Good Afternoon!

This morning Hannah decided she wanted to organize the toys in habitrail.  She sorted them, and because she was proud of her hard work, asked “How can we keep it like this?”.  We suggested making labels indicating what goes in each bin.  We talked about spelling out the words and also drawing a picture for those who could not read yet.  Hannah took the task very seriously and did a beautiful job!  Child led projects like this teach reading and writing in an authentic way.  When a child initiates a reading and writing based project, it sticks!

We explored an open ended loose parts activity this morning challenging Wee Friends to use a variety of magnetic shapes, some coffee cans and their creative problem solving skills to invent something unique!  Everyone who chose to participate made a class list of all the different things they invented.

As some of our older friends explored the magnets, they noticed that one side of the magnet repelled and the other attracted.  This led to a spontaneous lesson about how magnets work.  We learned that magnets have two poles just like the earth.  The opposite poles attract and the same repel.  The kids began experimenting with what could be done with this knowledge.  William exclaimed “Look I can move the magnet across the table without even touching it!”.  I would consider this a perfect teaching moment at Wee Friends!  These activities are designed to create experiences that give the opportunity for children to make discoveries about the amazing world around them on their own.   When this happens, the joy of learning multiplies ten fold!!

Breakfast– Whole wheat english muffins with cream cheese and fresh oranges.

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

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with granola.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper/carrot.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures:2024-08-12

Good Afternoon!

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

We went into the kitchen to engage with playdough.  We had a variety of cookie cutters, a plastic egg half, smooth and textured rolling pins and cutting tools to use to manipulate it.  The friends watched as the lines appeared as they rolled the textured rolling pins into the dough.

We then headed out to play with the stackers.  We  were busy stacking shapes onto our stacker pole, using a variety of wooden loose parts to create a unique stack and stacking our bowls together.

We then headed outside to enjoy many of our favorite activities.  We scooped and poured sand into different containers, rode bikes and the teeter totter, and stood at the fence anticipating the arrival of the trash truck since we could hear it near by.

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

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat penne pasta with red beans, fresh cantaloupe and yellow bell peppers.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and fresh pineapple/cantaloupe.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers/Yellow bell peppers.

Have a marvelous evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-12

Happy Friday!

Today was Miss Nina’s last day with us. She’s helped us out for the last three summers and she’s been so wonderful! We know she’s going to do great student teaching this fall. We’re so glad we were able to be apart of her journey to becoming a teacher!

Our focus today: enjoying this awesome weather!

We went on a neighborhood walk with our Wee Wee friends. We walked down to the train tracks and around the block. While on our walk, we saw and heard several dogs, saw a cat in a window sill, noticed beautiful flowers and flags, and pointed out different cars that we saw.

Enjoy a few more pictures from the rest of our day!

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

Lunch– Turkey on whole wheat bread, fresh watermelon, and fresh cucumber/pepper.

PM snack– Block cheddar cheese and graham crackers.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber.

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Wee Friends Teaches

Link to pictures: 2024-08-09

Happy Friday!

This morning we began with our favorite dancing songs, The Beanie Bag Dance by Greg and Steve and Going on a Bear Hunt.

We then headed over to make our own musical sounds on the pianos and xylophones.

We then headed outside for the rest of the morning.  Our friends loved going for a ride around the block in the wagons with the preschoolers walking behind us.  We enjoyed seeing lots of colorful flowers and a rainbow colored fence.  We also heard many dogs barking from inside their houses as we went down the sidewalk.

When we made it back from our wagon ride, we got out our road signs that Charlotte and Eleanor enjoyed looking and pointing to the letters on them.  We also rode the teeter totters, played with the trucks, scooped in the sandbox and peeked through the bench or around the little house.

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

Lunch:  Turkey lunch meat, whole grain wheat bread, fresh cucumbers and watermelon.

Afternoon Snack:  Goldfish crackers, mozzarella cheese stick and watermelon.

Wee Sprouts:  Orange bell peppers.

Enjoy the weekend and beautiful weather!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-09

Good Afternoon!

I wouldn’t even be able to give you an educated guess as to how many books we read in a given week. There are children who ask to read books more than others but when a book starts being read aloud, friends are automatically drawn to listening whether its right next to the teacher or from across the classroom.

As we all know, there are so many benefits to reading aloud, and the importance of starting this routine early in a child’s life. We are often asked by parents, “What can I do to help my child in their reading/writing journey?”. Our first answer is always, “Read to them.”. Read all types of genres as each are so vastly different in how they’re written and the information we get from each genre.

A quote from the article below reads, “One study found that kindergarten children who were read to at least three times a week had a “significantly greater phonemic awareness than did children who were read to less often.” Reading aloud helps strengthen things like vocabulary, comprehension, and visual clues.

It’s not JUST reading the story. It’s stopping in the middle of a page when a child has a comment or a question and willingly dive deeper into the story line, characters or events that are taking place. At the end of the story is a great time to check in to see what they were able to retain. “Wow! That was such an interesting story. What did you think about the character Frog?” (aim to ask questions that aren’t yes and no answers)—questions that provoke comprehension and thinking while building understanding of how books work which is so important for literacy development.

We always focus on ‘love of learning’ at Wee Friends but we also focus on ‘love of reading’!

Thankfully, our kiddos love listening to stories and we love reading them!

https://www.pbs.org/parents/thrive/why-reading-aloud-to-kids-helps-them-thrive

Enjoy a few more pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Puffins cereal with fresh cantaloupe.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh watermelon, and fresh pepper/cucumber/cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Whole wheat crackers with peanuts.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cherry tomatoes (Thanks to Cassie and her mom!)/cucumber/pepper.

Have a lovely night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-08

Good Afternoon!

Our friends enjoyed sitting on a teacher’s lap or next to a teacher to listen to them read books.

Our friends shared smiles with the teachers!

We made our way to the kitchen to engage in some loose parts play. We were given wooden people, circles, and rings of different colors. Eleanor stacked the rings on top of a person and watched as the person disappeared in the tall tower of rings. Charlotte tried stacking her people, but realized that she couldn’t stack them due to their round head shape.

Outside, our friends explored animals at the table, rode a teeter totter, went down the slide, and drew with markers at the art table.

Breakfast:  Corn Chex cereal and fresh cantaloupe/oranges.

Lunch:  Whole grain brown rice with shredded chicken, cucumbers and fresh pineapple.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole grain Wheat Thins crackers with peanut butter.

Wee Sprouts:  Green bell peppers/cucumbers.

Have a fantastic evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-08

Good afternoon! 

Today we continued building on the big box project!  We used markers and pastels to add more color to our boxes.  Once the boxes were finished, everyone got to use their imaginations and cooperative skills to play in them!  We talked about the variety of possibilities for pretend as we played!  One pair of friends pretended to be in an airplane.  We found objects around the classroom to use for steering wheels.  The airplane became a bus and a fire truck after that.  Blocks were used as fire hoses! 

Next we took the boxes outside where they became houses, barns and a hospital!  Its amazing how many things a group of children can make from a box!

At the end of the day we made a list of favorite things we imagined the box to be.

Everyone enjoyed a group activity with both Wee Friends and Wee Wee friends outdoors today!  We played games with the parachute which were fun for all ages .  Then Miss Rebecka read stories on top of the parachute. What a busy day!

Breakfast: Oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh bananas

Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs with fresh peppers, cucumbers, cantaloupe and orange slices

PM Snack: Air popped corn with raisins

Wee Sprouts: Bell peppers and cucumbers

Have a lovely afternoon!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Link to Photos:2024-08-07

Happy Wednesday!

This morning we engaged with instruments.  We used our hands to make beats on our drums and shook our shakers and bells.

We then headed into the kitchen to engage with our loose part wooden shapes and animals.  A friend worked to put her animal inside of her circle and Charlotte and Eleanor stacked their shapes to make a tall tower.

Since it was a very beautiful morning, we decided to head outside early to enjoy our Wee Sprouts.

Miss Bekah brought out something new for us to enjoy with our preschool friends….the parachute.  We held onto it to shake it fast and slow, we went under it and imagined it was an umbrella that was protecting us from the rain, and we even sat on it to listen to a few books.  We loved it!

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

Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole grain wheat tortilla, fresh green bell peppers and cantaloupe.

Afternoon Snack:  Blue corn tortilla chips and hummus.

Wee Sprouts: Red bell pepper.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-07

Hello!

**Wee Friends is closed Monday, September 2 for Labor Day.

This morning we worked on solving the problem: “What to do with a giant box?”.  We settled on painting the box and having a group discussion about what it would be when it was finished.  There were lots of creative ideas: a closet for clothes, a boat, a car, a house, and a hiding place. At the end of the discussion one friend said “I know! It could be a changing machine that does all of the things!”.  Everyone agreed that the changing machine was the best use for the box!  The learning that takes place during child directed projects like these is valuable life long skills.  During this one, our friends practiced how to have a brain storming discussion about a project resulting in the use of group creative problem solving to find the solution! What a skill to be developing at 3, 4 and 5 years old!

A large black peg board was brought up from the basement and placed on the building rug with golf tees and rubber bands. Slowly by surely, children sat down and started exploring the materials that were available.

A few friends used the golf tees to make the outline of shapes. Then, they placed the rubber bands around the golf tees. Arthur pointed out all of the triangles that he saw on the board because, “They all have three sides!”.

Others simply used the activity for fine motor practice. It takes patience to get the rubber bands to stay on the golf tees! One of our three year old friends took the job of ‘material administrator’ and she would pass out the rubber bands and golf tees when her friends needed a refill. She’d say, “Here’s more rubber bands. Say ‘thank you!’.

Breakfast– Corn Chex and fresh apples.

Lunch– Peanut butter on whole wheat tortillas, fresh pineapple/oranges, and fresh cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber.

Have a lovely night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures:2024-08-06

Good Afternoon!

Our friends were engaged in a variety of activities this morning. Eleanor worked on dressing her baby doll, a friend looked through a square color block from our pyramid, Charlotte explored the Peek-a-Blocks, and another friend played with Duplo people.

We then made our way to the kitchen to create some art. We were each given a sponge brush with a different paint color. Each sponge was a different size as well so friends watched as their brushes made small circles to large circles on their papers.

Our friends worked on building with the waffle blocks. Eleanor created a long path of waffle blocks with her pieces.

We then headed outside to enjoy the nicer weather. We shared a smile with Miss Bekah while sitting and exploring the feel of the grass with our hands, walked around the rock area with a bucket we used to collect pea gravel, and played in the housekeeping area.

Breakfast:  Whole grain Cheerios and fresh apple slices.

Lunch: Whole grain wheat flatbread with refried beans and shredded cheddar cheese, red bell pepper and fresh pineapple slices.

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

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to picture: 2024-08-06