I just posted some new flickr photos from the past week. Hopefully just a week’s worth won’t be as overwhelming as the last time (3 weeks) with close to 2000 pictures from the 2 classrooms.
If you get a chance post a comment on how you use the photos. Do you just view them? Do you send links to 
relatives? Do you make prints?
WF (345 photos):http://www.flickr.com/photos/weefriends/sets/72157627665246625/
WWF (159): http://www.flickr.com/photos/weefriends/sets/72157627789209248/
Enjoy!
Tami
I posted some new pictures on flicker over the weekend and forgot to tell anyone! There are also some new WF pics from the past two days uploading to flickr now, so look for them later on the blog:)
WF: http://www.flickr.com/photos/weefriends/sets/72157627206427603/
WF from the past 2 days (30% in now, rest later): http://www.flickr.com/photos/weefriends/sets/72157627341303360/
WWF: http://www.flickr.com/photos/weefriends/sets/72157627314202242/
I am wondering if I still need to get these guest passes for flickr? Can families please comment here on how they are viewing the pictures (blog, guest pass, signing into flickr on their own) so I can decide if I need to continue to do this step.
Thanks! Tami
Yesterday afternoon we had so much fun coloring a mural and tracing our hand and footprints. This morning some of us were able to dip our feet in paint, and place our painted feet on the paper with Miss Lisa. For those that did not have a chance do to it today, we will do it first thing tomorrow morning. We will then brush on some glue and sand to look as though we have been walking on the beach. We are loving these warm, summer days!
Miss Paulina brought us a big box to crawl in. We used our imaginations to create a train tunnel and numerous other things. The children had a great time doing this, as well as playing with our train track we drew on long paper yesterday. We brought in our trains and even taped some cardboard over them to make tunnels.
While Miss Lisa and some of our friends helped to water our freshly planted flowers, Miss Paulina explored our garden with the children. We cannot wait to taste test some of our garden produce.
Ball rolling and climbing the log cabin house seemed to be the activity of choice outside today as well.
Marta was our kitchen helper. She helped Miss Lisa wash and dry the table, count and place our plates and spoons. We had chicken salad with apples, corn, and cantaloupe. What a great summer menu.
Miss Lisa read us a summer book about bumblebees and flowers, and then one of our favorites, ¨Busy Toes.¨
Wishing you a day full of sunshine!
Regards,
Lisa, Paulina, Amy and Marty
Today our WWF played at the kitchen table with shaving cream. The children love spreading it through out the table and drawing shapes with their finger. The soft feeling and stickiness of it makes it a rich sensorial experience. From … Continue reading
Another very busy day at WWF! Our morning began with an interesting and brand new art project. Lisa prepared some bowls with paint and gave the children long pieces of string and a sheet of paper. They dipped the string in the paint and dropped it on the paper several times making very interesting curvy lines. They also tried rubbing and rolling the string on the paper getting different effects.
Some children spent time outside planting tomatoes with Amy. They dug up the dirt using shovels and gently placed tomato starters in. These plants grew out of the seeds we had planted with the children earlier in the spring. Our garden is starting look like one!
While outside today we made lots of music. This week we have added a new song in Spanish that goes like this:
Dos manitas, diez deditos,
Dos manitas, diez deditos,
Dos manitas, diez deditos,
Dos manitas, diez deditos son.
Uno, dos y tres deditos,
Cuatro , cinco y seis deditos,
Cinco, seis y siete deditos,
Ocho, nueve y diez deditos son!
(to the same tune of “one, two and three little fingers”).
Today we had our first try to have a lunch helper. We are hoping to have one child per week who would like to help us setting up the table and preparing the food for their friends. Today and tomorrow will be Umi’s turn. We are excited!
Among the teachers we have been discussing about our role as teacher in “learning through play”. As teachers it is essential to be able to recognize a “teaching moment” and approach it the right way. We are excited about a new tool we have found, and would like to share with you.
When children play we want to watch and look for signs that will tell us we are being invited to play with them. Sometimes these are as subtle as a gentle gaze at you or as clear as taking your hand and saying “come play with me”. The key here is to do it with respect and honoring the intentions and level of sophistication of their play. We have found the following acronym to be helpful.
“Approach play with SOUL”
Silent
Observe
Understand what is going on, and
Listen
Have a wonderful day!!! We? We have SOUL!!!!
Paulina, Lisa and Amy
P.S Sometimes technology gets us and Wednesday our blog post was saved as a draft and never posted!!! So here it is, better now than never!
Despite the clouds and light drizzle this morning, we made our own sunshine inside this morning. Miss Lisa did some fun farm cards with our friends. We identified the animal and the sound it makes, and did some discussion on our farm trip. We worked on individual collages this morning. As we picked different objects (tissue paper, gift
wrap, cotton balls, etc). We talked about the texture, its size and color.
Miss Amy had some avid gardners outside. Things are beginning to sprout! For lunch we had cheese tortillas, mixed vegetables, and
fruit salad. We look forward to more outside time this afternoon.
Have a great day! Regards, Lisa, Paulina, Marty and Amy
Hello!
Today is a very special day, it is Maite’s last day at WWF. We are all trying to get the most out of this day to catch as many memories as we can and give her all our love to take with her to Costa Rica. We LOVE you Maite and we will miss you TONS!!
Our morning was spent almost entirely outside today. Wee Wee Friends read with Lisa on the porch and played in the sand. They had music with Paulina sitting on blankets and using egg shakers. We sung songs that invited them to move to the beat twisting, naming and tapping on different parts of the body, bouncing, shaking and finally running, walking and jumping.
Today we tried painting in one big paper at the outside easel. They enjoyed the relative freedom of moving on to another space to paint (as in not only on their own paper). We also observed that the communication between them was more lively than when staying in their own space. It was also messier!!! so we did yet more clothes changes and some heavier hand (and arms, and face, and even hair!) washing. It was worth the effort, here’s the final product!
We would like to let you know that there are new WWF pictures on Flickr, here’s the link: WWF http://www.flickr.com/photos/weefriends/sets/72157626710618538/.
Because of all the water play and painting we will be doing this summer we are in urgent need of extra summer clothes and water sandals (plastic)!
FARM TRIP: For those riding with us on Monday, we plan to leave from WWF at 9:15.
Have a happy weekend!
Paulina, Lisa and Marty.
This morning a couple of older friends continued yesterday’s project of building structures at the workbench. As they worked, another older friend assisted a few toddlers with the plastic tool box, hammering and screwing nails.
Some friends created easel art.
A small group of toddlers joined in alphabet yoga. Every letter has a corresponding pose. A few favorites were Alligator, the Kissing pose and Tarzan. We identified Wee Friends whose name start with these letters.
Older swimmers swam and the remaining younger friends were able to spend the better part of an hour outside before the rain came.
Monday afternoon we introduced Beginning the Basics: a Wee Friends life skills development project inspired by the Montessori approach to teaching young children important life skills. Our first lesson is potty and hand washing procedures. By acting out going to the potty and washing hands, we determined a few steps for each activity and then created corresponding illustrations that we taped to the bath room wall. We will spend a little time each day practicing this activity and when the children are ready to move on, we will introduce a new life skill. If there are any life skills you are working on at home and would like additional support for at school, please let us know and we will implement them! We are developing the program as we go and are excited about it being a family/school partnership!
This afternoon we are hoping to build a life sized robot with the FAB! boxes the Nickerson-Guisinger family donated!
Have a great day.