Good Afternoon!

There are several ‘looks’ to block play. Block play can involve one child with magnatiles, building individual zoo’s for his animals. It can also involve several children, working together to complete a common goal or end objective. Block play is crucial to the development of preschool children. Our imaginations are pouring out onto our creations; communication is vast as children make decisions together; and our problem solving skills are kicked into high gear.  There is not one day here at Wee Friends that some form of block play is not evident.

I’ve attached two short articles that give several benefits of block play as well as describe the vital importance of it in the every day lives of children.

https://www.ucy.ac.cy/nursery/documents/Why_is_Block_Play_Important_for_Toddlers_and_Preschoolers.pdf

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

Right after breakfast, children flooded the art table as we put marker to paper.

When the art table was clear, a few children asked for play dough. We got out the purple play dough today. The new play dough we made together is so soft and children are enjoying working with it. Our favorite tool to use is the rolling pin!

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and fresh apples.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, whole wheat bread, PPC banana/apples, and PPC cucumber/cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Ritz crackers with refried beans.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

Have a terrific night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/31

There was a problem posting the blog from yesterday. Sorry for the delay.

Good Morning!

This morning we were engaged in a painting activity.  The younger friends created their colorful paintings with a brush.  Mack noticed some shape sponges and asked to paint with them.  He and Emma made many colorful prints on their papers.

Here are a few other activities our friends who were napping during painting enjoyed today.

Breakfast:  Whole grain Cheerios and fresh PPC clementines.

Lunch:  Hummus on whole grain wheat flatbread, fresh PPC pears and carrots.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole grain wheat bagel with no nut butter.

Wee Sprouts:  Carrots.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulicEi0Hmo_YfpKqxNCA

Good Afternoon!

“Don’t just teach your kids to read, teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything!” -George Carlin

Children were anxious to explore our new play dough that we made the last couple of days. Today, we opened up the orange play dough. A few of our older preschoolers worked in shapes to their play dough exploration. Maxwell rolled four pieces of play dough to make a square. We worked together to count the sides and the vertices. After, we looked at the shape of the table we were sitting at. A kindergartener shouted, “It’s a hexagon!”. When asked how many sides a hexagon has, several children answer, “Six!”. Together, we counted the number of vertices on the table.

K.G.2: Compare shapes using informal language to describe their similarities, differences, and parts (e.g., number of sides, length of sides, and vertices.)

Our younger children used their imaginations to create a whole grocery store! Sophia made turkey roll ups that she offered to teachers while Maddie opened up a candy store, offering a wide selection of sweets. “This kind of candy is good; it’s not real!”, commented Maddie.

In large group, we read, ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ to follow up on our group time yesterday when we read, ‘The Gruffalo’. I told them we were going to do something a little different; I wasn’t going to read the first couple of pages (at first) but instead they were going to tell me what they thought the words said based on the pictures on each page. We continued to read on and before I started reading the words, children shared what they took away from the pictures.

K.RL.4.1: Describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear.

Breakfast– Whole grain cheerios and PPC kiwi.

Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat flatbread, fresh apples, and PPC peppers.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with peanut butter and block cheese.

Wee Sprout– Mixture of fresh PPC veggies: carrots, peppers, and cherry tomatoes.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/30

Good Afternoon!

This morning our older friend,  Ruby and her parents brought some of Ruby’s books that she is no longer using and donated them to our classroom.  Miss Mindy brought over the board books that work perfectly in our environment.  Our friends enjoyed looking at them.  Thank you Ruby!

Miss Marty came across a fun sensory experience for us to try out. She cooked spaghetti, and we made it rainbow spaghetti by adding red, yellow, blue and green food coloring. All of us enjoyed feeling its slimy, squishy texture with our hands.

Aggie asked for the swing when she woke up from her nap.  Daniel and Aggie took turns swinging and help push each other.

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

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

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts:  Corn.

Have a great night!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulib98B84-oXgEl-tiDg

Good Afternoon!

Today, we welcomed Miss Melissa who is a student observer from IUSB. We enjoyed showing her around Wee Friends!

Here are a few pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Whole wheat english muffins with peanut butter and PPC clementines.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with shredded chicken and butter, PPC banana, and PPC cucumber/cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with pumpkin flax granola.

Wee Sprout– PPC snap peas.

Have a wonderful evening!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/29

Good Afternoon!

Our morning started off  by enjoying many of our favorite story books.

We then built a train track with our wooden tracks to drive our trains. With some of our train cars we can use our creativity to make it our own by adding a variety of wooden shapes.  Miss Marty went over to the other classroom and borrowed some of their train pieces and small cars to add to our set so we could makes our trains and tracks longer.

Aggie, Daniel and Pascale were busy climbing and playing on the habitrail together.

Breakfast: Whole grain wheat toast with butter and fresh PPC banana.

Lunch: Whole grain wheat English muffins with marinara and shredded cheese pizzas, fresh PPC pears and mixed vegetables.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole grain bread/English muffin with no nut butter and goldfish crackers.

Wee Sprouts:  Mixed vegetables.

Have a great weekend!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulib8m3lHFo_STNx8rqQ

Happy Friday!

I looked around this morning and saw almost every space in the environment occupied by children who were engaged, happy, and thriving. It got me to thinking about the different learning styles of the sixteen children we have here at Wee Friends. As children get older, their learning style(s) become more prominent. At this age, we make sure to have an area or an activity that adheres to each learning style so that children are challenged in a way that’s meaningful to them. A child who may be an auditory learner may not have to sit and listen to a story; they could sit at the art table while still being able to listen to the story and gain the same comprehension.

I’ve attached an article that explains the primary learning styles in early education while also diving into the other learning styles that aren’t as notable at this age.

“As different as we are from one another, as unique as each one of us is, we are much more the same than we are different. That may be the most essential message of all, as we help our children grow toward being caring, compassionate, and charitable adults. –Fred Rogers

https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/diverse-learning-styles-in-early-childhood-education/

Children headed to the art table to create different art projects. Chloe got a long piece of paper and wrote a grocery list for her mom while a six year old drew several starfish. He counted all of the dots that he drew on the starfish, adding up to over 100!

We had several students who were learning kinesthetically including:

Movement during music time.

Using our fine motor skills to count, sort, and describe several different manipulatives including gems, shells, and hexagon counters.

Anna and Lucy took the shells and sorted them into equal groups so that every child at the light table had the same amount. We talked about their characteristics using descriptive words including; bumpy, smelly, soft, small, and big.

Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and PPC banana.

Lunch– Homemade english muffin pizzas, PPC banana/clementines, and PPC cucumbers/carrots.

PM snack– Homemade banana bread and block cheese.

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumber.

Have a terrific weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/26

Good Afternoon.  Enjoy some of the pictures from our fabulous day!

Breakfast:  Whole grain Cheerios and fresh PPC clementines.

Lunch:  Whole grain brown rice with shredded beef, fresh PPC bananas and peas.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole grain wheat crackers and hummus.

Wee Sprouts:  Peas.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulib4KgA6akI4cAg-MUg

Good Afternoon!

**Just a reminder that conference forms (pre-conference AND conference time preference) are due tomorrow (Friday, January 26th). Thank you!

Miss Melinda called everyone to the reading area this morning. She brought in an article that talked about ‘potty duck’ and it’s creator.

First, Miss Melinda asked what a newspaper is for and Lucy said, “It shares information!”. This lead us to share our memories of taking potty duck home.

Later on in the morning, several children gathered at the island to help make play dough. Before we added the ingredients, we took a vote to see what two colors of play dough we would make. Each child got to vote on one color and after we all gave our answers, we tallied up the votes. Friends were shown and told what tally marks look like and what they’re used for. Once we tallied each color, we had two winners: purple and orange!

Each child had the opportunity to help add an ingredient or stir the mixture once all of the ingredients were added. A few friends stayed at the island to watch as I mixed it on the stove. After it cooled down, we were able to test our work.

Pizza. Police Officer. Trash can. Just a few of the items that we made with our new play dough.

Breakfast– Nature’s Path Organic Maple Pecan Crunch and PPC pears/banana.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded beef and cheese, PPC banana, and PPC cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Roasted chick peas and goldfish.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes.

Have a great evening.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF, 1/25

Good Afternoon!

Yesterday afternoon after the blog was posted, Miss Marty made a new sensory recipe called Fluffy Slime. The children were able to explore its look and feel as they played with it. Today, children were give some rolling pins and wooden hammers to flatten it or make prints in it.

We were busy driving our transportation vehicles around the carpet before we took it in to the kitchen to make a train track on the table for our trains.

Aggie was Mack and Emma’s magnatile building helper as she handed the magnatiles to them. She also shared them with Pascale.

Breakfast:  Kix cereal and fresh clementines.

Lunch:  Scrambled eggs, whole grain wheat flatbread, clementines and carrots.

Afternoon Snack:  Pretzels and cheddar block cheese.

Wee Sprouts:  Carrots.

Have a great night!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulibxW80ChEDv9hBldCw