Good Afternoon!

We saw ‘HIM’ today. Dressed in red and black with a long white beard. He was walking over to Wee Friends to participate in the wonderful caroling that went on throughout the neighborhood. Our friends were amazed at the sighting of Santa!

We watched out the window as our older Wee Friends started to walk around to different houses around the neighborhood.

We watched as they went across the street to sing to our neighbors.

Of course we wanted to hear the amazing singing as well. So we sat on the front porch and listened to our Wee Friends sing lovely holiday songs.

Most of our morning consisted of puzzles. We completed our puzzles by ourselves and with some of our friends. A few of us completed our puzzles without any help (WOW!) We were sure proud of ourselves.

We used our fine motor skills to put the pieces into the correct place. We had a lot of patience this morning as we worked on a few difficult puzzles.

Eve says, “Cheese!”

We gathered in the kitchen where friends took turns cooking up delicious meals!

Team work and cooperation are a wonderful tool to have during group play.

Eve stacked different sized cups together.

Friends huddled around Miss Marty as she read stories.

Throughout the day at Wee Wee Friends, many faces are made. We see silly faces. We see happy faces (which are the best!). We also see confused and frustrated faces (which happen to all of us at some point or another).

Eren and Emma played peek-a-boo!

P.K. wanted a book read to him at the end of the day. Miss Mindy asked if he could read the book to her instead. He talked about the book throughout and pointed to different important points within the story.

For breakfast, we had malto-meal and pears. AM snack was green peas. Lunch consisted of egg casserole with cheese and hash browns (delicious!), banana, and green peas. PM snack was goldfish and raisins.

Have a great evening!

-Mindy

Enjoy these photos from this morning’s caroling! THANK YOU Santa for your surprise visit and thank you parents, for joining us as we spread holiday cheer around River Park! Don’t forget we will be caroling again this Monday, 3:45-4:14, and invite you to join us afterward for cookies, cocoa and a short concert!

 

 

Wee Sprouts: Celery Sticks. Breakfast: Lisa’s Applesauce Malt-O-Meal. Lunch: Baked egg casserole, whole grain bread and clementines. Snack: Animal crackers and pear slices.

Have a great day!

 

Good Afternoon.

**Next Monday (December 10th), our Wee Friends are going around the neighborhood caroling. The parents were given an invitation to attend with their Wee Friend if they would like. We would like to extend an invitation to our Wee Wee parents that if you would like to come and join along, please feel free! You can take your Wee Wee child around to carol with the big kids and their parents! This is going to take place from 3:45 to 4:15. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Here are some pictures that were taken throughout the day.

For breakfast, children feasted on cinnamon toast squares and banana. Our AM snack was peas. Lunch consisted of beef stew (yummy!), banana/orange combo, and whole grain bread with butter. PM snack was hard boiled eggs and graham crackers.

Have a terrific evening.

Wee Friends are very excited about our Christmas Caroling tomorrow! Here’s what we have planned for tomorrow (Wednesday) and Monday afternoon, our second caroling tour .

Wednesday 12/5: 10:30-11 We will be caroling around the block. If you would like to join your Wee Friend, please meet us in front of Wee Friends no later than 10:30. Here’s our route in case you can’t be there at 10:30: we will travel south on 29th street to Wall St. and turn left. From there we’ll walk around the block. When we’ve returned to Wee Friends, we invite you to say goodbye to your caroler and we head inside and jump in to creating your Christmas surprise!

Monday 12/ 10: We will be caroling the same route starting at 3:45-4:15. Please join us in singing and afterwards, we invite you to come inside Wee Friends for cookies and cocoa!

Don’t hesitate to ask any teacher for more details re: our caroling plans!

Our card exploration yesterday introduced many images of angels. We continued the conversation today by starting with the question: “What is an angel?” Here’s what we learned:

Arleigh: “A person with wings. Angels fly.”

Elizabeth: “They have wands.”

Lea: “They are princesses.”

Marina: “Angels are cold.”

Jada: “They are freezing.”

We studied Great Master paintings of angels from The National Gallery. Then we went on an angel hunt, seeking out pictures of angels that had been hidden throughout the classroom.

At the art table, Lisa created a huge angel mural and friends filled it in with bright colored tape!

Elliott and Max decided they would work three puzzles. As the angels floated about them, they achieved their goal!

Meanwhile, the girls found the angel costumes and created an angel improvisation with sparkly music that took them swimming through and floating high above the clouds! We caught raindrops underneath rain clouds, licked angel icing off angel cake, danced softly on fluffy clouds,  and slept soundly with the cool clouds all around.

With angels among us, we set out to top our tree with an angel. Lisa led a group of friends in this creation.

The Keepers of the Grinch created a car and enjoyed a long car ride.

Wee Sprouts: Celery sticks. Breakfast: Kix and fresh fruit. Lunch: Homemade beef stew, bananas and whole wheat buttered bread. Snack: Cheddar cheese slices and Goldfish.

Have a great day!

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend.

**Just a reminder that our holiday break is quickly approaching. Wee Wee Friends will be closed for two weeks, December 24th to January 4th. Thanks!

Our Monday started out with trains..choo-choo!. Friends helped one another put a track together. Once the track was assembled, children went and grabbed a few trains for themselves. Clara carefully put two magnetic trains together. She found out that if you put the wrong ends together, the train repel (don’t go together). We talked about this and why it happens.

Children got the waffle blocks out to build. Clara decided to put them in a straight row and hook them together.

Emma and Eve headed to the krinkle blocks where they used their fine motor skills to put the pieces together. There were a few pieces stuck together so Emma tore them apart.

Emma also improvised with the krinkle blocks by using them as a hair brush.

Friends kept themselves busy by showing interest in housekeeping. We got out all of the bowls and plates to put food on. Children served up different food for one another.

Bounce, twirl, shake! Emma enjoyed listening to music this morning. All of our friends light up when music comes on

During gross motor work, friends peaked through different holes and played peek-a-boo with their friends! Eve and Zoey were making one another laugh!

Eren looked out the window and said, “Ohhhh”. He must have seen something outside that he was interested in.

P.K. asked for books to be read to him. Even though he had a great nap, he let out a big yawn!

For breakfast, children had toast and pears. AM snack was green peas (our favorite vegetable). Lunch consisted of hummus on whole wheat bread, banana, and corn. PM snack was apples and string cheese.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

• Don’t forget this Wednesday at 10:30am, from Wee Friends, we will be caroling around our block. We’d love to have you join your Wee Friend and all us as we spread holiday cheer!

The Blue Bus is on hiatus ‘til January. With this change in our Monday schedule and two stay at home days left behind them, we found our Wee Friends full of energy, excitement and dare I say, a bit of frenzy?! So when all of our friends arrived, we regrouped, without our bus, and settled into our work.

A small group of friends sat with their dollies in housekeeping and learned a new holiday lullaby, The Coventry Carol-just singing the word Lullay on the melody line. They chose to continue singing to their babies, this time with Rock-a-Bye Baby.

We read  Mouse’s First Christmas by Lauren Thompson. Friends enjoyed guessing which holiday goody the mouse was happening upon. Afterwards, we moved to the art table, set out all of our Christmas cards and played seek and find for those very same goodies in the card’s artwork.

Lisa brought in ornaments to decorate our Wee Tree. Friends gathered ‘round and used sparkly glue and glitter to create their own ornament.

Melinda played soft, calming music and friends, almost always now, find a lovey and rest peacefully on the oval rug.

Tami brought in a gigantic poinsettia! Friends pondered its beauty while eating Wee Sprouts.

When Elizabeth, the Ballerina, arrived, we hurried to the dance floor and moved our bodies to several different songs and tempos. We stretched, squatted, spun around, pointed our toes and made our arms dance.

We wasted no time getting outside to continue exercising our bodies!

We found an earthworm and studied its length, color and texture. We decided to let it live and find its habitat naturally.

Friends always ask for towels to wipe the slides when they are wet.

We carefully watched several friends in a favorite gross motor exploration: toppling off of the see-saws.

And then hop on the train to catch their breath.

Many friends changed out of their play clothes into dry, clean clothes and we came in to eat PB and J on whole wheat bread, corn and applesauce.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots. Breakfast: Whole wheat peanut butter toast and pear slices. Snack: Cottage cheese and apple slices.

Have a good day.

Happy Friday!

We had low numbers today so we spent good quality time with one another.

Friends were on the jungle gym for a while this morning. Laughter took place and we sure did get some energy out!

Smiles, smiles, smiles!

Clara Rose was very independent this morning. A teacher tried to help her with a dress and she said, “No, me”. We watched as she stepped into the dress and put the straps over her shoulders. Once the dress was on, she was so very proud of herself. Independence is key at this age during play. Children become so proud of themselves during this period of time!

While the sun was hiding, we went outside to the cloudiness! We rode bikes, played in the house, and spent time in the sandbox.

Zoey is enjoying the soft areas throughout the classroom that she can enjoy. The cube is a favorite along with the pillows. Today while friends were napping, she kicked back and lay her head on the pillow to relax.

Giving raspberries is also a favorite too!

Step 2 is complete of our tree project! We used sprinkles to make the tree shiny and wonderful! All of our friends contributed and now we just wait until it dries!

We had no friends for breakfast today! AM snack was green peas. Lunch consisted of pita bread with cheese and turkey, bananas, and corn. PM snack was raisins and animal crackers.

Have a terrific weekend!

-Mindy

 

As the teachers OWLed (Observed, Watched and Listened) this week, here’s a bit of what we’ve seen:

• Max and Finn are in Pirate Mania. Over the last several days, they have donned pirate hats and worn pirate gear. They also spend time ice skating around the housekeeping table with house slipper skates.
• Marina and Elizabeth (and sometimes Lea and Marta) have spent countless hours this week applying makeup, the natural way. Long pieces of bark serve as brushes. Sand has been the blush of choice and dark, wet soil has been lipstick. (we keep close watch on the soil!)
• Jada (and Marina, Sloane and Lea) spend a lot of their time in housekeeping. Jada works with diapers, putting them off and on continuously, and all the girls practice dressing the dollies, rocking them and taking care of them. They usually wear shoes and various costume pieces during their imaginative play.

• Arleigh seems to have created a rock band. We’ve seen Jane, Macy and Sophie participate in the group, and we’ve heard all of them singing original (we think!) songs. They use a magnetic sphere and rod as a microphone and a stool as their stage.
• Sophie spends most of her time playing with the older girls and they take care of her well.

• Ellie can always be found reading a book and gravitates to whomever is reading aloud. She is a great conversationalist and this week, has talked several times about how beautiful the day is or how she is thinking about mom and dad. She has taken to riding her favorite trike on a regular basis.
• Elliott, Marta and Sloane have spent a lot of time this week working with dump trucks outside. They push them around the yard, shifting work locations regularly. They fill up the trucks with sand and dirt and sticks. They hide the trucks, dump the trucks and today they had a “truck party”. They refer to all of this as their “work”.

• Ada is the keeper of the Grinch. He’s in the house and Ada takes care of him. This week, she has been very interested in listening to music (making song requests) as she swings in the hammock.
• Nate, Max and Finn have spent much of their time this week building: they build pirate boats with large wooden blocks, sand castles and tunnels with logs, buckets and shovels. They build forts in the reading area with the pillows and more forts outside with plastic bins and the plastic see saws.

Wee Sprouts: Pea pods. Breakfast: Kashi and pear slices. Lunch: Whole grain flat bread with melted cheese, broccoli and pear slices. Snack: Yogurt and animal crackers.

Have a great weekend.

Good Afternoon.

To spruce up the classroom, we’re making a Christmas tree! It will be a multi-step project and take many days to complete.

Step 1: Use a BIG white sheet of paper and splatter/paint/dab green paint onto it! This will be our Christmas tree.

We got on our hands and knees and used mops to paint with. Children made sure to paint the white areas and move their bodies around so they could paint as much as possible.

We did get some green paint on our hands and feet . But we did a great job and our 1st step is complete!

Group projects are fantastic!

Zoey and Emma enjoyed reading some of their favorite books this morning.

We got our winter gear on and headed outside! Clara asked for “bikes” so we sat and waited patiently as the bikes were retrieved from the garage.

Friends pushed with their legs while working on their balancing skills.

P.K. kept Lu Lu company on the floor. He stroked her hand softly.

Clara talked to Mommy and Daddy on the pretend phone! Our friends love using the phone to talk to friends or family when they miss them.

For breakfast, children had bagels with cinnamon and oranges. Lunch consisted of whole grain rice with chicken, apples, and mixed vegetables. PM snack was hard boiled eggs and string cheese.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Friends created music for a very long time today. It started with an impromptu caroling rehearsal. We sang loud and strong and accompanied ourselves with jingle bells. We moved on to working with rhythm sticks. We found soft/hard places to tap our sticks. We tapped them loudly, softly and with a medium volume. Then we added Hap Palmer’s “Tap Your Sticks”.  We passed out all of our instruments and took song requests. We explored time signature and tempos by counting along to the music. We ended our music making with our usual meditation.

We took yesterday’s painting project to the next level today by creating a Christmas tree and adding a sparkly garland.

We watched Finn exercise tremendous determination as he worked at getting a nail out of a board.

Tami set out a round wreath with fabric scraps and friends worked at tying the fabric around the wreath.

Jane, Arleigh and Sophie have been practicing their rock band for a few days now. A few of the lyrics that were being sung were “oh Sister…..oh sister….”

Our holiday mail box has come out and this week we’ve been watching as friends deliver, sort, cut out and glue holiday cards. Opening and closing the mailbox is the center of many friend’s work.

We gathered around our lighted tree for a final rehearsal before heading outside.

Wee Sprouts: Pea pods and cucumbers. Breakfast: Corn Chex and bananas. Lunch: Whole grain rice with chicken, corn and apple slices. Snack: Goldfish and raisins.

Have a great day.