Good Afternoon!

We have been noticing Nesta’s continued interest in daily renderings of the alphabet in marker, stencil, pencil and just about every material available.  In response this morning we put out materials for a little alphabet book making project to see if it would offer a new angle and material for this interest.  We offered stamps, colored pencils and markers plus a little book with a colored paper cover.  There was interest from the whole class who joined in to created their own version of a book.  Some mixed print with illustration.  Some devoted a page to each letter in the alphabet.  Some stamped and some wrote the letters.  There were several letter books but only one that made it all the way to letter Z:)  The project was open ended and had a lot of room for creative solutions!

Breakfast- Whole grain oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh strawberries.

Lunch- Farm fresh hard boiled eggs, fresh apple slices/homemade baked cinnamon apples, and fresh carrots.

PM snack-Popped corn with raisins

Wee Sprout- Fresh cucumber/carrots.

Have a wonderful night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures:2023-11-15

Good afternoon!

This morning we enjoyed reading books with a friend and with Miss Bekah. We also looked at our reflection in the mirror and played with bean bags.

Our babies attempted building with Legos and exploring the Habi-trail.

We got new rakes for our friends. They all took turns raking leaves and helping each other collect the leaves into their green buckets.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios cereal with fresh pear slices.

Lunch: Whole wheat flatbread with refried beans and shredded Colby-Jack cheese, fresh apple slices, and red bell pepper.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat bagel with cream cheese and strawberries.

Wee Sprout: Cucumbers.

Have a wonderful evening!

Tina and Rebekah

Link to pictures: 2023-11-14

Good Afternoon!

Our PREK1 friends have been focusing on simple addition problems. Today, they came to sign in and after finding their name, identified the two numbers that they’d be adding together. Some friends were able to do the addition problem without any manipulatives while others used color sorters to add the two numbers. A few friends needed help writing their sum so they connected the dots to make the correct number with the help of a teacher!

K.CA.1-2: Solve real world problems, objects, or drawings that involve addition and subtraction within 10. Demonstrate the equation (e.g., 5=3+2 and 5=4+1).

This morning we created some interactive math activities that were designed to meet our young learners where ever they were, based on age and/or development.  Our youngest friends were able to sort by color and count a few of their sorted objects.  Some were able to select the correct corresponding number tile for their sum.  Older friends used the wood number pieces to create some simple addition problems.  Since the opportunity was there, friends who had the understanding were able to create subtraction and multiplication problems as well.  It was wonderful to see the curiosity, enthusiasm and confidence to try this activity from all of our Wee Friends!

Outside we all got to try out our new classroom leaf rakes.  We had quite the leaf clean up crew!  Many of our friends did a wonderful job working together to rake, pick up and cart the leaves to the yard waste bin.  Older friends helped younger friends pick up the cart to dump it in.  Older friends also helped to show younger friends how to use the rake to get it to rake up the leaves efficiently.  Great teaching and team work Wee Friends!

Our younger friends are continuing to work on their journaling skills.  Most of our PREK2 journaling group has been able to recognize and pick out their name stick.  A couple of friends are starting to write their names as well.  We have such rich descriptions of artwork coming from this group!  Bubble drawings were popular this time around!  We had girls trapped in bubbles, Bubble monsters and bubble machines!

Breakfast: Kix cereal with fresh pineapple.

Lunch: Peanut butter on whole wheat bread, fresh strawberries/pineapple, and green beans/cucumber.

PM Snack: Whole wheat cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh bell peppers.

Link to photos: 2023-11-14

Enjoy the rest of your day!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Good Afternoon!

Today we….

tried on a variety of dress-up hats…

engaged with playdough. We explored alphabet letters as a few friends have shown interest in, that we could stamp in it; shape cookie cutters, rolling pins and hammers to cut with and flatten it…

and then headed outside to hold hands with a friend to go down the slide, engaged with the dinosaurs and poured sand down a chute, and watched it slide down into the sandbox.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat bread toasted with butter and cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh pear slices.

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat elbow macaroni with red beans, fresh cucumbers and strawberries.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprout:  Red bell peppers.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures:  2023-11-13

Happy Monday!

PREK1 friends had the option to sign in this morning where they worked on an addition problem. We used our fingers to help us add 5 and 3 together. When children got total, they had to identify the number 8 below!

K.CA.1-2: Solve real-world problems, objects, or drawings that involve addition and subtraction within 10. Demonstrate the equation (e.g., 5=3+2 and 5=4+1)

Our focus remained on numbers during PREK1 group as we read, ‘Goodnight Numbers’ before solving five addition problems. Some friends chose to use their fingers to add the two numbers together while others strictly tried to do the math in their head.

K.CA.1-2: Solve real-world problems, objects, or drawings that involve addition and subtraction within 10. Demonstrate the equation (e.g., 5=3+2 and 5=4+1)

Many of our friends were every engaged with the shredded paper sensory bin this morning.  It was a new, interesting material offering a weight and texture that was novel.  Many ideas were born of this new material experience.  One of our fiends came up with a coconut factory.  He put together a tube and funnel that was a “coconut shredding machine”.  He used the whisk and the factory’s “coconut tornado” machine as part of the coconut preparation process.  He said that the factory’s main product was Coconut soup!  Loose parts always spur such creativity.

The art center was productive this morning in developing  language arts skills!  Nesta has been diligently studying the alphabet and practicing her hand writing.  Other friends watching her got interested in writing as well.  Other friends practiced writing numbers today.  Several of younger friends have had continued interest in collage art.  The paper stamps have been appealing little contraptions creating a variety of shapes to add to the collage art.  One of our younger friend made a job for himself of just punching shapes for other friends.  He had no interest in making anything…just stamping!

PREK2:  In group today we read the story “The Listening Walk”.  After the story we thought about sounds that we heard when we were walking outside to create a list on the board.

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with peanut butter and fresh clementines .

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with marinara and cheese, fresh pineapple/strawberries, and fresh cucumbers

PM Snack: Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh green beans and carrot slices.

Link to photos: 2023-11-13

Have a great night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Reminder:  Wee Friends will be closed Thursday, November 23-Friday, November 24th for Thanksgiving break.  Thank you.

Happy Sunny Friday!

This morning we began by climbing.  We climbed on the rainbow mats to sit on them and then stacked the big plastic blocks together to stand on top of while holding onto the metal bars of the habi-trail top rung of the ladder.

We then headed into the kitchen with Miss Tina to engage with our dot markers on coffee filters and pieces of paper.  We filled our coffee filters and papers full of colors to create dot masterpieces.

We then headed outside to engage in many of our favorite activities.

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

Lunch:  Turkey lunch meat and sliced cheddar cheese on whole grain wheat tortillas, fresh watermelon and broccoli.

Afternoon Snack:  Pretzels, mozzarella cheese stick and watermelon.

Wee Sprout:  Red bell peppers.

Have a great weekend!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2023-11-10

Happy Friday Families!

*Just a reminder that Wee Friends will be closed over the Thanksgiving holiday November 23rd and 24th.

This morning we enjoyed building with magnetic loose parts.  We explored a tray of several different magnets, a variety of magnetic tiles and also objects that are attracted to magnets.  We built with the magnetic tiles and then used washers, bolts, S hooks, rings and more to add to our creations.  One older friend built what he called a “garbage house”.  He used a magnet to transfer all of the various nuts, bolts and other parts into the garbage house.  He said that all these parts were pieces of garbage that he was collecting to put into the house.  Funny and creative:)

In the art center there was continued interest in collage.  Today we brought out some colored glue as a new material to add to the collage projects.  Plenty of painting went on at the easel as well!

PREK2: Today during group time we read the story “All The World”.  After the story we thought of places that made us feel calm and safe.

Breakfast: Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh banana

Lunch: Turkey on whole wheat tortillas with fresh pears, clementine and cucumbers

PM Snack: Fruit rolls (Happy Birthday Ryan!) with cheese and fresh pears

Wee Sprouts: Fresh green beans and bell peppers

Link to photos:2023-11-10

Have a wonderful Weekend!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Good Afternoon Families!

Today in the art center we created patterned paper collages.  Older friends used a circle stamp and scissors to jut their paper into the shapes they wanted.  Younger friends picked the papers they liked and had a teacher help cut it into pieces for them to arrange and glue into interesting patterns on their paper.  Several friends named their artwork.  We had a piece named “Colors when the sun goes down” and “Forest”.  Beautiful thoughts, beautiful minds!

I wanted to share some information I ran across during a recent child development training, concerning the value of art in early childhood.  “The arts can improve attention, sequencing, analysis and ultimately cognitive skills.  When children are engaged in creative activities, it can improve their ability to focus.  A child’s ability to pay attention promotes memory skills and learning abilities.”  There is a lot more than one might think coming from time spent in the art center. 

There was also a lot of time spent in the reading nook this morning as well.  There was independent interest, with friends looking at books or retelling stories to other friends.  There were also plenty of teacher read stories creating a large audience!

PREK2: In group today we read the story “Gracias, Thanks”.  After the story we thought about things that we were thankful for or appreciated either at home or at school.  We could use examples from the story or our own ideas.  If anyone is wondering about the recurrence of insects being appreciated, there was a cricket sound appreciated in the story.  We talked as a group about the sound of a cricket and if anyone had heard one.  One friend relayed a story of a time that a cricket got in the house…so there was a lot of insect talk right at the end:)

Breakfast: Cheerios with fresh cantaloupe.

Lunch: Organic brown rice with pork, fresh watermelon/banana, and fresh pepper/cucumber.

PM Snack: Whole wheat crackers with peanut butter, pepita seeds and sunflower seeds.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh red and yellow bell peppers.

Link to photos:2023-11-09

Enjoy the rest of your day!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Good afternoon!

This morning, our friends sat down on the reading steps to listen to Miss Bekah read. Our friends then moved over by the Habi-trail area to play with the silk scarves. They held up the colorful scarves to their faces to look through them. Our baby friends engaged in different activities. One of our babies explored the fish tank, Eden walked around the table, and Eleanor worked on the nesting cups.

We made our way to the kitchen with Miss Bekah for a painting activity. We were given loofahs to dip into different colors of paint. We then used those loofahs to paint on our papers and we watched as colors mixed to create new ones.

Our friends explored the log house and tried climbing the side of the house. Eliza sat down by the log area with friends. Ben, Hannah, and Dax worked on building with blocks in the rock area.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with fresh bananas.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded beef, fresh apple slices, and red bell pepper.

Afternoon Snack: Sunflower seeds with whole grain wheat Triscuits crackers.

Have a wonderful evening!

Tina and Rebekah

Link to pictures: 2023-11-09

Good Afternoon!

This morning, Ben was interested in playing with the wooden shape trains and other friends saw him and joined.

We then headed into the kitchen to work on puzzles.  Ben and Eliza were able to complete the 3 piece puzzles easily and moved up to the next level of puzzles.  Dax worked on a car puzzle, where he had to match half of the car to complete it.

Eleanor engaged with a truck and Little People.  She put the Little People into the back of her truck until it was full, Eden explored all the Beanie Baby animals and another friend looked through the color squares from the pyramid with Ben at the circle table.

Breakfast:  Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh apple slices.

Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat flatbread, red bell peppers and fresh pears.

Afternoon Snack:  White corn tortilla chips and refried beans.

Wee Sprout: Cucumbers.

Have a wonderful evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures:  2023-11-08