Lisa generously shared her fading Valentine roses with us this morning. Here is an explanation of our Wee Friends multi-sensorial Rose Exploration!

SONNET 54
O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give.
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour which doth in it live.
The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the roses,
Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly
When summer’s breath their masked buds discloses:
But, for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwoo’d and unrespected fade,
Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so;
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made:
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth. -Shakespeare

Lisa continued working with Kai, Viv, and Annie on the high/low dice game introduced yesterday. Other friends gathered in our music center to play a stopping/starting game with the tambourine. We walked together as the tambourine shook and when we banged it like a drum, friends stopped and scurried into a hiding place. Using wooden building blocks as instruments, a small group of musicians sat together and beat out different rhythms. We practiced playing together and taking turns. After our rhythm work, we took turns laying the blocks down to create a structure. This cooperative group building activity encouraged friends to, again, take turns, and work side by side in a collaborative way. After the sculpture was completed friends expressed what they saw: “A smoke-stack!”, “a castle!”, “steps” were among the many observations.

We played outside this morning for nearly two hours! Our Wee Sprouts today are green pea pods. Breakfast was Corn Chex and raisins. For lunch we had whole wheat chicken salad sandwiches, corn and applesauce. For snack, Lisa made homemade muffins!

Have a terrific weekend.

Today we explored our last sense: Touch.

Melinda invited friends to join her at the art table to make clean mud. First, they grated one bar of soap. Then they unrolled three rolls of toilet paper. They measured 1/3 cup of Borax and mixed it with the soap and TP. They added water until it was wet and gooey. As they combined ingredients, they discussed what real mud is. Simon first said “Oil!” and then changed his mind and said “No, it’s dirt!”. Pulling the TP off the roll, and measuring and mixing the ingredients were favorite moments. When the clean mud was finally mixed up, we noticed friends leaving the table one by one. The texture of today’s clean mud, while sweet smelling and clean, when touched, was a little too warm, a little too wet and most unpleasant to touch. Oh well.

Lisa played a dice game with a few of our older friends. Two players took turns rolling dice. They each recorded what they rolled on the message board. Whoever had the higher number, got the next turn.

Simon brought in City Blocks today. All of our friends enjoyed creating sculptures with them. Alexandra made her letter “A”!

Elliott requested “Puff, the Magic Dragon” this morning. After reading and singing the song several times, we created Puff out of felt and worked with the felt pieces on our felt board. Later, Simon created a Star Wars creature out of the same pieces. We talked about, how, when an artist creates a work of art, he knows what he created, but another friend may see something else when they look at it.

Before heading outside, we asked all of our friends to find something or someone they loved and bring it to the oval rug. We meditated to Donny Osmond’s “Puppy Love”, snuggling close to our favorite lovie. After a few moments, Arleigh (aka Mrs. Kelly) stood up and started walking to each friend, touching them lightly and lovingly on the forehead as they meditated. When Finn, Macy and Marta saw this, they helped her.

And then we played “Dynamite”.

Books were read, cards were played, nursery rhymes were spoken/sung, dances were danced and the Jumping Beans letter game explored. A good day.

Parent/Child Conversation Starters:

• Which part of making clean mud did you enjoy the most? Why?
• What do you do during music meditation?
• Can you sing your favorite song from the Spring Concert?
• Who plays Jack and who plays Jill?

Our Wee Sprouts today are carrots, cucumbers and sweet peppers. For breakfast we served whole wheat bagels and green grapes. For lunch, Lisa prepared hummus on whole wheat bread, pineapple, Craisin fruit salad and mixed veggies.

Have a great day.

Yesterday, we discussed three senses: what love looks like, tastes like and sounds like. Today, we gathered to explore another sense: smell. We wiggled our noses and went on a smell hunt. We talked about the different things we smell each day and how they smell. We talked about smelling muffins, markers, perfume and…poopy diapers! We set out a tray with three different items to smell: peanut butter, cherry chap stick and eucalyptus smelling beads. “Sweet”, “nutty”, “like candy”, “spicy” and “yucky” were a few adjectives friends used to explore what they were smelling. Friends smelled and sniffed and explored and finally voted on which smell they liked best.

Kai worked with Lisa on a card game that supports this week’s FAB, K.1.2. – identification of equal to/more than or less than. After one player lays a card down, the next player has to lay down a card with a higher number. The first one to lay down all his/her cards wins!

A small group of friends gathered with Lisa on the oval rug to explore a mystery rhyming basket. Objects were pulled out of the basket and friends had to offer up a word that rhymed with the chosen object. (FAB K.1.10 – Say rhyming words in response to an oral prompt)

Without knowing it, Elliott executed an early mathematical concept: sequencing. He chose the gear shift bin, lifted it off the shelf, placed it on the floor and opened it, and began his work. Simon’s puzzle work offered him the same sequencing opportunity, in a different way. These are ordinary moments that occur everyday and are rich developmental experiences.

Finn gathered several friends to join him with his train work. He taught Nate how to set up the gross motor blocks so that Nate could have his own train.

We filled four sensory bins up with soapy water. Two bins had liquid soap and two bins had solid soap bars. This activity morphed into many interesting moments as friends explored. We discussed how the soap felt and liquid/solid. We added solid spoons with spoons with slots. Friends studied how the spoons operated differently with liquid/solid. Elliott added the gingerbread men and they were scrubbed clean. Friends used words such as washing, scrubbing, stirring, soapy, pouring and Arleigh, Alexandra and Umi suggested we sing sang our Halloween favorite “Stirring Our Brew.” Two friends practiced negotiating when one friend badly wanted a spoon with no holes while the other friend wasn’t ready to share.

We love when our Wee Wee Friends come to visit us!

Today’s Wee Sprouts are cucumber slices and yellow bell pepper. Mel served grits and pears for breakfast. Lunch was whole wheat cous cous, mixed veggies and fruit salad. For snack we will serve pretzels and cheese.

Have a great day.

Laurie

Happy 4th Birthday Simon!

Look Like?

Jane: “Red! Chocolate!”

Umi: “Angelina Ballerina!”

Kai: “Hearts! My cousin Jacob!”

Alexandra: “A Christmas Tree!”

Stephen: “Animals and tires!”

Macy: “Earrings!”

Simon: “A heart.”

Annie: “A princess.”

Vivian: “Red!”

Finn: “A train!”

Nate: “A castle.”

Taste Like?

Jane: “Sweets!”

Umi: “Chicken and pasta!”

Alexandra: “Bananas and applesauce!”

Stephen: “Avocado, kiwi, pancakes, hamburgers and bagels.”

Macy: “Noodles!”

Simon: “Oatmeal.”

Annie: “Chocolate!”

Vivian: “Chocolate!”

Finn: “Candy!”

Nate: “Sweet potatoes.”

Sound Like?

Jane: “Kai!”

Alexandra: “A pig and a parrot!”

Stephen: “Birds!”

Macy: “Mommy’s voice.”

Simon: “A boar and a car.”

Annie: “A princess singing!”

Vivian: “A zebra!”

Finn: “A whistle from the train.”

Nate: “Hearts.”

Our Wee Sprouts today are cucumbers and green pea pods. Breakfast was Kix and grapes. For lunch, Tami served melted turkey and cheddar on whole wheat tortillas, fruit salad (strawberries, oranges and bananas) and lima beans/carrots. For snack we will serve Simon’s Birthday Banana cake!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Laurie

FAB (Framework for Academic Balance) Week of 2/13

Literacy: K.1.10 Say rhyming words in response to an oral prompt / Math: K.1.2 Compare sets of up to ten objects and identify whether one set is equal to, more than, or less than another. K.1.3 Know that larger numbers describe sets with more objects in them than sets described by smaller numbers.

The gymnastics bus returned this morning and friends worked on the rings and the cartwheel mat. On the rings, they performed tuck and “L” hangs. They practiced a skin the cat flip and swings. The also practiced lunges and handstands against the wall. They used the cartwheel mat to practice mini/full cartwheels.

While our older friends were on the blue bus, our younger Wee Friends started working on their valentine’s mailboxes. Using tempera paint and cereal boxes, friends custom made a mailbox to receive tomorrow’s Valentine wishes! Older friends joined in after their tumbling time.

Math experiences were happening in every corner of the classroom! Lisa gathered a small group of friends on the oval rug to identify numbered hearts and then add the corresponding number of gingerbread men. (FAB K.1.2, K.1.3)

She also worked with Kai at the message board, exploring rhyming words. (FAB K.1.10)

In another part of the room, a small group of friends worked with numbered bags, 1-5. Friends hunted around our environment and filled the bag with as many objects as the bag stated. We came together afterwards and counted the objects out loud, determining which bag had the most and the fewest. (FAB K.1.2, K.1.3)

While a small group of friends played Crazy Eights, another gathered at the art table to make Valentines. While some created art, others practiced holding and cutting with scissors. Other Wee Friends chose to weave pipe cleaners into colanders.

Today our Wee Sprouts are carrots, cherry tomatoes and yellow peppers. For breakfast, Melinda served whole wheat bagels with peanut butter and bananas. Lunch was whole wheat pasta with marinara, corn and fruit salad. For snack today, we will serve goldfish and raisins.

*Tomorrow we are planning a Valentine’s card exchange. If your Wee Friend is planning on participating in the exchange, we have 15 total friends: Ada, Nate, Finn, Marta, Annie, Jane, Arleigh, Elliott, Macy, Simon, Vivian, Umi, Alexandra, Stephen and Kai.

Enjoy your day.

On Tuesday, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we invite our Wee Friends to be a part of a Valentine’s card exchange! Each friend will have their own mailbox to take home, filled with cards from their Wee Friends. Here is a list of names should your WF decide to share valentines! 16 total: Ada, Nate, Finn, Marta, Annie, Jane, Arleigh, Elliott, Macy, Simon, Vivian, Umi, Alexandra, Stephen, Kai & Damien (our new friend who joins WF on Monday).

Today’s Wee Sprouts are carrots. For breakfast, Laurie served Kashi and cranberries. Tami prepared egg casserole for lunch and served Elliott’s pineapple and mixed veggies.

Have a restful weekend!

Laurie

Today we brought out the hearts!

Paulina shared a great sensorial activity with us: frozen heart ice cubes! We set them on the light table with heart cups and friends matched a cube with a cup. (FAB K.1.1 – Match sets of objects one-to-one) They watched them melt and slurped and crunched them, becoming ice-vores! They hid icy hearts under plastic hearts and guessed which cup was hiding the ice.

Many friends chose to paint heart shaped frames.

Various pairs of friends challenged each other to tic-tac-toe on our felt board.

Arleigh requested that we play Malificent. We played our Sleeping Beauty music and as friends touched the spindle they fell into a deep sleep. Many side stories were acted out: Alexandra dreamed of rainbows: Kai was Malificent’s tiger: Stephen (as Batman) turned Malificent to ice, among others! It gave us a chance to explore the idea of frozen/melted before we went to the light table.

Bob Books started the day!

Wee Sprouts today are green pea pods and grape tomatoes. For breakfast Lisa served whole wheat toast with peanut butter and clementines. For lunch, Tami is serving whole wheat tortillas with melted mozzarella cheese, cucumber slices and applesauce.

Parent/Child Conversation Starters

• What colors did you use to paint your heart frame?
• The habitrail has ladders and a fireman’s pole-which one is your favorite? Why?
• What is the part you are playing in the Spring Concert?
• Why did the icy hearts melt?

Have a good day.

Laurie

“Ah, but from where I am, among the great brains, I always know when magic is happening and am reminded to simply be delighted.” – Teacher Tom (teachertomsblog.blogspot.com)

Today’s big question was posed to the teachers: “What did you learn today?”

Lisa was inspired by the hour she spent with Kai (and Ada) identifying letters and counting and recording the numbers of like letters to the lyrics of “Hickory, Dickory, Dock”. She expressed that seeing how excited Kai was when he met success on his mission was incredible. She also made note that the confidence in which he approached this lesson inspired and encouraged her to keep challenging him.

Tami was delighted to have the opportunity to take time to observe and take pictures of our Wee Friends. She observed the close friendship that Umi and Alexandra are developing. Arleigh has stepped into a leadership role, organizing a group of friends to play “school”. She was “Mrs. Kelly” and Annie, Jane, Marta and Macy were her students. Mrs. Kelly instructed her class on how to write the letter “A”, upper case and lower case.

Tami saw Finn and Nate playing cooperatively with one another, as superheroes, over a long period of time.

When Elliott saw Finn feeding the dinosaur light table jewels, he shared the moment! That was after Tami observed him at the piano, plunking out notes and joyfully singing songs as he flipped through pages of music.

The last observation she wanted to share was the comfort Wee Friends feel snuggling up to Melinda when she reads stories.

During one of these snuggly moments, while reading to Jane, Melinda was reminded of the absolute specificity in which our friends notice and process information. Melinda expressed that, while reading Cinderella out loud, Jane asked that she be the stepmother and the Fairy Godmother. Melinda stated “I will be the stepmother, but couldn’t I be a grandma for the Fairy Godmother, since I am a grandma?” Jane said, “NO! It says GOD-MOTHER, not grandma!”.

Laurie worked with Simon and Ada at the workbench for a portion of the morning. These friends worked meticulously and patiently on the multiple step process of building planes. They verbalized what they were doing as they created. They made decisions about what size nail to use. Ada advised Stephen to be careful. They hammered and hammered and continued to hammer. They were not rushed. They positioned wings, bumpers with exactitude, renailing as needed. After the construction was complete, they painted their planes as the final step in their process. When they finished, Ada took a deep breath, put her glasses back on, and with a smile on her face, started a new creation. To sit with these two friends over this long period of concentration and creation was a gift to Laurie and a reminder to sit still, and observe and guide the children as their needs arise.

Our Wee Sprouts today are carrots and sweet peppers. Breakfast was oatmeal and bananas. For lunch, Tami served whole grain rice with chicken, asparagus vegetable medley and fruit salad. Snack will be pretzels and cheese.

Have a terrific day!

Parent/Child Conversation starters:

• I noticed you were wearing your Superhero cape! Does your Superhero have a name?
• Which songs did you sing today? Can we sing one together?
• There are glasses at the workbench? Who uses the glasses? Why do they use them?

Have a great day!

Laurie

ps: Don’t forget to take your child’s soap boat home!

Wee Friends love to read! Our library is filled with books appropriate for all developmental stages.

Yesterday Jane and Annie shared their journals with one another, describing what they drew and what they wrote.

Lisa seized another literacy opportunity by writing out “Twinkle, Twinkle” and inviting older friends to identify certain letters. Kai circled all the “A”‘s and Jane worked on “B”‘s.

A small group of friends continued working on glitter stars that we will use as props for our Spring Concert. Today’s FAB (two-step direction) was to squeeze glue on the stick and attach the star.

We began a creative music session by gathering on the oval rug and, using dowels, tapped out rhythms in “Twinkle, Twinkle”. Friends called out names of other nursery rhymes (“Pat-A-Cake”, “Baa-Baa-Black Sheep” and “Hickory, Dickory Dock”) and we explored another FAB objective: counting syllables in each word. We offered friends different ‘shaker’ instruments and we determined which instrument sounded like a tick-tock, which sounded like mice running up the clock and which sounded like a chime. Later, when we practiced for our concert, three friends volunteered to play these instruments as we sing.

• Tick-tock: Macy on the rhythm sticks
• “Clock struck one”: Jane on the triangle
• “Mice run up/down the clock”: Ada on the hand cymbals

And then we just jammed out, as we have been doing, to WF new honorary anthem “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz. Annie organized a circle of friends who, at one point, put all their hands in the middle and danced together in a circle.

Simon and Kai worked collaboratively at the workbench for quite a while building a sailboat and flying machine, respectfully.

Stephen and Ada ended their morning work with Lisa adding (counting out loud) and taking away gingerbread men.

WEE FRIENDS SOCK COLLECTION-To achieve our Math FAB objectives for the week, we are going to invite friends (and families!) to bring in any out-of-commission socks. We will count them, match them, discover patterns and colors, and graph and record our findings (and who knows what else!). Thanks in advance!

Thanks, too, to the parents, who have contributed to our daily Wee Sprouts!

Our Wee Sprouts today are grape tomatoes and broccoli. For breakfast Lisa served Cheerios and apple slices. Lunch was whole wheat cream cheese and ham pizzas, corn and pears. For snack, we will serve yogurt and apples.

Have a terrific day!

Laurie

FAB (Framework for Academic Balance) Week of February 6

Literacy: K.1.13 Count the number of syllables in words, K.7.1 Understand and follow one and two-step directions – Math: K.1.1 Match sets of objects one to one, K.1.9 Record and organize information using objects and pictures.

Stemming from the feedback we received at last week’s curriculum meeting, we are going to start including weekly FAB objectives. These objectives, taken directly from the Indiana Academic Standards for kindergarteners, will serve as the underlying framework that we use to stay academically balanced without compromising the emergent curriculum already in place at Wee Friends. Be assured that the activities that emerge are always met with a developmentally appropriate approach to include all of our Wee Friends!

Melinda started the day by inviting friends to join her in the reading area for a read aloud of two books: Curious George and the Boat Show (thank you Elliott!) and Goat’s Book of Making and Doing Things.

Afterwards, everyone gathered at the art table to create their very own soap bar sailboats! Melinda guided friends through four steps:

• Measure and cut a straw 6″ in length
• Cut a triangular sail out of construction paper
• Tape the straw to the sail
• Place the straw sail into the bar of soap by whatever means possible!

Among the many singular directives given was Melinda’s request “Please, don’t shout out when you are ready for a bar of soap, but raise your hand so I know.” A few friends managed their impulses by covering their mouths as they raised their hands.

There were many discussions had as friends created their sailboats. The first question was “Will our sailboat float?”. We compared/contrasted a bar of soap and an empty glass and determined that, yes, the soap will float. Wee Friends explored how the soap smelled and what it felt like after it got wet. After their boats were finished, they tested, again, if it would sail. There was lots of scissor work and lots of collaboration as older friends assisted younger friends. Elliott and Jane were buddies during this activity and stayed on after the boats were completed to further explore the fabulous smelling ooey gooey soap!

Tami spent time with a few friends reading Bob Books.

We began our Spring Concert rehearsal with a warm up:

“Macy is here today, Macy is here today. Let’s all clap together, Macy is here today. Ma-cy…one, two”, exploring how many syllables (claps) are in each friend’s name.

We sang through eight nursery rhymes!

Parent/Child Dialogue Starters: (Open ended questions to inspire daily conversation with your child. *Our aim is to avoid asking questions that elicit a “yes” or “no” response)

• When you held the soap in your hand, was it slippery?
• When you saw that your boat was floating, how did it make you feel?
• When Melinda read Curious George and the Boat Show, how did you feel when George broke his friend’s boat?
• What would you do if someone broke your boat?

Today, Wee Sprouts were broccoli and carrots. For breakfast Mel served whole wheat bread with peanut butter and bananas. Lunch was homemade mac/cheese with whole wheat penne pasta, bananas and mixed veggies. Snack will be whole wheat crackers and apples.

Have a terrific day!

Laurie