Good Afternoon!

Our PREK1 sign in this morning challenged friends to recall important information from the book we read yesterday in group titled, ‘Spend It!’. Children had to identify the option that cost the most money in the story which was the bouncy castle!

Katherine’s excitement about writing words was contagious this morning! First, Katherine started writing words that she knew. She started asking for help in sounding out other words that she wasn’t as confident in spelling. Two younger peers watched her as she wrote word after word which peaked their interest! S asked for help in writing a book for her dad while Hannah wanted to write the word ‘tree’. We got out the letter sheet and we wrote ‘tree’ together.

This was an extremely authentic writing exercise that was driven by children’s interests which is the best way to learn and retain information. We love mornings like this!

This morning friends enjoyed exploring a welcome activity, sorting through trays of costume jewelry pieces.  This open ended activity lead children to develop in a variety of ways.  Some chose to sort the jewelry by size, color or shape, building cognitive development .  Others worked on their social emotional skills as they shared at what each other had collected and negotiated trades.   

PREK2:  Our group read the story “If you take a Mouse to the Movies”.  At the end of the story we tried to recall one event from the story as we made a class list.

Breakfast: Overnight oatmeal with fresh clementines.

Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs, whole wheat flat bread, fresh pineapple/cantaloupe/bananas, and fresh peppers/cucumbers.

PM Snack: Hummus with corn tortilla chips.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh cucumbers and bell peppers.

Have a great day!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Link to Pictures:2024-12-11

Good Afternoon!

We kicked off our day by talking about money for our PREK1 sign in activity. We identified two types of money: coins and dollar bills. Children identified two different coins on the sign in board and signed their name under the penny. We talked about how the penny is the only copper coin and the rest are silver!

Later on in group, we read a book titled ‘Spend It!’. The main character in the story gets an allowance each week and gets 3 carrots. On the weekend, he wanted to spend his carrots but had to pick between three different things that were all different amounts. He decided on a pogo stick which was exactly 3 carrots! This led into a discussion about how things cost different dollar amounts. We looked at a poster with various things to buy at Target. Each child chose one thing to buy and had to get the correct dollar amount to buy the item with! Ryan, on the other hand, couldn’t quite make up his mind so he decided to SAVE his money for something he really wanted later on .

We hope you enjoy some pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Puffins cereal with fresh banana.

Lunch– Peanut butter on whole wheat tortilla, fresh apples/clementines/pineapple, and fresh broccoli/cucumber.

PM snack– Spinach/banana birthday muffins with string cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/broccoli.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures:2024-12-10

Good afternoon!

Our friends danced along to the “Beanie Bag Dance” song with their bean bags. Even Cece explored a bean bag while her friends danced.

 

Today was Miss Julie’s last day with us as the fall semester ends. Our friends enjoyed having her with us and gave her a big hug goodbye.

We headed outside to enjoy another day of nice weather. Most of our friends practiced their balancing skills on our wooden board balance beam course. Cece enjoyed another morning outside with her friends.

Breakfast: Whole grain Corn Chex cereal with fresh oranges.

Lunch: Whole grain wheat flatbread with refried beans and shredded Colby-Jack cheese, fresh apple slices and yellow bell pepper.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat bagel with peanut butter and a mild cheddar cheese slices.

Wee Sprout: Mini cucumbers.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-10

Good Afternoon!

There has been a lot of interest in ice and snow since last week, so we offered a science project based on ice.  The kids were offered an ice cube with a penguin frozen inside of it.  They received an eye dropper and warm water to aid in a challenge to melt the penguin free as fast as possible.  Everyone was timed to see how fast they could get the ice to melt.  They were encouraged to try different techniques.  One child found it was very fast to drop the entire ice cube into the water and stir it.  This technique caught on quickly! Everyone had a great time with it!

PREK2:  In group today, we read the story “Grandmother Winter”.  In the story, there were several animals that hibernate in the winter.  We talked as a group about what hibernating means.  We paid close attention to each animal in the story that was hibernating.  At the end of the story we tried to remember an animal that hibernates during the winter.

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with butter and fresh clementines.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with black beans, fresh pineapple/clementines, and fresh broccoli/carrots/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper/carrot.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-09

Happy Monday!

This morning we listened to the song, Going On A Bear Hunt and went on a bear hunt with our stuffed animals.  We then sat in our plastic blocks to listen to Miss Ashley read us our favorite teacher books.

We then headed into the kitchen with Miss Bekah to engage with loose parts.  We used our tongs and spoons to work on picking up or scooping the pom-poms from our bowl and placing them onto our tray or into our cup.  We put our dominos to our ears and pretended we were talking on the telephone.

We then headed outside.  We so enjoyed the sunshine and warmer temperatures as we played.  We went down the slide, explored a big leaf, engaged with baby dolls, rode the teeter totters and played with the trucks.  Arthur came down to say hi to his sister Cece.

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

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat penne pasta with black beans, fresh clementine’s and cucumber slices.

Afternoon Snack;  Whole milk yogurt and fresh pineapple.

Wee Sprouts:  Red bell peppers.

Have a marvelous evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures:  2024-12-09

Happy Friday with sunshine!

This morning we began our morning kicking the plush snowballs, standing on the stack of BounceBlocks we built, cooking in the housekeeping kitchen and watching the fish swim around in the tank.

We then headed into the kitchen to paint real snow.  We had the choice of  blue, red and yellow watercolors to spread with a paint brush over our snow to make it full of colors.

Today as we were acting out the movements to Listen and Move by Greg and Steve, Miss Tina brought down the sheer curtain for us to go through.

Charlotte and 2 other friends interacted with Cece while she was playing on her playmat.  Cece also engaged in feeling the feet of her doll while sitting in her chair, like Charlotte was doing to Cece while she was on her mat.

Breakfast:  Brown rice cakes with cream cheese and fresh clementine oranges.

Lunch:  Rotisserie chicken lunch meat on whole grain wheat bread, bananas and cucumbers.

Afternoon Snack:  Goldfish crackers and mozzarella cheese stick.

Wee Sprouts:  Green bell peppers.

Have a great weekend!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures:  2024-12-06

Happy Friday!

We ended our week by celebrating Arthur’s birthday with him! He turned four years old today and perfected his playdough birthday cake this morning! Happy birthday, Arthur!

For PREK1 group sign in, children worked together to complete a snowman! We started with a blank snowman and each group member got to add one thing to the snowman. Children spent some time trying to decide what they wanted to add .

In PREK1 group, we read one of my favorite books, ‘Here and There’ which dives into daily life and routines in different countries. Today, we focused on how kids from different countries travel to school. We determined that everyone in our group gets to school the same way: by car! But, we learned that children in different countries often have to walk miles to school or in cable cars if you live in Venezuela! Children were fascinated to see that in parts of France and the Netherlands, children travel to school on a bike bus! They were also relieved that they don’t live in Japan as children travel to school by themselves, often by train, starting at the age of 6! As we talked about different countries, we identified them on the map and looked to see how far away the country is from the United States.

 Social Studies: K.3.2 Identify maps and globes as ways of representing Earth and understand the differences between a map/globe.

Friends enjoyed an art activity in the art center this morning.  They used a mixture of paint and glue in squeeze bottles to make beautiful marbled and mixed artwork!  Many friends worked on this art project with extreme focus!  It lasted all morning!

Miss Ashley sat with a large group of children on the building rug as they learned the game of ‘Go Fish’. The rules were laid out and children helped one another throughout the game as it was all fairly new to everyone! We love learning a new game that we can play with our friends.

Breakfast– Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and banana.

Lunch– Ham on whole wheat tortilla/flatbread, fresh clementines/banana, and fresh carrots/snap peas/pepper.

PM snack– Arthur’s birthday snack: fresh fruit kabobs and block cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh snap peas/carrots.

Have a wonderful weekend.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-06

Good snowy afternoon!

Our friends engaged with some plush snowballs this morning. They threw them in the air or used a bulldozer construction truck to pretend that they were “plowing” the snow.

We then made our way into the kitchen for a sensory activity. We each had a plastic tray with a miniature farm animal, recycled food pouch lids, a brush, a spoon and a handful of snow from outside. We talked about how the snow felt and we all agreed that it was “cold.” Ms. Tina helped hide our friends’ farm animals in the snow and our friends used their brushes to remove the snow. We also watched as the snow melted on our tray and turned into puddles of water.

We sat in plastic blocks to listen to Miss Bekah read several winter and Christmas books.

We then engaged in a variety of different activities- we rode our rainbow mats, walked on stepping stones, explored our nesting cups, used the shape stackers and played with object permanence boxes.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios cereal with fresh pear.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded beef, cucumbers and fresh cantaloupe.

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

Wee Sprout: Red bell pepper.

Have a wonderful evening and stay warm!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-05

Good Afternoon!

We used a globe to aid in our sign in question this morning for our PREK1 group kiddos. We looked at the globe and identified all of the ‘blue’ on the globe as water. Ryan said, “Like seas!”. We talked about the various types of bodies of water that make up our Earth.

Social Studies: K.3.2 Identify maps and globes as ways of representing Earth and understand the differences between a map/globe.

We had a long day indoors so we made sure to fill the time with plenty of activities!  With the windchill so low on one hand and friends eager to play in the snow on the other, we came up with a great solution.  We brought the snow inside to play with!  Friends enjoyed digging in the snow with shovels and making snowballs with ball scissors! 

Elsewhere in the classroom, we offered an obstacle course to get those gross motor muscles moving!  The course came with bounce blocks, a balance beam and a trampoline!

At the round table, friends enjoyed a fine motor activity.  They used large pinecones to decorate with rubber bands, puff balls and holiday beads.

PREK2: During group today, we read the story “All You Need For A Snowman”.  After the story we talked about the things that the snowman wore in the book.  We came up with our own idea about how we would want to dress our own snowman and made a class list.

Breakfast– Toasted oatmeal squares with fresh pineapple.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded turkey, fresh cantaloupe/banana, and fresh snap peas/cucumber/carrot.

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

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/cucumber.

Have a wonderful night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-05

Good Afternoon!

A few of us began our morning reading books independently on the reading steps.  We also crawled on the habi-trail, engaged with a baby doll and fed it a bottle, and a friend stacked wooden loose parts on a stacker.

We then headed into the kitchen to engage with playdough.  We used our hands and tools to manipulate it.  A friend even shared with Miss Tina that he had made a “burger.”

We then all sat on the reading step to listen to Miss Tina read, The Wheels On The Bus by Paul O. Zelinsky and a few other teacher books.

Breakfast:  Oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and bananas.

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs with shredded Colby-jack cheese on whole grain wheat flatbread roll-ups, fresh pineapple and red bell peppers.

Afternoon Snack:  Refried beans and white corn tortilla chips.

Wee Sprouts:  Green bell peppers.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-12-04