Good Afternoon!

**With looking at the weather possibilities for tomorrow, we’ve decided to CANCEL farm for tomorrow. Again, NO farm tomorrow. Fingers crossed for next week!

Introducing our Spring 2016 swim class!

Today, our swimmers had their first swim class! The reviews were spectacular!

“Now, my favorite place to swim is the Y!”

“I jumped off of that block thing!”

“I put my head under the water!”

We all did a FANTASTIC job and took full advantage of our first swim class!

While our swimmers were off being all aquatic, some friends stayed behind to continue working on our fab for the week (K.3.2 Investigate that things move in different ways such as fast, slow, etc.). Miss Melinda set up an activity at the art table where friends could further investigate marbles. Each child took a color of paint, a bin, and a piece of paper along with their marble. After dipping the marble in paint, they placed it in their bucket. We tipped our bucket at different angles to see the multitude of lines that were left on the paper. A child was heard saying, “Oops. My marble is out of paint. I’ve got to get more!”

 

After the swimmers got back to Wee Friends, we all needed to exert some energy so a rousing game of ‘What Time Is It, Mr. Fox?’ was played!

For breakfast, we had Kashi’s Wheat Squares with banana. Lunch was whole wheat flatbread with melted cheese, fresh PPC pineapple, and a mixture of cherry tomatoes and red peppers. Our afternoon snack was toasted whole wheat bagel with cream cheese. Our wee sprout for the day was cherry tomatoes.

Have a great evening .

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 4/26

The sandbox was a popular place this morning! Our friends picked materials to sift, scoop, fill, and pour the sand with, using their upper bodies. We love to watch them take in the texture of the sand and become absorbed in their play!

We hung some long strips of fabric from one of the doorways this afternoon. One fabric is light and gauzy and the other soft and fuzzy. Our friends loved walking through the doorway and feeling the fabrics brush against their face and arms. It’s also a great new spot to play peek-a-boo together!

Breakfast was whole wheat toast with butter and apples. Wee sprouts was peas. Lunch consisted of whole wheat pasta with red beans, peaches, and peas. Afternoon snack was crackers with string cheese. PM Wee sprouts was mixed veggies.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Link to photos: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A58B8C61670EC2D4!87287&authkey=!AEV8VFLUwmNhbxo&ithint=folder%2cJPG

***The YMCA swim class begins TOMORROW for: Jackson, Eren, Clara, Addi, Elliott, Lucy, Elizabeth, Lulu

PLEASE BRING YOUR SWIMMER  A SWIM SUIT .  They may bring goggles also if they prefer to swim with them, but they are not required.  We will provide a towel.

Today many of our children, both kindergarteners and preschoolers alike, were delighted with an activity that Miss Melinda created for this week’s FAB Science: K.3.2 Investigate that things move in different ways, such as fast, slow, etc.   Mel created a hand-on activity that started out with a demonstration of fast and slow with marbles through a tube.  Then there was a lengthy discussion about how the angle and height of the tube effected the speed of the marble.  Finally, the children set off with their own marble and explored our environment to find ways to make it go fast and slow.  There was much happy animation as children discovered the many ways to make the marble roll at different speeds and shared their discoveries with friends.  We extended our exploration of fast and slow in our outdoor learning environment.

 

Breakfast: Whole wheat toasted bread with butter and apple slices.

Weesprouts: Carrots and broccoli

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with butter and dark red kidney beans, clementines, and cherry tomatoes.

Snack: Whole milk organic yogurt and fresh Purple Porch peaches (Yum!!!)

Have a great day!

Tami

Link to photos: 4.25.2016

Have a great weekend!

Breakfast was Cheerios and cantaloupe. Wee sprouts was peas. Lunch consisted of whole grain brown rice with cream cheese, cantaloupe, and peas. Afternoon snack was mozzarella string cheese and raisins.

We’ll see you Monday!

Link to photos: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A58B8C61670EC2D4!87203&authkey=!AMgCkXA4MShlRy8&ithint=folder%2cJPG

Happy Earth Day!

Today in Kindergarten:

We celebrated Earth Day by discussing the Earth as a whole and what it has to offer. This lead into different weather changes around the globe and what different parts of Earth look like.

A few comments we heard:

“There’s a whole lot of water!”

“This country here..is this where Naia lives?”

“Where do I live?”

We researched on the internet and found pictures of what Italy, Austraila, etc. look like. We saw a picture of a star fish which lead into an exploration of star fish. We found a video that we watched that let us know that there are over 200 different variations of star fish. Some star fish have as many as sixteen legs!

We used the globe as a guide for children to point out where they’ve traveled to.

Elizabeth took it upon herself to draw different parts of the globe. She used detail and even wrote the name of each country.

We wrapped up our fab this week by discussing what specific areas they’d like to learn more about. Tornados, volcanos, beaches, and geysers were mentioned. Elliott took his geyser idea and translated it into his journal. He informed his friends of the previous knowledge he has concerning geysers. We plan on diving more into this topic next week..

The rest of our morning was full of:

Magnatiles.

Puzzles (with concentration written all over our faces).

Outside time where we took apart our tulip!

We plan on planting the bulbs in the fall.

A few of our younger friends started working on pedaling! The bicycle circle was quite busy.

Wee Sprout– Carrots.

Breakfast– Rice cakes with sweet pea butter and pears.

Lunch– Cheese and refried bean quesadillas, carrots, and bananas/oranges.

PM Snack– Cottage cheese and pretzels.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 4/22

Hello!

Here are pictures from today!

Wee Sprouts– carrots.

Breakfast– whole grain cheerios and grapes.

Lunch– whole grain brown rice with cheese, cantaloupe, and green peppers/green beans.

PM Snack– pumpkin seeds and whole grain crackers.

Have a great night!

Link to pictures: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A58B8C61670EC2D4!86930&authkey=!AMwkTOmpo8lMIug&ithint=folder%2cJPG

Hello, everyone! Here are some sweet smiles to brighten your day!

Breakfast was Kix cereal and pears. Lunch consisted of tortillas with cheese and refried beans, bananas, and corn. Afternoon snack was corn cakes with sweet pea butter.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Link to photos: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A58B8C61670EC2D4!86868&authkey=!AA12aDd3uMhTPjw&ithint=folder%2cJPG

Good Afternoon!

First, we want to say a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jackson and Lucy! Jackson hit the big FIVE today and Miss Lucinda turned THREE!

The older group went on their first farm trip this morning! Of course, we had to get back into the swing of things when traveling to the farm. Once we got to the farm, we talked with Miss Charlotte about what we should and shouldn’t do while there. For example, not making loud noises as not to startle the animals.

Our first stop included visiting the new baby goats! We discussed how to properly pet them. We saw one of the goats nursing! “Hey, that goat is eating!”—our friends are quite observant!

We needed to release a little energy so this stepping stool seemed like the perfect opportunity!

We saw a kitty cat as we were walking back towards the barn. Children all sat down and we waited to see if the cat would come to us. As a group, we were patient and played the waiting game .

Emerson used the skills she had learned just a few minutes prior to get the cat to come towards her!

“Friends if you want to run, you can run up to the next curve.”-Miss Tami

“See ya!”-Wee Frienders

We decided to cut across a field. When we started walking, friends kept saying, “It’s loud and crunchy!” It sure was a workout for our legs!

To end our morning at the farm, we took turns on the swing! It was a nice relaxing moment to collect ourselves before getting back into the Wee-hicle.

A friend even used his experience this morning as a topic for his journal this afternoon!

We LOVE the farm.

Back at Wee Friends, our younger group worked with Miss Melinda! They gathered a list of stories that they could SING! They made a list and each friend picked their favorite book!

Wee Sprouts– Tomatoes.

Breakfast– Malt-O-Meal with pears.

Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat bread, cherry tomatoes/carrots, and strawberries.

PM Snack– A popcorn birthday treat from Jackson and PPC grapes.

Have a lovely night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 4/20

We tried a new sensory activity today: foam dough! It’s made with corn starch and shaving cream. Our friends first gave it a few curious pokes before testing out how it felt in their hands. It was soft and silky and also very moldable. They enjoyed flattening it with their hands and spreading it on the table. Ruby liked how it felt on her toes!

The pegs were very popular this afternoon. They were stuck into the foam boards and stacked on top of each other and made into tall towers. While playing with these, our friends are building their fine motor skills, hand eye coordination, visual motor coordination, and developing and strengthening visual perception skills!

Breakfast was whole wheat toast with butter and cinnamon and pears. Lunch consisted of whole wheat bread with hummus, strawberries, and corn. Afternoon snack was crackers with cream cheese.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Link to photos: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A58B8C61670EC2D4!86591&authkey=!ABl7bVxV-yQ5rts&ithint=folder%2cJPG

Hello!

In Kindergarten today:

We continued on the theme of weather and how it affects people and the environment. After reading ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’, we discussed different weather patterns and terms by brainstorming words that are associated with the general term, ‘weather’. Our most popular word was ‘tornado’ so we dove a little more into this topic.

“When there’s a tornado, you have to go to the basement!”

I questioned the group by saying, “I don’t have a basement at my home. What would I do?”

This sparked different suggestions like going into a bathroom or a closet!

During our journal time, children used their kid spelling to complete their journals!

This morning, Addi and Elliott worked on a rainbow themed pattern using the unifix cubes. They started adding different colors together. For example, “If we took the red and green cubes together, how many do we have?”

Once Addi started on the second unifix pattern, Elliott made a comment that went a little something like this: “This looks like the Eiffel Tower!”

Cue emergent literacy opportunity.

Once we started talking about the Eiffel Tower, friends gathered around so we could look up some information about this structure. Daniel let us know that he gets to go to Paris over the summer! A few things we found out:

-It was completed in 1889. (we discussed how far back that was!)

-It’s as tall as an 81 story building.

-The tower has three levels for visitors, with restaurants on the first and second floors.

We looked up pictures and found an informational video that showed us different views of the tower. We saw pictures of the Eiffel Tower at night and during the day. Friends especially liked how it lit up at night!

The computer was used to find a picture of the Eiffel Tower so that friends could come to the table and sketch it if they so chose.

We used great detail and asked questions pertaining to the tower such as what shapes we saw within the tower.

Someone asked, “How do we spell it?!”

An example of how we spell ‘Eiffel Tower’ was made available. We were quite curious about this building which got the group discussing where they’ve traveled. We have QUITE the traveling crew .

Our outside time allowed us to fulfill what each one of us needed: quiet time at the art table or area to run around on this beautiful day.

Wee Sprouts– Carrots.

Breakfast– Kix and oranges.

Lunch– Cheese quesadillas, oranges/bananas, green peppers/carrots.

PM snack– Homemade banana and applesauce muffins with block cheese.

Hope everyone has a terrific night.

Reminder: Group A goes to the farm tomorrow!

Link to pictures: WF 4/19