Happy Monday!

During our welcome activity today we practiced making patterns.  We got to try out three different trays with three different types of patterns.  We started with a simple AB pattern and then tried more difficult ones based on our ability.  Several friends enjoyed placing the pieces on the pattern card to start and then extending the pattern either around the perimeter, or snaking pack and forth across the tray.

PREK2:  Today we read the story “The Invisible Boy” and talked about the way the boy might feel in various parts of the story.  At the end we reviewed the pattern recognition we started to learn at our morning activity.  Each one of us came up to choose which one we thought was a pattern.  We talked about the back and forth rhythm that patterns have. 

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with fresh pears

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with black beans and fresh watermelon, carrots and cucumber

PM Snack: whole milk yogurt with granola

Wee Sprouts: Fresh tomatoes and carrots

Link to photos:2023-10-16

enjoy the rest of your day!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Happy Friday!  Enjoy some of the pictures from our day.

Breakfast:  Whole grain brown rice cakes with cream cheese and fresh apple slices.

Lunch:  Ham lunch meat on whole grain wheat bread, fresh green bell pepper slices and bananas.

Afternoon Snack:  Mozzarella cheese stick and pretzels.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers.

Have a great weekend!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures:  2023-10-13

Happy Friday the 13th!  Hope everyone kissed their lucky rabbit’s foot  this morning:)

We experimented with the wet watercolor technique on water color paper this today.  After we observed the blooming effect made by the water color dots on the wet paper, we added salt for another interesting effect.  We used brown water color as we are making a background for printing white fall leaves on top of our painting.

 

Effects after adding salt…

Breakfast: Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh pears

Lunch: Hummus on whole wheat bread with our home made applesauce and fresh green beans

PM Snack: Fresh strawberries with Colby jack cheese

Wee Sprouts: Fresh tomatoes

Link to Photos:2023-10-13

Enjoy the weekend!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Good afternoon!

Today we celebrate Eleanor’s first birthday! It’s been such a joy to see her grow this past year.

This morning our friends used wooden blocks and ramps in a variety of ways. Dax pushed his ramp at an angle, which he likes to say is a “hammer.” Other friends looked through the blocks or used the ramps to push plastic people down. Hannah stepped into the block’s side opening and lifted it up to her waist and said “I pulled my pants up.”

Our babies worked on crawling and trying to pull themselves up to standing position.

Our loose parts activity for this morning helped our friends work on stacking. We were given wooden rings, wooden people, and wooden circles for us to assemble the people on. Friends placed the rings on their people and watched as the figure disappeared the higher they stacked the rings. 

Breakfast: Whole grain Chex cereal with fresh bananas.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded beef, green beans, and apple slices.

Afternoon Snack: Peanut butter on whole grain Wheat Thins crackers.

Wee Sprout: Red bell pepper.

Have a wonderful evening!

Tina and Rebekah

Link to pictures: 2023-10-12

Good Afternoon!

In PREK1 group, we read, ‘A Tale of Two Beasts’ from our MACK curriculum. The story revolves around two characters and they each get to narrate their version of the story, which end up being vastly different. Throughout the story, we talked about the narrator and how they were feeling at that time while predicting what may come next.

K.RL.2.4: Make predictions about what will happen in a story.

PREK2:  At group we read the non fiction book “Apples” which goes through the process of how apples are grown, picked and shipped to grocery stores.  We talked about where we get apples.  Some friends get them from grocery stores.  Others have gone directly to an apple farm to pick the apples.  After the story we were asked what happens first.  Do we pick the apples first or eat the apples first?  This helps us to begin to list events in order.

Today we made apple sauce with freshly picked organic apples!  Our older friends helped cut apple slices into smaller pieces using a butter knife.  It was a surprise to see how many they cut up.  They diced the whole pot!  Some younger friends who were interested in trying were able to help slice a few pieces as well.   In the afternoon we used the “sauce master” to sauce the apples.  Everyone was very interested in how the machine worked and how it was put together, so everyone watched it assembled piece by piece.  Everyone got a chance to  ask questions about how it worked.  Then  everyone got a chance to help turn the crank and watch the apple sauce come through the screen.

Breakfast: Toasted oatmeal squares with fresh strawberries.

Lunch: Brown rice with butter and chicken, fresh cantaloupe/ bananas, and fresh bell peppers/green beans.

PM Snack:  Peanut butter on whole crackers with sunflower and pepita seeds.

Wee Sprouts:  Fresh cucumbers and green beans.

Link to Photos:2023-10-12

Enjoy the rest of your day!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Good Afternoon!

This morning we engaged in feeding a baby doll a bottle or relaxing in the cube, looking at books, climbing the Habi-trail steps and building with Lego Duplos.

We made our way to the kitchen to engage in a different loose parts activity that consisted of pom poms, dominoes, wooden bowls/cups, and soft tweezers.

Our friends headed outside to explore the leaves and play with trucks.

Breakfast:  Overnight Oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh strawberries.

Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs with shredded Colby-Jack cheese, fresh cucumbers, apple slices and whole grain wheat tortillas.

Afternoon Snack:  White corn tortilla chips and refried beans.

Wee Sprouts:  Cherry tomatoes and fresh green beans.

Have a wonderful evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures:  2023-10-11

Good afternoon families!

Today we experimented with making loud and soft noise makers.  We tried a variety of materials on our tray inside test tubes.  We put on the cap and shook the noise makers to test them .  Then we categorized them as loud or soft sounds.  We observed that hard materials made loud sounds and soft materials made soft sounds.  One of our older friends noticed that some of the materials made no noise at all so she could not properly sort them.  In response we added a silent category to accommodate the observation.  

Breakfast:  Oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh strawberries

Lunch: Scrambled eggs with whole wheat tortillas, fresh cantaloupe, fresh green beans and bell peppers

PM Snack: hummus with tortilla chips

Wee Sprouts: Fresh cucumber and green beans

Link to photos: 2023-10-11

Enjoy the rest of your day!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Good afternoon!

We started off our morning engaged in various activities. Eliza used her imaginative skills to cook at the play kitchen table, Ben concentrated on working the colorful pegs through the wall maze, Dax threw balls with a friend, and Hannah worked on building with Duplos.

Eden explored a baby doll and Eleanor worked on placing Lego Duplo people in a plane.

We made our way into the kitchen to practice our patterning and color matching skills with loose part wooden beads. Our friends did a great job of identifying the color of their bead and then placing it on their pattern card.

We then bundled up and headed outside. We all enjoyed standing on the ledge and working on our jumping skills.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios cereal with fresh strawberry slices.

Lunch: Whole grain wheat tortilla with peanut butter, Colby Jack cheese slices, fresh pineapple, and cucumbers.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat Cinnamon Raisin bagels with butter and apple slices.

Wee Sprout: Green Bell Pepper.

Have a wonderful evening!

Tina and Rebekah

Link to pictures: 2023-10-10

Good Afternoon!

Children were offered a chance to sign in for PREK1 group. They had to answer the question, “Find a person in our classroom who is taller than you!”. A few friends were able to find a classmate who was taller than they are while a few friends had to write a teachers name.

K.M.1: Make direction comparisons of the length, capacity, weight, and temperature of objects, and recognize which object is shorter, longer, taller, lighter, heavier, warmer, cooler, or holds more.

PREK2:  In group we are working on recalling stories that we hear.  Today we read “Polar bear Polar Bear”.  As we went through the book we recalled the animals we saw.  We were asked name the first second and third animal in the order they appeared in the story.  At the end of the story we named our favorite animal from to put up on the board.

Today for our welcome activity we created a pumpkin stand.  Everyone pretended to buy and sell pumpkins and gourds.  There was a lot of interest in setting up the stand and displaying the pumpkins in baskets and bowls for potential buyers.  There was some confusion about the exchange of goods for money.  It was a buyers market as the sellers gave away both pumpkins and cash…so we talked about how the farmer who has grown the pumpkin gets money in exchange for the goods grown.  The pumpkin farmers did a little better after that.

In the art center we experimented with mixed media.  We used oil pastels to make a drawing.  Next we using water color to paint over the pastel creating a wax resist effect.  A lot of our friends really liked how that looked.  We talked about the process always needing to be in the correct order…pastel first, paint last, or the process would not work.  There were a few friends who made five or more paintings!

Breakfast: Cheerios with fresh pears.

Lunch: Peanut butter on whole wheat bread,  fresh pineapple/apple slices, and and fresh carrots/green beans.

PM Snack: Whole wheat cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh green beans and tomatoes.

Link to Photos:2023-10-10

Have a lovely afternoon!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Good Afternoon!

PREK2:  In group today we read the story “Where is My Mother?”  We were encouraged to pay special attention to all of the different things the baby bird encountered during the story.  At the end we tried to recall one thing the baby bird saw an his search for his mother. 

Today we experimented with melting ice.  As we are talking about comparisons in our curriculum this week, we tried a hot vs cold experiment.  We had a block of ice and ice cubes with pompoms frozen inside plus warm water in a spray bottle and in an eye dropper.  We predicted what would happen when we added it to ice.  We felt the ice and the water with our fingers and described how it felt.  When we tried the experiment we were encouraged to decide which method of melting we thought worked the best.   Most of the class preferred the spray bottle because they just enjoyed using it the most.  One friend chose to throw out the eye dropper completely, put the ice cubes directly on the cup of warm water and spray warm water on top of it which was probably the over all most effective method used:)

During our welcome activity we compared our two objects.  We tried to use descriptive words to talk about how they felt differnt.  We found that one felt “warm and soft” in our hand.  The other felt “cold, hard and a little pointy”.

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with butter and fresh pears.

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta mixed with fresh tomatoes, basil and mozzarella cheese, fresh apple slices and fresh bell peppers.

PM Snack: Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts:  Fresh carrots and tomatoes.

Link to Photos: 2023-10-09

Enjoy the rest of your day!

~Wee Friends Teachers