While our swimmers were at the Y, we decided to spend the majority of our morning in our beautiful backyard!

When the WeeWees came out, we decided to create music on a big blanket. We have many new instruments and all our friends enjoyed learning how they created sound. We sang our Good Morning Song and counted how many claps each friend’s name has. We played our instruments high/low, soft/loud, hard/gently, and slow/fast. We listened to the sound each instrument made and talked about. We improvised horses galloping and snowflakes falling. We danced around the circle and also hopped, ran and tiptoed.

We found our voices.

Later, we created clipboard art with crayons. Jane and Macy “looked to see if the plants were good.” and recorded their findings. The swimmers returned and the church bells rang…inside we went to lunch.

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers and snap peas. Breakfast: While wheat toast with cinnamon, and apple slices. Lunch: Tuna salad on whole wheat tortillas, watermelon and tomatoes/cucumber and peas, all from the WF garden! Snack: Elizabeth’s Birthday bread and bananas.

Have a great day.

 

Reminder: On Thursday, Tami will be taking the older group of friends to the farm. Swimming as usual tomorrow.

From the dark to the light…..or nighttime to daytime…or home to school!

When the WF staff met with Allison Pascarella last month (Speech Therapist and whole child expert), she asked us, as adults: “What do you need to start your day just right?”. We shared our Just Right morning routines and our ‘must haves’ like coffee, nature, good books, a good breakfast etc. She asked us what happens to us if we aren’t able to perform this morning routine that helps us start the day just right. She shared with us a handout called “Sensory Processing: What Can Go Wrong?”. We studied concepts and examples of how kids discriminate ‘sensory input’. We talked about what they could see, hear, smell, touch and taste as they begin their days. We discussed how each child is different and has completely different sensory input. We wondered and discussed (many of us are parents, too!) how it’s possible to meet various sensorial needs at one time! We learned that a child’s transition to school begins the moment they open their eyes and start their day. 

 

We are very interested in how your Wee Friend’s morning (pre-WF) went and how we can help the transition from home to school continue on the “Just Right” path. We also have terrific workshops materials and books in our Parent Lending Library should you be interested! We hope our dialogue can continue a,s together, we work through that sometimes tricky morning transition.

The light of our day continued when we moved outside to harvest our carrots and green beans. Beautiful earth! Friends picked, plucked, scrubbed and rinsed all of the carrots from the garden.

When we came inside, Mel led friends to a still life art exploration, using the WF garden vegetables.

As always, friends worked together, but at a pace appropriate to their age and skill.

Lisa worked on counting and patterning math concepts with a new game.

We worked with a new set of multicultural dolls, first studying the differences, and then matching like clothes and skin color.

Under the habitrail, friends worked together to build an airplane. The work always begins with a hearty round of “What Gonna Work, Teamwork!” and today, the song lasted almost as long as it took this group of friends to build their structure.

After we figured out how to get the little elastic loop around our middle finger, we played our new castanets.

Our post-lunch large group time is going smoothly. It’s a time of day we rarely photograph, but will aspire to more often, as it is a rich and focused time of day for Wee Friends, before they settle into their nap/quiet time.

With the start of our new year, we begin our FABS again! Remember the Framework for Academic Balance? They are the neatly compiled literacy and math standards we use to assess and guide our preschoolers and our kindergartener. This week’s FABS are: Literacy: K.1.10 Say rhyming words in response to an oral prompt. Math: K.1.2: Compare sets of up to 10 objects and identify sets as equal, more than or less than. K.1.3: Know that larger numbers describe sets with larger numbers and smaller numbers, smaller sets.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Chex and watermelon. Lunch: Chicken and noodles, bananas and corn on the cob (thanks, Matt D.!). Snack: Goldfish and apple slices.

Have a lovely day.

Happy Monday!

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend.

To start off our day, we went on a walk! The weather was beautiful and we saw many things with our eyes including dogs and flowers.

Here are pictures that were taken throughout the day after our lovely walk.

For breakfast, children had cinnamon toast and raisins. Lunch consisted of egg yolk noodles with chicken, banana, and corn. PM snack was string cheese and cucumbers.

Have a great evening!

-Mindy

 

Happy Friday!

Here are some pictures that were taken throughout the day.

For breakfast, children had corn bran and raisins. AM snack was Colby Jack cheese slices. Lunch consisted of pita bread sandwiches with hummus, watermelon, and carrots. PM snack was string cheese and pretzels.

Have a great weekend!

-Mindy

What can learning look like when you are two, three, four or five years old?

Hearing how many syllables (claps) are in your name and then seeing what the number looks like.

Picking up a pair of scissors and experimenting with how to get your fingers inside the holes, and then how to cut with them.

Creating structures. Working along side friends and sharing materials. Talking with one another and negotiating what the group structure is becoming. At times surrendering, and other times fighting to have your way. Asking teachers to help in the sticky moments.

Taking care of something. Using tenderness and kindness. Pretending to be mommy or daddy, kitty or baby and sometimes all four at the same time!

Using sticky glue to paste, things, but also, to roll around your fingers and press down and glide on paper.

Working at your own pace with materials that make sense to you.

After learning to write you own name, practicing writing your friend’s names.

Figuring out how to pull a marker out and put it back in again.

Perfecting the J, C and Y.

S..t..r..e..t..c..h..i..n..g.. your muscles.

Learning about and tasting healthy food. Studying how healthy foods are prepared. Asking questions about it.

Discovering all the different ways one or two classroom materials can be used. Having conversations about safety.

Having a big kid job. Learning what the different ‘tinsels’ are and when to them.

Putting yourself to sleep.

What can learning look like when you are two or three or four or five?            It’s happening every moment.

Wee Sprouts: Sliced tomatoes. Breakfast: Corn Bran and raisins. Lunch: Whole wheat tortillas with hummus, watermelon and carrots. Snack: Goldfish, bananas and pears.

Enjoy your weekend.

Hope everyone is having a great afternoon!

P.K. started his morning off with building a train! He said, “Choo-choo” as he pushed it along. He put different colored shapes up on the top of the train. To do this, he used his fine motor skills and creativity as he assembled his train.

Sand is a wonderful sensorial play material. Friends love to run their hand along it and swish it in their hands.

Emma sat in the sand box and was ecstatic about the sand surrounding her. She sat in the middle of the sandbox and took her arms in front of her, pulling the sand upon her legs. She pounded the sand into the ground. As the sand was in her sands, she rubbed both hands together to feel the grittiness of the sand.

Friends used their arm and leg muscles to transport the green chairs from one side of the yard to the other.

Laughter is the best medicine. Smiles and laughter lit up the Wee Wee Friends environment today.

Marina held hands with her Wee Friend Elliot as they slid down the slide together. Outside is a great time for Wee Wee’s and Wee’s to build relationships even though they don’t see each other a lot throughout the day.

Emma was able to spend some quality time with her big sister, Sophie, while outside this morning! Emma climbed right in the truck as her sister piled it with sand!

Zoey’s personality is coming out more and more each day! She is beginning to open and close her mouth rapidly. Whether this is attributed to exploring her tongue and/or soon to be getting teeth, or whether it’s just fun, it’s very cute and her friends mimic her.

Our Wee Wee relationships build everyday. Whether children are the same age or two years apart, it’s amazing the social and personal capabilities these children exhibit.

“Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.”

For breakfast, children had cinnamon toast and apples. Everyone loved their breakfast and had multiple helpings! AM snack was corn. Lunch consisted of egg casserole with cheese, mixed vegetables, and cinnamon applesauce (such a hit!). PM snack was rice cakes with soy butter and string cheese.

Have a terrific evening!

-Mindy

Today we had the most delicious applesauce for lunch! Made yesterday afternoon by Wee Friends!

 

This morning, in the classroom, WF listened to “Never Talk to Strangers”: one of the many new life skill books Tami added to our library. They had a discussion about what to do if someone they don’t know comes up to them and starts talking to them.

Many friends worked their fine motor muscles and practiced coordination by threading pipe cleaners through colanders. Others worked the new jewel box shape matching game.

The new older group of Wee Friends had a terrific first trip to the farm! We started the journey reminding friends of four farm safety rules:

• Keep your feet on the ground.
• Stay with a teacher at all times.
• Pet anything but the dog.
• Check with a teacher before you pick something up.

Here are some photos Tami shot of the morning:

 

Breakfast: Oatmeal Squares. Lunch: Farm fresh egg casserole, mixed veggies and homemade applesauce. Snack: Banana chips and cheese slices.

Have a great day.

Happy Wednesday!

Our art activity for the day involved using different color paper which consisted of purple, green, and blue. Children picked out the color that they would like to use. We used metallic water colors which were pearl, silver, and gold.

When painting, children like to have the opportunity to use different mediums such as tempera paint verse water color. Our friends love to be in control of their work such as picking out the color of their paper or saying, “All done” and getting a clean paper.

Friends take their time and use careful strokes that are put onto the paper. P.K. took his brush and pushed it down making the shape of the bristles at the end of the brush.

Daniel smiled as he said, “Done” after painting his second picture.

After the rain passed, we headed outside before lunch time. Our Wee Friends had the trampoline out so we joined in. Marina, P.K., and Daniel all waited patiently for their turn.

Some friends look down at their feet at they’re jumping to make sure they don’t fall. While jumping, we told friends that it’s important to hold onto the handle bar to stay balanced on the trampoline.

Emma enjoyed working on her gross motor skills during nap time. She climbed up on the jungle gym and slid down the slide. She practiced walking from a book self to Miss Mindy. She is doing great at staying up on her feet and walking toward a friend or teacher.

This afternoon, Zoey grabbed different toys to play with. Her friends brought her multiple toys to choose from. She’s becoming more stable when she reaches for toys. Instead of falling over or losing her balance, she sits right back up.

Friends enjoyed each others company on the jungle gym.

After we were done with afternoon snack, we listened to toddler music. The song ‘If You’re Happy and You Know’ came on. Marina played peek-a-boo and tickled her ears as the music instructed. Our friends like music where it directs you to follow certain steps.

For breakfast, children had eggs and pineapple. AM snack was green peas. Lunch consisted of whole wheat macaroni and cheese with cream cheese and peas, mixed fruit (banana, oranges, pineapple), and mixed vegetables (corn, carrots, green peas). PM snack was goldfish and apples.

Have a terrific evening.

-Mindy

 Just a reminder that Tami will be leaving at 9:30 for the farm, tomorrow morning. Here are the kids that will be making the trip: Ada, Jane, Macy, Arleigh, Finn, Nate and Max.

This morning, we re-introduced the morning sign-in sheets. We invited any friend, who is interested, to practice tracing their name according to their own developmental ability.

This morning, as usual, we headed outside for our morning play. Melinda noticed dark gray clouds coming swiftly our way. We gathered together and studied the sky, felt the wind and smelled the air. And waited.

The rain passed us right by so we kept playing.

 

Wee Sprouts: Pea pods. Breakfast: Cheerios and bananas. Lunch: Whole wheat macaroni and cheese with tuna and peas, mixed veggies and mandarin oranges. Snack: Dried apples and cheese sticks.

Happy Tuesday! Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend.

Our Wee Wee Friends received some new toys! We loved playing and investing these new toys that showed up in the classroom! They tested out the new mini pianos by using their hands and fingers.

Children jumped and climbed on the jungle gym this morning. This was a great way to use our gross motor skills early in the morning. It sure helped us wake up!

Our friends are showing the signs of being caring and helpful. When a friend doesn’t have a toy, they offer their toy to that friend. They also share their toys when one of their friends asks for a turn.

We dump, pour, gather, and scoop the sand.

P.K. found a long strand of grass very interesting. He waved it around and used his fingers to feel how the grass felt. He used his sense of touch to feel a new piece of grass that he had never felt.

Clara and Marina used their gross motor skills by running around throughout the backyard. They chased one another and then friends soon joined in.

`

Daniel served up food for his friends. Marina waited at the window while Daniel cooked her up some eggs.

Climbing is an important aspect of our play time outside. Clara and Marina used their leg and arm muscles as they climbed the wooden house. It’s also a great self regulation tool. Clara knew she could only go so high and then she started coming back down.

Clara tilted her head back and relaxed as she looked up at the sky as the sun was starting to peak out of the clouds.

Zoey Marie is really getting ready to take the first steps in crawling. She is up on all fours and starting to put her hands in front of her. She had a ball this morning playing with our new mini piano. She used her fingers to make music!

For breakfast, children had Chex and apples. AM snack was corn. Lunch consisted of whole wheat English muffin with ham and melted cheese, banana, and cucumbers. PM snack was string cheese and whole wheat crackers.

Have a terrific evening!

-Mindy