Good Afternoon!
Enjoy a few pictures from our day!
Breakfast– Whole wheat english muffins with butter and fresh mangos.
Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with shredded chicken and butter, fresh oranges/apples, and fresh pepper/carrots.
PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with pretzels.
Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.
Have a great evening.
-Mindy
Link to pictures: WF 4/29
Good Rainy Afternoon.
“Teachers who love teaching, Teach children who love learning.” ~ Unknown
We beat out the rainy day blue’s by engaging in the dot markers.
These are brand new and full of vibrant colors that we used on coffee filters to make spring time flowers. You can find them hanging on the windows throughout the classroom. 
We built with the colorful big blocks today in the gross motor area. We built them two high and decided it would be fun to test out our bravery and jump off of them onto the floor. Some of us had to build ourselves up to take the jumping plunge, but then once our confidence was strong enough… we jumped the day away!!
Breakfast: Whole wheat English muffins with cream cheese and oranges.
Lunch: Whole wheat noodles with butter and shredded chicken, peas and orange peppers and apples.
Snack: Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.
Wee Sprouts: Peas.
Have a nice night.
Marty
LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljeYgGStNZSyIHYCk6A
Happy Friday!
‘Worth Everything’ is the title of the newest blog post by Teacher Tom. After reading it, I thought, “Wow, that sounds absolutely fantastic and SO WORTH IT.”
Children who have been at Wee Friends know our expectations of them: for how they treat their teachers, their peers, and how they conduct themselves. As children get older, they should be able to rationalize, use their words, and have better impulse control. Now, I’m an adult and still have difficulties doing these things one hundred percent of the time. But, we work with our kids by modeling how to talk to each other along while role playing in good times and challenging times. Children are going to argue over the newest toy or have a heated discussion about a rude comment that was made. Our job as teachers is to make sure that we equip children with the words and strategies to solve problems that may come their way.
“Moments later a girl took hold of the trapeze bar, preparing to take flight, when another girl attempted to push her out of the way. “Hey, I’m using this!” She shouted. Again, I might have moved closer earlier in the year, but now we are nearing the end of our time together as a class, so I stayed where I was, confident in their capabilities.”
http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2019/04/worth-everything.html
Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh mango.
Lunch– Homemade egg salad on whole wheat bread, fresh pears/banana, and fresh cucumber/cherry tomatoes.
PM snack– Veggie chips, pretzels, and string cheese.
Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/cherry tomatoes.
Have a great weekend!
-Mindy
Link to pictures: WF 4/26
Good Afternoon and Happy Friday!
“IN EARLY CHILDHOOD YOU MAY LAY THE FOUNDATION OF POVERTY OR RICHES, INDUSTRY OF IDLENESS, GOOD OR EVIL, BY THE HABITS TO WHICH YOU TRAIN YOUR CHILDREN. TEACH THEM RIGHT HABITS THEN, AND THEIR FUTURE LIFE IS SAFE.” ~ LYDIA SIGOURNEY
Our friends decided this morning was the perfect morning to play some good ole hide and seek.
All four friends would hide under the habi-trail area trying to seek one another out. Then one or two would go on top of the habi-trail while others would then scurry off underneath again waiting to be found. They engaged nicely and worked out any bumps into one another they encountered using their wonderful problem-solving skills. 
Later in the day we listened to music. We came across many interactive songs that we love! We absolutely love listening to music, but when we can add in movement with our bodies in a different way than normal we love it even more.
One of our favorites is where we use our pointer finger to locate different area on our bodies. Miss Marty joined in and had some fun using her pointer finger to locate the areas of friends bodies along with her own. At the end of the song, we all wave bye-bye!!
Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with butter and cinnamon and banana.
Lunch: Whole wheat bread with ham lunchmeat, corn and fresh mango slices.
Snack: Whole wheat cheese crackers and mild cheddar block cheese cubes.
Wee Sprouts: Fresh cucumbers.
Have a fantastic weekend. We will see you on Monday!
LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljeUPARz7hhCFAABgfw
Good Afternoon!
**Reminder: Parent surveys are due Friday! Thank you for taking the time to complete it 
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We’ve been discussing various aspects of weather and how it affects us. Today, we read two non-fiction stories that centered around weather. Afterwards, we looked at four various photos. Children were able to identify lightning and tornadoes fairly quickly. Lucy said, “I think that one is a hurricane!”. We got out a map of the United States and Lucy pointed Florida out. We talked about the Atlantic Ocean and how hurricanes can start in the ocean and head up the coast. We also pointed out the ‘eye’ of the storm. Our last picture was a picture of an earthquake. As I started to explain what an earthquake is, Penny quickly interjected, “Oh that’s an earthquake!”. We had deeper knowledge of lightning and tornadoes and knew less about hurricanes and earthquakes because they really don’t affect us here in Indiana.
Science: K.3.5 Describe and give examples of weather changes and illustrate how weather affects people and the environment.
A few children requested the Montessori beads after breakfast. Different sized Montessori squares were put on the table. Our friends immediately started stacking them smallest to biggest or biggest to smallest. Through trial and error, friends were able to figure out what worked best for them.
A new sensory table was made available this week. Using a variety of cotton balls and puff balls, a Wee Friends ice cream shop was made. Several utensils including tongs and spoons help friends create different concoctions. We’ve seen strawberry-coconut-blueberry, marshmallow-banana, and blueberry-marshmallow.
Miss Annastecia started picking some weeds in the garden area and soon (and without prompting), she had a whole crew helping! Friends got a blue bucket to put their weeds in and once it was full, they were able to dump it into the yard waste bin.
This was probably our favorite part .
We are so thankful to have a helpful group!
Breakfast– Corn Chex and fresh clementines.
Lunch– Brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh clementines/banana, and fresh broccoli/carrots.
PM snack– Whole wheat crackers and pumpkin seeds.
Wee Sprout– Fresh broccoli/carrots.
Have a great evening.
-Mindy
Link to pictures: WF 4/25
Good Afternoon.
“Play is the engine of real learning.” ~ Pinterest.com
We went into the kitchen this morning excited and ohhh so ready to paint but we were all very curious and wondering just what Miss Annastecia had up her art sleeve for us to paint! 
She placed large pieces of plain white paper onto the table and then poured several different colors of paint onto it.
We talked about what colors Miss Annastecia was using and what we thought she would have us paint with. Brushes, gloves, sponges and hands were all guessed. But boy… were we way wrong!!! We painted with BUGS. However, not real live bugs, but our large sized pretend classroom bugs.
Friends were so excited and dove right into their painting bug collage masterpieces. We all had different types of bugs that we were using and also talked all about what our specific bug was and how we could paint with it. Thank you Miss “Stecia” for always coming up with such creative art activities for our Wee Wee’s.
When we went outside we got another chance to play with bugs! But real live ones this time around. We were having fun in the garden area picking weeds and dumping all the weeds we gathered into the waste bin. If we just so happen to come across a bug or worm, that just made the experience even more fun and interesting. What a great “Buggy Day.”
Breakfast: Whole grain Chex Cereal with banana.
Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded chicken, peas and carrots, along with strawberries and banana. (We had such a colorful lunch)
Snack: Pretzels and mozzarella string cheese.
Wee Sprouts: Carrots.
have a fantastic evening.
Marty
LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljeNbTC3Jp6QhYpmQKw
Good Afternoon.
“Their minds were not built to sit and be taught. They were built to explore, play and learn.” ~veebogeran.gq
Daniel and a friend were nicely engaged in one of the classroom’s loose parts activities. They both gathered the wooden shaped eggs and the taller shaped “candles” (as they both liked to refer to them as) and had a wonderful time with them.
Daniel told Miss Marty with much enthusiasm, “Mar-Mar… their hatching, my eggs are hatching!” Then Daniel and his friend were singing Happy Birthday and pretending to blow out the larger wooden parts or “candles.” What fabulous imaginations shining through our play!
Meanwhile, Jack and his friend Evie engaged in the Duplo blocks. They were also using their imaginations to build towers and places for their cars to be parked.
Evie raced her car over the green platform and said, “Vrrrroooommmmm.” while Jack was manipulating the small Duplo people all while enhancing his fine motor skills.
During our outdoor play today we found that playing with the red balls would be fun and exciting. We threw them in the air trying to catch them, we would kick them and we then added in our friend Cassie from the Wee Friends classroom to join in our ball fun to play catch. 
What a GREAT day!!
Breakfast: Oatmeal with honey, and strawberries.
Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast with butter, carrots and broccoli and pears.
Snack: Whole grain brown rice cakes with peanut butter and watermelon.
Wee Sprouts: Carrots.
Have a great evening.
Marty
LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljeIWnuxdNgdmsGrqGA
Good Afternoon!
Enjoy a few pictures from our day!
Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and fresh strawberries.
Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat bread, fresh watermelon, and fresh broccoli.
PM snack– Hummus and tortilla chips.
Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/carrots.
Have a great evening.
-Mindy
Link to pictures: WF 4/24
Good Afternoon!
**Group A will go to the farm (weather permitting) tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. We will leave around 9:50 am. Please make sure children are appropriately dressed for the weather! 
Spring 2019 Farm Groups
We LOVE having a multiage preschool/K classroom! However, this means our mix of children is always changing and this makes us continually reevaluate the way we plan daily and extracurricular activities.
As we look to our spring farm trips, most of our crew is already 4 or 5 years old. This is great! But, it also means that we will need to adjust our farm groups to fit the children we have right now.
Therefore, this spring there will be 2 groups that will rotate every other week, with our kindergarten children attending every week.
*WE ONLY TAKE FULLY POTTY TRAINED CHILDREN. CHILDREN NOT YET POTTY TRAINED WILL NEED TO TRANSPORTED AND CHAPERONED BY A PARENT/GRANDPARENT/ETC.
Group A: Nina, Anna, Grady, David, Penny, Chloe, Franklin, Maxwell, Lucy
Group B: Emma, Sophia, Forrest, Ruby, Zoey, Brycen, Mack, Maxwell, Lucy
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The weather affects what we do, what we wear, and the outdoor environment. We created four weather webs after reading a book titled, ‘Snow’. I asked children to tell me what they thought of when hearing the following words: spring, summer, fall, and winter. Friends came up with activities and clothing that were specific to each season.
Science: K.3.5 Describe and give examples of weather changes and illustrate how weather affects people and the environment.
I read this ‘Teacher Tom’ blog post this morning and it rang true to what we deal with when we get a ‘new’ toy out. Even if it’s a toy we’ve played with before, when it makes it’s reappearance, everyone wants to play with it.
Max requested the ‘big yellow tracks’ yesterday afternoon so we brought them up from the basement. Max and Lucy helped me clean them so that they were ready to go this morning. We can’t deny that children have strong emotions from time to time. It’s how we deal with these emotions that will get them to the other side.
“We were playing with our very cool, new-to-us, train table. There was a crush of kids vying for space and vehicles. One boy was particularly excited, so much so that his emotions were right on the surface and it was almost too much to bear when he couldn’t get his hands on a specific pair of train cars. He did not want “regular cars.” He did not want the other colors. He wanted the cars that were in the hands of his friend who was not about to give them up.”
http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2019/04/that-was-kind-thing-to-do.html
Breakfast– Kix and fresh strawberries.
Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat tortilla/flatbread, fresh apples/pears, and fresh carrots/peppers.
PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and fresh pears.
Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/peppers.
Have a fantastic evening!
-Mindy
Link to pictures: WF 4/23
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Good Afternoon.
“When you get, GIVE. When you learn, TEACH. ~Maya Angelou
Today we celebrated Jack and his special day. HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY JACK!!!
Reading was on the top of our list of activities to engage ourselves in. We LOVE to read!!!
We were able to head outside for a while and enjoy the sandbox and other activities. Due to the colder temps setting in, we were only out for about thirty minutes or so, but we all had a great time getting some fresh air and a change of scenery.
Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and apples.
Lunch: Whole wheat flatbread with shredded mozzarella cheese, corn and oranges.
Snack: Whole wheat bagels with cream cheese. Jack also brought in a special Birthday treat of Watermelon and Yogurt pops. (2% Greek yogurt, fresh strawberries, and honey) Thank you Jack, Ben and Jill 
Wee Sprouts: Corn.
Have a wonderful night!
Marty
LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljeEX9_voXkvLbbweUw