Good Afternoon!

The welcome activity this morning had children spelling their own names as well as friends names using scrabble tiles! Friends searched through the wooden tray trying to find the letters that made up their name. Not only did we work on our letter recognition throughout this activity but children were eager to help their peers with their name if they needed a little assistance.

All of the Wee Friends teachers attended a ‘Progressive Dinner’ last Monday evening. We all received a butterfly and when planted, wildflowers grow! So, this morning, we went outside and planted all of the butterflies that we received. Hopefully soon, wildflowers will start to grow and add lovely colors to our backyard environment.

After we planted our starters, an art activity was made available at the island.

First, we read a book titled, ‘Stormy Night’. In the story, a storm occurs and the bear family comforts one another throughout the storm. Afterwards, we discussed what a ‘storm’ means to us. We transferred those thoughts to paper as we painted our own storm! These following thoughts and comments were heard at the art table:

“It’s getting WILD!”

“See..here’s my trees and lightning!”

“The towns almost all flooded because of the rain.”

“The rains getting up to the storm cloud!”

Bugs were all the rage this morning as children set out looking for them once we got outside. Worms to rollie pollies to pincher bugs were collected in our bug containers. Children did a great job at collecting the appropriate provisions for these bugs.

Breakfast– Corn chex and fresh apples/PPC mango.

Lunch– Refried beans on whole wheat flatbread, PPC banana/fresh oranges, and PPC cauliflower/cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and block cheese.

Wee Sprout– PPC cauliflower/cherry tomatoes.

Have a lovely night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 4/24

Good afternoon!

Today was a fantastic day to be engaged in the housekeeping/dramatic play center. Pascale and Daniel were busy cooking up all kinds of yummy foods for their friends and teachers to enjoy. Pascale thought it would also be fun to feed Daniel some of the food she made for him. “The process of pretending builds skills in many essential developmental areas. When your child engages in pretend (or dramatic) play, he/she is actively experimenting with the social and emotional roles in life…. Your child also builds self-esteem when he/she discovers they can be anything just by pretending!” 

The gross motor area was also a main focus throughout our play today. Friends gathered the colorful big blocks and soft star climbers to have all kinds of building, climbing and jumping fun! Gross motor activities strengthen a child’s body as well as their confidence level. Gross motor skills are important to enable children to perform everyday functions in life.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with Apples.

Lunch: Whole wheat flatbread with refried beans and shredded mozzarella cheese, peas and banana.

Snack: Whole wheat/grain cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese and oranges.

Wee Spouts: Corn.

We hope you have a fantastic evening!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljI1TSQavGJQLANBgsA

Good Afternoon!

Several friends helped Miss Melinda turn our old, dried out markers into new water colors! After Miss Melinda took the inside of the marker out, children sorted them before using them for their art creations!

It was pre-k/k’s first farm trip of the season. Miss Charlotte asked us to help her prepare an activity for other children that were at the farm today. After a tarp was put out, we gathered up all of the birds that Miss Charlotte had and sprawled them onto the tarp.

Afterwards, we were asked to make a circle of mats for all of the children to sit on! We even noticed that we were making a pattern with the mats.

After helping Miss Charlotte, we were able to let loose and run back to the swing.

It had been a while since we’ve visited Miss Charlotte so we had to make sure that we remembered all of the farm rules that keep us safe as well as the animals.

Breakfast– Whole wheat english muffin with no-nut butter and PPC pears.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce and shredded cheese, red grapes, and PPC snap peas/fresh carrots.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with craisins.

Wee Sprout– PPC snap peas/fresh carrots.

Have a lovely night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 4/23

Link to farm pictures: WF 4/23 FARM

Happy Monday! We hope you enjoyed your weekend.

Puzzles are popular amongst our WWF’s. This activity promotes fine motor skills, shape and color recognition and cognitive skills. Overcoming the challenges involved in solving puzzles gives children a sense of pride and self-esteem. When a particular piece is placed into the correct slot, our friends can get the biggest smiles ever. THAT is something teachers LOVE to see!!!  

Outside time… Ahhhhh, the joys of being able to enjoy a gorgeous day with an abundance of sunshine! There is nothing better. Just look at all the fun we are having.

Breakfast: Whole wheat English muffins with sunflower butter and oranges.

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with cheese and marinara, carrots, and banana.

Snack: Mozzarella cheese sticks and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots

Have a wonderful evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljIxMfcn4vUrnzTQWkg

Good afternoon. What a fabulous way to end our week!  

This past Monday the WF/WWF staff attended what is called a Progressive Dinner. This is a training where we tour three different childcare sites ranging from center, family and church based environments. Rebekah and I fell in love with one of the family based infant/toddler site activities. This is a colorful and intriguing floor sensory activity the kids also fell in love with.  Just look at those smiles and interest!

Breakfast: Whole wheat English muffins with sunflower butter and oranges.

Lunch: Whole wheat tortillas with cheese and turkey lunchmeat, mixed vegetables and apples.

Snack: Whole grain cheese crackers and block cheddar cheese cubes.

Wee Sprouts: Mixed Vegetables.

Have an awesome weekend, enjoy all the abundance of sunshine we are to expect!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljItTBCj2gLpL5HDmYw

Happy Friday!

Lucy turned FIVE today! These last four and a half years, we’ve been lucky enough to watch her personality grow, her independence come alive, and her flourish in this environment. We’re so excited to see what’s to come in the next year of your life! We love you!

                           

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EXPLORATION.

We spent our Friday morning exploring the neighborhood. We gathered up our friends and headed out with our clip boards and colored pencils. Our eyes were looking for any animals, flowers, or trees that we could spot. Once we saw something, we stopped and either wrote down the word or drew a picture to describe what we were seeing.

This week, we’ve been diving into the similarities and differences between plants and animals so on our walk, we discussed what we’ve learned this weekend about both.

Science: K.4.2 Observe plants and animals, describing how they are alike and how they are different.

When we got back to Wee Friends, we stayed outside.

Miss Katie started up an activity with us that involved balloons and a water bottle. In the balloons, there was cornstarch, water, baking soda, and food coloring in each balloon. Each child got to pop a balloon and once they popped it and disposed of the leftover balloon pieces, they grabbed a spray bottle. The spray bottles had vinegar in them which when added to the ingredients that were in the balloon, caused a fizzing reaction!

Breakfast– Corn squares and fresh grapes.

Lunch– Shredded cheese on whole wheat tortilla, turkey/ham slices, PPC banana, and PPC broccoli.

PM snack– Lucy’s birthday treat: yogurt blueberry muffins and string cheese.

Wee Sprout– PPC broccoli/fresh carrots.

Have a fantastic weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 4/20

Good Afternoon!

Here are a few pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Scrambled egg rollups on whole wheat flatbread, Kashi Blueberry Clusters, and PPC banana.

Lunch– Peanut butter on whole wheat tortilla, PPC banana, and PPC cauliflower/cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– PPC pear, sunflower seeds, and Ritz crackers.

Wee Sprout– PPC snap peas/cucumber.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 4/19

Happy Thursday. We hope you are enjoying this beautiful sunny day!

Today we found a new music station on kids Pandora called, Choo Choo Soul! Friends loved the fast paced, energetic songs that were played throughout their morning. “Music helps the body and mind work together.  Exposing children to music during early development helps them learn the sounds and meaning of words. Dancing to music helps children build motor skills while also allowing them to practice self-expression. Also, for children (as well as adults) music helps strengthen memory skills.”

Our friend Mack decided that car/train tracks are not the only good way to scoot his cars along a path. He thought using Miss Marty’s water bottle was a great and fun idea. What a fabulous imagination.

Breakfast: Whole wheat cheerios and oranges.

Lunch: Whole wheat tortillas with sweet pea butter, fresh PPC tomatoes, corn and fresh PPC pears.

Snack: Whole wheat crackers with hummus and apples.

Wee Sprouts: Corn.

Have a fantastic evening!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljIor6g5AYviMN6CaJQ

Good afternoon!

Today was a great early literacy day. We interacted with animal books making all the sounds the animals make, we learned that giraffes CAN dance… all it takes is a little hope and friends helping you through. Empathy is a wonderful trait to have and we’re very fortunate that our WWF kids are able to learn this everyday through role modeling! Rain Rain Go Away has been a popular story lately and we decided to add in different versions to this ever so popular story/song. We used snow snow go away and cold cold go away along with regular version! Friends LOVED switching the words and this teaches them that change can be a wonderful experience.

Our smaller friends enjoy the teeter-totter activity in the outdoor environment. This activity enhances their gross motor abilities by working on using their legs and upper body to position themselves correctly onto the teeter-totter. Then it’s all fun from then on, rocking one another back and forth.  

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with butter and cinnamon and banana.

Lunch: Scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, buttered whole wheat English muffins, peas and banana.

Snack: Pretzels and mozzarella string cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Peas.

Have a wonderful evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljIl7nclSO6NCP97_NQ

Good Afternoon!

Maddie, along with several other peers, interacted with the welcome activity this morning. Maddie took the rocks and sorted them into two piles: dark and light. After, she made up her own game and used the rocks in a cooking class she was conducting. Her main featured item was potato soup!

The play dough was made available at the art table where children got to use their hands in a productive manner. We used several tools to manipulate the play dough with and built several items such as hot dogs!

As we were exploring our outdoor environment, a few friends made an observation. We found seeds with a fuzzy tail coming out of it. There were a TON throughout the backyard and we eventually found out that it is a seed from a tree from around the house. We are planning on researching this to find out what tree it’s coming from!

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and PPC banana.

Lunch– Scrambled eggs with shredded cheese rolled up in a whole wheat flatbread, fresh oranges/apples, and PPC broccoli/peppers.

PM snack– Blue corn chips and refried beans.

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumber/peppers.

Have a fantastic evening.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 4/18