Good afternoon on this summer-like day!

Today we…

engaged with the Mix-and-Match magnetic animals with our friends…

listened to Miss Bekah read books on the reading steps or looked at books independently…

and explored the water table outside with plastic bugs, measuring cups and InterStar connectors.

Breakfast: Whole grain Corn Chex cereal with fresh pear slices.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with black beans, fresh pineapple and cooked peas.

Afternoon Snack: Sunflower seeds and whole grain wheat Triscuits crackers.

Wee Sprout: Cucumber.

Have a beautiful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-04-24

Good Afternoon!

**Please check your child’s daily sheet to see if they are in need of sunscreen. Please only bring lotion (no aerosol). Thanks!

The welcome activity this morning allowed children to explore the tuff tray where various wooden pieces were made available. A few friends were able to extend their idea, using majority of the tuff tray. Dax utilized the entire tray right before we went outside, sharing, “It’s a forest!”. He set up his pieces all around the tray, placing ‘trees’ all around the tray. We loved this open ended activity that allowed us to team up with our peers.

What a fantastic morning to be outside! We opened up our new water table which children flocked to instantly. So much so that we decided to put water in the tuff tray and offer another water opportunity at the art table! It was a great place for friends to cool off in the shade while enjoying a water play experience.

Here are a few more pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Toasted oatmeal squares with fresh oranges.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh watermelon and berry fruit kabobs (birthday treat!), and fresh cucumber/pepper/green beans.

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

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrot/pepper.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-04-24

Good Afternoon!

We set up a welcome activity that revolved around magnatiles. We added magnetic people and bells to the tuff tray and children got right to work building various structures, mostly houses! Children used the bells to place around the perimeter of their house. There were so many interesting creations that friends built with one of their favorite materials, with a few added items!

The rest of our morning was spent exploring various activities such as the art easel. A few friends painted several pictures, working with different paint colors. We beat the rain and headed out for the rest of the morning where we were able to run around, getting out a ton of energy!

We took our first trip to the farm today! We spent a lot of time naturally exploring gross motor movement!  In the woods, kids have opportunities to move their bodies in ways they do not anywhere else.  Kids practiced picking up and balancing very long sticks.  They loved trying to pick up the longest one.  They also enjoyed working together to carry long sticks down the path.  This took a great deal of coordination, team work and balance.  They also used the long sticks as fishing poles at the pond and made a game of using them to pick up leaves off the pond bottom.  Kids get such a deep understanding of how their bodies,  and the objects they are manipulating are moving in space in these environments.  This is an experience that is often lacking in modern early childhood settings.  When kids explore movement in these ways, it affects the whole brain in its ability to integrate all of the different parts.  It is hard to imagine that spending time balancing on logs, hanging upside-down or using a long stick to pick up a leaf out of the water could effect children’s ability to focus, problem solve and use higher level executive function, but science supports evidence that it does.  

If you are interested in reading more about these concepts, I highly recommend the book “Balanced and Barefoot, How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident and Capable Children”, which can be found on Amazon!

Breakfast– Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh strawberries/apples.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat flatbread, fresh pineapple/cantaloupe, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack– Air popped popcorn with butter and raisins.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrots/pepper.

Have a great night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-04-23

Good Afternoon!

Several friends began their morning looking at books on the reading steps.

We then listened to and acted out the motions to the See The Bunnies Sleeping? song.

We then listened to Miss Bekah read a book called What Makes A Rainbow? by Betty Swartz.  As you read the page of each color, a piece of ribbon comes out that matches the color on the page until you have all of the colors of the rainbow. We then headed into the kitchen to draw with markers that Miss Bekah taped together to draw with all of the rainbow colors simultaneously.

We then headed outside to enjoy the warmer weather and engage in our favorite activities.

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

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs, fresh cantaloupe, fresh mini bell peppers and whole grain wheat bread.

Afternoon Snack:  Refried beans and whole grain wheat tortillas.

Wee Sprout:  Cucumber.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-04-23

Good afternoon!

Our friends engaged with Magna-Tiles, trucks and Little People at the light table this morning. They worked on stacking tiles together to make a tower or tried to build a house. They placed their characters in their houses or on trucks.

Miss Bekah got out the Climb & Play Soft Blocks for our friends to climb on while they waited for their turn at the light table. We practiced our balance skills by walking on them. It was a great activity for our gross motor muscles.

We then headed outside to enjoy the mid-50s weather! Our friends engaged in various activities, but especially enjoyed exploring the sensory table with dough, nature items and rocks.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with fresh apple slices.

Lunch: Whole grain wheat tortilla with peanut butter, 1/2 slice Colby-Jack cheese, cooked corn and fresh clementine oranges.

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

Wee Sprout: Mini sweet peppers.

Have a beautiful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-04-22

Good Afternoon!

Our Tuesday PREK1 sign in focus continued on our weather theme from yesterday! Each child pulled a card from the bottom of the board that had an activity or weather pattern written on it and they sorted it into the correct season.

Science: K.3.5 Describe and give examples of weather changes and illustrate how weather affects people and the environment.

In PREK1 group, we read a fiction story about storms! We talked about the senses we use when thunder and lightning happen. We’ve had a lot of storms lately that children were able to pull from when they shared personal storm experiences!

We’ve been having great journal experiences where children are really focused on portraying a specific idea. Several friends are exploring kid spelling, hearing the exact letter sounds and writing those sounds down. A few older peers are quick to help their friends sound out more challenging sounds such as ch- and sh-!

After we drew the birds nest yesterday morning, there was a lot of “nest” talk among the kids.  We got on the topic of how birds build nests.  We talked about different materials that they use and how some use mud to help hold their nests together.  Todays nest building project was born of that discission.  First, we observed what the nest looked like and what it was made of.  We offered a nest building station with play doh, sticks and grass.  Some of the kids noticed that there were dry leaves in the real nest so we search the play area to find some to add to our nest building station.  We used stones as pretend eggs to put into our nests.  Everyone enjoyed the activity!  While we worked through the activity, we built on our observational skills, executive planning, fine motor and focused attention skills.

We hope you enjoy some more pictures from our day!

PREK2:  During group we read the book “An Egg is Quiet”.  We looked at the book along with its companion “A Nest is Noisy”.  One of our group members asked “Were these books written by the same author?”.  A question like that coming from a young four year old is like music to a teacher’s ears!  The books were in fact written and illustrated by the same people.  What amazing observational skills and vocabulary!

Our question today was, “What do you see during warm and cold weather?”.  We sorted our words into the correct categories on the board.

Breakfast– Kix cereal with fresh cantaloupe/strawberries.

Lunch– Turkey on whole wheat bread, fresh banana/pears/oranges, and fresh broccoli/carrots.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with peanut butter.

Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/carrot/broccoli.

Have a wonderful night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-04-22

Good Afternoon!  We hope everyone had a great Easter Weekend!

This morning we listened to Miss Ashley read several of our teacher books that are songs.  A friend sang along while she read it.  We also acted out the See The Bunnies Sleeping song.

We then headed into the kitchen for a sensory experience with shaving cream.  We drove cars and a boat through it to see the different size of tracks that each one made in our cream.

We then headed and engaged in a variety of activities.  Charlotte read books from the book shelf on the rocking chair, Eleanor and another friend built with the Inter Star Connector blocks and Clark used his imaginative play skills to play with the beanie animals at the table.

Cece was busy rolling around the classroom to where she wanted to play and engaged in her activity table.  Today we heard Cece say her first words.  She said “mama” and “dada.”  

We then headed outside to engage in a variety of our favorite activities.

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

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat pasta with black beans, fresh cantaloupe slices and cooked green beans.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and fresh strawberries.

Wee Sprout:  Cucumbers.

Have a marvelous evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-04-21

Happy Monday!

We kicked off our week by starting a conversation about what type of weather we prefer! Each PREK1 child came to the sign in board where they chose what type of weather was their favorite.

Later on in group, we read ‘A Child’s Calendar’ which goes through each month as well as the weather, clothing, and various activities associated with each month. We worked together to place several seasonal cards onto the correct season mat. We had four mats with each of the seasons. Pictures such as trees with brightly colored leaves, a family building a snowman, and children holding a lemonade stand were sorted onto the correct mat.

Science: K.3.5 Describe and give examples of weather changes and illustrate how weather affects people and the environment.

This morning the kids discovered their beans began to grow over the long weekend.  Most of the beans had sprouted a “radicle”, the first emergence of the root.  We learned about what we were seeing as we observed and talked about how the beans had changes.  We each drew what we saw and described what we saw in our journals.  Some kids dictated their observations and others wrote themselves using kid-spelling. 

We have been learning about observational drawing as we have been working on our “Bean Journals”.  Today, we took those new skills to the outdoor art table.  We acquired a robins nest which had one egg in it.  The kids practiced drawing what they saw using markers and water color.  Several kids who made multiple pictures, slowly drew more and more accurate drawings of the nest and egg.  It was great to watch their learning process unfold!  This kind of activity builds attention, focus and awareness.

Breakfast– Whole wheat english muffins with butter and fresh pineapple.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce, fresh cantaloupe/banana, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with granola.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrot.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-04-21

Good Afternoon!

We ended our week deciphering between two phrases: plants NEED and plants HAVE. Each PREK1 friend chose a card from the bottom of the sign in board and they had to determine if it was something that a plant has or something that a plant needs such as leaves, roots, water, or air!

Science: K.4.2 Observe plants and animals, describing how they are alike and how they are different.

We enjoyed some holiday themed activities at the art center today.  We decorated paper eggs in different ways.  We could used strips of patterned paper to make designs on our eggs.  We could also make a “bean box painting” to decorate a paper egg.  We added our egg to a box filled with beans and paint.  we shook the box and the bouncing beans painted our eggs!

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

Breakfast– Kix cereal with fresh pears.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded pork, fresh pears/mango/pineapple, and fresh carrots/cucumber/pepper.

PM snack– Granola, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, banana/pear.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrot/pepper.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-04-17

Good Afternoon!

It was pajama day today! Enjoy a picture of all of our friends dressed in their comfiest jammies.

We started our morning by marching with rhythm sticks along to the song “Tap Your Sticks” by Hap Palmer.

We then headed into the kitchen for a loose parts activity with miniature farm animals and wooden shapes. Our friends stacked their shapes to make towers and identified the farm animal they had on their tray.

We explored object permanence boxes with Miss Bekah and worked on placing a ball or coin into a hole or slot and watching it reappear in the drawer  tray.

We made our way outside to enjoy the beautiful morning and to take advantage of the warmer weather.

Breakfast:  Whole grain Cheerios cereal and fresh mango slices.

Lunch:  Whole grain brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh blueberries and cooked broccoli.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat Ritz crackers with peanut butter and mozzarella cheese stick.

Wee Sprout:  Orange bell pepper.

Have a fantastic Easter weekend!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-04-17