*Announcement: While at lunch today several friends brought up the idea of having pajama day (“Why can’t we all come to school in pajamas?!”) So, on Wednesday, November 25th (the day before our Thanksgiving Break) we will have Pajama Day! If friends would like, they can come to school in their soft and cozy PJs. Woohoo!

Lately, many of our friends have shown an interest in wrestling, tumbling and other types of big body play. This type of physical play is normal, age-appropriate and different from fighting. In appropriate big body play children’s faces are relaxed and they are usually smiling/laughing, as this type of play is very enjoyable for children.

Big body play is important for children’s development in many ways, teaching children:

• Physical skills—how their bodies move and how to control those movements
• Language skills—communicating through signals and non-verbal communication
• Social skills—turn taking, negotiating, making and following rules

Here at WF we have specifically designed the environment to provide a safe setting for children to play vigorously with their bodies. When children engage in big body play they know that they must check to make sure the area is safe and that a teacher is there to supervise. With a teacher there to help children learn to recognize non-verbal and verbal cues from each other, big body play is a safe and developmentally appropriate practice!

For more information about this important style of play, there are several excellent articles on the subject on the bookshelf by the front door! Let us know if you have any questions.

Enjoy the sunshine! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Pea pods. Breakfast: Kashi’s Blueberry Clusters and oranges. Lunch: Whole wheat flatbread with cheddar cheese, cucumbers/pea pods and oranges. Snack: Homemade popcorn with butter and block cheddar cheese.

Link to the photo album: WF 11/10/2015

Our friends spent the afternoon on the habitrail together! They love climbing the ladder and going down the slide!

And Ruby has finally mastered the stairs!

Breakfast was whole wheat toast with butter and cinnamon. Lunch consisted of whole wheat pasta with red beans, peas, grapes, and pineapple. Afternoon snack was organic whole milk yogurt and grapes. 

Link to the photo album: WWF 11/9/2015

Have a great night!

Amanda

Hello! Today was a busy Monday getting back into the routine of school. We’ve had an exciting day full of child-led activities. Throughout the day we noticed—

Collaboration and determination:

Focus and teamwork:

And of course, JOY!

Hope you’re having a great start to the week. –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Toasted whole wheat bread with butter and grapes. Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with red beans, fresh carrots/pea pods and apples/oranges. Snack: Organic whole milk yogurt and fresh pears.

Link to photo album: WF 11/9/2015

Hello! Today has been a day full of creation. Many friends spent time at the art table deeply engaged in activities such as twisting yarn, building tree houses, drawing, and making boat anchors.

Even though the temperature dropped from the unseasonably warm temps earlier this week, that didn’t stop the Wee Friends from staying active outside!

Kindergarten: Because Elizabeth and Elliott both spent extensive periods of time creating/building in the morning, both kindergarteners decided to complete habitrail/art table logs of their work. Elizabeth built this “animal and people hotel” and sounded out “hotol” for her journal.

Elliott created a tree house out of red grocery ties and tape and drew a very detailed log of his creation, including tree house windows and the blue ladder you climb to get up it. Jessica recorded the sounds Elliott heard while he sounded out “tree house” and used this word as an opportunity to explain the “ou” sound!

Have a wonderful weekend. –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Brown rice cakes with almond butter and bananas. Lunch: Whole wheat bread with peanut butter, broccoli and fresh pineapple/pears. Snack: Mozzarella cheese slices and grapes.

 

Link to the photo album: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A58B8C61670EC2D4!71146&authkey=!AKw9eqoFlbAWdFk&ithint=folder%2cJPG

Happy Friday!

Our friends engaged in a lot of parallel play today!

First, they got together to play with the colorful, wooden people and cups.

Next, they thought the stackable birthday cake looked fun, so they moved into housekeeping.

They finally decided on waffle blocks and had a good time building creative structures and banging the blocks together!

Breakfast was toast with butter and cinnamon and pears. Lunch consisted of whole wheat bread with sweet pea butter, pears, and peas. Afternoon snack was crackers and string cheese.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Amanda

*Apologies for the late blog! We’ve had some temporary computer problems that have been fixed.

Yesterday, the Wee Friends opened their own restaurant! Friends named the lunch spot “Dog Hr” and made a sign to hang up.

Menus were also created. According to one friend the WF restaurant serves:

• Salad
• Chicken
• And also chicken fingers
• And burgers
• Potatoes
• Bread
• And soup

Desserts offered include:

• Ice cream
• Cake
• Pie
• Pattycakes

The restaurant was a popular spot as friends negotiated who would be “cookers”, servers and waiters.

The addition of new trays, baskets and aprons from the basement added another level to their play!

Kindergarten: The kindergarteners continued to work on skip counting today, this time using bee hives and tiddlywinks as “honey”. While practicing skip counting by 2s, Elizabeth realized “it’s just like sewing!” The over, under, over, under pattern was indeed very similar to counting 1, 2, 1,2 to mark numbers.

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers. Breakfast: Kix and fresh pears. Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with turkey, fresh carrots and oranges. Snack: Peanuts and Larabars.

Happy Thursday, everyone!

Here are some of our favorite pictures from today!

 

 

 

Breakfast was eggs and bananas. Lunch consisted of whole grain brow rice with turkey, oranges, and peas. Afternoon snack was wheat crackers and cheese.

Have a good night!

Amanda

One of the most rewarding parts of child-directed play for adult observers are the looks of pure pride and joy after a child completes his or her creation! When children are free to express themselves through art, building, imaginative play and more, it is clear this process of creation is extremely satisfying.

Here are a few proud moments captured on camera today.

Clara built a birthday cake and Lucy created a house for the little animals:

Maddie jumped for joy after completing an alphabet puzzle, while Lulu smiled after finding the correct spot for her puzzle piece:

Daniel’s face showed the thrill of a game of tag and Eren admired his train track:

Large Group/Kindergarten: Today in large group and kindergarten friends continued working on one of this week’s math FABs—K.NS.1: Count to at least 100 by ones and tens. Large group started off with a lesson on how to do the Macarena dance so we could dance along to this song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGKXZVxAffM. We mastered counting and dancing to numbers 1-10 and will continue working on the rest!

After a discussion of the hundreds chart and counting along with it to the song, the chart was offered as a resource during journal time. Many friends chose to write numbers, including counting by tens. The chart was a helpful tool as we examined numeral order when writing numbers like “10” and “20”.

There is joy throughout the Wee World!

Have a wonderful day! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Tomatoes. Breakfast: Whole grain oatmeal and fresh pears. Lunch: Whole wheat tortillas with hummus, tomatoes/carrots and grapes. Snack: Refried beans and blue corn chips.

Today we would like to wish our friend Cassie a very happy birthday! Cassie is a wonderful addition to our classroom and we so appreciate her helpful and kind nature. We often find Cassie assisting friends with their coats and shoes when needed. Hope you have a wonderful day Cassie!

Today has been a busy day! Here are a few of the things we did. We sorted jewels by shape and color:

We made a tall birthday cake, gathered around the table and sang “Happy Birthday”:

We also built car seats and listened to stories!

Kindergarten: Sometimes the best and most engaging kindergarten work stems from Elliott and Elizabeth themselves! This morning the two started putting out the cots for nap time. Jessica challenged them to figure out the names on each cot without teacher help! Working together, the two kindergarteners sounded out the names. When they were stuck, Elizabeth ran up to the front to check the cubby name tags. This was a challenging task with names like Lulu, Luke and Lucy, but they completed it!

*Reminder: Every child at WF has a special art cubby above their normal cubby that we use to store larger pieces of artwork. Some art cubbies have gotten quite full, so we ask that at pickup this week you take your child’s artwork home. Thanks!

Have a great day! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers. Breakfast: Quaker Oatmeal Squares cereal and fresh pineapple. Lunch: Whole wheat English muffins with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese, carrots and cantaloupe. Snack: Special birthday cupcakes in honor of Cassie’s birthday and block cheddar cheese.

*Vacation Reminder: This is a reminder to all Wee Friend families that WF will be closed on the following dates:

• Thursday 11/26 and Friday 11/27 (2 days) for Thanksgiving Break
• Monday 12/21  through Friday 1/1 (2 weeks) for Winter Break

Welcome to November! This month started out with lots of music. This morning friends gathered in the music area to experiment with both guitars and the piano.

Later, we were treated to a musical performance by our special guest, Janie Next Door!

The audience was very captivated by Jane’s accordion and voice: 

We clapped, sang, marched and danced throughout many of Jane’s songs on the accordion. In one song friends pretended to get ready to start the day—mimicking eating breakfast, brushing teeth, getting dress and other fun movements! In another, Jane sang a catchy chorus about getting new shoes; many friends joined in singing loudly and moving their bodies all around.

Jane also taught us about concert etiquette and we learned that if you like a song, you clap to let the performer know you liked the music! There was lots of clapping in WF today.

Jane Christison will also be performing in South Bend this weekend at the Century Center as part of a benefit concert supporting Kernan’s Heroes titled You’ll Never Walk Alone: “A Tribute to America’s Veterans”. More information can be found on the flyer below:

Hope your November is off to a wonderful start. –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Tomatoes. Breakfast: Toasted whole wheat English muffins with butter and fresh pears. Lunch: Whole wheat pasta mixed with organic black bean pasta, carrots and oranges. Snack: Organic whole milk yogurt and grapes.