It’s inspiring to watch our Wee Friends, naturally, cultivate innovative spirits: introducing a new idea with their favorite, everyday materials.

First, a small group of friends caught the sunshine on this bright winter’s day by creating stained glass with Magna Tiles.

Then we noticed Zoi created new resting spots for all the babies.

What began for Finn as a rhyming exercise, ended up as multi-car train. We incorporated addition, kid spelling and a discussion about how two different letters make the same sound. Knowing that vowels are the last thing a new writer hears, we encourage friends to “write what you hear”.

 

Leo led a group of friends in the creation of the Blue Bus…with Magna Tiles. These four friends worked together collaboratively and patiently.

We set out tracing letters and encouraged friends to find their letters and create art. As the work progressed, friends found letters for last names, created books and sparkly art for moms.

And Zoi rode with the dinosaur.

Max brought in a part of his Magic Tree House collection. Each book is numbered 1-52. He and Ellie sat and wrote the numbers of the missing books, starting with number one and going to 33.

Innovation. New ways to utilize familiar materials. Another way our Wee Friends naturally sustain the study of their passions!

Have a great day.

Laurie

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Cereal and bananas. Lunch: Hummus on whole wheat tortillas, peas and orange slices. Snack: Pretzels and cheese sticks.

Happy Monday!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Maya and Lucy bonded over standing against the table! Our friends were ready to move! We crawled and scooted all over today.

The gross motor activity was high today! Lucy ventured up onto the habitrail while some of her friends teetered and tottered back and forth.

We had a great music time! Between the drums, xylophone, and pianos, we were sounded fabulous! The Wee Wee band was on cue today!

While our older friends were taking their naps, Lucy and Tate wandered over to the habitrail together .

For breakfast, children had eggs with cheese and pears. Lunch consisted of pasta salad with peas and cheese along with pears and bread. PM snack was pretzels and cheddar cheese.

Have a great night!

In the early Wee morning, Sloane offered to play the piano so that her friends could dance to/act out Sleeping Beauty.

As  other friends arrived, we invited them to play a rhyming game (Literacy FAB K.1.10). They picked a card and next to it, wrote a rhyming word.

We conducted a science experiment using rocks and corks. We asked “Will it sink or float? Why?”

Friends experimented with other materials as well.

A small group of friends sat on the music rug and counted rhythms using a drum and rhythm sticks. On the drum we made the sounds of different animals walking and explored heavy/light, fast/slow, quiet/loud. We sang a WF version of “Wheels on the Bus”: “When Marta’s on the bus we sing M- M- M, M- M- M, M- M- M” and every friend guessed and sang his/her letter.

We pulled the Feely Box out and, using fingertips as eyes, guessed what it was we were feeling.

Then Melinda lined up several objects and had friends study them. They looked away, she pulled one out and friends guessed which object was missing.

Hide-outs.

A great start to our week! Hope your Monday is going well.

Laurie

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Cereal and bananas. Lunch: Pasta salad with chicken and cheddar cheese, peas and pear slices. Snack: Cottage cheese and orange slices.

Happy Friday!

It was a day full of snuggles, stories, and fabulous playtime. As the week came to an end, we gathered this morning as a group and read teacher stories while having some amazing snuggle time. With it being our first full week back since vacation, our Friday was pretty low key. Sometimes the best days are when you can give an extra hug or have that special conversation with a friend or teacher. Relationship building at it’s best.

For breakfast, children had cheerios and pears. Lunch consisted of whole grain rice with cooked carrots and beef (We LOVED it!), pears, and mixed vegetables. PM snack was kix and oranges.

Have a terrific weekend! See you Monday!

Good Afternoon!

Smiley faces filled our day. Hope you had a great day as well!

For breakfast, children had cheerios and pears. Lunch consisted of soy butter sandwiches, oranges, and mixed vegetables. PM snack was string cheese and pretzels.

Have a fantastic night!

From mermaids to conversations about the layers and life of the deep blue ocean, friends have become very interested in the sea. We started today building underwater caves with foam blocks and plastic sea creatures.

We offered blue tempura paint on white paper to begin an ocean collage.

We explored what a tally mark is. Friends went on a ‘colors of the ocean (blue and green) classroom  treasure hunt’ and practiced tallying their findings.

We set out warm, soothing sudsy water and friends scrubbed,  poured and played with shells and creatures.

In other parts of the Wee Sea, friends made zippers.

And made their hands disappear!

Have a peaceful day!

Laurie

Wee Sprouts: Broccoli. Breakfast: Egg casserole and pears. Lunch: Peanut butter on whole wheat bread, orange slices and mixed veggies. Snack: Bananas and crackers.

Just last night I got another complaint about our clients parking out of our designated parking spaces. The complaint consisted of the driveway being blocked, cars parked up on the curbs, as well as just having someone parked in the place they like to park their personal car.

I am pretty sure everyone KNOWS our parking policy. I feel it is more the rush of the moment at the end of the day, and occasionally the morning rush at 8:30.

Here’s my challenge…

• If you are able bodied.
• Especially if you have just one child or two WF children.

PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING THE CHURCH PARKING (north side) LOT YOUR PARKING SPACE FOR PEAK DROPOFFS AT 8:30 AND PICKUPS AFTER 5:00…EVEN WHEN A ON STREET SPOT IS AVAILABLE.

Our parking policy is clear, but I believe it’s the families that are arriving feeling hurried and not having an easy spot available that leads to poor parking choices (on curbs, too far out in the road, blocking alleys, & in front of neighbor’s houses).

BENEFITS…

1. If you are running it close to 5:30 and park in the church lot to avoid poor parking, I am instructing the teachers to allow a 3 minute grace time to late pickup fees when you tell them you parked at the church and walked up (you’ll have to tell them).

2. On our spring t-shirt order, there will be a spot to check on the form that you have made it your habit to park at the church and it will earn you one FREE WF T-SHIRT as a thank you incorporating this new habit.

3. Every day you will end your day with a short walk to your car with your child which gives you an opportunity to give your child your full attention before you start driving and your attention is divided. Your children will love it!

4. A short walk is good for everyone!

5. If we have just 3-4 families opt out of on street parking, I believe it will make it a lot less tense for everyone as pregnant moms, those with small babies/carseats, and those that are late for their next evening event can take advantage of primo parking.

Will you accept the challenge???

Thanks,

Tami

Good Afternoon!

Movement is becoming a big thing for our little friends. Whether its crawling or scooting, friends are making their way around the house. The world becomes a much bigger place now that our friends are getting around so easily!

Friends went into the kitchen to paint. We used different colors and talked about those colors throughout their experience. The sensorial aspect of the activity kicked in when a friend got paint on their finger. By swishing it around in between two fingers, the concept became acceptable .

We all move at different paces. Whether we take our time painting our picture or if we dive right in, the end result is wonderful. Child initiated experiences offer learning to occur.

It’s about the process, not the product.

For breakfast, children had chex and banana. Lunch consisted of egg casserole with hash browns, buttered whole wheat toast, pears, and peas. PM snack was oranges and graham crackers.

Have a great day!

It’s been an ongoing interest for many of our friends. This morning, it began on the music rug and came to  fruition at the art table. Mermaid-ia.

Here’s how the Mermaid interest unfolded today:

• Sloane asked, first, for the Nutcracker, then the mermaid song.
• We read Disney’s The Little Mermaid out loud.
• Lisa used towels to create mermaid fins.
• The small group spread out a green rug and added Magna Tiles as a rectangular border.
• Laurie collected Mermaid vocabulary from the mermaids.
• We created warm sudsy sensory bins and added shells and plastic fish.

This child-initiated interest was layered in cross curricular, age appropriate learning experiences. From math to literacy to sensory bins, all of our Wee Friends jumped into the sea at their right moment!

Look at this stuff! Isn’t it neat? Wouldn’t you say this exploration’s complete?!!!

Have a great day!

Laurie

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Cereal and bananas. Lunch: Egg casserole, buttered wheat toast, peas and pear slices. Snack: Goldfish and cheese sticks.

Good Afternoon!

Hope everyone is having a great day so far!

Lucy took her finger and followed the fish wherever they went. She loved talking to them!

Friends gathered around to listen to stories. We love interjecting in the middle of the story to voice our opinion or thought. Conversations throughout the day are one of the many highlights!

This afternoon, children ventured up in the habitrail. Lu-Lu took a changing pad and changed her babies diaper!

For breakfast, children had toast with butter and apples. Lunch consisted of cheese tortillas, broccoli, and pears. PM snack was applesauce and crackers.

Have a lovely evening!