Oh Happy Day!

It was a flutter of fun in the Wee World this morning!

To quote Kai: “Jane’s in that dress and I’m the happy guy in the other pink one.” We have all enjoyed so much laughter today!

We are knee deep into an Alphabet Study and among other materials, are using nursery rhymes to explore letters.

A small group started their day off with a reading of “Bah-Bah Black Sheep”, We took turns acting out the sheep, master, dame and boy.

Using our alphabet little puzzle people, Lisa spent 45 minutes or more in the reading area exploring letters with friends. They identified letters, created a girl/boy pattern and sang multiple rounds of “The ABC Song”

Mel played Crazy Eights with our older friends working on number recognition, suit recognition and matching the two.

After our creative drama experience, a small group of friends gathered at the art table for a sensorial/fine motor exploration. Using short pieces of yarn and socks, we filled ‘bags of wool’. Friends determined if it was easier to stuff a lot of wool into the bag at one time or just a little. Ultimately, most friends held the bag with one hand and used their pincer grasp to get strands of wool into the bag. Opposites were discussed: empty/full, large/small and soft/hard.

Simon filled his sock to the top and after trying to put it on, came up with the idea of a sock puppet. So out came the sock puppets! When filled they became hot dogs, arrows and objects of great curiosity!

As always, friends played independently and collaboratively in all corners of the classroom.

Before heading outside, we had our first concert rehearsal, singing through “Bah Bah Black Sheep”, “Pat-A-Cake” and “Sing A Song of Sixpence”. At one point, Alexandra stood before her classmates leading a review of “Pat-A-Cake”. Before she started, she waved sheepishly to her fans and it was a moment of great fun and laughter!

For breakfast, we served oatmeal and oranges. Lunch was hummus on whole wheat tortillas, cucumbers and and oranges.

As per Tami’s request, here are a few things she wanted to communicate:

1) The WF landline is up and running again. There was a malfunction that has been resolved! Apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused when you tried to reach us.

2) Tami is buried in paperwork right now making final preparations for the upcoming Zoning Board meeting. She has received your emails re: her latest email and will be responding to each of you soon. Thanks for your patience and support!

3) Lastly, Tami is planning Parent/Teacher Conferences for March. She will be in touch with you soon regarding signing up for a time to meet.

Have a terrific day!

Laurie

Thank you Simon and Alexandra G. for the beautiful crystal serving dish! It’s lovely in our snack bar!

Today we worked on “Sing A Song of Sixpence”. We listened to a recording of it read and sung for familiarity and then practiced singing it ourselves. Using a message board, we studied two new vocabulary words: sixpence and dainty. We looked at an old coin and imagined what a sixpence might look like. Using our big play-sac, some friends donned blackbird costumes and flew in and out of the “pie”.

Once inside, Jane (as Queen) examined what her pie felt like. Squeals of delight came from within as friends felt her touch on their heads.

Afterwards Lisa and Mel invited friends to the art table for further exploration on “pie”. Using a tin pan filled with paint, straws and foam letters, the teachers invite friends to stick their hand in the pie and guess what they were feeling.

Questions arose such as “Is it cold or hot?” and “Is it smooth or bumpy?”

Next came the finger painting art experience.

Wee Friends found so much joy in the Ooey Gooey painting experience. We spoke about what kind of pie they were creating based on the colors they chose to paint with. Friends made banana, grape, blueberry, raspberry and coconut pies.

Our art lesson came to a natural close with a good ‘ol round of finger painting Pat-A-Cake.

Friends dispersed and became involved in a variety of different works.

Using the concept of “four and twenty” a few of our older friends engaged in math lesson in which they:

• identified the numbers 4 and 20
• drew the corresponding number of dots below the number
• Using a grid of five columns and 5 rows, counted out and drew a blackbird in each square.
• starting with #1, wrote the corresponding number in each square.

For breakfast we served Chex cereal and bananas. For lunch we served toasted ham and roast beef on whole wheat pita bread, corn and tangerines. Have a terrific day!

Laurie

About a year ago, Wee Friends initiated a new life skills program called Building the Basics. Our goal is to spend time talking about and cultivating life skills and this year it has been The Potty. We started with a 6 step potty procedure that the kids morphed into a 2 step procedure. It inspired the WF favorite tune “Flush and Wash”. Because the potty is so much a part of the early childhood daily experience, we continued today with a science lesson: The Bladder Exploration. First, we studied the human figure and located the bladder in a drawing and on a model. We discussed the shape, the location (in front) and how it feels when it is full (and what to do next!). We layed down and guessed where our bladder might be on our own bodies.

Using balloons and a tub of water, we filled imaginary bladders and let the water run out, singing Flush and Wash as we proceeded. F.2.8 Use words/concepts learned through singing

Further conversation ensued exploring opposites: liquid/solid and empty/full. We even identified what letter bladder begins with. F.1.8 Engage in a scientific experiment with a peer or with small groups of children using sharing/turn taking skills. F.2.7 Talk about the fact that everything has a shape. F.4.2 Show a growing independence in hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, washing hands, brushing teeth, and toileting. F.3.1 Name body parts and point to the location of each. F.3.2 Investigate and talk about the characteristics of matter (e.g., liquids and solids, smooth and rough, bend-not bend). F.1.3 Observe and describe properties of objects.

Acting on the liquid/solid conversation, we filled a tub with snow and asked “Is snow liquid or solid?” We talked about what happens to snow when it sits in a warm house. Friends first filled glass vases with the snow and then, using eye droppers and watercolor, filled their snow vases with color. They compared the colors to flavors. We identified the first letters of each color mentioned. Some friends mixed colors, some friends stayed with one color. One friend chose only to fill her vase with snow. F.1.3 Observe and describe properties of objects. F.3.1 Participate in activities using materials with a variety of properties (e.g., color, shape, size, name, type of material). F.4.1 Use vocabulary that indicates understanding of scientific principles (e.g., sink, float, melt, solid, liquid). F.2.9 Use different colors, surface textures, and shapes to create form and meaning. F.2.10 Use objects as symbols for other things. (e.g., a scarf to represent bird wings or a box to represent a car)

The gymnastic bus came and friends worked on the cheese mat and resi-rocker. They did forward and backward rolls and straddle rolls as well. At the end of the class, they did the rocket ship. They hopped off the bus and burst through the WF doors showing their stamp of the week: a smiley face.

We spent lots of time reading and singing nursery rhymes. As I write, we are in the planning stages of The WF Spring Concert. Details to follow! F.1.4 Hold book right side up, looking at pages and pictures. F.1.19 Imitate simple rhymes. F.1.6 Dance/sway/tap toes/jump/hop to music alone or with others.

For breakfast Mel served peanut butter on whole wheat muffins and pears. Lunch was whole wheat elbow pasta with marinara, broccoli and banana/avocado salad. For snack, we will serve pretzels and cheese.

Hope your day is a happy one.

Laurie

Happy Friday!!

For breakfast we served Raisin Bran and Craisins. Lunch was whole wheat tortillas with ham and cheese, fruit salad and corn. For snack, we will have pumpkin bread! Enjoy your weekend!

REMEMBER! The gymnastics bus will be here Monday-here are the two groups and their times:

9:00-Annie, Jane, Ada, Macy, Kai, Simon, Arleigh and Vivian

9:30-Umi, Alexandra, Steven, Finn, Nate and Elliott

With our new classroom arrangement, we now have a new central kitchen island space available that we have been using for our water station. Four friends can sit around the island and enjoy water and conversation in a relaxed fashion. We are building on this idea of independent water breaks and are adding a new aspect: Tami’s “experiment” on vegetable consumption.

This week we have had fresh cut vegetables available for the children for the duration of morning and afternoon until pick up times. We continue to do our normal breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack times, so this is ADDITIONAL snacking.

As the week has progressed, a few things have become clear:

• In absence of other foods, the children eat ALOT of fresh veggies without any dips or enticement.
• We feel like this is the type of thing that the children should be snacking on and don’t care about the volume of veggies they eat or when they eat them.
• The cost of keeping them in veggies all day long may prove to be the only hindrance to the longevity of this idea.

Since they really can’t “overeat” fresh vegetables, I would like to cultivate this heathy habit by not policing them. Simply put, we have bowl of veggies and they can eat their fill throughout the morning and afternoon. Right now it is novel, so interest is really high but it will taper some as they get used to it. Then, they will eat the vegetables when they are hungry and need the nutrition.

Since this is in addition to the promised WF meals, I would like to ask WF families to support this new idea (which needs a cool name?). Do we have any families that are so on board with the idea that they would be willing to provide a weekly commitment of fresh vegetables? Examples: 2lb bag of carrots, 6 cucumbers, red/yellow peppers, big bag of green beans, big bag of pea pods, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.

Please let me know! If I can get parent support, I think this will be something very beneficial to the health of our children.

From this morning:

Nate brought in a movement game to share…

Miss Laurie led the children on an alphabet hunt. This was followed by an art activity of using our sandpaper letters to make letter rubbings in a large letter collage.

While driving us teachers batty with is tranportabilityness (yes, a made up word!) the moon sand is a huge hit with everyone!

Some children chose to use foam letters and glue sticks to make letter collages. Miss Tami had a opportunity to discuss the different letter shapes with several of our younger children. (And why glue sticks make your fingers so sticky!)

Miss Melinda led the children on an imagination art exploration. She filled a plate with objects and the children were to decide if anything looked like anything other than it was. It was a creative conversation!

The children read and danced to chicka chicka boom. They then climbed on the coconut tree (the jungle gym). This was followed by a letter search.

For breakfast we had whole wheat english muffins with fresh pears. For lunch we had toasted whole grain flat bread filled with cream cheese/cheddar cheese, mixed vegetables and pears/mandarin oranges. For snack we will have some homemade pumpkin bread and raisins.

Have a great day!

Tami