Hello!

Rosemary picked the wooden pegs to play with this morning in the kitchen. While inserting the pegs, she would repeatedly count to two.

Franklin’s attention was caught by a leaf he found in the sandbox. He spent much of his outside time feeling it with his fingers and waving it through the air.

David cooked away in the kitchen! He picked out tasty treats to put in his bowls and cups.

Breakfast was Whole Grain cheerios and blueberries. Lunch consisted of turkey and crème cheese on flat bread, cucumbers, and watermelon. Afternoon snack was cheddar cheese and wheat crackers.

Have a great night!

Amanda

At the art table outside, Rosemary drew “circles!” and “stars!”

David had a blast going down the slide many times on his belly.

Ruby pulled books from the shelf to enjoy, and Franklin read about Dinosaurs!

Breakfast was whole wheat bagels with butter and bananas. Lunch consisted of whole wheat pasta with shredded beef, pears, and mixed vegetables. Afternoon snack was organic whole milk yogurt and bananas.

Have a good night!

Amanda

Good afternoon! Yesterday, our friend Elizabeth celebrated her 6th birthday! Happy happy birthday dear Elizabeth. We hope you had a fabulous day. You’ve grown so much, but you still have some pretty fabulous expressions!

 

This morning friends gathered to help decorate Elizabeth’s birthday “6” card. This activity helped us practice our fine motor skills through gluing and gave us an opportunity to talk about different shapes and their attributes. One of our math FABs this week is K.G.2: Compare shapes using informal language to describe their similarities, differences and parts (e.g. number of sides, length of sides and vertices). This is a continuation of our work from last week, only now we are delving a little deeper into shapes and their qualities with friends who are ready for it.

This morning was filled with book reading and tower building:

Lots of concentrated work at the art table and in the sandbox:

Also, by friends’ request, the outside art easel was opened up!

Kindergarten: Today Elliott chose to continue his work on shapes and created a “shape monster.” As he drew each shape, Elliott said the shape’s name and in some cases, counted the sides. He found this work very funny and ended up naming his creation “MNTR HOUS” (monster house). Elizabeth chose to work on her alphabet book and completed several pages filled with words and pictures that not only match the letter but are meaningful to her.

Have a wonderful Monday! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Toasted whole grain bread with cream cheese and fresh pears. Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with shredded beef, mixed vegetables and watermelon. Snack: Organic whole milk yogurt and cantaloupe.

Hello! Even though the rain kept us inside this morning, we kept busy!

We played Connect Four and worked with play dough:

We built mazes and helped the teachers clean up:

We colored pictures and listened to stories:

We created people and had a parade, complete with flags:

And of course, read lots of books!

Luckily the weather cleared up this afternoon and we’ve taken FULL advantage:

Have a wonderful weekend! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Carrots and peppers. Breakfast: Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and bananas. Lunch: French Toast casserole made with farm fresh eggs and whole wheat bread, fresh broccoli and grapes/strawberries. Snack: Whole Grain Goldfish and mozzarella cheese sticks.

Today, we had water play with ice cubes!

Rosemary was excited to see the ice. She picked up an ice cube and said “cold!”

Anna and Rosemary both ate their ice and thought it was “yummy.”

Ruby and David loved splashing in their bowls!

And when all the ice melted, there was refreshing, cold water to enjoy.

Breakfast was Whole Grain Cheerios and bananas. Lunch consisted of whole grain brown rice with red beans, watermelon, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Afternoon snack was wheat crackers with sweet pea butter.

Have a good night!

Amanda

Hello! This morning some friends decided to make their own kites. Complete with detailed designs made with markers and foam pieces plus hand-made tails, these kites and their kite-makers were begging to fly.

So… let’s go outside and see if the kites fly!

But, take a break when your kites get tangled.

Then try again!

The sandbox was THE place to be today at Wee Friends. At one point in time, almost every single friend was in the sandbox! The sand provides a wonderful medium for open-ended sensory play. Friends utilize the sand in many different ways: building sand castles, making food, digging holes, covering themselves in sand (ever heard of a “sand angel”?!), burying objects and so much more.

Kindergarten: Today the kindergarteners continued their work on FAB K.4.1: Identify and describe geometric objects. Working together, Elliott and Elizabeth created a variety of geometric shapes, noticing how many sides each shape had and discussing whether the sides were all equal or different (e.g. square vs. rectangle).

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers. Breakfast: Whole Grain Cheerios and bananas. Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with black beans, fresh tomatoes/cucumbers and watermelon. Snack: Peanut butter and wheat crackers.

Have a wonderful afternoon. –Jessica

Today while the older friends were at the farm, our other friends stayed busy! Lots of puzzles and building with blocks and magnatiles.

Today in large group we worked on one of our Math FABs for the week: K.4.1 Identify and describe geometric objects: circle, triangle, square, rectangle, diamond, trapezoid, hexagon, octagon, parallelogram, sphere and cube.

After introducing some of the 3D shapes through a poem, we played a game matching everyday objects (ice cream cone, basketball, dice, etc.) to their shape name (cone, sphere, cube, etc.). Afterwards we read The Shape Song Swingalong with the accompanying song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umu58RxNL7I)

Many friends continued this exploration of shapes into their journal work today. For instance, Clara chose to draw a list of the shapes we heard in our read-aloud: square, circle, line, triangle, rectangle. This is a clear example of natural engagement with the curriculum. In Wee World, we don’t force any children to complete work such as drawing shapes on a worksheet. So when friends choose to draw shapes on their own, we can tell they are really engaged with learning!

Kindergarten: This shape work continued with our kindergartners as they were asked to identify a greater number of shapes. After this activity, Elliott and Elizabeth naturally wanted to categorize their shapes! They divided the objects into piles of spheres, cubes, and so on.

Have a great day! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Hot wheat cereal, healthy applesauce oat muffins, fresh pears and oranges. Lunch: Whole wheat tortilla with cheddar cheese, carrots and apples. Snack: Homemade popcorn with butter and fresh apple slices.

Today was our first trip to Prairie Winds Farm of the late summer/early fall. To learn more about this working educational farm check out their website: http://www.prairiewindsnaturefarm.com/. This week the older friends (4 ,5, and 6 year olds) went.

It was very exciting to be back on the farm with friends!

                            

There was so much to do and see at Prairie Winds Farm. We picked some ripe and very juicy raspberries:

We visited with the horses and some very friendly goats:

Miss Tami even wrangled up a baby goat for us to hold and pet!

 

We also experimented: did the goats like eating hay or corn better?

 

We watched chickens lay eggs and pet the farm cat:

 

We even got some time in on the rope swing!

 

Overall, it was a busy and fun-filled day at the farm. We can’t wait to go back! –Jessica

Hope everyone had a terrific holiday weekend!

**Weather permitting tomorrow, Group A will be headed to the farm tomorrow (Wednesday)!

While the swim group had their first swim session this morning (which went fantastic!), friends who stayed behind spent their morning building with blocks along with moving their bodies throughout the gross motor environment.

Children gathered around the island to bake healthy muffins for our afternoon snack. Every friend got a turn to help measure either a wet or dry ingredient.

Kindergarten: One of this week’s FABs is K.RF.3.1: Identify and produce rhyming words. The kindergarteners worked on this skill using a series of rhyming clip cards.

^The excitement of recognizing star rhymes with car!

Because we did this activity outside, many other friends were interested in joining as well. Even though our younger friends needed more teacher assistance, this provided a great opportunity to simply introduce the idea of rhyming words.

Hearing rhyming words is an important foundational skill for hearing the sounds within words, creating rhymes and reading. Rhyming teaches children how language works! 

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Kix and oranges. Lunch: Whole wheat bread with hummus, fresh green beans and apples. Snack: Homemade whole wheat fruit muffins and mozzarella cheese.

Please note: Wee Friends is closed on Monday for Labor Day. Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Rosemary and Ruby hung out together in the cube and shared a book.

Truman loved his time on the baby jungle gym.

Emma discovered new toys to enjoy!

Breakfast was Kix cereal and pears. Lunch consisted of whole wheat bread with pea butter, bananas, and red peppers. Afternoon snack was mozzarella string cheese and graham crackers.

Have a great night!

Amanda