Happy Friday!

This morning our friends were engaged in a variety of activities.  They drove a truck and airplane on the carpet, explored a cup and imagining to get water from the sink, used the oven mitts,  walked on the textured stepping stones and explored the Peek-a-blocks and working our fine motor skills to turn the ones that spin.

We then headed into the kitchen to engage with playdough.  We each had a craft stick, a half a plastic egg, rolling pin or wooden hammer, cookie cutter and golf tees to explore with in our playdough.  We enjoyed using our hands to manipulate it and feel its doughy texture.

We then headed outside to enjoy the beautiful weather and engage in a variety of activities.

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

Lunch:  Hummus on whole grain wheat bread, cucumbers and fresh cantaloupe/bananas.

Afternoon Snack:  Pretzels, Colby-jack block cheese slices and fresh blueberries.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers.

Have a great weekend!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2024-07-19

Happy Friday!

Our classroom was buzzing with movement as children became engaged in various activities. Children took turns at the sensory water table where they worked with puff balls and a variety of pouring tools. The puff balls add a different dynamic to the water table because they change form when wet which children find fascinating to work with.

Paige’s imagination was in high gear this morning as she drew a family portrait. But not an ordinary family portrait. She transformed her family members to imaginary characters such as a vampire, witch, skeleton, zombie, and pumpkin. We love an open art table where children can create whatever comes to mind!

Between the new swing and the pole, children were testing and strengthening their gross motor abilities! Friends have loved exploring the new swing as it engages new muscles simply by hanging from it! Children have gotten more comfortable with it throughout the week and continue to challenge themselves!

It has been absolutely gorgeous the last few days so we soaked it up this morning! We got out the balls and the hoop as friends tried to make baskets. This requires a lot of determination and hand eye coordination!

Yesterday, children asked for the street signs when we got the bikes out so we got them out today too! They spread out the signs, making sure that riders were following the street sign rules.

Breakfast– Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh blueberries/banana.

Lunch– Peanut butter on whole wheat tortilla sandwiches, fresh watermelon, and fresh snap peas/cucumber/broccoli.

PM snack– Pretzels with bananas and block cheddar cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh snap peas/cucumber/broccoli.

Have a lovely weekend!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-07-19

Good Afternoon!

Our friends found different ways to play with the BounceBlocks this morning. Charlotte used it for balance practice and Eleanor put it on top of her head like a hat. The boys played with the car carrier trucks in the front of the room.

We then made our way to the kitchen to draw with markers in our journal binders. They enjoyed choosing a variety of different colored markers to make some beautiful designs on their papers.

We had a wonderful time outside enjoying the much cooler weather. We played in the sandbox, rolled a ball on the sidewalk, rode the teeter-totter with a friend, chose a baby doll from the basket, rode the bike in the grass hill, and sat on a chair in the shade.

Breakfast:  Whole grain Cheerios and fresh blueberries.

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

Afternoon Snack: Sunflower seeds and whole grain Triscuits crackers.

Wee Sprouts:  Snap Peas.

Have a beautiful evening!

Tina and Rebekah

Link to pictures: 2024-07-18

Good Afternoon!

Our welcome activity this morning consisted of loose part trays separated by color (blue, red, or yellow). Each tray had matching colored objects such as popsicle sticks, bears, jewels, cars/trucks, and bowls. Friends used their trays in different ways. Some chose to organize and sort their objects, while others used their fine motor skills by picking up their objects with tongs.

Friends also participated in imaginative play by using our cardboard tubes as a slide/ramp, painted at the art easel, read books and explored the water sensory bin.

We spent the rest of the morning outside enjoying the beautiful weather!

Breakfast– Kix and fresh strawberries/blueberries.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded turkey, fresh watermelon, and fresh snap peas/pepper/broccoli.

PM snack– Ritz crackers with peanut butter and sunflower/pepita seeds.

Wee Sprout– Fresh broccoli/pepper/snap peas.

Have a lovely evening!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-07-18

Good Afternoon!

This morning most of the friends sat on the reading step to engage in a book independently.

We then were busy in the housekeeping area.  Several friends were cooking up delicious food, a friend was getting water to put in their cup, Milo was setting his table and putting the food on his plates, a friend was feeding a baby doll and Charlotte was lining up the wooden people on the table.

We then headed into the kitchen for a shaving cream sensory experience.  We first used only our hands to explore the texture and feel of it in them.  We then were given a plastic bug to walk in the shaving cream or cover with the shaving cream.

We then headed outside to engage in a variety of our favorite activities.  We also had a water sensory experience outside and were given different sized paint brushes to paint the sidewalk with the water.

Breakfast:  Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and bananas.

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs, banana/fresh strawberries, cucumbers and whole grain wheat bread.

Afternoon Snack:  White corn tortilla chips and refried beans.

Wee Sprouts:  Mini sweet peppers.

Have a wonderful evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2024-07-17

Good Afternoon!

The theme of the day seemed to be cooperative problem solving! Outside today everyone enjoyed water painting on the sidewalk.  A group worked together in an imaginative game, using the brushes to “wash” the fence and the drinking fountain.  It was wonderful to hear our young friends using their cooperative problem solving skills and kind words with each other.  The group clearly understood the value of fairness for everyone in the group as well as the importance of listening to one another as they played.  We are so proud of our Wee Friends!

In the classroom our kids continued to demonstrate creative and cooperative problem solving skills.  They wanted to build a long tube system from the loft to the floor to put balls through.  It was difficult to get everything to line up.  The group worked extremely well as they went through the process of trial and error.  They listened to and tried each other’s ideas.  Some failed but everyone was very encouraging.  This positivity created the atmosphere needed to try again.  Eventually a combination of tape and large anchoring blocks worked and the system was a success! The value of these spontaneous learning experiences cannot be measured!

Breakfast– Homemade oatmeal with fresh strawberries.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat flatbread, fresh strawberries/blueberries, and fresh snap peas/cucumber/broccoli.

PM snack– Humus with tortilla chips

Wee Sprout– Fresh snap peas/cucumber/broccoli.

Have a great night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-07-17

Good afternoon!

We had a very musical start to our morning today. Our friends used pianos, xylophones, shakers, and bells to make music and to follow along to the “Shake Your Sillies Out” song.

Our friends then made their way into the kitchen with Miss Bekah to engage with pegs and peg boards. Our two oldest friends worked together to make towers on a huge, blue peg board.

We rode bikes or pushed them up the hill, explored the play house, and looked at all the flowers growing in our garden with a friend.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with fresh strawberries.

Lunch: Chicken avocado salad, whole grain wheat flatbread, cucumber, and apple.

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

Wee Sprouts:  Fresh green beans.

Have a wonderful evening!

Tina and Rebekah

Link to pictures: 2024-07-16

Good Afternoon!

Tornadoes were the topic of the morning as our friends came in to breakfast!  After last nights storms there were stories and questions.  We thought we would follow that interest introducing a small experiment which showed how a tornado worked.  We added soap, vinegar and food coloring to a jar and tried swirling the water in the jar.  Once it was spinning we could put the jar down and watch the vortex inside.  We talked about how a tornado does the same thing with air spinning into a vortex like the one inside the jar.  The experiment expanded into different sized jars utensils to spin the water.  When the experiment was done, everyone enjoyed some imaginative play with the water!

PREK2: In group today we read “The Color Monster”.  After the story we talked about what color the emotion we were feeling would be.

Breakfast– Puffins cereal with fresh clementines.

Lunch– Homemade chicken avocado on whole wheat bread, fresh pineapple/clementine, and fresh pepper/cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh snap peas/cucumber/pepper.

Have a wonderful night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-07-16

Good Afternoon!

Today we welcomed a new friend and her family to join our classroom and the Wee Friends family.  We are so happy to have her in our classroom and her family with us.

After a few friends were done with breakfast, they went to explore the Peek-a-Blocks.  They observed the different items, shook them to see which blocks made noise and stacked them to make a tower.

Miss Bekah made a path with our BounceBlocks that started near the front door and wound around close to the bridge door.  We enjoyed walking around the path while working on our balancing skills.

We then engaged with the object permanence boxes putting our balls and coins into the hole or slot and opening and closing the drawer to watch the balls or coins reappear.  We then engaged with the finger puppets working to put them onto our fingers and explore if they are people or animals.  We then walked around wearing dress up shoes.

We then headed outside to get some fresh air and play.  We walked around and tossed balls, rode the teeter totters, explored the rocks with our hands, filled containers with sand and sat at the table relaxing in the shade.

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

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat penne pasta with black beans, fresh green beans and pineapple.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and fresh strawberries.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2024-07-15

Good Afternoon!

This morning we explored some math games and activities at the round table.  During a long and serious game of “Count Down”, Hannah and William gathered a crowd of spectators.  They took turns rolling the dice, added the numbers together then laying down the sum of the addition problem.  Toward the end of the game, probability was not in the players favor, as only a couple of numbers were left.  It was close at the end when William exclaimed “Boy this is a sweaty game!”, wiping his forehead.  Everyone had a great time while learning math!

Outdoors a couple of friends discovered land snails and slugs in the mulch.  We put them on a tray for observation and read a book about slugs, a close relative.  We talked about the things that are the same and different about slugs and snails.  We noticed that snails have a shell while slugs do not but both are slimy and need wet places to live.  We also found that both lay eggs and are vegetarians.  The kids took their knowledge and built what they felt would be an optimum snail and slug habitat on the tray.

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with butter and fresh cantaloupe.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with black beans, fresh pineapple/cantaloupe/banana, and fresh pepper/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with granola.

Wee Sprouts– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a great night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-07-15