Good afternoon.

Music was in the WWF air today.  Our friends were making many beautiful sounds and having loads of fun exploring the different musical instruments. Mack and Miss Marty were exploring the different tempos that could be used during their drum session. Mack was going at a slower pace, while Miss Marty was going at a faster pace. They then joined together and made their tempos all on the same drum.

We then moved onto the habitrail slide and had fun sliding down by ourselves or with friends. While being engaged on the slide, our friends can learn a very important life lesson. Taking turns can be difficult, but our WWF’ers do a great job of incorporating this skill into their play everyday.

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with butter and cinnamon and fresh PPC blueberries.

Lunch: Whole grain wheat pasta with butter and shredded pork, fresh PPC blueberries and carrots.

Afternoon snack: Mozzarella string cheese stick and pretzels.

Wee sprouts: Carrots

Have a wonderful evening!

Marty

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulivwnDl0_iJ4MvQHqtw

Good Afternoon!

Today was a musical morning.  We enjoyed marching as we were playing our drums and listening to the different sounds that our instruments made.

We built with the waffle blocks from the kitchen.  We worked to fit them together to make long puzzles.

We all had big smiles on our faces as we were swinging on the trapeze bar.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat English muffins with sunflower butter and fresh PPC banana.

Lunch:  Turkey and cheese on whole grain wheat flatbread, fresh PPC banana and carrots.

Afternoon Snack:  Goldfish crackers and mozzarella cheese stick.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots.

Have a great weekend!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulidcPSWPhjHo1ylQdSg

Happy Friday!

Our student teacher, Miss Katie, started up an activity this morning that focused on patterns. Ruby helped Miss Katie sort beads by color before calling interested friends to the table. Miss Katie demonstrated a few patterns such as: ABAB, ABCABC, AND AABB. After demonstrating what certain patterns look like, each child got the chance to create their own pattern using beads and pipe cleaners.

Our older friends were challenged by pulling colors from a container that were not already sorted. A few younger children who were interested in the activity focused mainly on using their fine motor skills while still talking about patterns based on what their older peers were doing.

K.CA.5: Create, extend, and give an appropriate rule for simple repeating and growing patterns with numbers and shapes.

It has been a building week! Anna used various shapes to create a star while Maddie expanded her ‘animal checkup’ that she built.

“Children are not a distraction from more important work. They are the most important work.”

-John Trainer, M.D.

Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and PPC pears.

Lunch– Turkey and shredded cheese on whole wheat flatbread, PPC pears/fresh strawberries, and PPC cucumber/cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Ritz crackers and block cheese.

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumbers/cherry tomatoes.

Have a great weekend!

-Mindy

Good Afternoon!  Enjoy the pictures from our playful Thursday!

Breakfast:  Whole grain Cheerios and fresh PPC blueberries.

Lunch:  Whole grain brown rice with shredded beef, fresh PPC banana/kiwi and corn.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole grain wheat crackers and colby-jack block cheese.

Hope you all had a great Thursday!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulidZGgvE5n4vcJR-XsQ

Good Afternoon–

Here are a few pictures from our day!

We hope you had a great Thursday!

Breakfast– Corn chex and PPC blueberries.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded beef, fresh apples, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack– Homemade carrot muffins with peanuts.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/cucumber.

Have a lovely night!

-Mindy

Good Afternoon!

Today we celebrated 2 birthdays. One friend is 1 year old, and our other friend, Emma is celebrating her 3rd birthday.  Happy Birthday! We hope you have a great day.

A friend requested the pom-poms this morning.  We were given a small and large scoop and bowls to place them into.

We were busy talking on the telephone.

We enjoyed playing with the balls, turning the star rainbows into a teeter-totter and going down the slide in the habitrail area.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios, fresh banana and a homemade birthday muffin.

Lunch:  Scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, whole grain wheat toast, fresh banana and broccoli.

Afternoon Snack:  Graham crackers, mozzarella cheese stick and homemade birthday brownie.

Wee Sprouts:  Broccoli.

Have a great night!

Rebekah

Link to pictures: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulidYCQ4d0bqI-i0LA8Q

Good Afternoon!

An art activity was made available at the art table this morning. Even though it was snowing outside, we focused on the fact that spring is soon approaching!

Children took plastic eggs and stamped their paper with various colors of paint. We had many different results: some kids just used one color on their paper while other peers used all five colors. Patterns were even brought into our art. Children placed their egg stamp in a specific spot on the paper in relationship to other colors that they had already used.

Our building fascination was in full force this morning once again!

“Friendship isn’t a big thing, it’s a million little things.”

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and PPC banana.

Lunch– Scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, whole wheat bread, PPC banana/kiwi, and PPC peppers.

PM snack– Blue corn chips and hummus.

Wee Sprout– PPC peppers.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

**The server we use for the picture link is still down so unfortunately, no picture link today! Once the server is up running again, I will post each day’s pictures that we missed.

Good Afternoon!

Pascale and Zoe were showing their babies some love by giving them hugs and kisses.  How adorable!

Emma and Mack were building with magnatiles. They started out by stacking them in big stacks before using their imaginative skills and making a game with them.

We were busy painting at the easel this morning.  We were given a variety of colors to create beautiful masterpieces. We were also given the option of drawing with crayons if we weren’t interested in painting.

Breakfast:  Kix cereal and fresh apples.

Lunch:  Hummus on whole grain wheat flatbread, fresh PPC kiwi and peas.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole grain wheat bagel with butter and mozzarella cheese stick.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulidU2gI2ARMo1neER6w

Good Afternoon!

**Just a reminder that Wee Friends is closed on Friday, March 30th in observance of Good Friday.

It was a pattern kind of morning!

In pre-k/k group, we read several poems from ‘Be Glad Your Nose Is On Your Face’. Afterwards, we observed the six strips that were on the chalk board. I gave each child one piece of paper and told them to hold onto it.

Together, we talked about the first strip, saying aloud, “square, square, triangle, square, square, triangle, square, _____”. Friends talked about it and decided that a ‘square’ should come next. I had everyone look at the piece of paper I had given them. A friend piped up saying, “I have the square!”. That child came up to the chalkboard and taped their square on the strip to finish the pattern.

We did this for the next five strips allowing each friend to come up and finish a given pattern.

K.CA.5: Create, extend, and give an appropriate rule for simple repeating and growing patterns with numbers and shapes.

Maddie explored a peg board with various colored pegs this morning. She took advantage of each row by creating different patterns. She used several patterns including: ABCABCABC, ABCDABCD, and ABABAB.

Afterwards, Lucy and Max joined her on the island where they worked with the pattern cards while matching the colors to the colored pegs. Not only was this a fantastic fine motor exercise as the movements were very intricate but friends noticed patterns that they saw and the use of colors in different cards.

The welcome activity revolved around the Math ‘pattern’ box. Elijah explored the box as he matched the fruits before finishing a pattern with a little teacher assistance. This Math box is a great activity as it slowly scaffolds patterns depending on each child’s readiness for it. On the first line, children match the fruit before completing a pattern on the second line. When children are ready, they can create their own pattern on the third line.

Breakfast– Kashi Blueberry Cluster and PPC blueberries.

Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat tortilla/flatbread, fresh oranges, and PPC cherry tomatoes/cucumbers.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with peanut butter.

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumbers.

Have a great evening.

-Mindy

**Our link creator is not working so hopefully I can post the link with tomorrow’s blog!

Good Afternoon!

In pre-k/k group, we read ‘Another Brother’. Davey, the main character, started out as an only child but throughout the story, he ended up with thirteen brothers and sisters! After we finished reading the story, we talked about our own families and ended up graphing about them! Each child found their name on the graph and counted up all of the family members including themselves. Each child’s family was displayed on the graph. After observing the graph for a little bit, these are a few things we saw:

1. Both of our kindergarteners have a family size of three.

2. Grady, Max, Anna, and Lucy have a family size of four.

3. Cassie has the smallest family while I ended up having the biggest.

Our building rug was overflowing this morning. Children used a variety of building materials including magnatiles, trio blocks, and the train set. Some friends where there all morning! That’s what’s fantastic about our set up here at Wee Friends: we don’t force them to go somewhere else as long as they involved, engaged, thriving, and happy. It’s not just ‘blocks’ that they’re interacting with but they’re using their problem solving skills, expanding their math skills (counting, patterns, etc.), exploring their imagination, etc.

I’ve attached an article from NAEYC that addresses the areas of development that child are using/engaging when involved in block play.

https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/mar2015/ten-things-children-learn-block-play

Sensory bins were made available with water beads. We also added egg cartons for children to divide the water beads into. It’s an engaging sensory exploration that our children love!

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with cream cheese and PPC pears/apples.

Lunch– Whole wheat noodles with butter and shredded pork, PPC banana/raspberries, and fresh carrots/PPC cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with granola.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes/carrots.

Have a wonderful night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF, 3/5