Reminders:

*Wee Friends is closed Monday, September 7th for Labor Day.

*Please turn in field trip permission slips as soon as possible. Thank you!

Today there were fewer friends here than normal due to sickness (feel better soon, friends) and vacations. That didn’t stop us from lots of play!

We jumped off blocks:

Completed puzzles:

Read books and painted workbench creations:

Our old friend Emma also came for a visit! She was able to work at the workbench with the real tools because, in Emma’s words, “I’m four now!”

Hope you have a wonderful Labor Day weekend and we will see you again on Tuesday! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Bell peppers. Breakfast: Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and bananas. Lunch: Whole wheat bread and tortillas with peanut butter and fresh green beans and pears. Snack: Mozzarella string cheese and grapes.

Hello, everyone!

Here are some of our favorite photos from today!

Breakfast was Whole Grain Cheerios and bananas. Lunch consisted of whole grain brown rice with cheese, pears, and cucumbers. PM snack was whole wheat toast with sweet pea butter.

Have a great evening!

-Amanda

This morning we had a request for bubbles. We brought out our big container of bubble mix from the basement, but decided to make our own bubble wands out of pipe cleaners. Friends experimented with many different shapes from circles and hearts to stars.

Here are our homemade bubble wands!

We had a blast blowing bubbles:

Kindergarten: This afternoon Elizabeth continued work on her alphabet book. After writing both the upper and lowercase letter, she drew a picture and wrote a word to represent the letter. Writing words is SO exciting!

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers and carrots. Breakfast: Cornflakes and bananas. Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with cheese, carrots/peppers and plums/grapes. Snack: Peanuts and whole wheat triscuits.

 

Have a joy-filled afternoon! –Jessica

Ruby is always happy to play in the sandbox!

Friends were cooking in housekeeping. They were trying lots of different food and offered some to their teachers, too!

Rosemary played with the puff balls this afternoon. She stuffed them down the tube to push other ones out, and placed them on the tray in individual cups.

Breakfast was hot wheat cereal and blueberries. Lunch consisted of farm fresh, whole wheat bread, watermelon, and cauliflower. Afternoon snack was wheat crackers and cheddar cheese.

Have a good night!

Amanda

 

Announcements

*Wee Friends will be closed on Monday, September 7th in observance of Labor Day.

*Swim and farm permission slips were attached to cubbies this afternoon. Please turn them in as soon as possible! We need swimming slips by next Tuesday and farm slips by next Wednesday.

*Swimming lessons at the Y start Tuesday, September 8th. If your child is participating, please make sure they have a bathing suit here at WF. Older children may bring in goggles if they would like.

*Farm trips are beginning soon! Group A [Elliott, Elizabeth, Daniel, Emerson, Clara, Jackson, Addison and Eren] is tentatively scheduled for a farm trip on Wednesday, September 9th.

Once again, we must have permission slips back BEFORE swimming lessons and farm trips begin. Thank you!

This morning began with a counting game (FAB K.NS.4 Perform one-to-one correspondence tasks) involving dice and unifix cubes. Later this morphed into attempting to build a tower that touches the ceiling.

Holding a tower requires teamwork and a lot of concentration!

 

After the tower collapsed, friends decided to build on the floor instead.

Many friends gathered to make the “longest stick in the world!” Friends got as far as the island before they ran out of unifix cubes.

Outside, Emerson led friends in a game of “Simon Says”  while other friends explored natural materials via opening up fallen flower buds and gluing leaves:

Today in large group it was Poetry Day. One of the poems we read was “About Face” by Douglas Florian, which included a hilarious drawing of a face all out of order, with toes instead of ears! This was the inspiration for many of our journals today.

Kindergarten: Today the kindergarteners continued working on FAB K.RF.3.2 Orally segment words into syllables. Each friend received a pack of words with pictures and worked independently to figure out how many syllables were in each word, placing a marker on the correct number.

Below, Elliott demonstrates the syllable-counting method he prefers: putting his hands under his chin and counting how many times his chin moves when saying the word.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Whole grain oatmeal with bananas and plums. Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat bread, fresh cauliflower and watermelon. Snack: Refried beans with blue corn chips.

“Simon says” have a great day! –Jessica

Our friends enjoyed their time outside today!

Then this afternoon, Anna and Rosemary made towers with the pegs!

For breakfast, children ate whole wheat toast with butter and blueberries. Lunch consisted of whole wheat tortilla with refried beans and mozzarella cheese, broccoli, and bananas. Afternoon snack was brown rice cakes with cream cheese.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Our Tuesday was an overall active, constructive, and eventful day.

Different activities occurred throughout the day. By friends choosing what activity they would like to participate in, learning occurs naturally.

Starting with:

Puzzles.

Building.

Seeing the world in different colors.

Moon sand!

Pretend nap time.

Wood working. (Using nails, wood, and a hammer to make…a hammer!)

The play that our friends were involved in today had a direct and specific purpose.

“Children learn as they play. Most importantly in play, children learn how to learn.”

Kindergarten: Today our kindergarten students began making alphabet books. This is a longer term project that will probably take a few weeks to finish! Elizabeth and Elliott chose which paper they wanted to use, figured out how many letters were in the alphabet and how much paper they would need. They each titled their book using kid spelling— “Learning Book” and “Reading Book.”

                               

Wee Sprouts: Red and orange peppers. Breakfast: Whole Grain Cheerios and bananas. Lunch: Whole wheat flat bread with refried beans and cheddar cheese, fresh broccoli and apples. Snack: whole grain bagels with cream cheese.

Have a terrific evening.

-Mindy

Please note: Wee Friends is closed Monday, September 7th for Labor Day.

We also have a nasty cold virus going through the environment. Hopefully this one will be very short lived. Fingers Crossed!!!

We want to welcome Emma and her family to our Wee Friends family. Emma will be one on September 14, 2015. She’s going to be a great addition to our little Wee Wee family.

 

Anna and Rosemary spotted some birds outside this morning and started flapping their arms, pretending they had wings!

Ruby and David pulled the colorful tissues out of their holder and tossed them around.

Anna and Rosemary accessorized with their favorite scarves.

Breakfast was cheerios and bananas. Lunch consisted of whole wheat pasta with shredded beef, peas, and oranges. Afternoon snack was organic whole milk yogurt and crackers.

Have a good night!

Amanda

Happy Last Day of August!

This week marks the beginning of our first 12-week rotating cycle using the Wee Friends Framework for Academic Balance (FABs). The FABs were created by Tami in 2012 as an organizational tool to ensure that our older preschoolers and kindergartners are offered activities that encompass the Indiana Academic Standards for Kindergarten. For more information on our FABs see https://www.weefriendskids.com/program-philosophy/.

Each week, I will highlight some of the ways we integrate the FABs into our lesson plans and activities based on the interests and needs of the children. 

These are this week’s literacy standards:

K.RF.2.4 Identify and name all uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

K.RF.3.2 Orally segment words into syllables.

In large group this afternoon, we began practicing hearing syllables by learning the syllables song! We figured out the number of syllables in everyone’s name.

Today Wee Frienders had a lot of fine motor skill practice. This morning friends were engaged with pipe cleaners and a strainer:

Beadwork:

And hammering nails!

Kindergarten: Today the kindergarteners played a counting and one-to-one correspondence game called “Counting Sheep.”  This work then evolved to predicting how many sheep were in a pile, counting the actual number and then figuring out how many sheep you were off by. Elizabeth and Elliott were particularly engaged because they made up the rules of the game!

Wee Sprouts: Carrots/cucumber. Breakfast: Toasted whole wheat bread with butter and grapes. Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with shredded beef and tomatoes and oranges. Snack: Organic whole milk yogurt and fresh Purple Porch raspberries!

Have a wonderful afternoon. –Jessica

Hello! Today was a busy day full of learning.

Many creations were made out of play dough:

The guitars prompted smiles, singing and rounds of applause!

    

Later, friends requested songs on the computer. After a sampling of Halloween songs (yes, Halloween songs already!) we got out some sticks. A Wee Friend favorite is Tap Your Sticks by Hap Palmer [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-UKTeWNgOk]

Outside friends found a HUGE slug:

The ice cream shop also brought lots of visitors:

 

“Whoooooo wants iceeee creeeeam?!”

Kindergarten: Today the kindergarteners played a game called “Chomp!” where they reach into an “alligator” (made from an old yogurt container) and pull out a letter. Next, they identify the letter, its sound and a word that starts with that letter. However, if they pull out a “chomp” card the alligator eats all the letters again!

To also include math skills in this activity, Elizabeth and Elliott made tally marks for each letter they pulled. At the end of three games we added up the number of letters they got from the alligator and found out that 6+3+2=11!

  

Wee Sprouts: Cucumber. Breakfast: Brown rice pancakes with butter and fresh strawberries. Lunch: Whole wheat tortillas with almond butter, green beans/tomatoes/peppers and bananas. Snack: Mozzarella string cheese and fresh grapes/apples/oranges/pears.

Have a great weekend! –Jessica