A quick reminder about our breakfast service! 9am is our target time to put breakfast away so that we can move on to table top lessons and activities. We will assume that if your Wee Friend arrives after 9am, they will have eaten breakfast at home. While we’ll never deny your child food if they haven’t eaten,  if you drop your child off after 9:00, we will direct them to the Wee Sprouts, which we serve, unlimited,  all day.  Don’t hesitate to come to us with questions about our breakfast routine!

Today our Block Puzzle piece of art was hung in the housekeeping loft. But before it went up, we took one last chance to recreate work of art into a game board. First, we added plastic bears and a die, counting and moving from block to block. Then we added trucks and tiny dinosaurs which were used to pattern and create lines. We added our mega dinos and pretended they were on the attack.

Jane: “We are going on a long trip.”

Teacher: “We are going to India!”

Jane: “No, we are going to Albania.”

Marta: “Would you like the pasta with eggs?”

Long billowy curtain sheers became our airplane and we studied yesterday’s plane sketch to remind ourselves who we wanted to be in our airplane exploration. Then we took off….to Albania. A flight that lasted “1800 hours”. There were two captains in the cockpit who controlled an aircraft carrying passengers and flight attendants. As friends imagined their trip, we wrote down words they used. Later, we talked about and defined the words. There was A LOT of food on this flight.

The Wee baby dolls were well cared for this morning, under the loving touches of several Wee Friends. They were coddled, fed and tucked in as the girls negotiated materials, who was who and what happens next.

Mel read Cinderella. Friends who heard the story rushed to the art table to create costumes for a character they had met in the book.

Wee Sprouts! Farm fresh egg casserole! Our snack to day will be whole wheat bagels and cream cheese.

Have a great day.

Good Afternoon!

Lu Lu enjoyed her floor time today! Between friends bringing her different toys throughout the day and laughing with her friends, she had an eventful day!

She worked on strengthening her core by bending over to reach for toys that were slightly out of her reach. This movement and ability to bend will strengthen different parts of the body. The feeling of independence while playing is an important one that all of our friends enjoy when that time comes.

The gross motor area is one of varying abilities. When we go down the slide, we have to keep our body in check or we might get hurt. There are times when children are by the ladder where we really have to watch where our body is and to make sure we stay safe at all times. Controlling our body along with balance is an important part of our day!

Lately, we’ve been working with colors wherever we see them. There are certain books that friends point out the different colors that they notice. The stackable blocks are another aspect of color acknowledgement. Today, when P.K. was working with the stackable blocks we looked around the room to see what other colors we could see. P.K. pointed to his shirt and said, “Red!” There’s that point in a toddlers life where the verbal aspect of development spikes. Most of our friends are at that moment . Conversations throughout the past couple of weeks have increased in vocabulary!

Relationships grow every day. Daniel was away on a family vacation last week and our friends sure did miss him! P.K. and Daniel spent all morning together. They joined each other under the habitrail where they kicked their feet up to the sky. It’s wonderful to see two friends just laughing together, building relationships.

Magnatiles were their next stop. Sharing and taking turns was evident throughout their play. When the tower fell over, they laughed and started building again. Their perseverance was awesome!

P.K. said, “Look, a triangle!” The recognition of this shape was great!

Literacy and book reading ended our Tuesday. Throughout independent reading and partner/group reading, friends are extending their vocabulary by listening to friends or their teachers.

For breakfast, children had whole wheat bagels with butter and cinnamon along with bananas. AM snack was corn. Lunch consisted of whole wheat tortillas with melted cheese and ham, apples, and corn. PM snack was string cheese and pretzels.

Have a terrific evening.

 

When one Wee Friend has an idea, the teachers hustle to execute the friend’s vision and invite as many friends as possible to invest in the vision. This morning the suggestion was to make “the biggest airplane in the world.” First, we decided to sketch out a design. Before we knew it, several friends had gathered at the table to find their place and voice in the exploration.

Emergent art=we set out the materials and friends use them in a developmentally appropriate way-usually!) to create a work of art. This morning, foam shapes, glue, felt, Styrofoam and pom pom balls were made available.

Forts. Kids love forts. Small, safe, comfy places to curl up, hide out, and make believe in.

Literacy FAB K.6.2-Use tools such as drawings to model and solve problems. For the last two days in our post-lunch large group, we have read a “life skills” themed book. Next, we’ve brainstormed different friendship conflicts. Lastly, we’ve drawn our solutions in an artistic way.

Wee Sprouts: Celery sticks. Breakfast: Corn flakes and apples. Lunch: Whole grain flatbread with cheese and ham, apple/raisin fruit salad and corn. Snack: Yogurt and apple slices.

Have a great day!

Happy Monday! Hope everyone’s weekend was spectacular!

**This upcoming Friday (March 22nd), we’ll be having a development professional come out to do an in-service with the teachers at Wee Wee Friends. She’ll be helping us to determine certain milestones that each child should be achieving and the development of children in general. We wanted to make parents aware that she will be coming into our classroom for a few hours in the morning. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! Thanks!

Today, we started off the day with calm play. This helped us to get into the day and settle in.

P.K. and Eve headed into the kitchen where they worked with tongs and fluff balls. They both worked on their fine motor skills and colors as well!

Music was turned on at the request of our friends! P.K. moved the scarf over his head while Eve moved her body to the left and to the right.

Eve and Emma pointed out their favorite fish as they went swimming by.

Gross motor occupied our afternoon. We enjoyed standing on the colored cubes and jumping off of them!

Clara took two circular mats and put them together. She slid down the slide and went under the bridge like structure that she built! Friends loved following her lead.

Language and book reading took up a good portion of our morning before lunch time. We’re doing a better job at getting a book to read and then taking care of that book when we’re done reading it. Taking ownership for our toys is very important!

Emma and Clara worked on their ballet today using the ballet bar! They enjoyed practicing different moves and perfecting their balancing skills.

Daniel said, “Two hats!” Everyone looked and Daniel had put two hats on his head!

For breakfast, children had kix and apples. AM snack was corn. Lunch consisted of whole wheat noodles with tuna, peas, and a mixture of banana and pineapple. PM snack was whole grain crackers and cheddar cheese slices.

Have a terrific evening!

-Mindy

Message from Tami:

• Blog change…we have a new plug-in for our blog that will allow us to post all of the pictures we have taken for the day in a photo album slide show.  We have tons of great shots each day that never make the blog so this will allow parents to view them ALL and it will make the blog text easier to read.  This means that each day, you will see just a few featured pictures within the blog text and there will  be a photo album at the end each blog!
• We are on break from the Tumbling Bus for 2 weeks and today was the end of the current session.  Blue Bus will return on Monday, April 8th. 

At a Wee Friend’s request, we offered a sensory exploration at the art table. Lisa invited friends to sit down and then she, literally, sprayed shaving cream on the table top for friends to ooze, mix, squish, smell and paint with.

Whenever the opportunity presents itself, we build in a literacy lesson, particularly with our older friends who are reading or on the cusp of writing/reading.

The ice cold spritzy day kept us inside, but we worked it out, first by acting out The Wizard of Oz and Cinderella. A few friends crawled beneath the orange satin fabric and pretended to be beneath an orange tree, eating and squeezing oranges. Music ended with a sensory awareness game of passing an object around and under the blanket, then using our hands as eyes to guess what it is. Then the parachute!

For breakfast whole wheat toast with PB and fresh pear slices.  WeeSprouts were carrots.  Lunch was whole wheat pasta and tuna, peas, and pineapple/banana.

Today’s photo album!  Enjoy!

Happy Friday!

I want to start off by saying an early Happy Birthday to Miss Marty! She turns a BIG 29 tomorrow! Have you ever tried taking a posed picture with a two year old and three one year olds? We wish her a very Happy Birthday! We love you!

**We have a confirmed case of pink eye going through Wee Wee Friends. The symptoms include puss like discharge from the eye along with a relatively “pink eye”.

Visit http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/tc/pinkeye-topic-overview for more information.

P.K. started his morning off with magnatile work. His creations are becoming more and more complex every day.

He enjoyed knocking down his tiles and yelling, “I did it!” He also enjoyed rebuilding them again. And again .

Clara, Eve, and Zoey took excellent care of their babies. They were well fed and looked after today.

Lu Lu had a great day! She went through the motions of rolling over and having splendid floor time!

Laughter and smiles consumed our Friday.

A lot of time was jumping and going crazy in the gross motor area!

Friends Clara and P.K. pretended to be dinosaurs before snack time. “Roar” went the dinosaur!

While dinosaurs stomped around in the kitchen, chef Eren made delicious creations in the kitchen.

As mommys and daddys came to pick up their children for the weekend, we watched out the window to see how was leaving.

For breakfast, children had chex and raisins. AM snack was corn. Lunch consisted of ham and cheese tortillas, pears, and corn. PM snack was cottage cheese and pretzels.

Have a terrific weekend!

-Mindy

 

Orange slices and whole wheat bagels with cream cheese was today’s breakfast.

Ooey, gooey chocolate cake (for the teachers!) was our HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Marty, who also turns 29…tomorrow!

Friends busied themselves with old and new projects and Melinda set up a science experiment.

Homemade sidewalk chalk.

With cornstarch, water and watercolor, friends measured, poured and stirred cupcake tins to the brim with their concoction.

Before Finn and Ada joined the gang at the table, they continued working (and side coaching) on the Muppet.

Finn, having made a Muppet, explained to Ada what it’s like to use a glue gun.

Next, a sensory exploration with the cornstarch. How can it be hard and silky soft at the same time, we discussed.

Lisa took mathematicians on a picnic where they counted the number of ants who landed on their blanket of food.

Ben experimented with cause and effect: he filled the toaster up, and dumped the contents out. Several times over.

A Trios village was erected.

A pirate captain finds inspiration with a new ship. His first mates geared up to set sail.

Another cause and effect experiment brewed with Leo lifting the sail flaps up and down, head bobbing in and out.

Negotiating the terms of the trip.

Ada asked if she could put on a puppet show. Marts jumped on board because she was working with the original WF Muppet, Annie. So we gathered at our puppet theatre and the show began.

Friends were enraptured and the girls took their bows.

With the excitement of performing in the air, Lisa created a new Wee Friday tradition: Wee Friends Open Mike. Everyone who wanted, a turn singing either an original or a familiar song. Here’s the video of our friend Ellie taking her turn: Open Mic WF 3/18 . To warm up, Lisa had them sing “Sunshine On My Shoulders” that Max ended up leading, belting out the lyrics at the top of his voice.

Leo provided a warm blanket for the girls on the front row.

 

This WF, signing off for the weekend.

Wee Sprouts: Broccoli. Lunch: Peanut butter on whole wheat, pears and corn. Snack: Peanuts and apple slices.

Good Afternoon!

**We’re asking all parents if they could donate grocery bags or plastic bags for our diaper bag supply, it’d be greatly appreciated!

Here are a few pictures taken throughout the day.

For breakfast, children had whole wheat bagel with cinnamon and butter along with oranges. Lunch consisted of egg and melted cheese tortilla sandwiches, fresh pineapple and banana along with mixed vegetables.

Have a terrific evening.

-Mindy

Congratulations, Finn, on your ice skating badge!

Kashi and raisins started our day.

Macy loaned us her alphabet board for a letter matching lesson. Using a letter puzzle, we chose a letter and found the corresponding one on Macy’s board.

It is a huge developmental deal when friends find ‘their letter’ or a family member’s letter and all day, through activities and conversations, we foster this literacy hunt! Above, Marina picked out ‘G’ and expressed “Look! I found my grandma’s letter!”

We began working on our afternoon visual schedule.

Macy and Jane spent a large portion of their morning at the island studying and working with stickers. Throughout this one on one work we heard accolades: “You’re my best friend!” and negotiations: “I’ll have this one and you can have that one.”

Using connector squares, Finn created an anchor for his ship. Behind him, Ben has long since mastered the habitrail climb, up and down!

Lisa led an alphabet letter exploration with our sand letter boards and crayons.

Happy fairy ballerinas working together to prepare a meal.

Ada is completing her Muppet step by patient step. Her sewing activity captured the attention of other Wee Friends who then chose their own activities using felt, tape, scissors and thread.

Elliott and Ben have discovered a mutual love for the habitrail and building things and Elliott is mentoring his new friend in the ways of trucks and construction!

Max (and Amy—Thank You!) shared a days of the week/weather/seasons/numbers and clock activity board with us. Leo spotted it on the shelf, pulled it off and began his study, first by flipping the hands of the clock around.

We have voracious readers at Wee Friends.

Wee Sprouts: Broccoli. Lunch: Tortillas with melted cheese, peas/carrots and bananas. Snack: Yogurt and pretzels.

“Oh yah…..I love my life!”