Good afternoon!

“Around here we don’t look backwards for very long… we keep moving forward, opening up new doors, and doing new things because we’re curious… curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” ~Walt Disney

Enjoy the pictures from our day!

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and Apples.

Lunch: Whole grain rice with shredded chicken, mixed vegetables, and fresh PPC kiwi.

Snack: Whole wheat Ritz crackers with cheddar cheese cubes.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh Cucumbers.

Have a fantastic evening!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljNctDz2DlB5CZG8fWA

Good Afternoon Wee Friends Family,

We had a very busy morning before we got the chance to go outside. It seemed like every corner of the house was full of friends playing, creating, or solving puzzles. Many of them asked to get out puzzles, or patterning games to explore. Others decided to go to the art table to create bracelets. Most of them went to the Habit Trail to create houses or tracks for their cars.

It was such a lovely day that we decided to go out early. Our friends took this opportunity to perform a concert, and investigate what was living under our umbrella.

Breakfast: Oatmeal and PPC banana

Lunch: Scrambled eggs with cheese, whole grain bread, PPC broccoli/carrots, and PPC mangos/bananas

PM Snack: Blue corn chips and refried beans

Wee Sprout: PPC tomatoes

Hope you get to enjoy this beautiful weather today!

Ms. Kim

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljNZ_Wg9m_ypBE7jneA

Good Afternoon Everyone! What a beautiful day.

“A mind when stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.” ~Anonymous 

Rose asked to play with puzzles this morning and she chose the very bright crayon/shape puzzle. Not only is Rose utilizing her fine motor skills but her hand eye coordination, color recognition, and cognitive skills by finding where to place her selected piece into the correct space.

During our wonderful outdoor play, we found many activities to engage ourselves in. Trucks, the sandbox, and finding bugs are always on the top of our play list! We are able to utilize many of our developmental skills while outside as there is always so much to do.  

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and PPC banana.

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

Snack: Pretzels and mozzarella string cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Garden fresh cucumbers.

Have a wonderful evening!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljNZR3qaueIWnlhfTuA

Good Afternoon!

**Wee Friends Families— The symphonic choir that Melinda is in will be performing at Potawatomi Park at 7:00 pm on Saturday (August 25th). It will be outside and be held by the IU Art students so there will be dancing and music! If you’re free this Saturday, it sounds like a great activity for families!

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This week, we’re focusing on identifying and comparing the similarities and differences of families, classmates, neighbors and neighborhoods, and ethnic and cultural groups (Social Studies: K.3.6).

In pre-k/k group, we read ‘Here and There’. I got it at a Usborne book party (fantastic books!) but this specific book goes into detail about specific differences depending on the country that you’re in. Today, we talked about different ways to travel to school. Before we started reading, each friend answered the question, “How do you get to school?”. All friends shared how they get to school and we soon found out that majority of us have the same thing in common: we all take a car to get to school!

We started reading and soon found out that that’s not the only way to get to school. In Zambia, children have to walk miles to get to school, often having to walk over elephant paths! In Japan, children have to take several trains to get to school. Children often travel to school by themselves by the age of six! This made many of our children’s eyes get HUGE as they couldn’t imagine having to take several trains by themselves at the age of six! Other transportation options that we learned about were bus, bike, bus bike, cable car, horse, train, and canoe!

We talked about all of these differences that we saw as far as transportation and wrote it up on the chart as we recalled each one.

Several children wanted to journal this morning so after they got out a journal, children started drawing. Our younger friends are working on their name and learning the letters of their name/writing it too!

Maxwell and Chloe requested two math boxes this morning. Chloe worked on identifying shapes and matching shapes while Maxwell took the fruit that was in his box and sorted it.

Mack and Grady were busy all morning long building with trio blocks. Grady was a supportive, patient older brother as he helped Mack build several of his creations.

Breakfast– Kashi Blueberry Clusters and PPC kiwi.

Lunch– Refried beans and shredded cheese on whole wheat flatbread, fresh watermelon, and fresh carrots.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with peanut butter and cheddar cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.

Have a lovely night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/21

Good Afternoon!

“We all may be a different kind of fish but in this classroom we all swim together.” ~Dr. Suess

Enjoy the pictures from our day.

Breakfast: Whole grain Chex and PPC Banana.

Lunch: Whole wheat flatbread with refried beans and shredded cheese, corn, and Blueberries.

Snack: Whole grain bagels with sunflower butter and cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Corn.

Have a fantastic evening!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljNU5rZuf4nYKJRhquw

Happy Monday!

**Just a reminder that Wee Friends will be closed Monday, September 3rd for Labor Day. Thanks!

Mack started at Wee Friends today! He had no problem transitioning from Wee Wee and is so happy to be with his big brother, Grady! We’re so excited to have you with us, Mack!

Max and Lucy started Wee Friends Kindergarten today! Throughout the year, we’ll follow our FAB’s (Framework for Academic Balance). This week, our FAB is:

Social Studies: K.3.6 Identify and compare similarities and differences in families, classmates, neighbors and neighborhoods, and ethnic and cultural groups.

In pre-k/k group, we read, ‘Olivia and the Missing Toy’. Throughout the story, we were introduced to Olivia’s family members as she was looking for her missing toy. After we finished the story, we talked about our family size. Each friend took a turn sharing the size of their family and naming all of their family members. Afterwards, we looked at our list and several friends noted that the ‘four member’ group had the most. Lucy asked, “What are those two with nothing in it?”. I said that those are the five and six member families. “Oh so those are the same because they don’t have any names!”, shared Lucy.

Small group read, ‘The Colors of Us’ and talked about different skin colors after the story was read.

Several friends wanted to help pick tomatoes that were ready in our garden! Franklin held the bucket as Lucy, Max, and a few other peers picked tomatoes. We also picked a couple cucumbers too!

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with butter and fresh apples.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with pork, PPC mangos and pears, and fresh garden vegetables (tomatoes/cucumber).

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with PPC banana.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

Have a fantastic night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/20

Good Afternoon! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

“We all may be a different kind of fish but in this class we  swim together.” ~Dr. Suess

Today we welcome Evie and her family to the WWF classroom. Evie will be two in September and will be a great addition to our environment. We look forward to watching Evie grow and achieve all of her many milestones.

Transitioning can be challenging at times. Not just for the child coming into a new setting, but for the parents and the other children already in the classroom as well. We strive to make ANY transition an easy one! We love the ever changing classroom, as it always brings much excitement and flare.

In an article on the website Novak Djokovic Foundation, it states that “acknowledging change is key. Transition happens all the time, but the impact it has on a child’s life varies, because some activities may only last for a few days while others last for months. Although every situation is unique, parents can be proactive by using strategies that have worked in the past, to think about feelings or behaviors their children may develop due to the changes.” 

We embrace change in our classroom, and are looking forward to having a fun filled fall season with your child!

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with sweet pea butter and fresh peaches.

Lunch: Whole grain noodles with butter and shredded pork, carrots, and PPC banana.

Snack: Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Have a wonderful night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljNQtwRb_vZ1hH4OBTg

Good Afternoon!

All areas of the environment were full of thriving, involved children. On the building rug, a large group of children used a mixture of Legos and trio blocks. Grady commented, “Look at my robot. He has special powers.”. Not only were children building individual creations but each child’s imagination shown through as they talked about what they made.

Chloe explored various aspects of language today. She sat with Miss Melinda has they read a variety of stories. Shortly after, she dabbled in the art area where she talked about letters with an older peer before completely an alphabet puzzle. She stated each picture that was on each letter. We also talked about peers names who start with a specific letter.

The front science area offered several activities for children to explore. Our newly four year old David attempted to learn about the wood working bench while Lucy and Anna sorted different manipulatives by color.

To celebrate our kindergarten graduation today, we decided to make our own english muffin pizzas! Children got to choose their toppings: cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, turkey sausage, and turkey pepperoni were available. There were tons of different pizza creations!

Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and PPC banana.

Lunch– Homemade english muffin pizzas, PPC banana, and PPC broccoli/cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Goldfish and block cheese.

Wee Sprout– PPC broccoli/cherry tomatoes.

Have a fantastic weekend.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/17

Hello and Happy Friday!

“Time spent playing with children is never wasted.” ~Dawn Lantero

Thank you Ben and Jack for the yummy fresh doughnut peaches and blueberries….We loved them.

Today we give a very bittersweet goodbye to our friend Mack! Monday, Mack will now be in the preschool classroom learning all kinds of new and wonderful things. He will rock it out and move mountains in his new classroom. We will miss Mack and his bubbling personality, and all of his silliness!!! He brought a lot of excitement and joy to the WWF classroom over the last couple of years.

The “teacher books” were requested this morning by a couple of friends. I didn’t know at the time of the request that our early literacy time would turn out to be such a wonderful extended learning experience. We read and learned about our numbers, colors, the difference between big and small, as well as day and night.

“Studies show that reading with your child from an early age promotes not only language development but emotional awareness and quantitative skills.”

According to CBC (Children’s Book Council), here a a few concrete benefits of early literacy.

~  Vocabulary Building

~ Brain Development

~ Academic Success

~ Multi-sensory Development

~ Increased Quantitative Reasoning

~ Emotional Awareness.

Breakfast: Whole grain English muffins with butter and cinnamon with banana.

Lunch: Whole grain English muffin pizza with marinara and shredded mozzarella cheese, carrots, and fresh doughnut peaches.

Snack: Whole grain cheese crackers, and fresh blueberries.

Have a fantastic weekend! See you all on Monday.  

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljNNH5Ah1fKrAfb_TmQ

Good Afternoon!

Enjoy the pictures from today!

Breakfast– Whole grain Cheerios and PPC banana.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded turkey, PPC banana, and PPC cucumber/fresh carrots.

PM snack– Whole grain crackers and pumpkin seeds.

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumber.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/16