Welcome to Tuesday!

The sensory bin was a big hit again! It was full of flowers and all things gardening. Our friends enjoyed loading up their planters with flowers and taking the flower pot to water their bouquets. Daniel and Crosby made poisonous bundles of flowers. This led to an interesting discussion on Venus Fly Traps. We discussed how they are known to not only eat bugs, but some species are known to eat rodents as well.

At the art center today we created “Rainstorm Paintings”.  We used an eye dropper to mix different shades of blue in our jars.  Then we created a rain storm on our paper.  We used the eye dropper to make large and small raindrops.  We noted the way the paint splashed like raindrops in a puddle.  Next we used a straw to make wind and we blew the paint around the paper.  We noticed that we could use out wind to change the directing that the paint was flowing like wind does on the surface of a puddle, pond or lake.  Some of us thought about picking the paper up from different sides and watching the paint drip in different directs.  We talked about how gravity is pulling the paint down toward the ground not matter which way we turn it. 

Breakfast: Kix & pears

Lunch: PB on whole wheat bread, cheese slice, green beans/tomatoes/cucumbers, & pineapple

PM Snack: Whole wheat bagel w/ cream cheese

Wee Spouts: Green beans & cucumbers

Link to pictures:  2023-03-28

Have a wonderful rest of your day!

Ms. Linsey & Ms. Kim

Good Afternoon!

This morning we engaged in a book looking at it independently or having Miss Bekah read to us.

Several friends also went to work wearing their construction hats and using the tools to hammer on their Duplo structures they built or were in the process of building.

We then headed into the kitchen to work on puzzles that matched our skill level with Miss Tina.

When we headed outside, we all started out digging in the sandbox to fill a variety of different size containers.  We then went in different directions.  We engaged in the rock area with the construction trucks, sitting at the housekeeping table with a container, climbing up the rocks along the slides, going down the slide or walking around with my sister while playing with the baby dolls.

Breakfast:  Whole grain Kix cereal and fresh oranges.

Lunch:  Peanut butter on whole grain wheat tortillas, fresh pear slices, carrots and 1/2 mozzarella cheese stick.

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

Wee Sprouts:  Orange bell peppers.

Have a terrific evening!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  2023-03-28

Happy Monday!

Today was a rainbow kind of day! We brought out rainbow loose parts at the table to see what our friends would create. Many of them used all the multi-colored objects to create their own mini rainbows. One hungry friend decided to cook with them. She made fish sticks and shared them with the teacher.

Last week a friend helped make rainbow pucks for our activity we did this morning in the sensory table. We combined baking soda and watercolors into round molds. Then we stuck them into the freezer to make them hard. This morning, we placed them into the sensory table and provided cups of vinegar and pipettes. The chemical reaction caused a lot of fizzing. Our friends enjoyed mixing them over and over again to see the bubbles form on the pucks. 

We also got ready for planting with some practice gardening play!  We used kinetic sand, shovels flower pots and silk flowers to dig plant and imagine!

We worked back into our mixed media flowers adding more layers of paint or oil pastel.  We looked at flower photos in our books to help with our design ideas.  We got to see how layers of art materials can create very rich surfaces!

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast w/ butter & bananas

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta w/ chicken, peppers/green beans & pears

PM Snack: Whole milk yogurt & granola

Wee Sprouts: Green bell peppers

Link to pictures:  2023-03-27

Have a great afternoon!

Ms. Kim & Ms. Linsey

Happy Sunny Afternoon!

The friends engaged with the plastic blocks this morning.  We climbed on them and sat in them.  Ben moved his arms to let Miss Bekah know he wanted her to sing the song Row, Row, Row Your Boat, so she did.

Miss Bekah had to get a hammer to fix something in the classroom.  Friends were very intrigued by what she was doing and watched.  When I was finished, I went to the basement and brought up some construction hats and plastic tools.  We have hammers, a wrench and a utility set that has a spoon, knife and a magnifying glass.  Friends engaged in using the tools while they were building or to fix toys around the front area of the classroom.

We then bundled up and headed outside to engage in a variety of our favorite activities.

Eleanor is using her elbows and forearms to support to her upper body while playing on her play mat.  Look at that smile while sitting up a little with the support of the boppy pillow.

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

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat macaroni with shredded turkey, fresh oranges and corn.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts;  Fresh green beans.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIullrcRXapY-vcx_sz2vw

Happy Friday!

Today we did many activities together with another friend.  Dax and Arthur engaged together driving the vehicles, Ben and Emily sat in the plastic blocks to pretend they were boats, Arthur and Emily built with Magna-Tiles, Ben, Eliza, Hannah and Dax rocked in the rocking chair together.

We then headed into the kitchen to draw with different drawing tools.  Instead of markers, which we love, we used crayons and colored pencils to create our drawings.  We noticed we needed to press a little harder with the drawing tools to make the colors more vibrant.

Arthur and Emily noticed Ben tear his paper, so they wanted a piece of paper to practice tearing into pieces.

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

Lunch:  Grilled cheese sandwich on whole grain wheat bread, bananas and cucumber slices.

Afternoon Snack:  Mozzarella cheese stick, fresh cucumber slices and strawberries.

Have a great weekend!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIullrV_TRgHqDg3i5iywA

Hello Friday!

The Kindergarteners were asked to go around the classroom to find friends who were similar to them. They looked for friends who had the same eye/hair color, had the same favorite food, and favorite toy. They quickly discovered that friends who they don’t normally play with are a lot like themselves.

Gardening season is approaching and we are starting to think about growing things!  Today, several of us worked on a flower process painting to help make our classroom feel like spring.  We were encouraged to look at a book of flower photographs to help us think about flower shapes. Some of us wanted to make up the shape ourselves. This was absolutely great too!  Next, we designed our flower drawing on our poster paper.  We chose from four different textured painting utensils to color our flower.  As the paint dries, we will add more layers of texture and color to our paintings.   

In our loose parts play area we each explored a tray of different materials.  We had one tray of all wood, one of stone, and one of metal.  On our metal tray we had several magnetic pieces to remind us of the special magnetic qualities of some metal objects.  We talked about how each material felt, and how they differed form one another. 

Breakfast: Brown rice cakes w/ PB & bananas

Lunch: Ham and cream cheese roll-ups, cucumbers/carrots, watermelon/bananas

PM Snack: Pretzel sticks & Colby Jack cheese

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers & carrot chips

Link to pictures:  2023-03-24

Enjoy your spring weekend!

Ms. Linsey & Ms. Kim

Happy Thursday!

Enjoy the pictures from today.

Breakfast: Oatmeal Squares Cereal & banana

Lunch: Brown rice w/ pork, green beans/cucumbers, & watermelon

PM Snack: Peanuts & raisins

Wee Sprouts: Fresh green beans & cucumbers

Link to pictures:  2023-03-23

Have a terrific day!

Ms. Kim

Good afternoon on this cloudy day!

This morning we played in different areas of the class with friends or on our own. Arthur and Hannah held hands while walking around the front area. Dax put on some of our dress up clothes and headed to the kitchen to engage in imaginative play.

We made our way to the kitchen for sensory play with play dough. We used different tools like scissors to ‘cut’ our dough into pieces and popsicle sticks to make different ‘treats’. Eliza pressed a cookie cutter into her dough to make a cross.

After sensory play, we went to the front area to build and create with Magna-tiles. Dax stacked square tiles to make one tall tower. Arthur created a rectangular building and Paige helped him finish the top with some triangular tiles.

Eleanor is practicing leaning forward to eventually sit up and enjoys being able to look around to see her friends.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and fresh pear slices.

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

Afternoon Snack: Sunflower seeds and Triscuits crackers.

Wee Sprout: Corn

Have a great evening!

Tina

Link to pictures: 2023-03-23

Hello Parents,

Our Kindergarteners practiced counting by 10’s using our Unifix Cubes. We discovered that 10 groups of 10 equal 100. By counting by 10’s, we are able to add our objects faster compared to counting them individually.

When Daniel was done grouping his cubes, he  laid all 100 of them down to see how long it was compared to his body. Then he wanted to stand them up to see how high it would be from the ground.

Today, in the sensory bin we set up a color mixing water table due to popular demand.  Everyone has been asking about doing something like the Friday green hue activity, so we set that up for further exploration.  The kids started with all the primary colors and mixed them in a variety of jars, bottles, and tubes leaving the opening for a variety of imaginative play ideas!

We arranged a loose parts table to stimulate creative thinking and imaginative play.  Loose parts leave possibilities wide open having no clear objective. They objects and tools can become anything with any purpose. We had a pharmacy, soup, building blocks and two bags became doctors gloves.  This is the kind of creativity loose parts play allows to happen!

Breakfast: Oatmeal & strawberries

Lunch: French toast casserole, carrots/cucumbers, & watermelon

PM Snack: Tortilla chips & hummus

Wee Sprouts: Carrot chips & cucumbers

Link to pictures:  2023-03-22

Have a nice afternoon!

Ms. Kim & Ms. Linsey

Good Afternoon!

This morning we tossed or rolled our ball to Miss Bekah.

We then headed into the kitchen to build with pegs in our pegboards.  We were filling our holes with a variety of colored pegs and some of us stacked them to make towers.

Several of us then engaged in reading books with Miss Tina.

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

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs, fresh strawberries, broccoli and whole grain wheat bread toasted with peanut butter.

Afternoon Snack:  Hummus on whole grain wheat tortillas.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers.

Have a wonderful evening!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIullrNPrlSfDNpw3R-BqA