Good Afternoon! Hope everyone has a safe drive home.

Our Tuesday started off with exploring our new baby dolls! They are smaller than our old one but we love them! Eve enjoyed dancing with her baby doll.

Miss Melinda danced and held hands with our friends as we listened to music. P.K. held Clara’s hand and said, “Ring around the Rosie…”

We took a relaxation break after dancing.

Friends also enjoyed our new stackable pyramid. We had an old one but different pieces had broken over time and we’re so happy we were able to get a new one! We love looking through the glass while seeing our world in different colors.

Listening to our favorite stories occupied most of our morning.

Zoey worked on walking while Eren explored the habitrail.

A few of our friends tried hiding from us! Where did they go?!

The rocking chair is a great place for friends to sit and relax while rocking back and forth.

Children are enjoying taking our new baby dolls to the mirror where they can see their reflection.

Smiles brightened up our day.

We went sliding, sliding, sliding down the slide!

P.K. and Clara sat on one another’s lap while zooming down the slide.

For breakfast, children had kix and apples. AM snack consisted of peas and carrots. Lunch was wheat tortillas with melted cheese and turkey, peas, and banana. PM snack was graham crackers and string cheese.

Have a terrific snowy evening!

-Mindy

Our day started with a yummy breakfast. Our swimmers departed and a quiet morning filled with a continuation of projects began.

Our swimmers know the drill of getting out of the classroom and into the Weehicle. They dress in their outer gear to the extent that they are able, wait patiently for additional help and then gather on the porch and wait for their ride!

This morning, Lisa recognized an opportunity to read Mr. Brown Can Moo-Can You? by Dr. Seuss. They created a cacophony of animal sounds as they waited to leave.

 

Yesterday, we set out various scraps of wood onto a rectangular felt board. Friends were decidedly interested in figuring out how to piece the wood scraps together and cover the whole board. Then they began coloring the wooden blocks with markers. This work continued today.

After lunch, our older Wee Friends dumped all the blocks into a pile and reconfigured their puzzle, examining and naming the shapes as they pieced it back together.

When we see that our friends have finished their work on it, the puzzle’s  final destination (to celebrate the culmination of our Puzzle Study!) will be a 3D work of art!

The Magna Doodle is also holding attention. It is a ‘one friend at a time’ learning tool and friends have done a great job sharing and waiting patiently for their turn.

Macy discovered if you attract two of the magnets, they will spin like a top.

Arleigh drew a treasure map and Ellie joined her to look for hidden treasure.

Tami made Irish Play-Do! We squished, rolled, pounded and sang as we worked with the green dough. Leo filled six cups and counted 1-2-3!

Lunch: Whole grain bread with turkey and melted cheese, peas and pineapple/banana fruit salad. Snack: Craisins and peanuts.

Enjoy your day.

Happy Monday!

Today was a day of firsts for us! We got our new camera that we used this afternoon (Thanks Tami!) and we also got a few new toys in.

One of our favorites so far are the magnatiles! We had a blast building different structures. It really worked our fine motor skills because since they are magnetic, sometimes they automatically cling together when we don’t want them too! Friends also enjoyed their new baby dolls!

For breakfast, children had eggs with cheese and whole wheat toast with soy butter. AM snack was carrots. Lunch consisted of whole grain noodles with kidney beans, mixed vegetables, and apples. PM snack was goldfish and hard boiled eggs.

Have a terrific evening!

-Mindy

On the Blue Bus, our Wee gymnasts worked with an obstacle course. They ran circles around an octagon, crawled under the bridge and swung over a hot lava pit! They also had a forward roll contest and did all their jumps. At the end of class, they made a big crash!

Today’s Magna Doodle was a big hit. We talked about how the magnetic pen tip and magnetic shapes draw the colored magnetic liquid parts to the surface to create a drawing.

Other friends caught Magna Tiles with their magnetic sticks.

Still, others used our river to catch fish.

One magnetic stick made a handy anchor.

Ada used the magnetic drawing board as a sketch for what became a permanent marker work of art.

Marina and Ellie shared a meal.

Marta helped fold clothes.

After choosing a book, Leo climbed on Lisa’s lap for a read-aloud.

Elizabeth found Angelina Ballerina.

Melinda read an Arthur book in which D.W. was being bossy. Friends talked about what it is to be bossy.

What is a sentence? Literacy FAB K.7.2 invites friends to “share information and ideas, speaking in complete, coherent sentences”. We decided to explore the idea of a sentence a bit.

Finn requested salt dough. We added pink sparkles and shaving cream for more sensory delights!

Wee Sprouts: Cucumber slices. Breakfast: Raisin Bran and apple slices. Lunch: Whole wheat penne pasta with red beans, apple slices and mixed veggies. Snack: Cheddar cheese and multigrain crackers.

Have a great day.

Mel introduced our Wee Friends to “All that Jazz” from the fabulous musical Chicago. They danced their tooshies off, eventually moving on to “Head Shoulders, Knees and Toes”, the Hokey Pokey and a medley of The Wiggles.

This puzzle has been worked by Macy and Jane everyday this week.

Finn decided it was time to switch out the pirate flag.

Using the old local campaign magnets that Lisa donated, friends created their own magnet designs and stuck them to the fridge.

Robert Munsch is a favorite Wee Friends author. After Mel read his “Stephanie’s Ponytail”, she and Lisa asked friends what their favorite type of pony was. Then we invited Marty over (hair designer extraordinaire!) to make our friends favorite hair styles come to life!

The Pirate ship set sail and this time there was a pirate princess aboard.

It started as an “I can’t do this.” and ended with a big I CAN and I DID!!

We’re taking our time getting Thumbelina off the ground and added new costume pieces today.

Wee Sprouts: Broccoli. Breakfast: Corn Chex and bananas. Lunch: Slices of turkey and cheddar cheese with whole wheat bread, corn and apple slices. Snack: Cottage Cheese and raisins.

Have a great weekend.

Thank you to all of the parents that joined us for our Wee Can Answer That! Parent’s Night.  It was a very fun night sharing and learning about each other.  I look forward to putting together a parent workshop in the near future on temperament.

While there isn’t an easy way to share all that we discussed, I wanted to at least share the handouts that we used last night:

WF Group Times and Types of Instruction

Emergent Curriculum

How Young Children Learn to Read

Morning Hassles With Your Preschooler

The Cure for Whining

Temperament Traits

Enjoy your day!

Tami

 

 

Remember way back to September 21st when WNIT came out to film the Sesame Street Grow Up Great segments (funded by PNC Bank)?  Well, I finally can share them! Enjoy!

2 Eggs Segment 2 Eggs -MPEG-4 features Macy, Ada, and Miss Laurie.

The Energize segment Energize -MPEG-4 has  Finn and Nate in the spotlight and background support from Ellie, Elizabeth and Jada.

The Build It segment Build It -MPEG-4 starts with Jane and Ada, but moves to the back yard and shows some group shots with many kids.

The Garden segment Garden -MPEG-4 is Nate, Finn, and Miss Tami.  Tami sounds weird (what did they do to my voice????) and Finn performs the line of the year!  And it was total improv on his part.  Ha!

Loan It Loan it_LQ has Arleigh and Macy as the main characters with Sophia and Marta in the background.  However, they also use many group shots and parts of the other clips to pull this one together.

 

The following announcements, along with permission slips, will be on your cubbies to collect tonight.  For everyone’s convenience, I thought I’d post them on the blog too:)

Please take a minute to read the following WF/WWF announcements, policy clarifications & changes, and general information!

SIBLINGS IN OUR ENVIRONMENT AND CHILDREN IN HOUSE WITH PARENTS:

I do not like to set policies without a reason, but I feel that it is necessary to communicate that we have been experiencing difficulties in a few areas:

• If the group is outside, parents and children need to be outdoors.  In other words, it is NOT ok for parents to be inside eating/playing with their child while the everyone else is outside.
• Siblings are not included in our ratios and when they are “added” in for even 5-10 minutes while parents socialize at drop off/pick up times, it can be difficult for teachers.  It is especially tricky for teachers in directing the siblings to the expectations of our classroom (cleaning up/ proper use of materials/etc) when they are not part of our class and it is assumed that their parents are in charge of their behavior.

That being said, we will continue to welcome siblings into our family atmosphere classroom, but please keep visits with siblings present brief, keep the siblings in the same play space as the WF/WWF kids, and monitor their behavior.

• AT NO TIME ARE WF/WWF CHILDREN/SIBLINGS TO BE UNSUPERVISED PLAYING INSIDE WF/WWF WHILE PARENTS ARE TALKING TO TEACHERS WHO ARE SUPERVISING OUTSIDE.  This has been happening a lot!

OUTSIDE FOOD & SPECIAL SNACKS

Please do not bring in any foods for your child to “finish” at WF/WWF, unless it is a whole fruit or vegetable (or any special diet foods).  If your child has the remainder of a whole fruit or vegetable, they may sit in the kitchen to finish their car snack.  Other foods (crackers, granola, sweetened yogurts, fast food, donuts) need to be consumed outside of our classroom.

If you are bringing in a birthday snack, please choose one that complements our nutritional guidelines.  Some healthy treats might be: frozen blueberries with frozen yogurt, frozen bananas dipped in yogurt, fresh fruit kebobs, fresh vegetable kebobs, quick breads (zuch, carrot,etc) or muffins,  special home made trail mixes of any kind, all fruit (usually organic) unsweetened fruit leathers, whole grain tortillas cut into shapes with a dip or spread & granola.

DROP OFF TIMES:

WF/WWF opens at 7:45.  Please do not enter the building until 7:45.  While there are teachers in the buildings prior to that time, they have arrived early to attend to other things and are not ready for children until our opening time.

PICK UP TIMES:

Wee Friends closes AT 5:30. The expectation is that parents are in the building and working on exiting BY 5:30.   If parents would like to talk with the teacher or spend some time with their child at school (potty/drink of water etc), please arrive earlier to allow time for this.  Please note that 5:30 is the line in the sand where we start charging by the minute if a parent has yet to arrive. Teachers have been instructed to consistently document for late fees all who arrive past 5:30.

We have experienced regular lateness from a variety of people.  It really is a snowball effect that those arriving at 5:25 don’t feel compelled to leave by 5:30 if there are still children unclaimed for the day.  So please be considerate of your teachers that are ready to finish their day at WF/WWF and move smoothly into their personal time.

PARKING:

I believe everyone is clear on where WF/WWF parents are supposed to park (East side of street only, parked legally/right direction, staying briefly for on street, use church lot for lengthy p/u).  Please be courteous to our neighbors by following our parking policies.             TEACHERS HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED TO ASK YOU TO MOVE YOUR CAR IF YOU ARE NOT IN COMPLIANCE WITH THIS POLICY.  This makes them very uncomfortable to have to ask you to do this so please park well!

FEES FOR SPECIALS:

A $5/week late fee will now be applied to late payments for our extracurricular programs (ymca classes, tumbling bus, and farm fees).   (Sorry.   It is one of my biggest struggles to keep track of these because I am tracking people down literally months later for payments for specials. I am lucky to get 33% back on any given due dateL)

Farm cost this year is $5.00 per child per trip, which will be billed in November

Tumbling bus is $80.00 for 10 weeks of class, beginning on September 10^th

IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO DO TUMBLING BUS, PLEASE WRITE NO ON THE FORM WITH YOUR CHILD’S NAME TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR US TO TRACK!*-

NO TUITION INCREASE THIS YEAR:

We will not increase our tuition rates for this school year.

VACATION TIMES:

Our vacation times for the 2012-2013 school year can always be referenced on the blog under Vacation Times.

Please note that our summer 2013 vacation time is one week later than it has been in prior years (closed July 4^th to July 12^th.  Additionally, we will be closed one day longer for that vacation.

2012-2013 Calendar

Monday, 9/3 Labor Day

Thursday/Friday 11/22 & 11/23 Thanksgiving (2 days)

Monday-Friday, 12/24-1/4 Winter Vacation (2 weeks)

Friday, 3/29 Good Friday

Monday, 5/27 Memorial Day

Friday 7/4 to Friday 7/12 Independence Day & Summer Vacation (7 days)

PERMISSION SLIPS:

I asking all WF families to fill out a consolidated field trip permission slip, even if your child is not involved in one of the programs listed on the form.  It is meant to consolidate paper and your time in filling out multiple forms.   It is also meant to give us some freedom with the older preschoolers to take a “spontaneous” trip to the farmers market or library if we need materials for something we are in the moment doing.

Any trips not on the form will require another perm slip.

DONATIONS:

Ornamental grasses: I would like to add more ornamental grasses if anyone has any they would like to split at home!

Wee Sprouts:  We always enjoy donations for our Wee Sprouts bowls.  Especially odd harvests from your own garden that are unusual tastes or textures for the kids!

SESAME STREET UPDATE WF:

We are still slated to be filmed for several of the 30 sec to 2 minute segments.  However, even though I just attended a WNIT meeting last week, I still have no idea of the time frame!   WNIT is working on itJ

CLOTHES

The season is changing; please bring 2-3 sets of LABELED clothing items.

Please note that if you label your child’s personal items, we have a better shot of getting their underwear, socks, mittens, shirts, etc returned to their cubby.  We really do try!

Thanks!

Tami