Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a fantastic week.

“It takes a big heart to shape a little mind.” ~@quotesgram

Our friends were extremely engaged in the gross motor area today! Whether is was playing on the habi-trail, siting/rocking their bodies on the soft star rockers, or walking and hopping on the stepping circles… We all had a blast!

Gross motor activities are a vital part of an early childhood program. While children are engaging themselves in all the fun gross motor activities they are strengthening their balance and coordination skills, their strength and endurance skills, and they are also able to start to understand that they need to be aware of the other children around them so that they or their friends do not get hurt. (Body Awareness)

We can also utilize all those same skills during our outdoor play! There are so many activities that our friends can engage their bodies and minds in. With the uneven terrain outdoors, our smaller friends really work at manipulating their bodies to make sure they have an awesome outdoor experience.

Breakfast: Whole grain bagels with cream cheese and fresh PPC peaches.

Lunch: Whole wheat bread with turkey, corn, and fresh PPC Pears.

Snack: Whole grain cheese crackers and mozzarella string cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Peas.

Have a wonderful weekend and GO IRISH!!!!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljN5U36PGemjbP5NSpQ

Good Afternoon!

In pre-k/k group, we read ‘The Gruffalo’. This is one of our favorites so throughout the story, children will recite the words if they know them. I also ask them to recall an event that’s coming up.

After the story was done, as I dismissed one child at a time, they picked a word card and we read it together. As a group, we figured out how many syllables were in each word. Lucy came up and picked the word ‘Fox’. Together, we determined that it is a one syllable word so she taped it underneath the one syllable category. We continued on as each child got to place their word in the correct category.

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

Today, our younger friends got to explore the letter box. Franklin and a peer were able to identify almost all of their uppercase letters while needing a little assistance matching them to the lowercase letters.

Penny was able to match all of her uppercase and lowercase letters which made her ecstatic. Ruby identified letters that she knew and inquired about letters that she was unsure of.

An extension that can be created for this activity for children who know all of their letters is to have them say a word that starts with each letter which incorporates letter sounds.

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

Several friends used their fine motor skills to make bead bracelets using beads and pipe cleaners. Our older friends enjoy incorporating a pattern into their bracelet.

The rest of our morning was busy as we weren’t able to go outside. Children floated from the art easel, to the sensory bin, to puzzles and circle table activities.

“I do not teach anyone. I only provide the environment in which they can learn.”

-Albert Einstein

Breakfast– Kashi Blueberry Clusters with PPC peaches.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded chicken, PPC peaches/fresh apples, and fresh cherry tomatoes.

PM snack–  Sunflower seeds and graham crackers.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cherry tomatoes from Chloe’s family! (thank you!)

Have a fantastic night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 9/6

Happy rainy Thursday!

“Education begins the moment we see children as innately wise and capable beings. Only then can we play along in their world.” ~Vince Gowman

We had a fabulous and busy morning on this rainy Thursday! We listened to music while engaging ourselves with the instruments, we played with the stepping circles, painted, jumped on the trampoline, and read many stories.

Evie utilized her cognitive skills along with her recognition of color to match the stepping circles to the floor water color mats! What a fabulous idea!!

As we are quickly approaching the fall season, we decided what better way to spruce up our classroom than painting with fall like colors. Miss Marty asked friends prior to our painting session what colors they thought we would begin to see in the fall? Jack said, “Brown” and Daniel Said, “Blue.” So we painted with Brown, Yellow, Red, and Green.

Make sure to look on the wall bamboo frames for your child’s colorful paintings.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with PPC banana.

Lunch: Whole grain rice with shredded chicken, corn, and fresh PPC blueberries

Snack: Whole wheat Ritz crackers with hummus.

Have a wonderful evening!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljN1u2TgXeETncsgP2g

Good Afternoon and Happy Wednesday!

“You cannot make people learn. You can only provide the right conditions for learning to happen.” ~Vince Gowman

Engaged children equal happy children, and we as teachers fully believe that children learn through their play. Through play, children learn how to interact with others and develop critical lifelong skills. According to The Genius of Play, there are six benefits that play an important role in a child’s life.

1. Physical

2. Emotional

3. Social

4. Cognitive

5. Creative

6. Communication

We work daily to achieve and maintain these six benefits to further in the development of each child in our classroom.  

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and banana.

Lunch: Scrambled eggs, peas, whole wheat toast with butter, and fresh PPC peaches.

Snack: Pretzels and Monterey Jack cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Garden fresh Cucumbers.

Have a great night.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljN0SiEbf6_vqRQLSlw

Good Afternoon!

Max and Lucy explored two activities this morning that targeted two different FAB’s that we’re working on this week. They each took a turn at each activity and helped each other out in the process.

Maxwell first explored the syllable clip card game where he looked at each picture and using two different methods (clap and chin), found out the syllable count for each picture. Once he was able to figure out the syllable count, he clipped the correct number on each card.

Lucy interacted with the letter recognition box where she matched uppercase letters to their lowercase counterpart.

Both of these activities focused on these specific FAB’s but we also used our ever growing fine motor skills during each activity.

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

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

Enjoy a few pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and PPC pears.

Lunch– Scrambled eggs with whole wheat flatbread, PPC banana/fresh apples, and garden cucumbers.

PM snack– Blue corn chips with homemade salsa using tomatoes from our garden and refried beans.

Wee Sprout– Fresh garden cucumbers.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 9/5

Good Afternoon!

“Do not tell them how to do it. Show them how to do it and do not say a word. If you tell them, they will watch your lips move. If you show them, they will want to do it themselves.”

-Maria Montessori

_______________________________________________________________________

In pre-k/k group, we read ‘The Grouchy Ladybug’. Throughout the story, we noticed several specific animals that were discussed so after we completed calendar, children were dismissed by retelling me an animal that was in the story. Once they said an animal, we all worked together to figure out how many syllables were in each animal.

To count syllables, we use two different methods. The first method is the clapping method. We clap how many sounds we hear in each word. The second method (and our favorite) is the chin method. Children put their hand under their chin and say the word slowly, counting how many times their chin moves. For example, gorilla: when your hand is put under your chin, your chin moves three times when saying the word gor-ill-a.

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

Enjoy a few pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Corn chex and fresh apples.

Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat tortillas, PPC banana, and PPC cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

PM snack– Mixture of whole wheat bagel and english muffins with cream cheese and PPC pears.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

Have a fantastic night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 9/4

Happy Tuesday, I hope you all had a wonderful Labor day weekend!

“Every child is an artist.” ~Picasso

Enjoy the pictures from our day!

Breakfast: Whole wheat buttered toast with cinnamon and banana.

Lunch: Whole grain tortillas with hummus, peas, and fresh PPC Peaches and banana.

Snack: Whole wheat bagel with sunflower butter.

Wee Sprouts: Corn.

Have a nice evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljNxJ1eaF9Dm4E-RhOA

Good Afternoon! What a beautiful summer day we had.

Today we celebrated our friend, Evie’s birthday.  She will be turning 2 tomorrow.  To help us celebrate with her, Evie and her parents brought in some fresh Organic strawberries to share with us.  Our friends really enjoyed them with their lunch and we even had a little leftover to add to our snack this afternoon.  Thank you so much!

The moon sand table was our sensory activity this morning.  All of our friends worked on their fine motor and hand-eye coordination skills as they scooped the sand up with different scoops and poured it to fill up their bowls.

We then headed outside for some fresh air.  We were all engage in our favorite activities.  We drove construction trucks and scooped rocks,  rode on the bikes and the teeter totters and engaged in imaginative play in the kitchen area.

Those of us who were awake from our naps and waiting for more friends to wake up before snack, worked on our color recognition, fine motor and hand- eye coordination skills using the pom- poms.  We were given a bowl that was the same color as our tray, pom poms and a scoop. 

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat toast with sunflower butter and fresh apples.

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat flatbread with no nut butter, fresh strawberries and corn.

Afternoon Snack:  Homemade Zucchini muffins and Monterey cheddar block cheese.

Wee Sprouts:  Fresh cucumber from our garden.

Have a great Labor Day weekend and we will see you all on Tuesday!

Rebekah

Link to pictures: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljNwkKdl8VFeyVZlItg

Happy Friday!

**Just a reminder: Wee Friends is closed Monday, September 3rd.

Enjoy a few pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and PPC banana.

Lunch– Peanut butter on whole wheat flatbread, PPC mango/banana, and PPC broccoli/fresh carrots.

PM snack– Homemade zucchini muffins made by Lucy and her mom along with string cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.

Have a lovely weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/31

Good Afternoon!

In pre-k/k group, we read two stories that focused on two community helpers: ‘Fireman Small’ and ‘The Paperboy’. We learned about the routine that firefighters have each day while also becoming familiar with paperboys and papergirls as well as what their job entails.

Several children explored the welcome activity which allowed us to sort animals into three categories: farm, home, and zoo. All of the animal cards were sorted into the three categories based on where each animal lived. A few friends noted about their past experiences at the farm and noted what animals they’ve seen there.

We continued to explore our new wooden tree house today. Children used different manipulatives including wooden pieces (bed, couch, etc.), fairies, and a variety of animals. A group of older girls played Rapunzel this morning using different dolls and wooden structures to fill the ‘house’.

We saw a glimpse of Fall this morning as the sun was shining and temperatures perfect. We were able to get the bikes out which occupied our time. Friends gathered in the housekeeping area to make food using flower pieces and wood chips.

Breakfast– Kashi Blueberry Clusters and PPC kiwi/peaches.

Lunch-Brown rice with shredded beef, PPC banana, and PPC green beans.

PM snack– Peanuts and whole wheat crackers.

Wee Sprout– PPC green beans/cucumber.

Have a fantastic night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/30