Good Afternoon!

Today we celebrated 2 birthdays. One friend is 1 year old, and our other friend, Emma is celebrating her 3rd birthday.  Happy Birthday! We hope you have a great day.

A friend requested the pom-poms this morning.  We were given a small and large scoop and bowls to place them into.

We were busy talking on the telephone.

We enjoyed playing with the balls, turning the star rainbows into a teeter-totter and going down the slide in the habitrail area.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios, fresh banana and a homemade birthday muffin.

Lunch:  Scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, whole grain wheat toast, fresh banana and broccoli.

Afternoon Snack:  Graham crackers, mozzarella cheese stick and homemade birthday brownie.

Wee Sprouts:  Broccoli.

Have a great night!

Rebekah

Link to pictures: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulidYCQ4d0bqI-i0LA8Q

Good Afternoon!

An art activity was made available at the art table this morning. Even though it was snowing outside, we focused on the fact that spring is soon approaching!

Children took plastic eggs and stamped their paper with various colors of paint. We had many different results: some kids just used one color on their paper while other peers used all five colors. Patterns were even brought into our art. Children placed their egg stamp in a specific spot on the paper in relationship to other colors that they had already used.

Our building fascination was in full force this morning once again!

“Friendship isn’t a big thing, it’s a million little things.”

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and PPC banana.

Lunch– Scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, whole wheat bread, PPC banana/kiwi, and PPC peppers.

PM snack– Blue corn chips and hummus.

Wee Sprout– PPC peppers.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

**The server we use for the picture link is still down so unfortunately, no picture link today! Once the server is up running again, I will post each day’s pictures that we missed.

Good Afternoon!

Pascale and Zoe were showing their babies some love by giving them hugs and kisses.  How adorable!

Emma and Mack were building with magnatiles. They started out by stacking them in big stacks before using their imaginative skills and making a game with them.

We were busy painting at the easel this morning.  We were given a variety of colors to create beautiful masterpieces. We were also given the option of drawing with crayons if we weren’t interested in painting.

Breakfast:  Kix cereal and fresh apples.

Lunch:  Hummus on whole grain wheat flatbread, fresh PPC kiwi and peas.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole grain wheat bagel with butter and mozzarella cheese stick.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulidU2gI2ARMo1neER6w

Good Afternoon!

**Just a reminder that Wee Friends is closed on Friday, March 30th in observance of Good Friday.

It was a pattern kind of morning!

In pre-k/k group, we read several poems from ‘Be Glad Your Nose Is On Your Face’. Afterwards, we observed the six strips that were on the chalk board. I gave each child one piece of paper and told them to hold onto it.

Together, we talked about the first strip, saying aloud, “square, square, triangle, square, square, triangle, square, _____”. Friends talked about it and decided that a ‘square’ should come next. I had everyone look at the piece of paper I had given them. A friend piped up saying, “I have the square!”. That child came up to the chalkboard and taped their square on the strip to finish the pattern.

We did this for the next five strips allowing each friend to come up and finish a given pattern.

K.CA.5: Create, extend, and give an appropriate rule for simple repeating and growing patterns with numbers and shapes.

Maddie explored a peg board with various colored pegs this morning. She took advantage of each row by creating different patterns. She used several patterns including: ABCABCABC, ABCDABCD, and ABABAB.

Afterwards, Lucy and Max joined her on the island where they worked with the pattern cards while matching the colors to the colored pegs. Not only was this a fantastic fine motor exercise as the movements were very intricate but friends noticed patterns that they saw and the use of colors in different cards.

The welcome activity revolved around the Math ‘pattern’ box. Elijah explored the box as he matched the fruits before finishing a pattern with a little teacher assistance. This Math box is a great activity as it slowly scaffolds patterns depending on each child’s readiness for it. On the first line, children match the fruit before completing a pattern on the second line. When children are ready, they can create their own pattern on the third line.

Breakfast– Kashi Blueberry Cluster and PPC blueberries.

Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat tortilla/flatbread, fresh oranges, and PPC cherry tomatoes/cucumbers.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with peanut butter.

Wee Sprout– PPC cucumbers.

Have a great evening.

-Mindy

**Our link creator is not working so hopefully I can post the link with tomorrow’s blog!

Good Afternoon!

In pre-k/k group, we read ‘Another Brother’. Davey, the main character, started out as an only child but throughout the story, he ended up with thirteen brothers and sisters! After we finished reading the story, we talked about our own families and ended up graphing about them! Each child found their name on the graph and counted up all of the family members including themselves. Each child’s family was displayed on the graph. After observing the graph for a little bit, these are a few things we saw:

1. Both of our kindergarteners have a family size of three.

2. Grady, Max, Anna, and Lucy have a family size of four.

3. Cassie has the smallest family while I ended up having the biggest.

Our building rug was overflowing this morning. Children used a variety of building materials including magnatiles, trio blocks, and the train set. Some friends where there all morning! That’s what’s fantastic about our set up here at Wee Friends: we don’t force them to go somewhere else as long as they involved, engaged, thriving, and happy. It’s not just ‘blocks’ that they’re interacting with but they’re using their problem solving skills, expanding their math skills (counting, patterns, etc.), exploring their imagination, etc.

I’ve attached an article from NAEYC that addresses the areas of development that child are using/engaging when involved in block play.

https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/mar2015/ten-things-children-learn-block-play

Sensory bins were made available with water beads. We also added egg cartons for children to divide the water beads into. It’s an engaging sensory exploration that our children love!

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with cream cheese and PPC pears/apples.

Lunch– Whole wheat noodles with butter and shredded pork, PPC banana/raspberries, and fresh carrots/PPC cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with granola.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes/carrots.

Have a wonderful night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF, 3/5

Good Afternoon!

Today we…

were trying on our dress up hats and accessories to find what looked best on us…

walked on the stepping stones and went down the slide in a variety of ways…

and worked on our puzzles.

Breakfast:  Whole grain English muffins with no nut butter/cream cheese and fresh PPC bananas.

Lunch:  Whole grain wheat pasta with shredded turkey, corn and fresh PPC blueberries.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts:  Corn.

Have a great evening!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulidRy9lfoDBNouj25iA

Please note:  we will be closed on Friday, March 30 for Good Friday.  Thank you.

Good Afternoon!

Today our hands were busy making sounds as we clapped and banged on the drum.

We sat down and enjoyed one of our many favorite books.

We worked on our fine motor skills using pegs. We chose to make a tower or place them into a peg board.  Pascale worked on her fine motor skills by putting the buckle on the chair together.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat toast with sunflower butter and fresh apples.

Lunch:  Turkey and cheese on whole grain flatbread, fresh oranges and corn.

Afternoon Snack:  Goldfish crackers and cheddar block cheese.

Wee Sprouts:  Corn.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulidQMLxFJYPTgXAtUUA

Happy Friday!

In pre-k/k group, we celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday by reading, ‘Thidwick, the Big Hearted Moose’. It’s a book we’ve read before but it’s been a while. Our older friends remembered very specific details and when these events occurred. For those of our friends who hadn’t read it before, they predicted what was going to happen a couple of times throughout the story.

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A STEM project was offered at the art table this morning. Children used the following materials: pipe cleaners, coins, and play dough. They created rainbows using the play dough and pipe cleaners. A few of our older friends did this but then added to it. They put the plastic cup in the middle of the rainbow and added coins one at a time to see how many coins the structure would hold.

Maddie kept with the coin theme and sorted them into four cups: pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. She and Lucy discussed the similarities and differences that they noticed in each of the coins.

“A person’s a person no matter how small.”

-Dr. Seuss

Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and PPC pears.

Lunch– Ham or turkey with shredded cheese on whole wheat flatbread, PPC banana, and fresh carrots.

PM snack– String cheese with goldfish.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes/carrots.

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 3/2

Good Afternoon!  Enjoy some of the pictures from our rainy day.

Breakfast:  Kix cereal and fresh apples.

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

Afternoon Snack:  Pretzels and mozzarella string cheese stick.

Wee Sprouts:  Peas.

Have a great night!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulidMPikQbC818VdhjEw

Good Afternoon!

In our pre-k/k group, we read one of our favorites: ‘Three Cheers for Tacky’. We have read it several times and in many parts of the story, children finished the sentence before I could! They’re comprehension of the story and the events that occurred were very impressive.

At the end of the story, we talked about the setting of the story. Maddie raised her hand and commented, “It was outside. It looked cold!”. This lead into an activity that we did which revolved around four words: cold, hot, lighter, and heavier. We compared items and used descriptive words while building two sets of lists.

First, we made a list of ‘cold thing’s’ and ‘hot things’. Then, we made a list of ‘lighter things’ and ‘heavier things’. We came across a dilemma though. Maxwell said we should put ‘books’ in the lighter category. A friend said, “Not all books are lighter!”. So, we put ‘books’ in both categories!

After we had completed both lists, we counted up the totals for each category!

It was an exciting end to group time as we got to flip the calendar..it’s always an exciting time!

K.M.1: Make direct comparisons of the length, capacity, weight, and temperature of objects, and recognize which object is shorter, longer, taller, heavier, warmer, cooler, or holds more.

Our welcome activity dealt with the measurement of items using wooden squares. Grady noted that the pencil was four squares long while Maddie realized that the bug wasn’t the longest on any of the boards! She was right!

K.M.1: Make direct comparisons of the length, capacity, weight, and temperature of objects, and recognize which object is shorter, longer, taller, heavier, warmer, cooler, or holds more.

The art table was full this morning as we used pipe cleaners and a variety of beads to make necklaces and bracelets. A few children incorporated patterns into their creation which others just chose their favorite colors.

The art easel was requested so several friends took turns painting. When everyone was done painting, Lucy and Anna both asked if they could clean the easel.

A peer of theirs joined them and the three of them did a great job working together to get the easel clean!

Breakfast– Corn chex and PPC pears/mango.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded chicken, PPC pears, and fresh carrots.

PM snack– Triscuits and sunflower seeds.

Wee Sprout– PPC peppers.

Have a lovely night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 3/1