Good Afternoon!

After breakfast, we all came together in housekeeping and engaged with the baby dolls! We dressed our babies and took care of them.

Then, we came into the kitchen and engaged in finger painting with blue, green and orange tempera paint.  A friend preferred using a paint brush over using her fingers.

We spent our time outside engaged in the sandbox with trucks, dinosaurs, and shovels as well as around the log climbing house in the pea gravel.

Breakfast:  Whole grain Cheerios and fresh apple slices.

Lunch:  Whole grain brown rice with chicken, watermelon, and sweet peppers

Afternoon Snack:  Whole grain Wheat Thins crackers with peanut butter and fresh black grapes.

Wee Sprout: Cucumbers

Have a terrific evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-08-28

Good Afternoon!

Our PREK1 group members came to sign in this morning where they matched a community helper to the tool they need to do their job! A few matches were shovel—farmer, hard hat—construction worker, and hose—firefighter.

Social Studies: K.2.1 Give examples of people who are community helpers (inside the classroom and outside the classroom) and describe how they help us.

Today was a great example of a child lead project in the art center.  We have had several friends interested in making kites, so we simply expanded upon that idea, allowing the kids to make a kite with a couple of modifications that they could test out side. We called it a “running kite” since they had a short string and would fly behind them as they ran.  They had a wonderful time with the process of making as well as the process of testing!

We added a new sensory bin today that offered the opportunity to practice matching things that are the same.  Charlotte and Milo enjoyed the activity as they found groups of four shells that looked alike.  They showed one another what they found.  Charlotte liked using a large shell as a bowl to collect her groups of shells.

We had another child driven activity this morning.  Arthur suggested we do a community helpers activity with construction vehicles for some sensory and imaginative play experiences.  We created a road and bridge building operation at the round table in response.

Breakfast: Kix cereal with fresh grapes.

Lunch: Brown rice with pork,  fresh watermelon/oranges, and fresh cucumbers/tomatoes.

PM Snack: Whole wheat crackers with peanut butter and sunflower/pumpkin seeds.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh peppers and cucumbers.

Have a great rest of the day!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Link to Pictures:2025-08-28

Happy Wednesday!  It was so nice to see lots of sunshine this morning.

Our friends requested to dance to The Beanie Bag Dance and See The Bunnies Sleeping songs.  Rose enjoyed watching the toys swing above her on her playmat.

We were busy in many activities.  We engaged with the object permanence boxes, wearing the color rings around our necks, tapping the stack of BounceBlocks with our hands like drums, and rocking the rainbow mat.

We then headed into the kitchen to engage in a sensory activity with playdough.  We manipulated our dough with our hands.  One friend made a “birthday cake” with her playdough. We also used our textured rolling pin to  roll the lines in our dough and used the end to made circles/holes in it.

We then headed outside to enjoy some fresh air and the beautiful morning!

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

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs, fresh sugar snap peas and apple slices and whole grain wheat bread.

Afternoon Snack: White corn tortilla chips with hummus.

Wee Sprout:  Mini sweet peppers.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2028-27

Good afternoon!

Our PREK1 group completed their sign in today where they were asked to write their name under the thing we do before we eat: wash our hands or go to the bathroom? Everyone wrote their name under ‘wash your hands’ and we talked about why we should always wash our hands before we eat.

Social Studies: K.2.3 Give examples of classroom and school rules and explain how each helps us.

We had a lot of interest in the painted shaving cream yesterday, so today we devoted a large sensory activity area to this attractive sensory experience.  This colorful concoction touched on most of our senses, sight, touch, sound and smell.  This sensory stimulation aids in brain integration allowing the brain to work as one.  This improves children’s ability to focus, regulate their nervous system and lengthen their attentions span.

PREK2: During group today we talked about class rules that we have for outside and those we have for inside.  We noticed that some are different and some are the same.  One friend pointed out that an outside voice is only for outside but an inside voice can be used in both places.  We also noticed that some of our outside rules could overlap into habitrail.  We did our first group board today as we picked a card an placed it under the correct place for each rule. 

Breakfast– Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh grapes.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, whole wheat tortilla, fresh peaches/strawberries/banana, and fresh pepper/cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

PM snack– Tortilla chips with hummus.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a lovely night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-08-27

Reminder:  Wee Friends will be closed next Monday, September 1st for Labor Day.  Thank you.

We did some dancing with bean bags while listening to “Shake Your Sillies Out” and “The Beanie Bag Dance.” 

Then, we engaged with loose parts on our wooden trays! Some friends simply explored the dominoes and pom-poms while we had a couple put everything in their bowl to make imaginary cereal.

Please enjoy some additional pictures throughout our day!

Breakfast: Kix cereal with fresh nectarines.

Lunch: Peanut butter on whole grain wheat tortillas, fresh orange bell pepper slices, mild cheddar cheese slice and fresh apple slices.

Afternoon Snack: Homemade banana muffins with fresh oranges.

Wee Sprouts: Cherry Tomatoes

Have a wonderful evening!’

WWF Teachers

Link to Pictures: 2025-08-26

Good Afternoon–

**REMINDER: Wee Friends will be closed on Monday, September 1st for Labor Day.

We continued to dive into community helpers in our community. For our PREK1 group, we read a nonfiction story about Police Officers. This led into our group activity where each group member was given a card with a community helper written on it. We read each helper aloud before reading each prompt on the chalkboard. After we read a prompt, whoever had the answer raised their hand or signaled in someway that they had the answer.

Social Studies: K.2.1 Give examples of people who are community helpers (inside the classroom and outside the classroom) and describe how they help us.

Earlier on in the morning, we explored rules that we follow indoors and why we have those rules. Each PREK1 group member came up to the board where we read the sentence aloud, working at filling in the blank! This is a rule we talk about quite often so that we all stay safe: we walk in the classroom!

Social Studies: K.2.3 Give examples of classroom and school rules and explain how each helps us.

Yesterday, we talked a lot about places in our community as we explored a community buildings activity.  The Zoo is a place in the South Bend community that many of the kids talked about as having special interest to them.  Today, we made a zoo for our welcome activity in response to that interest.  We used popsicle sticks and other loose parts to make the fences for our zoo, then added our animals. 

Younger friends (and some older friends) enjoyed using the zoo animals for a sensory exploration option in the art center.  They painted the animals with colored shaving cream, then used eye droppers to dissolve the shaving cream and wash the animals. 

We hope you enjoy a few more pictures from our day!

Breakfast: Puffins cereal with fresh peaches.

Lunch: Peanut butter on whole wheat flatbread, fresh cantaloupe/peaches, and fresh snap peas/pepper/carrot.

PM Snack: Homemade banana muffin with cheddar block cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh pepper/carrot/snap peas.

Have a lovely afternoon!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Link to Pictures: 2025-08-26

Happy Monday!

This morning we engaged in walking through the sheer curtain.

We then engaged with the balls and walking up and down the incline of the slide.

We then chose books from the bookshelf to look at independently or have a teacher read to us.

A friend then asked for the song, See The Bunnies Sleeping?, and we acted out the motions.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat bread toasted with butter and cinnamon/sugar mixture and bananas.

Lunch: Whole grain elbow macaroni with marinara sauce and shredded Colby-jack cheese, fresh nectarines and carrot chips/cooked sweet potatoes.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and honey graham crackers.

Wee Sprout:  Mini sweet peppers.

Have a great evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to Pictures: 2025-08-25

Good Afternoon–

We kicked off our week by diving into the term ‘community helper’. For our PREK1 sign in, we talked about what a ‘community’ is. Once we identified it, we read the sign in board aloud as each group member took a turn signing in. Children were asked what community helper assists them when they’re feeling sick: a doctor or a librarian? Children immediately laughed and one even said, “A librarian doesn’t help you when you’re sick!”.

Later on in PREK1 group, we read, ‘I Want To Be A Firefighter’. We honed in on firefighters and how they help the community. Friends began raising their hands after the book was done, sharing where they’ve seen a firetruck or if they live by a fire station.

Social Studies: K.2.1 Give examples of people who are community helpers (inside the classroom and outside the classroom) and describe how they help us.

This morning we thought about different kinds of community spaces and buildings.  We talked about libraries, parks, zoos, fire departments, hospitals and more.  We used the welcome activity to think about community spaces we wanted to build.  We had some very creative ideas.  We had a large domed ice skating rink and a storm shelter for all of the community vehicles to be stored during a storm–very innovative!  We love allowing the space for kids to apply their own ideas to what they have been learning in the classroom.

Kids have been interested in floating things outside, so we added a sensory bin with bears and pieces of foam.  Arthur enjoyed counting how many bears he could fit on the “boats” without sinking them.  Hannah found that the foam stuck together so she could make a very long boat to hold her bears. 

On the building rug, several friends were wanting to move their bodies jumping from yoga card to yoga card.  We created an appropriate situation for jumping this way so kids could use their bodies how they felt they needed to!

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with butter and cinnamon with fresh banana.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce, fresh peaches/banana, and fresh peppers (from our garden!)/cherry tomatoes/green beans.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with granola.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cherry tomatoes/snap peas/pepper.

Have a lovely night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-08-25

Good Afternoon!

Several friends began their morning engaged with the BounceBlocks.  A friend built a stack and then worked on their balance skills while on their tummy. Cece worked on her balance by standing on one while holding onto the ballet bar and habi-trail.

We then headed into the kitchen to engage with pegs and peg boards.  The older friends asked for the shape of pegboard they wanted.  We all then worked on filling all the holes in our boards with a variety of peg colors.

We then engaged in looking at books independently on the reading steps or sitting in the rocking chair with a friend.  While we were on the reading steps, we looked out the window at the birds eating on the bird feeders.

We then headed outside to enjoy the beautiful morning, engaging in many favorite activities.

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

Lunch: Hummus on whole grain wheat bread, fresh sugar snap peas and watermelon slices.

Afternoon Snack:  Mozzarella cheese stick and whole grain Goldfish crackers.

Wee Sprout:  Mini sweet peppers.

Have a great weekend!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures:  2025-08-22

Happy Friday!

It’s been a week full of transitions and new groups for some kids so today, we did a practice run for our PREK1 group sign in which will start next week! This group sign in is specifically geared towards our group of older peers. There is a wide range of ages even in this group so what each child is asked to do will be different dependent upon their readiness. There will be a daily question or activity that will be aligned with the FAB for the week, if applicable!

Today’s sign in asked children to find their name and then circle their name. Everyone was excited to officially sign in for the first time!

We read a book from our MACK collection titled, ‘Same Same But Different’. Throughout the story, the author and illustrator showed us how things can be the same but different. The two main characters lived in different parts of the world. They rode a school bus to school but the buses looked very different. They both had a tree house in their backyard but they looked very different.

As each child was called to roll up their mat, they were asked to share one thing that they see frequently in their neighborhood. Answers ranged from school buses to people walking their dogs to other houses!

Social Studies: K.3.6 Identify and compare similarities and differences in families, classmates, neighbors and neighborhoods, and ethnic and cultural groups.

Several friends have become interested in finger prints after talking about similarities and differences between people.  Today we worked on a large class finger print art project.  After we used ink to make finger prints, we used a magnifying glass to look closely and notice the differences in the lines and shapes in our finger prints.

We hope you enjoy a few more pictures from our day!

Breakfast: Brown rice cakes with cream cheese and fresh strawberries.

Lunch: Peanut butter on whole wheat bread, fresh watermelon/banana/strawberries, and fresh carrots/bell peppers.

PM Snack: Goldfish and string cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh cucumbers/cherry tomatoes.

Have a great weekend!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-08-22