Good afternoon!

Our friends enjoyed playing with the TinyTurf stair-and-slide. Friends took turns going up the stairs and then sliding down the slide. Our younger friends played with different kinds of blocks like Duplos, peek-a-blocks, and the wooden blocks.

We made our way to the kitchen to engage with a rice/bird seed mixture sensory bin. Friends used spoons and cups to scoop up the mixture and to pour it back out into the bin. Some of our friends played hide-and-seek with miniature ants and lizards that were in the mixture.

We then made our way outside for a wee sprout at the bench and to play. We walked around with a ball, played with a baby doll, pushed a truck in the rock area, used our imaginative skills to pretend to cook in the play kitchen, and played in the sand box.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios cereal with fresh oranges.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with black beans, watermelon slices, and corn.

Afternoon Snack: Sunflower seeds with sweet potato crackers.

Wee Sprout: Cucumber.

Have a wonderful evening!

Tina and Jena

Link to pictures: 2024-06-06

Good Afternoon!

We had our last farm trip of the spring with all of our big kids! It was a perfect day; breezy and sunny!  Our graduating big kids each chose something special they would like to do or see on our last trip.  The chosen activities were a visit with chicks, a walk in the woods, a swing on the rope swing and a look into the pond. 

We were so proud of Katherine today!  On our first trip to the farm she felt too afraid to touch a chicken.  On our last trip she asked to hold a chicken herself… three times!  She was absolutely at ease and overjoyed! 

We ended up with a very special surprise when we happened upon a new fawn hiding next to the fence on our walk back to the Weehicle.  Everyone was in awe getting such a close peek at a fawn!  The kids were amazing,  remembering everything they had been taught about how to behave near an animal!  I was so proud! We made it a short peek since we figured Mama would be back soon!  We couldn’t have asked for a better day!

Back at Wee Friends, Paige worked hard on building a structure for all of her animals. She had a wide collection of animals such as alligator, giraffe, turtle, and a sheep. She realized that that the compartments needed to be different sizes because the animals were so different in height.

Playdough tray were put out at the art table where children displayed their ever growing imagination. Asher loved the “steam roller” as he used it to flatten the playdough. Paige identified shapes she was using and shared that she was making shape pancakes! Arthur used the garlic press to make spaghetti noodles while Amelia used a shape presser to make shape prints in the playdough.

Breakfast- Puffins and fresh apples.

Lunch- Brown rice with shredded beef and melted cheese, fresh watermelon, and fresh pepper/cucumber.

PM snack- Whole wheat crackers with peanut butter, peanuts, and sunflower seeds.

Wee Sprout- Fresh pepper/cucumber.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-06-06

Good Afternoon! 

Please enjoy the pictures and a recap of our popcorn snack!

We had popcorn for our snack this afternoon and the kids noticed that each kernel of popcorn was different!  Like clouds, they had ambiguous forms that sparked the imagination.  Several friends looked at each piece of popcorn and announced what it looked like to them before they popped it into their mouth.  Some of the interesting forms the kernels took according to the kids included: An Octopus, a puppy dog,  a 100 legged turtle, a baby crying, a crab,  a bunny with no ears, a badger and a turkey!

Breakfast– Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon and banana.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled egg roll ups with whole wheat tortilla, fresh cantaloupe/banana, and fresh pepper/carrots.

PM snack– Air popped popcorn with butter and raisins.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/green beans.

Have a lovely night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-06-05

Good Afternoon!

This morning a friend was wearing a construction shirt.  Miss Tina read the book, Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherry Duskey Rinker to a few friends since the book went along well with our friends shirt today.  We were builders ourselves as we built with the hollow blocks and played with the construction vehicle.

This morning we engaged with the shape stackers.  We worked to place our shapes onto the stacker pole and fit our bowls together into the nesting bowls by size.

We then headed into the kitchen for some water play.  We had sea animals/items, boats, measuring cups and funnels.  We enjoyed exploring the items and watching the water run through our funnel back into the water after we poured it.

We then enjoyed some of our favorite outside activities.

Breakfast:  Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh pear slices.

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, fresh cantaloupe, sweet potatoes and whole grain wheat bread with buttery spread.

Afternoon Snack:  White corn tortilla chips and hummus.

Wee Sprouts:  Red bell peppers.

Have a wonderful evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2024-06-05

Good Afternoon!

Yesterday, we started a conversation around the places we visit in our community. Today, we focused on places within our classroom. Each PREK1 group member chose a circle from the ledge. We read it together and afterwards, they had to figure out where to place their circle on our classroom map. For example, Katherine’s circle had ‘habitrail’ written on it. She looked at the spaces that were already claimed and after she figured out where to tape her ‘habitrail’ circle, she wrote her name on it.

As Hannah was looking on after she got done signing in, she shared an idea for tomorrow’s sign in: “You know how the big kids have classroom jobs and areas they check to make sure they are clean? We should do a sign in about that!”.

Social Studies: K.3.3 Locate and describe places in the school and community.

There have been several conversations at the lunch table about birthdays and who is older than who. This sorting game arose from those conversations to find our classroom age order.  We used a calendar and some color coding to help us sort out everyone’s age and to arrange them in order.  We also sorted our class birthday months so we could see which months had birthdays and which did not.  All of the black cards represent months with no classroom birthdays. 

The five year old’s loved the activity.  Adrian was particularly invested.  He was so quick to see all of the color patterns and had a lot of excitement around noticing them!  At the end of the activity, we chose what we wanted to record about our class birthdays.  Everyone took it in different directions.  Adrian color coded the months to coincide with the chart and recorded how many birthdays there are in each month.  Hannah chose to record the exact birthdays of her closest friends.  William and Nesta were most interested in writing down each month in order exactly as they were written on the cards.

There were several younger onlookers learning by observing.  Some of the younger kids enjoyed playing with different ways they could arrange the cards when the older kids were done.  They arranged most often by size or color.  This is just one among many reasons that multiage is such an excellent learning environment!

PREK2:  We read “The Listening Walk” during group time today.  At the end of the story we talked about places in our community.  We each picked a place we have enjoyed visiting in our community.

Breakfast– Kix and banana.

Lunch– Peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat bread, Havarti cheese slices, fresh pineapple/oranges, and fresh carrot/green beans.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh green beans/pepper/carrots.

Have a wonderful night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-06-04

Good afternoon!

We started out our morning by dressing up and dancing to the Frozen song,  “Let It Go,” which was requested by many friends. We all gathered in a circle, held hands, and sang along to the song while we danced.

We then went into the kitchen to paint with q-tips. We worked on our fine motor skills to pick up and hold the q-tip with our index finger and thumb.

We made our way outside to engage with our favorite activities. We all sat together in the sandbox to play together, shared a smile through the play house’s window, and drew with markers under the tree’s shade.

Breakfast: Whole grain Puffins cereal with fresh apples.

Lunch: Whole grain wheat flatbread with refried beans and shredded Colby-Jack cheese, fresh pineapple slices, and peas.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers.

Have a beautiful evening!

Tina and Rebekah

Link to pictures: 2024-06-04

Good Afternoon!

This morning we engaged with our loose parts.  We had color beads, a pipe cleaner and a patterning card to use with our beads.

We then headed out to build with the waffle blocks that Miss Tina brought out from the kitchen.  We worked at piecing them together like a puzzle or make a long line with them.  Eliza made a long line with hers and then walked down it.

We then headed outside to enjoy the beautiful morning.  We scooped in the sand, pushed or rode the bikes on the hill, sat on a building log and looked at our friend in the little house window.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat bread toasted with buttery spread and cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh oranges.

Lunch:  Whole grain penne pasta with shredded chicken, fresh pineapple and broccoli.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts:  Red bell peppers.

Have a marvelous evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2024-06-03

Happy Monday!

Throughout the week, we’ll dive into places in our community as well as parts of our classroom! We love talking about community helpers so for PREK1 sign in, children each chose a note card with a specific community helper on it. They taped it under the place in our community where you would find that helper. William drew the card ‘grocer’ so he taped it under ‘grocery store’. This led to a big discussion about what grocery stores everyone shops at. A few of the most popular stores that our friends shop at (or so it seems!) are Trader Joes, “the Whole Foods”, and Martins.

Social Studies: K.3.3 Locate and describe places in the school and community.

This morning we continued water exploration with a water displacement activity.  We started with a cup of water then added stones and watched the water rise until it got to 2 cups.  It was quite popular to try to get the water to overflow.  Responding to this interest we tried using a syringe to measure how many milliliters of water spilled out. 

Katherine got particularly interested in the 10 ml syringe.  She decided to fill a cup that I pointed out was 200 ml but marked in 10 ml increments.  Perfect for Katherines syringe!  She shared that she could fill the cup in 10 ml increments and watch as the water rose exactly one dash mark.  We got to practice counting by tens and we got to talk about different ways to measure volume all in one activity!

Outdoors the older kids were happy to have the whole group back since they play together so much!  They said they were playing a “game of love”.  Hannah made sure she explained that even though they were play a game, there were in love for real.

In PREK2 we read the story “All Are Welcome Here”.  In the curriculum, we are talking about places in the school and in the community.  We drew an approximate a map of our Wee Friends space on the board, and everyone picked their favorite place to spend time in the classroom.

Paige found a slug today and watched as it made a trail.  She also found a firefly in the garden.  What a day to study the smallest parts of our garden ecosystem!

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

Lunch– Whole wheat noodles with shredded turkey, fresh apples/pineapple, and fresh carrots/pepper.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper/carrot.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-06-03

Happy Friday and the last day of May!

This morning we made a path with our textured walking stones.  We enjoyed walking on them to feel the different textures on the bottom of our feet.

We then went over to the fish tank and looked at our friends through each side.

We then engaged in several activities with bean bags and rhythm sticks.  We danced with bean bags to the Beanie Bag dance by Greg and Steve.  A friend went over and pointed at the rhythm sticks.  We marched while tapping our sticks to the Ants Go Marching song.  After several times, Miss Bekah remembered another song called Tap Your Sticks by Hap Palmer.  We listened and followed along with Miss Bekah and worked to tap our sticks like she did.  For example, the song had us tap our sticks in the air and on the ground to the count of 3.  The friends enjoyed all of our music activities.

While outside, we engaged in a variety of our favorite activities.  We also saw a roly poly walking on the cement and observed it walking and working to pick it up with our fingers.  We also engaged with some nature items in pans at the table.

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

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat bread, hummus, fresh cantaloupe and red bell pepper slices.

Afternoon Snack:  Goldfish crackers and mozzarella cheese stick.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers.

Have a great weekend!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2024-05-31

Happy Friday!

While we were outside, the kids struck up a very large scale cooperative game of family.  There was such a large group involved that we had to move to a larger area to allow everyone to keep their individual role in the game.  The group wanted to make a meal and serve the “babies and kids” in the family.  Several friends were chefs in a cooking area using water and weeds to make healthy gourmet meals such as “Tofu soup with greens”.  When meals were ready, friends at the table were served their meal.  The Wee Wee friends got very involved with the game as well and were happy to be served pretend soup to play in!

By looking at the blog each week, it is evident that water is one of our favorite sensory experiences. There are so many different ways to utilize water! In the article attached below, several activities are listed such as water transfer, sink/float experiments, and water painting to name a few. Summer is the perfect time to head outside and incorporate various water activities! And on rainy days, throwing a big towel on the kitchen floor with a large bin full of water and tools is a great option too! The opportunities are endless!

https://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/activities/the-benefits-of-water-play-and-7-fun-ideas-to-do-this-summer/

Indoors, water was still the theme of the day.  The kids have been very engaged with water play and experimentation.  We investigated colored water and enjoyed mixing up secondary colors.  There were all sorts of potions and imaginative games around the mixed colors!

During PREK2 group today we read the story “Good Night Numbers”.  At the end of the story we picked our favorite number.  Many friends picked their age… there was also one “Bunny Number”!”

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

Lunch– Melted shredded cheese quesadillas on whole wheat flatbread, fresh cantaloupe/apples, and fresh snap peas/cucumber/pepper.

PM snack– Block cheddar cheese and pretzels.

Wee Sprout– Fresh snap peas/cucumber/pepper.

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-05-31