Good Afternoon!

Today we celebrated Eleanor’s birthday as she turned 2 over the weekend!  We are so happy we got to celebrate with you!  Thank you for the birthday snack!

We began our morning with our stuffed teddy bears.  We listened to Going on a Bear Hunt with them while walking around the circle, rocking them in the rocking chair, and climbing under the habi-trail to snuggle with one while playing peek-a-boo with a friend.

We then headed into the kitchen for some sensory play with shaving cream.  We added red and yellow food coloring to resemble the fall colors, and leaves to give it a different texture to experience.

We then headed outside to play.  Even though it was a much cooler morning than we are used to, it didn’t stop us one bit.  We pushed and rode bikes down the hill, worked on our balancing skills on the balance beam, and built with the Outlast blocks and vehicles.

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

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat penne pasta with shredded turkey, fresh mini cucumbers and red grapes.

Afternoon:  Goldfish crackers and colby-jack block cheese slices (Eleanor’s birthday treat).

Wee Sprouts:  Mini cucumbers.

Have a marvelous evening!

WWF Teachers

Link pictures: 2024-10-14

Happy Monday!

It has suddenly become quite chilly in the morning!  Pease remember to send your child with a jacket since we will be outside in the mornings for and hour to an hour and a half.  Also for hands, please make sure to send mittens and not fingered gloves unless your child knows how to put them on themself.  Happy Fall!

This morning we offered a welcome activity sorting objects into light weight and heavy wight categories.  After friends were finished with the activity they were given the option to stay and play with the objects as long as they wanted.  This part of the activity is actually the most meaningful part.  As children play after this activity, they are learning about how different weighted objects behave in space, how the objects relate to one another, how they feel and how they move.  Every aspect of the object is being experimented with and recorded in the child’s brain.  This is why the play part  is where in-depth learning takes place.

…Arthur made a person with his objects after the activity!

PREK2: Today we read the story “Kindness Starts with you”.  The book talked about different ways we can use words to be kind.  Afterward, we talked as a group and came up with a class list of words we could say to be kind.

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with butter and banana.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with shredded pork, fresh watermelon/strawberries/pineapple, and fresh cucumber/pepper.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with strawberries and gram crackers

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a lovely night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures:2024-10-14

Happy Friday!

To begin our morning, friends engaged in a variety of activities.  Several of our friends got out the plastic blocks and turned them over to sit in and imagine they were in a boat.  Another friend was busy climbing on the habi-trail while another friend watched the birds eat their breakfast out the window.

We then headed into the kitchen with Miss Bekah to paint with leaves.  We had 2 different shaped leaves to dip into the paint to spread across our paper to make our painting masterpieces.  We noticed as were were painting, we made a new color, orange, while we mixed our red and yellow paint together with our leaves.  Look at how our painting masterpieces turned out!

We then headed outside to enjoy the beautiful weather this morning and engage in many of our favorite activities.

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

Lunch:  Hummus on whole grain wheat tortillas, fresh cucumber slices/cherry tomatoes, fresh cantaloupe/pineapple.

Afternoon Snack:  Goldfish crackers and mild cheddar block cheese slices.

Wee Sprouts:  Mini sweet peppers.

Have a great weekend!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-11

Happy Friday!

We experimented with art materials this morning!  We tried oil pastel and charcoal at the art easel.  Some enjoyed playfully mixing and smearing materials. Some found the materials inspired them to make something specific.  Arthur drew windows.  As he smeared the charcoal, he came up with a story; there was a storm outside, the sky was very dark and the windows were closed keeping the rain, wind and bats outside!

Outdoors we enjoyed collecting leaves and other natural materials to make collages.  We got to talk about symmetry vs asymmetry since several friends spontaneously created examples of each!

Breakfast– Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and banana.

Lunch– Ham and cream cheese rollups, whole wheat tortilla, fresh cantaloupe/pineapple/grapes, and fresh pepper/cucumber/carrot.

PM snack– Pretzels and block cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/carrot/cucumber.

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-11

Good Afternoon!

Our PREK1 group used a book we read from our MACK collection earlier in the week for our sign in activity. The book focuses on two best friends who bring different things for lunch and each of them had a hard time accepting each others lunches until the end of the story! Todays sign in asked the question, “What two sandwiches do the main characters eat?”. Every friend was able to recall the two sandwiches immediately!

K.RL.2.2: With support, retell familiar stories, poems, and nursey rhymes, including key details.

There has been continued interest surrounding firefighting in our classroom.  Last night, there were a few friends who visited a fire station that was finished after their complete rebuild.  There were actually four friends who were sporting fire truck shirts this morning!  Since fire stations were the hot topic of the morning, we designed our welcome activity around that interest.  We brought a variety of wooden block shapes and a collection of fire trucks to the round table to create a fire house building station.  Several stayed all morning building and playing.

Katherine brought in a book to donate to the class and after we read it several times this morning, Katherine and a peer headed straight to the art table to draw the main character in the book, ‘There’s A Monster In Your Book’! Thanks for the book donation, Katherine!

Several friends have been feeling the urge to bring things into the outdoor kitchen that don’t necessarily belong there…so today we made sure that the outdoor kitchen was stocked with plenty of “cooking” materials so that everyone’s need to mix up imaginary concoctions would be more than satisfied!

Our PREK2 journal group has come up with all kinds of creative ideas for their journals this week! We had, ‘A potato and my family’, ‘A picture’, ‘Main walking under the fire works’, ‘A spiral road’, ‘Two colors of fire’, ‘A machine that scissors up snackies’ and my favorite, ‘Letters from my name with a pot-a-potty’ .

Breakfast– Puffins cereal with banana.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded pork, fresh watermelon, and fresh cucumber/carrot.

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

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrots.

Have a great night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-10

Good afternoon!

This morning, our friends explored the sensory tubes. We watched as the items inside moved from one side to the other, or made noise, as we moved them up and down. The tubes had feathers, bouncy balls, foam shapes and colorful pebbles inside.

Cece was back this morning and laid on her playmat to watch the toys hanging from her mat sway when she kicked her feet. Julie, our IUSB student, and some of our friends gathered near Cece’s playmat to watch her play.

We then made our way to the kitchen with Miss Bekah for a loose parts play activity. We were given a tray with miniature farm animals, wooden shapes and the occupational people

We headed outside to enjoy this gorgeous morning weather! Our friends engaged with: the housekeeping area, climbing up the rocks to go down the slide, in the log area with a friend and trying to climb the log house.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with fresh, red grapes.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with red beans, fresh mini sweet peppers and watermelon slices.

Afternoon Snack: Sunflower seeds with Ritz crackers.

Wee Sprout: Cucumber.

Have a beautiful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-10

Good Afternoon!

Throughout the week, we’ve been talking about words associated with time and today, we focused on the word ‘month’. Friends signed their name under their birthday month and surprisingly, we didn’t have any duplicates: each group member had their own birthday month! .

K.M.2: Understand concepts of time, including: morning, afternoon, evening, today, yesterday, tomorrow, day week, month, and year. Understand that clocks and calendars are tools that measure time.

In PREK1 group, we read ‘Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea’ which was about two young girls who wanted to help build a playground in the courtyard of their apartment complex. Through determination and perseverance, they were able to accomplish that goal! When we were done, we took five important events that occurred in the story and put them in sequential order.

K.1.4: Identify and order events that take place in a sequence.

This morning several friends enjoyed exploring sensory activities.  We set up play dough in the art center along with golf tees and rollers.  Some enjoyed counting how many golf tees could fit in their playdough while others made birthday cakes!

Many friends also enjoyed the water sensory bin.  They experimented with different ways of changing water flow.  We added some marble run pieces that would allow friends to try out a different way to use them.  Many used the wheels and funnels with eye droppers and or pour spouts.

Some of our older friends have been making Halloween art this week.  Today Katherine drew a “Vampire”!  She has become so skilled at putting her thoughts onto paper!

PREK2: During group we read the story “The Bus For Us”.  We identified the first vehicle in the story and the last.  At the end we came up to the board to pick our favorite truck from the story for our class list.

Breakfast– Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh pineapple.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs, whole wheat flatbread, fresh grapes/clementines, and fresh cucumber/green beans.

PM snack– Tortilla chips with hummus.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/green beans.

Have a wonderful night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-09

Happy Wednesday!

We  began our morning Going On A Bear Hunt with our stuffed teddy bears around the front circle.  We then grabbed Bean bags to dance and act out the Beanie Bag Dance song.

This morning we made Oobleck.  It is a mixture of equal parts of corn starch and water. We used our hands in the mixture and found that the water sits on top and a solid forms on the bottom of our bowl.  When we used our hands to pull the mixture up off the bottom of our bowl, the solid turned into a liquid and we watched it run through our fingers.  We were also given colored craft sticks to stir the mixture and found that the color ran off of the craft stick to turn our white Oobleck the color of our craft stick.

We then headed outside to explore with our senses.  Charlotte noticed a flower and bent down to smell it, while Eleanor used her sense of touch to explore the bark on the tree.  Several friends were also busy cooking in the housekeeping kitchen at the table and engaged with a little cup at the table by the sandbox.

Breakfast:  Oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh red grapes.

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs, fresh apple and cucumber slices and whole grain wheat bread.

Afternoon Snack:  Hummus on whole grain wheat flatbread. 

Wee Sprouts:  Red bell peppers.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-09

Good Afternoon!

Yesterday, our PREK1 sign in focused on activities that we do during the day and when we do them. Today, we specifically focused on our day here at Wee Friends. I wrote the first activity and then friends placed the next activity into a sequence. We talked about how our day has many choices but there are some activities that are done at a given time throughout the day such as lunch at noon! When we were done, we read the sequence of our day.

K.1.4: Identify and sort events that take place in a sequence.

We had a wonderful trip with the farm group today!  We got to try new things, as each farm trip is different!  Today, we learned about caring for horses.  We got to bring a white horse named “Shelby” out of her stall and brush her.  We learned about what the different types of brushes are used for.  We also learned about cleaning up after horses as we helped clean the stall.  We all felt that brushing the horse was the most fun part!  We also got to hold some baby chicks after our hard work caring for the horses!

We took a long walk around the farm!  We hiked through the field, the back woods and along the marsh picking up sticks, acorns and leaves as we went!  Some of us ran through the entire “walk”.

While our farm group was away, the rest of us enjoyed an amazing morning outside. It was PERFECT weather.

PREK2: During group today we read the story “The Crayon Box that Talked”.  After the story we thought about ways we could show kindness and get along well with our friends.  Everyone shared what they thought of at the board and we made a class list.

Breakfast– Corn chex and fresh pineapple/nectarine.

Lunch– Peanut butter on whole wheat bread, fresh pineapple/apples, and fresh cherry tomatoes/green beans/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh green beans/cucumber.

Have a lovely night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-08

Good Afternoon!

Our friend Cece came back for a morning visit with our friends. She shared big smiles with her sister, Eleanor.

We enjoyed stepping inside the BounceBlocks to work on our balance skills this morning. Some of our friends also gathered around the Zany Zoo Activity Cube and engaged with the activity on the cube closest to them.

Our friends then made their way to the kitchen to explore pegs and pegboards. Our friends worked on building towers with their pegs or placing a peg in each hole on their board.

We went outside and further practiced our balance skills on the balance beam course. We also engaged with sea animals at the table with our friends.

Breakfast: Whole grain Puffins cereal with fresh tangerines.

Lunch: Peanut butter on whole grain wheat tortillas, fresh cherry tomatoes, cantaloupe slices and 1/2 mozzarella cheese stick.

Afternoon Snack: Cream cheese on whole grain wheat bagel and fresh apple slices.

Wee Sprout:  Mini cucumbers.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-08