Author Archives: Wee Friends Teachers

WWF Daily Explorations, 7.27.11

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The three little kittens have lost their mittens…Oh my! We have acted this nursery rhyme out several times this morning with our stuffed kittens. We also read the book again about the robin and its nest.

We played ball this morning. Some of us are great at rolling it, while others are great at throwing it, and catching it as well. Caelan is ready for the baseball mound, he even has his leg in the right position!

Outside, we found two carrots and a cucumber in our garden! Mmmmm…..we cleaned them and cut them up! For lunch today we had brown rice and shredded beef, corn, and bananas. After lunch some of us had shaving cream fun, while others practiced using chopsticks. Please note that the smaller WWF’s do wear bibs at lunch and snack time. A few of them emjoy putting their hands to their mouths, and doing some spitting, all typical for their age! It is best to send them in clothes that you do not mind if they get soiled. This afternoon we will do some music and dancing!
Regards, Lisa, Marty, Amy and Paulina

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

WF Daily Explorations Tuesday July 26

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Today Melinda led a science experiment about absorption. She gathered several objects with varying degrees of density and porosity. Using blue paint, friends used a dropper to determine which objects absorbed the paint and which didn’t.

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010To the tune of “Kookaburra”, we sang

“Stephen sits under the Wee Friend’s Tree,

Merry, Merry Wee-ee Friend is he!

Dance, Stephen! Dance, Stephen!

Gay your life must be!”

Many friends enjoyed sitting, hopping, clapping and twirling under the WF Family Tree!

We continued creating music singing a rhythm game that incorporated 3/4 and 4/4 time but using friend’s family names instead of numbers: “Kai, Dylan, Mom and Dad” or “Mom, Dad, Addi”.

We ended creative music time with “The Ants Go Marching” hiding under the table “to get out of the rain, boom, boom, boom!!” 017 028

066 For lunch we served a cucumber from our garden, strawberries/granny smith apples and whole wheat pasta with chicken and marinara.

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Have a great day!

 

 

 

WWF Daily Explorations, 7.26.11

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This has been a teriffic Tuesay! Early this morning we read about bird nests, cats and dogs. We felt our nest and examined the egg in it. Some of us played on the floor with our new road puzzle.
Miss Paulina read to us, “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly.” The children helped out by acting out some of the animals. It was a lot of fun! Olivia and Sloane played in our play house. Umi, Finn, and Marta enjoyed the bikes.

For lunch today we had chicken and pasta, corn, and applesauce.

Later today we will make some nests out of yarn, and use our child-friendly chopsticks to eat our pretend sushi! As pick up times are often hectic, please check your child’s daily sheet for feeding times, etc. These sheets are in your child’s cubby upon your arrival.
Make it a great day!

Regards, Lisa, Paulina, Marty, and Amy.

 

WF Daily Explorations Monday July 25

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THE CARROTS ARE UP!!!!!!!!!!

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All of Wee Friends gathered in the garden to pull carrots this morning!

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The aroma they produced was unbelievable! After pulling, we rinsed them and plucked the greens off.

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They went straight to our lunch table along with watermelon/cantelope and toasted whole wheat English muffins with cheese.

We worked with letter stampers and Play-Do creating our names.

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Alma shared her Family Tree Leaf this morning! We learned about grandparents in Israel and saw the letters of her name in Hebrew! We learned that she loves Bach, bananas and riding in airplanes! Melinda also shared her Leaf. We learned that she was on the Homecoming Court and rode in a race car!

 

048We filled a picnic basket with items that moms, dads, sisters, brothers, grandmas and grandpas might use and guessed “Who Does This Belong To?”

 

 

Have a great start to your week!

WWF Daily Explorations, Monday 7.25.11

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Finally a morning to go outside and explore!

Finn and Sloane helped Miss Lisa water the flowers. Some of our friends harvest from our garden some green beans, and orange, yellow and purple carrots. They were fascinated by the yummy carrots that showed up from underground as they pulled the plants off from the soil. They learned to break the leafs off and then washed them to eat as a morning snack.

The children played diligently in the sandbox as we talked about filling and dumping sand, and heavy and light. Caelan talked to us about his airplane experience, the pilots, and apple juice. Welcome back, Caelan!

In searching for a way to make our lunch a more socially important event rather than “just about eating”. We have developed a new ritual. WWF now sing a song at the beginning of every meal while they hold their hands.

Our song goes like this:

We are eating together, together, together

We are eating, together our lunch. (and we go one making up new words, depending on what is going on that day)

Our lunch menu today included turkey on whole wheat with cheese, and fresh avocado accompanied by garden vegetables and oranges. This afternoon we will do some music.

Make it a great Monday. Regards, Lisa, Marty, Paulina and Amy

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

WWF Daily Explorations, 7.22.11

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It has been a very quiet day at WWF! With so many vacationers, and a little one home sick, it has given us a lot of time to work with the children individually! This morning we spent a great deal of time reading books, playing with our new road puzzle, which Finn turned into train tracks, playing firemen, and some songs.

For lunch we had hummus on whole wheat bagels, corn, and blueberries. Thanks to Miss Paulina for making some homemade hummus. Mmmmm…it was a real treat!


Sloane is our official “blueberry champion,” as she consistently signs for more! We have also been learning to say, “leche” for milk, and continue to work on signing please, and thank you.

We hope everyone has a great weekend, and though we hate to complain about summer, we are hoping it will be a tad bit cooler this next week to enjoy the great outdoors.

Regads,
Lisa, Marty, Paulina, and Amy

WF Daily Explorations Friday July 22

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Our life sized shoe has been the highlight today! Friends have filled it with pillows, dishes, books and blankets.

 

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For the last several afternoons, friends have been constructing a cardboard house with various materials. This experience culminated with a discussion yesterday about different types of houses (including our own) . We explored National Geographic photographs of different houses around the world.

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To exercise fine motor muscles and hand/eye coordination we’ve been threading with yarn and cardboard.

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What began as a threading exploration grew into a collage creation and then feather duster art connecting feathers to straws!

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Simon shared his family collage with us! We learned about his family, special friends and also where they lived! He also shared pictures of himself as a baby!

We celebrated Simon and Oliver by singing and dancing to “We Are Family” (the Sister Sledge arrangement!)

 

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We ended our creative music time with a ZigZag Meditation where friends created a zigzag formation with their bodies by laying heads on tummies!

 

 

For lunch we served refried rice with chicken and veggies, snap peas and applesauce. This afternoon we are indulging in a rare (but exciting!) movie fest with a popcorn snack!

Have a terrific weekend!

WWF Daily Explorations, Thursday 7.21.11

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What a great day!

Yesterday afternoon, Miss Paulina made some sushi for us out of felt. She also invited the children roll their own, which was a lot of fun. We had another sushi party this morning with Finn’s dad joining us! We talked about all of the different types of sushi, the ingredients and we are planning on learning how to use chopsticks.

 

 

After that everyone joined in for our firetruck song and dance. We are using plastic rings that invite children to move according to the song’s words and to create their own as well.

Miss Laurie brought us a nest today since she had read in our blog about Finn’s “flower nest” observation a few days ago. The nest even had a little egg in it! We touched it, feeling for different textures, and about how it was made. Miss Lisa read a book about Robins to expand on this theme. Miss Paulina also played and taught us a song about birds in Spanish with her guitar. We then moved on to listening to some soft music as we read books.

Right before lunch we played with our trains. We had a lot of parallel and cooperative playing going on, it was great! For lunch today we ate tuna salad on whole wheat bread with lettuce, corn, and cantaloupe. It was delicious!

Miss Marty is home sick today, we wish her a speedy recovery.

Due once again to the heat index, we will remain indoors this afternoon.

Regards, Lisa, Paulina, Marty and Amy

WF Daily Explorations, Thursday 7-21-11

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007What started out as an afternoon stamp letter project, just kept growing…

and…

GROWING…

until.. it turned into a big tree for our family tree project!

Remember to bring in your child’s leaf to add to our tree!

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This morning, as I (Tami) walked through the Wee Wee classroom with the paint rollers that I had dug up from their basement, Emergent Curriculum (and a silly grin) were the only two words I needed to say to explain everything.

From Wikipedia, Emergent curriculum is a way of planning curriculum based on the student’s interest and passions as well as the teacher’s. To plan an emergent curriculum requires observation, documentation, creative brainstorming, flexibility and patience. Rather than starting with a lesson plan which requires a “hook” to get the children interested, emergent curriculum starts with the children’s interests.

This morning, emerging from our Family Study, the teachers facilitated activities that allowed the children to follow their interests in the Old Lady and the Shoe fable by

  • singing
  • acting it out in costume
  • converting their own shoes in to houses in the art room
  • by creating a life sized shoe for dramatic play

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For lunch today we had whole wheat tortillas with peanut butter, cantaloupe with blueberries and fresh zucchini from our garden. The kids at the round table all enjoyed the Lazy Susan that Miss Laurie brought in to help with passing of the bowls!

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WF Daily Explorations, Wednesday 7-20-11

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Today was another steamy morning! Instead of braving the heat today, we found many different ways to stay busy inside.

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For an art exploration today, the kids used colorful circle screens to make eye catching glue collages. Some kids talked about their circle “families” and others created their pictures to be beautiful summer flowers. The younger children had a great time using the glue with the paint brushes and experimenting with the sticky properties of glue and how their hands stuck together.

Melinda led the group in a music/movement activity along to a CD (Lead Belly) that the Oliver and Simon brought to share. The music had very southern country/ folk style and the kids had to figure out how to move to this different style of music! Later, we had another music time that focused on using instruments. This time was started as an energetic spirited music time and ended in music meditation on individual rugs.

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Storytime was found multiple times today in different rooms with different groups of children. One particularly fun moment for Taylor was during her BOB book reading time, she managed to gather a whole group of younger kids as an audience!

For lunch today we had chicken and rice with broccoli (prepared for us by Marty’s daughter Breania!), fresh mangos and banana, fresh sweet pea pods.

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