It has been a beautiful spring morning in our classroom!

Many friends gathered on the rug this morning and pulled out all the building blocks. Stephen began building a tunnel. It morphed into an intensive, morning long airplane exploration. Elliott described and built runways, towers and deemed himself co-pilot to Finn’s pilot role play. Lisa invoked her eight year journey as a flight attendant and, with a perfectly scripted monologue, directed passengers to their seat, asked them to buckle up and put their tray tables up. We added environmental sounds of a jet taking off and inner flight noise. Flight Attendant Lisa gave passengers the choice between chicken and pasta and their choice of beverages. Night fell as we were in the air and the passengers slept as John Denver sang “Leaving on a Jet Plane”. We landed and headed outside!

Fabrezio reminded many friends of the importance of flossing each day!

A small group of friends gathered at the art table after breakfast for a shape exploration. We cut out 7 shapes and identified them. Each friend took a turn creating a picture using the shapes. Other friends guessed the artist’s intention and also shared ideas about what they perceived it to be.

After the shape study, many friends chose to stay at the table and continue creating art. Some friends drew shapes on paper and cut them out. Others created elaborate and detailed ninja creatures! Kai and Vivian dedicated their work of art to Wee Wee and walked over to share their gift.

Umi, Arleigh and Alexandra worked in housekeeping feeding, clothing and loving their babies.

Our Wee Sprouts today are carrots and cherry tomatoes. Breakfast was whole wheat toast with peanut butter and bananas. For lunch Tami prepared whole wheat turkey salad roll ups, roasted asparagus and fruit salad.

Have a great day!

Important Parent Reminders!

Breakfast is served from 7:45am-9:00am and Wee Sprouts are served all day. If your child arrives to school after 9:00am, please make sure they have had breakfast!

We prefer that ‘at home’ toys stay at home to avoid conflict in the classroom. If your child does have a toy that is brought in, we ask that it is small enough to fit inside the cubby. We will invite our friends to share/show their toy for the first couple moments after they’ve arrived and then we’ll ask them to put it away until mom and dad come at the end of the day. Thank you so much for honoring this. It truly eliminates additional conflict as we help our Wee Friends navigate other natural conflicts throughout the day.

The bird feeders FLEW and today was the older kids opportunity to make their own.

The second part of the morning dealt with a shape study.

Lisa read Mouse’s First Spring by Lauren Thompson. They discussed the variety of shapes they saw in the illustrations and went to the message board to record their findings.

Afterwards, Lisa and Melinda passed out clipboards, paper and pencils and off they went on a nature shape hunt!

Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs and bananas. For lunch, Tami prepared melted cheddar on whole wheat tortillas, yellow/green beans and applesauce.

Enjoy this day!

Once I saw a little bird Come hop, hop, hop;

So I cried, “Little bird, Will you stop, stop, stop?”

I was going to the window To say, “How do you do?”

But he shook his little tail, And far away he flew.

While the swimmers were at the Y, our remaining Wee Friends thought about birds. Inspired by the many pine cones they collected on a walk last week, Melinda and Lisa guided a bird feeder creation.

She set out two plates of peanut butter and two bowls of wild bird seed. First friends rolled the pine cone in the peanut butter. Next they dipped it into the seed bowl and covered it with seeds. Next, they attached a string and finally, put them in the refrigerator to set.

Reminder: Tomorrow, many of you have signed up for conferences with Tami at her house, 701 S. Ironwood. Call us today if there are any questions or changes! We look forward to seeing you there.
Wee Sprouts today are carrot sticks and radish slices. Breakfast was Kix and bananas. For lunch, we will serve peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat pita, green beans/carrots and apple slices.

Enjoy this beautiful day!

We have some FAB Fabs this week! They are also great examples of how, many times, these kindergarden frameworks for academic balance happen so very naturally throughout the day. Literacy: K.7.2-Share information and ideas, speaking in complete, coherent sentences. Math: K.4.1: Identify and describe common geometric objects: circle, triangle, square, rectangle and cube. K.4.2-Compare and sort common objects by position, shape, size, roundness and number of vertices. K.4.3-Identify and use the terms: inside, outside, between, above and below.

Today was the last day for this session of gymnastics. Jennifer will begin the new session each Monday, April 9-June 18. This morning, both groups of friends practiced backwards rolls and candy stick log rolls. In this exercise, each friend chooses their favorite piece of candy as as they name it, they roll down a mat that is on a rake, similar to rolling down a hill. They navigated an obstacle course that included the balance beam, trampoline and various mats. They finished the course by swinging on the rings. And the best part of all, they each got today’s cute little girl stamp on their arms.

We headed outside early this morning to enjoy this amazing day.

Last week, Tami devised the Rest Time Black Bucket. For our older, non nappers, this bucket is waiting for them after lunch to enjoy during the mid-day quiet time. Tami filled the buckets with paper, markers, sight word books, flashcards of various sorts, an I Spy book, a fictitious book and a step-by-step drawing book. Our Wee Friends have enjoyed this variety of activities while they rest their bodies and voices.

Our beans that we planted last week are sprouting! Below is Kai’s kidney bean.

Today our Wee Sprouts are carrot sticks and radish slices. For breakfast, we served whole wheat toast with peanut butter and apple slices. Lunch was whole wheat pasta with chicken, green peas and bananas. For snack we are serving whole wheat crackers and hummus.

Have a terrific day!

Happy Birthday, Marty!!!!

The day began with paper hearts. Using scissors, stick glue, and markers, Wee Friends created hearts of all sizes. Hearts were created for each other, teachers and MARTY, on this her special day….

Several weeks ago, friends created stained glass window art with wax paper and tempera paint. This morning, they each found their creation and worked at turning it into a kite! We studied four shapes: hearts, diamonds, squares and circles. Friends chose the shape they wanted their kite to become and with pipe cleaners, and tape, set out to create it.

Other areas of the classroom were busy with train tracks, hammer and nails, dollies, apple pie, good friends and a dinosaur book!!

We pretended we were at a real theatre to watch a puppet show! First, a small group of friends made paper tickets. The ticket master collected tickets and friends gathered into an audience to watch the show. In pairs, friends chose puppets and a slow/fast/with words/without words song to accompany them as they told their original story.

Friends understood that they must listen and not talk as they watched each puppet actor tell the story. They learned how to applaud at the end of each scene. They understood that they must sit and watch the action taking place without getting up and down. And of course….they learned they must bow after each performance! The final musical request was “Dynamite”. The curtain came down on the puppet plays and friends moved their bodies, stretched their muscles, hopped, skipped and sang their hearts out.

We calmed our bodies by laying on our green mats and meditating to a new song: Joe Cocker’s “You Are So Beautiful.”.

And then we raced outside to soak up the sun!

Our Wee Sprouts today are diced pineapple. For breakfast we served Chex and Kix with fresh pineapple. Lunch was a farm fresh egg casserole, applesauce and steamed asparagus.

Parent/Child Conversation Starters:

• Let’s look around our house and count how many circles (any shape) we can find!
• When you are at the workbench, do you enjoy using the hammer or the saw the most? Why?
• How would a kitty cat puppet talk? What about a pirate puppet?
• Is that voice the same or different from your voice?
• During music meditation do you like to talk or do you like to close your eyes? Why?

Enjoy a restful weekend with your family.