Happy Monday!

We kicked off our week by working with shapes for PREK1 sign in. Each child came up to the sign in board and found their name written on a notecard. They flipped their notecard around to find a shape that was drawn on the back. Everyone was able to identify their shape! Afterwards, they took tape and taped their shape under the correct shape name.

K.4.1: Identify and describe geometric objects: circle, triangle, square, rectangle, diamond, trapezoid, hexagon, octagon, parallelogram, sphere, and cube.

Earlier in the morning, three of our oldest preschoolers sat on the building to play a quick game of rhyming word memory game! We worked together to find matches that rhymed such as hat and cat.

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

This week we are identifying shapes, building them and exploring how they relate to one another.  We explored shape building at the round table this morning using colored popsicle sticks and clothes pins.  Some got very creative making three dimensional triangles into an obstacle course!

In the art center we used sponges to create shape paintings.  We identified the shapes we used and experimented with different ways they could fit together in a painting.

PREK2: In group today we tried a variety of yoga poses as well as different ways to breath slowly on our out breath, calming our bodies.  We worked on a short shape identification activity and picked out favorite shape at the end of group.

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with butter and fresh pears.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce, fresh cantaloupe/pears, and fresh cucumber/pepper/tomatoes.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a wonderful night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-09-09

Happy Friday!

We ended our week in PREK1 by reviewing syllables. We used one of our favorite things to help us do this: fruit!

Each PREK1 child chose a card from the bottom of the sign in board and we read their fruit aloud. We worked together by either clapping our the number of syllables or placing our hand on our chin to see how many times it moved when we said our fruit aloud. We found out that there were several three syllable fruits!

K.RF.3.2: Orally segment words into syllables.

Today we harvested the giant sunflower from our garden.  We laid it on the ground because there had been a lot of talk during the summer about how tall the sunflower was.  We measured the sunflower laying on the ground and found it was three kids tall .

We explored the huge head of the flower filled with seeds!  We learned by observing that the sunflower is made up of hundreds of tiny flowers.  Under each tiny flower one seed forms.  We used magnifying glasses to look closely and experimented with different tools to remove the seeds.  Everyone did a great job practicing awareness of one another and helping to keep everything fair as friends shared seeds and made room for others to have a look.  What kind friends!

We enjoyed a relaxing morning getting creative with paint in the art center!

Breakfast– Brown rice cakes with cream cheese and banana.

Lunch– Refried bean and cheese quesadillas on whole wheat tortilla, fresh watermelon/pineapple, and fresh cucumber/pepper.

PM snack– Tortilla chips with homemade guacamole and cheddar cheese slices.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a wonderful weekend.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-09-06

Happy Friday!

Today we….

enjoyed listening to a teacher read books to us…

then listened to and acted out the motions to Going on a Bear Hunt…

stacked the BounceBlocks to stand on or flip one over to sit in…

engaged with playdough with our tools and added pipe cleaners to stick into it…

and then headed outside to enjoy some fresh air and our favorite activities.

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

Lunch:  Ham lunch meat, whole grain wheat flatbread, fresh cucumbers and bananas.

Afternoon Snack:  Goldfish crackers and Colby-jack block cheese.

Wee Sprouts:  Green bell peppers.

Have a great weekend!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-09-06

Good Afternoon!

PREK1 kids came to the sign in board where we focused on our one to one correspondence skills. Each friend found their name on a notecard and followed the directions on the back that would say something like this: “tape your name under the group with five items”.

K.NS.4: Perform one to one correspondence tasks.

We went one step further in PREK1 group where we worked on number identification. I had a stack of sentence strips and children had to find their name. On the back, it had a line of shapes. They had to count the shapes and find the number on the chalkboard where they taped the strip next to the number. A few older friends helped their younger friends identify their number!

K.NS.4: Perform one to one correspondence tasks.

This morning we set up a welcome activity that encouraged friends to measure the lines with colored counters and see how many would fit. Then we counted together to see.  We found the longest line held 39 counters. Younger kids enjoyed helping the older kids place the counters on the line.  As we worked together some of our friends became interested in sorting the colors, so we offered trays to help support the child lead portion of the project.  Many of the younger kids jumped in to help match the colors with the trays!

We harvested our carrots from the garden this morning, washed them in a pail of water…then ate them all!!

PREK2: Our group talked about the sense of touch today.  We each held a stone and a feather and paid close attention to how the felt in our hands.  We put all of the descriptive words we could think of on the board.  Then we read the story “Her Body Can”.

Breakfast– Corn Chex with fresh pineapple.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded turkey, fresh watermelon/banana, and fresh carrot/cucumber.

PM snack-Trail mix with raisins, sunflower/pumpkin seeds and granola

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrot.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures:2024-09-05

Good afternoon!

We started our morning by sorting blocks into the shape sorting houses. Our friends also engaged with the object permanence boxes. They placed balls or blue coins into their boxes.

We made our way to the kitchen for loose parts play. Our tray had various wooden shapes and miniature farm animals. Some friends stacked their wooden shapes to make a tower and others identified the noise their animal made.

Our friends also explored the finger puppets. Miss Bekah showed our friends how to place the puppet on their fingers. Eleanor cuddled one of the mice puppets.

We then headed outside to play. Miss Bekah set up water trays at the table and under the tree’s shade. We explored the water with sea animals, scoops and rocks.

Miss Linsey also gave our friends carrots to try from the garden. Some friends loved eating the carrot while others were just interested in exploring the carrot’s roots with their fingers.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios cereal with fresh oranges.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded turkey, fresh cantaloupe slices, and green tomato.

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

Wee Sprout: Green bell pepper/ mini cucumber.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-09-05

Happy Sunny Wednesday!

This morning we were engaged building our magnetic animals and showing parts of the body and making their sound to the teachers.  Eleanor engaged with the wooden loose parts circles and placed then on her wrist up to her elbow as bracelets.

We then danced with our color dancing scarves and enjoyed looking through the different colors.

We then headed into the kitchen to paint at the easel  One side had turquoise and yellow, while the other side had red and yellow tempera paint.  We chose which side we wanted and after painting and mixing those colors together, we experimented with red or turquoise to mix new colors with depending on the side of the easel we chose initially.  We made beautiful masterpieces full of colors.

We then headed outside to enjoy another cooler beautiful morning.  We played in the little house, rode the teeter totters and bikes, and climbed on the wood blocks in the rock area.  We also stood at the fence along the alley to watch the worker work on the overhead wires from his bucket truck.

Breakfast:  Oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh cantaloupe slices.

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs, fresh peach slices, red/green bell pepper slices and whole grain wheat bread.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole grain wheat tortillas with cream cheese and fresh apple slices.

Wee Sprouts:  Tomatoes.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-09-04

Good Afternoon!

We started off our day by counting out syllables in our name for PREK1 sign in. Each child came up to the sign in board where we clapped their name out in syllables. After we figured out how many syllables their name had, they taped their name under the appropriate group!

K.RF.3.2: Orally segment words into syllables.

Later on in group, we read ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. I had pulled several different foods that were focused on in the book and wrote them on notecards. As a group, we counted the number of syllables for each word. We used two different techniques: clapping syllables out in each word and placing our hand on our chin to see how many times our mouth moved when saying a word. When we were done, we noticed that the ‘1 syllable’ group had the most words!

K.RF.3.2: Orally segment words into syllables.

This morning our welcome activity invited friends to experiment with tracing shapes and letters using black pebbles.  Several friend’s enjoyed finding the letters in their name and building those letters with the pebbles.  Others made shapes, counted how many stones made a line or turned a circle of pebbles into a smiley face!  Plenty of fine motor and early reading skills were engaged during this activity.

We hope you enjoy a few more photos from the day…

PREK2: Today during group we talked about paying attention to our sense of sight.  We looked carefully around the classroom and reported one thing we saw to make a class list.  We also sang “the name song” and clapped the syllables in our name.  We counted how many syllables were in each friends name as we went around the circle.

Breakfast– Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh apples.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs, whole wheat tortilla, fresh pineapple/apple/banana, and fresh pepper/cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

PM snack– air-popped corn with raisins

Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/cucumber/cherry tomatoes.

Have a wonderful night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-09-04

Good Afternoon!

PREK1 children started their Tuesday off by completing sign in where they worked on counting items in a line. Each child had to find their name on a notecard at the bottom of the board. On the other side of the card were directions. Their directions prompted them to tape their name under a specific number. They had to count each group to figure out where they should tape their name for sign in.

K.NS.5: Count up to 20 objects arranged in a line, a rectangular array, or a circle. Count up to 10 objects in a scattered configuration.

In PREK1 group, we read ‘Alphabet Adventure’. Throughout the story, all of the letters looked for the dot of the lowercase i as it was lost! Friends were quick to identify letters that they recognized, usually the letters in their name!

Which led us to our activity for today!—on the chalkboard, all of the first letters of our names were taped on the board. We identified each letter and to who it belonged. Then, I held up one lowercase letter at a time and we matched the lowercase cone to the uppercase ice cream! We noticed that some letters look exactly the same such as the letter S/s for example!

K.RF.2.4: Identify and name all uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

There have been several friends interested in insects and spiders lately.  We set up an open ended welcome activity using stones, pinecones sticks and bugs to explore the interest imaginatively.  Many made homes for the bugs.  A couple of friends wanted to make their stick home stand like a tripod, but were struggling to get it to work.  We problem solved a bit and were able to use a rubber band to add some structure.  It was a great opportunity to explore thinking outside the box.

We enjoyed working on some sorting activities this morning.  In the sensory bin we offered sorting trays and an array of different types of seeds to encourage sorting.  Kids could sort by color, size or any other criteria they imagined.

Outside a few friends were interested in fossils or colored rocks they were finding in the gravel.  We got out some sorting materials for the rock area outside as well, so friends could find and sort rocks as they desired…though some used them to make “potions” instead.  It was open ended!

PREK2: We are starting the MACK curriculum this week which teaches us how to pay attention to and regulate our emotions.  This week we are paying attention to our senses.  We read the book “The Listening Walk”.  We all closed our eyes and listened carefully for a minute to what we could hear in the classroom.  Then we recorded one thing we heard on a class list.

Breakfast– Puffins cereal with fresh oranges.

Lunch– Homemade chicken avocado salad on whole wheat bread, fresh apples/banana, and fresh peppers.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/tomatoes.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-09-03

Good afternoon!

Our friends asked Miss Bekah to read books on the reading steps. They took turns choosing a book for her to read and asking to sit on her lap to listen to the books.

Our friends engaged with the wooden blocks in the Habi-trail area. Some friends pushed their ramps around the front or sat on their block. 

Eleanor played with dress up in the housekeeping area. She first dressed herself in a pink hat and 3 purses. Then, she put the doctor tool bag on her head as a hat, which made her giggle.

We made our way outside to enjoy the much cooler weather. Our friends rode their bikes down the hill, scooped sand in the sandbox, and drew with markers at the art table.

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

Lunch: Whole grain wheat flatbread with refried beans and shredded Colby Jack cheese, chicken avocado salad, fresh cantaloupe and tomato.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat bagel with peanut butter and fresh apple slices.

Wee Sprout: Red mini sweet peppers.

Have a beautiful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-09-03

Happy Friday!

Our friends started off their morning by working on their balance skills with the BounceBlocks. Charlotte was determined to stand on a block without falling over and she accomplished her goal after a few tries! Some of our friends stacked the blocks to make towers, or turned over the blocks and sat in them.

We then worked on putting together our magnetic mix-and-match animals. Our friends tried to identify the animal that they were piecing together.

We made our way to the kitchen to draw with crayons on paper. Our friends noticed how the vibrancy of the marks on their paper changed depending on the pressure they applied to the crayon.

We then headed outside early to enjoy a Wee Sprout on the bench. One of our friends noticed a squirrel walking along the slides. We engaged with trucks in the circle area and played with the dustpan sets in the housekeeping area.

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

Lunch: Whole wheat flatbread with hummus, banana, and mini cucumbers.

Afternoon Snack: Pretzels with mozzarella cheese stick.

Wee Sprout: Mini sweet peppers.

Have a beautiful weekend!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-08-30