Good Afternoon.

“To teach is to touch a life forever.” ~Unknown

This morning we all wanted to engage ourselves in the dramatic play center! Caring for the babies was of utmost importance for our friends. We swaddled them in blankets, we fed them, burped them, and even rocked them to sleep. Empathy skills are being displayed in this type of play, as well as real life skills that some of our little ones are seeing first hand at their homes. We have two friends in the classroom that their mommies just recently had babies. So I’m sure they are getting plenty of practice.  

We then went outdoors to get some fresh air, and we noticed all the leaves that have fallen on the ground from our tree. We raked them up into a pile and then had fun jumping into that pile. What’s more fun then jumping into  a pile of leaves!?!?

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix and fresh banana.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded pork, peas, and banana.

Snack: Pretzels and mozzarella sting cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots.

Have a fantastic night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljYc7PmjvuDcsln6R1A

Happy Wednesday!

“Teachers who love teaching, teach children who love learning.” ~Unknown

This morning our Wee Wee Friends were excited about jumping on the circular trampoline. Some wanted to jump all on their own, some wanted to hold hands with a teacher, and some asked for a second friend to jump along side them and jump holding their hands. It was such a fun time and a great way to utilize our gross motor skills, our understanding of taking turns, and working together.

We then went into the kitchen and colored turkeys with markers and then glued googly eye-balls onto them. What great imaginations our friends displayed when they placed their eyeballs all over the turkey’s body! They are so cute… and of course the kiddos too.   You can find your child’s turkey creation hanging all around in the classroom, as well as in their art cubbies. “Gobble, Gobble.”

Breakfast: Whole grain Chex cereal with fresh banana.

Lunch: Whole wheat flatbread with scrambled eggs and cheese, corn, and fresh pears.

Snack: Whole wheat Ritz crackers with peanut butter.

Wee Sprouts: Peas.

Have a wonderful night.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljYY7-3n4bXxZrnW_0Q

Good Afternoon!

K/PREK1 read a book titled, ‘The Revenge of the Magic Chicken’, which focused on a Magic Chicken using his powers for evil instead of good. We got in some good belly laughs as we talked about the story and specific events that lead up to the end!

Afterwards, we talked about counting by ten’s and what that sounds like/looks like. After we counted by ten’s together a few times, each friend came up to the board and counted by ten’s by themselves before rolling up their mat. They pointed to each number and either said the numbers by themselves or with a little help from their peers.

K.NS.1: Count to at least 100 by ones and tens.

We’ve been talking about alphabetical order this week and today in PREK2, friends were each given a cardboard person with a letter on it. Together, they worked to put the cardboard people in order alphabetically!

Friends were offered a new art activity this morning! Using cookware, rubber bands, paint brushes, our fingers, and paint, we were able to make quite the masterpieces! After a teacher had secured the rubber bands, children painted the rubber bands with different colors. Then, children snapped the rubber bands which made the paint splat onto the paper that was in the cookware! We loved the feeling of the rubber band snapping and getting to choose our own paint colors. This activity really tested our ability to have controlled finger motor motions as we snapped the rubber band!

“What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.”

-George Bernard Shaw

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and fresh raspberries.

Lunch– Scrambled eggs with whole wheat bread, fresh pears, and fresh broccoli/carrots.

PM snack– Tortilla chips and hummus.

Wee Sprout– Fresh broccoli/carrots.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 11/7

Happy Tuesday!

One of our FAB’s this week focuses on how library/media centers are set up and organized. K/PREK1 headed to the library to find out. When we got to the children’s section of the library, we sat down to have a conversation about how books are organized. I pointed to the section we were next to and it happened to be the ‘F’ section. We talked about how all of the books in this section had an author who’s last name started with F! Maxwell quickly noticed that the letters around it were ‘D’ and ‘E’ and he was able to make the connection that the books are organized from A to Z.

We did a fantastic job using a ‘library voice’ and making sure we treated the books with respect. Friends searched by their favorite authors and picked out three books that they wanted to take back to Wee Friends!

K.1.19: Learn and apply knowledge of alphabetical order (first letter) when using a classroom or school library/media center. (2006 standard)

We reiterated this during group and talked about our experience that we had earlier in the morning!

PREK2 read a story and explored numbers during an activity before journal time. Miss Kim asked, “Franklin, can you go write your name under the card that has five stickers?”. After Franklin was able to find the correct sticker card, he used a marker to write his name!

It was all about books this morning. That is the most important thing for reading/writing progression! There were a few articles that I found that focused around reading being the most important part of language development but the one I attached I enjoyed the most! These children will EASILY sit and listen to five stories in a row, talking about the characters or the pictures that they see or even asking questions pertaining to the events in the book. Children’s wonder and curiosity are able to flow when they’re listening to stories.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/well/family/reading-aloud-to-young-children-has-benefits-for-behavior-and-attention.html

Breakfast– Kix and fresh oranges.

Lunch– Refried beans and shredded cheese on whole wheat flatbread, fresh pineapple, and fresh pepper/broccoli.

PM snack– Cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese and fresh raspberries.

Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/broccoli.

Have a wonderful evening!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 11/6

Good Afternoon!

“Being yourself, you put something wonderful in the world that was not there before.” ~Edwin Elliot

Enjoy the pictures from our day.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and Banana.

Lunch: Whole grain tortilla with shredded cheese and refried beans, fresh cucumbers, and fresh kiwi.

Snack: Whole grain cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese, and fresh strawberries

Wee Spouts: carrots.

Have a fantastic evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljYVYq-nt6VDGnEAvaA

Good Afternoon!

**Just a reminder: Wee Friends is closed Thursday, November 22nd and Friday, November 23rd for Thanksgiving break. Thank you!

“Something as simple as an hour of pretend playtime may not seem important, but dramatic play offers proven benefits in children’s cognitive learning, according to the National Association of the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).”

There are two types of dramatic play: structured and unstructured. Unstructured dramatic play allows children the freedom to explore different play scenarios while structured dramatic play has specific guidelines. Both of these play structures are important to children’s development.

How? Here are just a few specific ways that dramatic play affects children’s development:

1. Dramatic play teachers self-regulation.

2. Dramatic play gives children an emotional outlet.

3. Dramatic play teachers conflict resolution.

4. Dramatic play supports literacy.

5. Dramatic play allows you to support your kids and encourage their ideas.

Dramatic play doesn’t just happen in our housekeeping area. Dramatic play occurs when children are building with trio blocks (blocks become lasers or homes or robots). Dramatic play also follows us outside when we turn buckets of sand into our very own walk-up restaurant. There are no limits for our imagination!

I’ve attached two short articles that explain why dramatic play is so vital to the development of young children.

https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/why-dramatic-play-matters/

https://www.scholastic.com/parents/kids-activities-and-printables/activities-for-kids/arts-and-craft-ideas/importance-pretend-play.html

The rest of our morning was full of creating a chain out of paper, pretending to be a dinosaur, finding worms, and reading story after story.

Breakfast– Whole wheat cinnamon raisin bagel with butter and PPC pears.

Lunch– Whole wheat noodles with chicken and butter, fresh strawberries, and PPC green beans/fresh carrots.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with banana.

Wee Sprout– PPC green beans/fresh carrots.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 11/5

Hello and Happy Monday. I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend.

Again, I apologize for no blogs being posted recently! We have been having many technical difficulties. Hopefully, we are back on the right track now. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

“When you get, give. When you learn, teach.” ~Maya Angelou

Today we engaged our minds, utilized our fine motor skills, color recognition skills, and hand-eye coordination while painting at the easel. Friends colored with blue, yellow, red, orange, and green paint. It was a fantastic, fun experience.

We are so very fortunate that the weather has been bearable for our friends to still get quite a lot of outside play! Let’s hope that we can continue on this path for a while longer! We LOVE being outside.

Breakfast: Whole wheat bagel with butter and cinnamon and apples.

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta noodles with butter and shredded turkey, fresh strawberries, and corn.

Snack: Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Have a fantastic evening.

Marty

LINK TOI PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljYRx73vGDhKA5JsQug

Happy Friday!

K/PREK1 read a story titled ‘The Tale of Two Beasts’ which has two main characters and they each get to tell their side of the story which is completely different! We talked about the narrator of each story as there were two different versions of the same story.

Afterwards, we looked at the three circle that were drawn on the chalkboard. I read the words, ‘banana’, ‘blueberry’, and ‘grape’. Friends immediately started shouting words like ‘apple’ or ‘watermelon’. We quickly discovered that only fruits go into this circle. A friend said ‘rice’ and I asked if that fit. Several friends said, “No! That’s not a fruit”. So after talking about it, we decided to put it outside of the circle. We did the same thing with the next two circles as we talked about the relationship of the words in each circle.

K.RV.2.2: Identify and sort pictures of objects into categories (e.g., colors, shapes, opposites).

PREK2 used their prior knowledge about shapes to answer the question, “What shape isn’t part of this group?”. Children counted the sides of each shape and determined that the yellow square did not fit because the rest of the shapes were all a type of triangle!

“Did you know that the right brain develops first? It does so by the time children are 3-4 years of age. The left brain, on the other hand, doesn’t fully come online until children are approximately seven years old; hence the first seven years being recognized as such a critical period in child development.”

Wee Friends teachers were given a few articles to read last and I’ve made a few copies and put them on the island of an article that I found quite interesting! It talks about the left and right side of the brain and what expectations are appropriate for developing children around this age. The author, Vince Gowmon, says “The push for academia on children is a symptom of a society that is left brain dominant, or forgetful of the wonderful playground that is the right brain.”

I found this information especially interesting as I was connecting the information in the article compared to what we expect of children at Wee Friends on a daily basis. Children in PREK2 and K/PREK1 journal groups are at varying ability levels when it comes to ‘writing’ or ‘kid spelling’ or even ‘letter identification’. What we expect for each child is widely different and how we approach we learning situation with each child is unique.

Feel free to grab a copy of the article titled, ‘The Right Brain Develops First- Why Play is the Foundation for Academic Learning’ which is on the island .

Enjoy pictures from the rest of our day!

Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and PPC mango.

Lunch– Ham on whole wheat bread, PPC mango/oranges, and fresh carrots.

PM snack– Pretzels and string cheese.

Wee Sprout– PPC pepper/fresh carrots.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

**Our picture link website is not working. I’ll upload as soon as I can!

Hello!

Enjoy a few pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Kashi Blueberry Clusters and fresh oranges.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded chicken and cheese, fresh pineapple/apples, and PPC green beans.

PM snack– Sunflower seeds and homemade pumpkin bread.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 11/1

Hello!

Here are the Halloween Pictures from Wednesday afternoon!

We love our simple tradition as these kids love dressing up in their Halloween costumes with their friends and being able to walk around the block. Thank you!!

-Mindy

Link: WF 10/31 Halloween