Today, initiated by Taylor, the children did another group “sticky” study. The children gathered at different times throughout the morning at one giant piece of paper and used a variety of sticky mediums on the paper. Ironically, Tami had a really difficult time getting the “sticky” study picture to stay stuck to the wall! However, it did finally get adhered to the wall in the science room so you may want “stick” around for a few minutes and take a look at pickup tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all sing with the same voice
The same song, the same voice
We all sing with the same voice
And we sing in harmony

We introduced a WeeWee favorite book with song CD this morning called, We All Sing with the Same Voice. It is a beautiful song about diversity. The children liked it so much that I will be purchasing a copy for our classroom since WWF uses their copy everyday.

 

Outside the children spent some time picking (and sampling) more vegetables that they were harvesting from our garden. Several children also husked some corn for the WF lunch.

For lunch we had parmesan rice, corn on the cob and cantaloupe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ll go walking through the park…

We’ll keep on walking ’til it gets dark!

We’ll see the leaves on the trees

And catch the bugs in the breeze,

When we’re walking through the park!

Today we had a picnic at Nuner Elementary! We gathered a big bag of food (pb on whole wheat buns, pea pods/cucumbers and raisins) three wagons full of kids, walking buddies, four teachers and went walking….

We stopped and ate lunch on the soccer field, played red light/green light and then made our way to the playground.

Our walking friends did an excellent job safely crossing the streets and holding onto their walking buddy!

 

Before we left on our walk, many friends continued catching fish with their hands and in their nets. Melinda bought several new fish for today because we had to say goodbye to most of our fish from yesterday.

 

 

Our bear exploration continued today with a sensory experiment: in bowls, we put several foods we thought bears might eat. We closed our eyes and using three senses: smell, touch and taste, we guessed which food we were holding.

Paulina, who spent the morning teaching Wee Friends, recorded words from our sensory experiment in Spanish. She then moved friends to hopscotch for a Spanish lesson! Miel and Oso are two words we learned.

 

 

 

 

Owen and Nate share their Family Tree leaves with friends today! We learned that they have LOTS of cousins in New York and New Jersey and that their Grandpa has a very unique name!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy the day!

 

It was a SWIMMING morning…

Our sensory table grabbed everyone’s attention this morning. We added 8 live goldfish for the children to catch with nets, hold, and examine. Some children were very timid at first, but everyone gained the confidence to touch or even hold the wiggly little fish. F.1.5 Use the five senses (touching, smelling, seeing, hearing, tasting) to investigate the environment and to gather information.
F.1.6 Use a variety of “scientific tools” (e.g., balance scales, magnifying glasses, measuring cups, food coloring) to investigate the environment and to gather information.
F.1.7 Use age appropriate scientific equipment (e.g., magnifying glasses, thermometer, scales) when participating in scientific experiences.
F.1.8 Engage in a scientific experiment with a peer or with small groups of children using sharing/turn taking skills.
 

Melinda draped a large sheet over our jungle gym.

Friends pretended it was a tent.

Inspired by the big sheet, other friends decided to create a bear cave in housekeeping. We found some instrumental music entitled “Grizzly Bear Cubs with their Mom after Breakfast” and created a WF Bear Family. A small group of friends hibernated in the winter, ate leaves and berries in the winter and swam and hunted for fish in the stream! We ended our experience reading We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. F.2.1 Participate freely in dramatic play activities that become more extended and complex.
F.2.2 Express self in dramatic play through story telling, puppetry, and other language development activities.

While waiting patiently for their turn to play with the REAL fish, a few friends drew pictures of fish. 

We have introduced two baskets of tracing letters: upper case and lower case. Many friends are enjoying tracing letters, particularly hunting for the letters in their name and putting them together.

F.6.2 Combine strokes and shapes to represent letters. F.6.3 Copy a vertical line.
F.6.4 Copy a horizontal line.

 

For lunch we served ham and turkey on whole wheat bread, roasted mashed sweet potato and fruit salad (strawberry/banana/mandarin oranges).

 

Enjoy your day!

 

Today we welcomed our friends Simon, Oliver, Owen and Nate back to Wee Friends! 

Sydney, Taylor and Macy created their WF Family Tree leaves and shared them with us. We learned about each of their favorite princesses from Disneyland and saw pictures of their new Uncle!

Many of our young friends have been talking about the beach! Today we explored the beach a bit with a guided improvisation of a beach visit. We started by laying on our beach towels, then feeling the silky wet sand between our toes! We dove into the water and discovered starfish! Our hands became the starfish and we wiggled and walked them and counted starfish arms.

We discovered our sensory tub had starfish! We counted the number of arms. We then moved our exploration to the art table. We drew starfish using our own fingers, and then created a stamp out of an apple’s starfish-like core.

 

For lunch we served whole wheat pasta with chicken and corn, pineapple/orange fruit salad, peas and WF garden tomatoes!

 

Have a great day!

This morning we continued the fine motor exploration started earlier in the week: beading. Fine motor activities are important for toddler/pre-schoolers because they exercise/develop the muscles in the body that will eventually support your child’s ability to write, use utensils and other small objects, use a computer, turn pages in a book and fasten clothing.

In this exploration, friends used large wooden beads and plastic stretchy string. Afterwards a few older friends created necklaces with smaller plastic beads. Other ways we support our friends developing fine motor muscles are: Play-Doh, using a paintbrush, sewing, lacing boards, scissor work, Trio Legos, Magna Tiles (other toys that require fine motor strength and dexterity) and stencils.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While our Family Study is coming to a natural close, we hope you and your Wee Friend will still create and share a leaf with us! We are planning on keeping our tree up as everyone has enjoyed hearing family stories and seeing all the pictures. The Family Tree has become a meeting place for friends to get to know each better through the pictures and stories.

 

 

 

 

For lunch we served whole wheat penne pasta with marinara, roasted zucchini (from our garden!) and grapes.

 

 

 

Have a terrific weekend!!!!