Wee Sprouts: Pea pods. Breakfast: Cheerios and bananas. Lunch: Hummus on whole wheat tortillas, mixed veggies and pear slices. Snack: Cottage cheese and pineapple slices.

Happy Monday!

Friends P.K. and Eren sat on the rocking chair this morning. P.K. tilted his head back on Eren. They enjoyed sitting together to start their morning.

Our morning sensory activity was painting pumpkins! Friends picked a pumpkin to paint. Children chose from a variety of paint colors including brown, green, yellow, and orange.

After they were done with their pumpkins, friends painted other white pieces of paper.

Daniel and P.K. found the sensory box fascinating! They reached their hands into the box to find different objects. We talked about hard and soft objects along with the color of each item.

P.K. rolled and tumbled around this afternoon using soft half circles. He also carried it across the room!

Daniel worked on the jungle gym by jumping up and down. He enjoys looking out the window at people walking by or cars driving by.

Emma said, “Neigh” as she carried the horse book around. She pointed at the picture and said the sound that was associated with the animal. Throughout the day, the birds are one of her favorite toys. When you squeeze them, the birds make a ‘tweet’ sound.

Eve and Zoey enjoyed reading stories this afternoon. They looked at the pictures and pointed to items that they found interesting.

For breakfast, children had toast with soy butter and pears. Lunch consisted of whole wheat noodles with chicken, mixed fruit, and corn. PM snack was raisins and animal crackers.

Have a great evening.

-Mindy

*We have planned our Halloween Parade for Wednesday at 3:45. Parents are welcome to join us! Our Parade is when friends, after nap/snack, dress up in their costumes (that they have brought to school that morning) and parade around our sidewalk with a banner and badges singing favorite songs! IF WE ARE RAINED OUT, AS IS PREDICTED, WE WILL MOVE OUR PARADE TO FRIDAY AFTERNOON AT THE SAME TIME.

Today began with a lot of reading. Friends reading alone and to each other were everywhere you turned.

“Spontaneous events that are pursued by bringing engaging materials, good conversation, and time for investigation into the classroom create a true learning environment that is a joyful place to be.” – ExchangeEveryday ( the online Exchange Magazine)

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Peanut butter on whole wheat toast and pear slices. Lunch: Whole wheat penne pasta with chicken, corn and apples. Snack: Whole wheat crackers and cranberries.

Have a great day.

Happy Friday!

Zoey’s morning started with fine motor skills as she worked with a board that works on flipping, rolling, pushing, and turning with ones hands and fingers. It’s a great activity that allows infants and toddlers to work on multiple fine motor skills.

P.K. enjoys spending time with Zoey. He loves to make her laugh!

He gave her many soft kisses today and multiple hugs which Zoey enjoyed.

Once afternoon snack was done, friends went in their own direction. Daniel chose to work in the kitchen while Eren grabbed a book and started reading.

Our littlest friend enjoyed floor time. She is working on reaching for toys and items that are within her reach.

Some friends were in a Friday funk so we turned on the music and worked with instruments. We got out the blue tubes with items such as bells, plastic beads, and bouncy balls. They made different sounds.

We also got out musical shakers! Our friends enjoyed shaking their instrument to the music that was playing!

It was so nice to see our friends taking turns and sharing their instruments with one another.

Emma worked on dancing and bouncing to the music.

A few friends headed to the jungle gym where they got their gross motor in for the day!

We peaked, slid, and crawled on the jungle gym! It’s a great space to let friends know about boundaries and when friends need their space.

For breakfast, friends had cheerios and banana. Lunch consisted of tuna salad on wheat bread, mandarin oranges, and mixed vegetables.

Have a great weekend!

-Mindy

A quick reminder that the Blue Bus will not be here on Monday, Oct. 29th.

Lisa has started a  special exploration of having the kids Sing A Song of Who You Are. She invites them up one by one and asks them to sing out about something unique to them: flying to Cali, purple princess dresses, pirates, to name a few.

Our friends are learning how to sing out loud and sing out strong, singing of good things, not bad, happy things, not sad. (are you humming it now? Mission accomplished).

Our party planning continued today with spooky ghost art (white paint on black paper with googly eyes) and the construction of a pumpkin piñata.

Mel took the kids on a bear hunt with Max’s fabulous stuffed bear. Thanks, Max!

After acting out the book twice, friends settled in to a bear meditation with twinkly music.

Jane worked on a number grid. One by one friends joined her and explored math in developmentally appropriate ways.

The moments before heading outside this morning ended in friends picking flowers and placing them in baskets.

Some late afternoon moments from this week:

We encourage our friends to journal most everyday. Please feel free to explore their journals (under the art loft) anytime. They accumulate quite a lot of work and it’s very interesting to see the development over many days and months time.

Wee Sprouts: Celery sticks. Breakfast: Malt-O-Meal and orange slices. Lunch: Chicken salad with apples on whole wheat bread and mixed veggies. Snack: Popcorn and raisins.

Have a great weekend.

Good Afternoon!

Happy Birthday Daniel!!! Daniel turned two years old today! We had a great time singing him happy birthday and blowing out the pretend candles. He even shared his birthday cake with friends!

Our friends showed us various faces today. Some cute. Some silly.

During the morning hours, friends stood along the window sill. They sang in harmony with one another. It was quite funny and had both teachers laughing .

We headed outside where Clara and P.K. got right to it…worm hunting!

Children stood in the garden area. They looked around at their surroundings. Suddenly, they started throwing and kicking the leaves! It was a wonderful fall morning with leaves blowing throughout the air.

Clara decided to run a marathon. She ran around the circle, down the hill, and back. This happened multiple times.

She was quite winded afterwards!

Friends gathered in the house where they played with rocks and leaves. They love opening the door quickly to see if they have a friend waiting outside.

Peek-A-Boo…I see birthday boy!

P.K. and Clara played follow the leaded. P.K. walked. Clara followed.

The details of this game got very intense! Clara even made sure to look at P.K.’s feet to see if he was on his right or left foot.

We ended our outside time with involved group play. Our friends played with Jane, an older Wee Friend.

Zoey enjoyed laughing as Emma put on a show with a bucket on her head!

Friends Eren and P.K. enjoyed laughs with one another in the cube.

Miss Zoey enjoyed getting her hair brushed and put into pony tails. Friends loved watching this and Zoey sure did have a ball!

For breakfast, we had toasted bagels with cinnamon and pears. AM snack was corn. Lunch consisted of egg salad on pita bread, mixed vegetables, and mixed fruit. PM snack was Daniel’s birthday treat: homemade zucchini bread with dried fruit and raspberries!

I’ll leave you with the multiple faces of Emma.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Next Wednesday, October 31, Halloween, we will have our annual Halloween Parade in the backyard (more details to follow!). Today we got busy planning.

First, we gathered as a large group to get in the party planning mood. Lisa read                The Pumpkin Patch. She then recorded what everyone was planning on being for Halloween.

Friends discussed making the traditional banner , dressing up in costumes and what we thought Tami should be (she has a history of not dressing up) We also determined that there should be music. Once some of the details were in place, we split up for more ghoulish learning opportunities.

First, the pumpkin rind stamps. Friends had to press very hard on the ink to stamp out different shapes onto paper.

Next, counting with ghosts and pumpkins. Lisa called out and friends wrote it down.Then they put that many ghosts/pumpkins next to the number.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Malt-O-Meal and fruit salad. Lunch: Egg salad on whole wheat tortillas, banana/orange fruit salad and mixed veggies. Snack: Goldfish and a cheddar cheese slice.

Happy Wednesday!

Here are some pictures that were taken throughout the day!

For breakfast, we enjoyed raisin bran and pears. Lunch consisted of couscous with black beans, corn, and pears. PM snack was crackers and raisins.

Have a terrific evening!

-Mindy

*Are you looking for a place to bring your bags of yard leaves? We’d love to have them in our garden! We have excellent Wee Gardeners who can help dump them and spread them out!

*No farm trip tomorrow.

Lea’s been talking a lot about tingalayo. When we were painting outside today she expressed “We’re painting tingalayo!” When we asked her what tingalayo meant she explained “Making sandwiches. It’s Spanish.” tingalayo: “Come Little Donkey Come” is how the song goes. Well, we didn’t worry about what the heck tingalayo really means, we just got busy creating it in our Wee World.

This summer, a squash grew into the chain link fence. We cracked it open a bit to see if any wildlife might partake of its goodness. We think, maybe, last night, something DID partake. What could it have been?

Finn: “I know how to find out! Let’s go!”

Finn: “I see tracks!”

Nate: “Those are dinosaur tracks!”

Ada: “Dinosaurs went away a long time ago.”

Pause.

Nate: “Uh-uh.” (as in no)

Let’s all make tracks!

Nate: “Let’s go find the dinosaur!”

Ada: “But dinosaurs went away a long time ago!”

The exposed squash seeds got us thinking about pumpkins and pumpkin seeds.

Lisa (brilliant at getting every Wee Friend, regardless of their age, to sit, engaged, as one community) read a book about how pumpkins grow. She asked friends “What do you think is inside a pumpkin?”

Macy: Seeds

Arleigh: Juice

Elliott: Seeds – “I like to eat them.”

Jada: Chocolate

Ada: Gooey stuff

Jane: Orange stuff

Finn: Roots.

So we checked it out. Our Past Its Prime Pumpkin Pound gave us an example of a veggie that has gotten yucky. Our new Matthys pumpkin was fresh, but also stinky.

Friends bravely picked out all the seeds.

Elliott: “You have to dry them. I can do it.”

Creating spooky witches.

Tingalayo. The song. Creating Tingalayo and tapping out rhythm in 4/4 time with sticks.

Creating future readers.

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers. Breakfast: Malt-O-Meal with applesauce and bananas. Lunch: Cous Cous with red beans, corn and pear slices. Snack: Whole wheat crackers and orange slices.

Did you create any Tingalayo today?

Hello!

Our friends are getting good at learning to read their friends. P.K. had to leave his Daddy this morning after being with him for a whole week on vacation along with the rest of his family. He was a little upset this morning and Clara could tell so she gave him a hug. It helped him settle into the day.

Every week, we notice that our friends are growing into their own person, an individual. Whether it’s coming into their own or noticing different things that make them upset or happy, we’re learning new things about each child daily. We learn so much about each other in the five days that we spend with one another each week. When Emma makes her first face, we can tell that she’s a little upset. In the second picture, Emma looks happy!

We love learning about one another!

Once the day started rolling, friends tossed and turned the blue material tubes. We got out the tube with the bells inside. A teacher said, “That sounds like Christmas bells!” (yes, winter is soon approaching )

Another activity that friends chose was reading books individually, with a teacher, and with a friend. Not only does this activity allow for children’s vocabulary to grow, but we’ve noticed lately that when a friend is done with a book, she/he will offer it to another friend. The concept of sharing is a hard one but our friends are starting to show the beginning signs of what ‘sharing’ means and including it within their play.

We strolled on outside where friends played by the log house. We worked with the rocks and sand. Since it rained overnight, most of the material was still wet which adds a great aspect of sensorial play outside.

Children hopped on the bikes as they went around and around! Our big Wee friend Sloane gave our friends a ride!

Zoey enjoys investigating a variety of toys. She feels everything with her fingers whether it’s soft, hard, or bumpy. The aspect of venturing out and playing with a new toy or person is important at this young age!

For breakfast, friends enjoyed corn flakes and pears. AM snack was string cheese. Lunch consisted of delicious ham and cheese tortillas, cucumbers, and banana. PM snack was hard boiled eggs and pretzels.

Have a wonderful night!

-Mindy