Good Afternoon!
In K/PREK1 group, we read a book that one of our kindergarteners picked out: The Berenstain Bears: No Girls Allowed. Before we started reading, we looked at the cover for clues as to what the book was about. When friends started sharing their thoughts, I asked a question: “Have you ever not allowed a friend to play with you?”. All six members looked around quietly at each other and slowly started raising their hand. We had a thoughtful discussion about our feelings and how friends can and do make sure feel. Not only did we talk about the sad feelings that we feel but the happy feelings too!
Our words have power and as friends get older, they come to understand just how much power they have! One of our main goals is to give children the tools to solve their problems with words. Problem solving is something that occurs several times a day. When children come to the end of their time here at Wee Friends, our goal is to have given them enough tools so they can solve their problems using their words, without any adult interaction.
“Every conflict presents you with a choice. You can choose to view conflict as an opportunity to teach or as an opportunity to blame and punish.”
-Dr. Becky Bailey
PREK2 took Montessori beads and created different sized chains. After their chain was made, they used paper dinosaurs as a measure. Franklin used more dinosaurs to measure his chain than Chloe did. Children quickly shared that Franklin’s bead chain was longer than Chloe’s.
Grady and Maxwell played around with wooden boards and blocks to try and make different ramps. They used cars on the ramps to see how differently they would move.
This idea grew and eventually took up the entire habitrail, our gross motor area. When they had the final product, we worked together to make sure it was stable enough. We switched out the cars for marbles because they are round and moved better on our ramp.
We had to make a few changes but eventually, a marble traveled the entire track, ending in a wooden bin which was our goal!
This happened over and over (and over and over!) again. Friends took various turns, picking out two marbles to put down the track.
This activity was full of imagination, trial and error, collaboration, and pure joy.
Chloe sat at the art table where she started by writing ‘mom’ without any help. After, she asked how to write her brothers name. She knew it started with an E and with a little teacher assistance, she was able to write his name. Her writing experience took off from there, writing different teacher and friend names.
Chloe used a letter guide where she focused on her uppercase letters. She turned it over and said, “I want to write these smaller letters!”. Through the whole experience, she guided the process, asked the questions, and shared her enthusiasm with friends who eventually came to the table too.
“Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening to words but by experiences in the environment.”
-Maria Montessori
Breakfast– Total Whole Grain and fresh oranges.
Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat flatbread, fresh strawberries, and fresh green beans/carrots.
PM snack– Whole grain bagel with cream cheese and block cheese.
Wee Sprout– Fresh green beans/carrots.
Have a great evening!
-Mindy
Link to pictures: WF 2/26
