Good Afternoon!

**Please make sure you take the Christmas present your Wee Friend made for you in their cubbie! (FYI it is breakable)

This week we’ve been talking about various holidays or celebrations that we have in the United States.

Yesterday, we talked about Christmas and a couple other ‘December’ holidays that are celebrated around the world. A few friends shared that they have books at home that talk about Hanukkah so we focused on Hanukkah and who celebrates it.

Today, before we started large group, Lulu asked, “Mindy, are we going to talk about Thanksgiving because I see a turkey!” There are always various items that children associated with different holidays: fireworks to Fourth of July, turkey to Thanksgiving, and Santa Claus to Christmas. A friend shouted, “I know that the pilgrims were at the first Thanksgiving!” Even though Thanksgiving has past, friends went around telling what they’re thankful for.

Grady inquired about whether or not Indiana celebrated the first Thanksgiving so we searched on the web and found that Indiana was the 19th state to be discovered on December 11th, 1816.

Our three year olds are showing interest in journaling! The last two days, several children have done their ‘first’ journal. In large group, we journal everyday and until then, children can journal when they want to.

We’re doing a special journal project so stay tuned!

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and PPC kiwi.

Lunch– Turkey and shredded cheese on whole wheat tortillas, PPC banana/clementines, and PPC cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

PM snack– Triscuits and hummus.

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumber.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 12/13

Good Afternoon! We are enjoying many activities together with our friends on this snowy day. Enjoy the pictures!

Breakfast:  Kix cereal and fresh banana.

Lunch:  Hummus on whole grain wheat flatbread, banana and PPC cherry tomatoes.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprouts:  Corn.

Have a great night!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuliaofpDB9DzzA4P9WyA

Good Afternoon!

Here are a couple pictures from throughout our day!

Breakfast– Kix and PPC banana.

Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat flatbread, PPC banana/clementines, and PPC snap peas and cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Peanuts and graham crackers.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes.

Have a great night. Stay warm and safe!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 12/12

Good Afternoon!

*Now that winter has arrived, we would like to remind you of our winter weather closing policy. I have included it below along with the instructions on how to sign up for the text service.  We tested the system today, so if you did not receive the message, please follow the instructions to be added to the service. Thank you!

WEATHER POLICY

Wee Friends recognizes that delays and closings are horribly inconvenient.  However, we balance that with the safety of getting our staff to work and being able to get the street, sidewalks and stairs cleared for our clients.  Here are some general guidelines:

· If the public schools are closed due to road conditions, plan on a MINIMUM of a 10:00 delayed opening.

· As a general rule, we DO NOT close or delay for temperature only public school closings since our children are not bussed. However, it doesn’t take much snow combined with frigid temperatures to make clearing sidewalks dangerous for our staff in the early hours of the morning so a delay would make sense in those instances.

· I will announce delays/closings by 7:15 in the morning via our text service.

· A delay may turn into a close after 7:15, if I find that our staff cannot get in to work. Please keep in mind, it is really hard to determine how the roads will be when it is still dark and clearing has not begun.

All closings and delays will be communicated through the text service alone.

To sign up for text notification for immediate communication of important or emergency information (closings, etc.).

Text this message: @weefr

To this number: 81010 (works like a traditional 10 digit phone number)

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Today we used our big plastic blocks and snowballs to make a game. We tossed our snowballs into the plastic blocks to work on our hand-eye coordination skills. We either stood on the side or at the edge of the carpet to see if we could toss them in from shorter and longer distances.

Emma and Sophia enjoyed finger painting this morning. With this activity they used the primary colors red, blue and yellow to explore making new colors on their papers. Sophia made lines, a pre writing skill on her paper using her pointer finger. Emma said, “I made a rainbow with my colors.”

We then enjoyed looking at many of our favorite books.

Breakfast: Whole grain wheat toast with sunflower butter and clementines.

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat pasta with chicken, carrots and fresh PPC pears.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt with fresh pears.

Wee Sprouts:  Carrots.

Have a great night!

Link to pictures: https://1drv.ms/i/s!AtTCDmdhjIulialQCyX5A41CObegcQ

Good Afternoon!

***Tami sent out a text notification through our WEATHER ALERT system. If you DID NOT receive this text, please see a teacher so that you can get signed up for it!

**Please clear our your child’s art cubbie. Thanks!

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This week, we’re identifying celebrations and holidays as a way of remembering and honoring people, events, and America’s heritage. Today, we talked about ‘Fourth of July’ in large group. First, I asked what the holiday is called when we see fireworks and multiple children shouted, “Fourth of July!”.

We talked about how way back in 1776, the 13 original colonies, which are states now, went off on their own and become ‘independent’. Lulu shouted, “Mindy! I’ve heard the word independent before!”. We talked about the words ‘dependent’ and ‘independent’ and their meanings. Grady said, “So I’m independent when working with the pattern blocks because I don’t need any help!’.

Before doing the calendar, we had a discussion about the American flag and what it means. I showed them the original flag that only had thirteen stars as opposed to the flag now that has fifty! This lead into a discussion where children shared where they had seen flags before.

Social Studies:  K.1.2 Identify celebrations and holiday as a way of remembering and honoring people, events, and America’s heritage.

The art table was turned into a gift wrapping station. Using various gift wrap and tape, children took items from around the environment and worked on their gift wrapping skills.

We bundled up and headed outside to explore the snow this morning. The sleds were even brought out as an added snow activity!

A BIG thanks to everyone for bringing the appropriate snow attire—it makes it so much easier . Just as a reminder, please have your child’s items initialed so that we know who’s stuff is who’s!

Breakfast– Cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese and PPC pears.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with shredded chicken and butter, banana/clementines, and PPC cauliflower.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with PPC banana.

Wee Sprout– PPC cauliflower.

Have a great night! Stay warm and safe!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 12/11

* There was a server problem with the program and wouldn’t send. Here is the blog from Friday. Hope everyone had a great weekend and stayed warm!

Good Afternoon!

This morning we turned a sensory experience into an art activity. We started out exploring with shaving cream, then added some glitter to it to make it sparkle like fresh snow. We then were given a piece of construction paper to make hand prints in the snow.

We brought out our flannel board Christmas tree. We added flannel mittens, circles and hearts. The children showed their creative skills as they decorated it. Miss Marty prompted our friends to use their self help skills to use “teamwork” to clean up all the felt ornaments and place them into the baggie. Mack and Sophia were very excited and both shouted, TEAMWORK!

We also were busy going down the slide on our backs or walking up like a bear and playing with the balls in the habitrail area.

Breakfast:  Kix cereal and banana.

Lunch:  Homemade avocado chicken salad on whole grain wheat bread, PPC kiwi/clementines and carrots.

Afternoon Snack:  Goldfish crackers and mozzarella cheese stick.

Wee Sprouts:  Carrots.

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

Rebekah

Link to pictures: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuliahCi98YPK4UmLuLeA

Happy Friday!

**With snow on the way, please make sure you’re adhering to the parking rules. If you plan to be here for more than ten minutes at either drop off or pick up, please park in the parking lot or the parking pad on the side of the house if it’s available. Also, make sure that you’re only parking in front of our two houses. If there isn’t space, the parking lot provides a great opportunity to talk to your child about their day! Thank you for everyone’s cooperation.

Lulu received help from Grady and Lucy to create a rainbow pattern using the pegs and peg board this morning. Lulu said, “I already have seven orange pegs so I need three more.”

Miss Melinda read ‘Mortimer’ by Robert Munsch and after, friends headed to the piano to see if they could imitate a part of the story. The main character in the story sings, “Clang, clang, rattle bang bang. Gonna make my noise all day!”. When it’s read, it’s supposed to be read in a loud voice so children tried to play the piano in higher keys while singing the song.

Our pre-k/k group children are continuing to gain knowledge of consonants and vowels during journal time. The imaginations and thoughts of every child can be seen on the journal page each day. Today, we saw a couple volcanos, a few rainbows, and tons of original thoughts.

Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and PPC blueberries.

Lunch– Homemade chicken avocado on whole wheat bread, PPC persimmon/pears, and PPC cucumber.

PM snack– String cheese and pretzels.

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumber.

Have a terrific weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 12/8

Good Afternoon!

We started our morning with a sensory activity. We used our scoops to fill our containers with corn and beans.

As we were playing on the habitrail, we climbed up the ladder and bent over the top rung to touch the carpet to work on our head stands.

We enjoyed exploring our musical instruments and hearing the different sounds they make.  We sang the song Jingle Bells as we shook our shaker with the bells.

Breakfast:  Whole grain Cheerios and banana.

Lunch:  Whole grain brown rice with shredded beef and cheese, banana and peas.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts:  Peas.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah

Link to pictures: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuliadfn_2Yxux2LZ5cBQ

Good Afternoon!

Hopefully we won’t have to enforce the closing policy for weather this winter but just as a reminder, I’m attaching the policy that we follow. Please make sure that you’re signed up for the texting alert that Tami will send out in the morning if we have to delay/close.

Inclement Weather/ Emergency Closing Policy

We ask each family to sign up for text notification for immediate communication of important or emergency information (closings, etc.). All weather related closings will be announced via this text service.  Be on the lookout for text communication if South Bend or School City of Mishawaka is closed or delayed as I will send confirmation that we are open or if we are delayed/closed.

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Here are a few pictures from our day.

Breakfast– Kashi Blueberry Clusters and PPC kiwi.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded beef and cheese, banana/clementines, and PPC cucumber/pepper.

PM snack– Graham crackers and sliced cheese.

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumber/pepper.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 12/7

Good Afternoon!

Mack and Sophia were in the housekeeping area playing with the babies. They decided to expand their imaginations and take them for a walk around the table.

Miss Rebekah made some sugar water chalk for us to use to draw our pictures. The colors are more vibrant and the chalk is dust free on our papers. We really enjoyed exploring this new drawing utensil experience.

Mack and Sophia were working on their yoga downward dog pose. This pose will help us with our summersaults.

When we all woke up from our naps, we enjoyed having Miss Hannah read books and toss the balls around with us.

Breakfast:  Kashi’s Blueberry Clusters cereal and fresh PPC blueberries.

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs, blueberries and PPC cherry tomatoes.

Afternoon Snack:  Blue corn chips and hummus.

Wee Sprouts:  Mixed vegetables.

Have a great night!

Rebekah

Link to pictures for today:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuliaZo64hPMOYYkvOHFA

Link to pictures from yesterday:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuliaUpx-ymODN_3OIQNA