Good Afternoon!

Throughout the week, we’ve been talking about words associated with time and today, we focused on the word ‘month’. Friends signed their name under their birthday month and surprisingly, we didn’t have any duplicates: each group member had their own birthday month! .

K.M.2: Understand concepts of time, including: morning, afternoon, evening, today, yesterday, tomorrow, day week, month, and year. Understand that clocks and calendars are tools that measure time.

In PREK1 group, we read ‘Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea’ which was about two young girls who wanted to help build a playground in the courtyard of their apartment complex. Through determination and perseverance, they were able to accomplish that goal! When we were done, we took five important events that occurred in the story and put them in sequential order.

K.1.4: Identify and order events that take place in a sequence.

This morning several friends enjoyed exploring sensory activities.  We set up play dough in the art center along with golf tees and rollers.  Some enjoyed counting how many golf tees could fit in their playdough while others made birthday cakes!

Many friends also enjoyed the water sensory bin.  They experimented with different ways of changing water flow.  We added some marble run pieces that would allow friends to try out a different way to use them.  Many used the wheels and funnels with eye droppers and or pour spouts.

Some of our older friends have been making Halloween art this week.  Today Katherine drew a “Vampire”!  She has become so skilled at putting her thoughts onto paper!

PREK2: During group we read the story “The Bus For Us”.  We identified the first vehicle in the story and the last.  At the end we came up to the board to pick our favorite truck from the story for our class list.

Breakfast– Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh pineapple.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs, whole wheat flatbread, fresh grapes/clementines, and fresh cucumber/green beans.

PM snack– Tortilla chips with hummus.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/green beans.

Have a wonderful night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-09

Happy Wednesday!

We  began our morning Going On A Bear Hunt with our stuffed teddy bears around the front circle.  We then grabbed Bean bags to dance and act out the Beanie Bag Dance song.

This morning we made Oobleck.  It is a mixture of equal parts of corn starch and water. We used our hands in the mixture and found that the water sits on top and a solid forms on the bottom of our bowl.  When we used our hands to pull the mixture up off the bottom of our bowl, the solid turned into a liquid and we watched it run through our fingers.  We were also given colored craft sticks to stir the mixture and found that the color ran off of the craft stick to turn our white Oobleck the color of our craft stick.

We then headed outside to explore with our senses.  Charlotte noticed a flower and bent down to smell it, while Eleanor used her sense of touch to explore the bark on the tree.  Several friends were also busy cooking in the housekeeping kitchen at the table and engaged with a little cup at the table by the sandbox.

Breakfast:  Oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh red grapes.

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs, fresh apple and cucumber slices and whole grain wheat bread.

Afternoon Snack:  Hummus on whole grain wheat flatbread. 

Wee Sprouts:  Red bell peppers.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-09

Good Afternoon!

Yesterday, our PREK1 sign in focused on activities that we do during the day and when we do them. Today, we specifically focused on our day here at Wee Friends. I wrote the first activity and then friends placed the next activity into a sequence. We talked about how our day has many choices but there are some activities that are done at a given time throughout the day such as lunch at noon! When we were done, we read the sequence of our day.

K.1.4: Identify and sort events that take place in a sequence.

We had a wonderful trip with the farm group today!  We got to try new things, as each farm trip is different!  Today, we learned about caring for horses.  We got to bring a white horse named “Shelby” out of her stall and brush her.  We learned about what the different types of brushes are used for.  We also learned about cleaning up after horses as we helped clean the stall.  We all felt that brushing the horse was the most fun part!  We also got to hold some baby chicks after our hard work caring for the horses!

We took a long walk around the farm!  We hiked through the field, the back woods and along the marsh picking up sticks, acorns and leaves as we went!  Some of us ran through the entire “walk”.

While our farm group was away, the rest of us enjoyed an amazing morning outside. It was PERFECT weather.

PREK2: During group today we read the story “The Crayon Box that Talked”.  After the story we thought about ways we could show kindness and get along well with our friends.  Everyone shared what they thought of at the board and we made a class list.

Breakfast– Corn chex and fresh pineapple/nectarine.

Lunch– Peanut butter on whole wheat bread, fresh pineapple/apples, and fresh cherry tomatoes/green beans/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh green beans/cucumber.

Have a lovely night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-08

Good Afternoon!

Our friend Cece came back for a morning visit with our friends. She shared big smiles with her sister, Eleanor.

We enjoyed stepping inside the BounceBlocks to work on our balance skills this morning. Some of our friends also gathered around the Zany Zoo Activity Cube and engaged with the activity on the cube closest to them.

Our friends then made their way to the kitchen to explore pegs and pegboards. Our friends worked on building towers with their pegs or placing a peg in each hole on their board.

We went outside and further practiced our balance skills on the balance beam course. We also engaged with sea animals at the table with our friends.

Breakfast: Whole grain Puffins cereal with fresh tangerines.

Lunch: Peanut butter on whole grain wheat tortillas, fresh cherry tomatoes, cantaloupe slices and 1/2 mozzarella cheese stick.

Afternoon Snack: Cream cheese on whole grain wheat bagel and fresh apple slices.

Wee Sprout:  Mini cucumbers.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-08

Good Afternoon!

PREK1 friends came to the sign in board where we talked about times of our day such as morning, afternoon, evening/night. Each friend chose one card that had an activity we do during they day. Each friend taped their activity under the correct part of the day!

Later on in group, we read a book from our MACK collection titled, ‘The Sandwich Swap’. Afterwards, we had our mat guard complete the daily calendar activity. When we do our calendar activity, we talk about the day and say the date aloud such as “Today is Monday, October 7th, 2024”. We always cross off the day and look at the week to see if we have anything coming up such as holidays or birthdays.

K.M.2: Understand concepts of time, including: morning, afternoon, evening, today, yesterday, tomorrow, day, week, month, and year. Understand that clocks and calendars are tools that measure time.

For our welcome activity at the round table, we set up an early math activity encouraging counting and sorting.  Friends could choose to sort objects as they wished.  They could also count objects and match numbers if they were developmentally ready.  We always try to offer activities that can serve the needs of many different levels of development given our multiage environment.

We opened a new sensory bin activity today allowing friends to experiment with color mixing.  Many friends enjoyed experimenting with adding different abouts of red and blue to create a variety of purple hues!

PREK2: During group today we read the book “Peace is an Offering”.  In the book there were many examples of activities friends could do together.  At the end of the story we recalled some things that we like doing with our friends in the classroom.  We made a class list on the board.

Breakfast– Whole wheat bagel with butter and fresh pineapple.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with shredded beef, fresh grapes/cantaloupe, and fresh snap peas/cherry tomatoes/broccoli.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Wee Sprout– Fresh snap peas/pepper/broccoli.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-07

Good Afternoon!

We began our morning engaged in many activities.  We walked on the textured stepping stones, turned the color rings into necklaces, climbed on the habi-trail, engaged in a book, danced to 2 of our favorite songs, Listen and Move by Greg and Steve and See The Bunnies Sleeping?.

We then had 2 activities with leaves happening simultaneously.  In the kitchen Miss Bekah placed leaves onto a tray with a bowl or shallow pan and a pair of tongs.  We worked on using our tongs to pick up our leaves or used our hands to pick them up to place into the bowl or just explored them.  We talked about the different colors and shapes of the leaves and how some of them were dry and made a crunchy sound when we handled them.  We also put out a mat and had a pile of leaves to play in and explore in the housekeeping area.  We enjoyed piling the leaves around our bodies or tossing them into the air to land on us.

We headed outside to enjoy the beautiful Fall morning; the friends rode and pushed bikes up and down the hill and went down the slide, engaged with a baby doll and climbed on the concrete blocks for the balance beams.  Several of our friends were engaged in activities with friends from the preschool class during our time outside.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat bread toasted with butter and cinnamon/sugar mixture with fresh apple slices.

Lunch: Whole grain penne pasta with red beans, fresh red grapes and mini cucumber slices.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and fresh cantaloupe slices.

Wee Sprouts:  Green bell peppers.

Have a marvelous evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-07

Happy Friday!  Enjoy some pictures from our day!

Breakfast:  Whole grain brown rice cakes with cream cheese and bananas.

Lunch:  Ham lunch meat, whole grain wheat tortillas, fresh cantaloupe slices and green bell pepper slices.

Afternoon Snack:  Pretzels and mozzarella cheese stick.

Wee Sprouts:  Mini cucumbers and red bell peppers.

Have a great weekend!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-04

Good Afternoon!

We finished our week for PREK1 sign in by sequencing events that happened in the story ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. Each group member took a card from the bottom, identified the fruit, and looked through the book to see what day the caterpillar ate their specific fruit. There were five fruits total so they placed their fruit accordingly onto the sign in board before writing their name.

Almost everyday, we have at least one younger preschool friend watch sign in. While they aren’t participating, they watch and are able to absorb what we’re discussing that day. Today, we had three younger preschool kids hang out and watch sign in take place!

K.RL.2.3: Identify important elements of the text (e.g. characters, settings, or events).

During our welcome activity today we offered some ‘class name exploration’.  At journaling time the younger kids use name sticks to practice name recognition.  We have been talking a lot about the other names in the basket and trying to pick out friends names as well as our own.  Today we made a name stick for each name in the classroom and set out a variety of letter tiles so friends could explore.  Younger kids were able to find their name stick and then match some letters tiles to the name while older kids were able to spell their name in order.  Our oldest kids were able to pick out and spell their own name as well as several friend’s names.  Each child was able to explore letters and names in their own way based on their own developmental needs.

PREK2: Today we had a group time based on firefighting!  Several friends have been very into books about firetrucks, building block fire trucks and firefighter imaginative play.  No surprise, everyone was very engaged with group when we read the story “Flashing Fire Engines”. At the end of group time we talked about all of the different things firefighters use to fight fires.  The kids memories were impressive!  They remembered just about everything from the book!

Breakfast– Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh grapes.

Lunch– Cheese and refried bean whole wheat quesadillas, fresh clementines/banana, and fresh cucumber/pepper.

PM snack– Goldfish and string cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a wonderful weekend.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-04

Good Afternoon!

We dove into our Thursday by introducing a new concept in PREK1 sign in. Each friend had to find their name before trying to identify the two numbers next to their name. Once we identified the numbers, we talked about which number was bigger. At this point, we introduced greater than, less than, and equal signs.

I always use an alligators mouth as a representation, posing the question, “If an alligator could choose between four pieces of pizza or three pieces of pizza, which would he choose?”—he’d always choose the bigger number!

K.NS.7: Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group.

Later on in PREK1 group, we read a book titled ‘The Snail and the Whale’. I asked the question, “By reading the titled, does it give us a possible clue about the characters in the story?”. Our oldest friend raised her hand and said, “Probably a snail and a whale!”. We also looked at the cover of the story to see if we could guess what the setting might be!

K.RL.2.3: Identify important elements of the text (e.g. characters, settings, or events).

This morning our welcome activity challenged us to build something using rocks and playdough.  Many friends found that the playdough could be used as mortar allowing for new ways to build.  Our Wee Friends were able to use their creative problem solving skills to form an idea and then use their fine motor skills to bring that idea to fruition!  These kinds of open ended problem solving play opportunities create mind-body connections fostering meaningful learning. These activities also help children build confidence in problem solving and critical thinking through trial and error.  There is no wrong answer or time limit, just open exploration!

Please enjoy some more pictures from our day as kids practice writing, work cooperatively and explore ideas through play!

PREK2:  During group today we read the story “The Way I Feel”.  We talked about the different ways the character in the book felt.  We talked as a group about what we could do if someone was feeling sad, frustrated, angry or scared.  We came up with ideas and made a class list of what we thought of.

Breakfast– Kix and fresh strawberries.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded turkey, fresh apples/banana/clementines/strawberries, and fresh pepper/cucumber.

PM snack– Trail mix with sunflower/pumpkin seeds, granola and raisins.

Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/cucumber.

Have a great night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures:2024-10-03

Good Afternoon!

We started our morning by riding the foam rainbows like teeter-totters. Charlotte tipped her rainbow back and landed on the floor with a smile.

We made our way to the kitchen to paint with brushes. We used round and flat brushes to paint with. We drew inspiration from the tree we can see from the kitchen table so we painted with green, yellow, orange and red. As friends painted, they would point to the tree and then their paper.

We then headed outside to go down slides, line up dinosaurs on the sidewalk, walk down the hill with our bucket cart and draw with chalk on the chalkboard wall.

Breakfast:  Whole grain Cheerios and fresh cantaloupe slices.

Lunch:  Whole grain brown rice with shredded beef, fresh nectarines and mini cucumbers.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain Wheat Thins/Triscuits crackers with peanut butter and fresh apple slices.

Wee Sprout: Red bell pepper/ Mini cucumber.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-03