Happy Friday!

This morning friends were engaged building with Duplos.  The friends worked to create tall building structures.

A friend was sad that she wasn’t going to see the doctor today with her sister.  So Miss Bekah went downstairs and found some patient gowns and scrubs for us to wear to enhance our doctor play so we could be doctors and patients to feel like we were going to see the doctor for a checkup.

We then headed outside to enjoy some fresh air and engage in our favorite activities.

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

Lunch: Turkey lunch meat on whole grain wheat bread, fresh oranges and peas.

Afternoon Snack:  Cheddar cheese slices and whole grain Goldfish crackers.

Wee Sprout: Cucumbers.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2023-04-21

Happy Friday!

Bo chose ‘The Story of Ferdinand’ for K/PREK1 group. Afterwards, we filled in our different webs based on various animal characteristics such as animals that have four legs or live in the water. Each group member added at least one animal to each web before our journal time.

K.4.2: Observe plants and animals, describing how they are alike and how they are different.

This week we have been watching a small plant project grow.  Some friends helped plant different kinds of seeds in test tubes to watch how the leaves and roots emerge.  As we have observed the growth we have noticed that the small seeds are producing small plants.  The large bean seed has been of special interest because it grew such a large plant so quickly.  We talked about how a large seed can hold a lot of nutrients which allows the plant to grow so fast.  Many friends asked if they could have the bean plant so we offered today for everyone interested to have the opportunity to grow their own bean plant.  We each created a small green house for our bean seed using a zip lock bag and wet paper towel.  We put our seed inside and taped it to the window.  We talked about how the sun would create heat and condensation inside the bag which the bean plant will like. 

Several of us made beautiful water color paintings today.  Some of us used abstract color block styles.  Bo created a large painting of a volcano surrounded by color.  Daniel made a page of colored “writing” that he said was for his grandmother!

In house keeping many of us enjoyed make believe baked goods using our sand dough to create all sorts of home made treats.

 

Breakfast– Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh watermelon.

Lunch– Sliced chicken breast on whole wheat bread, fresh watermelon/pears, and fresh green beans.

PM snack– Cheddar block cheese and pretzels.

Wee Sprout– Fresh green beans.

Have a lovely weekend!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2023-04-21

Today we built cave habitats for bats.  This morning we made sand dough in the kitchen.  A few of us enjoyed helping with that.  We used the dough to build a cave.  We tried various ways to build a cave.  Some of us shaped it with our hands.  Others used a form to build on like a bowl.  Others used sticks for support.  We found we could poke our bats into the sand dough so they could hang upside down in the caves.  A few of us kept our imaginations going building  a bat castle.  We read some books about bats while we worked.  We learned about echolocation.  We also learned that bats don’t only live in caves, but can seek shelter in trees, barns or bat houses put up for them by their human neighbors.  We learned that they love to eat the mosquitos that we would all like to see less of, so they are helpful to have around. 

Enjoy a few more pictures from our day!

Breakfast- Whole grain cheerios and banana.

Lunch- Brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh pineapple, and fresh cucumber/pepper.

PM snack- Peanuts and whole wheat crackers.

Wee Sprout- Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a great night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2023-04-20

Good Afternoon!

The friends were engaged in a variety of activities through out the classroom.  Emily and Paige engaged together in a book, Hannah rocked her stuffed animal, Eliza and Arthur enjoyed putting together wooden train cars, Ben was busy climbing on the habi-trail, Dax pushed the bulldozer around the front circle and Eleanor enjoyed her tummy time playing with her toys and interacting with Emily.

We headed into the kitchen for some water play.  We were given a cup of water, a bowl, a sponge and a plastic egg.  We worked on our pouring skills to pour the water into our bowls and some of us poured it back into the cup.  We then strengthened our hand muscles by squeezing the water from our sponge, that we used to soak up from our tray, into our bowl or cup.  When we put water into our plastic eggs, we noticed the water came out of the egg.  We looked closer and noticed holes at the end of it.  We enjoyed watching it stream out into our bowl or cup.

We then headed outside.  We were busy cooking in the housekeeping area with our pretend cookies, filling the bed of the dump truck full of sand, scooping rocks and sand with our shovel, putting Little People in the back of our truck and just spending time talking with a friend.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal and fresh pear slices.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with black beans, fresh watermelon and broccoli.

Afternoon Snack: Peanut Butter on whole grain Ritz crackers.

Have a terrific evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2023-04-20

Good Afternoon!

This morning we engaged in shaking shaker instruments and bells.  Friends were also singing the song, Jingle Bells.  Emily asked for the See The Bunnies Sleeping song.  Friends chose the animals they wanted to act out.  We acted out being bunnies, flamingos, hamsters, horses, lions and pigs.

We then headed into the kitchen for a sensory experience with playdough.  We were given pipe cleaners for the first time and golf tees to stick into our playdough.  We worked at manipulating the pipe cleaner to bend the way we wanted it to when we stuck it in the playdough.  We also used a hammer to pound the golf tees into it and used them for candles in our birthday cakes.

We then headed outside to engage in our favorite activities.

Breakfast: Overnight Oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and bananas.

Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs, whole grain wheat bread with butter, peas and fresh oranges.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole grain wheat tortillas with hummus and watermelon.

Wee Sprout: Cucumbers.

Have a wonderful evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2023-04-19

Good Afternoon!

For kindergarten sign in, the three kindergarteners had to search throughout the environment to find animals that lay eggs, also known as oviparous animals. A few of the animals that children found were snake, lizard, alligator, and chicken!

K.4.2: Observe plants and animals, describing how they are alike and how they are different.

In K/PREK1 group, we read ‘The Tiny Seed’ which shows how a seed turns into a flower. We watched as seeds sailed throughout the sky, eventually settling on the ground, and blooming into a flower come spring time. Afterwards, we looked at a visual of the life cycle of a flower. Tomorrow, we’ll dive into flowers more! For now, children had to say aloud the name of a flower and a few flowers that were shared were tulip, rose, sunflower, and morning glory.

K.4.2: Observe plants and animals, describing how they are alike and how they are different.

To go along with our animal theme, we created a river habitat for imaginative play exploration.  We used tin foil to make a river through the middle of our tray to hold water.  Next we added gravel to create the banks.  We added plants and moss along the river edges.  Last we chose animals that might live in or around rivers.  Frogs and tadpoles could be added to the habitat.  We talked about how frogs lay eggs in water and a tadpole hatches from the egg.   The tadpole  must stay in the water at all times, but as it grows legs and lungs, it can start to come out of the water.  As an adult the frog can be both in and out of the water.  We used this information in our play.   Dragon flies were another animal we could choose for our river habitat.  We learned that dragon flies also lay their eggs in the water and live in water as larvae much like frogs and tadpoles.

We kept the ocean shore line habitat alive in the sensory bin today, using turkey basters to wet the gravel shore line.  We added animals that might live there like an octopus, a shark, a lobster and a sea turtle.  We talked about what kinds of animals might live in the water all of the time and which could live in both places.

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh apples.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat flatbread, fresh watermelon, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack– Hummus and blue corn chips.

Wee Sprouts– Fresh carrots/cucumber.

Have a lovely evening!

-WF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2023-04-19

Good Afternoon!

This week, our kindergarteners have been exploring plants and animals. Today for their sign in, they had to write an animal that they eat and a plant that they eat. A few animals that friends wrote were pig and turkey!

K.4.2: Observe plants and animals, describing how they are alike and how they are different.

In K/PREK1 group, we read one of our favorites, ‘Frog and Toad’ and like always, once we were done reading our first short story, Daniel asked if we could read one more. Afterwards, we compared and contrasted two animals at a time, writing a similarity and a difference whether it was a characteristic or a physical trait. It seemed to be much easier to come up with differences than similarities but children worked together and talked through it to find a similarity for each pairing.

K.4.2: Observe plants and animals, describing how they are alike and how they are different.

We have been talking about animals this week and how they are different so we created a habitat table to demonstrate some of the differences in animals, what their needs are and how they live.  We created a tidal pool habitat, a rainforest floor and a desert habitat.  We talked about some of the differences between them.  Our imaginative play allowed us to explore all this by interacting with the different environments.  One friend asked about putting a boa constrictor into the ocean habitat because they can go into water. This gave the whole table an opportunity to talk about salt water habitats versus freshwater habitats and how most animals cannot live in both even though they are both water environments.

Breakfast– Chex and fresh apples.

Lunch– Peanut butter on whole wheat tortilla, cheddar cheese slices, fresh cantaloupe/oranges, and fresh green beans/carrots.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and string cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.

Have a wonderful night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2023-04-18

Happy Tuesday!

This morning we began engaged in books.  We sat together with a friend to look at a book, sat with a teacher to have her read to us or looked at a book independently.

We all then headed into the kitchen to paint with our balls.  A friend sat across from us on the floor and we took turns scooting the bin to each other to make our balls move around.  We watched as a colorful design filled our papers.

We didn’t let the colder air stop us from going outside for a while.  We had our bodies rocking back and forth with a friend on the teeter totter and running around the circle.  Some of us then engaged with the big dinosaurs in the sandbox while using a paint brush to dust the sand off of them or just sitting on the rock path observing everything going on around us.

Breakfast:  Whole grain Cheerios and fresh oranges.

Lunch:  Refried beans and shredded cheddar cheese on whole grain wheat flatbread, fresh cucumbers and cantaloupe.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole grain wheat bagels with cream cheese and fresh pear slices.

Have a terrific evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures:  2023-04-18

Welcome Back Ms Mindy!   We are all  so happy to have Ms Mindy back and to bring baby Charlette into our Wee Friends Family!  Everyone so enjoyed learning how to play with a baby, watching how to feed her and asking questions about babies.  There were a lot of questions about when a baby can eat big kid food!  Charlotte seemed to enjoy meeting her new friends as well.  She was all smiles today! 

Today we explored seed planting as imaginative play.  We planted pea seeds on Friday in the garden and the activity did not last long enough for some of us, so we created a way to do the planting as play.  On a tray of kinetic sand we had tiny cups of real bean and corn seeds.  We used ice cube trays and tiny cups to pretend to plant seeds as many times as we wanted.  Some of us got inventive with this activity.  The activity evolved into a cake baking activity with the seeds as chocolate chips for one friend.  For another, the sand became a volcano filled with lava seeds!

The farm theme transferred to the sensory bin a s well today.  Some of the older kids have started talking about the farm so we created an imaginary farm using popsicle sticks as fencing.  Many of us enjoyed making a paddock for each type of farm animal and putting like species together.  Eventually the project turned into a mountain building activity with a giant popsicle stick fortress on top!  Lots of creativity today!

We have planted a variety of colored tomatoes this year so today we tried a black tomato variety to familiarize ourselves with the flavors of different colored tomatoes.  Everyone who liked tomatoes enjoyed the black tomato flavor!

Breakfast:  Peanut butter toast, fresh pears and milk

Lunch: Pasta with beans, fresh strawberries, bananas and cucumbers

PM Snack: Yogurt with gram crackers

Wee Sprouts: fresh carrots and cucumbers

Have a wonderful afternoon!

Ms Linsey

Link to photos:2023-04-17

Good Afternoon!

This morning friends were engaged in the housekeeping area using some of the loose parts manipulatives in their cooking and mixing with the mixer and bowls.

Several friends then gathered up in the front area to build with our wood blocks.  They used their imaginative skills as they constructed their buildings. Friends also worked their fine motor and hand-eye coordination skills as they pieced their waffle blocks together.

Breakfast: Whole grain wheat bread toasted with peanut butter and fresh pear slices.

Lunch: Whole grain wheat macaroni pasta with butter and black beans, fresh apple slices and corn.

Afternoon Snack: Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprout: Green Bell Peppers

Have a great evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2023-04-17