Happy Friday!

*Reminder: Wee Friends will be closed on Friday, April 19th.

K/PREK1 read one of our favorite stories, ‘Frog and Toad’. Before we read two short stories, we looked at the two main characters on the cover and talked about their characteristics. We came up with several similarities and differences between the two animals.

A few similarities we came up with were:

• Both Frog and Toad jump.
• They both have long feet.

Two differences children noted were:

• Frog is green and Toad is brown.
• They are wearing different colored clothes—“Frogs and toads don’t wear clothes! This is a fiction story!”

Science: K.4.1 Give examples of plants and animals.

Friends in PREK2 group chatted about our special morning and shared what they recalled from our conversation about dogs!

This week, we’ve been talking about animals and plants. Today, our focus was on one of our favorite animals: DOGS!

Linda from Camp K-9 came and talked to us about how to treat dogs in various situations. She brought her small dog, Herbie, in with her so that we could learn how to pet a dog the right way (front to back!). Linda also shared how to act towards a dog that you don’t know.

We went over two situations where we demonstrated what we would do.

The first situation: if we were out in our neighborhood and a dog ran up to us that we didn’t know, we need to stand still with our arms down, acting like a tree so that the dog doesn’t get scared or feel threatened.

The second situation: if we were sitting on the ground playing and a dog ran up to us, we would curl up in a ball with our arms tucked in, acting like a rock so that the dog can’t get to our arms or as Mack said, “So the dog doesn’t eat me!”

We are so thankful to Linda and Herbie for sharing today!

Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh banana.

Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat tortilla, fresh apples/oranges, and fresh snap peas/cucumber.

PM snack– Goldfish and block cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a fantastic weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 4/12

Good Afternoon and Happy Friday!!

“Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.” ~Maya Angelou

If you are looking for something fun to do this Saturday, Mishawaka Parks is hosting a helicopter Easter Egg drop and hunt in Central Park from 1-3 pm. The event will begin with other activities such as photos with the Easter Bunny, face painting, Kona Ice, and bounce houses!

Please enjoy the pictures from our Friday!

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with peanut butter and oranges.

Lunch: Whole grain tortillas with hummus, peas and banana.

Snack: Whole grain cheese crackers with Block cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Peas.

Have a great Weekend.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljdo95L19nVtJhCMbCw

Good Afternoon!

We are SUPER anxious and excited for Camp K-9 to visit us tomorrow so a conversation about dogs dominated our K/PREK1 group time. After reading, ‘Harry the Dirty Dog’, we came up with certain questions that we may want to ask tomorrow.

Check back tomorrow for how our dog experience went!

PREK2 friends took several animals and sorted them into three groups: water animals, land animals, and both! Each friend was given two animals that they had to sort into the correct group and afterwards, children counted to see how many animals were in each section.

The rest of our Thursday was full of outside time, painting, and library stories.

Breakfast– Kix and banana.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh cantaloupe, and fresh cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Veggie crisps and pumpkin seeds.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber.

Have a fantastic night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 4/11

Happy Thursday!

“No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship.” ~James Comer

We had a very busy Thursday! Friends were in great moods and truly happy to be at school engaged in their play with their friends and teachers.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and Apples.

Lunch: Whole wheat/grain brown rice with shredded chicken, corn and oranges.

Snack: Pretzels and Mozzarella string cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Corn.

Have a great night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljdkx2QT_1N1Sqr9fcA

Good Afternoon.

“If they can’t learn the way we teach, we teach they way they learn.” ~Dr. O. Ivar Lovaas

Daniel and Evie had a great time building with Duplo blocks today. They were building towers and seeing just how high they could make them without falling.  We even extended our play into a math activity by counting how many blocks we built. We found that Daniel had twenty-five and Evie had fifty-five! That’s a lot of blocks stacked up.  

Breakfast: Whole grain oatmeal with honey and oranges.

Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, whole wheat butter toast, peas, and oranges.

Snack: Whole wheat Ritz crackers with hummus.

Have a wonderful night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljdgwJWR7_FYTqu_seQ

Good Afternoon!

Both group times focused on non-fiction books as we dove into different areas of ‘animal’ knowledge.

In K/PREK1, we used a nonfiction book titled, ‘Here and There’ which focuses on different aspects of people; where they live, eat, drive, etc. Today, we focused on animals and where they lived. One animal that we were curious about was the anaconda. Several friends said, “What’s an anaconda?”—I quickly researched it and was able to find various pictures that showed the magnitude of the anaconda. High screeches could be heard from various children as they were taken aback by the size of the anaconda. “Oh my goodness. That is the biggest thing I’ve ever seen!”

As we went through various animals and their habitats, we pulled out the map of the world as a reference to see where these specific animals lived.

Science: K.4.1 Give examples of plants and animals.

In PREK2, each friend got a nonfiction book that was centered around animals. The terms ‘herbivore’ and ‘carnivore’ were discussed and after children came to understand the definition of each, they sorted the books into two sections: herbivore animals and carnivore animals.

Miss Annastecia set up a still life experience this morning. We didn’t use a normal paint brush; we used wooden sticks to move the paint around the paper.

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and fresh apples/oranges.

Lunch– Scrambled farm fresh eggs, whole wheat tortilla, fresh banana/oranges, and cooked broccoli.

PM snack– Tortilla chips and hummus.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/cucumber.

Have a terrific night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 4/10

Good Afternoon!

Enjoy the pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Corn chex and fresh apples/banana.

Lunch– Melted shredded cheese and refried beans on whole wheat tortilla, fresh oranges/banana, and fresh carrots.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel/english muffin with peanut butter and fresh apples.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.

Have a lovely evening!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 4/9

Good Afternoon.

“A child’s play is not simply a reproduction of what he has experienced, but a creative reworking of the impressions he has acquired.”  ~Vygotsky

We want to welcome our new Wee Wee Friend, Nesta! We are so happy she is here to play with us everyday! Nesta would come for visits quite regularly as she is Evie’s little baby sister, so we are all used to seeing her cute little face!

As you can tell from the pictures below, Nesta is very happy to be here in her new environment!  

Our older friends are very happy and excited that Nesta is here as well. We were all very anxious to get down on the floor with Nesta and engage in play with her.

Friends asked to play with Playdoh again today. Miss Rebekah added in some colorful Easter Eggs to enhance our fine motor and sensory play. We LOVED the eggs!

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios with Apples.

Lunch: Whole wheat flatbread with refried beans and shredded cheese, corn and Apples.

Snack: Whole wheat/grain English muffins with peanut butter.

Wee Sprouts: Corn.

Have a fantastic evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljdcV1dJwjtXp4P5kRg

Good Afternoon and Happy Monday. I hope you all enjoyed the fabulous warmer weekend we just had!   

“You don’t have to be perfect to be amazing.” ~Pinterest.com

We want to extend a very big thank you to the Hirsch family (WF)  for donating a couple of hats to add to our dramatic play center.

Jack and Daniel got right into their play by placing these hats on top of their heads.

Daniel just wanted to tell the camera “Cheese”showing off his backwards facing blue hat and Jack wanted to add to his hat by putting on a skirt, a nice button up shirt and some ruby red slippers.

Miss Marty asked Jack where he was headed, and he responded, “I’m going to work.” I then proceeded to ask him where he worked, and he replied, “In Indiana.” What a great imagination.

Later in our day we utilized our fine motor and sensory skills by engaging in playdoh. Friends used the playdoh hammers and cookie cutters and tongue depressors to enhance their experience.

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with butter and cinnamon along with banana and raspberries.

Lunch: Whole wheat butter noodles with shredded beef, carrots and cantaloupe.

Snack: Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots.

Have a lovely night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljdYHtnkSEyNVJu22IQ

Happy Monday!

This week, we’ll be focusing on plants and animals and today, our focus in K/PREK1 was solely on plants. After reading ‘The Tiny Seed’ which goes through the cycle of how a plant starts, we identified four parts of a flower.

I had six flowers printed out and using our background knowledge, children were able to identify most of the flowers! They also used their knowledge of letter sounds to help match the flower to the name. For instance, the first flower I held up was a rose. After friends identified it as a rose, we looked for a word that started with that sound.

Science: K.4.1 Give example of plants and animals.

In PREK2, children talked about the different parts of a plant as well as parts of a bunny! They discussed the differences that each item had along with any possible similarities.

Enjoy the pictures from our sunny morning!

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with peanut butter and fresh cantaloupe.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with butter and shredded beef, fresh cantaloupe, and fresh snap peas/broccoli.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with fresh apples.

Wee Sprout– Fresh broccoli/snap peas.

Have a great evening!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 4/8