This morning some of the children went on a walk and landed at the Potowatmi Park Playground. They used their gross motor skills, and enjoyed running, climbing, and observing the beauty of the day. For those who did not make the walk, they enjoyed playing in our bin of leaves, and experiencing the feel of different materials with our felt board. Dramatic Play filled the room with some of our little girls putting on their purses, loading up their babies in our little baby carrier, and off they went.

Our breakfast crew had Chex Cereal with apples. For light morning snack, we had some more tomatoes, as they are in abundance in our garden. For lunch today, Miss Laurie made us some delicious whole wheat pasta with garden tomatoes and parmesan cheese. It was wonderful, the children sure enjoyed it. We also had some delicious shredded carrots and a cantaloupe. For our afternoon snack we will enjoy some yogurt and bananas.

We will celebrate Finn’s departure later this afternoon. We will miss his morning ritual of coming in with his conductor hat, and immediately wanting to put on a tutu! His imagination and warm and bubbly personality will be missed by all of us. May his time in Spain with his family be filled with great new learning experiences, building some wonderful memories, and a time they will forever cherish. As we have been saying, “Finn will be taking Spain by storm!” We will miss you, Finn!

Enjoy the day!

 

Good Bye, Finn!

Welcome Eleanor! Eleanor is the newest member of the WWF Family. She seems to be acclimating just fine and enjoying her new friends.

This morning we did several different sensory activities for the children. Many of them enjoyed playing with the bubble wrap, while others played with our fuzz balls on our felt board. We also experienced feeling the different textures of materials. As Fall weather seemed to be upon us, our tub full of fall leaves were on hand to scoop and brush them. Some of the older children went on a walk and experienced feeling different textures of real leaves first hand. Different home grown herbs were available for the children to feel and smell as well. The children experienced mint, sage, rosemary and parsley.

It seemed as though the slide was a big focal point this morning. Olivia and Elizabeth really enjoyed it. Finn and Sloane focused on their gross motor skills by riding all around the circle. Pnei’el enjoyed the swing. The children enjoyed picking our harvest of tomatoes and cucumbers. They were both later served as our late morning snack. They were both delicious!

Our morning breakfast goers had fresh homemade muffins and bananas. For lunch today we had ham and cheese tortillas, peas and cantaloupe. For snack today we will enjoy some cheese and pretzels.

Tomorrow we will bid farewell to Finn and his beautiful parent’s, Jen and Lindsay. They depart on Thursday for Barcelona, Spain for a semester. Upon their January return, Finn will be at WF. Please join us in wishing them safe travels.

Enjoy the beauty of this day~

We have spent a great deal of time in the morning working with the children on conflict resolution. This has been a work in progress, and it seems as though daily we see progress with the children.

We have all been working with the children to use their words if someone is trying to take a toy from them. Yesterday afternoon, we had an older WWF who was on our lion rocker. Another WWF wanted to ride it at the same time. Our older WWF used her words to tell her friend that she could use it as soon as she was done. The older WWF stayed on for another minute or so, then helped her little friend get on it. It is so nice to see the children working together! They responded the same way to a similar situation this morning outside while playing in our log cabin house. Chairs were blocking the entry way, and the children worked together to move the chairs out of the way. They are all progressing so nicely with this developmental stage.

The children enjoyed some fresh cucumber and tomato from the garden today for a light, late morning snack. For lunch today, we had some delicious pizza on whole wheat crust with Miss Laurie’s delicious homemade sauce. This was accompanied with some broccoli, and watermelon. For those of us who joined us for breakfast, we had Cheerios and banana. Our late afternoon snack consisted of animal crackers and pears.

This afternoon the children were creative, with one thing leading to another, and before long, caves were being created with blankets being placed over our cubby area. It was so interesting to hear their dialogue and see their creativity expanding each and every day. We also listened to some new song books. “Sunshine on my shoulders” was a real crowd pleaser.

Just a reminder that we are closed on this Monday in observance of Labor Day. Enjoy this time with your family.

The children played with our beads this morning. Some of them enjoyed stringing them, while others matched them to the shape and color strips. A few of the older children counted their beads, and we worked on sequencing as well. This seemed to be a great morning project.

We tried to beat the morning heat and headed outside a little earlier than usual. Lucky for Miss Lisa, as we had some wonderful chefs in our playhouse kitchen. The children made pasta, broccoli, and milk, with “brown” ice cream for dessert. They worked together on mixing, adding ingredients to their imaginary creations, plated their delicious food, and even served it to her.

Our morning walks seem to be a ritual. The children loved listening for a train again today, and prior to our departure from WWF, we read a book about a spider creating a big web. A spider and web were spotted on our walk. More discussion about spiders continued throughout the morning.

Puzzles, trains, and placing colored pegs in some of our Styrofoam cut outs of various things (a butterfly, duck and train were used today) was a great activity after coming inside. Some of the children enjoyed water and bubble play in the kitchen. They washed some of our animals, and had a lot of fun while doing so. Elizabeth and Marta played together with our trains, while Sloane and Olivia had fun on our Jungle Gym.

 

For breakfast this morning, we served whole wheat English Muffins, and fresh fruit. We have been doing a light, late morning snack that consists of vegetables from our garden. The children seem to eat a lot more of these at this time rather than lunch. Today we had green beans and sliced fresh tomato. Our lunch menu this afternoon was whole wheat cheese tortillas, broccoli, and some delicious peaches. For snack today we will have muffins and bananas.

Enjoy the day, and don’t forget your sunglasses!

 

Our WWF’s come prepared!

 

The children had a great morning. The imaginary alarm sounded, and Finn, Max, and Marta put on their fire hats and jackets, and ran outside

to respond to the call. Finn found the “treasure” hidden in the sand. The boys then decided after their hard work, it was time to bake some muffins.

Next, it was time for a sensory activity. The children loved the tub of water filled with bubbles. Some of them even climbed in and began cleaning themselves with the toothbrushes we had placed in the tubs for the children to wash rocks with to help build their fine motor skills. Others used our ball crates to make train cars. They are sure becoming very creative by exploring and using their imaginations. Finn collected the train tickets, and made the final call for “All aboard!”

 

Our little Wee one’s enjoyed their outside exploration time by walking and crawling around the yard exploring all of the different things to do. Different groups of children went on walks and they observed a train from a far. This opened up much dialogue, as you can well imagine.

For breakfast this morning, we had scrambled eggs, toast, and fresh fruit. Our lunch today was couscous with black beans, vegetable medley, and fruit salad. Our afternoon snack will consist of cheese and crackers.

Ozzie really seemed to enjoy “The Wheels on the bus go round and round” with Miss Paulina.

Have a splendid day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inspired by Downtown South Bend’s Art Beat, and the beautifully presented ice sculptures this past weekend, the children did some sculpting themselves today! Sand pails were frozen, and emptied from the pail so the children could enhance their fine motor skills by using a wooden hammer, their hands by picking at the ice and blueberries in it, or just being an observer. They seemed to really enjoy it. Pla-Doh filled the kitchen table, and the children were very creative by adding straws, pounding with wooden hammers, and using cookie cutters with it.

We danced and sang to our “We All Go Traveling By” CD. The children are doing a remarkable job at memorizing the words to this. We took a walk as well this morning. We walked by the yarn shop and looked and studied all the different color of yarns on display in the window. We discussed how some colors are brighter than others, and picked out just those! The children enjoyed playing “I spy” for squirrels, certain color cars, and shapes. Miss Paulina played the recorder for us outside. It was wonderful to have music and movement right in our backyard. The children exhibited a lot of their gross motor skills as she played various songs for us. Some did marker drawings.

Today for lunch we had ham sandwiches on whole wheat bread, carrots and fresh summer peaches. We also sliced up some of our garden cucumbers and carrots for a light snack outside before lunch. This afternoon for snack, we will honor Finn’s request for rice cakes and raisins.

For our reading selection today before nap, we read, “Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?” and “Food for thought.” We had some very attentive listeners.

Have a wonderful day~

Our morning began with a walk around the neighborhood. The children were excellent about identifying several dogs, and a cat. Some of our younger WWF’s were great about making the animal sounds as well. Upon our return, we took full advantage of the gorgeous morning. Some of us did a sensory experiment with rocks. The children felt them to see if they were smooth or rough, and we also incorporated learning light and heavy. After looking at some of our pictures from past WWF activities, we began having some conversation about our friend’s Maite and Caelan. We brought out our art trays, markers, and paper. We will send some pictures to them. Finn told us how much he misses them. We also did our donut shop game, and read a book on shapes and one on transportation. Dumping and filling seemed to be a favorite activity in the sandbox today. Some of the older children were working on counting the number of scoops it took to fill up certain objects. Watering the garden and picking some green beans was also part of our morning agenda.

 

For lunch today we had whole wheat pasta with tuna, a delicious peach and banana salad, and fresh zucchini from our garden.

We look forward to an afternoon filled with excitement!

The children really enjoyed experimenting with our ball and stick-like magnets. A few of them decided they could make ice cream cones! A discussion took place on what flavor they would each have. We talked about long and short as well. Water play with rocks kept the interest of some in the kitchen, learning which can be heavy, and which were lighter in weight. Others played in our bin of fall leaves. They enjoyed the texture of these, and demonstrated their fine motor skills while scooping, and using their dust pans and brushes to sweep them up.

 

What a beautiful morning to water the plants and harvest the garden. It was also a great day for a walk. It has been wonderful to hear the different discussions the children initiate and that we can elaborate on. Each of their gross motor skills are improving daily as they are mastering climbing our log cabin, running around the yard, and peddling the bikes. Many of them are exhibiting becoming great climbers up our log steps to the slides. A morning highlight appeared to be the children sitting on some collapsible card board boxes. It is amazing how something so simple can really get young minds thinking. They became passengers on a train, an airplane, and a magic carpet. How creative!

 

Our WWF’s dined on whole wheat cheese-filled tortillas, mixed vegetables, and fresh cantaloupe.

Enjoy the weekend with your beautiful children.

We started our day with our “Fire truck” song. Elizabeth instantly put on one of our firemen hats with her purse! Finn also grabbed a hat, and the pink tutu. Mr. Jason played his guitar for us. The children used our new rainbow ribbons to his beautiful music. We also welcomed Eleanor, and her dad, John. They visited for a few hours today, as she will be joining us after Labor Day. She recently turned two.

The children played some matching games. We used five different cards. One was a crab. Finn told us about being on the beach, and how a crab snapped his toe! Another one was of a conch shell. We talked about different types of shells, and how some are big, others are small. The apple tree was easily identified. The dragon fly and mushroom were a little more difficult. After discussing all of them, the children were all given one of the cards to match to the one we had placed on the floor. They did a great job, so it was time to step it up a notch. We talked about the “Memory Game,” and brought it down off the shelf. This is one bright group of children. They identified each card before we placed it face down on the floor, and they grasped this concept with no difficulty. We will add an additional card each day.

Miss Tami and Amy took a group of the smaller children on a walk. Marty stayed with our infants, while the older children played in our rice bin outside with Miss Lisa. This seems to be a great sensory bin for them. Our rice bin is full of funnels, tubes and shovels, and small tin buckets. We have discussed empty and full, large and small amounts, and have counted scoops of rice into the tins. Upon the return of the smaller WeeWee’s, Miss Lisa took Finn, Marta, and Elizabeth on a walk. We identified different cars, shapes, and colors.

The children came in for lunch, and we all sang our gathering song. They loved their whole wheat bagels with cheese, a delicious avacado and raisin salad, and peas. After lunch the children listened to a few songs and books before transitions to nap time.

Later today we will take some of our cars outside and race them down our slides. Creative minds will be a flow on our outdoor painting easels.

Enjoy the day~