Journaling is an important part of our day here at Wee Friends. Our kindergarteners and older preschoolers journal every day after large group time, while our younger friends are often invited to journal during the morning, or whenever they choose to! 

Although it is easy to dismiss young preschoolers’ drawing and writing as only “scribbles,” this is the first stage of learning how to write! These scribbles help children develop the necessary fine motor skills to be able to form letters later. Scribbles turn into drawings of basic shapes/pictures. Eventually, letter-like forms appear within children’s drawings.

The most important thing we are trying to do during journal time is to foster a love of writing. We want our children to understand that writing is a way to communicate their thoughts and feelings. For younger friends, after they finish their picture a teacher will help them write something about their drawing. As they get older, friends begin to write more on their own, eventually using “kid-spelling”.

Friends truly enjoy the process of creating a picture and then sharing what their drawing is about.

The first word most children gravitate towards is one that is important to them: their name! After learning to identify the individual letters in their name, children begin to try and write those letters. This is a process that takes time! Below, Eren has written an “N for Eren,” while Elizabeth, who has been working on journals for years, is able to clearly write her name in upper and lower case letters.

Please feel free to take a look at your child(ren)’s journal and see what they are writing about! All journals are kept on a bookshelf in the art room. Let us know if you have any questions about the writing/journaling process.

Kindergarten: Today kindergarteners played a shape game using dice and dot stampers. Besides identifying shapes, this game worked on counting, identifying numbers on a die, and graphing. It was a race to see which shape was landed on the most!

Have a wonderful Wednesday! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Tomatoes. Breakfast: Hot wheat cereal and fresh strawberries. Lunch: Farm fresh egg casserole with whole wheat flatbread, fresh green beans/tomatoes and cantaloupe/strawberries. Snack: Homemade popcorn and bananas.

“There are three teachers of children: adults, other children, and their physical environment.” – Loris Malaguzzi

Loris Malaguzzi is the founder of the Reggio Emilia approach to early education and his work highlights the importance of the environment in learning. The organization and design of  school space matters!

At Wee Friends we are very aware of the impact of the environment on learning. Here are just a few examples of the ways in which the WF environment enhances learning as a “third teacher.”

This afternoon, friends got out the readily available cake material and worked together to build it. This led to counting the numbers on the cake out loud; there was lots of excitement upon reaching 10! Friends had ample space to work and build and know where materials are located.

 

A library full of easily accessible books at children’s level, along with comfortable and well-lit reading spaces encourages lots of reading.

Ample “loose parts” such as logs, buckets and tubes entices friends to work their gross motor skills and experiment with the movement of both their bodies and objects.

The environment is important! WF teachers are always observing and looking for ways to improve and enhance our physical spaces. For an interesting take on the concept of the “third teacher” check out this book, The Third Teacher, filled with practical ideas to improve the environments in which children learn.

Kindergarten: Today the kindergarteners worked with a game similar to “chomp” but with shapes. After pulling a shape from the jar, we discussed its attributes (number of sides, vertices, etc.) But watch out, if you get the chomp/oops shape, you have to put all the shapes back! This was such an engaging activity we brought it down to the art table so other friends could join too.

Have a wonderful day! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Tomatoes. Breakfast: Kashi’s Blueberry Clusters and fresh strawberries. Lunch: Whole wheat tortillas with cream cheese and lunch meat, cucumbers/tomatoes and fresh pears. Snack: Homemade granola with cheddar cheese.

 

 

Hello!

Rosemary picked the wooden pegs to play with this morning in the kitchen. While inserting the pegs, she would repeatedly count to two.

Franklin’s attention was caught by a leaf he found in the sandbox. He spent much of his outside time feeling it with his fingers and waving it through the air.

David cooked away in the kitchen! He picked out tasty treats to put in his bowls and cups.

Breakfast was Whole Grain cheerios and blueberries. Lunch consisted of turkey and crème cheese on flat bread, cucumbers, and watermelon. Afternoon snack was cheddar cheese and wheat crackers.

Have a great night!

Amanda

At the art table outside, Rosemary drew “circles!” and “stars!”

David had a blast going down the slide many times on his belly.

Ruby pulled books from the shelf to enjoy, and Franklin read about Dinosaurs!

Breakfast was whole wheat bagels with butter and bananas. Lunch consisted of whole wheat pasta with shredded beef, pears, and mixed vegetables. Afternoon snack was organic whole milk yogurt and bananas.

Have a good night!

Amanda

Good afternoon! Yesterday, our friend Elizabeth celebrated her 6th birthday! Happy happy birthday dear Elizabeth. We hope you had a fabulous day. You’ve grown so much, but you still have some pretty fabulous expressions!

 

This morning friends gathered to help decorate Elizabeth’s birthday “6” card. This activity helped us practice our fine motor skills through gluing and gave us an opportunity to talk about different shapes and their attributes. One of our math FABs this week is K.G.2: Compare shapes using informal language to describe their similarities, differences and parts (e.g. number of sides, length of sides and vertices). This is a continuation of our work from last week, only now we are delving a little deeper into shapes and their qualities with friends who are ready for it.

This morning was filled with book reading and tower building:

Lots of concentrated work at the art table and in the sandbox:

Also, by friends’ request, the outside art easel was opened up!

Kindergarten: Today Elliott chose to continue his work on shapes and created a “shape monster.” As he drew each shape, Elliott said the shape’s name and in some cases, counted the sides. He found this work very funny and ended up naming his creation “MNTR HOUS” (monster house). Elizabeth chose to work on her alphabet book and completed several pages filled with words and pictures that not only match the letter but are meaningful to her.

Have a wonderful Monday! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Toasted whole grain bread with cream cheese and fresh pears. Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with shredded beef, mixed vegetables and watermelon. Snack: Organic whole milk yogurt and cantaloupe.

Hello! Even though the rain kept us inside this morning, we kept busy!

We played Connect Four and worked with play dough:

We built mazes and helped the teachers clean up:

We colored pictures and listened to stories:

We created people and had a parade, complete with flags:

And of course, read lots of books!

Luckily the weather cleared up this afternoon and we’ve taken FULL advantage:

Have a wonderful weekend! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Carrots and peppers. Breakfast: Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and bananas. Lunch: French Toast casserole made with farm fresh eggs and whole wheat bread, fresh broccoli and grapes/strawberries. Snack: Whole Grain Goldfish and mozzarella cheese sticks.

Today, we had water play with ice cubes!

Rosemary was excited to see the ice. She picked up an ice cube and said “cold!”

Anna and Rosemary both ate their ice and thought it was “yummy.”

Ruby and David loved splashing in their bowls!

And when all the ice melted, there was refreshing, cold water to enjoy.

Breakfast was Whole Grain Cheerios and bananas. Lunch consisted of whole grain brown rice with red beans, watermelon, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Afternoon snack was wheat crackers with sweet pea butter.

Have a good night!

Amanda

Hello! This morning some friends decided to make their own kites. Complete with detailed designs made with markers and foam pieces plus hand-made tails, these kites and their kite-makers were begging to fly.

So… let’s go outside and see if the kites fly!

But, take a break when your kites get tangled.

Then try again!

The sandbox was THE place to be today at Wee Friends. At one point in time, almost every single friend was in the sandbox! The sand provides a wonderful medium for open-ended sensory play. Friends utilize the sand in many different ways: building sand castles, making food, digging holes, covering themselves in sand (ever heard of a “sand angel”?!), burying objects and so much more.

Kindergarten: Today the kindergarteners continued their work on FAB K.4.1: Identify and describe geometric objects. Working together, Elliott and Elizabeth created a variety of geometric shapes, noticing how many sides each shape had and discussing whether the sides were all equal or different (e.g. square vs. rectangle).

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers. Breakfast: Whole Grain Cheerios and bananas. Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with black beans, fresh tomatoes/cucumbers and watermelon. Snack: Peanut butter and wheat crackers.

Have a wonderful afternoon. –Jessica

Today while the older friends were at the farm, our other friends stayed busy! Lots of puzzles and building with blocks and magnatiles.

Today in large group we worked on one of our Math FABs for the week: K.4.1 Identify and describe geometric objects: circle, triangle, square, rectangle, diamond, trapezoid, hexagon, octagon, parallelogram, sphere and cube.

After introducing some of the 3D shapes through a poem, we played a game matching everyday objects (ice cream cone, basketball, dice, etc.) to their shape name (cone, sphere, cube, etc.). Afterwards we read The Shape Song Swingalong with the accompanying song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umu58RxNL7I)

Many friends continued this exploration of shapes into their journal work today. For instance, Clara chose to draw a list of the shapes we heard in our read-aloud: square, circle, line, triangle, rectangle. This is a clear example of natural engagement with the curriculum. In Wee World, we don’t force any children to complete work such as drawing shapes on a worksheet. So when friends choose to draw shapes on their own, we can tell they are really engaged with learning!

Kindergarten: This shape work continued with our kindergartners as they were asked to identify a greater number of shapes. After this activity, Elliott and Elizabeth naturally wanted to categorize their shapes! They divided the objects into piles of spheres, cubes, and so on.

Have a great day! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Hot wheat cereal, healthy applesauce oat muffins, fresh pears and oranges. Lunch: Whole wheat tortilla with cheddar cheese, carrots and apples. Snack: Homemade popcorn with butter and fresh apple slices.

Today was our first trip to Prairie Winds Farm of the late summer/early fall. To learn more about this working educational farm check out their website: http://www.prairiewindsnaturefarm.com/. This week the older friends (4 ,5, and 6 year olds) went.

It was very exciting to be back on the farm with friends!

                            

There was so much to do and see at Prairie Winds Farm. We picked some ripe and very juicy raspberries:

We visited with the horses and some very friendly goats:

Miss Tami even wrangled up a baby goat for us to hold and pet!

 

We also experimented: did the goats like eating hay or corn better?

 

We watched chickens lay eggs and pet the farm cat:

 

We even got some time in on the rope swing!

 

Overall, it was a busy and fun-filled day at the farm. We can’t wait to go back! –Jessica