Good Afternoon!

**There has been some confusion about the picnic that is scheduled for next Monday at 5:30. It is for BOTH sites meaning that everyone is invited! Please feel free to ask any questions that you may have about this event. We look forward to seeing you there!

Marina and Olivia started their mornings off by looking at their reflection in the mirror. Olivia watched the movement of her lips as she opened her mouth wide and then closed it. Marina did different body movements as she looked at herself in the mirror while saying, “Me!”

 

We borrowed two activities from our friends next door at Wee Friends. The first was a wooden container that had sets of each letter. Marina, Ozzie, and Olivia enjoyed taking the letters out and laying them on the felt board. They yelled out the names of each letter and a name or object that started with that given letter. Ozzie thoroughly enjoyed a train number puzzle. He put the entire thing together. When he was done, he went through the different numbers as such: “one train, two train, three train, etc.”

 

 

Ellie and Chloe participated in baby yoga this morning. They both chose to sit quietly and listen for directions. Miss Paulina was doing a yoga move with a few children and Ellie enjoyed that!

  

While doing the bear walk, Marina got down on all fours and moved forward using different muscles in her arms and legs. Her gross motor skills were being used while doing this activity. Clara sat on Miss Paulina’s legs as her jumped up and down. She liked the motion and being able to use her legs to push her up.

  

After baby yoga, our friends participated in music time where the shakers were a big hit! Ozzie, Clara, Chloe, and P.K. decided to move their musical shakers up and down to make noise.

  

Miss Paulina sang a new song and Chloe listened intently.

While his friends napped, Aiden became curious when he saw his reflection in the mirror. He saw his face and pointed to the mirror and giggled.

 

For breakfast, our friends enjoyed toast with butter and pears. AM snack was cucumbers. Lunch consisted of whole wheat tortillas with melted cheese, cantaloupe, and green peas. PM snack was rice cakes, bananas, and pears.

Have a great evening!

-Mindy

Parent Info:

On Thursday, May 10th, the sidewalk repair project is scheduled to start, weather permitting. If you pull up at drop off and there are cones, please park in the church parking lot. Same with pick up. Thanks so much!

Also, on Thursday, May 10, the Garden Growing Committee is meeting at 5:30, in the backyard, to finish planting. We’d love your help if you are able to make it! Bring a brown bag dinner!

When the swimmers departed, in honor of yesterday’s slug discovery, we made Goop (1C water, 2C corn starch). A rotating group of friends spent the whole morning squishing, scooping, poking, flipping, crumbling and stirring the goop. They explored how the goop started solid and became slimy once it touched their hands.

Wee Wees Jada, Olivia, Sloane and Ellie spent the morning  playing with us.

Wee Sprouts today are cucumbers and celery sticks. Breakfast was Lisa’s Malt-O-Meal and bananas. For lunch, we are serving melted cheddar cheese and chicken on whole wheat tortillas, peas and pears.

Have a great day!

Happy Monday!

We started off our day at Wee Wee Friends with interactive play. Olivia, Elizabeth and Marina joined one another in the kitchen where they worked with play-dough. All three girls put their purple play-dough into black circular bowls. They used their hands and utensils to push the play-dough down.

 

We brought out the linking stars for the children to investigate. Marina put two of them together while Jada was surprised when she linked three together. Sloane went under the jungle gym where she could concentrate while linking the stars.

  

Jada, Sloane, and Chloe sat in the jungle gym where they practiced linking the stars together.

  

Miss Marty opened up the beauty shop and got our friends hair all pretty!

  

Aiden has been pulling on the different toys hanging on his floor gym. He continually rolls from side to side.

 

For breakfast, our friends had chex and craisins. AM snack was cucumbers. Lunch consisted of whole wheat penne pasta with red kidney beans, cucumbers, and cantaloupe. PM snack was carrots and banana.

Have a great night.

-Mindy

Parent Information:

• Just a reminder that Lisa is working on a food sign up sheet for our Potawatomi Potluck/Spring Joy! scheduled for a week from today, Monday May 14 from 5:30-7pm. If you are interested in bringing a simple main, vegetable, fruit dish or dessert connect with Lisa and she will sign you up.
• Swimming as usual tomorrow, with the Weehicle pulling out at 9:30.
• Farm trip on Wednesday and Tami will be taking the older group. 9:30 departure.
• VERY IMPORTANT: This Thursday the sidewalk repair is scheduled to start, weather permitting. If there are cones set up when you drop off your child, please park in the church lot. Same goes for pick up. Thank you!

From shortly after the time they arrived to mid morning, Jane and Macy charted everyone’s favorite color. With their knowledge and understanding of tally marks, they went from friend to friend asking “what is your favorite color?” and recording their findings.

 

When Simon asked “Can I work on math?”, we pulled out the poker chips, dice and a muffin tin. Simon rolled a die and placed the corresponding number of poker chips into the muffin tin. When the tin was full, he rolled again and took that many away. Lea, Macy and Jane joined the work.

Afterwards, Simon got a piece of paper and drew a muffin tin with 12 cups. He also drew several dice and put different numbers on them. He then colored the corresponding number of muffins on his paper tin.

Our earthworm study continues to grow and today Lisa read Creepy Crawlers (Lynn Huggins-Cooper). Friends researched and learned about spiders, flies, beetles and lots of other creepy crawlers.

Ada found one such creepy crawler as soon as we headed out this morning: a HUGE SLUG!

Everyone was so excited about it, they immediately went on their own creepy crawler hunt looking under rocks, mats and deep in the dirt.

They found spiders, doodle bugs and earthworms.

Nate and Alexandra first created a block structure and the worked peacefully together to put the blocks away.

During our small group time after lunch, Lisa sang our Hello Song with friends, working on lyrics and rhythm. Laurie worked with the older friends on writing the opening sentence  of their books.

Our Wee Sprouts today are carrots and green bell peppers. Breakfast was Oatmeal Squares and bananas. For lunch, Tami made whole wheat penne pasta with red kidney beans, cucumber slices and bananas.

Parent/Child Communication Starters:

• Let’s sing Jackhammer Joy together! You can teach me the words!
• Is a slug hard or soft? What other words can you think of that would describe how it feels?
• Where do slugs live?
• Why do doodle bugs curl up in to balls?
• Let’s look around us and name all the orange things we see! What about blue?

Have a great day.

 

Happy Friday!

Mr. Aiden started off his morning with floor time where he grasped for items with his hands. He is becoming very talkative and reacts to his friends around him!

During baby yoga, Ozzie stretched out his mid-section while Jada stretched out her legs. Marina and Elizabeth touched their toes with their finger tips.

  

Marina, Ozzie, and Clara all enjoyed using our musical shakers to make music!

  

Ozzie danced to the ‘ladybug’ song while Clara used the bean bags to make sounds.

  

Our ‘pink’ friends travelled to the kitchen where they manipulated play-dough. Olivia liked using the wooden block to bang the play-dough. Sloane used the end of the wooden block to make holes in the play-dough.

 

Sloane and Chloe played peek-a-boo in the house with their friends!

 

The mother squirrel who frequently visits our playground came to say hi this morning. This got us into a discussion about squirrels and how the mommy squirrel goes and gathers food for her babies. We compared this to how Mommies and Daddies go get their children food at the grocery.

 

We lifted up rocks to see if we could see any bugs! We found a rollie-pollie.

Miss Paulina bought out spinach seeds. Our friends sprinkled the seeds around using their hands.

  

Our friends walked to the drinking fountain where they filled up their watering can.

Then, children retrieved watering cans so they could water the seeds to make them grow. Not only was this a great helping activity but our friends used their arm muscles to carry the watering can from the drinking fountain all the way to the garden!

   

For breakfast, our friends enjoyed eggs and banana. Lunch consisted of cheese pizza, watermelon, and broccoli. PM snack was graham crackers and apples.

Have a fantastic weekend!

-Mindy

So this may have been the most unique field trip that I have taken children to in 15 1/2  years of teaching.  But, I must say thank you to Mr. Milford for so warmly welcoming Wee Friends into his service station and thank you to the children for always keeping the work we do fresh and exciting. 

We started our worm adventure by meeting Mr. Milford and singing him our “Hello Song” where each child’s name is incorporated into the song. 

Mr. Milford had prepared a table with an assortment of worms for us to explore:  night crawlers (earth worms), red worms (really tiny ones), wax worms (white ones) and red wigglers.  The red wigglers were the most popular and exciting worms to observe and hold.  True to their names, they wiggled.  A lot. 

Mr. Milford then brought out…ok…I really can’t make this stuff up…”crappie minnows”.  I just had to Google this term when we got back to WF and I found out that, “crappie minnows at a bait store describe minnows that are small enough to use on crappie while bass minnows would be too large.”  Soooo, if your children come home talking about the crappie minnows they saw, they are being technical not disparaging

When the children heard that there was a big tank full of crappie minnows, they asked to see them.  We went to the back of the station and visited the minnow tank.  The children gathered around the big tank and learned a few facts about the minnows: they are used as bait for fishing and they like cold water (Mr. Milford puts frozen milk jugs in the water to keep it cool).  The kids discovered on their own that they are tricky to catch with a net!

The last thing Mr. Milford shared with us was the crickets that he sells as bait.  Stephen was the first one to hold the cricket and his reaction was priceless! The photo below doesn’t come close to capturing the mixture of horror and excitement that he had simultaneously as the cricket raced over his hand. Ha!

Mr. Milford’s Bait Shop was a fabulous place to visit to learn more in our worm study.  I can’t thank Mr. Milford enough for his time and his past donations of worms and today’s donation of crappie minnows.

During our small group time after lunch, we asked, “What was your favorite part of our field trip to Mr. Milfords?” Some of the children shared their opinions on the message board…

For breakfast we had cheerios and banana.  For lunch we had pizza on whole wheat, peas and watermelon.  No WeeSprouts since we were out of the classroom all morning.  Although, while outside after our field trip a few of the children WeeSprouted by picking and eating kale straight from the garden.  They were quite insistent that I see their green tongues

 

 

Good Afternoon!

***Since the weather is starting to get warmer and we are getting closer to our summer months, please bring in at least TWO full summer outfits (top and bottom) by Monday.  If you want your child to wear a certain sunscreen, please bring that in as well! Thanks so much!

Our friends started off their morning with music time along with a session of baby yoga. While dancing, Elizabeth swayed her arms back and forth. She loved doing this motion and laughed the entire time! Marina took a blue scarf and was participating in baby yoga. It was a relaxation period where she went behind the chair and rested her body.

 

Clara used the scarves to put over her head. She then whipped her head back so the scarf would fall off of her head. Ellie participated in a musical song where our friends follow directions. This specific direction was putting your tongue out of your mouth. Ellie thought it was very fun and she even made noises with her tongue!

 

At the end of music time, our friends gathered babies and we put them to sleep by singing to them. Elizabeth wrapped her baby up in a blanket and put her in a little bed. She moved back to forth with the basket to try and get the baby to sleep.

 

Children sang a song where they each got to take a turn to ‘hide’ and their friends would find them. Marina covered her eyes and then when her friends found her she opened her arms wide and said, “I’m here!”

 

With the temperature high today, we filled the sensory tub outside with water. Our friends splashed around in the water while talking with their friends.

P.K. laughed as he splashed in the water, getting his face all wet. Olivia made a silly face when the water went in her face!

 

Our friends even drank the water! Clara put her fingers to her mouth to suck the water off of them.

 

Our friends splashed the water so much that the ground became wet as well as their feet!

 

For breakfast, our friends enjoyed cereal with milk and bananas. AM snack was corn. Lunch consisted of farm fresh egg casserole, pears, and carrots. PM snack was whole wheat crackers and banana.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

What’s more fun then a rock?

What’s more fun than a block?

What’s more fun than 1-2-3?

Taking 14 friends to the Park!

We walked, skipped, pulled wagons, crossed streets, held hands, found rocks, rehearsed Spring Joy! and Pigs in the Mud, complained (a little…ok…a lot), sweated, climbed, hid, chased, stopped for breaks, water and shoes in rocks, used the Joy John and lots of hand sanitizer. It was some kinda’ mornin’. A few snapshots:

 

 

No Wee Sprouts today (we were out all am!). Breakfast was Kix and bananas. Lunch was Tami’s delicious farm fresh egg casserole, carrots and fruit salad.

Have a great day.

Good Afternoon! Our friends started off their morning with calming baby yoga! Chloe and Jada sure did strike their poses well! They both made sure to lay on their mats while doing the downward dog pose.

 

P.K. and Marina danced and sang in between different yoga songs. P.K. observed from the jungle gym while Marina chose to grab a yoga mat and dance around in circles.

 

Ozzie showed off his stretching ability by separating his legs far apart.

While her friends participated in baby yoga, Clara gathered pegs and tried to put them together. She was very concentrated and focused while she did this.

After baby yoga, we sang a song using each child’s name. For instance, we were singing about Jada and everyone came and gave Jada a great big hug! Not only were they being good friends but they were gentle as well!

Our friends gathered babies as we rocked the babies to sleep. Children chose to use scarves to cover the babies up. They let us know that the babies were sleeping by saying, “Shhh…sleeping.” Olivia made sure to cover up the baby and pat her back.

 

While outside, Ellie worked in the log house pouring and scooping pea gravel. She was yelling out to her friends that she needed ‘help’!

Clara and Chloe took advantage of this gorgeous day to ride the blue horses! Clara loved using her legs to push her forward. Chloe chose to stand behind the horse and push it from behind.

 

Ellie used her balancing skills as she walked on the tree stumps. Clara grabbed a shovel and dung a hole in the sand. While she was doing this, she was squatting while showed great balancing skills!

 

In the afternoon, our friends gathered in the kitchen where they participated in a painting activity. A big white sheet was put on the table and our friends collaboratively painted the paper.

 

For breakfast, our friends had cheerios and banana. Our AM morning sprout was cucumbers. Lunch consisted of pita bread, hummus, corn, broccoli, and cantaloupe. PM snack was cheese and whole wheat crackers.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Parent Info:

*If you haven’t turned in a permission slip for Friday’s field trip, please do so ASAP!

*We have finished our first 12 week cycle of FABS. We will start a new cycle in September with the start of the new school year. 

Farm Wednesday and the younger Wee Friends loaded up and headed out. Twice, we caught chickens laying eggs.

We found a mud puddle!

 

We were delighted to have Lea’s mom, Courtney, join us!

WF helped feed the chickens with WF scraps.

Friends found feathers and flowers.

A few friends pet a small chicken.

Farmer Charlotte showed us how a chicken  egg is laid.

And then we saw it happen!

We spent a long time in a pasture that had horse hurdles.

We found a child friendly piece of farm equipment and had a discussion about which farm equipment was safe to touch/play on and which wasn’t.

Back in the classroom, friends created art with apples sliced in half. They also created worm art with string and  tempera paint.

Today’s Wee Sprouts are cucumbers and radishes. Breakfast was cereal and bananas. for lunch, Lisa prepared peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat bread, applesauce and broccoli.

Have a happy day.