“Gerunds are words ending in “ing”. It is believed that using gerunds can help reinforce the positive behavior another would like to see rather than attacking a bad behavior. For example, a teacher might see students running down the hall and calmly say “walking” rather than yell “stop running” in an agitated voice. He might say “gently” (an adverb) instead of insisting “calm down!” (from Positive Discipline by Jane Nelson).

Best practice in the early childhood classroom encourages the use of gerunds. Instead of “stop talking”, it’s “listening.” Instead of “stop whining!” it might be, “talking.” So what to do when a group of friends are playing Candy Lane, and you find yourself saying “You can’t jump around from color to color. You have to follow the path. You have to follow the rules of the game.” While it’s absolutely true (right? ), it didn’t sound good when I heard the words spoken. There’s another way!

Gerunds. Not “You can’t jump from color to color!” but instead, “following”. Same message, different semantics.

Lots of friends followed Santa and became his reindeer. Then their game morphed and they followed Santa as he revved up his Rino-Dozer. 

Following. Follow the path. In a board game you do have to follow the rules of the game and the path chosen for you. In creative play—-you can choose! We think both are important life skills, and semantics are important too.

“Stop hitting!”

“Hugging.”

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers. Breakfast: Cereal and pear slices. Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with red beans, apple/persimmon fruit salad and green beans. Snack: Rice cakes and peanut butter.

 

Happy Friday!

Our Friday started off with some musical play. First, we got out the shaker logs. Next came the drums and the pianos. Soon, it was a musical frenzy in Wee Wee land! Music over here. Music over there. It was great!

Outside time allowed our friends to run around in the nice crisp air.

Eren and Emma echoed to their friends who were far away!

For breakfast, children had kix and apples. Lunch consisted of roast beef brown rice, oranges, and mixed vegetables. PM snack was animal crackers and raisins.

Have a terrific weekend!

How do we invite others into our zones of joy?

We’ve observed that when you are two or three or four, it’s an open-hearted and inclusive invitation. Today was Ellie’s day. Ellie and Whitney. Ellie has a favorite song. It is  “I Have Nothing” by Whitney Houston. The minute we pressed play, Ellie entered a zone of expressive joy that was beautiful and contagious. Watching her, and the friends that said ‘yes’ to her invitation into joy, was amazing!

And then we experimented with gelatinous flax seed.

 

I hope your answer to today’s invitations for Wee Joy…is yes.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Cereal and orange slices. Lunch: Roast beef brown rice, mixed veggies and orange slices. Snack: Yogurt and pear slices.

A day of Wee discoveries. Like always. But today a detective was in the house starting a conversation about discovery. So we jumped on it! Lisa created a mystery art project that involved baking soda. We’ll fill you in tomorrow on what we discover.

Aislinn inspired a word discovery game. She said a word, then a teacher said a word. They went back and forth creating a stream of words connected by meaning or association. Yo! Yo! Annie came over for a visit and invited other friends to join in the word game (re-named by Yo! Yo! Annie), “I Love Words”.  Two friends stood facing each other on purple lines and discovered new words together.

Then we sang “A-B-C”. Each friend had to pass an apple around the circle as they sang their letter. They discovered that they COULD sing and pass at the same time!

Kind words and exchanges were met during this puzzle discovery. Marina counted out three equal groups of puzzle pieces and then, together, the girls worked at assembling them. We heard: “Let’s work together!” and “Can I help too?”.

Later, a group of friends discovered they could match the rhyming puzzle by working together!

Wee Friendship. The daily discovery and celebration.

No mystery there.

Wee Sprouts: Broccoli. Breakfast: Oatmeal and pear slices. Lunch: Farm fresh egg casserole with potatoes, orange slices and whole wheat tortillas. Snack: Cottage cheese and animal crackers.

Hello!

“Rain, rain, go away. We want to go out and play!”

On this dreary day, we found different things to do inside!

We made sure to show off our gorgeous smiles to make one another happy.

“Cheese!”

Friends formed a band where they rocked out using different instruments such as piano, xylophone, and drums. We played soft music. We played LOUD music.

An obstacle course was made for friends to follow. Eve added to the course by bringing the blocks over and placed them in various places.

Even though the weather was icky, our day was top notch .

For breakfast, children had eggs and banana. Lunch consisted of ham and melted cheese on toast, mixed vegetables, and apples. PM snack was yogurt and crackers.

Have a LOVELY night!

We began our day setting out cups to measure rainfall. We came inside and played several different instruments, listening and expressing which one sounded most like rainfall.

We read part of Jan’s Brett The Umbrella. Mel got out her purple umbrella and we studied its different parts and how it is best used.

Then we created a living umbrella with our bodies. We opened it and closed it.

We created art, in the image of rain.

We danced.

We added sheets of rain around our tree.

We got word books out and spelled R-A-I-N and lots of other words, by request.

We continued our exploration of magnets.

We rested our bodies and felt raindrops (squirt bottle) and heavy wind (feather duster) on our faces.

And we ended our morning measuring our bodies and the rain that fell into our cups.

Enjoy your day.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Whole wheat toast and apple slices. Lunch: Toasted ham and cheese on whole wheat bread, mixed veggies and banana/pineapple fruit salad. Snack: Craisins and Graham crackers.

 

Good Afternoon!

Our babies are continuing to be on the move! The army crawl and scooting are popular moves lately. Even at this age, independence is prevalent!

We had great outside time today! It’s a wonderful opportunity for friends to run around with one another to get some of their energy out . The changing of the seasons is an interesting topic to discuss with friends. The garden closed for the season. We talked about how the veggies are all gone along with how we’ll replant new food next year when the weather gets nice again!

Emma joined her Wee friends in the sandbox where they asked her to play with them. Together, they built sand castles!

For breakfast, children had oatmeal and apples. Lunch consisted of hummus on tortillas, green beans, and banana. PM snack was cottage cheese and pretzels.

Have a great night!!

“Maybe we can help each other!” said a friend to another friend this morning. These are the moments we stop, take a deep breath and congratulate our Wee Friends for working so hard, each day, to collaborate, communicate and build together. And then….“Can I have that after you?” asked another friend while in the sandbox.

While the swimmers were out, many of the remaining Wee Friends experimented with a pile of magnets. We explored what sticks together and how it sticks.

Today, Lea made waves with her set of Magna Tiles! It’s the first time, in all the Magna Tile creations, that we have seen waves!

We used the countdown to swimming as a word book opportunity: 40 minutes to go (we practiced writing the 4 and the 0 and talked about which order they go in). 30 minutes, 15 minutes….and then it was time to go!

Later, we wrote down titles of our favorite books and then drew a picture, from memory, that reflected a part of the book.

We have officially closed the garden for the winter. What a joyful outdoor classroom the garden is each year. THANK YOU to the Wee Garden Committee.

Here are some other things that Wee peeps are thankful for:

Breakfast: Cheerios and apple slices. Lunch: Whole wheat tortillas with hummus, green beans and bananas. Snack: Yogurt and oranges.

Have a great day!

Happy Monday!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Here are a few pictures that were taken throughout the day!

For breakfast, children had toast with cinnamon and raisins. Lunch consisted of pasta with marinara sauce, mixed vegetables, and apples. PM snack was string cheese and animal crackers.

Have a wonderful night.

Emergent Curriculum. Listening to friends as they talk and work and play. Providing materials that support their visions and interests and conversations. This is what led us to setting out brand new chalk, cardboard and rags. “Create!” was the prompt. “Write!” was the message. And so they did. Vigorously. With such passion that all four fire alarms went off after detecting the dust in the air. Yikes. Who knew. We rushed the children outside as Tami took care of the piercing alerts! So we continued our chalk exploration outside…..where it will remain in days to come. Yikes.

And so our week begins! Melinda brought in a handful of magazines. At one table, Lisa worked with friends to name the people and objects they saw on the pages. At another table, Mel asked “Who uses this? Boys, girls, or both?” Friends cut out images and objects and filled baskets with their observations.

In another part of our classroom, friends gathered to play “Buckaroo”. Practicing and talking about gentle touches, friends tried to pack as many items on the donkey as possible before he bucked them off.

Back outside, we said goodbye to Halloween by composting our pumpkin. Friends took turns driving a shovel into the pumpkin to break it down.

The Blue Bus came and began a new session!

Have a great start to your week.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots and broccoli. Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with PB and bananas. Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with marinara, peas and apple slices. Snack: Cheese and crackers.