Good Afternoon!

To start our Tuesday, children were invited to the front porch where they were given the opportunity to use water and a paint brush to write their name on the chalk board.

We found out that when we use a wet paint brush on chalk, it goes away!

We were super focused on making sure all of the letter was washed away. A few friends would say the letter aloud as it went away.

Our kitchen was open for business this morning. The island filled up with smiling friends as they wanted to participate in the making of our homemade banana bread!

Step 1: Peel bananas.

Step 2: Mash the bananas.

Step 3: Measure all of the wet ingredients first, followed by the dry ingredients.

Step 4: Stir each individual bowl, then combine them.

The final product was DELICIOUS!

We were delighted to go outside this morning .

BREAKFAST: Kashi’s Sweet Potato Sunshine (cereal) and oranges.

LUNCH: Turkey on whole wheat bread, oranges/pears, and snap peas/cucumbers.

PM SNACK: Homemade banana bread with butter.

WEE SPROUTS: Cucumbers.

Have a terrific evening.

Link to pictures: http://1drv.ms/1SxGMhR

Please note:

We would like to create a couple of classroom photo albums for your children to enjoy. There are times when the children just want to see their families throughout their day at school. Having these picture albums added to our classroom would be very much appreciated by us all. If you could please bring in any extra family photos you have, that would be AWESOME!!!

Now that we will be going outside regularly, please make sure your child has appropriate outside attire. Shoes are required and needed for all our little ones.

Unfortunately, we have another round of a cold virus going through the classroom.

We would like to say a big thank you to Abi and Paul (Ruby’s parents) for donating board books to Wee Wee Friends! Donated board books are always appreciated and enjoyed!

***

We enjoyed every second we spent outside today enjoying this wonderful weather!

Chalk was brought out and our friends joined their Wee friends in drawing colorful pictures on the sidewalk and blackboards.

Our morning nappers didn’t miss out on some outside time. After lunch, we enjoyed the fresh air out on the bridge. They played with some toys and peered through the Wee Friends door so see what our older friends were doing!

Breakfast was whole wheat toast with butter and pears. Lunch consisted of whole wheat pasta with shredded chicken and cheese, apples, and corn. Afternoon snack was organic whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Link to photos: http://1drv.ms/1p3acIz

The highlight of our day was spending lots of time outside this morning! The first thing many children did was RUN. Around the circle and throughout the yard, friends moved their bodies as fast as they could.

Ice cream was sold from the climbing house. There is hardly a day outside where the teachers don’t hear cries of “Whoooooo wannnnts iiiiice crrrrreammm?!”

Lack of snow on the sidewalks (finally) made for an excellent chalk canvas. Friends drew in a plethora of colors and often worked collaboratively.

The chalkboards on the garage were also used today!

To the Wee Friends’ joy the bikes were brought out of the garage. All manner of bikes and cars were driven around the circle and down the hill! Reintroducing this activity was great practice for body awareness and paying attention to where you are going.

Kindergarten: Today we began to work on FAB K.W.6.2b: Punctuation—recognizing and naming end punctuation. A refresher on some punctuation (exclamation point, question mark and period) was introduced during large group. Friends came up with body movements to match each punctuation (e.g. Hands straight up in the air for an exclamation point). Next, we read Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late and after every sentence, we identified what punctuation was being used by moving our bodies! The mixture of story + movement kept everyone engaged!

Peek-a-boo in housekeeping!

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Whole wheat English muffins with cream cheese and apples. Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with chicken, broccoli/pea pods and fresh oranges. Snack: Organic whole milk yogurt and fresh pears.

Link to the photo album: WF 3/7/2016

Hope you’re having a great day! –Jessica

Wee Friends has been invaded by bunnies! Friends have had a blast playing with some of our Easter themed materials we brought up from the basement this week. They’ve been hopping all over habitrail

Our St. Patrick green play dough is also a popular option these days. Today a friend asked, “Can I play play dough? Please?”

Also new this week: the picture frames in the art area have been updated with recent farm pictures! Many times throughout the day children come to look at the photos and point out themselves and their friends. Overheard today—“Look! It’s Jackson!”

Kindergarten: Today the kindergarten students explored patterns and following directions by coloring in a complex design. Each shape was meant to be a different color (e.g. all circles-blue and triangles-red). Friends had to first identify the shape and then decide what color it should be! After completing the design, Elliott counted how many of each shapes there were.

Wee Sprouts: Orange and red bell peppers. Breakfast: Kix and fresh pears. Lunch: Cheesy whole grain brown rice, steamed cauliflower, pears and apples. Snack: Pistachios and pretzels.

Link to the photo album: WF 3/3/2016

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone at conferences tomorrow. Please remember to bring your re-enrollment form and fee if applicable. Thank you!

—Jessica

When looking through the pictures of today’s activities, the photos of friends playing and working together cooperatively together stood out. Amongst the pictures of friends creating artwork and reading books, there was 4 year old Jackson building a car garage alongside 2 year old Tate. Along with photos of housekeeping work and pattern making, we saw older preschoolers Daniel and Eren exploring the sand sensory bin with 2 year old Rosemary.

Our multi-age classroom encourages friends of all ages to interact and benefits both our younger and older students. As preschool teacher and educational blogger Teacher Tom puts it, multi-age classrooms are:

…places where younger children have the opportunity to learn from their slightly more advanced classmates, who in turn develop the real self-assurance that only comes from mastery (as opposed to artificial efforts to boost “self-esteem”). They are places where younger children who are ready for greater challenges can take their place beside more mature classmates, while those who need more time to explore concepts can do so without the stigma of being “behind.”

In a multi-age setting children can learn at their developmental level and be part of a true community of learners, regardless of age! Read more about multi-age classrooms at: http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/place-they-are-confident-they-belong.html

Kindergarten: Today our kindergarteners and older preschoolers were invited to the island to continue exploring patterns, this time using tiddlywinks. Friends approached this in a number of different ways. For instance, Elizabeth created a repeating pattern and then a growing pattern (yellow, green, 2 yellow, green, 3 yellow, etc.) Not content with just that, she used markers to record her patterns permanently!

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers and tomatoes. Breakfast: Hot wheat cereal and bananas. Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat bagels, green peppers/cucumbers, and fresh fruit salad with bananas, strawberries, and blueberries. Snack: Homemade popcorn with butter and bananas.

Link to the photo album: WF 3/2/2016

Happy Wednesday! –Jessica

What a busy day we had at Wee Wee!

We created colorful art with crayons …

Scooped and poured with birdseed…

And had fun music time with drums!

Breakfast was Whole Grain Cheerios and apples. Lunch consisted of whole wheat tortillas with refried beans and cheese, oranges, and corn. Afternoon snack was toasted whole wheat bagels with sweet pea butter.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Link to photos:

2/29 http://1drv.ms/1TPB76s

3/1 http://1drv.ms/1TlKr3B

Good Afternoon!

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

Our kindergarten standard today consisted of creating a rule when given a specific pattern. For example, Elliott took 10, 20, etc. and continued the pattern. We talked about how the rule was +10 which allowed Elliott to finish the pattern.

It was all about food today! The breakfast table was quite packed. We’ve been a hungry bunch lately!

A coconut was brought to us yesterday with our purple porch delivery! We investigated it today. Miss Jessica did a little research and shared it with our friends before bringing out the coconut.

We passed it around the island where friends got to shake the coconut to hear the liquid inside!

Miss Jessica poked a hole at the bottom where friends could look inside.

We started shaking it and to our surprise, the liquid started coming out! This brought up the discussion of ‘coconut water’.

A hammer was taken to the coconut to try and break it apart. Boy, are coconuts hard!

Once it came apart, we looked inside at the white part of the coconut.

Some of our older friends took turns trying to make the pieces of the coconut smaller so that we could get the white part out to eat!

Here were our results:

Friends were NOT fans of the coconut water however..

We were so glad to be able to stay inside our warm house today! We’re just looking forward to next weeks forecast and hope it doesn’t change!

Wee Sprouts– cherry tomatoes.

Breakfast– Kashi’s Blueberry Clusters

Lunch– Whole wheat english muffins with hummus, grapes/oranges, and broccoli.

PM snack– Toasted whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Have a great night! Stay safe and warm!

-Mindy

Link to Wee Friends pictures: WF 3/1

Today we realized that our current batch of Halloween play dough was getting a little dry and we decided to whip up a new batch. Friends gathered around the island to help measure the ingredients and stir. They chose green as the color because “it’s almost St. Patrick’s Day!”

The way the green food coloring interacted with the water and salt was very intriguing!

Other friends spent the day working on their “stages,” works of art complete with curtains, a variety of shapes and characters that can move around the stage. Lots of thought went into the details of these projects!

We also spent some time outside today. It was great to run around and get some fresh air.

Some friends went for a walk around the circle with Miss Jessica. When Rosemary asked to join, Luke immediately offered her his hand! Love seeing friends naturally include each other without any teacher prompting

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Toasted whole grain bread with butter and plums. Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with turkey, pea pods, cucumbers and bananas. Snack: Organic whole milk yogurt with fresh blueberries from the Purple Porch!

Link to the photo album: WF 2/29/2016

Happy Monday! –Jessica

Please note: Parent teacher conferences are one week from today.

Also, we are running low on plastic bags. If you have any extra, we would appreciate them!

Ruby and Franklin played with the pegs and soft boards together today. They enjoyed sticking the pegs together. Ruby worked very hard on making a tower.

This afternoon, our friends read all of their favorite stories. We also sang all the songs we like. Our newest favorite is Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

Then, Anna wanted to relax, so she gathered all the pillows in a pile and laid down. Emma and David thought she looked comfy and decided to join her!

Breakfast was whole wheat toast with butter and apples. Lunch consisted of whole wheat tortilla with cheese and refried beans, mixed vegetables, and blueberries. Afternoon snack was graham crackers and string cheese.

Have a great weekend!

Amanda

Link to photos: http://1drv.ms/1WOVik2

*Reminder: Next Friday, March 4th Wee Friends will be closed for parent teacher conferences. Re-enrollment forms and fee are due that day. Thank you!

Today we parked cars in the barn and built homes for animals out of magna-tiles:

We completed LOTS of puzzles and worked on projects at the art table:

We explored the feel of moon sand between our fingers and painted at the easel:

And we tasted some juicy grapefruit!

Wee Sprouts: Green bell pepper. Breakfast: Brown rice cakes with cream cheese and plums. Lunch: Whole wheat tortillas with cheddar cheese and refried beans, carrots, kiwi, grapes and pears. Snack: Whole grain Goldfish and cheddar block cheese.

Link to the photo album: WF 2/26/2016

Enjoy your weekend! –Jessica