As per the Garden Growing Committee’s request: “We have decided to postpone (tonight’s garden work party) until next week because of the cold weather-“wee” didn’t think the cold temperatures would be conducive to a fun evening, and current overnight frost may not be good for new plantings. Weather dependent, we thought we’d aim for next week, perhaps next Thursday-date to be confirmed early next week.” – Lindsay

Thank you Lindsay, and please accept my (Laurie) apology for misspelling your last name on yesterday’s blog!

The classroom was busy while our younger friends were at the farm. Here’s what Lisa shared: “In conjunction with our airport study, the children painted a blue sky mural. After reading Little Cloud by Eric Carle, friends gathered at the message board to discuss the book’s themes. They also decided to glue cotton balls to the mural. When asked “How do we get the cotton balls to stick on the wet paint?” Wee Friends brainstormed and recorded their answers on the message board. They determined that waiting until the paint dried was the best solution. They also constructed airplanes with popsicle sticks. Ultimately, many different types of aircraft were constructed.”

The trip to Prairie Winds Farm was a great success! We started by feeding our scraps to the goats. One by one, Tami guided friends as they pet the goats.

Next, Farmer Charlotte showed WF how to collect eggs. When they each had a turn, FC asked WF to scrape the hay out of the coop a lay fresh hay in them.

Anna invited WF to pet a chicken!

We ended our farm trip with a walk along the wildflower path. Friends discovered nature’s balancing beam and a “perfect spot to lay eggs”.

Our Wee Sprouts today are pea pods and broccoli crowns. Breakfast was Lisa’s unbelievably tasty Malt-O-Meal/applesauce with bananas. For lunch we served brown rice with chicken, mixed veggies and applesauce.

Have a terrific, peaceful day.

This year’s Garden Growing Committee is being headed by Paulina Hayden, Amy Crosson and the Tank/Chaddington family. They are inviting Wee/Wee Wee families to the backyard this Wednesday at 5:30pm for a work party to prepare the soil. If you’d like to help this year, please bring a shovel and a picnic dinner Wednesday afternoon! The Committee will be scheduling more work parties in the future, probably on Thursday afternoons henceforth. Please contact Paulina at Wee Wee Friends for additional information. We welcome any plant donations as well!

The swimmers wrapped up their last swimming lesson (for this session) this morning! As always, Wee Friends had a blast, learned a lot and can’t wait to start again next Tuesday. On Monday’s blog, we will post the names of returning and new swimmers for the next session.

Tomorrow, Tami will be taking Lea, Nate, Finn, Marta, Elliott, Umi, Alexandra and Stephen to the farm. The weather forecast calls for a very chilly day so please double and triple layer your Wee Friend-it will be very cold! We will aim at leaving Wee Friends by 9:30 and return in time for lunch.

Back in the classroom, a small group of remaining friends enjoyed a quiet morning. They started at the art table working on homemade greeting cards.

Elliott encouraged and guided Lea to slide down the fireman’s pole.

Arleigh and Marta worked side by side sharing blocks.

Lisa worked with a small group of friends on exploring small/medium/large.

Lea pulled out the gear shifts and Elliott joined her exploration.

Last week, our friend Max brought Eric Carle’s Little Cloud to school. After reading it, a small group of friends discussed how rain falls from clouds. We remembered last week’s science experiment with shaving cream and watercolor rain. Alexandra exclaimed, “Let’s make sunshine today!” Friends agreed that yellow and blue were the colors to use and we moved to the art table to create sunshine with tempera paints on white paper.

Our Wee Sprouts today are pea pods and carrots. Breakfast was Chex and pear slices. For lunch, Lisa prepared ham sandwiches on whole wheat bread, fruit salad (bananas, raisins and mandarin oranges) and peas.

FABS for this week are: Literacy: K.4.6-Ask how and why questions about a topic of interest. K.4.8- Organize and classify information into categories of how and why or by color and size. Math: K.6.3-Explain the reasoning used with concrete objects and pictures.

Happy Day.

The Blue Bus began the next gymnastics session this morning. Today, friends worked on the trapeze bar and the octagon barrel. On the bar, they practiced pike and “V” swings. Then they got to swing upside down like bats. On the octagon, we learned a backward walk over. They practiced rockers and were steam rolled! The sticker today was a butterfly.

Tomorrow is the last swimming session for this go-round. Next Tuesday a new session will begin. We will post who those children are next week, who are enrolled for the next swimming session.

On Wednesday, the younger farm group will be going to the farm, weather permitting. Nate, Finn, Marts, Elliott, Umi, Alexandra and Stephen are in the scheduled group.

Today Lea became an official Wee Friend, having moved over from Wee Wee. Welcome, Lea! We are so glad to have you with us!

With the weather so delicious and inviting, Wee Friends cannot wait to get outside! We spilled onto the playground and friends took off in many different directions. Elliott sampled one of each from our bicycle banquet.

Ada headed for the sandbox and dug a hole deep enough for her to rest her body in.

Finn and Nate started in the sandbox but moved to the small house, filling plates and cups with sand and serving them to others.

 

A safe game of freeze tag had friends running and laughing all over the playground.

The ultimate and eventual team, Stephen and Alexandra sang together as they teetered.

Annie and Jane created a princess house in the WW art area.

In the area of cultivating positive Life Skills, we wanted to update you on our rest and lunch time procedures. At 11:45 am each day, 4-5 older friends come inside to prepare the classroom for rest time and lunch. Kai and Viv are in charge of setting out cots. Jane’s primary job is to fill water glasses halfway,but she also assists Kai and Viv with arranging blankets.

Annie and Macy’s job is to lay out the green mats. They also helps set the table when needed.

Our friends take their jobs very seriously and this sense of responsibility (and fun!) has been born out of several months of repeating and honing these skills. We are excited for them!

The first thing Lea shared as she sat down to eat was “I can do it myself”, meaning serve herself. We’ve observed that our WF’s independence at the lunch table is also growing.

All of our friends can serve themselves and we continue to cultivate coordination, healthy table manners and routines for picking up after themselves.

What has resulted is a (mostly!) peaceful lunchtime where conversations are had and friendships and social skills (sharing, listening, taking turns, to name a few) continue to develop.

Wee Sprouts today are sweet peppers and green beans. Breakfast was whole wheat English muffins with peanut butter and apple slices. For lunch, Tami prepared whole wheat penne pasta with cheddar/mozz cheese, mixed veggies and apple slices.

Don’t forget, our last swimming lesson (for this session) is tomorrow and we will be pulling out at 9:30. Next Tuesday, the new session begins and we will post those names of returning and new swimmers next Monday. Farm Wednesday is our younger group, weather permitting. We will also aim to pull out close to 9:30.

Enjoy this day!

This morning, Simon built the Titanic. He shared that Owen told him all about it and then he built it.

Another Band of Wee Friends worked with the Magna Tiles.

Other friends started their morning decorating lavender construction paper baskets.

Nate honed in on practicing how to hold the scissors.

After everyone had a chance to create a basket, we set up the art table to paint hard boiled eggs.

When the painting was complete, many friends continued working with the dye to color paper, cotton balls and coffee filters. The sensorial exploration that emerged involved squeezing, mixing colors, splashing, stretching cotton, wrapping wet cotton on a spoon and finally, jewelry making with dyed cotton balls.

 

Our Wee Sprouts today are cucumber slices and carrots. For breakfast, we served Kix and bananas and apples. For lunch Lisa made beef and cheese burritos on whole grain bread, cantaloupe and mixed veggies. We also gave WF the choice of eating their painted hard boiled egg.

Enjoy this weekend!

Owen, Kai, Vivian, Simon, Marat, Arleigh, Annie and Ada spent their morning at the farm. On the ride over, Marat taught his friends “How much wood would a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?”

When we arrived Tami and Farmer Charlotte bartered eggs, honey and apple cider vinegar while Wee Friends began their explorations.

    

Next, we headed over the chicken coop to watch Joseph gather eggs.

We also saw Taffy drinking water.

We watched a chicken inside a coop and found several underneath the trailer.

Charlotte captured a small chicken and Wee Friends enjoyed petting her.

 

We moved to another coop and Kai retrieved an egg.

We shared our table scraps with the chickens!

Arleigh found a feather and shared it with her friends.

Wee Friends brushed and fed both Ruby II and Taffy the horse!

Farmer Charlotte taught Wee Friends how to train Ruby II to “walk…whoa.”

After our time with the animals, we headed to the woods to create drama.

As we walked, each Wee Friend collected a favorite jewel from nature.

We found a stage space, gathered into a circle and each friend described their jewel and also, what it reminded them of. Using these natural jewels, the earth and the ideas they generated, we guided the actors through a highly imaginative improvisational story involving helicopters, umbrellas, parachutes, planting a seed and a very loud rainstorm. We began it with a song celebrating the earth and its jewels and ended it by parachuting out of our helicopter. It made sense to us! In fact—it was glorious!

Ada began her farm day rolling down the hills. When we asked our friends to gently lay down (and leave) their collection of nature’s jewels in the grass before getting in the Weehicle Ada said “Can I lay down, too?” The rest of the WF Jewels piled in the Weehicle for the trip home.

Back in the classroom, Lisa and Melinda worked with friends on an egg matching game. They counted jelly beans and charted their discoveries. They practiced concert songs and enjoyed this glorious day on the playground.

For breakfast the we had corn chex and bananas.  For lunch we had farm fresh egg salad on whole wheat, corn, mixed fruit.

Have a great day!

Laurie