Happy Friday!

This morning we started our day asking the question “How many people are in your family?” Several friends charted their answers with check marks. We then played a felt board math game “How Many Feet Are in the Bed?” asking friends to add up how many feet would be in the bed if all their family members were all tucked in!

Miss Charlotte delivered 13 dozen eggs this morning! Don’t forget they are always for sale! Wee Friends created an assembly line system and helped her put them in the fridge.

We learned the song “We Are Family” and used instruments to practice a 4 count rhythm.

“We are Family! 2-3-4- I’ve got all my Wee Friends with me!”

Before rest time, Melinda read Dad and Pop, discussing who dads and pops are and their roles in the family.

For lunch we served Miss Charlotte’s farm fresh eggs, scrambled, watermelon, green beans and toasted whole wheat pita. Some comments we heard about the eggs were:

“Miss Charlotte’s chickens sure know how to make good eggs!”

“Those potatoes are really good!”

“These eggs are crazy good!”

For snack, we’ve planned blueberry muffins with fresh blueberries! Thanks Alexandra G.!

Have a great weekend!

We started our week with the question “What Makes A Family?” We have since explored and had conversations about all sorts of families: families of books, letters, shapes, humans, insects to name a few. We determined that love is a common thread in families. Yesterday we read The Middle Child Blues which led us to a discussion of ‘the middle’. We explored our environment to find things ‘in the middle’. We discussed birth order and which of our WF are the middle child. As our older friends journaled, math and science (and philosophical perhaps?!) concepts arose such as “can you measure love?” and “which square is in the middle”. Today we noticed that our friends have been creating houses out of boxes and blankets during their imaginative family play. We created a message board asking “How many floors are in your house? How many rooms are in your house?” A few friends then moved to the art table to sketch their own homes with pencils and markers. F.3.32 Ask questions about families. F.2.13 Break apart a whole quantity of something into a set. F.4.13 Follow instructions to place an object “between” two things. F.5.4 Use any descriptive word or gesture to express amount or size. F.3.14 Give information about where she lives (e.g., street, telephone number, house). F.3.16 Describe features of familiar places (e.g., buildings, stores).

The tumblers tumbled and we all enjoyed a gorgeous morning outside!

For lunch we served whole wheat tortillas with refried beans and cheese, fresh lettuce (from our garden!) with cucumbers/ranch and granny smith apples.

Have a great day!

What a beautiful day! We have opened the windows and are enjoying the cool, refreshing breeze blowing through our classroom.

This morning, most of the children spent a large amount of time using liquid water colors to paint themselves, family members and a variety of warriors & princesses.

In other parts of the classroom, children were found in housekeeping playing doctor, in the truck room making magnatile structures and making an advance highway system with raised roads, and in the science room exploring the moon sand. There was also a lot of dancing to a variety of soft CD music. Friends paired off and communicated to one another who was supposed to twirl and who was supposed to hold. It was lovely, creative, and the children remained in control of their bodies the entire time.

For lunch we had brown rice with red beans, cantaloupe & watermelon, and green peas.

Take time to enjoy the sunshine today!

Yesterday, Miss Laurie led a discussion with the children about, “What is Family?”. We are exploring whether this topic has the potential to become our next study. We have a stack of library books (thanks Grandma Carol) to investigate on family and we’ll see where we go from here!

Simon and Oliver brought a really neat story from home (Perfect Square) to share with their friends. This quickly became a large group story time as the story enticed most of the children over. After the story, the children represented their own perfect squares in the art room by creating their own collages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outside time included lots of water play and some very complex sand and water creations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For lunch we had: toasted whole wheat bread (with cream cheese, shredded carrots and co-jack cheese), fresh fruit salad, and roasted potatoes and green beans (from our garden!).

Don’t forget to make sure your child has a swimsuit at WF!

Have a great day!

Welcome Back!

It was an exciting morning with stories of vacations and the reuniting of friends. The brief thunder storm added a little extra excitement! However, Wee Frienders looked at the storm scientifically, with discussions about the wind/rain intensity and movement. We stood at the open door and felt the rain blow into the house and were amazed by its power! There was also a discussion comparing and contrasting the sound of thunder vs fireworks. Owen summed up this up with, “Fireworks have a big boom. Thunder doesn’t. It just has a big rumble.”

Other morning activities included:

*Playing in the moon sand. We have added moon sand tools and doll house people to spur the kids imaginations!

*Many friends easel painted. Many made popsicle stick sculptures.

*Several friends played in hopscotch for an extended time navigating the dynamics of the dog/cat community they created.

For lunch we had whole wheat rotini with chicken, watermelon and broccoli.

VRmmmmmmm…….

The Wee Friends Beach 500 Derby car race was a great success! The children used the slides to race cars down the hill while cheering fans with checkered flags celebrated the event.

After the races were complete, everyone celebrated with hotdogs. Later, we polled the children and our graph showed that the Wee Frienders clearly preferred hotdog/bun/& ketchup over just a hot dog bun or just a hot dog!

The WF kids also enjoyed receiving the race trophies that were made earlier in the week by most of the children.

This morning many of the children enjoyed using dot painters to create a variety of artwork. There was also a lot of small group play in housekeeping, hopscotch and the reading area. During our outside play, the children, explored the many properties of water by dumping and pouring water into measuring cups and the water tubes. A few adventurous children discovered the interesting results of blowing into the water tubes. She exclaimed to everyone, “Look at my funny trick!” as the water shot out of the end of the tube!

 

For lunch we had brown rice with beef, watermelon and green peas.

Have a fabulous summer break! We return on Monday, July 11.

Today we started our morning working in small groups to make checkered flags for the WWF kids to wave during our Wee Friends Beach 500 race that will happen this afternoon. Our plan is to use the slides to race cars while the “fans” (WWF/WF children) sit in the “stands” (the lawn) and eat sporting event food (hot dogs). The children are very excited!

Other small group activities this morning included:

*A large group of younger children played cooperatively (mostly!) for around 45 minutes. They dressed up, assigned Mommy, Daddy, Baby, Doggie, Kitty roles and prepared meals.

*More complex structures were designed and enjoyed by several children working together.

*The reading area was well used by children individually and in small groups. Arleigh, one of our young 3 year olds, spent a good amount of time “reading” to the 2 year olds.

*We also had several children choose to make sculpture dough. The children are becoming very independent in the measuring, pouring, and mixing process.

*The children have created a new outside activity. They have discovered that there is room for several children to “hide” under the overgrown crab tree. They are delighted with this new space that only they can use!

For lunch today, we enjoyed: whole wheat couscous with chicken, cantaloupe, and corn.

This morning was relaxed and peaceful with the kids focusing on small group and independent activities. Here’s a glimpse of our morning:

• *Tami read Bob Books with all of our new readers.

*The children spent quality time painting their race cars in anticipation of the Indiana Wee Friends Beach 500. Many chose to continue creating art using construction paper and tempera paint.

This morning you may have noticed the flock of blue flamingos on the Wee Friends lawn! The Buccellato family “flocked” us! “As a part of the 15th annual U93 RoofSit, flocks of 15 flamingos are being delivered all over St. Joe County to raise awareness for child abuse prevention…”-St. Joe County. Thank you, Missy Little for the great idea of photographing the kids sitting next to a flamingo!

Yesterday afternoon, we had a chance to watch a flat tire being changed. We’ve been studying the amount of time it takes race track pit crews to change tires and to see something similar, in action, was quite a treat!

A Note from Tami on the Electronic Portfolios…

The WF teachers are really enjoying the process of putting the EP’s together for every child. Please note that Melinda is doing much of the computer entry and this is a new process for her to learn. She is quickly becoming computer savvy! The laptop screen is small & we are generally doing these very quickly as we get a snipit of time here and there. Typos and formatting issues have popped up on occasion. Please know that I will go into every file periodically and correct these issues so that the final product will (hopefully) be typo free!

Lunch today: Whole wheat flat bread with turkey, fresh garden greens with shredded carrots, & fresh bananas/pears.

Have a terrific day!

This morning we finished gluing our race car parts together. F.6.19 See a simple task through to completion.

“Race Car”

I’m driving down the race track just as fast as I can,

Fast as I can,

Fast as I can!

I’m driving down the race track just as fast as I can,

‘Cause I want to win this race!

Turn to the right!

Turn to the left!

Slam on the breaks!

The car is spinning !
Straighten the wheel!

(repeat)

I won!!!

F.3.1 Exhibit self-confidence while participating in movement activities.
F.3.2 Talk about enjoying movement activities.

A small group of boys built a race track out of Trios. F.3.9 Make roads for toy trucks and cars.

Their creation included a video camera, pit crew stop with several gas tanks, a tower and an emergency track exit. A windmill created electricity and a wall surrounded the track to keep the cars in. F.4.8 Use “in” and “out” to indicate where things are in space. F.4.10 Use the words “here” or “there” to indicate where things are in space. F.4.11 Follow instructions to place an object “here” or “there.” F.4.12 Follow instructions to place an object “beside” or “next to” something. F.4.13 Follow instructions to place an object “between” two things.

 

 

For lunch we served WF lettuce with ranch dressing, pasta with carrots, peas and kidney beans and watermelon/cantelope fruit salad.

 

Have a great day!

This morning began with a round of The Lady Bug Game (thanks for hanging out David N.!) and a small group of friends reading the interactive wonder-of-a-book, Press This, by Herve Tullet. Thank you, Aimee, for introducing it to us and guiding WF in their exploration of it.

We began our race car assembly today! Using carpenter’s glue, friends started piecing together their race car. Next week, we’ll apply the wheels and then paint it.

Our older friends spent time this morning journaling.

In preparation for next week’s Indiana Wee Friends Beach 500, we learned a race car song. As we sang it, one friend drove a race car as other friends rode and waved the checkered flag. This activity lasted 30 min, or more and friends practiced negotiating turns and roles (who drives? who waves the flag?) brilliantly.

Our garden is bearing much fruit!!! Today we picked purple peas!

Most friends thought the outside purple part was yucky!

But the green pea part was yummy!

All Wee Friends love seeing their garden growing!

More moments from this morning’s outside time….

Parents-if ever you do not want to be mentioned in the blog-please let us know! Our intention is inclusion not embarrassment!

Have a terrific weekend!