WWF 10/16/2018

Happy Tuesday!

“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

Please Note: There are slots above your child’s cubby that are intended for their creative art work pieces.  Their name is placed on the slot, so you will be able to locate their goodies easily. Please make sure your child’s slot is emptied at least once a week, for more added artwork pieces to fit nicely. Thank you Smile 

We had a special little visitor this morning and our friends were very excited to see her, touch her, and talk with her. My granddaughter, Sierra was a hit with our WWF’ers. Miss Rebekah even had some enjoyment out of the visit by getting to snuggle with her.

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Our friends are working their legs climbing up the rocks next to the slides. This activity is a great way to build balance, confidence, and get our bodies in motion to reach our end goal of getting up to the platform to slide down the fun slides.

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Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal and fresh PPC banana.

Lunch: Whole wheat flatbread with mozzarella cheese and refried beans, corn, and fresh PPC banana.

Snack: Whole wheat English muffins with  peanut butter.

Wee Sprouts: Corn.

Have a nice evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljPgM6eZ_sxImTDsysw

WWF 10/15/2108

Good Afternoon! I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend.

“Peace is the beauty of life.”

Today was a great day to play with playdoh and use our fine motor, and hand-eye coordination skills. Teachers added in golf tee’s, tongue depressors, playdoh hammers, and cookie cutter shapes to make this activity even more fun and engaging.

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Rose enjoyed reading the story, Five little monkey’s. There were a couple of her friend’s that stood off to her side and listened along as she read her version of this fun story! We love listening to our friend’s read to us and the imaginations that shine through when they are reading.

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Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with butter, and apples.

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with butter and shredded chicken, peas, and apples.

Snack: Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Peas.

Have a fantastic evening.

Marty

LONK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljPdwaVOsLgb-hwPTSg

WF, 10/12/2018

Happy Friday!

In May, I become a consultant for a company called Beautycounter. It’s a safe, toxin free line of family products, bath/body, skin care, and makeup. After talking with Tami, she thought I should share this tidbit of news as this company aligns with what we value here at Wee Friends which is safer, healthier options for ourselves and our kids.

After doing research about the products I was using daily back in January, I found Beautycounter which has a rigorous screening process for the ingredients that they use. The European Union bans 1,400 ingredients; Canada has banned 600; and the United Stated has only banned 30 ingredients to date which basically leaves an unregulated personal care industry. Beautycounter has banned 1,500+ ingredients which is above and beyond any other company.

If you have any questions or want to learn more, I’m always up for chatting as this has quickly become a second passion of mine.

Feel free to check out my website as well! I also have business cards with my information and a list of ingredients that should be avoided at all costs (this is called our ‘never list’) Smile.

https://www.beautycounter.com/melindashephard

-Mindy

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We continued one of the oldest Wee Friends traditions involving a pumpkin and golf tees! We took turns using wooden hammers to hammer golf tees into a pumpkin. This activity is not only fun but it uses our motor skills. Depending on the area of the pumpkin, it takes quite a lot of effort to hammer the golf tee all the way in.

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Starting yesterday afternoon, friends worked together to rake leaves into a pile. Once the pile was done, children took turns jumping into the leaf pile! It allowed us to display our teamwork skills!

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“No one would expect a child to learn to ride a bike by showing the child a drawing of a bicycle and by discussing the laws of balance. The child learns by riding the bike.”

-Lewis

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Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and PPC kiwi berries.

Lunch– Ham and shredded cheese on whole wheat tortillas, PPC banana/clementines/plums, and mixed vegetables.

PM snack– Mozzarella string cheese, triscuits, and PPC kiwi berries.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes.

Have a fantastic weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 10/12

WWF, 10/12/2018

Good Afternoon!

This morning we were busy making a leaf collage.  We all were given a paint brush to use to spread our glue onto our papers before sticking a real leaf that had fallen from the tree out back onto our papers. We also talked about all the colors we saw on our leaves.

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We then went out and had a dance party.  We were all jumping and moving our bodies to the music.

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We all requested the color viewing squares.  We took turns looking into the different color squares before some friends used them to build with.

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We then headed outside for some fresh Fall air.  We were busy tossing the leaves in the air, riding the teeter totter, playing in the sandbox and enjoyed seeing our sibling or all of our friends from the other classroom.

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Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat toast with peanut butter and fresh PPC banana.

Lunch:  Hummus on whole grain wheat tortillas, fresh PPC pears and peas.

Afternoon Snack: Goldfish crackers and  sliced cheddar cheese.

Wee Sprouts:  Carrots.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljPc60IMT7eQ6Iu-9fA

WF, 10/11/2018

Good Afternoon!

Maxwell and Lucy dove into several books this morning as we concentrated on different aspects of the makeup of stories.

Maxwell grabbed the story ‘The World’ which he quickly noticed that one page had no words. He said, “I know that they’re inside a house by a fire.” I asked him how he knew that and he said, “I looked at the picture.” We talked about how big of a roll pictures play in a story because besides the words, the picture can also tell you what’s happening.

Lucy looked at ‘Ten Little Ladybugs’ and commented on how on each page, there was one less ladybug. We talked about this pattern and how it was a number sequence so Lucy wrote out her numbers from 10 all the way down to 0.

I grabbed ‘Mud Puddle’ by Robert Munsch which we’ve read several times before. We looked at the cover and I asked Maxwell and Lucy to tell me everything they remember about this story. They gave me key, detailed events that happened in the story and even used some of the exact words that we’ve heard in the book.

K.RL.2.2: With support, retell familiar stories, poems, and nursery rhymes, including key details.

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In K-PREK1, we started off by looking at a picture that was on the board. I asked, “What is this?” and children quickly responded, “A calendar!”. We talked about things we see on a calendar to which friends answered months, days, weeks, birthdays, holidays, and stay at home days (which we highlight so we can see school days vs. stay at home days).

‘A Child’s Calendar’ was the book choice of the day which tied in nicely to our activity. Throughout the book, each month was talked about in detail and specific things that happen in each month. For this age, holidays and birthdays are easily identified!

K.M.2: Understand concepts of time, including: morning, afternoon, evening, today, yesterday, tomorrow, day, week, month, and year. Understand that clocks and calendars are tools that measure time.

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In PRE-K2, ‘The Big Leaf Pile’ was read and afterwards, children used their acquired knowledge to answer the question, “In what season do leaves fall from the trees?”. Friends took turns signing in under the correct season before heading to journal!

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We are getting into the fall/Halloween spirit. Two friends requested ‘spooky music’ as they call it which allowed us to practice our scary faces, stirring techniques, and rattling of our bones. We are becoming expert skeletons..

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Breakfast– Kashi Blueberry Clusters and PPC pears.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh apples, and PPC cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat crackers and pumpkin seeds.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 10/11

WWF 10/11/2018

Good afternoon.

PLEASE NOTE: Now that the cooler weather has been entered into our daily lives, we ask that you please make sure your child has a warm coat, hat and gloves/mittens. Weather and temperature permitting, we will go outside and soak up as much of the fresh air as we can. Also, now that we mostly have older friends, and no babies in the classroom….when winter sets in, we will attempt to get out and play in the snow for at least 20 minutes. We also ask that you bring in a pair of snow pants and boots. Thank you in advance Smile

“Every child has… the right to be respected… the right to dream… the right to be loved and cared for…gifts that should be recognized and valued…the right to achieve their God-Given potential…the need for unconditional love!”  ~Pinterest.com

Today we were happily engaged in the Fall sensory table. Miss Rebekah added in some gourds, and Indian corn to our black bean and corn mixture and the kids absolutely loved it and had so much fun.

Daniel worked on taking the husk off the Indian corn, Jack enjoyed the bumpy feel of the gourds and taking the tongs to place a gourd into a bowl, and Evie enjoyed the entire sensory bin as a whole.

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We were able to get outside today, and we had a great time despite the major temperature change. Just look at all the fun we had today!

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Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios, and banana.

Lunch: Whole grain rice with shredded chicken, carrots, and banana.

Snack: Pretzels and mozzarella string cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Peas.

Have a nice night!

Marty

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

WWF 10/10/2018

Good afternoon.

“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.” ~Ignacio Estrada

OLDER SIBLINGS IN OUR ENVIRONMENT

We have a very large number of our Wee Frienders with older siblings who are present at drop off and pick up times.  Because transition times are especially important times to keep our routines in place, we ask:

· Please do not allow your sibling children to play in the indoor or outdoor classroom environment. It is disruptive to our routines and stressful for our teachers to try and guide children who are not part of their classroom.

· Please keep siblings with you at ALL times. Alternatively, some families choose to ask siblings to wait on the front porch bench at WF and the small chairs at WWF.

If you would like to leave older siblings in the car for a quick and smooth transition, our teachers are always willing to get your Wee Friender ready at the door so that you have eyes on your vehicle the entire time.  Just let them know via text your arrival time

***Here are some important dates to add to your calendar!

Thanksgiving break: Thursday, November 22nd and Friday, November 23rd.

Christmas break: Monday, December 24th through Friday, January 4th.

Parent Teacher Conferences: Friday, February 15th, 2019

Today was a fun and pretty busy day for our Wee Wee Friends. We engaged our minds and bodies in many activities that kept us busy on this rainy day.

Miss Tami bought our classroom a large pumpkin. Now, this pumpkin is not just to look at for the upcoming Halloween and Thanksgiving season, ohhh no….we had much better plans with it!!

Teachers gave our friends golf tees and playdoh hammers to pound the tee’s into the pumpkin. We were able to enhance our fine motor, hand-eye coordination, and color recognition skills with this exciting activity! Some friends even located the pre-existing holes from other friend’s pounding and worked at placing a tee of their own into that hole.

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We also worked on puzzles today. These particular puzzles are a little more challenging for some of our friend’s. However, there’s no better way to get those cognitive gears moving,  than a more difficult task.

Daniel and his friend Jack did a fantastic job manipulating the pieces to get them into their correct spots. Way to go Guys!!! Smile

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Breakfast: Whole grain Kix and banana.

Lunch: Scrambled eggs with mozzarella cheese, buttered English muffins, mixed veggies, and PPC pears.

Snack: Whole grain brown rice cakes with peanut butter.

Wee Sprouts: Peas.

Have a nice night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljPROMMg1CdQjtfgjCg

WF, 10/10/2018

Good Afternoon!

OLDER SIBLINGS IN OUR ENVIRONMENT

We have a very large number of our Wee Frienders with older siblings who are present at drop off and pick up times.  Because transition times are especially important times to keep our routines in place, we ask:

· Please do not allow your sibling children to play in the indoor or outdoor classroom environment. It is disruptive to our routines and stressful for our teachers to try and guide children who are not part of their classroom.

· Please keep siblings with you at ALL times. Alternatively, some families choose to ask siblings to wait on the front porch bench at WF and the small chairs at WWF.

If you would like to leave older siblings in the car for a quick and smooth transition, our teachers are always willing to get your Wee Friender ready at the door so that you have eyes on your vehicle the entire time.  Just let them know via text your arrival time!

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Dates to mark on the calendar:

Thanksgiving break—Thursday, November 22nd and Friday, November 23rd

Christmas break—Monday, December 24th through Friday, January 4th

Parent Teacher Conferences—Friday, February 15th 2019

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Here are a few pictures from our day!

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Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and PPC banana.

Lunch– Scrambled eggs with whole wheat bread, PPC banana, and PPC cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

PM snack-Corn Tortilla chips with hummus

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumber/cherry tomatoes.

Have a fantastic night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 10/10

WF, 10/9/2018

Good Afternoon!

K/PRE-K1 group stayed on the Eric Carle train today. We read ‘The Grouchy Ladybug’ and didn’t get through the first page without friends sharing their recollection of events that were forthcoming. As we read the story, children shared how the grouchy ladybug might have been feeling at any given point.

After we conducted our calendar activity for the day, children were called to roll up their mat and answer questions such as, “What was the first animal that the grouchy ladybug tried to fight?”. We were able to recall certain events that took place throughout the story.

K.1.4: Identify and order events that take place in a sequence. (2006 standard)

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Our PRE-K2 group, children were asked, “What is one way skeleton tried to stop his hiccups?”. Children were asked this question after reading the story, ‘Skeleton Hiccups’. Children used their knowledge of events that happened in the story to answer the question. Children wrote their name under their answer and then practiced again during their journal experience!

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Here are a few pictures from throughout our day!

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Breakfast– Kix and PPC oranges.

Lunch– Refried beans and shredded mozzarella cheese on whole wheat flatbread, fresh apples, and PPC cherry tomatoes/peppers.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with peanut butter and PPC pears.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes/peppers.

Have a fantastic night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 10/9

WWF 10/09/2018

Good Afternoon!

“Children want the same things we want. To laugh, to be challenged, to be entertained, and delighted.” Dr. Suess

Even though Mack has graduated to the preschool classroom, we still are very fortunate to have his love shine through with donations! Thank you for these wonderful books Mack and Mandy. We LOVED them and we love you!!! Smile 

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This morning was a fun time to color in our journal binders. Not only did we get to color, but we also learned about the color of the bowls that our crayons were placed in, and how many crayons were in those bowls. Our friend Jack started us out and helped us all count to ten while engaged in this fun activity. We also utilized our fine motor, and hand-eye coordination skills while coloring.

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When enjoying the outdoor environment, our friend’s can do and learn so much! Jack saw a long wood log and decided to put his imagination to the test to see just how he could use that log. He ended up placing it in the log house and it’s open slats. He managed to get it to stay put and not come out.  He then found himself wondering how he would get it out of that space. He ended up having one of the WF children help him out! What a fantastic imagination and use of team work.

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Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and PPC banana.

Lunch: Whole wheat flatbread with refried beans and mozzarella cheese, peas, and fresh PPC plums.

Snack: Whole grain cinnamon raisin bagels with butter, and fresh PPC kiwi berries.

Wee Sprouts: Mixed vegetables.

Have a wonderful night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljPM4qz70HZg8nEy62g