Good Afternoon!

We continued with the theme of community helpers today for our PREK1 sign in. Each child came up to the board where they chose a card that had some sort of vehicle written on it. They had to match their vehicle to the community helper that uses that vehicle!

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.

Yesterday during a sorting activity, many of our kids were particularly interested in using the tiny colored puff balls, so today we tried using them in other ways.  We used them to create patterns on bords of different shapes.  We also added them to a variety of collage materials.  The kids spent the morning using the puff balls in different ways.

The kids have been interested in using q-tips as an art material lately.  Since they tried painting with them, we have experimented with what else we can use to paint with.  Today we tried feather painting.  Many of us noticed that the feathers made different marks than the paint brush.  The more children experiment with combining a wide variety of materials in different ways, the more ways the brain builds to connect and express a child’s ideas!

PREK2:  Today we talked about “community helpers” during group time.  We thought about some we are familiar with and had a group discussion about what we remembered about them.  When we talked about doctors, almost every hand went up to tell a story about going to the doctor.  Some of the things kids shared were: “I went  to the doctor when I had a cough”, “I got shots in my leg and got a pretty Band-Aid”, and “I got a sticker at the doctor”’.  At the end of group time, we drew a card that described something a doctor, a construction worker, or a fire fighter did.  We put our card under the right community helper on the board.

Breakfast– Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh blueberries.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat English muffins/flatbread, fresh pineapple/apples/oranges, and fresh broccoli/carrots/pepper/cucumber.

PM snack– Hummus with tortilla chips .

Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/carrot/cucumber.

Have a wonderful night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-01-08

Good afternoon!

Our friends started off their morning with the “Beanie Bag Dance” song. Cece joined her friends and explored a bean bag.

We used our imaginary play skills in the housekeeping area. Our friends pretended to cook with utensils and our fruits and veggies.

We then headed into the kitchen for some sensory water play. We filled a tub with soapy water and some of our classroom toys. Our friends used sponges to wash and clean the toys. We also used cups to scoop the water and then pour it back into the bin..

Breakfast: Whole grain Oatmeal Squares Brown Sugar cereal and fresh pear slices.

Lunch: Shredded chicken and fresh avocado salad, whole grain wheat tortilla, fresh apple slices and red bell peppers.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout: Cucumber.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-01-07

Good Afternoon!

**Wee Friends will be closed on Friday, February 21st for Parent Teacher Conferences. If you are unable to make it for any reason or believe you have a conflict on that day, please let a teacher know for scheduling purposes. Thank you!

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Throughout the week, we’ll be diving into community helpers in our area and how they help us. Today, we focused in on the tools that community helpers need to do their jobs. During our sign in activity, children chose one card from the bottom of the board that had one tool written on it. They had to match it to the correct community helper and then write 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 help us.

After we read, ‘I Want To Be A Firefighter’ in PREK1 group, we focused in on four community  helpers: builder, farmer, firefighter, and chef. Our initial goal was to come up with three tools for each helper but we surpassed that goal! When we started having an open conversation about each helper, friends to quick to shout out tools that would be needed to do that job. The seven members of group did an amazing job working together to come up with a large list for each community helper!

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.

This morning we explored different colors of playdough that we could mix.  Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to try making multicolored creations.  There was a cake and a veggie spaghetti concoction that spurred a great little imaginative play moment amongst those at the table!  Friends took turns sharing what dish they made and offering a “taste” to friends.

Friends enjoyed an obstacle course that offered ways to hop, jump, scoot, balance and crawl in order to get some much needed exercise this morning! Friends enjoyed counting to “five jumps”…and also noticing if anyone accidently made it to six :).

The round table offered color sorting activities with different objects on each tray.  Many enjoyed trying each tray! When Paige sat down, she noticed that the colors mimicked those in the rainbow so she immediately voice, “I need to put these in the right order!”, and proceeded to sort them based on the colors of the rainbow before she got to sorting them!

PREK2: In group today we read the story “I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More”.  We enjoyed guessing what part of his body the boy in the story would paint next.  At the end, we talked about what the boy could do to clean up the mess.  The kids felt he could wipe up the paint or take a bath.  We talked about jobs we do to help in the classroom and jobs that are teachers do.  Then we each came up to the board to get a job card.  We sorted the cards after we decided whose job it was.

Breakfast– Kix and fresh blueberries.

Lunch– Homemade chicken avocado salad on whole wheat bread, fresh oranges/banana, and fresh cucumber/carrots.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/cucumber/pepper.

Have a lovely night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-01-07

Happy New Year and welcome back!  Our friends were so excited to see their friends and teachers this morning!

We began our morning Going On A Bear Hunt with the stuffed animals, walking around the front circle.

The teachers switched the sensory table to moon sand.  We worked on scooping the sand with different size scoops, shovels and spoons and pouring the mixture into another cup or back into the table.  We also explored the different sea animals in with the moon sand.

We also enjoyed climbing up and sliding down the slide.

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

Lunch:  Whole grain penne pasta with shredded roast beef, fresh clementine oranges/apple slices and cucumber slices.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and fresh blueberries.

Wee Sprout:  Green bell peppers.

Have a great evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-01-06

Happy Monday! Welcome back!

PREK1 kiddos kicked off their morning completely sign in where we revisited some classroom rules since we’ve been gone for a few weeks! Kids found their name on the board and a corresponding area in the classroom such as art area, habitrail, outside, or building rug. They had to say aloud a rule that we follow in that certain space and why we have that rule.

This group has gotten so skilled at thinking outside the box with materials.  We can give them any group of materials and they are able to come up with a creative solution to utilize them!  The kids used paper towel rolls cut into small pieces, round pieces of cardboard, cardboard mesh packing material, q-tips, popsicle sticks, tape, markers, yarn, glue, paint and a variety of paper sizes to create all morning long!  The ability to use so many materials as young children is a building process that has been unfolding all year. Many of the kids used EVERY material in their creations!   Having the opportunity to combine so many different materials allows for an explosion in creative thinking and fine motor ability.  This combination of skills literally goes hand in hand with brain development.  Having the ability to make more complex things with their hands actually allows the brain to invent more complex thoughts, and so more complex webs of neural pathways!  It’s all so exciting! 

Later in the morning some friends in the science area were choosing to use our spherical magnetic building manipulatives in a way they were not intended…which allowed us to see what the kids were actually interested in doing and responding with “emergent curriculum”.  We set up some large tubes and soft balls to experiment with on the building rug.  The kids ran with it!  This is emergent curriculum.

PREK2:  Today, after the long break, we remembered class rules and how they keep our classroom safe.  We read the story “Know and Follow Rules”.  We talked about why we  have these rules and how how they keep us safe.  The kids helped brainstorm what might happen if those rule were not there .  At the end of the story, the kids picked the class rule that they felt best at remembering!

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

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with shredded beef, fresh pears/banana, and fresh cucumber/pepper.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a wonderful night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-01-06

Good afternoon ! We hope everyone has a warm happy and safe winter break!  Please you enjoy some pictures from our day!

Breakfast: Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh clementines

Lunch: Peanut butter on whole wheat tortillas with fresh broccoli/peppers and apple/pineapple

PM Snack: Fresh baked vegan chocolate chip muffins with whole milk yogurt and cheese

Wee Sprouts:fresh cucumbers and peppers

Have a wonderful holiday!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures:2024-12-20

Happy Friday!  Enjoy the pictures from our day!

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

Lunch:  Refried beans and shredded cheddar cheese on whole grain wheat flatbread, fresh mini cucumbers and fresh apple/pineapple slices.

Afternoon Snack:  Homemade vegan mini chocolate chip muffins (made by Miss Ashley and the preschool class), mozzarella cheese stick and fresh mini cucumbers.

Wee Sprout:  Red bell peppers.

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  See you in January.

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-20

Good Afternoon!

**Tomorrow is PAJAMA DAY!

We are just one day away from winter break and a few days away from when winter officially starts! We continued on with our winter theme for our PREK1 sign in. Children chose one activity on the board that was their favorite. They could choose from sledding, skiing/snowboarding, skating, or building a snowman.

This morning friends enjoyed exploring kinetic sand, baking tins and a variety of colored shapes.  Many friends enjoyed using the baking tins as molds to make pretend cakes or cookies to decorate with the shapes.  Imaginative play centered around preparing treats for the holidays which I’m sure many kids are thinking about this time of year!

In the art center, we worked back into our winter process paintings to add more layers and textures.  We used rollers to add pattern, then snow flake stamps for the final layer.  Many friends really enjoyed painting the stamps and then pressing them onto their paper.  Even some of our younger kids spent up to 20 minutes at the art center carefully painting the snowflakes to print on their paintings.  When art projects are open for independent expression, friends tend to stay the longest!

PREK2:  We revisited the story, ‘The Snowy Day’ with the intention of noticing the words used to describe the way snow feels, tastes,  or sounds.  We stopped to talk about several examples in the book.  Afterwards, we thought of our own descriptive words or recalled what we heard in the story.  We made a class list of our wintery thoughts!

Breakfast– Kix and banana.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded turkey, fresh pineapple/apple/cantaloupe/grapes, and fresh cucumber/carrots.

PM snack– Trail mix with pumpkin seeds/sunflower seeds/raisins/granola and banana slices.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrots/pepper.

Have a wonderful night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-19

Good afternoon!

Our friends started off their morning by marching along to the “Ants Go Marching” song with rhythm sticks. They tapped their sticks along to the beat of the song.

We then made our way to the kitchen to engage in a loose parts activity with tongs, spoons, pom-poms, bowls and cups. Two of our older friends pinched the tongs together to pick up pom-poms and then transferred them to a bowl or cup. Eleanor placed a brown pom-pom in her cup and pretended that it was coffee. Another friend held up a domino to their ear, like it was a phone.

We also sat in plastic blocks or on the reading steps to listen to Miss Bekah read books. We especially liked the “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” book.

Breakfast: Whole grain Corn Chex cereal with fresh bananas.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded chicken, green bell peppers and fresh apple slices.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat Ritz crackers with peanut butter and banana.

Wee Sprout:  Cucumbers.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-19

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