Happy Birthday, Max! Max turned four on March 31st!

Ada put the final touches on her Muppet this am, and as always, this one friend’s interest led to a group sewing bee.

Max journeyed through a Wee Friends Rites of Passage today-the workbench! Friends have to be four to handle real hammer and nails and today was his day.

Melinda created an alphabet maze for friends to find their way through. The goal was to place letters along the path that opened up at the end.

Wee Friends, Wee friends, Mighty Mighty Wee Friends, we play games, we sing songs. Wee Friends, Wee Friends Mighty Mighty Wee Friends, we grow friendships all day long!

Among the day’s many independent works, was the construction of “a dark place” to rest.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots and broccoli. Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with PB, bananas and Easter eggs. Lunch: Hummus sandwiches on whole wheat, green beans and slices of pear. Snack: Orange slices and crackers.

Have a great day.

Happy Monday!

Today, we welcome our newest addition to our Wee Wee Friend family, Keerthi! We’re excited to get to know her and her family .

A big theme this morning was throwing our bouncy balls to one another. We worked on hand eye coordination while throwing the ball to our friends. Sydney (Macy’s sister) helped our friends learn how to throw and catch with the big ball today.

Keerthi shared her ball with Clara. Clara responded by saying, “Thank you!”

For breakfast, children had cheerios and banana. AM snack was peas. Lunch consisted of whole grain noodles with tuna and chick peas, broccoli, and pears. PM snack was goldfish and raisins.

 

Have a terrific evening!

-Mindy

Macy’s big sisters, Sydney and Taylor, are spending spring break with us! Cassie, too! Our Wee Friends love when visitors are here, especially big kids. Today was no exception as we dove deep into Easter joy with an Easter egg hunt and a song:

“A tisket, a tasket, pass the Easter basket!

Marina’s hands, Sophie’s hands, now who has the basket?”

We worked on using loud, projected voices and the girls answered: “Sophie!” or “Marina!”. They giggled with delight as they heard their own voices reach the rooftop!

We were missing a few sand block letters so Mel invited friends to discover which letters were lost and guess which letters were in the basket.

Elliott built a cage. We recorded words he used and then studied those letters. Ada was interested in transcribing Elliott’s Cage Word List.

Puzzle Mania persists!

Ada is assembling an Orca Study Briefcase, with all things Orca.

The Spring Author Study for our older group will be with author Eric Carle (author of all things earthen and growing! www.eric-carle.com). We jumped into our study today exploring Literacy FAB K.2.3- Generate and respond to questions who, what, where.

After lunch, Melinda read Little Tiger’s Big Surprise by Julie Sykes to our younger Wee Friends. When she asked who (like Little Tiger) in the group had a baby on the way, all 5 friends raised their hand: Elliott, Sloane, Leo, Marina and Marta!

Wee Sprouts: Cucumber and carrots. Breakfast: Raisin Bran and pears. Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with tuna, mixed veggies and bananas. Snack: Hard boiled eggs and goldfish.

Enjoy your day.

Hello!

**We’re incorporating a new detail to our blog starting today. There will still be a detailed blog but along with that blog will be a photo album at the end of the every blog post. This will allow parents and family to see all of the pictures from the day. These will be easier to download and see all of the pictures from the day in general. If you have any questions about it or how to access it, please ask! Thanks!

Today is Zoey’s last day here with us at Wee Wee Friends. We all are sure going to miss her! Good luck Nick, Anna, and Zoey!

Today was the perfect day for outside play. We went out in the morning and the afternoon. The feeling of sun on our face was just how we wanted to end our week!  Our friends sure did love getting reacquainted with our Wee Friends!

For breakfast, children had chex and banana. AM snack was peas. Lunch consisted of melted cheese and turkey on whole grain bread, banana, and broccoli. PM snack was rice cakes with cream cheese and craisins.

Have a great evening and a wonderful holiday weekend.

-A sunshiny Wee Wee Friend gang

Today we worked with eggs. Each friend had the opportunity to color eggs. We talked about ‘short’ and ‘long’ in the context of leaving the egg in the food coloring. We explored what happens if the egg is in the dye a short time or a long time.

Friends studied, squished and bounced the eggs that they had soaked (overnight) in vinegar, shells and all.

Then we just played with the hard-boiled egg, examining the textures (and smells!).

When we went outside, we had an egg hunt. After the eggs were found, friends played with them: cracked them open, bartered them, hid them again, collected them in a bucket, filled them with rocks and sand and created music with them!

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with PB and bananas. Lunch: Toasted turkey and cheddar on wheat bread, broccoli and bananas. Snack: Easter Eggs and mixed fruit.

Have a restful holiday weekend! We’ll see you Monday!!!

Hello!

Through play and getting older, we become independent. For some, as early as two years old! Lately, our friends have been wanting to put their coat on by themselves. They have been helping one another when the end of the day comes around.

One thing that was prevalent today was play groupings. Through some parts of the day, independent play was prevalent. A few friends went off and read by themselves or rested on the floor.

A couple times throughout the day, we noticed their were different pairs of children engaging with one another. Zoey and Lu Lu sat with one another and shared toys. This allows friends to build connections with one another when they’re given the opportunity to play and talk with one friend. Clara and P.K. had a conversation about what to feed their baby. Clara took the responsibility of getting the baby ready to eat by getting her bib on.

Finally, we have a large group of more than two friends that engage around a certain activity. Today, it was stories. Daniel and Clara started reading with Miss Marty when P.K. joined the group too! When friends are involved in a large group there is often laughter and wonderful group bonding going on. We become a Wee Wee group

Through these different pairings throughout the day, we play with different activities and learn how and what our friends like to play with. The relationships that are built all day grow through interactions and conversations.

For breakfast, children had whole wheat toast with cinnamon, eggs, and pears. AM snack was cucumbers. Lunch consisted of whole wheat bread with hummus, peas/corn, and pears/pineapple. PM snack was animal crackers and colby cheese slices.

Have a great evening.

-Mindy

*A reminder that we are closed Friday, March 29th and will re-open Monday, April 1st.

We began our day with a game of Wee Friends Twister. Several friends gathered to move hands and feet on certain colors and textures. Then we each took a turn being the Game Master, learning to lead by choosing and expressing directions for our friends to follow.

And then we began a Crazy Science Experiment Morning, lasting almost an hour and 1/2!

It began with the Question “Which elements go together?”

1. Salt and Ice

Melinda: “is your melting? What else would melt the ice?”

Kids: “Water!”, “Really hot water!”, “Look how small mine is!”

2. Watercolor and water – “It DOES mix together!”, “It’s blue, just like my shirt!”

3. Oil and water – “It’s making one big bubble!”, “It’s like a whirlpool!”, “It doesn’t mix!”

4. Sprite and raisins – “Will it explode?, “Put some more pop in it!”

5. Sugar and hot water – “It’s good!”, “It’s yucky to me.”

6. Free Choice – Friends chose to mix vinegar, an egg, baking soda and food coloring together!

Whew. That was a lot of experimenting. We decided to stretch our muscles with a good ‘ole game of tug of war. One of us hopped.

We were still wiggly, so we jammed out to “Shake!” by Hap Palmer.

Carrots and broccoli were the Wee Sprouts, and Corn Flakes and bananas were breakfast, but a serving of peanut butter, peas and pears/pineapple was our lunch. We will snack on string cheese and crackers.

 

“Try, try, try to separate them, it’s an illusion.
Try, try, try and you only come to this conclusion:

Love and marriage, love and marriage,
Go together like a horse and carriage.
This I tell ya, brother, you can’t have one without the other.”

-the one and only Frankie Boy

Good Afternoon!

**Just as a reminder, Wee Wee Friends is closed this upcoming Friday (March 29th) for Good Friday. We reopen on Monday! –Thanks!

To start their day, Daniel and P.K. headed into the kitchen where they put their heads together to build different structures with magnatiles. They made sure to help one another. It was an example of great team work and sharing!

Friends splashed into water play this morning! With the use of different toys, children explored the water. Children played pretend with fish and farm animals. P.K. held up a fish and said, “He’s swimming!” It’s wonderful when our friends are using their vocabulary and communication skills to talk through their play.

Zoey and Eren enjoyed splashing the water up using their hands! Zoey laughed when it hit her face. We took different cups and bowls and filled them up with water. We took the cup and dumped the water back out. Friends did this over and over again!

P.K. said, “Wash my hands” as he put his hands under the faucet.

Clara filled up her measuring cup and gently poured the water into the sink. She giggled when the water splashed up as it hit the surface.

Daniel and Clara had a tea party! They both enjoyed drinking some of the water too. Daniel let us know that it was “yummy water”.

As friends were taking their turns, we waited patiently for our chance to have water play.

Daniel and Clara occupied their time before water play by looking outside as snowflakes fell to the ground. Clara pointed out that she saw a bird outside in the tree. We’re becoming very observant when we look out the window .

Clara sat in the chair as she waited for her turn. It sure made her happy when it WAS her turn! She said, “Yay, Clara’s turn!” Different activities sure do make children happy and oh so excited to participate. Water for Clara is fabulous!

Even though the sun went away, we headed outside for a little bit to enjoy the fresh air. We bundled up and joined our Wee Friends! We forgot how fun it is to play with our older friends from next door . We hear there’s warmer weather on the way? Hope so because we sure do love our outside time. As we were heading inside, P.K. let Miss Mindy know that “That was fun!”

For breakfast, children had eggs with cheese and banana. Lunch consisted of cheese tortillas, green beans, and banana. PM snack was cottage cheese and raisins.

Have a terrific evening!

-Mindy

The conversation began early, at the breakfast table when a friend asked a teacher “What’s a boss?” and then expressed her understanding of it by expressing “My mom is the boss of me.” Mel reported that the conversation came up again in the habitrail and ended with the resolution of “we are the boss of ourselves, not each other.”

What began as a counting and number identification exercise, morphed into a group exploration of numbers using wooden blocks, number knowledge and paint.

A few swimmers reported that they jumped into the water all by themselves and also swam to the bottom of the pool. One friend said she got her eyes wet and everything!

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers. Breakfast: Raisin Bran and pear slices. Lunch: Melted cheddar cheese on whole wheat tortillas, watermelon and carrots. Snack: Cottage cheese and orange slices.

Have a great day.

Lisa’s Update: Lisa is doing well and is now comfortable at home, beginning her recovery from back surgery. She sends hugs to all! Here is her home address should you want to contact her: 23910 Edison Road, SB 46628

Please remember that Wee Friends is closed this Friday, March 29th. We will re-open Monday, April 1st.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEN! Ben turns two today and we began our day preparing his Big 2 Birthday card.

We gathered in the reading area to welcome Debbie and tell her a bit about ourselves. Here’s what a few friends shared:

Sloane: “My mom is Dinah and my Dad is Pete! I like giraffes!”

Ada: “I like zebras. They are black and white.”

Jane: “You also like snakes.”

Macy: “I am Macy Wolfe Little.”

Finn: “My name is Finn. I’m four and I like pirates. I’m actually a captain.”

Marina: “Marina Georgia Cascarano! I like monkeys!”

Marta: “Marta Babushki Ciccone. I like squirrels.”

Eleanor: “One time I had a bad dream with my spider-it got stuck in my ear. Eleanor Susan Schulte and I like ALL animals.”

Sophie: “My favorite movie is the Wizard of Oz.”

Jane: “And some people call her Sophia.”

Elizabeth: “I’m still three and I like to dance. I like squirrels.”

Lea: “Squirrels!”

Mel played a game in which friends had to categorize and create piles, for a basket of random objects.

Finn’s desire to turn his feather into a writing instrument caught the attention of many a friend. Without real feathers, we turned straws into quills by adding a soft craft feather to the top, and snipping a fine point on the bottom. Friends dipped their quills into watercolor and began writing and creating art.

We bundled up and headed outside. A mini snail society emerged: mother, father and children, and crawled around the backyard.

Wee Sprouts: Broccoli. Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with peanut butter and bananas. Lunch: Whole wheat penne pasta with black beans, peas and Clementines. Snack: Ben’s birthday muffins and pears.

Have a great day!