Happy September!

This morning all the friends were engaged with the Peek-a-blocks.  The friends were tapping them together and listening to the sound they were making.  Eleanor was watching them and tapping her blocks together with everyone.

We all were busy on the habi-trial.  Friends were walking down the slide, climbing up the ladder and flipping over the top rung and sitting on the top rung and used our imaginative skills to turn it into a train and a bus.

We moved the babies to the front area to play while the older friends were on the habi-trail.  They both were engaged in many activities; exploring animals, Magna-Tiles, colored beads and the airplane.

We then headed outside to engage in many activities on another gorgeous day.

Breakfast:  Whole grain brown rice cakes with peanut butter and bananas.

Lunch:  Oven Roasted Turkey lunchmeat on whole grain wheat bread,  fresh carrot chips/cooked carrots and fresh pineapple slices.

Afternoon Snack:  Pretzel sticks, mild cheddar block cheese and bananas.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!  See you Tuesday.

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures:  2023-09-01

Good Afternoon!

PREK1 group came to the sign in board this morning where they drew a card from the bottom that had a picture diagram on it. They had to count the number of items in the diagram and match it to the number on the board. Not only did this allow them to work on their one to one correspondence skills but also their number identification up to ten.

K.NS.5: Count up to 20 objects arranged in a line, a rectangular array, or a circle. Count up to 10 objects in a scattered configuration.

PREK2: Today we read the story “My Heart is like a Zoo”.  Afterward, we each took turns naming our favorite animal from the story.

We enjoyed a close up look at the tadpoles today in a white observation tray where we could see them very well.  We were able to make more observations noticing more colors and even spots on the tadpoles.  We noticed they swam in circles around the edges.  Someone said that frogs eat bugs.  We got a chance to talk about how the tadpoles are different from their parents in many ways…in how they look, breath and what they eat.  We learned that tadpoles eat algae.  We learned that algae is a plant with no stem and no leaves.  We observed algae in the aquarium where the tadpoles live.  Many of us felt that it did not look like a plant that they had seen.  It was something new!

Many of us took on the cheerio stacking challenge.  Younger friends used their fine motor skills to make a stack as tall as they could.  Older friends also counted as high as they could as they stacked.  They looked for the number tiles to represent what number they reached in their tallest stack.  This way, a variety of ages and developmental levels could be met where, to be challenged in different ways by the same activity.

Breakfast: Kix cereal with bananas.

Lunch: Brown rice with shredded beef, fresh cucumbers/peppers and fresh cantaloupe.

PM Snack: Pepita seeds/sunflower seeds and whole wheat crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh peppers and carrots.

Link to photos:2023-08-31

Have a great afternoon!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Happy last day of August!

This morning our friends followed along to the actions in songs like “Walk Around the Circle” and “Freeze Dance.” They held hands with one another and walked around the classroom while wearing plastic rings around their neck.

Some other activities we enjoyed were reading a book on our own, putting on different clothing items for dress up, throwing balls in the air with our friends, and going down the slide on the Habi-trail.

Eden played peek-a-boo with Ms. Tina while Eleanor used her fine motor skills to explore the Notre Dame bear with her fingers. The babies all sat in a circle and shared their toys.

We made our way outside to engage with some of our favorite activities. We played with the balls, rolled down the hill on the floor scooters, used markers to draw, and explored animals at the table.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios cereal with fresh strawberries.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded turkey, cantaloupe slices, and peas with carrots.

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

Wee Sprout: Cucumbers & red bell pepper.

Have a wonderful evening!

Tina and Rebekah

Link to pictures: 2023-08-31

Good Afternoon!

Our PREK1 group came up to the sign in board this morning and categorized words based on the number of syllables! They chose a notecard at the bottom of the sign in board and after reading it together, they clapped out the number of syllables in their word. They used a piece of tape to place the word into the correct category!

K.RF.3.2: Orally segment words into syllables.

Our PREK2 group read the story “Ten Little Lady bugs”.  After the story the group counted to three and then was asked to guess what came next.  Several friends were able to guess number four.  Then the  group counted to four all together. 

During our welcome activity we practiced sorting letters.  We tried to find all 26 letters in the alphabet and sort them into the correct try.  Older fiends could work on spelling with the letters when they were finished using the letter cards. 

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with cinnamon and banana.

Lunch– Farm fresh hard boiled eggs with whole wheat tortilla, fresh watermelon, and fresh pepper/carrot.

PM snack– Hummus and corn tortilla chips

Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/cucumber/carrot.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2023-08-30

Good Afternoon!

Look at those happy smiles on their faces at school this morning.

We engaged with the car hauling truck and airplane and drove them around the carpet.  Dax was using his imaginative skills while playing with the Little People.

We then pulled out our plastic blocks.  We climbed into them to sit or stand and used them to toss our balls into.

Eliza and Hannah were engaged with our stackers and stacking the wooden loose parts they chose while working their fine motor and hand-eye coordination skills.

We then headed outside the enjoy a much cooler and beautiful day.  We drove trucks in the rock area, ran and walked around the circle and rode the teeter totter with a friend.

Breakfast:  Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh pear slices.

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, fresh cucumbers, watermelon and whole grain wheat tortillas.

Afternoon Snack:  White corn tortilla chips and hummus.

Wee Sprouts:  Red bell peppers.

Have a wonderful evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures:  2023-08-30

Good afternoon!

Our babies are becoming more mobile. They all engage in tummy time and many of them push themselves around the class. Eden worked on her crawling position, another friend demonstrated their flexibility by crunching their stomach, and Eleanor enjoyed playing with her baby toys while sitting up.

Our older friends enjoyed various activities outside. We rode down the hill with bikes, played with construction trucks in the rock area, scooped rocks in the rock area, explored the log area, and attempted to climb the log house.

Breakfast: Whole grain Corn Chex cereal with fresh oranges.

Lunch: Refried beans and cheese on whole wheat flatbread with cantaloupe slices and green bell pepper.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat bagel with peanut butter and fresh strawberries.

Wee Sprout: Green bell pepper.

Have a wonderful evening!

Tina and Rebekah

Link to pictures: 2023-08-29

Good Afternoon!

Our PREK1 friends have been engaging in a unique sign in during the morning time specific to what we’re working on that week. Today, we started talking about syllables and how to count them. We introduced them by counting the syllables in our names. We counted them but there’s another way to count syllables and that’s placing your hand on your chin to see how many times to moves when you say a word.

After reading, ‘Caps For Sale’, in PREK1 group, we charted our names based on syllables. Each friend got to choose either a friend or teacher in class to add to our chart! We counted the syllables in their name and wrote it under the correct group.

PREK2: Today we read the book “Chick a Chick a Boom Boom” which helps us learn and recognize our letters. After the book, everyone came up to the board and circled the first letter in their name. We practiced the sound that letter made. There were a lot of circles around the letter A!

We continued Tadpole journals for those who didn’t start one yet.  We continued talking about how to “observe” and draw what we see as well as how to verbalize what we see.

Breakfast– Whole grain cheerios with fresh oranges.

Lunch– Peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat bread/flatbread, cheddar sliced cheese, fresh oranges/strawberries, and fresh cucumber/carrots.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrots.

Have a wonderful night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2023-08-29

Good Afternoon!

2nd Reminder:  Wee Friends is closed next Monday, September 4th for Labor Day!  Thank you.

This morning we began by heading up to the front area to build with Magna-Tiles.  Hannah stacked them into a few stacks and Dax used the Duplo building area to line his up.

We then all headed to the housekeeping area to use our imaginative skills with the play food and pick out delicious food to place on the plates and serve to ourselves or our friends.  Dax also decided to create his own unique outfit with the dress up accessories and look in the mirror to see how he looks.

We then headed into the kitchen with Miss Bekah to engage in a sensory activity to create our paintings with our fingers.  We used blue, red and yellow paint to mix colors together to create our own unique finger-painting.

We then headed outside to enjoy this beautiful and cool sunny day.  We rode on the teeter totters with a friend, dug in the sandbox and Eleanor enjoyed her outside toys on the blanket.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat bread toast with butter and cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh pear slices.

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat penne pasta with shredded turkey, fresh cantaloupe, and peas. 

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts:  Red bell peppers.

Have a marvelous evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures:  2023-08-28

Happy Monday!

**Reminder: Wee Friends is closed next Monday, September 4th for Labor Day. Thanks!

In PREK1 group, we read, ‘Blueberries for Sal’ which brought up the conversation of one to one correspondence, or counting! In the story, Sal and her mom went blueberry picking and they put one blueberry into their buckets at a time. After we read the story, each friend came up to the bench or stayed on their mat where they were given a pile of colorful counters. They had to place the counters out in front of them in a line and using their index finger, count them!

K.NS.4: Perform one to one correspondence skills.

PREK2: At small group today we read the book “alphabet adventure” working on our letter recognition. 

It was an “aquatic” morning! Today we got to meet out new classroom Tadpoles!  We will be observing them as they complete their stages of metamorphosis over the coming weeks. We spent some time looking at our life cycle cards and talking about the stages of change the tadpole goes through.   We could arrange the model tadpoles in order and match them to the cards.  Next we started our “Tadpole Journals”.  We focused on making “observations”.  A couple of older friends were able to verbalize this as meaning “looking closely”.  We talked about descriptive words and how they help us record our observations.  One friend said that the tadpole looked green and black and that it had a “Swishy tail”.  Another fiends noticed that it had a round head.  An older friend  chose to draw the life cycle in the front of her journal, labeling each developmental stage.  A younger friend drew the tadpole with all of its “brothers and sisters”.  After  observation journaling, we got to use our imaginations to play in a  “frog and tadpole terrarium.” 

Breakfast: Whole wheat bagels with butter and fresh orange slices.

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta and black beans and butter  with fresh banana/ pineapple, and fresh red/green peppers.

PM Snack: Whole milk yogurt with granola.

Wee sprouts: Fresh tomatoes and bell peppers.

Have a wonderful afternoon!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Link to Photos: 2023-08-28

Happy Friday!

Enjoy some pictures from our day!

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

Lunch:  Hummus on whole grain wheat flatbread, fresh cucumbers/red bell peppers, fresh pear/bananas.

Afternoon Snack:  Mozzarella cheese stick and fresh cantaloupe.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers.

Have a great weekend!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2023-08-25