Author Archives: Wee Friends Teachers

WWF Daily Explorations, Friday 5.13.11

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Hello!

Today is a very special day, it is Maite’s last day at WWF. We are all trying to get the most out of this day to catch as many memories as we can and give her all our love to take with her to Costa Rica. We LOVE you Maite and we will miss you TONS!!

Our morning was spent almost entirely outside today. Wee Wee Friends read with Lisa on the porch and played in the sand. They had music with Paulina sitting on blankets and using egg shakers. We sung songs that invited them to move to the beat twisting, naming and tapping on different parts of the body, bouncing, shaking and finally running, walking and jumping.

Today we tried painting in one big paper at the outside easel. They enjoyed the relative freedom of moving on to another space to paint (as in not only on their own paper). We also observed that the communication between them was more lively than when staying in their own space. It was also messier!!! so we did yet more clothes changes and some heavier hand (and arms, and face, and even hair!) washing. It was worth the effort, here’s the final product!

We would like to let you know that there are new WWF pictures on Flickr, here’s the link: WWF http://www.flickr.com/photos/weefriends/sets/72157626710618538/.

Because of all the water play and painting we will be doing this summer we are in urgent need of extra summer clothes and water sandals (plastic)!

FARM TRIP: For those riding with us on Monday, we plan to leave from WWF at 9:15.

Have a happy weekend!

Paulina, Lisa and Marty.

WF Daily Explorations Friday May 13

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Happy Friday!

Don’t forget to check the blog and the flickr account for new photos of Wee/Wee Friends!

WF:http://www.flickr.com/photos/weefriends/sets/72157626581289749/

WWF http://www.flickr.com/photos/weefriends/sets/72157626710618538/

It was a busy, peaceful morning at Wee Friends! There were many small group, child initiated activities happening. In the hopscotch room, several friends created a house with a dog pen. Friends took turns commanding the dog to sleep, wake up and get up!MG 9177

A couple friends explored new materials to hammer with and new places to exercise their hands and the hammer!  Also, we created art with black paper, glue and white paper cut in different shapes and we also read lots of books!

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Have a terrific weekend!

WWF Daily Explorations, Thursday May 12

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We enjoyed some indoor play and exploration this morning due to the rain.  Despite the rain oudoors, it did not hold back our picnics inside.  We shopped for the food, put it in our baskets, grabbed a purse or two, and off we went.  Miss Lisa did pegs with the children to enhance our math skills.  The children have been showing a real aptitude with their counting skills.  Miss Amy assisted them in some painting as well. 

Later in the morning, the sun made it’s appearance, so we ventured outside and played, “Green light, Red Light.”  The children have really caught on to the rules of this game!  Water puddles caught our eye and the children thought that splashing in them was fun!  Weather permitting, we will do some outdoor exploring this afernoon.  Regards, Lisa

WF Daily Explorations, Thursday, May 12

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Tumbling Day for WF!

While the 2 groups were out at tumbling, the WFer’s stayed busy playing games with Melinda, playing with shaving cream, and choosing other self initiated play. 

The shaving cream activity was well recieved by all of the children!  The kids used paint brushes and plastic pieces to create textures and patterns on their tray. F.1.5 Use the five senses (touching, smelling, seeing, hearing, tasting) to investigate the environment and to gather information. F.2.10 Participate in activities using materials with a variety of shapes and patterns. F.3.2 Investigate and talk about the characteristics of matter (e.g., liquids and solids, smooth and rough, bend-not bend).F.2.9 Use different colors, surface textures, and shapes to create form and meaning.

Several other interest areas stayed busy all morning.  The housekeeping area was a busy whirl all morning and the workshop had children pounding and creating too.  Thankfully, the rain storm was shortlived and we were able to play outside at our normal time!

WF Daily Explorations Wednesday May 11

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Water! Water! Water!

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This morning Melinda set up the water table outside. Wee and Wee Wee Friends poured, measured, dipped, scooped and stayed cool playing with the water. She added additional tubs to the cottage climber and sandbox for more fun!

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Inside, friends watered their grass seeds, examining how they’ve grown and discussing how the soil changes when you add water.

Today a small group of friends investigated a couple body related books and discovered the names of certain bones (skull, spine, thigh, neck), as well as explanations for muscles and nerves. We read Doctor Meow’s Big EmergencyMG 9159. In the story Tom Cat falls out of the tree and breaks his leg. Inspired by Tom Cat’s trip to the doctor for a cast, we gathered newsprint paper and friends chose a bone on their body to wrap. We sang “Dry Bones”, identifying names of bones as we sang. We also sang a few rounds of “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” We applied medicine (lotion) to ouchies and ended our lesson at the art table creating bone inspired art with Q-Tips, white paint and black paper.

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For lunch we served whole wheat couscous with chicken, pears and carrot/snap peas.

Please remember to bring a couple extra sets of summer clothes for your child. Often times, after a water activity, we change them into dry clothes. Thank you!

Enjoy this fabulous weather!

WWF Daily Explorations, May 11

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The sun and temperature could not be any better for our outside activities today. We started our morning with ¨Ring around the Rosie.¨ We all seem to know the words now, and have so much fun doing it. Riding the cars down the hill is always fun. The children really seem to have our ¨traffic flow¨down, and once they get to the bottom, they are excellent about pushing their car back up the hill, to do it all again.

Miss Lisa read several books pertaining to our picnic theme in our outside play area. We had some very intense listeners. They are sure enjoying learning all about picnics. Following our story time, Miss Paulina set up our outdoor area for coloring. What a great thing to do on a day like today! We also played some basketball and had some outdoor water play.

Lisa, Marty and Paulina

WWF Daily Explorations, Tuesday 5.10.11

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oops!! we realized today that our post was left “unpublished” in the blog. Nevertheless, here it is!!

Happy Tuesday. We started the day with a pretend picnic. The children filled their baskets with all kinds of food and drinks for Miss Lisa. They are really using their imaginations. It is so great to see them blossom.

We had a great morning outside. Our new playhouse continues to be exciting, and some of our friends were playing house by preparing meals and eating. We also did the ¨Hokey Pokey¨ and some dancing around the big circle. We are really motoring along on the tricycles. Some of our wee ones enjoyed going down the slide hand-in-hand today Our non-walkers are enjoying outside time as much as our older ones, and seem to be pushing the shopping carts around quite well. The highlight of the morning was our new basketball hoop that is just our size. We are pretty good at picking the balls and shooting for the basket. We filled buckets with water and used big paint brushes to paint the entire yard. We were soaked, but had a great time while doing so. It was a fun-filled, learning morning.

After lunch, we are doing a great job with carrying our plates to the trash to empty them off, and handing them to a teacher. We are really good at washing our hands by ourselves before and after meal and snack times.

We read more books on picnics prior to our nap time. We are so good about getting out our individual rugs, listening intently, and rolling them up when we are done.

Lisa, Marty and Paulina

WF Daily Explorations Tuesday May 10

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Swimming Tuesday!

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While Tami took the swimmers to the Y, Melinda led a Still Life art exploration. Propping a red flower on a high surface, Melinda encouraged the children to draw (using markers) what they saw. She discussed the meaning of Still Life and Abstract art. The artists have displayed their work on the puppet theatre. Enjoy!F.3.13 Use objects in nature to create a collage or art piece. F.3.6 Display interest in the artwork of others.

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In small groups, we spent time with our doctor study testing our eyesight. Using a homemade pictorial eye chart, friends stood at a distance and named pictures large to small. F.2.7 Participate in games and follow the rules.

We sang “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”, “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring” and listened to several Jim Gill tunes. We explored (tickled!) body parts when listening to Jim Gill’s “Tickle Toes” F.3.1 Exhibit self-confidence while participating in movement activities. F.3.1 Name body parts and point to the location of each. F.3.3 Move in directions on command (e.g., forward, backward, sideways).

For lunch we served whole wheat pasta and beef, green beans and mandarin oranges.

Have a great day!

WF Daily Explorations (and Farm for 3 yr olds), May 9, 2011

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FARM DAY for the 3 Year Olds (and Taylor, my helper)!

Wow! We could not have had better weather for our farm trip this morning.  We had warmth, sunshine, and a nice breeze.   While at the farm this morning, the three year olds were able to experience:

Caring for the chickens:  we found new feeding dishes for the grain since the caged chickens kept knocking their grain container over.  We also replenished their water and found some time to snuggle with the chickens.

We picked dandelions.  And picked more dandelions.  And more dandelions.  This time of the year, the ground is covered in them!  The children made huge bouquets.

We took a nature walk that had us examining:  a blue hatched bird’s egg, ant hills, beetles, lady bugs, flowers, a slug, centipedes, mushrooms, & fallen branches.

We held the week old baby goats.  Goodness they are sweet!

We took a nice pony ride through the apple trees. 

While we were gone, Laurie and Melinda took the rest of the children for a walk to Potawatomi Park.  The children practiced street crossing safety, learned about “boundaries” (specifically of the playground), and talked at length about shadows.  Other highlights:  the new Band-Aid matching game and an exciting spontaneous science lesson in our outside sandbox examining the absorption of rain water with sand.  (Sorry, no pics of WF since I had the camera at the farm!)

WWF Daily Explorations, Monday 5.9.11

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Happy Monday!

Today WWF’s began their day painting with sweetgum balls that we picked up from trees on the street. Lisa put paint on a tray and helped children dip the ball in the paint and brush it on the paper.

Today we also began introducing some picnic elements like baskets, blankets and play food. We encouraged the children to choose foods to put in the baskets and sit on the blanket to share and talk about what they brought to the picnic.

Outside play was especially fun today as the children got to play with WWF’s own new playhouse!! It is a beautiful wooden house and the children loved it! Some of our friends also spent time painting with brushes and tempera paint at the outside art easel. They also read lots of books with Lisa, especially picnic stories.

Some of our WWF’s surprised us today with a completely self-initiated “Ring Around the Rosie”, they played several times and laughed out loud at the “all fall down”. We are also so happy to report that Tami has built new flowerbeds that will soon be planted with beautiful annuals.

Have a wonderful rest of the day!

Paulina, Lisa and Marty.