Happy Friday!
Enjoy some of the pictures from our day!
Breakfast: Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh banana/nectarine.
Lunch: Hummus on whole grain wheat bread, fresh apple and yellow bell pepper slices.
Afternoon Snack: Pretzels and mozzarella cheese stick.
Wee Sprouts: Mini cucumbers/green bell peppers.
Have a great weekend!
WWF Teachers
Link to pictures: 2024-09-13
Happy Friday!
To wrap up our week, we continued talking about shapes in PREK1 group as well as our sign in focus. Today, children signed under the shape that had zero sides! A few friends tried counting the sides on the circle but quickly realized that there were no straight sides!
K.4.1: Identify and describe geometric objects: circle, triangle, square, rectangle, diamond, trapezoid, hexagon, octagon, parallelogram, sphere, and cube.
The conversation about sides led into group where we used the shapes we talked about yesterday. As a group, we talked about each shape, identified it, and then counted the number of sides.
K.4.1: Identify and describe geometric objects: circle, triangle, square, rectangle, diamond, trapezoid, hexagon, octagon, parallelogram, sphere, and cube.
At the art table, trays with playdough were made available. Kids jumped at the chance to explore one of their favorite sensory activities. PLUS, they used letters which made for the greatest activity to culminate our week talking about letters!
Children were quick to identify the letters in their name. Hannah realized that she only has a few specific letters in her name because she has multiple of each letter!
There are those letters that are used a lot in names and this activity forced friends to ask for something that they want as well as patiently waiting for a turn—E’s and A’s are used a lot come to find out! 
Arthur was ecstatic when he finally finished spelling his name with his playdough cutouts! One of the best things is watching that facial expression when a goal is accomplished,..like “YES! I DID IT!”.
At the circle table, friends experimented with tangram shapes to help build letters. Of course, children looked for the sheet with the first letter of their name. Hannah kept saying phrases like, “I only have two more triangles to find!”—what a great activity to combine letters and shapes!
Breakfast– Brown rice cakes with cream cheese and fresh blueberries/pears.
Lunch– Turkey on whole wheat bread/tortilla, fresh pears, and fresh cucumber/pepper.
PM snack–
Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/cucumber.
Have a lovely weekend!
-Wee Friends Teachers
Link to pictures: 2024-09-13
Good Afternoon!
PREK1 kids came to the sign in board where we started referring to shapes based on the number of sides that they have. Each friend had to look at the square that was drawn and count the number of sides the square had. Then, they identified the number 4 before writing their name.
K.4.1: Identify and describe geometric objects: circle, triangle, square, rectangle, diamond, trapezoid, hexagon, octagon, parallelogram, sphere, and cube.
In PREK1 group, we read ‘When A Line Bends…A Shape Begins’. We learned that once a line starts bending and moving, a shape forms. The shapes that were in the story ranged from triangle to square to rectangle to octagon. It is definitely a fiction story because the illustrators drawings gave us plenty to chat about! Group time went a little bit longer but that’s because we had so much to share and so many questions to ask.
Each child came up to the chalkboard where they were asked to find a specific shape in the pile in my hand. They found it and taped it next to the shape name. My older group members help me find the shape name. For example, I would say, “Mmm. Square. What letter does that word start with?”. They said “S!” and would help me find the shape word that started with S.
Tomorrow, we will come back to these shapes and find out how many sides each shape has!
K.4.1: Identify and describe geometric objects: circle, triangle, square, rectangle, diamond, trapezoid, hexagon, octagon, parallelogram, sphere, and cube.
Everyone finished their recycled shapes building project this morning. Some stuck to their original plan and others made changes. We had lots of little round people to play with, a telescope, a pair of binoculars, a space ship and a rocket. This project was offered to encourage independent critical thinking, project planning and creative problem solving.
Elsewhere in the classroom friends experimented with shapes in a variety of ways.
PREK2: In group today we read the story “My Heart is a Zoo”. In the story every picture is made of heart shapes. At the end of group everyone was challenged to find a specific shape on the board and stick their name on that shape.
Breakfast– Corn Chex and fresh blueberries.
Lunch– Brown rice with shredded turkey, fresh cantaloupe/banana, and fresh carrots/cucumber.
PM snack-Whole wheat crackers with peanut butter and sunflower/pumpkin seeds on top.
Wee Sprout– Fresh green beans/cucumber/carrots.
Have a wonderful night.
-Wee Friends Teachers
Link to pictures: 2024-09-12
Good afternoon!
Our friends started their morning by playing with kitchen items in the housekeeping area. They used their imaginative play skills to pretend to cook. Eleanor wore oven mitts while she pretended to cook.
Our friends enjoyed taking turns rocking in the rocking chair. We rocked in it by ourselves or shared the chair with a friend.
We then made our way to the kitchen to paint. We were either were given a loofah or a sponge to use. Our friends stamped their loofahs and sponges onto their papers. We all had a turn with the roller sponge that made a wave pattern.
We headed outside to walk around the backyard with green buckets and baby dolls inside to pretend they were in a stroller and in the sandbox.
Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios cereal with fresh nectarine slices.
Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded turkey, mini cucumbers and apple slices.
Afternoon Snack: Sunflower seeds and whole grain Triscuits crackers.
Wee Sprout: Orange bell peppers.
Have a wonderful evening!
WWF Teachers
Link to pictures: 2024-09-12
Good Afternoon!
We began our morning dancing with the dancing scarves. They are in a colorful tissue style box. Miss Bekah said the color as she tossed them onto the floor for us to choose the color scarf we wanted. We then danced and acted out the movements to the song, Shake Your Sillies Out.
We then headed into the kitchen to engage with our color beads. We worked on our matching skills as we placed the colors onto the wooden pattern card. We also worked our fine motor skills to string the beads onto the pipe cleaner. The friends also built with them into stacks. One friend held her beads up for a teacher to identify the color for her.
We were busy outside engaged in our favorite activities. We rode the bikes down the hill, played in the little house, used our imaginative skills as we played with the sea animals and sea shells at the table and played in the rock area with the construction trucks.
Breakfast: Oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh blueberries.
Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs, fresh red bell pepper slices, bananas and whole grain wheat bread.
Afternoon Snack: Blue corn tortilla chips and fresh guacamole.
Wee Sprouts: Mini cucumbers.
Have a wonderful evening!
WWF Teachers
Link to pictures: 2024-09-11
Good Afternoon!
This morning we experimented with a variety of cylindrical recycled materials. The project was open ended so it was up to the kids to decide what to do with them. Several kids chose to paint the materials in order to build something with them, so it will be a multi-day project. Among the projects being created: a family of people, three rocket ships and a trash can. It was apparent that our kids are used to thinking creatively and independently. There was no hesitation at a project with no predetermined goal. They got straight to work!
Enjoy a few more pictures from our Wednesday!
Breakfast– Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon and banana.
Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat tortilla, fresh nectarines/banana, and fresh cucumber/green beans/carrots.
PM snack– Blue corn chips with hummus.
Wee Sprout– Fresh green beans/cucumber/carrots.
Have a lovely night!
-Wee Friends Teachers
Link to pictures:2024-9-11
Good afternoon!
This morning, our friends were engaged in a variety of activities. We read books, built with Duplos, practiced putting on a dress up hat and worked on placing velcro pictures on our felt board.
We then made our way to the kitchen to play with pegs and pegboards. Our friends worked on placing a peg in each hole on their board. Charlotte stacked her pegs and said “tower!”.
We made our way back to the front of the classroom to make music with shakers and bells. We shook our instruments to hear the different sounds they each made.
We went outside to enjoy the beautiful morning weather with our friends. We rode bikes and teeter-totters, scooped in the sandbox and played in the housekeeping area with kitchen utensils.
Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with fresh blueberries.
Lunch: Whole grain wheat tortilla with peanut butter, Colby-Jack block cheese slices, chicken avocado salad, fresh apple slices and cucumbers.
Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat bagel with cream cheese, fresh nectarines and 1/2 banana chocolate chip muffin (Ms.Tina’s birthday treat).
Wee Sprout: Green bell peppers.
Have an amazing evening!
WWF Teachers
Link to pictures: 2024-09-10
Good Afternoon!
There are a handful of conversations that we have with parents year in and year out and tried and true, one of them is napping and bedtime routine. Wee Friends offers a quiet environment conducive to good napping in both classrooms and our teachers value naps. For the preschoolers, we often get requests to discontinue napping and we do work with parents and respect their wishes when possible and developmentally appropriate. However, I wanted to offer some research as to why we value the nap.
We have so much going on throughout the day that naptime provides children a time to relax, calm their body, and recharge for the afternoon. This often means a nap for most of our kiddos. Children are working on their social and emotional skills, fine and gross motor skills, and soaking in and learning things everyday, which can be exhausting!
In the article Daytime Naps Enhance Learning in Preschool Children, the author writes, “Essentially we are the first to report evidence that naps are important for preschool children,” Spencer says. “Our study shows that naps help the kids better remember what they are learning in preschool.”
The author goes on to say, “While the children performed about the same immediately after learning in both the nap and wake conditions, the children performed significantly better when they napped both in the afternoon and the next day,” the authors summarize. “That means that when they miss a nap, the child cannot recover this benefit of sleep with their overnight sleep. It seems that there is an additional benefit of having the sleep occur in close proximity to the learning.”
Clearly, naps can be an important part of children’s day. But what if a child is struggling at night with falling asleep?
I’ve attached a few articles below that offer suggestions for the do’s and don’ts before bed as well as how to set up an achievable bedtime routine.
In the article Bedtime Routines for Children, the author shares, “Research shows that children who follow bedtime routines are more likely to go to sleep earlier, take less time falling asleep, sleep longer, and wake up less during the night.”. They go on to say, “Toddlers will also try to assert their newly found independence by acting out or resisting bedtime. You can head off their stalling tactics by letting them make some of their own decisions, such as what pajamas to wear or which book to read. You may need to exert some creativity to make the bedtime routine more fun. When it’s time for lights-out, calmly and firmly bid them goodnight, and leave the room.”
So, how do we set up a bedtime routine and what does this look like? The goal of a good bedtime routine is to have a consistent set of activities that get a child ready for bed—and you want your child to fall asleep independently. If children are used to falling asleep by themselves, they’re more likely to put themselves back to sleep during the night if they wake. There is no single right way to set up a bedtime routine because all kids are different and need different things. Some may want to hear a bedtime story, others may want to talk about their day, and some may just want lights out and go to sleep. What we can share is that a new routine does not happen over night and consistency is key! There may be some tears or pushback at bedtime but it’s important to stay consistent. These articles below offer great suggestions and we are always willing to work with you and figure out something that works for you and your family!
Here are a few do’s and don’ts from Bedtime Routines for Children that are important to try and follow:
Do’s
1. Do it every day.
2. Keep it short and sweet.
3. Keep it up during the day.
Don’ts
1. Start bedtime when they’re already sleeping (being overtired can result in hyperactivity or grumpiness which makes it harder to fall asleep).
2. Let them use screens.
3. Let them run around.
4. Let them sleep in on weekends (straying more than an jour from the usual wake up time can actually cause trouble falling sleep on weekdays).
We are always so thankful to our families for bringing up concerns or questions to us as we love to work with parents to ultimately help set these kiddos up for success in all facets of life!
Articles about naps:
Daytime Naps Enhance Learning in Preschool Children
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130923155534.htm
Napping Helps Children Retain Memory, Learn New Skills
Naps Can Aid Learning in Preschoolers
https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2013/12/naps-can-aid-learning-preschoolers
Articles about setting up a bedtime routine:
Bedtime Routines for Children
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/children-and-sleep/bedtime-routine
How to Create a Good Bedtime Routine for Your Child
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/children-and-sleep/bedtime-routine
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Enjoy a few pictures from our day!
Breakfast– Kix and fresh blueberries.
Lunch– Chicken avocado sandwiches on whole wheat bread with cucumbers/tomatoes and watermelon
PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.
Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumbers.
Have a wonderful night!
-Wee Friends Teachers
Link to pictures:2024-9-11
Good Afternoon!
Miss Tina brought our wooden occupational people basket down to the floor for us to explore. We observed how they were dressed and held up our person for her to identify their occupation for us.
We then headed to the kitchen with Miss Bekah to engage in the birdseed and rice sensory table. We practiced using a regular table spoon to scoop up the mixture with and pour from our spoon into a cup or bowl. We also enjoyed shaking the mixture in our sifter cups and watching it come out of the holes on the bottom. The friends also enjoyed searching for the rubber lizards/salamanders hidden in the mixture and then hiding them back into the mixture to find again.
We then headed outside to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. Despite it being cooler and needing a sweatshirt or jacket, we were busy digging in the sandbox, cooking in the housekeeping area and using weeds that had been picked for us to use as our food, rode bikes down the hill, sat on the bench, and many if not all of us gathered at the fence to watch the trash truck come by when we heard it coming up the street. He even honked his horn to say hello to us when he saw us watching at the fence.
Breakfast: Whole grain wheat bread toast with butter and cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh pear slices.
Lunch: Whole grain wheat penne pasta with marinara sauce and shredded Colby-Jack cheese, fresh green bell peppers and apple slices.
Afternoon Snack: Whole milk yogurt and fresh blueberries.
Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers.
Have a marvelous evening!
WWF Teachers
Link to pictures: 2024-09-09
Happy Monday!
We kicked off our week by working with shapes for PREK1 sign in. Each child came up to the sign in board and found their name written on a notecard. They flipped their notecard around to find a shape that was drawn on the back. Everyone was able to identify their shape! Afterwards, they took tape and taped their shape under the correct shape name.
K.4.1: Identify and describe geometric objects: circle, triangle, square, rectangle, diamond, trapezoid, hexagon, octagon, parallelogram, sphere, and cube.
Earlier in the morning, three of our oldest preschoolers sat on the building to play a quick game of rhyming word memory game! We worked together to find matches that rhymed such as hat and cat.
K.RF.3.1: Identify and produce rhyming words.
This week we are identifying shapes, building them and exploring how they relate to one another. We explored shape building at the round table this morning using colored popsicle sticks and clothes pins. Some got very creative making three dimensional triangles into an obstacle course!
In the art center we used sponges to create shape paintings. We identified the shapes we used and experimented with different ways they could fit together in a painting.
PREK2: In group today we tried a variety of yoga poses as well as different ways to breath slowly on our out breath, calming our bodies. We worked on a short shape identification activity and picked out favorite shape at the end of group.
Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with butter and fresh pears.
Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce, fresh cantaloupe/pears, and fresh cucumber/pepper/tomatoes.
PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.
Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.
Have a wonderful night!
-Wee Friends Teachers
Link to pictures: 2024-09-09