Good Afternoon!

We are discussing community  helpers this week in PREK1 group. We read, ‘Albert the Fix It Man’ in group and afterwards, we talked about specific community helpers like doctor, dentist, veterinarian, and librarian. As children were rolling up their mats to go journal, I gave them one community helper and they had to share how that helper helps us.

Social Studies: K.2.1 Give examples of people who are community helpers (inside the classroom and outside the classroom) and describe how they help us.

Enjoy a few pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Kix and fresh watermelon.

Lunch– Peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat bread, fresh apple/pineapple, and fresh carrot/cucumber.

PM snack- Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrots.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2023-08-22

Good Afternoon!

This week, we’re talking about classroom rules and why we follow these rules. After reading, ‘Be Kind’ in PREK1 group, we made a web where we added school rules. Once a friend shared the rule, they had to tell us why we follow that rule.

Social Studies: K.2.3 Give examples of classroom and school rules and explain how each helps us.

During our welcome activity, we found different ways to sort interesting treasures.  Some of us collected them in compartmentalized tins sorting them by shape, color or texture.  Others sorted them directly on the mirror tray created beautiful little ephemeral artworks in the process!

We experimented with corn starch and water in the sensory bin today.  Everyone has been very interested in squeezing glue, so to satisfy the interest, we filled bottles with a cornstarch and water concoction.  Everyone enjoyed mixing the ingredients and creating imaginative play experiences with the materials!

Our PREK2 group practiced deep breathing in order to calm our bodies when we are experiencing difficult emotions.  We read the book “My Magic Breath” and tried the breath excises in the book.

Breakfast: Whole wheat peanut butter toast with fresh pears.

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with shredded beef, fresh peppers and fresh watermelon.

PM snack: Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh carrots and tomatoes.

Link to Photos:2023-08-21

Have a wonderful afternoon!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Good Afternoon!

This morning  Eliza engaged with a baby doll and Ben added a scarf accessory to his shirt from housekeeping.

Ben, Dax and Eliza used a variety of Magna-Tile colors and connected them together to make long lines.

Eleanor engaged with a spinning toy while enjoying some tummy time.

Ben, Dax and Eliza used our wooden ramps to drive the wooden cars down.

We then headed outside before the extreme heat came in this afternoon.  We rode with a friend on the teeter totter, drove the construction vehicles to push the rocks, and enjoyed scooping and pouring the sand into containers using different scoops.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat bread toast with butter and fresh oranges.

Lunch:  Whole grain elbow macaroni with red beans, fresh green peppers and watermelon.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts:  Green bell peppers.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2023-08-21

Happy Friday!  Enjoy the photos!

Breakfast: Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and bananas

Lunch: Turkey on tortillas with fresh orange slices and bell peppers

Snack: Cheddar cheese slices and a special plum bread made by a Wee friend family!  Delicious!

Wee Sprouts: Red bell peppers

Link to Photos: 2023-08-18

Have a wonderful weekend!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Good afternoon!

This morning, Miss Bekah made an obstacle course for us to use.  We walked on the stepping circles and then up on the habi-trail and walked down the slide.

We then headed outside to enjoy the beautiful weather.  We walked/ran down the hill, dug in the sandbox, engaged in water play on the deck and rode the teeter totter with our big brother.

Eleanor engaged with a ball while lying on her tummy and sat at the table for the first time to enjoy her lunch.

Breakfast: Whole grain brown rice cake with peanut butter and apple slices.

Lunch: Rotisserie chicken lunch meat with whole wheat flatbread, fresh pear, and cucumber.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain Goldfish crackers with Colby-jack block cheese.

Wee Sprout: Red bell peppers.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2023-08-18

Good Afternoon!

This morning, there was a lot of interest around what was happening with the butterfly inside the chrysalis we have metamorphizing in our classroom.  We decided to create a fun little activity where we could create the metamorphosis process with play dough.  We wrapped the play dough around the caterpillar making a chrysalis and then pretended to make the butterfly come out.  We also made leaves out of the playdough for the caterpillar to eat remembering how our caterpillar did this.  Hannah asked if the butterfly uses leaves to make a chrysalis which spurred a conversation about the difference between a chrysalis and a cocoon.  We talked about how butterflies tend to have their skin harden and change into the chrysalis while moths tend to build a cocoon around themselves with leaves and silk.

Our new journal group began this morning and some our our youngest friends participated in their journal group for the first time.  Katherine made a picture of “Her name” and Arthur made “A cat, s turtle, a basket and a car”.

Breakfast: Kicks cereal with fresh bananas

Lunch: Brown rice with chicken and Green peppers, cucumbers and cantaloupe

PM snack: peanuts with whole wheat crackers

Wee sprouts: fresh cucumbers, zucchini and pear tomatoes, Thank you Asher!

Link to Photos:2023-08-17

Have a great day!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Good afternoon!

This morning our friends engaged with the waffle blocks. Some friends would hold up their pieces and identify the color of the block while others worked on connecting different pieces together.

We then made our way to the kitchen with Miss Bekah for some sensory play in our moon sand table. We practiced our scooping and pouring skills with different tools.

Our friends were really interested in the rain and hearing the thunder. They watched as the rain fell softly and then switched to a loud downpour.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios cereal with fresh oranges/ leftover overnight oatmeal.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded turkey, yellow cherry tomatoes (from Ben’s garden), and strawberry slices.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain Triscuits crackers and hummus.

Have a wonderful evening!

Tina and Rebekah

Link to pictures: 2023-08-17

Good Afternoon!

Today in PREK1 group, we focused strictly on neighbors and neighborhoods. First, we read a few pages from the book, ‘Here and There’. Its a book that talks about various aspects of life from all over the world. Today, we looked at different countries and what they look like when your looking out of a window. We compared the pictures that we saw to how South Bend looks! Afterwards, we created a web where we added things that we see in our neighborhood!

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

Many of our younger friends have been intrigued with our soap dispenser and wanting to practice hand washing over and over.  This morning we created a sensory table around this interest.  We had a variety of colored soapy water pumps and containers so our friends could practice pumping the soap and picking it up with eye droppers.  These skills take some practice with hand eye coordination as well as order and  sequence, building both cognitive and physical development as our young friends play.  Opportunities for prolonged use of these materials sets the stage for imaginative play and friendship building…since many of our newest friends share an interest in soap dispensers

Thinking of families this morning we set out bears of all sizes and colors.  Many friends made families with Moms Dads and babies.  We added tongs and several different containers to encourage sorting by shape and color during play.

Breakfast: Oatmeal with strawberries

Lunch: Boiled eggs with fresh oranges, watermelon and cucumbers

PM Snack: Tortilla chips with hummus

Wee Sprouts: cucumbers and tomatoes

Link to Photos: 2023-08-16

Have a lovely day!

~Wee Friends Teachers

Good Afternoon!

This morning Ben and Hannah worked on stacking the shapes on their stacking pole.

Dax and Ben turned the top rung of the habi-trail ladder into a train.

Hannah asked for the object permanence boxes so we worked to place the balls and coins in the hole or slot and watched as they reappeared in the drawer and tray.

We then headed into the kitchen to engage with playdough.  We used a variety of tools to cut it with and asked a teacher to show us how we could make our playdough into balls.

We then headed outside to enjoy the beautiful weather, engaged in scooping and raking the sand and drawing lines with chalk on the chalkboard and cement.

Breakfast:  Overnight Oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and bananas.

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs with shredded cheddar cheese, fresh zucchini, cantaloupe and whole grain wheat bread with butter.

Afternoon Snack: Whole wheat Ritz crackers with cream cheese and pear slices.

Wee Sprouts:  Orange bell pepper.

Have a wonderful evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures:  2023-08-16

Good Afternoon!

It’s been a summer full of goodbyes and we added two more today when we said goodbye to Millie and Rowan! They have both been at Wee Friends for several years where they spent time in our infant/toddler classroom before becoming a mainstay in our preschool classroom. We are going to miss you both and can’t wait to hear all about kindergarten!

We’re continuing to explore our FAB for the week. Today, we focused on comparing and contrasting physical characteristics of members in our group, specifically focusing on eye color and hair color. Once we were done graphing the results, we compared the results and talked about which group had the most and least.

We read, ‘Same, Same, but Different’ from our MACK collection. It follows two children who are the same age and become pen-pals. While they have the same things and do the same activities, it looks quite different because they live in different places in the world.

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

Since we are talking about families this week, we explored block build homes for block families during our welcome activity. We found the adults and children we wanted to use to create a family and then chose blocks to build a place for the family to live. 

It was a finger painting day at in the art center! Several of our friends have shown a lot of interest in touching the paint and feeling it on their hands. So today everyone who wanted to have their hands in paint chose two primary colors to put on their tray. They were able to touch, smear, and swirl the paint as long as they wanted to, enjoying the sensory experience and experimenting with the beautiful ways they could pull the paint into lines and shapes, watching it fade from two primary colors into one secondary color. When they were finished or had made some interesting designs they wanted to capture, we pressed paper over the top and pulled a mono print of their work. 

Breakfast: Toasted oatmeal squares with fresh cantaloupe.

Lunch: Peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat bread with fresh pineapple/pears and fresh cucumbers/carrots.

PM Snack: Rowan’s goodbye treat: fruit popsicles and string cheese.

Wee Sprout: Fresh cucumber/carrots.

Have a great night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to Photos:2023-08-15