WWF Daily Explorations, 6.2.11

 

 

 

 

Anticipating clouds and a dark sky this afternoon, we had some outside exploration time first thing this morning. Cupcake tins were filled with sand and baked in an imaginary oven. Examining our garden was also on our agenda. It appears that some rabbits are enjoying our crop, so thanks to Finn’s mom, the children sprayed the plants with water, then sprinkled some cayenne pepper on them to keep the rabbits away.

We had tortillas with cream cheese and carrots for lunch with a mixed vegetable medley and pineapple. We have continued to work with the children on their responses to biting, kicking, hair pulling and pushing. This afternoon we will make a banner and decorate it with markers, crayons, and gluing on array of things!
Just a reminder that with the hot summer days upon us, extra clothing is a big help. Please be sure you provide us with several changes of clothing for them.

Have a wonderful day!

Regards, Lisa, Amy, Marty and Paulina

 

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

WWF Daily Explorations, Thursday 5.22.11

It was the perfect morning for building a fort with some big blankets Miss Lisa brought in.  We went into our nap room,  constructed our cave, turned on our flashlights, and let our imaginations run wild!  We spotted a big brown bear up in the mountains, watched him celebrate a birthday with a blue birthday cake with panda bears in a tree.  We climbed mountains while singing songs, and had a campfire in our cave as we ate chicken, macaroni (a Finn favorite), green beans and milk.  We built a fire in the cave.  It was a great experience  to watch these little minds unfold.

Miss Amy and Lisa were able to take our friend’s outside for a little bit this morning.  It was time to unwrap the hoses and put out some fires, climb to the top of the log cabin house which also served as a firetruck.  Riding our push cars to the bottom of the hill appeared to be so much fun.  For those of us not old enough for that venture, they spent time just exploring our wonderful yard.

We enjoyed our couscous with scrambled eggs, broccoli, and watermelon and raisins for lunch.  Finn helped Miss Lisa wash and dry the table and towels to dry our hands.

Our dress up costumes continue to be a big hit.  Miss Paulina did some dancing and music with them yesterday afternoon and Miss Lisa played our version of ¨Simon Says¨with them.  Our ballerina and princess were especially beautiful.

Just a reminder that we will be closed from July 1 to July 11 as we enjoy a summer break with our families.

The creativity shared with us each day fills our hearts with much happiness.

Enjoy the day.

Regards,

Lisa, Paulina, Amy and Marty

 

 

 

 

WWF Daily Explorations, Wednesday 5.25.11

Caelan said it best this morning, ¨Rain, rain, go away, come again another day!¨  We were lucky enough to have some outside play time this morning before the rain.  Please know that Tami was continuously monitoring the weather situation.  In the event of a severe weather situation, we do proceed to the basement with a basket full of items with  snacks, bottles, diapers, flashlights, etc.  We will certainly ensure the safety of our children.

 

Once the rain started, we came in and made some more movies with our overhead projector and screen.  We are having so much fun with this.  It is fun to move the animals and different objects, and see our creations on the screen.  Some of us did Play-Doh and tracing stencils while others played in our new cardboard tunnel or listened to books. We also brought out our dress up costumes.  Umi was a ladybug, Finn was a lion, and Marta was a firefighter. Caelan wore the fire hat, and had ran around putting out his fair share of fires.

Alma helped Miss Lisa set the table today.  She did a great job with setting the plates, spoons and glasses out.  We had some more wonderful cuisine today prepared by our WWF Chef,  Miss Tami!  We had whole wheat rolls, fresh deli ham, mixed veggies, and watermelon.

Rain or shine, our days here at WWF always seem to have a ray of sunshine with the giggles, hugs, and love we receive from your child.

Make it a great day!

Regards,

Lisa, Paulina, Amy and Marty

WWF Daily Explorations, Tuesday 5.24.11

Yesterday afternoon we had so much fun coloring a mural and tracing our hand and footprints. This morning some of us were able to dip our feet in paint, and place our painted feet on the paper with Miss Lisa. For those that did not have a chance do to it today, we will do it first thing tomorrow morning. We will then brush on some glue and sand to look as though we have been walking on the beach. We are loving these warm, summer days!

Miss Paulina brought us a big box to crawl in. We used our imaginations to create a train tunnel and numerous other things. The children had a great time doing this, as well as playing with our train track we drew on long paper yesterday. We brought in our trains and even taped some cardboard over them to make tunnels.

While Miss Lisa and some of our friends helped to water our freshly planted flowers, Miss Paulina explored our garden with the children. We cannot wait to taste test some of our garden produce.

Ball rolling and climbing the log cabin house seemed to be the activity of choice outside today as well.

Marta was our kitchen helper. She helped Miss Lisa wash and dry the table, count and place our plates and spoons. We had chicken salad with apples, corn, and cantaloupe. What a great summer menu.

Miss Lisa read us a summer book about bumblebees and flowers, and then one of our favorites, ¨Busy Toes.¨

Wishing you a day full of sunshine!

Regards,

Lisa, Paulina, Amy and Marty

WWF Daily Explorations, Monday 5.23.11


Things are really beginning to bloom here at WWF!  We started our day with planting Marigolds in our flower boxes.  We had fun digging the holes, placing the flowers in them, and ¨packing¨ the dirt around them.  We then filled our watering cans and helped to water them.  We also watered our garden.   It was a lot of fun filling up our water cans and dumping the water all around us!

We are continuing to motor along on our tricycles and push cars.  Sunscreen was applied in abundance today, how nice that was!  Finally, some sun!

Finn helped to set the table for lunch.  We counted the number of friends we have here today  and counted as we placed the plates and spoons on the table.  The children really seem to be enjoying this.   We had chicken, rice, and corn with fresh fruit salad and carrot sticks.  We are all doing a great job with using our spoons and using the sign language we have learned thus far.

This afternoon we will be playing a matching and counting game with magnets.   Weather permitting, we will enjoy some more outside exploration time.

Please be sure to check your child´s cubby at the end of the day for wet clothing.  With the warmer weather, and lots of water play, we will most likely be changing clothes several times a day.

Enjoy the day, and we look forward to another great week here at WWF!

Regards,

Lisa, Paulina, Marty and Amy

WWF Daily Explorations, Thursday 5.19.11

Another very busy day at WWF! Our morning began with an interesting and brand new art project. Lisa prepared some bowls with paint and gave the children long pieces of string and a sheet of paper. They dipped the string in the paint and dropped it on the paper several times making very interesting curvy lines. They also tried rubbing and rolling the string on the paper getting different effects.

Some children spent time outside planting tomatoes with Amy. They dug up the dirt using shovels and gently placed tomato starters in. These plants grew out of the seeds we had planted with the children earlier in the spring. Our garden is starting look like one!

While outside today we made lots of music. This week we have added a new song in Spanish that goes like this:

Dos manitas, diez deditos,

Dos manitas, diez deditos,

Dos manitas, diez deditos,

Dos manitas, diez deditos son.

Uno, dos y tres deditos,

Cuatro , cinco y seis deditos,

Cinco, seis y siete deditos,

Ocho, nueve y diez deditos son!

(to the same tune of “one, two and three little fingers”).

Today we had our first try to have a lunch helper. We are hoping to have one child per week who would like to help us setting up the table and preparing the food for their friends. Today and tomorrow will be Umi’s turn. We are excited!

Among the teachers we have been discussing about our role as teacher in “learning through play”. As teachers it is essential to be able to recognize a “teaching moment” and approach it the right way. We are excited about a new tool we have found, and would like to share with you.

When children play we want to watch and look for signs that will tell us we are being invited to play with them. Sometimes these are as subtle as a gentle gaze at you or as clear as taking your hand and saying “come play with me”. The key here is to do it with respect and honoring the intentions and level of sophistication of their play. We have found the following acronym to be helpful.

Approach play with SOUL”

Silent

Observe

Understand what is going on, and

Listen

Have a wonderful day!!! We? We have SOUL!!!!

Paulina, Lisa and Amy

P.S Sometimes technology gets us and Wednesday our blog post was saved as a draft and never posted!!! So here it is, better now than never!

Despite the clouds and light drizzle this morning, we made our own sunshine inside this morning. Miss Lisa did some fun farm cards with our friends. We identified the animal and the sound it makes, and did some discussion on our farm trip. We worked on individual collages this morning. As we picked different objects (tissue paper, gift
wrap, cotton balls, etc). We talked about the texture, its size and color.

Miss Amy had some avid gardners outside. Things are beginning to sprout! For lunch we had cheese tortillas, mixed vegetables, and

fruit salad. We look forward to more outside time this afternoon.

Have a great day! Regards, Lisa, Paulina, Marty and Amy

WWF Daily Explorations, Thursday May 12

We enjoyed some indoor play and exploration this morning due to the rain.  Despite the rain oudoors, it did not hold back our picnics inside.  We shopped for the food, put it in our baskets, grabbed a purse or two, and off we went.  Miss Lisa did pegs with the children to enhance our math skills.  The children have been showing a real aptitude with their counting skills.  Miss Amy assisted them in some painting as well. 

Later in the morning, the sun made it’s appearance, so we ventured outside and played, “Green light, Red Light.”  The children have really caught on to the rules of this game!  Water puddles caught our eye and the children thought that splashing in them was fun!  Weather permitting, we will do some outdoor exploring this afernoon.  Regards, Lisa

WWF Daily Explorations, May 11

The sun and temperature could not be any better for our outside activities today. We started our morning with ¨Ring around the Rosie.¨ We all seem to know the words now, and have so much fun doing it. Riding the cars down the hill is always fun. The children really seem to have our ¨traffic flow¨down, and once they get to the bottom, they are excellent about pushing their car back up the hill, to do it all again.

Miss Lisa read several books pertaining to our picnic theme in our outside play area. We had some very intense listeners. They are sure enjoying learning all about picnics. Following our story time, Miss Paulina set up our outdoor area for coloring. What a great thing to do on a day like today! We also played some basketball and had some outdoor water play.

Lisa, Marty and Paulina

WWF Daily Explorations, Monday 5.9.11

Happy Monday!

Today WWF’s began their day painting with sweetgum balls that we picked up from trees on the street. Lisa put paint on a tray and helped children dip the ball in the paint and brush it on the paper.

Today we also began introducing some picnic elements like baskets, blankets and play food. We encouraged the children to choose foods to put in the baskets and sit on the blanket to share and talk about what they brought to the picnic.

Outside play was especially fun today as the children got to play with WWF’s own new playhouse!! It is a beautiful wooden house and the children loved it! Some of our friends also spent time painting with brushes and tempera paint at the outside art easel. They also read lots of books with Lisa, especially picnic stories.

Some of our WWF’s surprised us today with a completely self-initiated “Ring Around the Rosie”, they played several times and laughed out loud at the “all fall down”. We are also so happy to report that Tami has built new flowerbeds that will soon be planted with beautiful annuals.

Have a wonderful rest of the day!

Paulina, Lisa and Marty.