We started our week with the question “What Makes A Family?” We have since explored and had conversations about all sorts of families: families of books, letters, shapes, humans, insects to name a few. We determined that love is a common thread in families. Yesterday we read The Middle Child Blues which led us to a discussion of ‘the middle’. We explored our environment to find things ‘in the middle’. We discussed birth order and which of our WF are the middle child. As our older friends journaled, math and science (and philosophical perhaps?!) concepts arose such as “can you measure love?” and “which square is in the middle”. Today we noticed that our friends have been creating houses out of boxes and blankets during their imaginative family play. We created a message board asking “How many floors are in your house? How many rooms are in your house?” A few friends then moved to the art table to sketch their own homes with pencils and markers. F.3.32 Ask questions about families. F.2.13 Break apart a whole quantity of something into a set. F.4.13 Follow instructions to place an object “between” two things. F.5.4 Use any descriptive word or gesture to express amount or size. F.3.14 Give information about where she lives (e.g., street, telephone number, house). F.3.16 Describe features of familiar places (e.g., buildings, stores).

The tumblers tumbled and we all enjoyed a gorgeous morning outside!

For lunch we served whole wheat tortillas with refried beans and cheese, fresh lettuce (from our garden!) with cucumbers/ranch and granny smith apples.

Have a great day!

What a beautiful day! We have opened the windows and are enjoying the cool, refreshing breeze blowing through our classroom.

This morning, most of the children spent a large amount of time using liquid water colors to paint themselves, family members and a variety of warriors & princesses.

In other parts of the classroom, children were found in housekeeping playing doctor, in the truck room making magnatile structures and making an advance highway system with raised roads, and in the science room exploring the moon sand. There was also a lot of dancing to a variety of soft CD music. Friends paired off and communicated to one another who was supposed to twirl and who was supposed to hold. It was lovely, creative, and the children remained in control of their bodies the entire time.

For lunch we had brown rice with red beans, cantaloupe & watermelon, and green peas.

Take time to enjoy the sunshine today!

Yesterday, Miss Laurie led a discussion with the children about, “What is Family?”. We are exploring whether this topic has the potential to become our next study. We have a stack of library books (thanks Grandma Carol) to investigate on family and we’ll see where we go from here!

Simon and Oliver brought a really neat story from home (Perfect Square) to share with their friends. This quickly became a large group story time as the story enticed most of the children over. After the story, the children represented their own perfect squares in the art room by creating their own collages.

Outside time included lots of water play and some very complex sand and water creations.

For lunch we had: toasted whole wheat bread (with cream cheese, shredded carrots and co-jack cheese), fresh fruit salad, and roasted potatoes and green beans (from our garden!).

Don’t forget to make sure your child has a swimsuit at WF!

Have a great day!

Welcome Back!

It was an exciting morning with stories of vacations and the reuniting of friends. The brief thunder storm added a little extra excitement! However, Wee Frienders looked at the storm scientifically, with discussions about the wind/rain intensity and movement. We stood at the open door and felt the rain blow into the house and were amazed by its power! There was also a discussion comparing and contrasting the sound of thunder vs fireworks. Owen summed up this up with, “Fireworks have a big boom. Thunder doesn’t. It just has a big rumble.”

Other morning activities included:

*Playing in the moon sand. We have added moon sand tools and doll house people to spur the kids imaginations!

*Many friends easel painted. Many made popsicle stick sculptures.

*Several friends played in hopscotch for an extended time navigating the dynamics of the dog/cat community they created.

For lunch we had whole wheat rotini with chicken, watermelon and broccoli.

VRmmmmmmm…….

The Wee Friends Beach 500 Derby car race was a great success! The children used the slides to race cars down the hill while cheering fans with checkered flags celebrated the event.

After the races were complete, everyone celebrated with hotdogs. Later, we polled the children and our graph showed that the Wee Frienders clearly preferred hotdog/bun/& ketchup over just a hot dog bun or just a hot dog!

The WF kids also enjoyed receiving the race trophies that were made earlier in the week by most of the children.

This morning many of the children enjoyed using dot painters to create a variety of artwork. There was also a lot of small group play in housekeeping, hopscotch and the reading area. During our outside play, the children, explored the many properties of water by dumping and pouring water into measuring cups and the water tubes. A few adventurous children discovered the interesting results of blowing into the water tubes. She exclaimed to everyone, “Look at my funny trick!” as the water shot out of the end of the tube!

For lunch we had brown rice with beef, watermelon and green peas.

Have a fabulous summer break! We return on Monday, July 11.