**Wee Friends will be closed starting Thursday, June 28th through Friday, July 6th. We’ll reopen on Monday, July 9th! Thanks!

Hello!

Franklin was anxious to explore the welcome activity this morning. Several pre-writing wooden trays were put on the table. Franklin grabbed a wooden utensil and traced the shape board that he chose.

This is a great tool for children to use who are in the pre-writing stage. Their hands and fingers become accustomed to making certain movements that are required in letter writing.

I’ve posted a link to a site that lays out the stages of handwriting in a simple, easy way. All children are different so not every four year old is going to write their letters. What we can do as a team is to make sure children have authentic writing experiences available to them.

http://www.mecfny.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/StagesofWritinghandout.pdf

The art table was a busy place this morning.

Paper towel rolls were used to paint with. A teacher cut the end of the paper towel roll to resemble fire works when used with paint! Children used a variety of colors as they were painting their fireworks as well as telling stories or sharing their fireworks experiences.

Later on in the morning, a few giant leaves were retrieved from the backyard. For the last couple of weeks, children have been inquiring about these giant leaves that are on the side of the porch. So today, we decided to use them to our advantage at the art table!

Lucy and Anna worked together to paint a leaf to see if our leaf print would work with the paint we had chosen. Lucy painted with gold paint and Anna painted with silver paint and once the leaf was painted, we put it down onto paper to see if that paint would transfer. It did!

They were overjoyed so they each grabbed their own leaf and two other peers came to join them. Children chose to either use both colors or just one and once they were done, we worked together to make the leaf print.

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with cinnamon and PPC nectarines.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, whole wheat bread, PPC banana, and PPC snap peas/cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Blue corn chips and refried beans.

Wee Sprout– PPC snap peas/cherry tomatoes.

Have a lovely night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 6/20

Good Afternoon. I hope you’re all having a wonderful day.

“Laughter is timeless, imagination has no end and dreams are forever. ~ Walt Disney

Today a new activity was introduced to our friends. They were truly fascinating and our little guys were pretty intrigued. Their proper educational name is, pre-writing motor skills set… but we like to call them tracing squares. This activity enhances early writing skills, fine motor development and cognitive awareness. The squares include many different shapes that friends can either use their finger to trace the lines or the small tool that comes with the set. Either way, friends had a blast!

Teaching life skills to our friends is an everyday occurrence in our classroom. Today when we went outdoors, we found that there was quite a bit of water in our toys and on the slides from the rain. We had our friends dump the water out of our trucks and cars as well as taking a big towel and drying off the slides so our bottoms don’t get wet! The children LOVE to help their teachers all while learning important life skills. What BIG helpers!!!

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal with PPC banana.

Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs with cheese, whole wheat butter toast, broccoli and PPC white peaches.

Snack: Whole wheat ritz crackers with cream cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Corn.

Have a fantastic evening!
Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljLBKk4LtE7UMhvcEew

Good Afternoon.

“Around here, we don’t look backwards for very long… We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”                ~Walt Disney

Enjoy the pictures from our day!

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and PPC pears.

Lunch: Whole wheat/grain tortillas with hummus, corn and PPC banana.

Snack: Whole grain cinnamon raisin bagels with butter and PPC banana.

Wee Sprout: Peas.

Have a wonderful evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljK9QVajAEg-QwUKxEQ

Good Afternoon!

Maddie and Franklin flocked to the welcome activity. Maddie asked, “What are these?!”. I told her they were dinosaurs and she could take the magnatiles and match each shape to create the three dinosaurs that were displayed. As she was matching each shape, she talked about the number of sides that each shape had.

Maddie was able to match all of the shapes and finished all three dinosaurs! Franklin interacted with the activity next but this time, he chose not to follow the display. He took a few of the magnatiles and made his own creation: a blue heron!

The sensory table was made available this morning. Children enjoy taking two cups and transferring the corn mixture from one cup to another.

Bugs were one of our main focuses as we headed outside. Rollie pollies, crickets, and worms were among the things that we found. Friends always create a habitat for their bugs once they find a few creatures.

It was still pretty hot out so after Franklin conducted a game called, “Red light, green light”, we headed to the water fountain for our first of many water breaks. Children also loved getting gently sprayed with a water bottle on their face and neck to keep them cool.

Breakfast– Corn chex and PPC mango.

Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat tortillas, PPC banana/nectarines, and PPC cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with peanut butter and raisins.

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumber.

Have a fantastic night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 6/19

Happy Monday! We hope you all had a fantastic Father’s Day weekend.

We had a busy morning today! Full of musical instruments, dancing, reading and socializing with our friends. Social interaction amongst our peers and with teachers is very important for healthy growing. Developing social skills in children prepares them for a lifetime of healthier interactions in all aspects of life.

We headed outside early this morning to beat the heat! We were able to stay outside comfortably for approximately 45 minutes. We LOVE getting fresh air and being able to reunite with our Wee Friends classroom buddies.

Breakfast: Whole grain English muffins with cream cheese and apples.

Lunch: Whole wheat/grain pasta with butter and black beans, peas and PPC pears.

Snack: Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Peas.

Have a fabulous evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljK8JcTM7dssW0Kqy-A

Good Afternoon!

Our morning was full of stories, sensory tubes (we pretended it was sunscreen), and art table explorations. We used glue to glue rings, sequins, and other materials to paper.

We decided to head outside a little earlier than usual to make sure we got some outside time in before it got too hot! Several of us searched for rollie pollies and worms. There were several teams of two searching for bugs. One friend held the container while the other friend was in control was the bug searching.

 

After we came inside, we started listening to music and doing a listening game where we moved certain body parts when instructed. For example, “tilt your head” or “wiggle your toes”. This lead into Miss Mindy putting tape down throughout the habitrail and music area. We followed the tape, displaying different actions (walking, skipping, marching, crawling) while playing musical instruments. We were able to move our bodies in a positive way while still getting left over energy out!

Breakfast– English muffins with hummus and PPC banana.

Lunch– Whole wheat noodles with black beans and butter, PPC pears/banana, and PPC cauliflower.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with PPC mango.

Wee Sprout– PPC cauliflower.

Have a lovely night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 6/18

Happy Friday! We hope you had a fantastic week.

REMINDER: Wee Friends will be CLOSED for our annual summer vacation from June 28th to July 6th. We will reopen July 9th.

Today the Wee Wee’s had a Friday fun dance party! Dancing not only gets our bodies in gross motor motion, but allows us to interact and have socialization with our friends on a different level of play than just our norm. We LOVE to dance and listen to music. What better way to end the week?!?! I simply cannot think of anything! Just look at those happy faces.  

 

We then headed into the kitchen to play with Playdoh. We utilized our fine motor and sensory skills with this activity and had so much fun. We added in golf tees, colorful red pegs, playdoh hammers and cookie cutters to make shapes out of the playdoh.

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with sweet pea butter and PPC pears.

Lunch: Whole grain flatbread with turkey lunchmeat, corn and oranges.

Snack: Whole grain graham crackers and colby cheese cubes.

Wee Sprouts: Corn.

Have a wonderful weekend and a fabulous Father’s Day!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljK4enDddFcxDEDN4UQ

Happy Friday!

We want to wish a Happy ‘Early’ Father’s Day to all of our dads! We hope you have a fantastic day AND weekend!

Here are a few pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and PPC banana.

Lunch– Turkey on whole grain flatbread, PPC banana, and PPC peppers/carrots.

PM snack– Homemade healthy donuts and cheddar block cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Link to pictures: WF 6/15

Good Afternoon!

The welcome activity allowed children to form their own creations with different shapes. Franklin identified the hexagon as an octagon so we talked about the similarities and differences between shapes. A child noted that she had two different sized triangles.

We changed out the sensory bin to the corn mixture. Children used a variety of utensils to move the corn mixture throughout the sensory bin. While exploring the corn mixture, children work on their fine motor skills as well as hand eye coordination.

It was a gorgeous morning for..BUGS! Several children carried their bug containers through the back yard, finding rollie pollies and worms. Franklin found two worms and carried them around the outside environment up until the bell rang for lunch!

Breakfast– Kashi Blueberry Clusters and PPC strawberries.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded chicken, PPC grapes/banana, and PPC cucumber/peppers.

PM snack– Wheat thins and roasted chick peas.

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumber/peppers.

Have a lovely night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 6/14

Happy Thursday!

Thank you to Mack and his parents for donating some new toys to our classroom. We had loads of fun with them today.

Please enjoy the pictures of our fun-filled day.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix with PPC banana.

Lunch: Whole grain rice with shredded chicken, peas and PPC pears.

Snack: Pretzels with string cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Peas.

Have a great night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljK1js-zUmovcaVfetQ