Happy Monday!

Hope everyone had a terrific weekend!

Our Monday morning started with friends heading to the gross motor area. Lately it’s been a big problem solving area. Whether it’s friends getting up on the habitrail and figuring out how to get down or wanting a toy that another friend has, friends are learning how to work through their problems using language and their actions.

Once we got outside, all five of our friends who were outside headed right to the sandbox! David has been experimenting with cause and effect. He’s been using the shovel and pouring sand on his body (he gets a BIG laugh out of it).

We heard a loud bird outside. Anna quickly stood up and started talking back to the bird. She was quite enthusiastic about it!

There were all sorts of leaves falling down from our tree! Friends sat and worked with the trucks and little people as well as putting leaves into the trucks.

Franklin loved the sensory experience he got from feeling the leaves. Between the leaves, sand, and grass, it’s a sensorial experience outside! Anna grabbed a broom and pitched in to rake up the leaves!

Breakfast-whole wheat toast with butter and pears. Lunch-whole grain noodles with marinara and shredded cheese, mixed vegetables, and pears. PM snack-cream cheese and whole grain crackers.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Today we wish our dear friend Emerson a happy birthday! We hope you have a fabulous first day of being 5. It’s been a pleasure watching you learn and grow this past year!

With the end of September approaching, friends are already eager for the Halloween season. As such, our Halloween sensory bin, full of spiders, skeletons, cauldrons and bats, has been a popular choice for friends today.

Building towers was another common activity:

As was playing in the sandbox!

Kindergarten: Today our kindergarteners worked on one of our math FABs for the week, K.NS.10: Separate sets of ten or fewer objects into equal groups, using unifix cubes. Both Elizabeth and Elliott were given a group of cubes which they had to count and split into equal groups. They then recorded their work in their math journals. Groups of smaller numbers such as 10 and 4 were easily spilt, so we moved onto more challenging numbers like 14 and 16!

Elliott then chose to work with the cubes in a different way by making patterns.

Have a great day! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Toasted whole wheat English muffin with almond butter and bananas. Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese, cucumbers and pineapples/bananas. Snack: Organic whole milk yogurt with granola and fresh apple slices.

Happy Friday!

Ruby and Franklin played with the musical instruments together. Franklin liked using the shakers to beat on the drums.

Emma went looking for tasty treats in housekeeping. She decided a cup of ice-cream was what she wanted!

Breakfast was toast with butter and bananas. Lunch consisted of whole wheat bread with hummus, watermelon, and peas. Afternoon snack was mozzarella string cheese and wheat crackers.

Have a fun weekend!

Amanda

Today we discovered that our current play dough was dry and crusty and decided to make a new batch of fall play dough! Here I’d like to highlight all the ways in which a simple activity, such as making play dough, can provide a plethora of learning opportunities and discussion topics for all of our preschoolers and kindergarteners.

The first thing we had to decide is what scent to make our play dough. We smelled many different spices and voted if we liked the scent or not. This provides a sensory experience as we used our noses and helped us state our opinions. While counting up the votes we practiced counting, the concepts of more/less, and recording information. We discovered everyone liked the smell of apple pie spice!

Next we began measuring the ingredients for our play dough. This allowed us to practice measuring, counting, and fine motor skills as we had to be exact in our measurements. We discovered that we use some of the same ingredients making play dough as we do when we make muffins: flour, salt and oil (making connections).

This process also allows us to practice taking turns and following directions. Friends must be patient while others are working with the play dough, knowing that they will also have a turn soon.

While choosing a color to make our play dough, the topic of colors naturally came up. We predicted what colors would mix to make orange and learned that red and yellow (two primary colors) make orange!

And after the play dough is finished cooking, friends get to play with it! They learn the satisfaction that comes from seeing something though from beginning to end.

Although adults may find making play dough a simple and straightforward activity, to our little people it offers a rich and engaging learning experience across many dimensions.

Have a wonderful weekend! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh pears. Lunch: Whole wheat bread with hummus and fresh green beans and strawberries/blackberries. Snack: Mozzarella cheese sticks and pretzels.

Happy Thursday!

To start off the morning, friends were invited to the table to take part in a ‘shape bingo’ game. When friends spin their spinner, they place the type of shape onto their board. Not only does this game allow friends to focus on shapes but colors as well.

Magnatiles have been a main stay lately. Friends use their imagination and creativity to create different structures.

Naia brought in a story from home. This week, we’ve been learning about different genres of stories. This story was about hippos that consisted of informational text. We talked about how this story was a non-fiction story, providing us with information.

Holy moly, have we had a nice week! Our outside time has been lovely this week!

Wee Sprouts: carrots. Breakfast: Farm fresh egg and cheese tortillas and pears. Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with cheese, fresh watermelon, and PPC broccoli. PM snack: Peanuts and strawberries.

Have a terrific night!

-Mindy

 

Good Afternoon!

Wee Sprouts: Red, yellow and orange peppers. Breakfast: Whole grain oatmeal and fresh blackberries. Lunch: Farm fresh eggs and cheddar cheese quesadillas on whole wheat tortillas with cucumbers and strawberries/bananas. Snack: pumpkin seeds and blue corn chips.

Have a great night!

 

Please note: A student from IUSB, Ali, will be assisting us in the Wee Wee classroom every Tuesday for the next ten weeks. She is striving for her Early Education degree.

Also, since the weather is changing, please bring in at least two Fall outfits for spare clothes. Thanks!

Our friends played with the object permanence boxes today after snack. By putting the balls and coins through the openings, the children were developing  hand, wrist, and finger control.

And then Anna started a dance party! Anna loves to dance and her friends are happy to join her.

Breakfast was whole grain oatmeal. Lunch consisted of farm fresh eggs on whole wheat tortilla, strawberries, and cucumbers. Afternoon snack was wheat crackers with cream cheese.

Have a great night!

Amanda

 

Rosemary was interested in reading books this morning. She picked Llama Llama Zippity Zoom from the shelf, showed it to Miss Marty, and said, “Llama zip!”

David pulled himself up to the art table to make colorful pictures with his friends.

Ruby investigated the different materials to be found in our backyard.

Breakfast was Kix cereal and strawberries. Lunch consisted of toasted whole wheat bagels with cheddar cheese, bananas, and peas. Afternoon snack was Tami’s homemade (fresh Purple Porch) strawberry whole wheat oatmeal cookies.

Have a good night!

Amanda

Rosemary was interested in reading books this morning. She picked Llama Llama Zippity Zoom from the shelf, showed it to Miss Marty, and said, “Llama zip!”

David pulled himself up to the art table to make colorful pictures with his friends.

Ruby investigated the different materials to be found in our backyard.

Breakfast was Kix cereal and strawberries. Lunch consisted of toasted whole wheat bagels with cheddar cheese, bananas, and peas. Afternoon snack was Tami’s homemade (fresh Purple Porch) strawberry whole wheat oatmeal cookies.

Have a good night!

Amanda

Hello! On the third swim lesson of the session, we finally remembered to bring a camera. Here are a few assorted pictures from today’s swimming lessons.

Friends started with some bobs to warm-up, then it was off to jump in!

Here Eren and Clara work on kicking their legs: 

Naia and Addi carefully listen to instructions from their swim teacher:

And after class is over, friends help out by putting their equipment away!

Kindergarten: Today Elliott and other friends worked on one of the math FABs for this week, K.NS.9: Use correctly the words for comparison, including: one and many; none, some and all; more and less; most and least; and equal to, more than and less than. We played a game outside using one of the materials around us: bark! Friends rolled a die, counted the dots and placed the same number of bark pieces on one side of the paper. They repeated the process on the other side of the paper and then compared which side had more or less!

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers. Breakfast: Kashi’s Cinnamon Harvest cereal and fresh strawberries. Lunch: Whole wheat bread with melted cheddar cheese, tomatoes/carrots and apples. Snack: Homemade (fresh Purple Porch) strawberry whole wheat oatmeal cookies and Colby Jack cheese slices.  

*Special Announcement: Former WF teacher Laurie Bulaoro, founder/producing director of Youth On Stage, will be presenting the final showing of The Children of South Bend this Sunday, September 27th at 2:00 pm at The History Museum in downtown South Bend! Don’t miss out on this show, which features Wee Friend alumni as performers!

For more information check out: www.youthonstage1.org

Have a great afternoon. –Jessica