Today was a busy morning with our small crew of children! (We still have several families out on vacation.) Melinda is off today to be at the hospital with her pregnant daughter, Amy. We are excited for Mel to welcome a new grand-daughter into her family!!!

Yonatan and Kai both brought in their family leaves to share with friends. It was a lovely time looking at pictures and learning more about their families. Thanks for staying Atalia and Crystal to share this with us!

Sewing remains a popular choice with several of our friends. The older children continue to sew projects on material. Since several of our younger children have expressed an interest in sewing, we worked with them on sewing with blunt needles on paper. We saw a lot of concentration as they worked their needles through the paper and excitement as their thread designs took shape.

Has anyone noticed all the A’s in our classroom? At one point, Arleigh, Addi, Alma, Ada, & Alexandra were all working with the number pegs together. It was a bit of a tongue twister to help the girls! We miss our other “A”, Annie, who is out on vacation, but are concerned about adding to the already difficult time we are having getting the right name out:)

Later in the morning several friends took turns cooperatively creating their own music at the piano. They played, sang, and pretended to read the piano music. Later, Tami played some relaxing instrumental music and led a large group of children in yoga. They enjoyed the variety of stretches and used their leaf mats to help them find the correct positions. We followed this time with creative movement to some Charleston style music.

We did go outside today, but stayed cool by adding water play to the sandbox and by using the water table. Tomorrow the forecast promises a cool down…

Today for lunch we had: chicken/apple salad on whole wheat buns, fresh sweet pea pods, and bananas. For snack Kai brought in a special birthday treat of frozen yogurt and frozen blueberries.

Wee Friends welcomes our newest friend, Ada! We’re so glad you’re here!

We jumped right into our Monday sewing with embroidery hoops.

We sang all three of our “Hello!” songs and then worked with rhythm sticks singing and tapping to “We are Family” and Hap Palmer’s slow/fast song. We took our rhythm sticks around the classroom and experimented tapping on hard and soft surfaces, listening for differences and discussing it.

In the truck room this morning a friend pointed out that his Trio creation was higher than his friend’s Magna-Tile creation. It led us to a comparison game in which we chose two objects and determined which was higher or lower.

 We enjoyed being outside this morning, spending cool moments singing on the swing and hot moments making sand creations!  For lunch we served whole wheat pasta with tuna fish, cantelope and cucumber/orange/lettuce salad.

Enjoy your day.

Wee Friends, Wee Friends, Mighty mighty Wee Friends!

We play games, we sing songs!

Wee Friends, Wee Friends, Mighty mighty Wee Friends!

We grow friendships all day long!

For lunch we served pizza on whole wheat English muffins, corn and fruit salad.

Enjoy your weekend!

Today our classroom was SPINNING with activity!!!!!!!

Tumblers said a final goodbye to Ms. Patti and the Y. She awarded WF gymnasts with trophies!

We explained to our toddlers that soon they too will be tumbling with Ms. Jennifer on the gymnastics bus! They jumped up and down with excitement and with full voices expressed “we walk down the steps and get on the bus!” They also talked about the “trampolina”!

We created music, first by visiting the beach and feeling the waves wash over us……and then we spun our bodies around the circular table for “The Ants Go Marching”.

The younger children also had a marvelous time sharing a large tub of sudsy water. They swirled water with their hands, dumped & poured with measuring cups, squeezed droppers, and squirted basters & syringes.

For art today, the children excitedly worked cooperatively with the lazy susan, round paper and markers to create “spin art”. They noticed how the lines changed when the marker was held still versus moving their hand with the marker. The final product was colorful and unique!

For lunch, we continued spinning! We had tortilla spin art (ham, cream cheese, and whole wheat tortilla spirals), cantaloupe, and carrots.

Have a great day!

WHAT DO YOU SEE WHEN YOU LOOK IN THE MIRROR?

Melinda started our morning art activity with this message board question. After a long discussion and using our mirror, the kids determined that “color” (of hair, eyes, skin) and “size” (nose, eyes, hair) are the two things that really make people look different. They then set to work with the materials to create a replica of their faces.

 Other morning interests were:

• sorting the foam pieces looking for round pieces to use as eyes.
• lots of “shoe” play
• some dancing to country music
• an impromptu minor league hockey game (made with trios) in the block room
• an enjoyable cloudy and rather cool outside time

For lunch we had: roast beef & brown rice, cucumbers and pineapple/banana slices.

Have a great day!