Good Afternoon!

We continue talking about text genre’s in PREK1 group. For sign in, children were given two books and they had to figure out which book was the fiction story.

During group time, it was all about poetry! We read poems from the book, ‘It’s Raining Pigs and Noodle’. We loved the rhyming addition that we noticed in the poems and most of them were quite funny!

PREK 2: Today we read the story “What should Darla Do?”  The book talked about different ways that someone could solve a problem.  The kids helped choose what Darla should do when faced with different situations.  Then they got to hear how different solutions might work…or not work in Darla’s favor.  If Darla chose to push someone off her seat she might get pushed back and not get to enjoy being at the table in the first place.  If she chose a different seat,  Darla would get to have a nice time sharing in the table’s activity…

Since yesterday was about tiny pointillism painting,  today was about big and bold painting.  We looked at the artist Mark Rothko’s work who made large expressive color block paintings.  We talked about how in the book the paintings looked small but in real life they are the size of the entire wall.  After we looked at examples of the style, we worked together to create some ourselves.  We blocked off sections with tape and spread the paint in our area.  We talked about how looking at large blocks of color like in Rothko’s work often evokes emotions.  We talked about how the different colors made us feel.  Some of us felt like the red color made us feel happy and others said it was the green color that was happy to them.  We talked about how different colors can evoke different emotions in different people.  This is part of the reason we all might have different color preferences.  We all experience what we see a little differently. 

While setting up, one of our friends chose to come into the art center and wait for the painting project to start.  Another friend asked her to go play something else and she said “no, I want to do this.”  When her friend asked why, she responded “Because I’ve never done this before”…  A beautiful way to approach experience that young children possess such simple but profound insight about. 

 

At our morning welcome activity we worked on our grouping and counting skills.  We built groups of 1-10 cubes counting as many as we could based on our age and ability.

Breakfast: Oatmeal with fresh pears

Lunch: Scrambled eggs with fresh carrots, cantaloupe and orange slices

PM snack:  Popped corn with raisins

Wee Sprouts: Fresh peppers and cucumbers

Link to photos:2023-09-20

Have a great afternoon!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Good afternoon!

This morning our friends danced to “Listen and Move” by Greg and Steve. We listened to the prompts like “skating” and then followed along.

Some of our friends engaged with the Legos Duplos and used them to build towers.

We then made our way outside to do some of our favorite activities like playing in the sandbox and taking turns going down the slide.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with fresh oranges.

Lunch: Whole wheat tortillas with peanut butter, 1/2 stick of mozzarella cheese, apple slices, and carrots.

Afternoon Snack: Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and pears.

Wee Sprout: Green bell pepper.

Have a wonderful evening!

Tina and Rebekah

Link to pictures: 2023-09-19

Good Afternoon!

PREK1 friends made their way to the sign in board as they had to determine which group had the most stars. All of the group members were able to look at each group and determine which group had the most, without counting the stars.

K.NS.9: Use correctly the words for comparison, including: one and many; none, some and all; more and less; most and least; and equal to, more than and less than.

We’re continuing to talk about text genres in PREK1 group. On today’s agenda: nonfiction! We read two nonfiction stories: Apples and Tomatoes. We talked about how nonfiction stories are about real things and often offer facts about real life, such as food! We can’t wait to learn about the other two text genres later in the week.

K.RL.3.1: Recognize familiar narrative text genres (e.g. fiction, nonfiction, fairytales, poems).

PREK2: In group we read the story “How Are You Peeling?” which talked about many different emotions.  Repetition of these ideas in different ways helps to create a solid foundation of understanding for our early preschoolers.  After the story, everyone thought of what made them feel better when they were experiencing difficult emotions. 

In the art center today we created “Pointillism” paintings.  We looked at photos from an art book by Georges Seurat.  We looked very carefully at the paintings to see how they ere constructed only of tiny dots.  Many of us marveled at the artists ability to create an image just from dots.  Since we are talking about size comparisons in our curriculum,  we learned that something like a large and complex painting can be made of simple tiny dots  We each got the opportunity to try one of our own.   A group of older friends got creative, trying different ways to make marks with the pencil.  They all settled on a technique they tried using the pencil to roll across the dots.  This created an interesting effect.  The colors smeared but the dots remained…It was great to see the group so intuitively understanding the experimental nature of art.

During our welcome activity we did a sorting project with stones.  At the first tray we tried sorting the stones by size in bowls that were small medium and large.  At the second tray we tried making “Cairns” stacking the stones and balancing them to make short medium and tall stacks. 

…This was a great lesson in applied physics as well :).

Breakfast: Kix cereal with fresh bananas.

Lunch: Peanut butter on whole wheat bread,  fresh orange slices/apples, and bell peppers/cucumber.

PM Snack: Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh cucumbers and peppers.

Link to Photos: 2023-09-19

Enjoy the afternoon!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Good Afternoon!

A few friends began their morning playing with the trucks and airplane and driving them around on the carpet.

We then headed to the kitchen to work on puzzles that matched our skill level.  We matched our piece with the pictures on our puzzle board.  If our puzzle board didn’t have a pictures we worked on our problem solving skills turn the piece to see if it fit in the space until we found the one that worked.

We also engaged in building with pegs in our pegboards.  We filled the holes with a variety of different colored pegs or built a tower using all the same color and a variety of colors.

We then headed outside to enjoy another beautiful morning.  We climbed to the top of the climbing house, sat on the dump truck in the sandbox or played with the trucks by the little house.  Since it is Monday, we got to see the trash truck go down the road and empty our bin.  Eleanor also got outside this morning to enjoy her toys on her blanket.

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

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat macaroni with shredded pork, fresh strawberries/watermelon and peas.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures:  2023-09-18

Good Afternoon!

To kick off our week, PREK1 friends came to the sign in message where they had to choose a word that fit into the group based on likeness. They were given the words orange, pink and purple. The44n, they had to sign under the word that fit into that group. They chose from the words green, finger, and carrot. Friends signed under the word green because like the group of words above, it’s a color!

K.DA.1: Identify, sort, and classify objects by size, number and other attributes. Identify objects that do not belong to a particular group and explain the reasoning used.

In PREK1 group, we started diving into text genres. Today, we focused on the text genre ‘fiction’. After reading, ‘The Day The Crayons Came Home’, we talked about what makes fiction books, fiction! Children started sharing books that they have at home that would be in the fiction genre. Throughout the week, we’ll read a book from each text genre and write it on our chart in the science area.

K.RL.3.1: Recognize familiar narrative text genres (e.g., fiction, nonfiction, fairytales, poems).

PREK2:  At group today we read the book “Today I Feel Silly” which reiterates what we are learning about labeling emotions.  We chose what emotion we felt today at the end of the story.

In the art center today we made paintings using Large, medium and small sized paint brushes.  We named which were large, medium and small as we sat down to paint at our tray.  We talked about how the brush strokes were also large medium and small.  Many of us preferred the biggest brush!  As we sat down to pant we also got to choose between warm and cool color pallets.  We talked about what warm and cool colors were, how they made us feel and what images they brought to mind.

In the sensory bin we explored small medium and large as we played in water.  Every item came in small medium and large including spoons, funnels, bottles, cups, tongs and eye droppers.  We worked on labeling small medium and large as out teacher asked what we had picked to play with.

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with butter and fresh green apples.

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce and shredded cheese, fresh watermelon/strawberries, and fresh cucumbers.

PM Snack: Whole milk yogurt with granola.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh green peppers and tomatoes.

Link to Photos: 2023-09-18

Have a wonderful afternoon!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Happy Friday!

Today we engaged with our musical shaker and bell instruments.  We enjoyed making beautiful sounds together.

The friends then went into the kitchen to engage in the moon sand sensory table.  They were busy using shovels and scoops to scoop up the moon sand into their containers.

The babies explored the texture of pom-poms while the older friends were engaging in the sensory table.

We then headed outside to engage in our favorite activities on this beautiful day.

Breakfast:  Whole grain brown rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh pear slices.

Lunch:  Turkey lunch meat on whole grain wheat tortillas, fresh orange bell peppers and fresh cantaloupe.

Afternoon Snack:  Mozzarella cheese stick and Pretzel sticks.

Have a great weekend!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2023-09-15

Happy Friday!  Enjoy the pictures from our day!

Breakfast: Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and banana

Lunch: Turkey on whole wheat bread with fresh cucumbers, carrots and pineapple

PM Snack: Pretzels and Colby Jack cheese

Wee Sprouts: fresh tomatoes from Asher’s garden! and fresh carrots

Link to Photos:2023-09-15

Have a great weekend!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Good afternoon! Enjoy some pictures from our day!

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with fresh oranges.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded pork, pineapple slices, and cucumber.

Afternoon Snack: Hummus with whole grain Wheat Thins crackers.

Have a wonderful evening!

Tina and Rebekah

Link to pictures: 2023-09-14

Good Afternoon!

PREK1 group sign in focused on the book, ‘Duck In The Truck’. They had to match the author’s words that I gave them to the illustration in the book. Earlier in the week, we started talking about authors and illustrators and what their job entails. Today, we specifically talked about illustration and how the words the author writes should match the illustrations that the illustrator draws/creates.

K.RL.4.1: Describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear.

PREK2: This week  Today we read the story “Calm Down Cool Down” which teaches about what we can do to help us calm our bodies when we experience difficult emotions.  We talked about what might happen to make us feel difficult emotions and what we could do instead of hitting or pushing.  At the end of the book we made a list of calming techniques that we remembered from the story that might help us calm our bodies.  Some of us recalled what we heard in the story.  If we had trouble remembering we pointed to the pictures of what we might do. Some friends came up with other things they did to calm down like getting a hug from Mom.  If you would like to learn more about out MACK curriculum which focuses on self regulation follow the link https://weefriendskids.com/about-us/program-philosophy/ 

 

This morning was a hands on exploration of sunflower science.  Everyone dove into a closer look at the sunflower heads which were full of seeds.  As we explored with magnifying glasses and tweezers,  we noticed the tiny flowers still present of the fresh sunflower surface.  Several friends wondered what they were.  We got to talk about how sunflowers are actually made up of hundreds of tiny flowers.  Each flower gets fertilized by a bee and makes a single seed.  As we looked at how many seeds there were we could see how many flowers the sunflower was actually made of.  William was fully invested in this project for the entire duration of it.  He lead a movement to collect ever single seed and put them into a jar so see how many there were.  We brought out a big measuring pitcher and William backed it full with four cups of seeds from just the largest flower head!  This measuring project may continue tomorrow.  Over and over young children learn best from real things they can see and touch!

Breakfast: Toasted oatmeal squares with fresh pears.

Lunch: Brown rice with shredded pork, fresh cucumbers, and fresh pineapple/bananas.

PM Snack: Whole wheat cracker, peanut butter seed pizzas.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh carrots.

Link to photos:2023-09-14

Have a lovely afternoon!

~Wee Friends Teachers

We experienced some technical difficulties yesterday sending the blog.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

Good Afternoon!

Now that Fall weather is upon us, please make sure your child has a jacket for outside play for the cooler mornings and bring in some long-sleeves and pants for their extra clothes cubbies.  Thank you.

This morning we danced to the Freeze Dance and froze our bodies in a variety of different positions.

Then several friends took turns working on all the sides of the Zany Zoo Activity box.

We then went over to toss the balls in the habi-trail area.  We used our star rainbow mats and put them together for us to sit or stand inside to toss our balls together.  Some of our tosses even made our balls go up onto the habi-trail.

We then headed outside to enjoy some fresh air before the rain came.  Eliza explored a walnut shell, Hannah and another friend engaged with the trucks and Ben and Dax rode together on the teeter totter.

Breakfast:  Overnight Oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and bananas.

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, fresh green/red bell pepper slices, fresh pear slices and whole grain wheat bread toast with butter.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole grain flatbread with cream cheese.

Have a wonderful evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures:  2023-09-13