&authkey=!AIEyT3CpoanEbSU&ithint=folder%2cJPG

This morning we explored some sweet beets! Last week the Purple Porch brought us a bag of organic beets. What to do with beets? Pickle them, of course!

First, friends had a chance to touch and smell the beets. One friend remarked that the beets smelled like “rotten socks,” while another said, “these smell like carrots!”

Next we got to scrubbing. Children took turns washing off the beets with water and a towel. This process was both a sensory exploration and a satisfying real work activity.

We took a look at the water leftover in the bowl and saw how much dirt we scrubbed off! Lastly, we wrapped the beets in foil to roast them. Up next—taking the skin off, cutting the beets up and preparing them for the pickling process.

After putting the beets in the oven, Miss Mindy asked friends “what color is the inside of the beet?” We had lots of different responses, but most children picked “red.” Once we start the pickling process, we will get to see who guessed correctly!

Kindergarten: This week in large group we have been working on FAB K.W.1: Write for specific purposes and audiences. Yesterday, with Miss Mindy, the group wrote a piece of persuasive writing together—a letter to Tami asking for a new T-rex dinosaur! Today we brainstormed all sorts of different lists (“lists to remember things”, “grocery lists”, “lists of things to do”, etc.) and wrote a list of our own—“Places to Play at WF”. When children see writing at work in a variety of contexts, it highlights the usefulness and importance of learning to write.

Wee Sprouts: Red bell peppers and carrots. Breakfast: Corn Chex and fresh strawberries. Lunch: Whole grain flatbread with hummus, peppers/carrots/pea pods, and watermelon slices. Snack: Cottage cheese and roasted chickpeas.

Link to the photo album: WF 3/29/2016

Have a wonderful afternoon! –Jessica

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend! Here’s some of our favorite moments from the day.

Peek-a-boo on the habitrail…

Scooping and pouring corn in the kitchen…

Looking through family photos…

And being sweet to our friends!

Breakfast was whole wheat toast with butter and bananas. Lunch consisted of whole wheat pasta with pork, strawberries, blueberries, pears, and peas. Afternoon snack was goldfish and string cheese.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Link to photos: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A58B8C61670EC2D4!83659&authkey=!AN2_ibOPQhzTtw8&ithint=folder%2cJPG