Today many Wee Friends were all about building! Lots of creations were built with wood blocks, trio blocks, and magna-tiles. The perfect materials to work fine motor skills and spatial awareness.

In addition, our WF authors worked on completing the book they started making last week. They had illustrated all of the pages, now it was just a matter of putting it all together. First, the friends ordered their pages 1 through 16. Next, they chose a binding color: dark blue. Finally, it was all ready to share with friends! Both teachers were asked to read their version of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. Check it out on our bookshelf.

Kindergarten: Today’s kindergarten activity was presented to all our friends in the large group, working on standard K.M.1: Make direct comparisons of the length, capacity, weight, and temperature of objects, and recognize which object is shorter, longer, taller, lighter, heavier, warmer, cooler or holds more. We took a variety of objects from around our classroom (beanbag, book, spray bottle and stapler) and made a prediction about how many unifix cubes tall the object was. Then, we measured the objects! Friends were quite close in some of their predictions.

We also enjoyed our outside time this morning. The fresh air makes us smile!

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Toasted whole wheat bagels with peanut butter and grapes. Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with chicken, mixed vegetables, oranges and grapes. Snack: Organic whole milk yogurt and apples.

Link to the photo album: WF 2/22/2016

Enjoy the day! –Jessica

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy your weekend and these photos from our day!

Breakfast was corn flakes. Lunch consisted of whole wheat flat bread with hummus, bananas, pears, and peas. Afternoon snack was pretzels and string cheese.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Link to photos: http://1drv.ms/1mMQaR8

Today there was a variety of construction going on in the back of the house. Friends worked together to build a wooden car ramp and a magna-tile “hiding place”.

We were very happy to work with puzzles!

We also LOVED the warm weather and sunshine outside today. There was lots of imaginative play, sledding, shoveling and making “muck”. All the exploring with water and sand meant we had to wash some snowpants today! But boy, did friends have a blast.

Kindergarten: Today the kindergarteners and older preschoolers continued this week’s work on literacy FAB K.RL.2.2: With support, retell familiar stories, poems, and nursery rhymes, including key details. They decided to retell the story of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. They dictated the story to a teacher and needed no help in remembering the details of mommy, daddy and baby bear’s things. The entire story ran to 16 pages!

Next, Elizabeth, Clara, Daniel and Cassie split up their book pages and got to work illustrating. The process of creating a book together is very empowering. During our read aloud at large group today, we read the book’s author and illustrator. Elizabeth declared, “We’re illustrators too! We’re making a book!”  

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Brown rice cakes with cream cheese and bananas. Lunch: Whole wheat flatbread with hummus, cucumbers and watermelon. Snack: Pretzels and grapes.

Link to the photo album: WF 2/19/2016

Have a great weekend! –Jessica

We have new art in the classroom that our friends created this morning! Our friends love to paint and enjoy picking out the different colors to use.

Maggie bumped a block against the wall xylophone today and was delighted when she discovered the different sounds it makes! She hit the block against all the rungs she could reach!

There was laughter and silliness in the habitrail area this afternoon. Friends were racing each other through the habitrail and following each other down the slide!

Breakfast was Kix with bananas. Lunch consisted of whole grain brown rice with shredded beef, pears, and mixed vegetables. Afternoon snack was wheat crackers with sweet pea butter.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Link to photos: http://1drv.ms/1SCOcB3

This morning’s big work was driven by a desire to replace all of our dried and worn out markers with new ones! Friends tested the markers, replaced those that didn’t work and put the unusable ones in our “yucky marker” jar. Next, they went to the work bench to take the yucky markers apart.

Using pliers and screwdrivers, friends took off the ends of the marker and pulled out the inside of the marker. We use the colorful insides to make our watercolor paint! Friends really enjoy being involved in this real and important classroom work.

Today friends also gathered on the music rug for a group meeting. We’ve been seeing lots of friends coming to teachers for a wide range of issues and wanted to empower friends to try and solve problems on their own. Together we talked through some common issues (e.g. someone takes your toy, someone pushes you, someone didn’t clean up, etc.) and brainstormed words we can use to talk to our friends.

Friends had many great suggestions that we recorded on chart paper. For instance, if a friend takes your toy, Maddie thought you could say “please could you give it back to me” while Luke suggested, “no, it’s my truck”. These critical problem solving skills take lots of practice and are something we work on every day!

Kindergarten: Today our kindergarteners and some other friends worked together to construct a giant letter. They shared, “Look! We made a 3D L!” Love seeing literacy played out in other areas such as building!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wee Sprouts: Broccoli. Breakfast: Corn Chex and grapes. Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded beef, carrots and bananas. Snack: Pistachios and wheat crackers.

Link to the photo album: WF 2/18/2016

Hope your Thursday is terrific! –Jessica

This afternoon, Anna wanted to play dress up!

While looking through the dress up basket, we found multiple hats.

We just had to try them all on!

Breakfast was hot wheat cereal and apples. Lunch consisted of tortillas with refried beans and cheese, bananas, and peas. Afternoon snack was pretzels and cheddar cheese.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Link to photos: http://1drv.ms/1KX68Ub

Today our friends were snow angels and shovelers:

Sledders of the hill and snow ball makers:

And of course, snow and ice eaters!

Today friends worked on their ordering skills by playing a game of alphabetical war. Each player puts down a card with a picture of a food item and the person with the food that comes first in the alphabet wins both cards (e.g. donut vs. grapes, donut wins!) This game helped friends practice identifying lowercase letters and work on alphabetical order. Sometimes we consulted our handy alphabet chart to check our work. 

Kindergarten: Elliott took the alphabetical war game to another level by picking ten cards to put in alphabetical order. Then he wrote them! Elliott had lots of fun with this process and wrote some lowercase letters as well.

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers. Breakfast: Hot wheat cereal and bananas. Lunch: Whole wheat tortillas with cheddar cheese and refried beans, carrots and fresh oranges. Snack: Homemade popcorn with butter and fresh apples.

Link to the photo album: WF 2/17/2016

Have a wonderful Wednesday!—Jessica

Please note: We would like to start a photo album to keep in the classroom. We’re asking everyone to bring in one or two family photos to add to the album.

During the winter months, its difficult to keep up with the salt that’s tracked through the classroom. Children are crawling through the melted snow and salt and getting their clothes wet. If you don’t mind, please take off your shoes and boots when you come in the door before walking into the environment. Thanks!

What a fun and busy day we had at Wee Wee! Here are a few of our favorite photos.

 

Breakfast was Whole Grain Cheerios and apples. Lunch consisted of whole wheat flat bread with turkey and cheese, bananas, and corn. Afternoon snack was toasted whole wheat bagels with sweet pea butter.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Link to photos: http://1drv.ms/1onU0ls

Good Afternoon!

Teamwork seemed to be the theme throughout the morning. Friends worked with one another to complete puzzles, create with magnatiles, and construct a giant track!

We’ve seen a lot of constructing lately. Whether friends are using magnatiles, Legos, or another set of blocks, children have pushed their boundaries with what they build and how they build.

The use of stencils was quite prominent this morning as friends used stencils to create different kinds of art. This activity allows friends to stretch their fine motor skills as it takes concentration to trace with markers which is what our friends love doing!

Wow! Did we LOVE being able to spend time outside this morning! The fresh air was terrific and perked all of us up!

Our faces were full of pure joy.

We created snow balls..specifically to eat.

A friend even commented, “It’s free food!” (and then proceeded to eat the snow).

We were extremely interested in the icicles we found around the yard. Our interest continued to peak when we found a jumbo icicle! Jackson carried it around the yard showing it off to friends.

Wee Sprouts– cucumbers.

Breakfast– corn chex and grapefruit.

Lunch– homemade avocado chicken salad on whole wheat bread/tortilla, pears, and carrots/snap peas.

PM Snack– Whole grain bagel with cream cheese.

**The weather looks good for the rest of the week so hopefully we’ll have many other chances to go outside . Please make sure that your child has the appropriate garments for the weather here everyday (boots, gloves, hat, snow pants, coat). Thanks!

Have a great night!

Link to pictures: WF, 2/16/2016

Our friends love when we have music time and they get to try out the instruments! They enjoy hearing all the different notes that are made.

Ruby, Anna, and David played together in housekeeping and cooked up a feast! Anna used a picnic basket and a tray to carry food around, David used an oven mitt to pick up a pan, and Ruby used a big spoon to stir what was in her pot.

Franklin loves rocking himself in our rocking chair! He had a fun time doing that this afternoon, and then he relaxed in it with a good book.

Breakfast was whole wheat toast with butter and pears. Lunch consisted of whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce and cheese, apples, and peas. Afternoon snack was graham crackers with block cheese. Wee sprouts was corn.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Links to photos: http://1drv.ms/1KlMT6Z, http://1drv.ms/1KlMW2w