This morning Frosty joined us in our circle for the Donut Shop Game and danced with the children while listening to his song. The children were able to identify important parts of a snowman: hat, eyes, nose, mouth, scarf, arms, mittens. The children also identified their own noses while studying the snowman. It was then time that we became snowmen ourselves! Miss Lisa wrapped the children up in rolls of toilet paper, then we put on hats, mittens and scarves.

The children also took time this morning to read individually on their rugs. Many are old enough now to identify a space of their own and enjoy some quiet focus time exploring books or other individual activity.

 

After that, the children decided to dress up. We talked about going to a big party and called it the “Snow Ball.” Miss Amy was busily getting the children in their party dresses, the boys in their “glittery pants,” and let the music begin! They danced to “Jingle Bells,” and the “First Noel,” around our circle.

Shaving cream filled the kitchen table, which of course, was snow! We brought out our monkeys to let them play in it. Elizabeth loved this.

 

For breakfast this morning, we had scrambled eggs with ham, and fresh apple slices. Our lunch was hot ham and cheese on English Muffins, corn, and bananas.

Happy Holidays!

We welcomed Miss Mindy this morning with an informal “Meet and Greet.” Thanks to all of you who dropped in for a cup of coffee or some of the delicious treats Miss Tami prepared. Mindy will officially be with us on Monday, January 2.

Our music today got us off and running. We started with our Hello song, a few songs in Spanish, and our new favorite, Stop and Go. Ozzie and Jada really love this one! It is fabulous to watch the children respond to Paulina singing different directions to them like “move slowly”, “run fast”, and “STOP!” We used the scarves, rainbow streamers, and shakers today.

We used our new beautiful donuts today that Miss Paulina made for our donut shop song. We played our name game and read stories about monkeys. Elizabeth, who is bananas about our monkeys, arrived just in time. Our morning would not have been complete without some Frosty, requested by Jada and Chloe. We love how Jada sings, dances, and reads books all at the same time! Talk about multi-tasking! We also enjoyed reading some new books that Tami picked up for us. They showed great attention span while listening to “I don’t want to take a bath”, an adventure about a tiger who tries to get out of taking a bath while meeting new friends in the forest.

Some of our friends learned how to play Connect Four in the kitchen. They were very interested in figuring out how to drop the coins into the slots and counting them falling into the columns.

We had a great time outside pulling friends on sleds and enjoying some sunshine. We don’t have much snow left, but there was enough on the flat area to make it work. Our favorite moment was when four children piled in one sled and giggled together as they were pulled across the patchy snow. It was very sweet to see the way Elizabeth took care of Sloane by having her sit on her lap so Sloane wouldn’t fall back when the sled moved. Jada took a turn pulling friends and was able to pull one at a time.

Lunch today was noodles with red sauce and cheese (some had couscous with beans), mixed veggies, apples. PK thought it would be fun to paint his face and head orange with sauce to match his shirt! PK says “Eating should be an experience!”

Enjoy the day, may your heart be filled with holiday blessings!

What a surprise! Miss Paulina made us a Christmas present. We unwrapped it, to find a wicker basket filled with felt donuts she made for us. They look just like donuts you would buy at the bakery, and she even sewed little sprinkles on the top. We have an assortment of colors, and absolutely love them. Thank you, Miss Paulina.

Pla-Doh filled the kitchen table this morning, and the children used straws, cookie cutters, and wooden hammers to use as well.

Frosty the Snowman contines to be a “one hit wonder,” and the children love doing music to it. Ozzie as usual, tends to really show his dancing talent. Ellie and Jada have pretty much learned all of the words to the song, while Olivia and Sloane sign to us to play it again. PeeKay also enjoys his music time. What a charmer!

Just a reminder that Monday morning we will have a meet and greet for Mindy, our newest member to our WWF Family. We look forward to it.

Seasons Greetings~

Do you like Frosty? The children sure do. We read the book and sang the song this morning, then charted if we liked him or not. This was a great way for the children to learn to recognize their name on the chart paper, pick an object from a snowman (hat, arm, etc.), and then glue it in the yes or no column. We decorated a candy cane on mural paper with crayons, glitter, glue and markers.

This morning Miss Paulina recorded our donut shop game for us. She will post it later this evening. She was also kind enough to play the guitar for us to this and the name game.

Music time was done in both English and Spanish today. Shakers, scarves and streamers filled the room. We also listened to our “We all sing with same voice,” book and CD. Clara loves the music. We did not know it was possible for those dimples to get any bigger when she hears a song.

Elizabeth played with her baby doll for a good part of the morning, and then joined us in the kitchen and used several different markers to decorate our candy cane. Ozzie also joined in and used a blue marker to add color to it. Ellie and Jada enjoyed playing with our cars and trains. Our little Marta is transitioning to next door at WF. We will miss her bubbly personality and affection. PeeKay and Clara enjoyed a lot of floor time this morning, and have become quite the little buddies.

Cereal, milk and fresh fruit were enjoyed at breakfast time. Our mid morning snack was cheese and pears. For lunch today we had cheese tortillas, pineapple, cucumbers and avocado salad. Mmmm….they sure loved the cucumbers.

Wishing Chloe a speedy recovery. She sure is missed today.

Happy Holidays~

Welcome back, Miss Marty! Everyone was sure glad to see her feeling better, and back with us today.

We added a few additional donuts to our donut shop today. Sloane was the first to join the circle today, and began reciting the words to the song before we were all gathered. Chloe is always eager to join in, and started doing the gestures immediately. We read “Rumble in the Jungle,” an Elizabeth pick. Our name recognition cards had a new twist today. Two cards were held up with the teacher only saying one name, and the children picked the card that fit with the name. We look forward to adding Olivia’s brother to our cards beginning January 2.

As posted in yesterdays blog, today is our friend Alma’s last day at WF. Some of the children drew some beautiful pictures for her to add to the WF book. The children described their drawings, and the teacher’s put their words for Alma on their picture. After that, our monkeys decided it was time to have some shaving cream fun. Elizabeth, Sloane, Jada, Marta and Olivia had a “barrel” of a good time playing in it.

Music time today was spent with the guitar, our rainbow scarves, dancing with baby dolls, and filling the room with the sound of beautiful voices.

Our breakfast this morning was cereal and fresh fruit, and oranges for our mid morning snack. For lunch today, we had an Ozzie favorite, coscous with corn and black beans, with bananas.

Please remember to join us on Monday morning to meet Mindy, who will become part of our WWF on Monday, January 2. Welcome, Mindy!

We apologize for know pictures the last few days, as we are not able to find the camera.

Enjoy the sunshine~

 

We started our morning with group music time. Paulina brought out her guitar and all the children gathered around. We started with our HELLO song. Our youngest WWF, Clara, was really listening and responding to the music today by waving her arms and nearly jumping out of Miss Amy’s lap. All the kids love to hear their name called out during the HELLO song. We sang ‘Apples and Bananas’ and Paulina incorporated new foods to the song as the children called them out. Noodles and eggs were added today. We asked Paulina to add guitar music to our donut shop and name recognition game. We moved next to monkey songs and books.

Several of the children took part in our art exploration. We made collages with textured shapes (cotton balls, foam shapes), glitter, and glue.

Small group and individual play today included trains, cars, wooden bead stacking (Chloe joined in with Ozzie, Jada, and Max today), lots and lots of books, and our music books on CD. Of particular interest was our old favorite, John Denver’s Sunshine on my Shoulder. Marta, in particular, responds to this song. She climbed into Lisa’s lap and was held captive by the music and the book.

Outside time today was full of playing follow-the-leader around our small and big circles, pushing cars and bikes.

Snack today was cheese and pears, lunch was ham sandwiches, cottage cheese, corn, raisins.

Tomorrow we will say farewell to Alma, who was a WWF “original.” She has been next door at WF for the last few months. Please join us in wishing her and her mom and dad all the best as they begin a new venture in life in Sacramento, CA. Their bright smiles, zest for life, and laughter they have shared with all of us was truly a gift. Alma will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Enjoy the rest of the day! We hope Miss Marty will be feeling well enough to be back with us tomorrow.

In conjuction with the children loving our “Frosty the Snowman” book, this morning we began to create our own with glue and glitter, marker dots, and paint. Tomorrow we will add his other “features,” and continue to sing this wonderful song. Chloe is a huge Frosty fan, she carries the book around daily.

 

Elizabeth especially enjoyed playing our Curious George matching game today. She giggles every time she gets a new card. All of the children have done a great job with this. “Eight Silly Monkeys” is still read every morning, and no one loves it more than Elizabeth! Her smile and laughs are priceless.

Ozzie joined right in this morning to our donut shop game and is a real pro at our “Criss Cross” song, as well as Olivia. Our name and picture recognition game seems to draw a big group, and hearing the children pronounce their friend’s names is a delight.

Marta, Elizabeth and Sloane are the new “Rachel Ray’s” and have whipped up some real delicacies in our kitchen.

Math fun was placing color beads on our wooden peg again today and counting to ten.

Miss Paulina played her recorder for us, and several of the children made flutes of their own out of some of our pegs, quite the symphony! Shakers and maracas were also part of our music segment today. Elizabeth was a great friend to Marta, making sure she had an instrument to join in with.

For breakfast this morning we had cereal and fresh fruit. Our mid-morning snack was raisins, and for lunch, we dined on whole wheat pasta with tuna, green beans and pears.

Please note that the stomach virus is still running through here, so please do keep a close eye on any symptons.

Have a great day.

Max was eager to begin our Donut Shop Game this morning. He displayed all of our colored felt “donuts” in our circle. Olivia and Jada were right at his side. We also read, “Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb” that Olivia picked out for us. The children then lined up to do our name recognition cards. Olivia surprised us today by saying everyones name as the cards were shown. We listened to our “Walking Through the Jungle” book and CD. The children love the crocodile, and are right on cue with saying “SNAP!”

Easel and sponge painting were available in the kitchen for those who wished to display their artistic talents. Jada and Olivia opted to finger paint, while Ozzie and Sloane opted for a paint brush, then Sloane decided it would be best to try them all.

Ozzie, Jada and Olivia used our wooden beads on our peg poles. They observed each other placing one bead at a time on the wooden peg, and learning that ten pegs could fit on one peg. Their favorite part was knocking the beads off the peg once they reached to ten.

Mickey Mouse and Frosty were music favorites today. Chloe carries our Frosty book around throughout most of the day, and now sits by herself and reads it aloud.

For breakfast this morning we had Cheerios and fruit. Our outside mid morning snack was cheese. For lunch we had rice and chicken, sweet potatoes and raisins with apples.

Jada and Ozzie enjoyed our Blue Dogs outside this morning, as the rest of the children seemed to really enjoy the slides.

Please know that we do have a stomach virus running through WWF. Wishing Ellie and PeeKay a speedy recovery.

We apologize for no pictures today, as we are having some technical difficulties.

May your weekend be filled with joy of the holiday season!

It was a fun, “Ooey Gooey” morning in our kitchen. The children had fun mixing Borax, corn syrup, and liquid starch, and a little paint for some creativity. It was a great sensorial experience to feel it, to mix it, and to observe the pretty colors they mixed, then it all solidified.

 

The children used our shakers, rainbow colored scarves, and maracas this morning to our guitar music. Some of the children brought over a baby doll to dance with.

The children did some math fun this morning by connecting our barrel of monkeys. We put a total of 14 together. We also did some picture and name association with our new name cards. These cards are kept near our journals to help the older children recognize their names and letters while writing.

Our reading time this morning was more monkey books, followed by some monkeying around with of course, some monkey songs.

Our breakfast this morning was whole wheat cinnamon toast and fresh pear slices. For lunch we had pita bread with turkey, mixed vegetables and banana slices.

Please enjoy the pictures below, as they cover the last few days.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

The children experienced something new this morning in our morning circle. We now have some name cards for each child with their picture. This not only helps the individual child begin to recognize their own name, but it is a great to watch the other children name all of their fellow WWF’s! The children were invited to wear our new monkey tail during our story time today. It seemed as though Miss Paulina was really in the mood to monkey around, she loved wearing it!

 

Dipping monkeys into various colored paints to place on paper was available in the kitchen. For some, this evolved into finger painting, which was just fine!

Curious George arrived right about the same time Elizabeth did, which was perfect timing, since she is a George fan! Olivia sat down to join in, and said, “Match!” All of the children are really using their vocabulary to articulate their colors.

Marta, Sloane, Elizabeth and Jada tended to their baby dolls. They were swaddled and wrapped in blankets and given lots of TLC. Some had bottles, others went on walks, and some received a home cooked meal right from our play kitchen.

For morning snack, the children peeled their own bananas, and enjoyed them. Our lunch today was whole wheat noodles with beef, French style green beans and apples.

 

May your day be filled with warmth of the holiday season!