For the last month or so, Wee Friends have been watching a Morning Dove mama in a tree. Last week, we noticed a wee baby under her breast. Today, we brought grown up binoculars to school to see if we could study the mama and her baby more closely. Friends enjoyed seeing their whole world up close.

Wee Friends love cups. Last week, Melinda bought two packages of plastic cups for the playground. They have served friends in the most educational way: identifying colors and shapes, sharing, pulling lids off and pushing that back on, filling, dumping and scooping, and seeking and finding.

Lisa continued the cup exploration inside by guiding friends as they practiced pouring water into cups, from various sized pitchers.

When we listen very carefully, we are reminded just how many times each day we hear “Let’s pretend……..”. Wee Friends thrive and delight and learn in their worlds of pretend play. Our preschool quartet spent nearly an hour in Pretend Puppy Land. They were very specific about their play and in a sense, are being very clear about their needs.  i.e. “I am a mad Chihuahua!” “You are a bad guy and when you eat this you turn good. When you eat it again…you turn bad!”  “You are a bad guy and I am on your lap and you try to keep me on your lap.” When we, as teachers, read between the lines of play, we learn a lot. They really like bad guys.

Puppy massages with delicious smelling lotion.

Literacy. Everyday.

Ada wondered where the location went after it was rubbed into her skin. We used TP to explore a porous, absorbent material, like our skin. She saw what happened to the lotion.

After the pouring exercise, Lisa added bubbles and watercolor and rags and the sensorial experience continued, engaging friends for the whole activity hour!

Three year olds LOVE Magana Tiles. Love them.

And Wee Sprouts.

And watching themselves chew Wee Sprouts.

Wee Sprouts: WF garden green beans. Breakfast: Peanut buttered toast on whole bread and bananas. Lunch: Whole grain cous cous with ham and cheddar cheese, cantaloupe and Cassie’s fresh garden tomatoes. (Thanks, Cassie and Michelle!) PM Snack: Banana/Mango smoothies and crackers.

Have a great day.

Good Afternoon Everyone!

Our friends love starting their morning off with a good story. Each child has their favorite book but we’re getting better at reading a variety of books. It’s always good to have that one book that you LOVE!

Clara had an eventful morning! She worked on her gross motor skills as she ran around the room. Then, she decided to work on her arm muscles as she pulled on a toy that made music. Miss Marty had play time with Clara as she got her feet tickled!

P.K. took some alone time after some intense playing! He realized he had to sit down and take a breather.

While outside, Daniel worked in the sand box where he practiced his dump and fill skills. Marina saw that there were some rocks and pebbles on the side walk so she decided to go get the broom. She brushed the pebbles back to where they belong!

Everyone enjoyed sliding down the slide this morning! This activity allows children to work on their coordination and stability as they slide down.

Daniel put out his hand and said, “Marina, high five!”

Our friends loved riding the bikes today! We’re working on pushing with our feet and making sure we’re steering the wheel the right way.

Daniel and P.K. enjoyed some good laughs while in the play house today!

Marina bounced up and down on a bouncy ball! It was a big ball so she had to use her balancing skills.

P.K. gave nice, soft hugs to his brother Nate and his friend Max.

Zoey studies toys and people with more intent lately.

Emma and Zoey enjoyed time together in the kitchen while children were sleeping. Emma took some of the toys on Zoeys bouncy seat and showed them to her friend.

For breakfast, children had corn flakes with apples. AM snack was string cheese. Lunch consisted of whole wheat tortillas with soy butter, banana, and mixed vegetables. PM snack was pretzels and banana.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

 

Today we say goodbye to Kai. Kai will start 1st Grade at Good Shepherd Montessori School tomorrow. Kai came to Wee Friends when he was 2 months old: October, 2006. WE LOVE YOU KAI!!!! And thanks to the Whitlow family for 6 years of support, encouragement and friendship!

In regards to the Parking Policy as stated in Tami’s email yesterday, here is what one Wee Friend family would like to add: “It is helpful if parents park closest to the nearest/next car. Taking up three spots to drop off (a child) means a much harder drop off for parents.” Thank you, as always, for supporting WF and the neighborhood parking situation.

Here are yesterday’s photos!

 

And today’s thoughts and photos……

This past March, the Wee Friends staff attended an outstanding conference led by MICHAEL BRANDWEIN, an internationally recognized expert on management, communication, leadership and team-building. His topic that day was Early Childhood and his focus, Life Skills. He stated simply that our primary job as Early Childhood Educators is to get kids ready for life. With a large three year old population this fall, the Wee Friends curriculum returns to an emphasis in building Life Skills. While we’ll continue to rely on the Project Approach: our child initiated method of developing lessons, we’ll be spending lots of our school time working on the fundamentals of being a social person, and all that comes along with that. In short….getting them ready for life! Our preschoolers and kindergartener will continue to work on age appropriate activities as they get ready for school life outside of Wee Friends!

Wee Sprouts: Carrots and cherry tomatoes. Breakfast: Cheerios and apple slices. Lunch: Peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat tortillas, mixed veggies and bananas.

Have a great day.

Happy Monday!

**Just as a reminder, Wee Wee Friends will be closed next Monday which is September 3rd in observance of Labor Day.

Zoey is continuing to work on sitting up and moving while on her belly. She is becoming more stable and able to hold herself up. Crawling is in her future!

Emma is strengthening her legs so that she can walk soon! She is taking a few steps at a time. We’ve been working with her and she loves walking as much as possible.

Our friends played with insects this morning. We talked about the different insects that children had. We lined them up in a row so that we could see all of the insects.

Clara worked on her fine motor skills this morning by buckling the high chair. This is one of our friends favorite activities as they getting prepared to eat.

The slide is a great place for friends to push themselves to do something they wouldn’t do. P.K. has been getting braver by the day! He goes down by himself and loves it!

Daniel and P.K. have been playing together in the sand box and the rock area.

Children played together in the house outside. They worked on sharing and teamwork as they made special dishes such as ice cream!

The teeter totter is such a hit outside! Children swing back and forth with their friends as they sing, “Teeter-totter, teeter-totter.”

It was wet outside this morning and Daniel loved standing on the basketball hoop bottom. It was slippery so he had to constantly catch himself. It helped with his balance.

Our friends love to play together. They stood at the sand box and hit the sitting water with their hands. The water splashed all over our friends.

For breakfast, children had Chex and raisins. AM snack was apples. Lunch consisted of grilled cheese on whole wheat bread, corn, and blueberries. PM snack was goldfish and raisins.

Have a great evening!

-Mindy

Happy Monday!

We are unable to upload today’s photo but here are a few bullets from the weekend and  morning:

• Wee Wee/Wee Friends teachers spent Saturday morning in a Professional Development workshop led by speech therapist and whole child expert Allison Pascarella. Topics of focus were detecting developmental speech delays early and how to support individual developmental behaviors across the spectrum of learning.
• This week is Ellie’s transition week to the pre-school house! Welcome Ellie!
• With so many Wee Friends potty training, we have re-entered the World of Potty. For us, this translates into songs (“Flush and Wash” and “How Much Soap Do You Use?”), creative drama (acting out the steps to going potty) and today, a Lisa guided collage creation: cutting out photos in magazines of who goes potty. “Cats go potty in a litter box!” explained Arleigh.
• Tami brought in many new gross motor materials for friends to explore how their bodies move in the space around them. A soft tunnel, two sitting bouncy balls and a padded gymnastics tunnel provided Wee Friends lots of fun, exercise and spatial awareness opportunities.

Wee Sprouts: Pea pods. Breakfast: Raisin Bran and fruit. Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with tuna fish and peas and  watermelon.

The following announcements, along with permission slips, will be on your cubbies to collect tonight.  For everyone’s convenience, I thought I’d post them on the blog too:)

Please take a minute to read the following WF/WWF announcements, policy clarifications & changes, and general information!

SIBLINGS IN OUR ENVIRONMENT AND CHILDREN IN HOUSE WITH PARENTS:

I do not like to set policies without a reason, but I feel that it is necessary to communicate that we have been experiencing difficulties in a few areas:

• If the group is outside, parents and children need to be outdoors.  In other words, it is NOT ok for parents to be inside eating/playing with their child while the everyone else is outside.
• Siblings are not included in our ratios and when they are “added” in for even 5-10 minutes while parents socialize at drop off/pick up times, it can be difficult for teachers.  It is especially tricky for teachers in directing the siblings to the expectations of our classroom (cleaning up/ proper use of materials/etc) when they are not part of our class and it is assumed that their parents are in charge of their behavior.

That being said, we will continue to welcome siblings into our family atmosphere classroom, but please keep visits with siblings present brief, keep the siblings in the same play space as the WF/WWF kids, and monitor their behavior.

• AT NO TIME ARE WF/WWF CHILDREN/SIBLINGS TO BE UNSUPERVISED PLAYING INSIDE WF/WWF WHILE PARENTS ARE TALKING TO TEACHERS WHO ARE SUPERVISING OUTSIDE.  This has been happening a lot!

OUTSIDE FOOD & SPECIAL SNACKS

Please do not bring in any foods for your child to “finish” at WF/WWF, unless it is a whole fruit or vegetable (or any special diet foods).  If your child has the remainder of a whole fruit or vegetable, they may sit in the kitchen to finish their car snack.  Other foods (crackers, granola, sweetened yogurts, fast food, donuts) need to be consumed outside of our classroom.

If you are bringing in a birthday snack, please choose one that complements our nutritional guidelines.  Some healthy treats might be: frozen blueberries with frozen yogurt, frozen bananas dipped in yogurt, fresh fruit kebobs, fresh vegetable kebobs, quick breads (zuch, carrot,etc) or muffins,  special home made trail mixes of any kind, all fruit (usually organic) unsweetened fruit leathers, whole grain tortillas cut into shapes with a dip or spread & granola.

DROP OFF TIMES:

WF/WWF opens at 7:45.  Please do not enter the building until 7:45.  While there are teachers in the buildings prior to that time, they have arrived early to attend to other things and are not ready for children until our opening time.

PICK UP TIMES:

Wee Friends closes AT 5:30. The expectation is that parents are in the building and working on exiting BY 5:30.   If parents would like to talk with the teacher or spend some time with their child at school (potty/drink of water etc), please arrive earlier to allow time for this.  Please note that 5:30 is the line in the sand where we start charging by the minute if a parent has yet to arrive. Teachers have been instructed to consistently document for late fees all who arrive past 5:30.

We have experienced regular lateness from a variety of people.  It really is a snowball effect that those arriving at 5:25 don’t feel compelled to leave by 5:30 if there are still children unclaimed for the day.  So please be considerate of your teachers that are ready to finish their day at WF/WWF and move smoothly into their personal time.

PARKING:

I believe everyone is clear on where WF/WWF parents are supposed to park (East side of street only, parked legally/right direction, staying briefly for on street, use church lot for lengthy p/u).  Please be courteous to our neighbors by following our parking policies.             TEACHERS HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED TO ASK YOU TO MOVE YOUR CAR IF YOU ARE NOT IN COMPLIANCE WITH THIS POLICY.  This makes them very uncomfortable to have to ask you to do this so please park well!

FEES FOR SPECIALS:

A $5/week late fee will now be applied to late payments for our extracurricular programs (ymca classes, tumbling bus, and farm fees).   (Sorry.   It is one of my biggest struggles to keep track of these because I am tracking people down literally months later for payments for specials. I am lucky to get 33% back on any given due dateL)

Farm cost this year is $5.00 per child per trip, which will be billed in November

Tumbling bus is $80.00 for 10 weeks of class, beginning on September 10^th

IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO DO TUMBLING BUS, PLEASE WRITE NO ON THE FORM WITH YOUR CHILD’S NAME TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR US TO TRACK!*-

NO TUITION INCREASE THIS YEAR:

We will not increase our tuition rates for this school year.

VACATION TIMES:

Our vacation times for the 2012-2013 school year can always be referenced on the blog under Vacation Times.

Please note that our summer 2013 vacation time is one week later than it has been in prior years (closed July 4^th to July 12^th.  Additionally, we will be closed one day longer for that vacation.

2012-2013 Calendar

Monday, 9/3 Labor Day

Thursday/Friday 11/22 & 11/23 Thanksgiving (2 days)

Monday-Friday, 12/24-1/4 Winter Vacation (2 weeks)

Friday, 3/29 Good Friday

Monday, 5/27 Memorial Day

Friday 7/4 to Friday 7/12 Independence Day & Summer Vacation (7 days)

PERMISSION SLIPS:

I asking all WF families to fill out a consolidated field trip permission slip, even if your child is not involved in one of the programs listed on the form.  It is meant to consolidate paper and your time in filling out multiple forms.   It is also meant to give us some freedom with the older preschoolers to take a “spontaneous” trip to the farmers market or library if we need materials for something we are in the moment doing.

Any trips not on the form will require another perm slip.

DONATIONS:

Ornamental grasses: I would like to add more ornamental grasses if anyone has any they would like to split at home!

Wee Sprouts:  We always enjoy donations for our Wee Sprouts bowls.  Especially odd harvests from your own garden that are unusual tastes or textures for the kids!

SESAME STREET UPDATE WF:

We are still slated to be filmed for several of the 30 sec to 2 minute segments.  However, even though I just attended a WNIT meeting last week, I still have no idea of the time frame!   WNIT is working on itJ

CLOTHES

The season is changing; please bring 2-3 sets of LABELED clothing items.

Please note that if you label your child’s personal items, we have a better shot of getting their underwear, socks, mittens, shirts, etc returned to their cubby.  We really do try!

Thanks!

Tami

Happy Friday!

Here are a few pictures that were taken throughout the day!

For breakfast, children had Chex and apples. AM snack was corn. Lunch consisted of ham on whole wheat tortilla, corn, and applesauce. PM snack was raisins and goldfish.

Have a terrific weekend!

-Mindy

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers and pea pods. Breakfast: Chex and bananas. Lunch: Ham and whole wheat tortilla sandwiches, applesauce and WF green beans.

Have a great weekend.

Good Afternoon!

One of our children’s sensory play opportunities today was shaving cream that was mixed with water color paint as well as pink sprinkles. Our friends are getting more involved with sensorial activities that are offered throughout the day. Most of the activities are new and different! We’re working on allowing children to have a wide range of sensorial opportunities in the classroom throughout the given day.

Children mush it between their hands.

We also make pretty pictures on the table with our hands and fingers.

The shaving cream has an interesting texture and feel that children love to explore.

Outside is a great chance for children to work together and play in a group. This is one of the places where cooperation skills are built as well as important social skills.

P.K. tried various activities outside today. One of his favorites is the teeter totter. He sings his favorite songs while swinging back and forth.

The slide is a special place outside where children learn patience. We’re getting better at waiting for our friends to be done and to clear the slide area before sliding down. Children often reach out for the hand of their friend sitting next to them. Friends can slide down together while holding hands.

Clara is cautious as she walks up the steps. She holds onto the railing and makes sure she takes her time.

While her friends were napping, Emma sat in the kitchen and colored on white paper. This is a wonderful way for her to continue to strengthen her fine motor skills. She enjoyed putting the crayon to the paper and making lines.

Zoey loves exploring the different parts of her new exer-saucer. She’s still working on sitting up by herself which is continuing to advance day by day. While in her saucer, she swivels around to look and play with different toys. It’s a great way to build her leg strength!

Miss Melinda sat with Zoey and Emma while they both gave soft, gentle touches to one another. They enjoy their bonding time while their older Wee Wee friends are sleeping!

For breakfast, children had toasted whole wheat bagels with cinnamon and butter and apples. AM snack was corn. Lunch consisted of whole grain rice with carrots and celery, roasted sweet potatoes with raisins. PM snack was graham crackers and pineapple.

Have a wonderful night!

-Mindy

Breakfast: Raisin Bran and raisins. Lunch: Whole grain rice with celery and carrots, roasted sweet potatoes and raisins.

Have a great day.