Happy Halloween!

We engaged with our classroom’s pumpkin in several ways.

We played “Roll,  Roll, Roll The Pumpkin”…

 

danced “Ring Around The Pumpkin”…

took turns sitting on the pumpkin…

and finally cut open the pumpkin to explore the pulp and seeds.

To finish off our morning indoors because of the rain, Miss Bekah brought down the swing.

Breakfast: Whole grain Puffins cereal with fresh grapes.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded chicken, avocado slices and fresh strawberries.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat Ritz crackers with peanut butter and fresh pear.

Have a wonderful evening trick-or-treating!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-31

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween morning full of festive activities!  We opened a pumpkin, removed the seeds, and roasted them for a healthy and delicious snack!  We tried two flavors: coconut oil/cinnamon and garlic/salt.  The Cinnamon was the favorite!  We were able to continue enjoying the pumpkin when we were finished removing seeds, as we hammered it full of golf tees!

In the art center we created Halloween stamp paintings with orange glitter!

In the sensory bin we mixed “witches brew” using black water color paint, shaving cream and water!

We squeezed a little curriculum in as well :).  What a busy day!

Breakfast: Puffins cereal with banana.

Lunch: Brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh pears/banana ghosts, and fresh pepper/cucumber.

PM Snack: Wee Friends made pumpkin seeds with apples and yogurt/peanut butter dip.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh peppers and cucumbers

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures:2024-10-31

Good Afternoon!

This morning Eleanor asked to get the pumpkin down.  We rolled the pumpkin back and forth with Miss Tina.  Cece even joined in to observe the pumpkin and touch it with her feet.

We then pulled out our plastic blocks to sit in and sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

We then headed into the kitchen for a sensory experience with shaving cream and our big plastic bug.  We used our hands to spread the shaving cream all over our plastic bug and our space at the table.

Since it was such a beautiful and warm Fall morning, we headed outside to enjoy our Wee Sprout before we play.  We then scooped up the sand with our containers, worked on using a rake to rake the leaves, went down the slide or sat at the bottom, and engaged with the baby dolls.

Breakfast:  Oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh oranges.

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, fresh cucumbers, red grapes and whole grain wheat bread.

Afternoon Snack:  Hummus on whole grain wheat flatbread.

Wee Sprouts:  Green bell peppers.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-30

Good Afternoon!

In the last few weeks, we’ve had conversations with a few families about children talking about the mindful activities at school. We wanted to share with everyone how we implement these activities and why we use them.

Within the last few years, we’ve assembled a collection of “mindful activities” that we offer only at specific times such as a child getting hurt, needing an alone/calm down activity, or simple when a child is upset and needing a reset. We do not allow these activities to be used all of the time because then they lose their “luster” and purpose. Children know when they have a hard time leaving their parent in the morning at drop off or when they get hurt outside, that they can ask for a calm down toy to have at the island—this really helps all of our kids by having an option to turn to when in distress!

We have a variety of activities for a wide range of children. Our younger friends (and really our older kids too!) love exploring our different kinds of putty. We have the ‘thinking putty’ which has animals or sea creatures in putty so children are able to search for specific animals. The other putty changes colors as it’s moved through warm hands. We also have a few different breathing activities where children use their finger to follow along as they work through their breathing. Our older peers have been enjoying the activities that allow them to explore letters. One of  the favorites lately is spelling words using letter cubes.

If you have any questions about what calming activity your child leans towards here or need help implementing a system at home or identifying a specific tool/where to find it, we’d love to chat with you about what works for us here at school!

We hope you enjoy some more pictures from our day.

Breakfast– Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh strawberries.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with

PM snack– Air popped corn with raisins

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper/cherry tomatoes.

Have a great night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures:2024-10-30

Good afternoon!

This morning, our friends played on the habi-trail. We exercised our gross motor skills by climbing up the habi-trail steps, and then sitting or walking down the slide.

Cece has been engaging in tummy time and successfully lifted her head up off the mat this morning  Way to go Cece!

We made our way to the kitchen to work on a leaf collage. Our friends were given a bowl of leaves from outdoors and a sheet of contact paper to stick them on. Our friends felt the contact paper and noticed that their hand stuck to it. One friend shared that it was “sticky.” Our collages came out beautiful and look great on our windows!

We headed outside to enjoy some of our favorite activities like riding bikes, sitting with our baby dolls and exploring the sandbox with tools or dragons.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with fresh pear slices.

Lunch: Shredded Colby-Jack cheese quesadillas on whole grain wheat tortilla, red bell pepper and pineapple slices.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat bagel with peanut butter and fresh strawberries.

Have a beautiful evening and enjoy the warm weather!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-29

Good Afternoon!

We signed in early this morning with our PREK1 kiddos. Each friend chose a card from the bottom of the sign in board. I read the words on the board and they taped their card to the correct opposite!

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

We had an adventurous trip to the farm this week as we explored the woods along the marsh!  Paige lead the way, trailblazing the uncharted parts of the farm!  We found woodpecker holes, button bush seeds and huge grapevines to play on (I tested them all first).  We found a huge mushroom growing out of a tree. Then, they used a big fallen log as a balance beam.  Several friends worked on building a fort with sticks.  They made a teeter totter with a log and a board.  It was so much fun to explore the woods and see where the day would take us.  It was hard to leave!  Luckily we had crackers at the Weehicle as motivation :).

We have several rules outside that we implement to keep each other safe and one of them is going down the slide and not up, especially when there’s several kids on the slide. However, SOMETIMES rules are meant to be “forgotten” for a little while! The wee wee’s had gone inside and we were about to head inside for lunch when Arthur and Ryan started testing out their gross motor abilities. I watched as they both went down the slide but then tried going back up the slide, using only their upper body strength! They were the only two friends on the slide so we let our rule “slide” (no pun intended) for the next several minutes.

Ryan and Arthur tested out their upper body strength by pushing on the slide and propelling themselves up towards the top. This happened several times! They were sure out of breath when they decided to stop!

We ended up going outside just a few minutes early because weather like this at the end of October makes our hearts happy! We sure had a blast exploring the backyard and playing with our friends.

PREK2: During group today we read the story “In”.  It talked about going inside and outside.  We talked about how in and out are opposites.  When we came up to the board we got a card with a word on it.  As our teacher read the word we decided whether it belonged inside or outside.  As we decided that a squirrel belonged outside, several friends voiced their awareness of the chaos that would ensue where a squirrel to join our indoor environment! Dax said the squirrel would scratch up everything! It was quite a humorous conversation :).

Breakfast– Kix and fresh pineapple.

Lunch– Peanut butter on whole wheat bread, fresh strawberries/grapes, and fresh pepper/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a lovely night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-29

**Wee Friends will be closed Thursday, November 28th and Friday, November 29th for Thanksgiving Break.**

Good Afternoon!

This morning a friend went and grabbed the dancing scarves.  We turned on Shake Your Sillies Out to dance and several friends looked through their scarf to see everything in the color scarf they had.

We then placed our textured stepping stones on the floor to walk on to feel the different textures on the bottom of our feet.

We headed into the kitchen with Miss Bekah to engage in the corn/black bean sensory table.  The friends were working their fine motor skills to pick up the individual kernels from the mixture,  scooping with a regular table spoon and measuring cup and then pouring it into a cup.  Charlotte scooped the mixture up in her hand and was observing the kernels and black beans in her hand.

Cece gave smiles to her teachers and her friends that were interacting with her.

We then headed outside to engage in our favorite activities.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat bread toast with peanut butter and fresh apples/banana.

Lunch:  Whole grain penne pasta with shredded turkey, cucumbers and fresh pineapple slices.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and fresh strawberries.

Wee Sprouts:  Red bell peppers.

Have a great evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-28

Happy Monday!

**Wee Friends will be closed Thursday, November 28th and Friday, November 29th for Thanksgiving Break.

We kicked off our week by sorting shapes into two groups for PREK1 sign in. Our two categories were ‘shapes with sides’ and ‘shapes with NO sides’. Each group member came to the board where they chose one shape card. They looked at the shape, identified it, and figured out which group their shape belonged.

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

This morning at the round table, we explored opposites.  We set up four different trays to try sorting into opposite categories.  The kids tried as many or few trays as they wanted.  We offered Heavy/Light, Black/White, Soft/Hard and Smooth/Rough.  The kids were encouraged to carefully observe their objects using eyes and hands when they came to the table.  They talked about how the objects felt or looked different from one another. 

We had some creative and interesting work going on in the art center.  Paige made some Multi-noculars out of recycled materials .  She has been very excited about making things with these materials.  Katherine made her own Candyland board game!

PREK2: During group we read the book “Its Ok to be Different”.  We found some things in the book that were opposite like big and small.  Afterward we came up to the board and got a card with the name of an object to find on the sorting tray.  When we found our object we decided whether it felt hard or soft, then placed our card on the board.

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with butter and fresh oranges.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with black beans, fresh cantaloupe/pineapple/oranges, and fresh cucumber/broccoli.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Wee Sprout– Fresh broccoli/pepper.

Have a wonderful night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-28

Happy Friday!  Enjoy some of the pictures from our day!

Breakfast:  Whole grain brown rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh tangerines.

Lunch:  Hummus, whole grain wheat tortillas, fresh red bell peppers and bananas.

Afternoon Snack:  Pretzels and mozzarella cheese stick.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers.

Have a great weekend!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures:  2024-10-25

Happy Friday!

We kicked off our day by exploring an AABAAB pattern for our PREK1 sign in. Each group member came to the board to sign under the colored counter that came next in the pattern. As children got to the board, they said the pattern aloud: “blue, blue, red, blue, blue, red, blue, blue, ____”. Everyone quickly shouted, “Red!”.

K.CA.5: Create, extend, and give an appropriate rule for simple repeating and growing patterns with numbers and shapes.

Today our farm group created a book of all the leaves they collected on the trip yesterday.  They worked on finding all of the leaves that looked alike and putting them together on the same page.  They used their kid spelling to write the name of each species of leaf in the book.  Everyone really enjoyed the project and learned a lot in the subject areas of science, art and language arts in the process!

In the art center friends explored “Halloween night” play dough along with cookie cutters, bats and spiders to inspire imaginative play.  Ryan made an “icky Halloween pizza with bats and spiders as toppings”. 

We also explored a new Halloween sensory bin.  We got to turn an argument into a math lesson as we carefully divided six cauldrons among three friends and made sure everyone had an equal amount!

Breakfast– Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and banana.

Lunch– Cheese quesadillas on whole wheat tortilla, fresh cantaloupe/oranges, and fresh snap peas/cucumber.

PM snack– String cheese and pretzels.

Wee Sprout– Fresh snap peas/peppers.

Have a great night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2024-10-25