Good Afternoon!

This morning we were busy playing on the habitrail.  We played under it and went down the slide.  On our way to the slide, we stopped to take a look out the window.

Miss Marty taught Mack the clapping game to the song Miss Mary Mack.

Mack and Emma worked on their fine motor skills and hand- eye coordination as the looked for the correct place for their foam puzzle piece.  Mack was telling Miss Marty to stop taking his picture.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat toast with no nut butter and fresh apples.

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat English muffin cheese pizzas, fresh pears and mixed vegetables.

Afternoon Snack:  Goldfish crackers and mozzarella string cheese stick.

Wee Sprouts:  Mixed vegetables.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulic5Sa5w9DqGS50oTVw

Happy Friday!

In pre-k/k group, we read a ‘Frog and Toad’ story titled ‘Tomorrow’. Toad had so many chores to do in his house, that he kept saying he’ll do it tomorrow! We talked about the word ‘tomorrow’ and what it meant.

After we finished the story, we discussed three words: today, yesterday, and tomorrow. First, we talked about ‘today’ and what that meant. Lucy shouted, “It’s like right now!”. We looked to the calendar for a little help and noticed that it’s Friday! After, we talked about ‘yesterday’ and ‘tomorrow’ specifically. I had a child come up and point to the square that represents ‘yesterday’. Lucy pointed to Thursday while another child came up to point to tomorrow, which we identified as Saturday!

K.M.2: Understand concepts of time, including: morning, afternoon, evening, today, yesterday, tomorrow, day, week, month, and year. Understand that clocks and calendars are tools that measure time.

Miss Katie, who is our student teacher, conducted an activity that allowed us to identify our current emotions that we were experiencing. Children talked about several different emotions including happy, sad, mad, and sick. Each friend got to come up and tape their name under the emotion that they were feeling.

“A heart that is pure is full of light.”

Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and PPC blueberries.

Lunch– Homemade cheese pizza on whole wheat english muffins, PPC banana/pears, and PPC cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

PM snack– String cheese and goldfish.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

Have a terrific weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: 2/23

Good Afternoon!

Enjoy the pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Chex and PPC pears.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh oranges, and PPC cucumber/carrots.

PM snack– Sunflower seeds and graham crackers.

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumber/carrots.

Have a great night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/22

Good Afternoon!

This morning we enjoyed playing with our farm animals. Pascale enjoyed pointing and talking to our fish.

We enjoyed playing with the balls within our own skill level.  Zoe crawled to her ball, while Aggie carried her ball around the habitrail area.  Mack practiced his throwing and catching skills with a teacher.

A friend requested the permanence boxes.  We worked on our hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills as we placed our balls and coins into their boxes.  Mack even decided to cover up his box with our colorful dancing scarves.

Breakfast:  Chex cereal and fresh PPC banana.

Lunch:  Scrambled eggs with shredded cheddar cheese, whole grain wheat bread toast with butter, fresh PPC blueberries and corn.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole grain wheat crackers and mozzarella string cheese stick.

Wee Sprouts:  Corn.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulic0c6j0mr1esj5yJRg

Good Afternoon!

**With the snow gone (hopefully for good!), we are going to try and spend as much time outside as we can. Next week especially looks fantastic! Please make sure your child comes to school with appropriate shoes/boots and coat along with hat and gloves if needed. Thanks!

In pre-k/k group today, we continued to learn about the characters ‘Frog’ and ‘Toad’ in two short stories that we read. In both stories, there were several references to certain months as well as activities that occur specifically in the morning, afternoon, and evening.

After we read both stories (which again were humorous!), we took several daily activities and sorted them into three categories: morning, afternoon, and evening. When we were done, several children commented, “Morning won!”. We talked about how many activities were in each category. Lucy and Maddie both said, “Afternoon and evening have the same: three!”.

Every day, we explore the calendar after our story and activity. Children are aware of what’s on a calendar but today, we discussed what a month looks like on the calendar: a full page. We used February as our example!

K.M.2: Understand concepts of time, including: morning, afternoon, evening, today, yesterday, tomorrow, day, week, month, and year. Understand that clocks and calendars are tools that measure time.

Our journal experience today was engaging and allowed us to get our thoughts down on paper. We wrote our letters, drew a river that was flooding (using recent personal experiences), and an extensive map.

Children gravitated toward the light table as we worked with many different manipulatives: rocks, shells, colored counters, and gems.

The last thing we explored was blue and red counters and we quickly realized they had letters on them! Elijah and Lucy excitedly found their letters and made their name.

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with fresh oranges.

Lunch– Scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, whole wheat english muffin/bread, PPC banana, and PPC broccoli.

PM snack– Refried beans with blue corn chips.

Wee Sprout– PPC broccoli.

Have a fantastic night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/21

Just a friendly reminder, if you haven’t already returned your re-enrollment forms, they are due by this Friday, February 23rd.  Thank you.

Good Afternoon! We hope you all had a great day. Enjoy the pictures.

Breakfast:  Kix cereal and fresh PPC banana.

Lunch:  Refried beans and cheese on whole grain wheat flatbread, fresh banana and mixed vegetables.

Afternoon Snack:  Toasted whole grain bagel with cream cheese/no nut butter.

Wee Sprouts:  Mixed vegetables.

Have a wonderful evening!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulicw6VSd4a-LEBHMOnA

Good Afternoon!

We never close the art table. It’s always a choice from when we wrap up breakfast to the time we start to clean up for the day. There is rarely a time during the day where the art table doesn’t have at least one child exploring.

Today, children showed interest in the mixing of colors. So, after creating a color wheel with primary and secondary colors, we talked about the mixing of colors and the end results we get when mixing primary colors.

The choices we offer throughout the day are open-ended, engaging art experiences. There is no model that we have children follow. Children are free to create whatever they wish. It’s about the experience and process NOT the end product.

I’ve attached a few articles revolving around process art and why art is so important in these early childhood years as well as ways to integrate art experiences at home.

http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/the_art_of_creating_why_art_is_important_for_early_childhood_development

https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/tyc/feb2014/process-art-experiences

Ruby engaged in markers this morning at the art table by starting to color in the outside with various colors before filling in the middle with the same colors. She had a clear end goal in mind and the materials we offered allow her to continue her process art.

Lucy drew four different drawings before putting them together using labels as tape. After taping her drawings together, she wrote four names on the back: her own, mom, dad, and her brother, Elliott. This was completely a process driven art experience for Lucy.

“We do not need to teach creativity, but rather inspire it’s daily practice.”

-Diane Darrow, Teacher

Breakfast– Kix and PPC mango.

Lunch– Refried bean and shredded cheese roll-ups, fresh apples, and PPC cherry tomatoes/carrots.

PM snack– A birthday treat: pumpkin muffins and string cheese.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes/carrots.

Have a wonderful night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/20

Good Afternoon!

Emma and Mack were playing with the babies and baskets. They were using the baskets for carrying their babies, then they both decided to use their imaginative skills and turned their baskets into hats.

We  spent some time in the kitchen working in our journals.  We were busy making many circles on our papers.

Mondays are an exciting day for us to look out the window to see the trash truck come to empty our trash can.  We watched as the driver used the mechanical arms to pick up our bin and empty our bin and set it back on the ground.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat bagel with no nut butter and fresh clementine’s.

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

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts:  Carrots.

Have a great night!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulicsGsk9WzacOKAiQXg

Good Afternoon!

**Just as a reminder (if you haven’t already), that re-enrollment forms are due this Friday, February 23rd.

In pre-k/k group, we read a new book titled, ‘Frog and Toad All Year: Down the Hill’. It’s a book that has several short stories in it and today, we read ‘Down the Hill’. Frog and Toad exhibit a great sense of humor which elicited laughter throughout the story. After we finished reading the short story, I read aloud five main events that occurred in the story. I asked, “Which one happened first?”. After we identified which event happened first, we put the rest into the order in which they occurred. This is the first time that we read about Frog and Toad. There were several requests made for Frog and Toad again tomorrow! (good thing I bought several books! )

K.1.4: Identify and order events that take place in a sequence. (2006 standard)

We used our hands in several ways this morning: rubber bands, magnatiles, and pattern blocks.

A child requested moon sand and spaces quickly filled up! We measured moon sand and used our hands to level it off.

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with butter and PPC pears.

Lunch– Whole wheat noodles with butter and shredded pork, PPC banana/pears, and PPC cucumber.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with PPC mango.

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumber.

Have a great evening.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/19

Good Afternoon!

We are looking forward to meeting with our families tomorrow for conferences.  Enjoy some of the pictures from our day!

Breakfast:  Whole grain Cheerios and fresh apples.

Lunch:  Whole grain brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh PPC pears and mixed vegetables.

Afternoon Snack:  Goldfish crackers and mozzarella string cheese stick.

Wee Sprouts:  Corn.

Enjoy your evening!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulicphpXwDS06PkLL86A