Happy Wednesday!

This morning, we danced and followed along to the actions in the song “Walking, Walking.”

We then played in housekeeping.  We engaged with the baby dolls and worked on meeting their needs, such as dressing them and comforting them.  We also cooked a variety of foods, including eggs and toast, and put them all on plates.

We then went over to the Duplos to build together.

Miss Tina then brought out our felt Christmas tree for us to decorate with the shapes.

Breakfast:  Oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and bananas.

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs with shredded Colby-jack cheese, fresh oranges, mini cucumbers and whole grain wheat bread.

Afternoon Snack:  Refried beans with shredded colby-jack cheese and white corn tortilla chips.

Wee Sprout:  Red bell peppers.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-18

Good Afternoon!

Please pick up your child’s hand hand crafted holiday gift which will be on the work bench for the rest of the week.  Your child’s name is on the bottom of the bag.  They are so excited to give their gifts to their families!

Our PREK1 group sign in focused on the book we read yesterday for group: The Polar Express!

Children had to pull a main event that occurred in the story during sign in. They were asked what gift that main character asked for towards the end of the book. Everyone was able to recall the correct gift!

Our morning activity used a variety of loose parts. Children explored these loose parts on their mirror tray. Arthur shared that he was making cookies and the frosting was the white square on each cookie. Another child took it upon herself to make a charcuterie board! She didn’t set out to make a charcuterie board but once she shared what she was making on her tray, I said, “That sounds like a charcuterie board! Would you like to see what one looks like?’. On her tray, she had crackers with cheese on top as well as grapes and various circle cookies!

At the art center, we began working on “winter process paintings”.  We chose from a variety of sponges to add color and texture to our paper, creating the back drop of a winter storm.  We will continue to build up the surface of our paintings this week. This project  has no wrong answer and is completely open to what the child chooses to make of it.  These are the kinds of projects we offer abundantly at Wee Friends.  Art projects hold the attention of our kids the longest when they are truly creative and self expressive processes!

Breakfast– Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon and banana.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat flatbread, fresh pineapple/banana, and fresh pepper/cucumber.

PM snack– Air popped popcorn with butter and raisins.

Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/cucumber.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-18

Good afternoon!

This morning our friends engaged with baby dolls. Eleanor worked on her self-help skills to dress the baby doll on her own. Charlotte rocked her baby doll on the rocking chair.

Cece explored her playmat and shared big smiles with us.

Our friends pulled out the plastic blocks from under the habi-trail and flipped them over. They used their imaginative play skills to pretend that they were boats. Miss Bekah read several books to our friends while they sat in their boats, including “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”

We then headed outside on this cool morning to enjoy some time outside. Our friends scooped sand in the sandbox, took turns going down the slide and ran around the circle.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios cereal with fresh apple slices.

Lunch: Whole wheat tortilla with peanut butter, 1/2 mozzarella cheese stick, fresh red bell pepper and green grapes.

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

Wee Sprout: Mini cucumbers.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-17

Good Afternoon!

Our winter themed sign in continued on today as we focused on winter rhyming words. Each PREK1 group member came to sign in where they chose a card from the bottom of sign in. We read it aloud and found its rhyming match. Younger friends who were playing close to sign in could be heard repeating the rhyming words. Even if children aren’t directly involved in the activity, children are always listening and absorbing information around them.

This morning, friends worked on their language arts skills as they created hand crafted holiday cards for their families.  Those who could kid spell and write letters, sounded out what they wanted to write.  Others that were able, wrote their name.  Our youngest friends worked on finding the letters they needed for their name, then used stamps to write holiday greetings in their cards.  Everyone enjoyed using winter stamps and drawings to decorate their creations!

At the round table we offered a variety of sorting trays.  This activity encouraged counting, sorting, and imaginative play among friends at the table.  Some chose to work cooperatively with a partner and others enjoyed some focused time alone.  Kids of all ages were able to have their social and learning needs met by this open ended activity.

PREK2: Wee Friends enjoyed using the snowflake stamps at the art center this morning, so PREK2 used them for a counting activity during group today.  At the end of group time each child came to the board to find their name and count their snow flakes.  We read the story “The Mud Puddle” today, since several friends were using the story in imaginative play outside!  This book, as well as a collection of others written by Robert Munsch, are some of our class favorites!

Breakfast– Corn Chex with fresh pineapple.

Lunch– Turkey and cheese on whole wheat bread, fresh pineapple/cantaloupe/grapes, and fresh snap peas/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh snap peas/cucumber.

Have a lovely night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-17

Good Afternoon!

This morning a friend asked for the sensory tubes when he heard the song Rain, Rain Go Away.  We listened to the different sounds each object made in the tubes and noticed some of the object sound like the rain.

Miss Tina then went downstairs and brought up our felt Christmas tree for us to decorate with shapes.  As we picked up a piece, she named the shape we had in our hand to place on the tree.  Eleanor also thought she would decorate her sister’s shirt.  Cece also joined the friends on the floor and Eleanor shared her shape with her.

We then engaged with our nesting bowls and shape stackers.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat bread toasted with butter and cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh clementine’s.

Lunch:  Whole grain penne pasta with shredded chicken, fresh mini cucumber slices and cantaloupe.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprout:  Green bell peppers.

Have a great evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-16

Happy Monday!

To kick off our week focus of WINTER, children sorted winter type words based on the number of syllables. Each PREK1 group member chose a card from the bottom of the sign in board. We read the word aloud and worked together by counting the number of syllables in their word. Most friends chose to clap out the number of syllables in their word before placing it into the correct category.

This morning friends became very interested in exploring pipes and connectors.  They began with a few small ones at the round table that were included in a loose parts activity.  Friends were so enthralled with the pipes, that we added a large pipe set to the building rug for the kids to continue to experiment and invent with.  Several friends pretended to make tools like hammers, drills, and saws.  They proceeded to use the pretend tools to build pretend machines like vacuums, weed whackers, tree trimmers, leaf blowers and one cake machine.  There were plenty of construction sound effects to accompany the building process!  The kids practiced cooperation, critical thinking and creative problem solving through out this activity.

PREK2: The kids were so interested in building machines with pipes, that we read the story “The Magnificent Thing” during group time.  The story was about inventing, building and working through frustrations.  After the story, we made a class list of all of the inventions we created with the pipes this morning. 

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with peanut butter and fresh apples.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce and shredded cheese, fresh cantaloupe/pineapple, and fresh cucumber/pepper.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with granola.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a wonderful night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-16

Happy Friday!  Enjoy some pictures from our day!

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

Lunch:  Hummus on whole grain wheat tortillas, fresh banana/grapefruit/pineapple slices and orange bell pepper slices.

Afternoon Snack:  Pretzels and mild cheddar block cheese slices.

Wee Sprout:  Cucumbers.

Have a great weekend!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-13

Happy Friday!

We ended our week in group by sorting items based on how much money they cost. Each group member came up to the board where they chose a card that had an item written on it. They taped it under one of two categories: costs A LOT of money or costs A LITTLE money.

Later on in PREK1 group, we read ‘Save It’ which is written by the same author of a book we read earlier in the week during group called, ‘Spend It!’. In today’s book, the main character wanted to buy a house so that she could have a quiet space away from her five siblings that she babysits a lot to get an allowance. She settles on a playhouse which lead into the conversation about sign in and the simple fact that things cost different amounts of money! We loved learning about the aspect of saving for something that we really want in the future.

**These books have been great at teaching us about money at a level that we can understand and comprehend. It’s a series with different topics such as spending, saving, earning, and giving. The author’s name is Cinders McLeod.

We hope you enjoy some pictures from our day!

PREK2:  Today we read the story “Stick and Stone”.  Since friends have been interested in writing stories, we learned more about this interest area.  Before we read the story, we talked about what characters are and what a setting is in a story.  We recognized characters as being able to talk, walk and having faces.  We talked about how the setting is a place or parts of the story that can’t talk, move and that don’t have faces.  After the story, the kids did a great job categorizing characters and settings on our chart!  Great job listening and learning PREK2!

Breakfast: Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh clementines.

Lunch: Hummus on whole wheat tortillas, fresh banana/apple/clementines/pineapple, and fresh cucumber/carrot.

PM Snack: Goldfish and block cheddar cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh peppers/cucumbers.

Have a great weekend!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Link to Pictures: 2024-12-13

Good Afternoon!

PREK1 kiddos came to the sign in board this morning where we talked about the book we read in group yesterday, ‘Froggy’s Lemonade Stand’. In the book, Froggy tried selling his lemonade for 25 cents. As children came to the sign in board, they identified the quarter on the board. I also asked if they were able to identify the other coin from earlier in the week, to which every child said, ‘penny!’.

Today evolved into a book making day at Wee Friends.  Some older friends have been interested in making books at the art center.  Today, older friends were invited to write their own story and illustrate it.  We looked at book covers and noticed the title and author.  Next, we drafted our story with a teacher.  We thought about what our stories would be about, who the characters would be. Then we sequenced what would happen in the beginning, middle, and end.  Each child was ready to narrate a story after the planning portion was done.  Paige and Katherine enjoyed narrating the fictional stories they came up with.  After a teacher wrote the stories down on separate pages, the two girls illustrated their books.  The girls also created a cover including a title and the name of the author.  Last, the girls enjoyed having their stories read to the class during story time!  What an exciting day of language arts!!

At lunch today, we enjoyed a special grapefruit tasting treat!  We had mixed feelings about the flavor.  It was described as sour, yummy and yucky :). There were many friends who went out on a limb and tried something new!

PREK2: There was interest in writing stories today, so in group we talked about this idea.  We read a story titled “Snow” and learned that the title often tells us what the main idea of the story will be about.  After the story, we thought about what we might make our own story about.  We wrote our ideas on a class list.

Breakfast– Kix and fresh cantaloupe.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh clementines/banana/grapefruit, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat crackers with peanut butter and sunflower seeds.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a wonderful night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-12

Good afternoon!

Our friends started off their morning by dancing to “Sleeping Bunnies.” Eleanor built a tower with loose part wooden rounds.

Cece practiced holding her head up while laying on her belly. Her neck control is so great!

We then made our way to the kitchen to engage with playdough. We pulled our big piece apart into smaller pieces. We also used tools to roll out our playdough, cut our playdough into shapes or rolled patterns onto our playdough.

We also danced with bean bags. We used them to dance to “Beanie Bag Dance” and the “Beanbag Boogie, ” by Greg and Steve.

We then took turns going through the tunnel. Our friends enjoyed crawling through from one end to the other.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with fresh clementine oranges.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with black beans and shredded Colby-Jack cheese, fresh cucumber and apple slices.

Afternoon Snack: Roasted sunflower seeds and Triscuits crackers.

Wee Sprout: Green bell pepper.

Have a beautiful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-12