Today began with Chess. Kai has been promising his buddies that he would bring a set in and teach them the principles of the game. When he showed them the “Ponds”, Melinda got a piece of paper, drew a picture of a pond, spelled the words ‘pawn’ and ‘pond’ on a sheet of paper, and they discussed the differences.

Meanwhile, Fabrezio gave a small group of Wee Friends a dental floss tutorial. He showed them how to floss gently and expressed that it’s even more important than brushing teeth! He also gave the teachers information on the most effective brands to use.

While the swimmers were away, Lisa continued the Bridge Study by reading more books about bridges. They discussed who engineers were and where different bridges are located. They recorded their discoveries on a message board. In hopscotch, friends have been creating bridges with large carpet tubes. While Melinda read aloud, she also discussed the “Three W’s” of the story: Who, Where and What. Laurie read three different versions of Jack and the Beanstalk to a small group of friends and they compared/contrasted the Three W’s.

They played a math game using colored ice cubes. They started by asking the question “How does it feel?” Alexandra, Arleigh, Stephen and Elliott all agreed “It feels cold!”. Then, starting with two cubes, they created a group of cubes by adding two until they reached 12. They further explored the symbol for addition.

This morning ended with a Spring Concert rehearsal. We are still mapping out the details and will share them as soon as plans solidify!

And here are your swimmers…..

FABS – Week of 3/5 Literacy: K.3.3-Identify characters, settings and important events in a story. K.3.4-Identify favorite books or stories. Math: K.2.1- Model addition by joining sets of objects (for any two sets with fewer than 10 objects when joined). K.2.3-Describe addition situations (for numbers less than 10).

Parent/Child Conversation Starters:

• In the story Jack and the Beanstalk, what did the funny little man trade for Jack’s cow?
• What is your most favorite story?
• Are ice cubes hot or cold? What happens if you put an ice cube in the sun?
• What do your arms do when you are doing a ‘front crawl’ in the swimming pool?
• I noticed in the pictures, you are holding a friend’s hand. Why are you holding a friend’s hand when you are walking into the Y to go swimming?

Wee Sprouts today are cucumber slices and carrots. For breakfast, we had Cheerios and bananas. For lunch we served peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat bread, corn and applesauce.

Have a great day!

This morning got away from us without many photos!

As usual, the Blue Bus came and today, friends worked on an obstacle course. They ran circles around the octagon, crawled under the bridge and swung over the hot lava pit. They had a forward roll contest and practiced their jumps.

While groups took turns on the Blue Bus, the classroom was abuzz with counting, cars, coins and conversation! On the oval rug, friends gathered to count cars, two at a time. Lisa introduced the ‘+’ addition sign. Simon brought in a coin counting math game. Friends identified, quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies and talked about which president’s face is on each coin. Kai and Vivian learned what a yardstick is. They chose five items, measured them and charted their findings. Books about bridges were read aloud and conversations followed about the details of the bridges being studied. Friends learned a new Jack and the Beanstalk song and talked about ideas for a J in the B Study. With droppers, spoons and basters, friends worked with warm sudsy water. While singing character variations on “This is the way I toss the beans, toss the beans, toss the beans…this is the way I toss the beans…right out the window!” we explored different voice registers and pitch: Giant/deep and low, cow/Moo!, mom/high and Jack/middle.

Wee Sprouts today are carrots. For breakfast we served whole wheat peanut butter toast, pears and bananas. Lunch was whole wheat penne pasta with marinara, mixed veggies and fruit salad. For snack, we will serve fruit with goldfish.

Have a great start to your week!

Wee Friends has become the House of Singing Syllables.

This morning, Lisa brought in an array of hand mirrors. She guided the children in an exploration where they watched their mouth move as they created the sounds of multi-syllabic words. Among the many words sounded out were firetruck, ninja, pizza, Paulina, pouches, soccer, and basketball. This experience of sounding out syllables spread throughout the house and we heard whispered murmers of words as friends played together.

We’ve observed a growing interest in bridges over the last couple days. At breakfast, Finn and Marta created bridges across their cereal bowls using a spoon. In the hopscotch area, a small group of friends created another bridge today, this time using rectangular wooden flats. Another linear creation was laid out using large stacking blocks.

Many friends made felt pouches for their painted rocks. After sewing yard through holes, they filled their pouch with rocks and wore them throughout the morning.

A small group of friends worked collaboratively at the art table sorting, shuffling and counting poker chips. Friends practiced sharing, negotiating turns and compromising when choosing which color chip to work with.

Owen and Simon constructed various ships and planes out of the interlocking translucent plastic shapes. They also spent time at the art table creating the same ships and planes using pipe cleaners, straws, paper and glue.

Wee Sprouts today are cucumber slices and green peas. For breakfast, we served Cheerios and bananas. For lunch, we ate ham rolls stuffed with cream cheese, green peas and mandarin oranges. For snack, we will serve Tami’s homemade granola and yogurt.

Have a terrific weekend!

Throughout this morning, we heard Wee Friends of all ages sounding out syllables.

At the art table Lisa clapped out words with 1-4 syllables. Friends identified the number and chose that many beads to string onto pipe cleaner. On the oval rug, friends lined up and jumped up and down as many times as there were syllables in the word.

Melinda guided a small group of friends as they matched farm animals under eggs.

At the art table, friends painted rocks that likened Jack’s magical beans!

Friends requested another read aloud of Jack and the Beanstalk. Afterwards, they cast themselves and, using housekeeping this time, set the stage for another creative drama exploration. The second time around, Vivian volunteered to narrate the story as her friends listened and acted it out. Amazing!

Finn continues to build elaborate structures in hopscotch. He worked with Stephen today to create a bridge that started at a train and led to his house. If you fell off the bridge, alligators would get you. As soon as Nate arrived, he also worked on the project.

Umi and Alexandra built a house using every material they could find!

Parent/Child Conversation Starters:

• Which animal did Jack bring down the beanstalk with him?
• What colors did you use when you painted your rocks? How many rocks did you paint?
• Let’s discover how many syllables are in your name! I’ll tap on the car window and you tell me how many taps you hear: “A-da!”. What about “Mom-my!”
• How many bridges do we cross on the way home?

Our Wee Sprouts today are sweet bell peppers and broccoli. Breakfast was oatmeal and clementines. For lunch, Tami prepared brown rice with pork, roasted sweet potatoes and corn.

Have a happy, healthy day!

Today Lisa brought in a fabulous counting book called Elevator Magic. Using the message board, she created a Wee Tower with 10 floors and an elevator. As she read the book aloud, friends counted their way down from the top floor to the bottom floor. Afterwards, Laurie worked with a few friends to identify how many syllables were in each number when the number was spelled out. (ex: one (1), seven (2).

At the art table, we filled several trays with sand. Lisa held up a letter and friends traced that letter in the sand.

The next sensorial delight was the purple Play-Doh. We set out lower case letters for friends to work with, as well as cookie cutters and various Play-Doh tools.

Our princesses requested a round of acting out “Malificent”. We gathered in the reading area and looked through every fairy tale book we have to discover other stories with a villainous character. When The Three Little Pigs was pulled out, friends squealed (heehee!) with delight and we discussed first, what a villain is and secondly, who the villain is in the story. We read The Three Little Pigs, the kids cast themselves and we acted it out.

Afterwards, we found another villainous character in Jack and the Beanstalk. We read through it, friends cast themselves and away we went to the habitrail (the beanstalk) and acted out an original version of the story that involved a princess in captivity, two Giants, two Geese and a sparkly golden egg!

Later, we created a story board where friends drew the part of the story that made the biggest impression.

Our Wee Sprouts today are green pea pods and carrots. Breakfast was Corn Chex and clementines. For lunch Tami prepared cream cheese and melted cheddar cheese on whole grain tortillas, applesauce and cucumber slices. Snack will be cheese sticks and pretzels.

Enjoy your day!