Good Afternoon!

One of our favorite books lately is the ‘Miss Nelson’ book that has three different stories in it. K group members love the character of Viola Swamp. Yesterday, we read ‘Miss Nelson Is Missing’ and today, we read, ‘Miss Nelson Is Back’. Afterwards, we played a memory game that revolved around book titles and characters.

This specific group LOVES memory games. We’ve been pulling any memory game we can think of as they’re very interested in them lately. They love the competitive nature of these memory games and enjoy pushing themselves and their peers.

On the pieces of paper, I wrote book titles as well as characters that are in those stories. For example, on one piece of paper was ‘The Gruffalo’ and on another was, ‘Mouse and Fox’ who are main characters in the story.

Friends liked this game so much, they asked to play a second round!

K.RL.3.2: Define the role of the author and illustrator of a story in telling the story.

In PREK2, children played ‘Shape Ka-boom’ which is an interactive game that focuses on shapes and identifying them. Friends take turns pulling one stick at a time with a shape on it and they have to identify it. If someone pulls the ka-boom stick, they have to put all of their sticks back into the jar! They love this game!

For kindergarten sign in, children matched three illustrations to the correct wording from a popular story: The Itsy Bitsy Spider! Children looked at the illustration that was drawn by the illustrator and identified the correct sentence that was written by the author.

K.RL.4.1: Describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear.

Children came to the art table all morning long to explore the new playdoh that was made earlier this week! It’s one of our favorite sensory activities.

Mack and Franklin continued their morning trend by playing the memory rhyming word game. A few of their younger peers looked on as they played, observing what they were doing and soaking in rhyming words that Mack and Franklin worked with.

Breakfast– Kix and fresh pears.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded beef, fresh oranges/pears/banana, and fresh broccoli/cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Whole wheat crackers and sunflower seeds.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cherry tomatoes/broccoli.

Have a lovely evening!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/28

Good Afternoon.

A friend brought in a puzzle from home today for us to try and we had a great time working through it with Miss Annastecia. This was a larger floor puzzle with 48 pieces, so it was a little more challenging for us, but we DID IT!!!  

We worked in our journals today! Friends love coloring with markers and crayons to make beautiful creations.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and oranges.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded beef, mixed vegetables and pears.

Snack: Whole grain brown rice cakes with peanut butter.

Have a nice evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtTCDmdhjIulkP1rqybnwt2PkHE2CQ?e=gQqJ7I

Good Afternoon.

Adrian was working on his balance skills today while walking on the textured stepping circles. These circles have different patterns/textures on them as well, for friends to have a sensory experience with their feet.

Paige is getting a little sensory experience herself with feeling the little spikey points on the large orange ball.  Just look at those smiles.  

Breakfast: Whole grin Chex cereal and oranges.

Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, whole wheat butter toast, mixed vegetables and apples.

Snack: Pretzels and mozzarella string cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh green beans.

Have a nice night.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtTCDmdhjIulkP0JwVAmHPsUkSJrnA?e=LMjNNq

Happy Wednesday!

Enjoy the pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh oranges.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat bread, fresh pears, and fresh cherry tomatoes/carrots.

PM snack– Air popped popcorn with butter and fresh pears.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.

Have a lovely evening!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/27

Good Afternoon!

We read ‘Alphabet City’ in K group which is a book that focuses on each letter of the alphabet but pictures only! These pictures are of letters in a real life setting. For example, the letter E is the side of a stop light. We talked about how some books have words but no pictures as well as the opposite: pictures but no words!

Once we finished reading the story, the conversation about shapes continued as we identified the shapes that were highlighted. Each friend was given a shape and they had to say aloud how many sides and vertices that shape had. On the second example, several friends shared, “I think the numbers are going to be the same!” (referring to the number of sides and vertices). They turned out to be right!

K.G.2: Compare shapes using informal language to describe their similarities, differences, and parts (e.g., number of sides, length of sides, and vertices.)

K.RL.4.1: Describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear.

In PREK2, Miss Kim drew various shapes on the dry erase board. Each friend was in charge of a shape and they had to take toothpicks to trace the shape.

We cleared the way for an art activity shortly after breakfast and it consumed our morning! Miss Kim built a pendulum and friends sure put it to use! Using a variety of colors (and a little water), they stood back, let go of the cup that was full of the paint + water mixture, and watched it go! Different designs were made depending on the direction that the cup went. Friends stood around and watched as paint splattered onto the paper (and the floor..and our socks) but my goodness: what fun we had!

Our PREK2 group and K group journal every day but lately, our younger friends have been interested in journaling! We offer it to them throughout the week so that they can get into the routine of journaling and what it all entails before they start PREK2 group.

Breakfast– Whole Grain Cheerios with fresh pineapple.

Lunch– Melted shredded cheese on whole wheat flatbread, fresh pineapple/apples, and fresh carrots.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with peanut butter and sliced cheddar cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.

Have a great evening!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/26

Good Snowy Tuesday!

Friends loved their time at the easel painting with bright, fun colors. This activity helps us strengthen our hand-eye coordination, fine motor and color recognition skills.

Adrian was enjoying the many dinosaurs he was engaging with today.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal and oranges.

Lunch: Whole grain warmed  tortillas with turkey lunchmeat and shredded Colby cheese, corn and apples.

Snack: Whole wheat bagels with peanut butter.

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers.

Have a wonderful night.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtTCDmdhjIulkPt6MOlwuQQ49s0QLA?e=4Cpocj

Beginning this week, we will launch our TerraCycle collection program here at Wee Friends! Miss Annastecia and a friend have teamed up to coordinate this program in an effort to become more environmentally conscious as a community.

What is TerraCycle? TerraCycle is a program that collects, sorts, researches, and processes products that would typically head to a landfill. The items they process are usually made of multiple materials and therefore can’t be recycled at a normal facility, or have been long thought of as “unrecyclable”. Together, we can team up to stop commonly tossed items from overloading landfills and become part of the solution to reducing our carbon footprint.

You simply need to collect any of the qualifying items from your home and drop them in the collection bin outside of Wee Friends (next to the trash can), or hand them over to Miss Annastecia and let her take care of it for you. The items currently approved for us to collect and send in are:

· Skin care, hair care, and cosmetic packaging

· Squeezable food pouches and caps (IMPORTANT: these need to be rinsed of food residue and dried before being collected)

· Brita filters, pitchers, dispensers, bottles, and faucet systems (Brita brand only)

· All brands of writing utensils, glue sticks, watercolor dispensers, and paint sets

· All brands of used or empty oral care products and packaging

· All brands of blades and razors

· All pop socket products and packaging, and phone cases of any brand

Please feel free to head to www.terracycle.com for more information, and also check out our Wee@Home page on Facebook (make sure to join this group for parents if you haven’t already!) for more details on acceptable collections, and to discuss and direct your questions to Miss Annastecia. As always, thank you for your cooperation and we look forward to making a meaningful impact together!

Happy Monday!

**We are expecting a winter system tonight. Please plan on a MINIMUM of a 10:00 delayed opening if local schools are delayed or closed. We will officially announce our delay/close by 7:30 am via our text service.

If you are NOT signed up for our texting service, please see a teacher at pickup.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

After we finished reading, ‘The Little Penguin’ in K group, we sat in a circle on the floor to explore a new activity! This week, we’ll be exploring shapes: specifically, taking simple shapes and creating new shapes!

To begin, we did one example together. Then, each friend had two problems that they had to solve. One friend took six triangles and made a hexagon while another child took a hexagon and three small triangles to make one big triangle!

Their understanding of shapes was evident as every member was able to complete their cards without any help! As one friend was finishing their shape problem, they shared, “I love doing activities like this!”.

K.G.4: Compose simple geometric shapes to from larger shapes (e.g., create a rectangle composted of two triangles).

In PREK2, children read, ‘The Mitten’ which lead into their activity. They took specific events that occurred within the story and put them into order. They also talked about how the authors words and the illustrations on the page match!

Last week, our kindergarten group played several rounds of a rhyming word memory game. They have still shown interest in this and it wasn’t even five minutes after breakfast before they asked if we could play.

Towards the middle of our experience, Franklin grabbed a clipboard, paper, and pencil and wrote his name along with his peers names who were playing. He kept track of all of the matches that he and his friends were getting.

Have a lovely night!

Breakfast- Whole wheat bagel with butter and fresh apples.

Lunch- Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce and shredded cheese, fresh pineapple, and fresh broccoli/cucumber.

PM snack- Whole milk yogurt with granola or fresh pineapple.

Wee Sprout- Fresh cucumber/broccoli.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/25

Good afternoon, I hope you all enjoyed your weekend.

PLEASE NOTE: We are expecting a winter system this evening. Please plan on a MINIMUM of a 10:00 delayed opening if local schools are delayed or closed. We will officially announce our delay/close by 7:30 a.m. via our text service. Thank You.

Paige and her friends all enjoyed engaging in musical instruments this morning. This activity not only enhances our hand-eye coordination, but our fine motor skills and the love for music. 

We then enjoyed listening to Teacher books. A friend asked for them today and of course the wish was granted. We ALL love listening to teacher books.  

Breakfast: Whole grain English muffins with peanut butter and oranges.

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with shredded mozzarella and marinara sauce, corn and apples.

Snack: Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh green beans.

Have a lovely evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtTCDmdhjIulkPsMjsjbdli4u05O6A?e=QOHRXt

Happy Friday!

In K group, we played one round of rhyming word memory game. F, Mack, and Franklin enjoyed it so much that they played several rounds by themselves this afternoon! As we cleaned up during group, Franklin said, “I’m going to lay on my cot and just think about playing this game this afternoon so I don’t forget!”. They jumped and cheered when their peers got a match—it was amazing to watch!

K.RF.3.1: Identify and produce rhyming words.

During PREK2 group, friends took characters that were in the story they read and came up with rhyming words for them!

Children came to the art table this morning to explore an art activity where they used various different colors of paint to use on sticks! Along with paint, they also used art materials such as beads, string, pipe cleaners, metal rings, and glitter glue.

One of our favorite challenging activities lately that our older friends have been into is ka-noodle. This is a game that I had when I was a kid and ever since I brought it in a few years ago, there have been waves of children who love ka-noodle! It challenges them which is their favorite part!

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

Lunch– Ham and cream cheese rollups, whole wheat tortilla, banana, and fresh pepper/cucumber/snap peas.

PM snack– Cheddar block cheese and goldfish.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/snap peas/pepper.

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/22