We absorb. Wees absorb. Books, words, ideas, strategies, emotions, friends, teachers, attitudes,  life skills and Wee Sprouts. So today, as our minds absorbed the weather and the earth absorbed the snow, we looked around our classroom with absorbent lenses, and began our day.

Soak up the joy today!

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers. Breakfast: Rice cakes with peanut butter and strawberries. Lunch: Egg salad on whole wheat tortillas, PPC watermelon and broccoli. Snack: Hummus and crackers.

 

This morning we experimented with another way to use pickle juice: make dill pickle bread. Friends read the recipe:

“Which ingredient starts with the sound ‘f-‘?”  “Flour!”

“How many cups of pickle juice do we need?”  “One!”

and then measured and combined the ingredients.

Kneading the dough turned out to be quite the sensory experience:

“It’s sticking to my fingers!”

“This smells like pickles.”

“I NEED to wash my hands after this!”

While our older friends experimented with bread dough, our younger friends worked with the play dough.

In the end, it turns out that bread dough is pretty hard to get perfect on the first try. Our pickle bread didn’t really rise properly, but it was sure fun to make.

Hope you have a great day. –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Sweet peppers. Breakfast: Cheerios and raisins. Lunch: Hummus on whole wheat flatbread, green beans and cucumbers, and fresh pear slices. Snack: Colby jack cheese slices and home-popped popcorn.

Good Afternoon.

We want to wish a big ‘Happy 2nd Birthday’ to Maya. We love you and your spunky, awesome personality!

 

Here are a few pictures that were taken throughout the day.

Have a great night!

Happy Monday!

A BIG Happy 2nd Birthday to Lucy! It’s been quite a transformation the last two years. We love you!

For breakfast, children had cinnamon raisin bagels with butter and banana. Lunch consisted of whole grain noodles with chicken, corn, and oranges. PM snack was colby jack block cheese and crackers.

Have a great night!

Today was a day full of creation. We deliberately fill the Wee Friends environment with a wide variety of materials that become the tools through which friends express their ideas.

In the art room there is always plenty of paper, markers and tape. On any given day our shelves are also filled with other intriguing materials like cardboard, foam pieces, bottle caps, and random material donated from the Purple Porch (for instance, today we received a bunch of lettuce wrappers!)

It is always exciting to see how friends will use these materials in their creations. Today we created cardboard dolls and worked on origami:

Other friends spent the afternoon playing “restaurant”. They showed friends the menu, asked what their order was and then eagerly relayed the information to the “cook” aka Elizabeth, who then drew detailed pictures of the food ordered and cut it out. Here is an example of her asparagus:

This morning Eleanor expressed interest in finding out what robots look like. Our search led us to a special kind of robot, a Roomba, the vacuum robot. Ellie decided to make her own cleaning robot and began to experiment with different types of materials that can sweep: brushes and paintbrushes. We will keep you posted on how this make-your-own-robot project progresses.

Happy Monday! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: WF homemade sweet pickles. Breakfast: Whole wheat English muffins with cream cheese and orange slices. Lunch:  Whole wheat pasta with chicken, orange slices, corn and sweet pickles. Snack: Whole milk yogurt and bananas.

Happy Friday!

After the professional development opportunity that we had last weekend, different philosophies have been running through my head all week! One that I personally identify with and enjoy learning more about is Lev Vygotskys ‘Zone of Proximal Development’. For those of you who aren’t familiar, it basically means the difference between what a children can accomplish with help (from teachers, fellow students, parents, etc.) and what he or she can do alone without help.

Vygotsky believed in learning through assisted performance such as “look do” teaching methods where the child imitates something the teacher has done.

What made me think of this is the log house in the backyard. Every child is at a different individual level in all aspects of their development. Tate accomplished climbing the log house last week while a few of our friends are attempting it for the first time. If I were to lift them up to the top of the house, they’d be missing all of the necessary steps by not doing it themselves. Scaffolding, or giving help, is crucial but we must respect the process. No need to rush!  

Our toddlers are quite independent and determined lately. Our outside environment is a great place to observe that. Friends push themselves a little past their comfort zone everyday which ultimately allows them to learn about themselves through play.

It’s important to know each child and what they bring to the table: their likes, dislikes, habits, etc. so we know how to nurture everything that they have to offer!

Enough with theory.. .

We gathered down by the teeter totters and friends worked together to rock back and forth. Friends found out that it was a little challenging if all three seats were taken but they made it work!

A couple children headed to the garden where they showed interest in the pinwheels. Since there was a light wind, friends noticed the pinwheels were spinning. Each friend took a pinwheel and blew into it to see what would happen. Lucy said, “Look, spin!”

Most of us ended up in the sandbox where we worked on dumping the sand along with filling buckets all the way to the top! Rosemary enjoyed using the bucket as a hat!

For breakfast, children had toast with butter and cinnamon along with banana. Lunch consisted of English muffins with melted cheddar cheese, applesauce, and peas. PM snack was applesauce/banana muffins and string cheese.

Have a lovely weekend!

Among the many ideas we cultivate at Wee Friends is the language and vocabulary of the act of creating.  Maddie asked a teacher this morning, “Will you create with me?” It’s reminder that 1) Wee Friends place a lot of value on their works and their creative processes and 2) Many times, companionship at this early childhood age is their collaboration. And so today, like every Wee day, we created.

*Please remember, on Monday, to bring a bottle of sunscreen to leave here for your Wee Friend.

*Tonight at 6pm @ Mishawaka’s Barnes and Noble, Purdue Chancellor and author Dr. Jim Dwerkin will be signing copies of his new book The Dog and the Dolphin. The Wee teachers met him last week at the annual NAEYC conference in Indy. It’s a beautiful (and beautifully illustrated!) book for ages 3-8.  http://www.amazon.com/The-Dog-Dolphin-James-Dworkin/dp/1494702541

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers. Breakfast: Oatmeal and oranges. Lunch: Whole wheat English muffins with melted cheddar, applesauce and carrots. Snack: Cheese sticks and Wheat Thins.

 

Good Afternoon!

Right when Nahla got to school, she requested the Duplo blocks. Soon, she had Rosemary and Anna join her! Nahla pointed out the different colored blocks that she had while Anna and Rosemary liked to work with the little people.

Thankfully the rain held off and we were able to get some outside time in today! The rocks seemed to be the place to be.

Friends moved their bodies around the environment this afternoon. Tate requested music and of course the maracas and drums!

For breakfast, children had Chex and banana. Lunch consisted of golden pea butter on whole wheat bread, cucumbers, and banana. PM snack was cheddar block cheese and pretzels.

Hope everyone has a ‘superstar’ type of night!

“Look! The Irishes are coming up!” exclaimed Elliott.

We’ve got to move our bodies. It helps us learn, breathe, befriend. And so we are happy to be back in our expansive outdoor playground examining, running, skipping, singing, digging, swinging, talking, scooping and figuring it all out.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Chex and oranges. Lunch: Peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat bread, fresh broccoli/cukes and bananas. Snack: Peanuts and goldfish. Food for Thought: http://www.excellence-earlychildhood.ca/documents/parenting_2011-04.pdf

 

At the farm our older group of seasoned farmers jumped right in to getting re-acquainted with the farm and all of the wonderful farm animals.  Today we spent time with a new baby black lamb, a beautiful spotted lamb, a big hen, an adorable (and extremely loving) 3 week old baby goat, the bunny, the farm kitty, and the horses.  We found a fresh warm egg in the chicken coop and some of our kids were able to watch Taffy the horse get her hooves trimmed.  (They have to be cut just like human fingernails or they get too long and bother their feet.  Another tidbit we learned today is that our farm horses don’t wear horse shoes because they only walk on unpaved areas. Oh, and the chickens like to eat the cut horse hooves.  Ewww!)  Also, one of the farm volunteers also talked to the kids (and teachers) about the kale she was planting in the garden.

After our farm yard exploration, we took a leisurely walk through the prairie down to the swinging rope.  The farm looks so different this early in the spring and the kids remembered and could talk about the changes!  The Wee Frienders finished our trip with some exciting rolling down the big hill and picking some clover.  

When the farmers left, our younger Wee Friends jumped into puzzle work and Play-Do creations. “That is not your level!” one friend shouted to another, when choosing a puzzle. At the Play-Do table friends sliced, squished, shaped, baked and pretended to eat chocolate chip cookies. A few friends left Play-Do and asked for the apple pie and birthday cake boxes. We rushed outside into the sunshine and jumped on bikes and into the sandbox. Our farmers returned and united, we ran into lunch and Tami’s delicious egg casserole.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Peanut butter on rice cakes with orange slices. Lunch: Farm fresh egg/potato/cheese casserole, bananas and cherry tomatoes. Snack: Hummus and wheat crackers.