Rosemary, David, and Anna drew lovely pictures with sidewalk chalk this morning. Anna couldn’t decide which brightly colored chalk she liked best and kept running back to the bucket to switch pieces.

Franklin and Ruby had the classroom to themselves while the older kids were napping. They played with shakers and balls, and then read stories!

Breakfast was whole grain oatmeal with pears. Lunch consisted of farm fresh eggs, whole wheat flatbread, strawberries, and cucumbers. Afternoon snack was wheat crackers with cream cheese.

Have a great night!

Amanda

Good Afternoon!

Today, we welcome our newest friend, Luke! We’re so excited to have you here at Wee Friends!

While our younger friends stayed back at Wee Friends, our older group headed to the farm.

Once we arrived at the farm, the decision was made that we were going to pick ears of corn. However, the corn was ALL the way towards the back of Miss Charlottes property. We came to the conclusion that this particular group was capable of making the trip.

When we started off on our walk, we immediately switched our mindset to the amazing creatures that are at the farm. We spotted numerous frogs of all sizes along with Wooly Bear caterpillars. As a group, we had a discussion about how we have to wait our turn to look at the current focal point. Of course, all of these creatures caused great excitement!

 

Friends made sure to use gentle touches when they did find creatures along our walk.

Once we got to the corn fields, children were instructed to pick the corn and the best method to do so. Friends had to use their strength to pull the ear of corn off of the stalk.

It’s amazing to see children push themselves past their comfort zone. Throughout our entire walk, we walked about two miles. Friends did a great job at monitoring themselves, especially when they lent a hand with the corn on the way back to the farm! While on the walk, you could hear friends encouraging one another or asking if they needed assistance. It was a GREAT (and extremely active) morning at the farm.

Here are a few pictures of our younger friends who enjoyed their morning at Wee Friends!

Wee Sprouts– Carrots.

Breakfast– Malt-o-meal and pears.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs, PPC tomatoes/peppers, and banana.

PM snack– Air popped popcorn and pears.

Have a terrific evening!

*Farm Tomorrow: Group A [Elizabeth, Elliott, Emerson, Daniel, Jackson, Clara, Addi, Eren] will be going to the farm tomorrow, Wednesday 10/14. Please dress warmly!

This morning while some friends were at swimming lessons, we got out magnets, washers and a variety of glass jars for friends to experiment with. Friends used the materials in a variety of ways. Some dropped washers into the jars and poured them from jar to jar. Others delighted in the way the magnetic wands picked up the washers!

Some friends chose to string their washers onto the magnets. Throughout this exploration friends had discussions with each other about what the magnets were doing. Here Lulu and Maddie discover that two magnetic wands sticks together!

Today in large group we worked on one of our literacy FABs for the week: K.RL.2.4: Make predictions about what will happen in a story. We talked about how a prediction is what you think is going to happen (in both a story and in real life) and connected the idea to how meteorologists predict the weather. As a group, we practiced using phrases such as “I think…” “I predict…” and “I bet…”

Next, we enjoyed a reading of The Umbrella by Jan Brett and used her detailed drawings/clues to predict what animal would appear on the next page!

Kindergarten: While kindergarten work is often completed through a direct teaching activity or game, it also occurs daily as an extension of the kindergartner’s own play. A teacher observes what the kindergartener is engaged in and then challenges him or her to extend or stretch his or her learning in some way.

For instance, while outside this morning, Elliott was interested in covering up the hole in a cardboard box so he could use it for collecting leaves. He tried a number of objects (a basket, ice cube tray, bark) but found none that fit. A teacher encouraged Elliott to keep thinking and he eventually came up with paper and duct tape!

After some trail and error, Elliott discovered that the paper ripped. The solution? Cover the whole thing in duct tape. Other friends got involved and soon it was a great leaf collecting box! Elliott learned that he is capable of solving problems and practiced perseverance to find a solution that worked for him.

Have a wonderful Tuesday! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Tomatoes. Breakfast: Kashi’s Cinnamon Harvest cereal and fresh pear slices. Lunch: Homemade whole grain macaroni and cheese, cauliflower/tomatoes and apples. Snack: Toasted whole wheat bagels with cream cheese.

Today has been a GREAT Monday with much exploration and experimentation. This morning started with an activity where friends tried to find the heaviest and lightest wood blocks. Miss Melinda explained that one way we could figure out how heavy an object is by using a scale. This led to the creation of a scale!

Friends were very driven to experiment with the scale and took turns placing different objects on each end of our homemade balancing scale.

Next, friends explored the spinning tops. Tops like these promote fine motor skills and perseverance as it often takes several times to get a top to spin!

The tops kept spinning off the table, so friends figured out a way to keep the tops on the table using wood blocks. Problem solvers!

Outside, today has been all about the LEAVES! Friends used a variety of tools (rakes, brooms, hands) to scoop up leaves and came up with many different systems of leaf transportation (arms, buckets, hands).

Filling buckets and then carrying them to the leaf pile dump site proved to be a popular option.

After a lot of hard work all morning, friends had created a HUGE pile. After lots of discussion about when the pile was ready to be jumped in, friends went for it!

From a pile on the ground…

To leaves in the air!

Oh, the joy of a leaf pile!

Enjoy this beautiful day. –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Green beans. Breakfast: Whole wheat English muffins with peanut butter and bananas. Lunch: Whole wheat tortillas with refried beans and cheddar cheese, tomatoes and apples. Snack: Organic whole milk yogurt and peach/blueberry cobbler bars.

A few of our friends spent time this afternoon on the bridge that connects Wee Wee to Wee Friends.

Miss Mindy and a couple of our other older friends came to the door to say hello!

Breakfast was Raisin Bran and bananas. Lunch consisted of bread, egg, and cheese casserole, bananas, and peas. Afternoon snack was mozzarella string cheese and goldfish.

Have a great weekend!

Amanda

Happy Friday!

It was one of those chilly, cloudy mornings. That didn’t keep us from being active.

We played Frisbee. House.

We even worked on our vertical skills.

But then all of a sudden, a few friends felt rain drops. A couple of us automatically went on top of the log house to look for rain clouds.

A few more friends joined.

Before we knew it, it was a crammed house. Friends gave the thumbs up as they stuck out their tongues trying to catch raindrops.

Of course, when the rain picked up just a tad, there was a mad dash for the house!

The chant, “Rain, rain, go away…” could be heard from the corner of the backyard .

Wee Sprouts: Green Beans.

Breakfast: Brown rice cakes with cream cheese and fresh grapes.

Lunch: Farm fresh egg casserole with shredded cheese and bread, PPC watermelon, and cauliflower.

PM Snack: Blue corn chips with refried beans.

Have a terrific weekend!

-Mindy

Our friends had lots of fun while outside this morning!

After naps, Anna, Emma, and Ruby relaxed with a good book.

Back outside, in the afternoon, Truman enjoyed the warm weather by playing in the grass and leaves.

Breakfast was English muffins with butter and grapes. Lunch consisted of tortillas and cheese, pears, and mixed vegetables. Afternoon snack was wheat crackers with sweet pea butter.

Have a good night!

Amanda

 

Today we would like to wish a very happy birthday to our friend Elliott! Your creativity and drive for knowledge inspire all of us every day. Welcome to 6! We are so happy to have you in Wee World.

Today is also my (Miss Jessica) birthday as well! Thanks to all my friends who posed for a picture with my dad who got to visit this morning.

Besides celebrating birthdays today we also had a chance to decorate pumpkins. This time instead of paint, we used a variety of brads, googly eyes, feathers, ribbon, etc. to make pumpkin faces. Some of these materials were hard to get onto the pumpkins, so we used a hammer and nails to make pilot holes. Friends rolled with this and worked hard to make their pumpkin the way they wanted!

Kindergarten: An oft-heard phrase among our kindergartners is, “can you take a picture of this?!” This week Jessica taught Elizabeth and Elliott how to use the camera so they could take some pictures of their work themselves. Today they took pictures of their building creation and then decided to use the pictures on the camera as references for their habitrail journals.

Elliott had a unique way of documenting his work: he drew a picture of the camera (and all its buttons) and then drew a picture of the picture on the camera.

Thanks to everyone who made this a great birthday day. Happy Thursday! –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Whole Grain Cheerios and fresh oranges. Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded beef and fresh broccoli and grapes. Snack: Homemade pumpkin muffins in honor of Elliott’s birthday and mozzarella cheese sticks!

*Just as a reminder, breakfast is served at Wee Friends from 7:45-9:00. If you would like your child to eat breakfast please arrive no later than 9:00 am. This allows children time to get ready for morning activities such as farm and swimming lessons and lets us open up the art table for morning work as well. If children arrive hungry after 9:00, we always have our Wee Sprout fresh vegetables available as well! Thank you for understanding.

Good afternoon! Today was a busy day at the farm.

First, we visited the barn and saw a cow being milked.

We also had the opportunity to pet a four-day-old calf! He was very soft.

Friends noticed a hole in the ceiling of the barn and were very curious. So we went up to the hay loft and saw the huge stacks of hay bales! We discussed how they get hay up into the loft and how they bring it down to feed the animals.

Next, we helped out on a farm project by breaking up clumps of dirt and spreading grass seed for a new path.

We had to spread lots of hay on top to keep the chickens from eating the grass seed and to retain moisture!

We also witnessed how to measure a baby goat’s temperature: you put the thermometer in his or her bottom! A poll during large group today found that 5 of 8 children said seeing this was their favorite thing they did on the farm today. 

We also went on a walk and explored milkweed, often opening up the seed pods and throwing the seeds into the air.

Feeling the silky seeds and trying to catch them in the air was a blast!

We ran through the fields and exercised our bodies.

We used our senses to locate poop and smell seeds!

We love going to the farm!

Hope you have a wonderful day on this sunshine-filled afternoon. –Jessica

Wee Sprouts: Red bell pepper. Breakfast: Whole grain oatmeal and fresh oranges. Lunch: Whole wheat tortillas with hummus, carrots and bananas. Snack: Homemade popcorn with butter and fresh blackberries/strawberries.

Anna and Rosemary picked play phones and pretended to have conversations with their moms and dads.

Then they brought as many phones as they could find over to David, so he could talk to his family, too!

Breakfast was whole grain oatmeal and grapes. Lunch consisted of farm fresh eggs with whole wheat flat bread, grapes, and cucumbers. Afternoon snack was string cheese and raisins.

Have a good night!

Amanda