Good Afternoon!

Our Monday was filled with engaging activities, cooperative play, and loads of sunshine!

Children spread out throughout the house this morning as they became involved in a variety of activities. The habitrail was turned into an animal sanctuary while children floated between the art table and reading area before going outside. Friends love that they have the choice to engage in any space that calls to them.

Our pre-k/k group headed to the farm this morning where we checked up on the baby goats and met the new baby ducks! Children are always given the chance to pet or hold the animals. Some of our friends would rather help out in the barn than hold the baby animals and that’s completely fine!

We took a walk through the woods before we left. A few children pretended like they were on an exploration while their peers took turns on the swing.

As we were heading to the weehicle, we noticed Taffy was out. He’s one of our favorites at the farm so we had to stop and say hi. A few friends even got to brush her!

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with peanut butter and fresh apples.

Lunch– Whole wheat noodles with butter and shredded chicken, PPC banana, and fresh carrots.

PM snack– A birthday treat: organic animal crackers and homemade chocolate zucchini muffins.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.

Have a lovely night!

-Mindy

OUR SERVER THAT GENERATES THE PICTURE LINKS IS CURRENTLY NOT WORKING. I’LL TRY AND POST PICTURES TOMORROW MORNINING! THANKS!

Happy Monday! We hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

We started our morning off by engaging ourselves with coloring and utilizing our fine motor skills. Friends love to color and make all kinds of beautiful creations. When our  little guys color in their journals their concentration level is phenomenal, even with our littlest friends. With infants and toddlers, concentration/attention span is usually dependent upon developmental age. According to Day2Day Parenting, “If you have unrealistic expectations of your toddlers attention span, it can lead to temper tantrums and other upsetting behaviors. The average attention span for a child eight to fifteen months is generally around one minute or a little longer to a single toy or activity.” By the time they reach two years of age and older, their attention span has increased quite a bit.

It was a gorgeous day to play outside! Friends were actively engaged all over the outdoor environment. The teeter-totter and cars/bikes were a huge part of our morning fun! Gross motor activities can be so much fun!

Breakfast: Whole grain cinnamon raisin bagels with butter and oranges.

Lunch: Whole wheat/grain pasta with butter and chicken, carrots and fresh PPC blueberries.

Snack: Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots.

Have a lovely evening!
Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljJB2Mlx5KB-3j3L2KA

Good Afternoon!

Child: “What do we do here?”

Teacher: “Well you can do whatever you want: make patterns, sort by colors, or count them.”

Child: “Oh! Well then I’ll do all of that!”

When we put loose parts or manipulatives on the table or trays, children use their imagination to take the activity wherever they wish. Several children explored the hexagon pieces this morning. Friends took the hexagons and sorted them by color as well as making different patterns on their trays.

Max and Lucy started putting links together by the circle table. This lead to them using all of the links which ended up being LONGER than the length of the house!

Anna stood at the front of the house with one end of the chain while Lucy stood at the back of the house with the other end of the chain. It was quite an impressive display of teamwork!

“On 3—one, two, three, WEE FRIENDS!”

Breakfast– Rice cakes with cream cheese and PPC banana/fresh strawberries.

Lunch– Homemade whole wheat english muffin pizzas, fresh oranges/apples, and PPC snap peas.

PM snack– String cheese and goldfish.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

Have a fantastic weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 4/27

Good afternoon and happy Friday!!!

What a great week! We had plenty of outside time that we really needed and craved. While we were playing outside multiple friends were ready to engage themselves in the sandbox. Scooping, filling and dumping are all forms of utilizing and strengthening a child’s hand-eye coordination skills. We love to take the various size and shaped buckets, pails and even trucks to toss the pea gravel and sand into. According to healthyliving.azcentral.com, “Hand-eye coordination is the ability to track the movements of the hands with the eyes, thus enabling the eyes to send important signals to the brain about hand movement.”

Breakfast: Whole grain cheerios and banana.

Lunch: Whole grain English muffins with marinara and cheese, pear with banana and broccoli.

Snack: Whole grain cheese crackers and mozzarella string cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Broccoli

Have a fantastic weekend, we’ll see you all on Monday!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljJAStm0Mva8Cdq3Blg

Here is the blog from yesterday. We were having some technical issues.

Good Afternoon!  I am going to share a quote today by Fred Rogers regarding play.

“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning.  But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.”

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat English muffins with cream cheese.

Lunch:  Whole grain brown rice with shredded turkey, fresh PPC pears and peas.

Afternoon Snack:  Pretzels and cheddar block cheese.

Wee Sprouts:  Peas.

Have a great night!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljI9tWfPH4V12cvBIOg

Good Afternoon!

“When children practice self-help skills such as feeding and dressing themselves, they practice their large and small motor skills, gain confidence in their ability to try new things and build their self-esteem and pride in their independence.”

The quote above was taken from the first link that I posted below. We have an older class this year so we’ve been focusing on several different help skills ranging from being able to get coats on to putting shoes on. If a child is able to do something, let them! This is a great way for them to build their confidence in daily tasks.

Children are all different so some children are able to put their coat on at 2 years of age while some children are 3 1/2 before they’re able to successfully put their coats on without assistance!

Here at Wee Friends, we are focused on having children complete self help tasks on their own and it needed, we’re here to assist and teach them different techniques to help them (aka the coat trick!).

Here are two articles that talk about becoming independent in daily tasks!

http://articles.extension.org/pages/26436/ways-to-encourage-self-help-skills-in-children

http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/documents/teaching_routines.pdf

In pre-k/k group, we read a book titled, ‘Snow’. After, we filled in our weather web with words that were weather related.  A few friends even took the weather theme into their journal experience. Maddie journaled about a volcano and after she was finished drawing, she kid spelled ‘volcano’!

Max and Franklin explored the welcome activity which revolved on different counters. Max made a pattern; big, little, big, little, big, little. Franklin took his gems and traced the outside of the wooden tray. A simple activity like this targets many areas: one to one correspondence, patterns, the use of descriptive words, and fine motor just to name a few.

We spent quite a bit of time outside this morning where we played house in the sandbox, transported pebbles from bin to bin and interacted with our Wee Wee friends!

Breakfast– Kashi Blueberry Clusters and PPC mango.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded pork, PPC banana/fresh strawberries, and PPC snap peas/cherry tomatoes/carrots.

PM snack– Peanuts and Triscuits.

Wee Sprout– PPC snap peas/cherry tomatoes/carrots.

Have a great evening!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 4/26

Good afternoon.

Enjoy the pictures from our fun-filled day!

Breakfast: Whole grain cheerios and oranges.

Lunch: Scrambled eggs, bread, corn and apples.

Snack: Whole wheat crackers with hummus and banana.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots.

Have a wonderful evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljI5Sa4q5Q4HYoGmlcQ

Good Afternoon!

Weather consumed our Wednesday! Thankfully..it was gorgeous weather!

Several children explored the activity at the round table this morning. Friends sat at a tray and picked different activity squares such as grilling food, wearing winter hats, and planting flowers. For each activity square, children had to decide if it went into the spring, summer, fall, or winter slot.

Science: K.3.5 Describe and give examples of weather changes and illustrate how weather affects people and the environment.

Two science experiments were conducted at the island before we headed outside.

The first science experiment started with three ingredients: warm water, blue ice cubes (representing cold air), and red water color (representing warm air). Miss Kim put several ice cubes in the water before adding drops of red water color. We watched with our eyes to see what would happen.

The blue ice cubes melted and stayed on the bottom on the bin while the red water color floated to the top. We explained that this is what happens before it storms! When warm air meets cold air, they come together to create a storm.

The second science experiment that we conducted was an example of how rain comes down from the clouds. We started with water in a glass jar. Shaving cream was added to the top of the water, representing clouds. Miss Kim put several drops of blue water color on top of the shaving cream which represented rain droplets. Once the rain droplets got too heavy, the water color started to go through the shaving cream and down into the water!

These trends continued on in pre-k/k group and small group today!

Our outside time is so cherished! We love feeling the warm sun on our face along with exploring the backyard including but not limited to the sand box, gravel circle, and anywhere that bugs may be .

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and PPC banana.

Lunch– Scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, whole wheat bread, fresh pineapple, and PPC cucumber.

PM snack– Air popped popcorn with butter and fresh strawberries.

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumber.

Have a great evening!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 4/25

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