Good Afternoon!

This morning we had a younger friend who was interested in writing letters.  Several others got interested in letters as well so we set out our letter stamps to let the kids explore them.  Several stamped their name and friends names.  Others made artwork with the letters but talked about which letters they were using.  Learning was happening either way!

There were other things happening in the art center as well.  Several individual projects were going simultaneously, since they were all child lead.  Katherine made an ocean picture.  Paige worked more on her house project that has been going on for three days now!  Asher wanted to make some artwork out of popsicle sticks.  It was wonderful to see the variety of ideas!

PREK2:  We talked about “action words” in group today, as we thought of was to describe how our bodies could move.  We read “The Busy Body Book”, then came up with our own ideas about the different ways our we like to move!

What great weather for spending lots of time running and climbing outdoors!

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with butter and fresh pears.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce, fresh strawberries/pineapple, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with granola.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/cucumber/pepper.

Have a wonderful night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-11-11

Happy Friday!  Enjoy some pictures from our day!

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

Lunch:  Turkey lunch meat and cream cheese roll-ups,  whole grain wheat bread, fresh strawberries/oranges and cherry tomatoes.

Afternoon Snack:  Pretzels and mozzarella cheese sticks.

Wee Sprouts:  Fresh green beans.

Have a great weekend!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-11-08

Happy Friday!

**Please clean out your child’s art cubby. Thank you!

What a busy and productive end to our week! Our morning was full of constant movement, creation, and engagement.

At the circle table, we had two welcome activities going. Two trays were put out with the wooden rainbows which immediately attracted children to come explore. Asher sorted the puff balls based on color while Hannah focused on using the tongs to place the puff balls on to the rainbow.

The second welcome activity was a collection of wooden materials including people and circles, both opened and closed. Arthur and Dax focused on matching colors for all three items and stacking them together.

There was SO much going on at the art table this morning, all completely child driven. First, children wanted to work on cutting. That lead to an interest in puppets, which lead to our very own puppet show!

Ryan and Paige spearheaded the event, first helping out their younger peers at the table by showing them how to make a puppet with the materials that were available to them.

Once the puppets were completed, children started gathering in housekeeping, setting up stools so they could watch the puppet show. It was quite the experience!

Our art table creations mostly come from open ended art experiences where children drive the interest and curriculum. There are so many benefits to open ended art including creativity and imagination, self expression, confidence and independance, problem solving, and social skills. Here are a few articles and blogs about why open ended art is so important and ways to implement it in your house!

https://adventurouschild.com/benefits-of-open-ended-art/

https://www.cmosc.org/benefits-of-art-during-early-childhood/ (this one has a few good recipes for at home sensory/art experiments!)

Have a wonderful weekend!

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

Lunch– Ham and cream cheese rollups, whole wheat tortilla, fresh oranges/grapes/pears, and fresh snap peas/pepper.

PM snack– Goldfish and string cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/snap peas.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-11-08

Good afternoon!

Our friends danced to various songs this morning. We danced to “Going On a Bear Hunt,” “We Are The Dinosaurs,” “Party Freeze Dance Song,” and “Shake Your Sillies Out.”

Our friends then engaged with the BounceBlocks. Our friends worked on stacking them to make towers for us to stand on. We also placed the blocks on our heads and used our imaginative play skills to pretend that they were hats. Some friends also practiced their balance skills by standing on the blocks.

We then brought down the Sight & Sound tubes for our friends to explore. The tubes had feathers, bells, gems, balls and several foam shape pieces. We moved them from side to side to watch the items move.

We headed outside to play in the housekeeping area, push around the green bucket carts, ride bikes down the hill, play with balls, go down the slide, and explore the dragons/dinosaurs in the sandbox.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with fresh pear.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with red beans, broccoli and strawberries.

Afternoon Snack: Sunflower seeds and Wheat Thins crackers.

Wee Sprout: Cucumber.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-11-07

Good Afternoon!

A welcome activity was made available at the circle table this morning that revolved around one of our favorite building materials: magnatiles! We put four trays out for friends and they were able to add one special feature: bells! The bells are magnetic so when children built their creature, they added bells to the outside and inside of the structure! We loved the festive touch and when we add new materials to an activity that we have everyday, excitement grows and children tend to explore the activity for a longer period of time.

Enjoy a few more pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Corn chex and fresh banana.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded pork, fresh watermelon/strawberries, and fresh green beans/pepper.

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

Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/green beans.

Have a great evening!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-11-07

Happy Wednesday!

We began our morning engaged in looking at books, using our imaginative skills with the beanie animals and dancing to the Listen and Move song by Greg and Steve.

We then went into the kitchen to engage with loose parts.  We had square and triangle Magna-Tiles and our wooden occupational people.  We looked through our Magna-Tiles and worked on building with them and explored and talked about the different clothes and occupations our people were.

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We then headed outside and went down the slide and engaged in the rock area with the construction trucks.  Cece even was outside with us for a bit and Eleanor showed her a leaf she was exploring.

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

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs, fresh cherry tomatoes, watermelon and whole grain wheat tortillas.

Afternoon Snack:  Refried beans with white corn tortilla chips.

Wee Sprout:  Fresh green beans.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures:  2024-11-06

Good Afternoon!

**We will need updated vaccination records for your child by January 1st, 2025 so if you have a doctors appointment scheduled, please bring us a copy! –thanks

This morning emergent curriculum was at its best as three dimensional child lead projects sprang up all over the art center!  Teachers helped with problem solving and provided materials, but everything created this morning was completely spontaneous and child initiated!  We love watching these kinds of brainstorming and building sessions evolve.  Several friends chose to help each other with projects.  Older kids where happy to lend a hand to younger friends who needed help cutting something or getting a piece of tape.  Older friends also jumped in to give advice on how to put things together three dimensionally.  There were houses, a city building, a play room and an airplane created by our Wee Friends!  Some friends spent over an hour on their project!  What an attention span for this age!

PREK2: Today we read the book “We All Sing the Same Song”.  After the story we talked about ways we are all the same and thought of our own ideas about what all people have in common.  We made a list of all our ideas.

Breakfast– Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh strawberries.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat tortilla, fresh watermelon, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack– Corn tortilla chips with hummus.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a lovely night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-11-06

Good afternoon!

This morning, Eleanor and Charlotte shared smiles while using their imaginative skills to pretend to cook in the play kitchen. A friend explored the bucket people at the table and Cece engaged with the toys that dangle from her play mat.

We made our way to the kitchen to paint with brushes on the art easel. Our friends painted with red, green, blue and white on a long sheet of paper. They watched as the colors mixed on their canvas to make new colors or to make their color lighter with the white paint.

We then headed outside to take advantage of the nice weather this morning. Our friends took turns going down the slide, riding the teeter-totter and walking on the balance beam course.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios with fresh strawberries.

Lunch: Shredded Colby-Jack and Marinara sauce pizzas on whole wheat English muffins, fresh red grapes and peas.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat bagel with cream cheese and fresh apple slices.

Wee Sprout: Yellow bell pepper.

Have a beautiful evening!

Link to pictures: 2024-11-05

Happy Tuesday!

It was voting day! Our kiddos were so excited to exercise their vote and once they realized that they could possibly help choose what we would have for lunch, they became very excited! We put two heavy weights up against each other: English muffin pizzas and ham/cream cheese rollups.

We had one child vote at a time and explained the voting process. Once they cast their vote, they picked what sticker they wanted.

Once all of the votes were cast, our two oldest kids helped me count and tally up the votes. By a vote of 10-6, English muffin pizza was the winner. And post lunch, our bellies were VERY happy.

In PREK1 group, we had one more opportunity to vote and make our voice heard. Two books about the President were on the ballot: ‘I Want To Be President’ and ‘Arthur Meets The President’. We have six group members and at the end of the vote, it was tied! So Cassie broke the tie and chose ‘Arthur Meets the President’.

Please enjoy some more pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Kix and fresh pineapple.

Lunch– Homemade english muffin pizzas, fresh strawberries/grapes, and fresh peppers/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/cucumber.

Have a great night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-11-05

Good Afternoon!

This morning we engaged putting pegs into our pegboards.  We were given 2 colors and Miss Bekah showed us how to make a pattern with our colors.  We then worked at making a pattern with them and stacking them into tall towers.

Since it was too wet from the rain to go outside,  we crawled through a tunnel and climbed up the tiny turf stairs and slide.

We then engaged in building our mix or match magnetic animals.  Some of the friends told the teachers what kind of animal they were making and the sound of the animal.

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

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat penne pasta with red beans, fresh mini cucumbers/orange bell pepper slices and fresh cantaloupe slices.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts:  Mini cucumbers.

Have a great evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-11-04