Happy Friday!

We read a ‘Frog and Toad’ story in K/PREK1 today where the author used the words yesterday, today, and tomorrow quite often in referring to time. We talked about these words and what they mean in the context of time.

Afterwards, we went over what we talked about yesterday in reference to the hour hand and minute hand on a clock. Each child was given a time and the opportunity to come up to the clock and make that time.

For example, Lucy was given the time 2:15. The hour hand was written in red marker while the minute hand was written in blue marker which corresponded with the clock. Lucy moved the hour hand to the 2 and the minute hand to the 3 which represents :15. We quickly found out that the small, blue number represents the minute hand!

K.M.2: Understand concepts of time, including: morning, afternoon, evening, today, yesterday, tomorrow, day, week, month, and year. Understand that clocks and calendars are tools that measure time.

We couldn’t contain our excitement as a still life was prepped at the art table. Friends used a different medium today: pastels! Children took their time as they observed the still life roses before drawing what they saw.

Emma and Sophia displayed what it means to have determination. They built a magnatile tower as high as they could, much taller than they are. Every time when it fell, they rebuilt it!

Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh oranges.

Lunch– Ham and cream cheese rollups, whole wheat flatbread, fresh pineapple, and fresh cucumber/carrots.

PM snack– Banana, goldfish, and string cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrots.

Have a great weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/22

Happy Friday!

“One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child.” ~Maria Montessori

We were all very excited about coloring in our journals today.

Once we dove into coloring with our markers, we soon found that they weren’t making any colorful marks on our paper. Evie asked Miss Marty, “Why are there no colors?” I explained to her that they all dried out and we would need to get brand new ones. Boy oh boy, were there excited smiling faces then!!!! It was even more fun coloring with the new  bright, vibrant colors.

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

Lunch: Whole grain tortillas with shredded cheese, peas and apples.

Snack: Whole wheat/grain cheese crackers and cheddar cheese cubes.

Have a wonderful weekend, we’ll see you all on Monday!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljbooUKmWDsdjnFO-Nw

“Time is not measured by clocks but by moments.”

In the mind of a child, this statement is pretty inaccurate. Statements such as, “When is my mom/dad coming?” or “What time is lunch?” contradict the statement above because children are looking for a time. Clocks and time are a big part of our day. While time in general is pretty abstract at this age, children understand it in a way that’s relevant to them.

In K/PREK1, we talked about clocks after we finished our poetry session. I used authentic assessment by asking questions to see how much prior knowledge children had pertaining to clocks. We identified the hour and minute hand and specifically what happens when the minute hand is on the 12. I moved the hour hand to different numbers and children would indicate what the time was. For example, when I had the minute hand stationary on the 12 but moved the hour hand, they would respond, “3 o’clock”, “5 o’clock”, or “10 o’clock” depending on where I placed the hour hand.

We are going to dive deeper into the clock tomorrow!

K.M.2: Understand concepts of time, including: morning, afternoon, evening, today, yesterday, tomorrow, day, week, month, and year. Understand that clocks and calendars are tools that measure time.

What a Thursday we had. Please enjoy a few pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Oatmeal squares and fresh banana/oranges.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded pork, fresh oranges/pears, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat crackers and sunflower seeds.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/cucumber.

Have a fantastic evening.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/21

Good Afternoon.

“No one can be free unless he is independent.” ~Maria Montessori

Today as Daniel was engaged in the cooking utensils we made a very interesting discovery!

Along with the use of pots and pans, Daniel added in a few of the magnetic cylinders only to find out that they stuck to the pans. We were very excited to see such an amazing science activity added in our dramatic play.  

Later in the day, Evie was in the dramatic play center engaged in cooking soup. She quickly brought the soup over to Miss Marty and said, “It’s hot, you have to blow on it” It was the best soup ever!!! I loved it.

Pretend play helps our little ones expand in several different aspects of their learning. Thinking skills, language development, emotional development and even physical development are all being worked on during this fun and exciting play.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios, and Apples.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded pork, sweet potatoes, and oranges.

Snack: Pretzels and cheddar cheese cubes.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots.

Have a great night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljblCdtsqk6RwNJCdTw

Good Afternoon!

Enjoy the pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and fresh apples.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat tortilla, fresh apples/banana, and fresh cucumber.

PM snack– Forrest’s birthday treat: pumpkin bread and string cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh peppers/cherry tomatoes.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/20

Good Afternoon.

“No one can be free unless he in independent.” Maria Montessori

Today several of our friends were engaged in the dramatic play center. The baby dolls were the main attraction!

Jack and Zoe each gathered blankets for their babies and decided to wrap them up to keep them nice and cozy warm.

While engaged in this activity Jack showed great empathy skills as his baby started to cry.  He told his baby, “It’s okay baby.”

We always enjoy seeing our classroom fish float through their water environment, but today the fish were very enticing to a few of our friends.

Miss Marty asked each child that was interested which fish was their favorite, how many fish were swimming in the water and what color the fish were. We were all excited to see the fish chasing one another from time to time.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios with apples.

Lunch: Scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast with butter, corn, and apples.

Snack: Whole wheat Ritz crackers and cream cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Peas.

Have a nice evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljbhG6LWyL0U8nVxqXA

Good Afternoon!

**Please make sure that your child has their winter snow attire (snow pants, boots, winter coat, gloves, hat) here this week. Thank you.

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We read, ‘But No Elephants’ (a childhood favorite of mine!) in K/PREK1 group today. After we finished reading the book, I introduced a new activity into group that we will be using on a consistent basis. Each child got a bracelet that had the same five colored beads on it. Kids asked, “What do we do with these?!”, which prompted our conversation about the poster on the chalkboard and the book that we just read.

I asked Lucy to find her white bead. After she identified it, we referred to the chart and I told her the white bead represents characters in the story. She started listing all of the characters that we learned about.

We continued on with each color and talked about ‘beginning’, ‘middle’, and ‘end’ of the story and how we identify each part.

Together, we were able to retell the story in detail.

K.RL.2.2: With support, retell familiar stories, poems, and nursey rhymes, including key details.

K.1.4: Identify and order events that take place in a sequence. (2006 standard)

Miss Kim had each PREK2 friend pick out a toy which they used to help tell a fiction story. Miss Kim started by creating the first sentence. Ruby used her bear to come up with the next sentence. At the end, PREK2 group had a story that they wrote!

There was nothing better this morning than being able to head outside. We walked (okay..ran) outside and the sun hit us right on the face. We moved throughout the yard with our friends, happy to get fresh air.

Several of our friends have a small fascination with beads so today, we used them in a different way. Children came to the table to see playdough and long, wooden sticks on trays. Our fine motor skills were hard at work as we took the beads on put them on the wooden stick, one by one.

Before we headed outside, we were in a fine motor zone. Fine motor activities aren’t just limited to paper and pencil.

Fine motor activities are any activity that require use of small muscles in the hands.

For example, as Penny was transferring water color from one jar to another with a syringe, she was using small muscles in her hand.

LEGO’s are a challenging fine motor activity because it requires controlled hand muscles. Grady and Maxwell used small LEGO pieces to build their tower this morning and noted how challenging it was to connect the pieces together.

https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/help-your-child-build-fine-motor-skills

“Children are like snowflakes. They are pure. They are beautiful. They are unique and they each sore at their own pace. Don’t try to compare them.”

-The Pinterested Parent

Breakfast– Kashi Blueberry Clusters and fresh oranges.

Lunch– Shredded cheese OR hummus on whole wheat tortillas, fresh apples, and fresh carrots.

PM snack– Cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese and banana.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/broccoli/cauliflower.

Have a terrific evening.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/19

Good afternoon all. I hope you’re all enjoying the beautiful sunshine.

“We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.” ~Maria Montessori

We have been reading a book called, The Mitten by Jan Brett as you all are aware! Well today, Miss Rebekah and our friends thought it would be a great idea to do some painting with mittens.

Sensory activities are always fun and we all love to paint with our fingers, hands and paint brushes, but today was much more exciting as we have never painted with mittens on our hands before. Just look at those happy faces!  

In the Wee Wee classroom we always like to have our little guys start learning and understanding self-help skills. Whether that means having them take their own shoes off, put their coats on, eating with a fork or a spoon, or just cleaning up after themselves this is something we all work very hard on achieving.

Evie is working hard on cleaning up her books after she has finished reading them. After she finishes she tells teachers, “I picked all my books up.”

Engaging in these skills will help build your child’s self-esteem, and independence. We all love to feel great about ourselves and the milestones we accomplish! Great Job Evie!!!

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix and apples.

Lunch: Whole grain tortillas with hummus, sweet potatoes, and oranges.

Snack: Whole wheat cinnamon raisin bagels with butter and apples. 

Have a great night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljbcw4FZGe-wchXxODg

Happy Monday!

**The weather looks favorable this week so please make sure that your child has all of their winter gear here (hat, gloves, snow pants, winter coat, snow boots).

In K/PREK1, we read ‘The Grouchy Ladybug’ which focuses around time. We noticed that each page had a clock displayed in the corner. Lucy said, “A clock helps us tell time!”. As we went through the book, it got later in the day. Friends did a great job expressing how the lady bug must have felt as it came upon larger animals.

Afterwards, we completed our daily calendar exercise which usually involves saying the month, date, and year aloud. Friends also observe the calendar and point out any interesting things that they see. Today, we acknowledged it was President’s Day!

As friends were asked to roll up their mat, they had to tell us one thing they do in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night time (or evening). We noticed that some friends have the same routine during certain times of the day!

K.M.2: Understand concepts of time, including: morning, afternoon, evening, today, yesterday, tomorrow, day, week, month, and year. Understand that clocks and calendars are tools that measure time.

PREK2 group read ‘The Rainbow Fish’. They took four important events that occurred and put them in the correct sequence, or order. This book brought up a conversation about how to treat peers.

In the story, the rainbow fish doesn’t want to share any of it’s shiny scales which makes his friends sad and ultimately, they don’t want to play with him. Towards the end of the story, rainbow fish changes his mind and shares his scales which not only made him happy to share but his friends were grateful to him.

We translated this into the Wee Friends world. Children shared stories of when they’ve shared before or how a friend made them feel when they wouldn’t share. We emphasize social skills daily and continue to work through problems and issues that arise by using our words—they are so powerful!

Here are a few pictures from the rest of our day.

We want to send a sincere thank you to every parent who attended conferences on Friday!

Breakfast- Whole wheat cinnamon raisin bagel with butter and banana.

Lunch- Whole wheat pasta with butter and shredded chicken, fresh apples/oranges, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack- Whole milk yogurt with banana.

Wee Sprout- Fresh carrots/cucumber.

Have a great evening!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/18

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend.

“The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences. ~Maria Montessori

We all love our quiet spaces and sometimes our friends just need some alone time. Evie took full advantage of the cube area this morning with her good friend Bear and a few other stuffed animals to get just that!

According to the website www.howwelearn.com, quiet time can help in these areas:

1. Increases focus and attention

2. Rests little minds, allowing a time for quiet and avoiding periods of overwhelm

3. Mindfulness

4.Builds confidence

5. Builds independence and lastly

6.  Increases creativity

Meanwhile, Jack and Daniel were cooking up good things to eat and feeding the babies in the dramatic play center. We are never hungry here in the Wee Wee classroom.  

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with butter and oranges.

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with butter and shredded chicken, peas, and apples.

Snack: Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Corn.

Have a great night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljbZRwRO-9pJVttPA-g