Good Afternoon!
Today, you’ll get the joy of looking at pictures throughout the day of the activities that were enjoyed by our friends!
For breakfast, we had bagels and oranges. For lunch, our friends enjoyed egg casserole, mixed vegetables, and apples. This afternoon, our snack was animal crackers.
Hope that everyone has a spectacular weekend!
-Mindy
On Tuesday, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we invite our Wee Friends to be a part of a Valentine’s card exchange! Each friend will have their own mailbox to take home, filled with cards from their Wee Friends. Here is a list of names should your WF decide to share valentines! 16 total: Ada, Nate, Finn, Marta, Annie, Jane, Arleigh, Elliott, Macy, Simon, Vivian, Umi, Alexandra, Stephen, Kai & Damien (our new friend who joins WF on Monday).
Today’s Wee Sprouts are carrots. For breakfast, Laurie served Kashi and cranberries. Tami prepared egg casserole for lunch and served Elliott’s pineapple and mixed veggies.
Have a restful weekend!
Laurie
Today we brought out the hearts!
Paulina shared a great sensorial activity with us: frozen heart ice cubes! We set them on the light table with heart cups and friends matched a cube with a cup. (FAB K.1.1 – Match sets of objects one-to-one) They watched them melt and slurped and crunched them, becoming ice-vores! They hid icy hearts under plastic hearts and guessed which cup was hiding the ice.
Many friends chose to paint heart shaped frames.
Various pairs of friends challenged each other to tic-tac-toe on our felt board.
Arleigh requested that we play Malificent. We played our Sleeping Beauty music and as friends touched the spindle they fell into a deep sleep. Many side stories were acted out: Alexandra dreamed of rainbows: Kai was Malificent’s tiger: Stephen (as Batman) turned Malificent to ice, among others! It gave us a chance to explore the idea of frozen/melted before we went to the light table.
Bob Books started the day!
Wee Sprouts today are green pea pods and grape tomatoes. For breakfast Lisa served whole wheat toast with peanut butter and clementines. For lunch, Tami is serving whole wheat tortillas with melted mozzarella cheese, cucumber slices and applesauce.
Parent/Child Conversation Starters
Have a good day.
Laurie
Good Afternoon!
**We just wanted to inform all of the families that we are going to start offering a late afternoon snack. This snack will consist only of vegetables. It will be offered but not required for the children to eat if they’re not hungry at this time. This snack will be offered between 4:30 and 5:00 daily. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!
We started off our day at WWF with play-dough. A track was made on the kitchen table where kids could take trains or cars and use the play-dough track. They loved the feeling of the play-dough and had a great time making sure that the cars and trucks stayed within the play-dough. We introduced some objects such as straws and marker tops for the kids to poke into the play-dough. Concentration was high while our friends drove their cars and trucks trying to make sure that they didn’t bump their car into the play-dough barrier!
After the trains and cars left the station, we indulged in music time. We started off with welcoming all of our friends to music time. Each child loved hearing their name and singing along to the music. The kids worked with drums, music shakers, scarves, and ribbons. A few children chose to interact with the music and the instruments while others chose to enjoy the sounds from a distance, whether they were reading books or playing on the jungle gym observing their surroundings.
Once music time was over, we bundled up our friends and headed outside. While chilly, the children were engaged during play such as riding cars, swinging on the swing singing with Ms. Paulina, or playing in the house with friends. A few friends even went on a nature hunt looking for wood and bark.
However, the cold started getting to all of us. So, we decided to come in which was right in time for lunch. Lunch was a favorite today! Ms. Tami made rice with chicken (which was gone by the end of lunch), mixed fruit including pineapple, banana, and oranges, and finally mixed vegetables including asparagus, carrots, broccoli, and peas. Our afternoon snack will be muffins and the late afternoon snack will be a vegetable.
To watch a short video of our little Clara mastering the art of drinking from a “big kid cup” click here!
Hope everyone has a wonderful evening.
“Ah, but from where I am, among the great brains, I always know when magic is happening and am reminded to simply be delighted.” – Teacher Tom (teachertomsblog.blogspot.com)
Today’s big question was posed to the teachers: “What did you learn today?”
Lisa was inspired by the hour she spent with Kai (and Ada) identifying letters and counting and recording the numbers of like letters to the lyrics of “Hickory, Dickory, Dock”. She expressed that seeing how excited Kai was when he met success on his mission was incredible. She also made note that the confidence in which he approached this lesson inspired and encouraged her to keep challenging him.
Tami was delighted to have the opportunity to take time to observe and take pictures of our Wee Friends. She observed the close friendship that Umi and Alexandra are developing. Arleigh has stepped into a leadership role, organizing a group of friends to play “school”. She was “Mrs. Kelly” and Annie, Jane, Marta and Macy were her students. Mrs. Kelly instructed her class on how to write the letter “A”, upper case and lower case.
Tami saw Finn and Nate playing cooperatively with one another, as superheroes, over a long period of time.
When Elliott saw Finn feeding the dinosaur light table jewels, he shared the moment! That was after Tami observed him at the piano, plunking out notes and joyfully singing songs as he flipped through pages of music.
The last observation she wanted to share was the comfort Wee Friends feel snuggling up to Melinda when she reads stories.
During one of these snuggly moments, while reading to Jane, Melinda was reminded of the absolute specificity in which our friends notice and process information. Melinda expressed that, while reading Cinderella out loud, Jane asked that she be the stepmother and the Fairy Godmother. Melinda stated “I will be the stepmother, but couldn’t I be a grandma for the Fairy Godmother, since I am a grandma?” Jane said, “NO! It says GOD-MOTHER, not grandma!”.
Laurie worked with Simon and Ada at the workbench for a portion of the morning. These friends worked meticulously and patiently on the multiple step process of building planes. They verbalized what they were doing as they created. They made decisions about what size nail to use. Ada advised Stephen to be careful. They hammered and hammered and continued to hammer. They were not rushed. They positioned wings, bumpers with exactitude, renailing as needed. After the construction was complete, they painted their planes as the final step in their process. When they finished, Ada took a deep breath, put her glasses back on, and with a smile on her face, started a new creation. To sit with these two friends over this long period of concentration and creation was a gift to Laurie and a reminder to sit still, and observe and guide the children as their needs arise.
Our Wee Sprouts today are carrots and sweet peppers. Breakfast was oatmeal and bananas. For lunch, Tami served whole grain rice with chicken, asparagus vegetable medley and fruit salad. Snack will be pretzels and cheese.
Have a terrific day!
Parent/Child Conversation starters:
Have a great day!
Laurie
ps: Don’t forget to take your child’s soap boat home!
WWF Pics (585 photos):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/weefriends/sets/72157629218211793/
WF Pics (678 photos):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/weefriends/sets/72157629188581213/
Enjoy!
Hello!
We started our day off at WWF by conducting hands on experiences involving ice that was shaped like hearts. The kids loved playing with the ice and feeling it on their fingers. They could tell whether the ice was hot or cold. They also used the sense of taste by sucking on the ice cubes. Our friends loved how it slid around on the table! While a few of our friends were experimenting with the ice cubes, the rest of the kids were in the living room listening to music. We were jumping, stomping, and twirling to the different songs.
After the ice activity was over, our friends gathered in the living room to have music time. This involved singing and dancing. While the music was playing, children helped by playing the drums and shaking bean bags. They added another talent by twirling scarves around while the music was played. While learning about bears during music time, our friends went on a bear hunt. They came across different textures such as a fluffy green blanket, a rug, and foam tiles. A lot of our friends went through the tunnel and snuck into the bear cave. While having the bear hunt the kids got on all fours and walked around the living room like bears looking for food.
Following music time came outside adventures! The children got bundled up to go outside and say hello to their Wee Friends! Some chose to ride bikes and cars while others chose to play in the sand or swing on the swing set. After being outside for a while, we all started to get cold. So, we came inside for lunch!
Today’s lunch was a hit. All we heard was, ‘more’! :). We started out with pita bread with cream cheese, shredded cheese, and ham on top. Then came the fruits and vegetables which included corn and pears.
Hope everyone has a fantastic evening!
Wee Friends love to read! Our library is filled with books appropriate for all developmental stages.
Yesterday Jane and Annie shared their journals with one another, describing what they drew and what they wrote.
Lisa seized another literacy opportunity by writing out “Twinkle, Twinkle” and inviting older friends to identify certain letters. Kai circled all the “A”‘s and Jane worked on “B”‘s. 
A small group of friends continued working on glitter stars that we will use as props for our Spring Concert. Today’s FAB (two-step direction) was to squeeze glue on the stick and attach the star.
We began a creative music session by gathering on the oval rug and, using dowels, tapped out rhythms in “Twinkle, Twinkle”. Friends called out names of other nursery rhymes (“Pat-A-Cake”, “Baa-Baa-Black Sheep” and “Hickory, Dickory Dock”) and we explored another FAB objective: counting syllables in each word. We offered friends different ‘shaker’ instruments and we determined which instrument sounded like a tick-tock, which sounded like mice running up the clock and which sounded like a chime. Later, when we practiced for our concert, three friends volunteered to play these instruments as we sing.
And then we just jammed out, as we have been doing, to WF new honorary anthem “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz. Annie organized a circle of friends who, at one point, put all their hands in the middle and danced together in a circle.
Simon and Kai worked collaboratively at the workbench for quite a while building a sailboat and flying machine, respectfully.
Stephen and Ada ended their morning work with Lisa adding (counting out loud) and taking away gingerbread men.
WEE FRIENDS SOCK COLLECTION-To achieve our Math FAB objectives for the week, we are going to invite friends (and families!) to bring in any out-of-commission socks. We will count them, match them, discover patterns and colors, and graph and record our findings (and who knows what else!). Thanks in advance!
Thanks, too, to the parents, who have contributed to our daily Wee Sprouts!
Our Wee Sprouts today are grape tomatoes and broccoli. For breakfast Lisa served Cheerios and apple slices. Lunch was whole wheat cream cheese and ham pizzas, corn and pears. For snack, we will serve yogurt and apples.
Have a terrific day!
Laurie
Happy Monday!
We’re going to start off the week with great pictures of activities that occured throughout the day!
Hope everyone has a tremendous evening!
