Good Afternoon!

Art and science combined this morning as our finger painting got experimental!  The kids were so excited about making monoprints that we set out some art paper and let them have at it, making as many prints as they wanted.  Having this opportunity allows children to really get creative.  When given the time and space to experiment with materials, children can begin to ask themselves, “I wonder what will happen when I try it this way?”. When allowed more time and space to independently figure out the answer to that question, deeply meaningful learning takes place.

During this experimental process, some beautiful and spontaneous events took place.  One friend chose to write her name on the back of her paper while it was laying on top of her painted tray.  When she lifted it, she discovered that writing on the back of the paper would transfer a NEW type of image! She was so excited by this discovery that she tried it again and again!  Other friends followed suit, trying the technique with their own artwork.  Another beautiful thing that happened was the decision friends made to work collaboratively, sharing their creative ideas in paint and allowing them to intermingle.

Why is this art project important to my child’s education? Studies show that as society continues to advance in technology, the jobs available to our children at the time when they are heading off to college will require this set of skills; creativity, critical thinking, complex problem solving as well as the ability to work cooperatively and collaboratively.  Our kids are learning these very important ways of working and thinking right now in their early childhood classroom.

Breakfast– Puffins cereal with fresh cantaloupe.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded pork, fresh oranges/banana, and fresh cherry tomatoes/carrots/cucumber.

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

Wee Sprout– Fresh cherry tomatoes/carrots.

Have a wonderful night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-15

Good Afternoon!

This morning, our friends discovered that their Magna-Tiles stick to the door. Our friends all took turns putting their tiles on the door and making a beautiful collage of colorful shapes.

We then went on a bear hunt with Miss Bekah. Every friend chose a special teddy bear to go on a bear hunt with.

Our friends were engaged with the wooden ring loose parts. Our friends used their imaginative skills to pretend that they were bracelets. Some of them placed one on each of their hands and waved while saying “hi!”.

We made our way to the kitchen to play with pegs and pegboards. We worked on placing our pegs in the holes and stacking them to make towers. Eleanor pretended that the pegs were candles and sang “happy birthday to mommy.”

Our friends then made their way to the reading steps to read. Some friends took turns choosing a different book for Miss Bekah to read to them.

Breakfast:  Corn Chex cereal and fresh cantaloupe.

Lunch:  Whole grain brown rice with red beans, fresh plums and cucumbers.

Afternoon Snack: Sunflower seeds with whole grain wheat Triscuits crackers.

Wee Sprouts:  Mini sweet peppers.

Have a beautiful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-15

Good Afternoon! It was a colorful day at Wee Friends!

There have been quite a few friends wanting to put their hands in paint while painting at the easel lately.  Today we geared an activity toward that interest with some finger painting and monoprint art.  Everyone picked a tray on colors they liked.  They mixed the colors with their fingers, spread the colors in a solid block over their tray, then drew lines, circles and pictures in the paint.  They enjoyed erasing the images with their hand and drawing new ones.  When someone got an image they really liked we used a piece of paper to press over the image to make a monoprint transfer. 

We hope you enjoy the rest of the pictures from out day!

Breakfast- Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh cantaloupe.

Lunch- Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat tortilla, fresh cantaloupe/plums, and fresh pepper/cucumber.

PM snack- humus with blue corn chips

Wee Sprout- Fresh pepper/cucumber.

Have a great night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures:2024-08-14

Happy Wednesday!

This morning after breakfast, Miss Tina got out our finger puppets and wooden occupational people.  We enjoyed sitting and working to place the finger puppets on our fingers and snuggle them.  We then used our imaginative skills as we played with the wooden occupational people.

Several of us then climbed up on the habi-trail and went down the slide or worked to climb onto the ladder.

We then headed into the kitchen for a different drawing experience.  Miss Bekah taped a marker onto the back of a wooden car and we drove our cars across our papers and watched our marker lines appear onto our papers to create our drawings.

We then headed outside to play.  The favorite spot for everyone many times through out the morning was the sandbox.  We were busy scooping and pouring, making circle prints with our funnel.  A few of us also enjoyed riding on the teeter totters.

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

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs, fresh oranges, red bell peppers and whole grain wheat English muffin toasted with buttery spread.

Afternoon Snack:  Refried beans and cracked wheat crackers.

Wee Sprout:  Cucumbers.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-14

Good afternoon!

This morning, our friends enjoyed reading a book, going up the habi-trail ladder, climbing on BounceBlocks towers, hiding under the habi-trail, and using their imaginative skills to pretend their plastic block was a boat.

We then made our way to the kitchen for some water play. Our friends enjoyed using a slotted ladle or bowl, plastic steamboats, and a funnel to engage with the soapy water.

We then made our way outside for some of our favorite activities. We explored the playhouse, rode bikes up and down the hill, and sat in the shaded grass area with a friend.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with fresh cantaloupe.

Lunch: Whole grain wheat tortilla with peanut butter, mild cheddar cheese block, pineapple and cucumber.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout: Yellow bell pepper/cucumber.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-13

Good Afternoon!

We are saying goodbye to William today as he graduates from Wee Friends and heads off to his new school!  We will all miss his leadership in organizing group games or projects, his fun loving attitude and most of all his questions . We have a class list of project ideas that Wee Friends have created this year.  William had added Rain Sticks to the list, so today we made sure to make Williams rain sticks for a special activity on his last day!

Can you believe the boxes are still a center of Wee Friends imaginative play?!  Today friends worked together pretending to be building houses.  They used wood chips as saws.  They added logs as a fence around the houses and fit an amazing number of friends into the houses to play.  As they came out of their box house it was like watching a clown car unload.  It’s a testament to their cooperative play skills to be able to work together in such close quarters and be able to talk through problem solving.  Some adults can’t do that!  Way to go Wee Friends!

Breakfast– Whole grain cheerios with banana.

Lunch– Homemade english muffin pizzas with shredded cheese and optional turkey pepperoni, fresh pineapple/cantaloupe, and fresh cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/cherry tomatoes.

Have a wonderful night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-13

Good Afternoon!

This morning Hannah decided she wanted to organize the toys in habitrail.  She sorted them, and because she was proud of her hard work, asked “How can we keep it like this?”.  We suggested making labels indicating what goes in each bin.  We talked about spelling out the words and also drawing a picture for those who could not read yet.  Hannah took the task very seriously and did a beautiful job!  Child led projects like this teach reading and writing in an authentic way.  When a child initiates a reading and writing based project, it sticks!

We explored an open ended loose parts activity this morning challenging Wee Friends to use a variety of magnetic shapes, some coffee cans and their creative problem solving skills to invent something unique!  Everyone who chose to participate made a class list of all the different things they invented.

As some of our older friends explored the magnets, they noticed that one side of the magnet repelled and the other attracted.  This led to a spontaneous lesson about how magnets work.  We learned that magnets have two poles just like the earth.  The opposite poles attract and the same repel.  The kids began experimenting with what could be done with this knowledge.  William exclaimed “Look I can move the magnet across the table without even touching it!”.  I would consider this a perfect teaching moment at Wee Friends!  These activities are designed to create experiences that give the opportunity for children to make discoveries about the amazing world around them on their own.   When this happens, the joy of learning multiplies ten fold!!

Breakfast– Whole wheat english muffins with cream cheese and fresh oranges.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with black beans, fresh cantaloupe/banana, and fresh cucumber/carrot/pepper.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with granola.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper/carrot.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures:2024-08-12

Good Afternoon!

Today we welcomed a new friend and his family to our classroom and the Wee Friends family.  We are so happy to have you with us.

We went into the kitchen to engage with playdough.  We had a variety of cookie cutters, a plastic egg half, smooth and textured rolling pins and cutting tools to use to manipulate it.  The friends watched as the lines appeared as they rolled the textured rolling pins into the dough.

We then headed out to play with the stackers.  We  were busy stacking shapes onto our stacker pole, using a variety of wooden loose parts to create a unique stack and stacking our bowls together.

We then headed outside to enjoy many of our favorite activities.  We scooped and poured sand into different containers, rode bikes and the teeter totter, and stood at the fence anticipating the arrival of the trash truck since we could hear it near by.

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

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat penne pasta with red beans, fresh cantaloupe and yellow bell peppers.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and fresh pineapple/cantaloupe.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers/Yellow bell peppers.

Have a marvelous evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-12

Happy Friday!

Today was Miss Nina’s last day with us. She’s helped us out for the last three summers and she’s been so wonderful! We know she’s going to do great student teaching this fall. We’re so glad we were able to be apart of her journey to becoming a teacher!

Our focus today: enjoying this awesome weather!

We went on a neighborhood walk with our Wee Wee friends. We walked down to the train tracks and around the block. While on our walk, we saw and heard several dogs, saw a cat in a window sill, noticed beautiful flowers and flags, and pointed out different cars that we saw.

Enjoy a few more pictures from the rest of our day!

Breakfast– Brown rice cakes with cream cheese and fresh watermelon.

Lunch– Turkey on whole wheat bread, fresh watermelon, and fresh cucumber/pepper.

PM snack– Block cheddar cheese and graham crackers.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber.

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Wee Friends Teaches

Link to pictures: 2024-08-09

Happy Friday!

This morning we began with our favorite dancing songs, The Beanie Bag Dance by Greg and Steve and Going on a Bear Hunt.

We then headed over to make our own musical sounds on the pianos and xylophones.

We then headed outside for the rest of the morning.  Our friends loved going for a ride around the block in the wagons with the preschoolers walking behind us.  We enjoyed seeing lots of colorful flowers and a rainbow colored fence.  We also heard many dogs barking from inside their houses as we went down the sidewalk.

When we made it back from our wagon ride, we got out our road signs that Charlotte and Eleanor enjoyed looking and pointing to the letters on them.  We also rode the teeter totters, played with the trucks, scooped in the sandbox and peeked through the bench or around the little house.

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

Lunch:  Turkey lunch meat, whole grain wheat bread, fresh cucumbers and watermelon.

Afternoon Snack:  Goldfish crackers, mozzarella cheese stick and watermelon.

Wee Sprouts:  Orange bell peppers.

Enjoy the weekend and beautiful weather!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-09