Good Afternoon!

We celebrated Katherine’s 4th birthday today! Thank you for the yummy birthday treat! We hope you had a fantastic birthday!

Children quickly gathered at the circle table where they explored loose parts. Dominos and colorful bears were placed on the table with a bowl on each tray. Activities such as this one where there’s a collection of loose parts made available and no “rules” offer children an opportunity to use their imagination.

One child decided to place the dominos in a large square and placed on teddy bear on each domino, authentically working on one to one correspondence.

Before we headed outside, Miss Tami clipped some fresh herbs from our aero-garden that we have set up in the kitchen. A collection of basil and dill wafted through our classroom. William sat down with the herbs at the circle table as children came up, requesting to smell them. It made our classroom smell so lovely! Later on in the day, green onions were offered as a topping to our pasta!

We were able to soak up some sunshine this morning even though it was a bit chilly. By the time we went inside for lunch, it was nice out! A few children asked if they could get the wooden blocks out of the shed. They worked together to create various ramps for their cars and trucks.

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

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with red beans (offered green onions as garnish), fresh apples/strawberries, and fresh carrots.

PM snack– Katherine’s birthday pancakes with fresh raspberries.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/pepper.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-03-11

Good Afternoon!

Reminder:  Wee Friends will be closed for Good Friday on March 29th.  Thank you.

This morning Dax and Eliza began by crawling under the habi-trail to lay on the tiny turf mat and slide.  Many friends then headed over to the housekeeping area to look through the color viewer pyramid blocks to look outside with the color they chose.  Eden climbed up on the reading step to look at a book.

We then headed into the kitchen to engage with the wooden shape loose parts and animals.  We added some of our bigger animals to our play as well.  The friends were exploring the different pieces with their hands.  Ben found he could place 2 of his animal’s legs into his circle block.  Several friends decided to join in and see if their animal’s legs fit in their circle blocks as well.

We then headed outside to enjoy the sunshine and some fresh air.  The majority of us were engaged in the sandbox with our favorites: pushing the dump truck or sitting out it and digging with shovels to fill our containers.  Dax enjoyed building with the Outlast blocks and driving his small construction vehicle on them.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat bread toasted with butter spread and fresh pear slices.

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat penne pasta with shredded turkey, fresh cucumber slices and strawberries.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and apple slices.

Wee Sprouts:  Orange bell peppers.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures:  2024-03-11

Happy Friday! 

***Reminder: Wee Friends is closed on Friday, March 29th for Good Friday.

We hope you enjoy the pictures!

Breakfast:  Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh clementines.

Lunch: Hummus on whole wheat bread/flatbread, fresh pears/clementines, and fresh carrot/pepper.

PM Snack: Pretzels and sliced cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Bell peppers and carrots slices.

Have a great weekend!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Link to Photos: 2024-03-08

Happy Friday! 

This morning we engaged with the wooden people.  We were busy exploring them.  Some of them were dressed normally and some were dressed up like where they work so we talked about the different occupations.

We then headed into the kitchen to draw in our journal binders.  Today we taped 3 markers together so we drew a rainbow of colors all at once on our papers.

Since it was raining outside, we brought down the sensory tubes for us to enjoy.  We enjoyed exploring the different sounds of the objects inside of each of them.  We also enjoyed shaking our shakers as some of them are soft sounding, like the rain.

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

Lunch:  Hummus, whole grain wheat bread, fresh pear slices and corn.

Afternoon Snack:  Pretzels and colby-jack cheese slices.

Wee Sprouts:  Orange bell peppers.

Have a great weekend!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2024-03-08

Good Afternoon!

This morning the interest in making large collaborative drawings was still strong!  We got out our biggest paper roll and rolled out big sheets of it on the floor.  Several groups of friends worked on drawings together.  We had mountains, crayon factories, rain storms, castles, sunsets…even a large pit with a game store at the bottom! Imaginations flew free!

Some of our preschoolers have been finding “rolly polly” bug outside and have been extremely interested in them.  Today we researched how to care for these fascinating little creatures and and created a habitat for rolly polly bugs in our science center!  We are all excited! We spent our outdoor time combing the yard and found several to add to our new habitat.

Breakfast– Puffins cereal with fresh clementines.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded turkey, fresh apples/clementines, and fresh carrots/pepper.

PM snack– Crackers with peanut butter and seeds on top (peanuts, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds).

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/pepper.

Have a lovely night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-03-07

Good afternoon!

This morning we gathered at the front of the classroom to engage with instruments. Our friends made music with drums, shakers, pianos, and bells. We also followed along to the “Shake Your Sillies Out” song with our shakers.

We then made our way to the kitchen to play with playdough. We used a variety of tools like rolling pins, cookie cutters, and plastic egg halves. Our friends pretended to make foods like “mango,” “pizza,” and “hot dogs” with the play dough.

We used plastic and cardboard tubes to interact with wooden rings and beads. We practiced threading beads and rings through the long plastic tube.

We went outside to play in the sandbox, push cars down ramps, and to practice our balancing skills on the balance beams.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios with fresh pears.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with black beans, avocado slices, and red bell peppers.

Afternoon Snack: Peanut butter on whole grain Wheat Thins crackers.

Wee Sprout: Cucumbers.

Have a beautiful evening!

Tina and Rebekah

Link to pictures: 2024-03-07

Good Afternoon!

Today we…

engaged in looking at books independently…

built tall towers with Duplos…

filled peg boards with pegs and made towers with them…

and went outside to engage in the sandbox pouring sand down the chute, dug the rocks and pushed the construction trucks in the rock area and explored a leaf we we found in the housekeeping kitchen.

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

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs, fresh cucumbers, apple slices and whole grain wheat bread.

Afternoon Snack:  Blue corn tortilla chips and hummus/avocado.

Wee Sprouts: Orange bell peppers.

Have a wonderful evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2024-03-06

Good Afternoon!

PREK1 friends came to the sign in activity where they were asked to create their own pattern! I left it completely open as far as how they made their pattern. I gave them a collection of five markers and children chose how they wanted to make their pattern. Most children used colors to create their pattern while others chose color and shapes!

K.CA.5: Create, extend, and give an appropriate rule for simple repeating and growing patterns with numbers and shapes.

Imagination was the theme today among our Wee Friends! In the art center, Adrian and William created a collaborative drawing featuring an imaginary world!  They taped nine pieces of paper together, each time extending and narrating what was in this world.  They said it was a city with no roads, which they both felt was a pretty radicle idea!  Under the ground, they drew a tunnel system where they said it became a video game world.  Above they drew a solar system in the sky!

For our welcome activity, we set out a variety of seashells and glass pebbles to encourage pattern making.  This area turned into several families of anthropomorphic shells playing out their daily lives.  Some shells became plates or seats.  The elderly shells were even accommodated with wheel chair shells in order to help them get around!

Breakfast– Oatmeal with fresh pears.

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

PM snack– Fresh Guacamole with Wee Friends grown cilantro and blue corn chips

Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/cucumber.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-03-06

Good afternoon!

This morning, we danced along to the “Beanie Bag Dance” song. Our friends chose different colored bean bags and followed along to the prompts in the song like putting it on their foot.

We then made our way to the kitchen to engage with a loose parts activity. We worked on using scoops and tongs to pick up our pom-poms and dominoes. Our littlest friends watched their older friends pinch the tongs together to pick up items and they tried to mimic the motion.

We weren’t able to go outside because of the weather, but Miss Bekah kept us entertained with animal yoga. We recreated poses that resembled certain animals like a bug and a cat.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with fresh pear slices.

Lunch: Refried beans and shredded cheese on whole grain wheat tortillas, fresh avocado slices, and yellow bell peppers.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese and fresh mandarin oranges.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers.

Have a wonderful evening!

Tina and Rebekah

Link to pictures: 2024-03-05

Good Afternoon!

PREK1 friends came to sign in this morning where they were asked to choose a card at the bottom of the sign in board. Each card had a specific colored shape. They looked at the patterns on the board and figured out where their shape went. Their shape finished a pattern that was already on the board! Not only did children have to take shapes into account but also color.

Later on in group, we read ‘Caps For Sale’ which incorporates pattern into the story because the main character has caps on his head that he sells for fifty cents! He places the caps in order based on color.

K.CA.5: Create, extend, and give an appropriate rule for simple repeating and growing patterns with numbers and shapes.

We’ve been working with repeating patterns in the curriculum this week, so we brought out a welcome activity that could encourage more pattern thought.  Several friends worked together to create some variations on pattern.  One group created rows of each color across the board.  Another group created a three dimensional repeating rainbow pattern, focusing more on building upward.  Younger friends, just beginning to understand patterns, focused more on building tall towers but also paid attention to what the older kids were doing.  Where ever our variety of ages were developmentally, they were able to enjoy working on this activity,

In the art center, many friends explored play dough color mixing with primary colors.  A few friends chose to make a lollypop shop with the orange playdough they had mixed.  We added some popsicle sticks to help the business get started :).

PREK 2: During group we read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”.  After the story we recalled our favorite food from that the caterpillar ate in the story.

Breakfast– Whole grain cheerios with fresh watermelon.

Lunch– Homemade avocado chicken sandwiches on whole wheat bread/flatbread, fresh oranges/apples, and fresh pepper/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/cucumber.

Have a wonderful night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-03-05