Happy Friday!
Enjoy a few pictures from our day!
Breakfast– Brown rice cakes with cream cheese and fresh watermelon.
Lunch– Ham and cream cheese rollups, fresh watermelon/apples/oranges, and fresh cucumber/carrot.
PM snack– Birthday blueberries and colby jack cheese slices.
Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrot.
Have a wonderful weekend!
-Wee Friends Teachers
Link to pictures: 2025-07-18
Good afternoon!
Our friends enjoyed climbing and exploring the Habi-trail this morning. They climbed the ladder, went down the slide and looked out the window.
Most of our friends engaged in reading or looking at books on the reading steps individually. One friend sang “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” which was the book that they were reading.
We made our way into the kitchen for a peg and pegboard activity. Our friends stacked pegs to make towers or worked on placing a peg in each hole on their board. Once friends were done with their initial board shape, they told Miss Tina which shape for their board they would like next.
We enjoyed a much cooler morning outside today. We climbed on the log house, engaged with baby dolls and took turns going down the slides with our friends.
Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios cereal with fresh nectarines.
Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with red beans, watermelon slices and cooked peas.
Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat Ritz crackers with peanut butter and red grapes.
Wee Sprout: Cucumber.
Have a wonderful evening!
WWF Teachers
Link to pictures: 2025-07-17
Good Afternoon–
Today was a puzzling kind of day! Kids were very interested in puzzles of all kinds. Some tried jigsaw puzzles with more pieces than they had tried before. Some explored geometric shape puzzles or kanoodle. Even the art center saw geometric paper collages with shapes fitting together in interesting ways. Puzzles do a great deal of good for the brain. They help build your child’s memory skills, spatial awareness, ability to plan, test ideas and solve problems. To read more about how puzzle’s benefit your child’s development, click the article link:
https://illinoisearlylearning.org/blogs/growing/puzzle-play/
Kids have been drawn to a variety of sensory experiences this week. Today, we added shaving cream to colored water. We feel sensory is important to be openly offered for many reasons. Usually when kids seek it out, there is something the brain and body need from it. Sensory stimulation strengthens neural pathways at an early age. Sensory processing sets the foundation for regulating the nervous system, solving complex problems, focusing and using critical thinking later in life.
Breakfast: Puffins cereal with fresh orange slices.
Lunch: Brown rice with chicken, fresh watermelon/bananas, and fresh cucumbers/green beans.
PM Snack: Trail mix with raisins, sunflower/pumpkin seeds and granola.
Wee Sprouts: Fresh cucumbers and green beans
Have a lovely night!
-Wee Friends Teachers
Link to pictures: 2025-07-17
Good Afternoon!
This morning the friends were engaged in a variety of activities. Several friends explored and built with Magna-Tiles, another friend moved the beads along wire of the Zany Zoo activity cube, Eleanor worked on the latch puzzle and another friend engaged with a baby doll, feeding and dressing it.
We then headed into the kitchen to engage in the light table with the sensory balls. We added cardboard tubes and a cardboard chute to the table. The friends placed balls into the cardboard tubes to fill it full of balls and then pick it up off the bottom of the table and watch them roll out. We also rolled them down a chute and lined the chute full of balls. The babies also stood at the table and explored the texture of the balls in their hands.
We then headed outside to get some fresh air. Enjoy some pictures of our friends’ outside time this morning!
Breakfast: Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh blueberries/raspberries.
Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs with shredded mozzarella cheese, fresh pineapple slices, cooked sweet potatoes and whole grain wheat English muffin toasted with butter.
Afternoon Snack: Refried beans and shredded mozzarella cheese with white corn tortilla chips.
Wee Sprout: Cucumbers.
Have a wonderful evening!
WWF Teachers
Link to pictures: 2025-07-16
Good Afternoon!
We happened to have one of those authentically child driven projects pop up today. It was one that makes emergent curriculum shine as a way of integrating learning seamlessly into interests and play. The kids were exploring a treasure trove of natural objects this morning. After some time with all of it, a couple of friends headed for the art center. I suggested that if they were interested they could draw some of the objects they found. This turned into the kids designing museum posters they said they wanted to hang in the classroom. I asked if they would like to “curate” a museum exhibit to go along with their posters. They were intrigued and got right to work. The kids began making labels and signs for their exhibits. They practiced kid spelling without really being aware that they were working on a language arts lesson. Some friends wrote what the objects were on the labels, like “pinecones”. Others wrote words describing the objects they were showing like “pokey”, “wiggly”, or “spiky”. All of it lead to deep learning experiences. At the end, Ryan and Paige dressed up as tourists to visit the museums and take pictures. When they visited Katherine’s museum, she introduced them to her exhibit saying “these shells were collected from all over the world!”.
The rest of our revolved around sensory activities, specifically water! Inside, we explored a new water table activity using pink colored water and pouring/measuring materials.
Outdoors, we filled up the water table along with the blue tuff tray to offer ample water opportunities to help combat the heat! A few friends offered to help select toys for each water space which was so helpful!
Breakfast– Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh grapes.
Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat tortilla, fresh grapes/blueberries/pineapple, and fresh cucumber/carrots/green beans.
PM snack– Air popped popcorn with butter and raisins.
Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrot/green beans.
Have a wonderful night!
-Wee Friends Teachers
Link to pictures: 2025-07-16
Good afternoon!
A friend started our morning by making a path with stepping stones for all of their friends to walk on. We took turns walking down the path and feeling the various textures underneath our feet.
We then headed into the kitchen for watercolor painting with thin brushes. Most of our friends correctly identified the colors they were painting with. We also shared what we were painting: lines, dots, and circles. We each made several beautiful pieces of art!
We asked for “marching sticks” aka the rhythm sticks to march with in the front area of our classroom. We listened to “Ants Go Marching” as we tapped our sticks together and marched.
We made our way outside for a warm morning of outdoor play. A baby explored the flowers by the benches, we engaged in water play at the table or tray, and rode the teeter-totters.
Breakfast: Whole grain Corn Chex cereal with fresh nectarines.
Lunch: Whole grain wheat tortilla with peanut butter, 1/2 mozzarella cheese stick, fresh honeydew melon and cooked corn.
Afternoon Snack: Whole grain cinnamon-raisin bagel with cream cheese and freshly picked blueberries/raspberries (thanks to a friend from the preschool class).
Wee Sprout: Sugar snap peas.
Have a beautiful evening!
WWF Teachers
Link to pictures: 2025-07-15
Good Afternoon!
This morning we offered a sorting activity. Friends looked for a variety of creative ways to sort buttons. Some sorted by color. Others sorted according to whether the buttons were pretty or not. Others used a magnetic wand to sort all the buttons that were magnetic and all the ones that were not. There was a lot of openness and possibility around how to sort.
At the art center several kids painted with sponges and glitter glue. Several pairs of friends at the easel chose to mimic one anothers paintings. Ryan and Paige took it to the next level at the art table by making their drawings look as similar as possible. This is a wonderful way for kids to learn.
Enjoy a few more pictures from our day!
Breakfast: Toasted oatmeal squares cereal with fresh nectarines.
Lunch: Whole wheat bread with peanut butter, fresh blueberries/honeydew melon/fresh nectarines, and fresh cucumbers/carrots.
PM Snack: Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and fresh raspberries.
Wee Sprouts: Fresh cucumbers and carrots.
Have a great afternoon.
~Wee Friends Teachers
Link to pictures: 2025-07-15
Good Afternoon!
This morning we engaged climbing in and on the plastic blocks and laying and rocking on the rainbow mats.
We then headed into the kitchen to engage in a sensory activity with shaving cream, water and cars/trucks. We used a paint brush to spread the shaving cream on our cars/trucks to make them dirty. We then used water to clean the shaving cream and make them clean like in a carwash.
We then headed outside to play in a variety of activities. The water and shaving cream carwash activity was also brought outside for our preschool friends to engage in with us.
Breakfast: Whole grain wheat bread toasted with butter and cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh oranges.
Lunch: Whole grain wheat penne pasta with red beans, fresh red grapes and cooked carrots.
Afternoon Snack: Whole milk yogurt and fresh blueberries.
Wee Sprout: Cucumbers.
Have a marvelous evening!
WWF Teachers
Link to pictures: 2025-07-14
Good afternoon,
Some of our older friends became interested with the idea of coloring tape and covering plastic bottles with it. I told the kids that this process reminded me of paper mâché. We talked about what paper mâché was and what we could make with it. The kids wanted to try making bowels so we made a flour and water paste to get them going. Some loved the feel of the paste and others were less partial :). They worked through the texture and made their bowls. Great perseverance!
The tuff tray was filled with dry oatmeal—a new sensory experience for us! Children used a variety of tongs, spoons, and bowls to move the oatmeal throughout the tray. A lot of kids shared that they were making food such as soup and rice! We love to offer new and interesting sensory materials as there are so many benefits to working with our hands—it’s how we learn!
We headed outside where several interest spots were made available. Down under the tree, the water table was opened up where children immediately wanted to fill their watering cans to water our garden—we love our large group of helpers! The art table was open where children could explore drawing with chalk. The blue tuff tray was used as a vehicle cleaning station where they used a mixture of water and shaving cream to clean the cars! It was a busy morning outside.
Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with peanut butter and fresh watermelon.
Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with chicken, fresh blueberries/pears/bananas, and fresh cucumber/peppers.
PM Snack: Whole milk yogurt with fresh blueberries and graham crackers.
Wee Sprouts: Fresh cucumbers and peppers
Have a wonderful day!
~Wee Friends Teachers
Link to photos: 2025-07-14
Happy Friday!
This morning we brought out the big tuff tray and filled it with water, to have a sensory experience with pom-poms, sensory cylinders and frogs, salamanders, snakes and turtles.
Enjoy the pictures from the rest of our day!
Breakfast: Whole grain brown rice cakes with peanut butter and bananas.
Lunch: Chicken lunch meat, 1/2 mozzarella cheese stick, whole grain wheat tortillas, fresh pear slices and cooked peas.
Afternoon Snack: Goldfish crackers, mild cheddar block cheese slices and fresh peach slices.
Wee Sprout: Cucumbers.
Have a great weekend!
WWF Teachers
Link to pictures: 2025-07-11