Good Afternoon–

Today for PREK1 sign in, children chose a card from the bottom of the board that had a tool written on it. We read the tool aloud and matched it to the correct community helper! Yesterday during group time, we read two short stories; one about Police Officers and one about Firefighters. This sign in played off of conversations we had yesterday about the tools that both jobs need!

Social Studies: K.2.1 Give examples of people who are community helpers (inside the classroom and outside the classroom) and describe how they each help us.

We have been talking about community helpers this week based on our FAB curriculum.  We set out some loose parts as a welcome activity to encourage creating community buildings and road ways.  Some took the project in a more whimsical direction creating a “North Pole community”.  They used tiles to make snow and some blocks for buildings and trees.  Several friends got involved and played “North Pole” all morning.  The kids figured if they were going to be a community helper, why not make that community the North Pole!  What fun! 

We added a fire fighter wardrobe to our dress up area to fuel some imaginative play!  The kids got dressed up immediately!  They pretended to wait for a fire alarm in a fire station with little walkie-talkies.  A couple of friends decided the wardrobe was not complete as it was lacking “fire fighter shoes”.  They quickly improvised, solving the problem with some high heels

Breakfast: Cheerios with fresh strawberries.

Lunch: Brown rice with shredded turkey, fresh peaches/watermelon, and fresh carrots/pepper/cucumber.

PM Snack: Whole wheat crackers with peanut butter and sunflower/pumpkin seeds on top.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh peppers and carrots.

Have a great day!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures:2024-08-29

Good afternoon!

Our friends were in a dancing mood this morning. We danced to “Sleeping Bunnies” first. They pretended to lay on the floor to sleep and would stand up when it said “wake up little bunnies.” We then got the silk scarves down to dance along to “Shake Your Sillies Out.”

We made our way to the kitchen for sensory play. Miss Bekah gave everyone a tray with shaving cream for us to explore with our hands first. She then gave us a a plastic bug to play with in the shaving cream.

We headed outside to enjoy the beautiful weather. We engaged in our favorite activities like;  scooping in the sandbox, pushing a truck on the shelf, riding bikes or teeter totters, and exploring sea animals at the table. Eleanor used her imaginative play skills to pretend that she was waiting in line to buy ice cream.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios cereal with fresh banana.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with black beans, fresh mini sweet peppers and plum.

Afternoon Snack: Sunflower seeds with Whole grain Triscuits crackers.

Wee Sprout: Cucumbers.

Have a great evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-29

Good afternoon! 

PREK1 kiddos came to the sign in board where we focused on expanding our ‘community helper’ understanding! Each child got to pick a green card from the bottom of the board that had a community helper written on it. I read a few different descriptions and they had to choose which description matched their helper. They taped it next to the match and then wrote their name!

Social Studies: K.2.1 Give examples of people who are community helpers (inside the classroom and outside the classroom) and describe how they each help us.

Today we worked on self portraits in the art center.  Everyone who chose to work on a self portrait this morning started by studying their face in the mirror.  They looked at the shape of their face, the color of their skin, the color of their eyes and the color of their hair.  They picked out marker colors for their eyes and skin, then a yarn color for their hair.  We sometimes had to hold up several colors of yarn as they scrutinized in the mirror about which was the closest to their own.  The most shocking realization for the kids as they looked closer, was that lips are not actually fire engine red!  It was everyone’s first assumption until they looked closer:)

PREK2: In group today we read the story “Know and Follow Rules”.  We talked about how rules can keep us safe.  After the story we remembered what rules we knew at school that helped to keep everyone safe and we talked about how the rules did this.

Breakfast: Oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh nectarines

Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled egg roll ups with cheese and whole wheat tortillas, fresh watermelon, and fresh peppers/cucumbers.

PM Snack: Hummus with blue corn tortilla chips.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh green peppers with cucumbers.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Link to Pictures:2024-08-28

Good Afternoon!

This morning the friends were busy climbing and sliding.  We climbed up onto the habi-trail to go down the slide.  Several of us then built a stack with the BounceBlocks and climbed up on them to stand at the habi-trail or ballet bar.

We then headed over to build animals with the Mix and Match Magnets Animal sets.

Miss Tina then got down the bells and shaker instruments for us to shake to hear the sounds and make music.  All of us then played the wall xylophone, tapping the bars with our mallet to hear the different sounds as we tapped each bar.

We then sat on the reading step with Miss Bekah and listened to her read many books that we chose from the bookshelf.

We then headed outside to ride on the teeter totters, have a different sensory experience with scooping wet sand into containers in the sandbox, and sat and used our imaginative skills with the sea animals and sea shells at the table.

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

Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs with shredded cheddar cheese, fresh strawberries/bananas, cucumber slices and whole grain wheat bread.

Afternoon Snack:  Hummus with blue corn tortilla chips.

Wee Sprout:  Mini sweet peppers.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-28

Good afternoon!

Our friends explored the wooden ring loose parts at the table this morning. Eleanor worked on putting the rings on her arm.

We then made our way outside early to avoid the heat this afternoon. We enjoyed water play under the shade. Our tins had water, rocks, and a dinosaur for us to explore.

Eleanor played peek-a-boo with a friend in the playhouse.

We went back inside to play with plastic bugs and waffle blocks. Our friends worked on trying to connect the waffle block pieces together. One friend connected theirs to make a long waffle block pattern on the floor.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with fresh plum slices.

Lunch: Whole grain wheat tortilla with peanut butter, mild cheddar cheese slices, mini sweet peppers and fresh strawberries.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat bagel with cream cheese and fresh pineapple.

Wee Sprout: Cucumber.

Have a terrific evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-27

Good Afternoon!

**Wee Friends is closed on Monday, September 2 for Labor Day.

When we came in from outside this morning, PREK1 friends signed in. They had to choose from two rules and sign under which one is a current Wee Friends rule.

Later on in PREK1 group, we read, ‘What Should Darla Do?’. This is one of our favorite stories because it’s interactive and children get to help make the choices for the main character. We decided on doing a pattern and chose: good choice, bad choice, good choice to see how that would affect Darla’s day.

Once we were done reading, each friend shared a school rule as they rolled up their mat. The rules that were shared were:

1. Be kind.

2. Don’t run at the bottom of the yard because that’s where the wee wee’s play.

3. Don’t run inside (because you could hurt a friend!).

4. Walk nicely in scissors in the art area.

Once we shared the rule, it was important to talk about WHY we have that rule.

Social Studies: K.2.3 Give examples of classroom and school rules and explain how each helps us.

This morning, we found a cicada on the sidewalk outside.  There has been a lot of interest in cicadas as many of our friends have been hearing them in the trees and finding their shed skin outside.  We talked about the cicadas life cycle and read some books about them.  Many of our friends have been very curious about what the adult looks like after it emerges from its skin.  An adult cicada was the perfect find to build on the child lead portion of our curriculum.  We set up trays for observational drawings of the insect.  We tried to use our observational skills to count how many legs, and  also asking ourselves what shapes we saw and what colors.  If we were able, we used our kid spelling skills and sounded out CICADA to write on our drawing!  It was a great combination of science, art and writing.  The more subjects that can come together into one, the more learning happens.  When the subject is an area of interest for the child the learning that takes place becomes deeply engrained and tends to be remembered.

PREK2: During group we read the story, ‘Big Bug Surprise’ since there was so much talk of bugs this morning!  We talked about how often we call everything that has multiple legs a “bug”, But there are actually differences between them.  We counted six legs on an insect and eight on a spider.  Then we chose our favorite “bug” to place our name under on the board.

Breakfast– Corn Chex and fresh strawberries.

Lunch– Peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat tortilla, fresh nectarines, and fresh cucumber/carrot/pepper

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrot/pepper,

Have a wonderful night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-27

Reminder:  Wee Friends will be closed next Monday, September 2nd for Labor Day!  Thank you.

Good Afternoon!

This morning the friends began in the housekeeping area.  They were setting out the plates and using their imaginative play skills as they were pretending to wash their hands in the sink.  Milo dressed up in dress-up hat and accessorized with a purse, Eleanor worked at putting on her dress up shoes and another friend played with the baby bottles.

Several of us then went to over to climb on the habi-trail and go down the slide.

We headed outside earlier to beat the heat.  We scooped in the sandbox, pushed the bikes down the hill, rode the teeter-totter, and played in the rock area; picking up rocks with our hands.

We headed in quite a bit earlier before lunch was ready, so we danced with our dancing scarves.

Miss Tami bought us in an unopened cardboard box.  We were very interested in what was inside. When Miss Bekah opened the box, there were 3 boxes of Mix or Match Magnetic Animal sets.  We have a dinosaur, farm animal and jungle animal set.  The friends enjoyed working to build their animals using the matching pieces or mixing them up to create their own unique animal.  They love them!  Thank you.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat bread toasted with butter and fresh oranges.

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat penne pasta with black beans, fresh pineapple and sugar snap peas.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers/carrot chips.

Have a great evening and stay cool!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-26

Good Afternoon!

We kicked off our day in PREK1 by completing sign in before lunch! This week, we’ll be talking about community helpers and today, children had to identify the community helper that delivers our mail.

Later on in PREK1, we read ‘Corduroy’ in group. In the story, there were two community helpers that friends were able to point out: a salesperson and a night watch helper (who we identified as a ‘police officer for a store’ by group members).

Social Studies: K.2.1 Give examples of people who are community helpers (inside the classroom and outside the classroom) and describe how they help us.

Thankfully, we have a flexible schedule in the morning and so we decided to go outside early to enjoy the weather before it got too hot. Immediately, friends started sprinting around the circle to get some energy out.

We got out bikes along with balls and the hoop. Children flocked right to the hoop as they all tried making baskets. We saw a ton of persistence as children kept trying to make baskets. It take a lot of patience, timing, and hand eye coordination to get the ball through the hoop. Amelia got the hang of it and every time she made a basket, she’d scream, “I did it!”.

Watching our kids at play outside is a calming and reassuring experience. Not only are they getting loads of fresh air but with the amount of outside time our kids get each day, they can really get involved in a wide arrange of pretend play. Two four year old girls spent all morning long in the log area. They decided to play “police” as they moved the logs around the space, setting the space up for their perfect play setting. Eventually, a few peers joined into their play. There’s no set script or set of rules that children have to follow outside: they can just be!

Breakfast:Whole wheat toast with butter and fresh pears. 

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with red kidney beans, fresh pears/oranges, and fresh cucumbers/carrots.

PM Snack: Whole milk yogurt with granola.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh carrots and cucumbers.

Have a lovely afternoon!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Link to photos: 2024-08-26

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

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

Lunch:  Honey ham lunch meat, whole grain wheat bread, bananas and fresh sugar snap peas.

Afternoon Snack:  Goldfish crackers and mild cheddar cheese slices.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers.

Have a great weekend!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures:  2024-08-23

Happy Friday!

A welcome activity was set out at the circle table that instantly drew in Ryan. He used tongs to place various sized puff balls onto a wooden rainbow. Arthur immediately wanted to join him and friends started gathering around to watch. So, I headed to the basement to see what other materials friends could use.

I brought up marbles and small bells which both peaked children’s interest.

When we’re setting up an activity, making sure that we keep offering new and engaging materials helps to maintain interest!

Amelia stayed engaged from start to finish as she used rubber tongs to place one bell at a time on the wooden rainbow. She started on the left side of the rainbow and went left to right until she finished!

Enjoy a few more pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Brown rice cakes with cream cheese and banana.

Lunch– Peanut butter on whole wheat bread/flatbread, cheddar cheese slices, fresh pineapple/banana, and fresh cucumber.

PM snack– String cheese, pretzels, and fresh pineapple.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber.

Have a lovely weekend!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-23