Hello!

Many of our friends have expressed and demonstrated how much fun it is to squeeze glue.  Many of us would squeeze glue all day just to see the dots, lines and puddles it forms.  It’s hard to just use one dot of glue when glue is such and enticing substance.  Today we created an art project around the act of just squeezing glue and seeing what we could make with it.   We used a mixture of glue, paint and sand to squeeze lines dots and abstract patterns onto our paper.  When the glue dries it will create a textured surface which is fun to touch.  We all got to feel a dry one to see what it would feel like when done.  We all chose to use every single color available so our pieces turned out exciting and vibrant!

Breakfast- Whole grain cheerios with fresh pineapple/oranges.

Lunch- Turkey sandwiches on whole wheat bread, fresh pineapple/banana, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack- Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout- Fresh carrots/ cucumber.

Have a great night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures:  2023-05-02

Happy Tuesday!

This morning several of us sat down to engage in a book or have a teacher read to us.

We then headed over to build with the train tacks for our train cars. Arthur started to build his track and other friends joined in to help him.  We had so much interest in the activity, we made another track on the habi-trail carpet for friends to use.

While we were having our wee sprout, Paige said, “we should do some gluing.”  So Miss Tina got out the glue, some cardboard pieces and we made a collage using foam letters, shapes and foil.  We worked on tearing our big piece of foil into smaller pieces for us to use in our collage.

Breakfast:  Whole grain Kix cereal and fresh pear slices.

Lunch:  Hummus on whole grain wheat flatbread, fresh pineapple and green bell pepper slices.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole grain wheat bagels with peanut butter and bananas.

Wee Sprouts:  Carrots.

Have a terrific evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2023-05-02

Welcome to May!

This week, our FAB focuses on how things move. The three kindergarteners had to take four vehicles and sort them from slowest to fastest for their sign in.

In K/PREK1 group, we read, ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’ which focuses on the two main characters leading very different lives. The tortoise moves extremely slow in everything he does while the hare moves fast, almost rushing through various moments in her life. At the end of the story, they come to an understanding that sometimes its okay to move at different paces.

Science: K.3.2 Investigate that things move in different ways, such as fast, slow, etc.

Lady bugs were very popular today.  Everyone observed the lady bug larvae and noticed that they had grown bigger over the weekend.  We watched the lady bug larvae with a flashlight as they crawled around their habitat.  Some of us got to see them eat and drink.  Several friends drew pictures of our lady bug friends after watching them.  We hung the drawings around the lady bug habitat so we could talk about each others work. 

We created some lady bug play areas afterward.  We made a make believe interactive habitat where we could place tiny plastic lay bugs in moss and sticks.  We could catch them and place them in jars, count them and touch them all we wanted, which we have been very mindful not to do with the real ones. 

Some of us had been asking to make “smash paintings” or “symmetry paintings”, where we paint half of the paper and fold it over to make a symmetrical design.  A friend had done this with glitter glue and we had talked about the idea of smash paintings then.  We were offered this option in art center today and shown how to do it.  We talked about the word symmetry as well as were got to see a very good example of what this word means. 

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with peanut butter and banana.

Lunch– Homemade macaroni and cheese with whole wheat noodles, fresh pineapple, and fresh carrots/pepper.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with banana.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2023-05-01

Happy 1st day of May!

Today we…

were full of smiles while engaged in our play….

engaged in a sensory activity with playdough…

and listened to dancing songs with bean bags.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat bread toasted with peanut butter and fresh apple slices.

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat penne pasta with butter and red beans, fresh pear slices and carrots.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprout: Cucumbers.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2023-05-01

Happy rainy Friday!

This morning we were engaged in different activities. Arthur put on oven mitts and used his imaginative skills in the kitchen and Hannah put on the orange scarf as a cape. In the habi-trail area, Emily was busy hammering away and Paige showed off her climbing skills. Eleanor watched the fish swim around his tank and Eliza enjoyed reading a book on the reading steps.

We made our way to the kitchen to show our artistic skills. We used markers to draw and color in our binders. Eliza used her marker to make dots on her page and Paige drew a circle with lines extending from it.

We then engaged in a game of tossing the balls with Miss Bekah. She would then roll it back to us so we could toss it to her again.

Breakfast: Whole grain brown rice cakes with cream cheese and bananas.

Lunch: Hummus on whole grain wheat bread, fresh oranges, and peas.

Afternoon Snack: Pretzels and mozzarella cheese stick.

Wee Sprout: Cucumbers.

Have a great weekend!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2023-04-28

Happy Friday!

Today was a rainy inside day filled with scientific observation, art and imaginative play!  We observed the growth of our bean seeds as many of them have sprouted their first root growing downward.  A few of us noticed some green starting to show as the leaves have just begun to emerge.  Our friend Millie has been very interested in the beans and created her own “bean game”.  She based the game on our chart showing the internal parts of a bean.  She made her own chart and had friends guess what will grow out of a bean.  Leaves, roots, stems and flowers were all counted as correct answers. 

We observed out lady bug larvae as well.  We watched our teacher use an eye dropper to wet their drinking sponge and we talked about how the lady bug drinks.

 

We engaged in a wide range of play and art activities.  We had a book maker in art center using tin foil, tape and scissors to create creative books to show the class.  We had friends baking cupcakes and dinosaur cookies out of playdough and decorating them with beads for a cooperative pretend bake shop.  There was water play with “potion mixing”, there was oatmeal sifting to make “oat sugar” at the round table and building projects all over the building rug.  All of this came from the minds and imaginations of our Wee friends as they explored an array of engaging materials and play areas.

Breakfast- Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh watermelon.

Lunch- Hummus sandwiches on whole wheat bread, fresh cantaloupe, and fresh cucumber/carrots.

PM snack- Goldfish and block cheddar cheese.

Wee Sprout- Fresh pepper/cucumber.

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2023-04-28

Good Afternoon!

We enjoyed making music with shakers and bells. Ben chose a maraca to shake around. Hannah and Paige put bells around their ankles so they would make music as they stomped around.

We then headed into the kitchen with Miss Bekah for a brand new sensory experience…shaving cream on bubble wrap.  We added some water colors to give it some light colors.  We enjoyed spreading it around listening to the rustling sound that was made on the bubble wrap.  There was lots of smiles and laughter happening!

We then headed outside to enjoy the sunshine!  We started off with hats, but those quickly came off after we found out it was warmer than we thought out there.  Hannah was curious how to get the sand to pour out of the spout of her container, Paige was burying her alligator, Emily is working on her balancing skills on the balance beam with the help of her sister, Maggie, Dax is pushing a cart around the backyard, Eliza is walking around carrying a baby doll, Ben is enjoying his ride on the teeter totter with Hannah and Arthur is playing with a pot and putting his sand in his dump truck while Emily is exploring how to work the sifter.

Breakfast:  Whole grain Cheerios and bananas.

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

Afternoon Snack: Sunflower seeds with whole grain Wheat Thins crackers.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures:  2023-04-27

Hello!

Our Lady bug larvae arrived today!  Some of our friends have gotten interested in lady bugs.  A friend brought in a lady bug shell last week.  Several friends looked at it and asked questions about lady bugs.  We read a book about the life cycle of lady bugs in response at small group.  Many of us were surprised to find out that lady bugs don’t actually look like lady bugs when they hatch.  They go through a larval stage and a metamorphic pupa stage before they emerge looking like lady bugs.  After a little research we found that we could order live lady beetle larvae and a habitat for them to watch the transformation here in our classroom.  When they arrived this morning, we got a chance to look at them along with a model of the lady bug life cycle.  We will be watching them develop over the next couple of weeks in their habitat. 

Several friends have been interested in me -people, so at art center today we used some toy people and playdough to make mer-people tails.  We decorated them with beads and played with our creations. 

Some of us have been very into making three dimensional abstract creations using tin foil popsicle sticks and tape.  We got those materials out for everyone to experiment with and keep the interest going!  Friends had all sorts of creative ideas! Tigers, bear caves, flags and letters were among the finished work.

 

Breakfast- Kix and fresh watermelon.

Lunch- Brown rice with shredded beef, fresh kiwi and pears, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack- Trail mix (raisins, seeds, peanuts).

Wee Sprout- Fresh cucumber/carrots.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friend Teachers

Link to pictures: 2023-04-27

Happy Wednesday!

Today was a day for dressing up with our housekeeping clothes.  We created our own unique outfits complete with hats, patient gowns, neck ties and shoes.

We then headed into the kitchen with Miss Tina with our pegs and peg boards.  We worked to fill our holes with colorful pegs and stacking them together. I could also hear friends saying it was Miss Tina’s (pretend) birthday and the pegs were the candles of her cake.

We then headed to do some dancing.  We listened to the song Jumping and Counting by Jim Gill.  We used our fingers to count the numbers in the song be counted up to after our jumping.

We loved seeing the sunshine shining through our windows and playing outside.  What a perfect day!

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

Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, whole grain wheat flatbread, fresh apple slices and broccoli.

Afternoon Snack:  White corn chips and refried beans and fresh pear slices.

Wee Sprout: Green bell peppers.

Have a wonderful evening!

Rebekah and Tina

Link to pictures: 2023-04-26

Hello!

The Kindergarteners have been learning about weather this week, so at small group we have been reading books about weather.  Yesterday we read a book about wind.  A part of the book talked about how wind produces waves.  One friend asked at the end of group how wind makes waves.  We talked about why this happens and in doing so, decided to try an experiment to create wind and observe how that happens ourselves.  Today we offered that experiment to anyone interested.  We filled a tub of water and used straws to blow air as hard as we could across the water surface at an angle.  This allowed us to see the waves form as we made the wind.  Some of us turned this into blowing bubbles under the water, which began a discussion about how air is a gas and is lighter that the liquid, as we blew the bubbles the gas always rises.  Another friend noticed how when they hummed into the water the sound changed which was an astute observation about how sound travels differently through water than it does through air.  A lot was learned in out little wind group today.

Several friends have been interested in freezing water, so we have made a number a different ice cubs shapes and sizes.  We enjoyed a loose parts ice play area today for both experimental and imaginative purposes.  We used many different utensils like tongs, bowls, spoons and squirt bottles to melt the ice, make ice soup, measure ice, stack ice and more.

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh apples.

Lunch– Hard boiled eggs and egg salad, whole wheat flatbread, fresh watermelon, and fresh carrots/pepper.

PM snack– Air popped popcorn with butter and raisins.

Wee Sprouts– Fresh carrots/pepper.

Have a wonderful night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2023-04-26