Happy Thursday!

Our day started out with a bang! We shook our shakers up to the sky and down to the ground. Throughout our music session, friends made sure that others had shakers as well. A few of our friends shared their instruments with others.

To add to the intensity of our music time, the drums were also retrieved. We pounded on the drums softly and loudly.

Zoey added in a little piano to go along with the rest of the instruments.

Once we were done making music, we turned on the music and used the circular rings to incorporate in our music time. We used the rings to spin around our arms.

A popular toy the last couple of days has been our stackable cake. There are ten different layers of cake. The cakes are different colors and have a number on each cake. We talk about cakes one through ten.

Clara worked on her fine motor skills when she carefully built a tower using the different sized squares. She had to be very precise and gentle while building.

It happened by accident. But isn’t this how the best things in life are found?! The stairs/steps combo in our gross motor area accidently got flipped over. P.K. looked at it. He tested it out. He found out that it was sort of a teeter-totter. Friends Eve, Clara, and Eren soon joined the fun. In pairs, children took on the teeter-totter. This was difficult for our friends! Not only did they have to balance themselves but take into consideration what their partner was doing!

If someone made a wrong move, they were both tumbling down!

Our balancing skills got an extensive workout! We found that children put their arms out to the side to try and retain balance when they were struggling.

Friends grabbed a bucket to sit in to watch the show!

The mirror is an excellent place to bond with friends. It’s interesting to look in the mirror and not only see yourself but your friends as well! Daniel held onto the pole and leaned back. Children love to watch their reflection move!

For breakfast, children had whole wheat toast with cinnamon and pears. AM snack was corn. Lunch consisted of cheese pizza, mixed fruit (banana/oranges), and mixed vegetables. PM snack was Miss Tami’s homemade banana-oatmeal muffins. Yum!

Have a terrific evening!

-Mindy

Day 4 and Ben has mastered navigating the habitrail—fearlessly and with great joy! Still, friends (and teachers!) are keeping a watchful eye.

And we were off. Sequencing was an area of focus today. Last week, Tami worked with friends on sequencing the action of a story she read aloud. Whether it’s teacher led or child driven, sequencing happens all around us in many different ways.

Mel led an activity in which friends had to sequence five directives.

1) Pick up three spheres.

2) Place them in a basket on the table.

3) Climb up and down and out of the habitrail.

4) come back to the table and choose three spheres.

5) Return them to their original place.

Start over!

Lisa invited Finn, Ada and Max to share with her a special activity. She recorded their actions in the order in which they shared them.

Finn: “Look at my letter ‘o’”.

Tami set various sized plastic hearts and red rocks in the sensory bin. After working at the sensory bin, Lea moved to the art table, tore a piece of paper in two, and with a big smile said “Laurie! I broke your heart!” Of course Elton and Kiki joined the party as we sang “Don’t Go Breakin’ My Heart”. Lea was very proud of her joke and we decided to break hearts again soon!

When Elliott noticed Ben playing with the heart materials, he hustled over and put all the little rocks under the larger plastic heart containers explaining: “Look! I put the rocks under so Ben wouldn’t get them. He’s too small.” Isn’t that fabulous?!!!

We’re all enjoying communicating with Ben via Baby Sign Language.

Yarn, paper and ooey gooey glue. A sensorial delight.

Dr. Seuss continues to captivate our friends as Lisa’s rhyming study continues…

Marina: “I made an ‘M’!!!”

Here’s what happens when Tami introduces new materials…wide eyed joy.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and bananas. Lunch: Cheese pizza, applesauce and mixed veggies.

Snack: Wee Friends Banana Bread

6 eggs, 6 bananas, 2c whole grain oats, 2c whole wheat flour, 2tsp baking soda, 1/2c sugar (brown or white), 1-2 tsp. cinnamon. Bake in 9×13 dish at 350 for 30-45 min.

Have a great day.

Hello! Hope everyone is having a fantastic Wednesday!

Our morning started with a big, scary monster: P.K. the monster! He growled at us and showed us his scary face! He took off his hood and we realized it was just P.K.! Phew!

Once P.K. took off his mask, he settled in the chair with Clara. Forming relationships and bonds throughout the day can come from spending time with one another. Clara and P.K. sure do enjoy each others company. They’ve been buds since infancy!

To get settled into the day, we headed to our gross motor area where friends rolled around on the soft material. Not only is this area geared toward gross motor but the materials found can increase ones sensory knowledge. The activities in this area and soft to the touch. When pressed in, they change shape which is interesting to our friends!

Our train expert headed to the train and car area where he made his own train track! He then searched around the area for his favorite train.

Friends got a choice of painting or not. It’s important to give children choices throughout the day so they feel responsible for their play and learning. Of course, every child wanted to paint. So that’s what we did!

Today, we did partner painting. Not only does this help with children’s social skills but the opportunity to watch others paint allows for new ideas to be nurtured.

Eve and Eren used a thin paint brush. We looked at the strokes that they made on the paper. Friends noticed they were small and it took a lot of paint to get the paper colorful!

Clara, P.K., and Daniel worked with thick paint brushes. The strokes were much wider and it was easier to fill the paper.

We put a few works of art up in the classroom so that we could see the difference between the amount of paint that was put onto each artwork.

Clara stuck with her painting technique throughout her art experience. She would slowly move the paint brush toward the piece of paper and push the tip onto the paper. This way, a lot of paint hit the paper and some even splattered which Clara loved!

Daniel liked her technique so he tried it also!

A few works of art .

Plus some of us even got it on our face!

Once we cleaned up the paint and headed back out to the classroom. Clara and Eve headed to the mirror where they admired their reflections. Clara must have liked it because she gave herself a kiss through the mirror!

Zoey is enjoying the new gross motor area. The ability to crawl and roll around works for her! Lately, she’s been standing on various items such as the blocks and foot stool by the open window. While standing, she maneuvers her way down. Her balance and coordination are getting a work out!

Before lunch, friends Daniel and P.K. headed into the kitchen where they played with pegs. Multiple shapes were put on the table for our friends to pick from. P.K. chose to build up with his pegs. Daniel thought about the colors of the pegs that he wanted to use.

“I have a heart!”, says Daniel.

Lu Lu spent most of the day on the floor. Between cooing and rolling to her side to get a toy or see a friend, Lu Lu’s day was quite active!

Plus, she’s started on yummy baby food. A few of her favorites are peas, sweet potatoes, and carrots!

To end the day, we had a relaxing time making goodies in the kitchen. Between ice cream, milk, and pizza, we were all quite stuffed. Eve made sure to tell teachers, “Hot” before she handed us her dish!

For breakfast, children had eggs with cheese and toast with soy butter. AM snack was green peas. Lunch consisted of rice with beef, oranges, and broccoli. PM snack was rice cakes with cream cheese and raisins.

Have a great evening!

-Mindy

Our new friend Ben loves the habitrail and his new friends are very aware of his safety! This morning, as a teacher watched from below, Finn, Jane, Arleigh and Ada kept post at different points….just to make sure Ben stayed safe as he learns how to navigate the habitrail.

Sequencing and counting activities continued today throughout the classroom, in various ways.

Friends fall into their developmentally appropriate version of the activity naturally. Here, what started as counting and sequencing hearts became a cutting and gluing experience. We morph with the ideas as they flow, knowing that friends are gleaning individualized learning experiences as they go.

Sloaners is very comfortable amidst a pile of small objects. Whether she is building with trios, racing cars or imagining farm life, she loves the sensory experience of her body being being surrounded by materials.

 

And CRASH….the favorite moment. And the chance to begin again.

At Wee Friends, we grow friendships (insert WF Anthem) but also techno savvy kids. Here Lea expressed “We’re watching our movie!”

Emergent Spark of Interest: Dinosaurs.

Idea Ignites: Friends are interested in a non-fiction dinosaur facts book led to a hearty discussion about how the dinosaurs became extinct, the evolution of man and volcanoes!

We first used sticky foam to create the earth and watch a meteorite crashing into it. Then we offered our friends clay for their own exploration. We compared the clay to Play-Doh, observing that was harder than Play-Doh.

Marta: “Look! It’s a crib!”

Lisa has begun a rhyme study with her post-lunch small group. She’s using our extensive Dr. Seuss collection to teach friends the concept of rhyming and to let them create rhyming words.

Our older friends continue working on their alphabet boards.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Applesauce Malt-O-Meal. Lunch: whole grain rice with beef, orange slices and broccoli. Snack: Greek Yogurt and apple slices.

Have a great day.

Hello.

Here are a few pictures that were taken throughout the day. We were active and in high spirits even though the rain continued to pour outside.

For breakfast, children had Chex and pears. AM snack was green peas. Lunch consisted of turkey on pita bread, banana, and corn. PM snack was string cheese and pretzels.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

We’ve started another FAB (Framework for Academic Balance) cycle. We use these foundations as guidelines for Wee Friends early childhood learning journeys. But all day, everyday, we are following individual interests, and working FABS in once the spark has ignited.

Lisa came in today with three new puzzles!

And a box of sparkly heart stickers! We stuck them on, counted them, patterned them and asked “Who has the most heart stickers? Who has the least?” The words most and least rang out as friends talked it over. (K.1.2 Math – Identify sets and see if they are equal to, more than or less than)

FAB K.1.10 Literacy – Say rhyming words in response to an oral prompt.

Lisa explored rhyming words while reading “Do You See A Mouse?” by Bernard Waber.

Later, in her small group, friends made up nonsense words to rhyme with their names!

Pirates, dragons and a wife gathered under the habitrail for an imaginary exploration.

A recent constant companion.

If music (and ballet) be the food of love, play on…..

Wee Sprouts: Carrot sticks. Breakfast: Whole wheat English muffins with peanut butter and pear slices. Lunch: Turkey and cheese slices with whole wheat tortillas, corn and bananas. Snack: Hard boiled eggs and wheat crackers.

Happy Monday!

Teachers and children came into Wee Wee today to a BIG change! We’re in the process of redoing the gross motor area. Thanks to Miss Tami and her husband, we’re going to have a great area soon! For now, it’s open and many toys were moved. It took teachers and friends a while to find different toys and remember where they go. We sure do like the new set up and our friends did great with the changes! Stay tuned for pictures within the next couple weeks or so..we’re excited and so grateful!

While some of our toys were moved, we also got a few new items to play with. Friends investigated a new car track that we’re able to attach together. Children gathered together to look at it as a group.

The new set up (for now) allows friends to move around the multiple gross motor items as they would like.

To transition into lunch, Miss Marty read many books. This allows friends to come out of play while still actively involved. After lunch arrived, we put our books away and transitioned into the kitchen.

While our older Wee Wee’s were napping, Lu Lu and Zoey spent most of their time in the gross motor area.

Lu Lu liked the star half circular activity. She loved looking at the stars and rolling over on her side to do so.

Miss Zoey stood up on blocks to see if she could look out the window!

To end the day, we turned on music so our friends could let loose and dance! Clara realized while she was dancing that she had pockets on her jeans. She swayed back and forth as she put her hands in her pocket.

For breakfast, children had English muffins with soy butter and apples. AM snack was corn. Lunch consisted of whole wheat noodles with pork, mixed vegetables, and pears. PM snack was hard boiled eggs and crackers.

Have a terrific evening!

-Mindy

“Genius, commonly defined as “extraordinary intellectual and creative power”, is a term we probably wouldn’t use to describe ourselves or our children. We may believe we’re smart or talented, but most of us don’t think we’re all that extraordinary. Even if we are “a person who has an exceptionally high intelligence quotient, typically above 140”, we don’t typically imagine ourselves geniuses.” (from http://www.janetlansbury.com/2011/01/4-ways-to-kindle-your-childs-genius/)

I personally believe that everyone has a capacity for genius in some area.  The trick is finding your genius, understanding it, embracing it, and fueling it.   Many people spend their entire lives lamenting that they have failed to achieve greatness in certain areas of their life. And while grieving about the failures, they miss the places where they have extra special abilities.  Howard Gardner ‘s theory Multiple Intelligences is something we use in understanding our Wee Frienders.  We know that children have potential genius!  This genius can show itself in a variety of cool ways and we are here to support them.  However the tricky part is to know “how and when to stoke the flames, and when to let them be.” (Lansbury)

Lansbury recommends  4 Ways To Kindle Your Child’s Genius:

1. Make boredom a friend, not an enemy. Our children are most creative and expressive when they come up with ideas all on their own. And although creative ideas sometimes come to us while we’re busy, they usually materialize in a relaxed, but not always comfortable, “bored” state in between activities. If adult-initiated activities are too close together, or passive entertainment like TV is always on hand to fill the void, children don’t have enough “blank” time and brain space to hone their inventive powers.
2. Less is more creative — thinking inside the box. I’m certainly not advocating doing away with toys. But our fascinating human tendency to create more and engage longer with less, is something to keep in mind. The water balloon “babies” my sisters spent hours imagining stories with in the neighbor’s pool; the games like “Shoes”, one of many my sisters and I invented, which entailed struggling to be the first to find a matching pair of shoes among those hidden in my mother’s bedroom in the dark; the rolls of craft paper an artist acquaintance described entertaining herself with all day as a child, not just creating paintings and drawings, but making hats, skirts and scarves… These are all examples of genius at work.
3. Wait (the hardest part). Encouraging genius means trusting, which often means waiting instead of directing, helping or teaching — waiting for an older child to express an interest in tennis lessons before we sign him up. When we go ahead and make decisions for our children in these situations, we risk taking their attention away from the guidance of an inner voice, and train them to be followers rather than original thinkers. As Magda Gerber advised, “Be careful what you teach the child, you may interfere with what he is learning.”
4. In child we trust. As their interests and talents manifest themselves, our children need our whole-hearted support and encouragement to continue to follow their inner guide, keep doing what they love. Our children’s dreams and aspirations may seem illogical, impractical or impossible, but to encourage genius we must trust them anyway.

Today we welcomed our new friend, Ben into our classroom! 

We did not have the Gymnastics bus today as Jennifer lives in Michigan and had icy conditions to deal with.  We will make up that class at a later date.  Here’s some pics from our busy morning:

For breakfast we had raisin bran and bananas.  Wee Sprouts were sweet pea pods.  Lunch was whole wheat noodles with pork, mixed vegetables and fresh pear slices.  Snack will be cream cheese on whole wheat flatbread.

Have a fabulous day!

Tami

Hello!

**To refresh our parents on an important parking policy that we have, please make sure that you are ONLY parking in front of Wee Friends/Wee Wee Friends for NO MORE than 10 minutes. If you feel that you’re going to be more than 10 minutes, please park in the parking pad or down at the church. Our neighbors are aware of our parking policy and they appreciate our cooperation. If you have any questions about this policy, please feel free to ask! Thanks!

Happy 2nd Birthday P.K.! We had a great day celebrating Peter Kevin’s birthday! We hope you had a terrific birthday!

Today was one of those gross motor days. Friends falling, jumping, running, and crashing into things. We switched up our gross motor area. For now, we have the big blocks and the stairs and slide combo. We said bye-bye to the jungle gym as we are in a transition in the gross motor area. Our friends enjoyed the change.

A few friends stuck around at the gross motor area for some time. Daniel, P.K., and Clara worked on their jumping abilities. Not only does this work on their balance and concentration, but it’s great exercise!

We flew through the air and jumped with grace! Children worked on jumping up into the air and landing on both feet.

Arms in the air and belly’s showing!

We sure did enjoy P.K.’s birthday treat for our afternoon snack along with hard boiled eggs! Thank you Buccellato family for bringing in this delicious treat! For breakfast, friends had malto meal and apples. AM snack was corn. Lunch consisted of turkey and cheese sandwiches, corn, and apples/oranges.

We ended the afternoon with a let loose activity: dancing!

Have a terrific weekend!

-Mindy

Today we say goodbye to Nate. Next week he will join his big brother at ECDC! Nate was just about a year old when he joined Wee Friends. Almost three years later, we send him off with lots of love and gratitude for the time we’ve spent together, learning and growing up! We love you, Naters!!!

Did you know that fine motor development contributes to the development of communication skills in young children? It affects their ability to write a name or message, manipulate a computer mouse, create a sculpture or draw a picture; all of which are forms of communication (Family and Parenting 2010)

Ellie worked very hard this morning, wrapping hair twisties around the neck of her Barbie. As I watched the developing dexterity of her fingers: how they twisted and turned, tensed up and relaxed, I was reminded again of how important the offering of fine motor activities is in the early childhood classroom. So I went on a fine motor activity hunt and here’s what I found:

 

And of course, gross motor, in the form of jumping from one hot lava rock to the other.

In our Wee World, friend’s fingers and hands are moving/working all day long. For our Wee Friends, the value is FUN! From our teaching perspective, we know that our friends are exercising their muscles and their minds in ways that will continue to serve them as they grow! Cheers and Happy Weekend!