We began our day finishing our mysterious baking soda art projects. Today we added water color to the images created by the dried baking soda.

We invited friends to share and explore the question “Which side of the bed did you get up on? The grumpy side or happy side?” We followed with a discussion expressing, if you DO get up on the grumpy side of the bed, how do you make yourself feel better? Eating food, snuggling with mama and “giving myself a kiss” were a few of the answers.

Lisa played “Where Are You?” if you are brushing your teeth, or eating your breakfast to name a few.

A few friends played “Give and Take” with the rain stick. Each friend took one end of the rain stick and together, the two friends took turns giving and taking the shifting rocks inside. Each friend was an equal participant, with no one designated the leader. Each friend did/his her part, to get the job of shifting the rocks over, done. The teacher side coached, encouraging this equality by expressing “Listen! Watch your friend! Your turn to ‘take’, hold your body still as your friend ‘gives’!”

We took it a step further and had two friends stand side by side, and with the same ‘give and take’ dynamic, talk to one another. Listening, watching and taking turns. Then we asked each friend which they preferred giving or taking.

Have a great day.

Wee Sprouts: Celery sticks. Breakfast: Whole wheat buttered toast and bananas. Lunch: Whole grain rice with mozzarella cheese, orange slices and corn. Snack: Cranberry bread and cheese.

Good Morning!

Wee Friends recognizes that delays and closings are horribly inconvenient.  However, we balance that with the safety of getting our staff to work and being able to get the street, sidewalks and stairs safe for our clients.  Hence, the 10:00 delay for nearly all public school snow days rather than the close.

Please note that parents are responsible for checking the news for school closings on snowy/icy mornings.  If the schools are closed for odd reasons (cold), please check to blog as that is going to be our means of communicating any delay or closing information.

I have tweaked our weather policy slightly so I wanted to share it:

Inclement Weather/ Emergency Closing Policy

Wee Friends will delay opening until 10:00 on any day that Mishawaka OR South Bend Schools are closed or delayed for weather.  If we feel it is necessary to CLOSE FOR THE DAY, we will post the closing on the blog by 8:00 a.m.

VACATION DAYS

We are closed:

Thursday and Friday, November 28-29 for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Monday, December 23rd through Friday January 3rd for our 2 week Winter Break.  We will re-open on Monday, January 6th.

This information, as well as a handout outlining other WF policies as a yearly refresher, will be in your children’s cubbies tonight.

Thanks you for being part of Wee Friends!

Tami

 

 

Good Afternoon!

Our morning was filled with shaving cream! Our three two year olds dove right in.

Friends put toys into the shaving cream so they could play hide and seek with them!

It’s so amazing to watch children wonder about the snow. Eren yelled, “Look, the snow!” while Emma let us know, “It’s white!”

Emma requested shakers this afternoon. We turned on the music while friends used their shakers to make music.

For breakfast, children had cheesy eggs and bananas. Lunch consisted of cheese tortillas, corn, and oranges. PM snack was string cheese and crackers.

Have a great evening!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! Winter is upon us. Here is a reminder/request, per Tami: please bring in a pair of labeled, insulated mittens for your Wee Friend. Mittens that can stay here at school and not need to go home at the end of the day. If your child can, independently, put gloves on, please feel free to bring gloves. We’ll keep these mittens on the clothes line, hung near the piano. THANK YOU SO MUCH for working with us on this!

FYI-During the winter months, our goal is to make sure our friends get outside as much as possible. We generally dress them in winter gear (snow pants, mittens and hats) if the temperature drops below 30 (wet or dry!)

Who? What? Where? Literacy FAB K.3.5. Mel has been reading aloud and having kids identify these three W’s.

We had an island filled with friends and word books. (Oh! If your child has is working with a word book, please leave it in the cubby for continued work!). Friends work with words that interest them: Rino-dozer, The Magic Tree House, Princess, Ballerina and Tuesday.

At the art table, we invited friends to explore (and smell!) squishy lotion. We added watercolor to it. Then we switched to shaving cream and shredded bar soap.

The big finale of the sensory exploration was the animal prints. We stamped them, identified them and wrote out the name of the animal to whom they belong.

And outside, all bundled up, we found more tracks!

Hope you are enjoying this day.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Whole wheat bagels with cream cheese and bananas. Lunch: Hummus on whole grain flatbread, pear slices and raw carrots/broccoli. Snack: Yogurt and cranberries.

Happy Monday!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Our sensorial gear was high this morning as friends got a chance to work with flaxseed. While a few friends chose to work with our hands, others taste tested it! The concoction is flaxseed with water which is completely edible!

You can tell by some of the faces that at first touch, it felt a little foreign. Friends warmed up to the idea and had a blast feeling it and moving it around their tub.

Friends followed one another on the logs.

We even hummed a tune as we walked!

Some of us fell but we got right back up! Perseverance at its finest!

Eren, Eve, and Emma worked at the table this afternoon with the pegs. Concentration was needed when children built their pegs too high! When they fell, they rebuilt them! Eve decided to focus on certain colors .

For breakfast, children had corn flakes and oranges. Lunch consisted of whole grain noodles with kidney beans, green beans, and banana. PM snack was cottage cheese and graham crackers.

Have a great night!

“Gerunds are words ending in “ing”. It is believed that using gerunds can help reinforce the positive behavior another would like to see rather than attacking a bad behavior. For example, a teacher might see students running down the hall and calmly say “walking” rather than yell “stop running” in an agitated voice. He might say “gently” (an adverb) instead of insisting “calm down!” (from Positive Discipline by Jane Nelson).

Best practice in the early childhood classroom encourages the use of gerunds. Instead of “stop talking”, it’s “listening.” Instead of “stop whining!” it might be, “talking.” So what to do when a group of friends are playing Candy Lane, and you find yourself saying “You can’t jump around from color to color. You have to follow the path. You have to follow the rules of the game.” While it’s absolutely true (right? ), it didn’t sound good when I heard the words spoken. There’s another way!

Gerunds. Not “You can’t jump from color to color!” but instead, “following”. Same message, different semantics.

Lots of friends followed Santa and became his reindeer. Then their game morphed and they followed Santa as he revved up his Rino-Dozer. 

Following. Follow the path. In a board game you do have to follow the rules of the game and the path chosen for you. In creative play—-you can choose! We think both are important life skills, and semantics are important too.

“Stop hitting!”

“Hugging.”

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers. Breakfast: Cereal and pear slices. Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with red beans, apple/persimmon fruit salad and green beans. Snack: Rice cakes and peanut butter.

 

Happy Friday!

Our Friday started off with some musical play. First, we got out the shaker logs. Next came the drums and the pianos. Soon, it was a musical frenzy in Wee Wee land! Music over here. Music over there. It was great!

Outside time allowed our friends to run around in the nice crisp air.

Eren and Emma echoed to their friends who were far away!

For breakfast, children had kix and apples. Lunch consisted of roast beef brown rice, oranges, and mixed vegetables. PM snack was animal crackers and raisins.

Have a terrific weekend!

How do we invite others into our zones of joy?

We’ve observed that when you are two or three or four, it’s an open-hearted and inclusive invitation. Today was Ellie’s day. Ellie and Whitney. Ellie has a favorite song. It is  “I Have Nothing” by Whitney Houston. The minute we pressed play, Ellie entered a zone of expressive joy that was beautiful and contagious. Watching her, and the friends that said ‘yes’ to her invitation into joy, was amazing!

And then we experimented with gelatinous flax seed.

 

I hope your answer to today’s invitations for Wee Joy…is yes.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Cereal and orange slices. Lunch: Roast beef brown rice, mixed veggies and orange slices. Snack: Yogurt and pear slices.

A day of Wee discoveries. Like always. But today a detective was in the house starting a conversation about discovery. So we jumped on it! Lisa created a mystery art project that involved baking soda. We’ll fill you in tomorrow on what we discover.

Aislinn inspired a word discovery game. She said a word, then a teacher said a word. They went back and forth creating a stream of words connected by meaning or association. Yo! Yo! Annie came over for a visit and invited other friends to join in the word game (re-named by Yo! Yo! Annie), “I Love Words”.  Two friends stood facing each other on purple lines and discovered new words together.

Then we sang “A-B-C”. Each friend had to pass an apple around the circle as they sang their letter. They discovered that they COULD sing and pass at the same time!

Kind words and exchanges were met during this puzzle discovery. Marina counted out three equal groups of puzzle pieces and then, together, the girls worked at assembling them. We heard: “Let’s work together!” and “Can I help too?”.

Later, a group of friends discovered they could match the rhyming puzzle by working together!

Wee Friendship. The daily discovery and celebration.

No mystery there.

Wee Sprouts: Broccoli. Breakfast: Oatmeal and pear slices. Lunch: Farm fresh egg casserole with potatoes, orange slices and whole wheat tortillas. Snack: Cottage cheese and animal crackers.

Hello!

“Rain, rain, go away. We want to go out and play!”

On this dreary day, we found different things to do inside!

We made sure to show off our gorgeous smiles to make one another happy.

“Cheese!”

Friends formed a band where they rocked out using different instruments such as piano, xylophone, and drums. We played soft music. We played LOUD music.

An obstacle course was made for friends to follow. Eve added to the course by bringing the blocks over and placed them in various places.

Even though the weather was icky, our day was top notch .

For breakfast, children had eggs and banana. Lunch consisted of ham and melted cheese on toast, mixed vegetables, and apples. PM snack was yogurt and crackers.

Have a LOVELY night!