Today we welcome Vivian to our classroom! Vivian is a former Wee Friend who has returned to us! WELCOME VIVIAN! Kai, our oldest WF, remembers Vivian and is thrilled to have his playmate back!

It’s a happy Monday as friends settle back into their school schedule. The Blue Bus was here and WFs worked on the rings and cartwheel mat. On the rings, they performed tuck and “L” hangs. They practiced a “skin the cat” flip, lunges and handstands against the wall. On the cartwheel mat, they practiced mini and full cartwheels.

The workbench and art easel were of particular interest today.

Several friends explored the concept of big/small with an Angel Stacking Doll set. We sequenced the dolls in order of size and counted them as they stood in a row.

Our counting exploration continued as we listened to “The 12 Days of Christmas”. A small group of younger WF gathered to practice the fine motor/dexterity skill of holding up fingers 1-5. We counted (and created finger formation) 1-5 forwards and backwards. We passed out rhythm sticks and and followed Hap Palmer’s rhythmic exercises. Next, Alma requested the dinosaur song. We played Laurie Berkner’s “We Are the Dinosaurs” and marched/sang/roared/ate and slept throughout a dinosaur musical improv. In the next three weeks, we will be learning new songs pertaining to the holiday season. If you have any concerns or opposition to your child learning traditional carols, please let us know!

In the last several days before the holiday, friends were very interested in hearing the story of Pinocchio read. After several readings, we have plunged into a Pinocchio Study. Friends are very familiar with the Disney version and today we compared/contrasted it to the Carlo Collodi version. We discovered that the Collodi version has no Blue Fairy! We also introduced the idea of a marionette puppet. We pulled out all of our hand puppets (including a Pinocchio puppet-thank you, Alexandra G.!) and re-told the story based on the characters in our hands. Later, we turned Sasha the Clown (Alma named him) into a marionette! We compared the two types of puppets and how they are different.

For breakfast today, we served peanut butter toast and oranges. Lunch was whole wheat pasta with beef, pears and French cut green beans. Afternoon snack will be goldfish and apples.

Have a terrific day!

Today was a day filled with preparation, expression, and celebration. Our small group of friends spent their morning preparing our Wee Feast, creating still life art, and talking about all the things in their lives in which they give thanks.

The Wee Feast prep began early with the cleaning and preparing of our holiday bird. Jane and Kai, our older classroom leaders worked cooperatively to cover our chicken with olive oil salt and pepper.

Kai, also helped to prepare the carrots by peeling them.

Today a still life art experience was introduced to the children. Our “Chicken Dance” inspiring Thanksgiving Turkey was placed on the table for children to draw. Discussions were held about the body parts, the shapes and colors of the still model. The children eagerly represented the turkey with great accuracy.

 

 

 

 

 

With the mild temperature and wonderful sunshine, we had a fantastic outside time. The children biked, played in the sand, and played on the slides.

On that note, we had a parent communicate discomfort about her child riding on the bicycles, tricycles, and push cars without a helmet. According to the early childhood safely regulations, three and four wheeled trikes, and bicycles with training wheels do not require a helmet. Therefore we are not requiring children to wear helmets. However, if any parent would like their child to wear a helmet, we will be glad to respect your wishes by storing and making sure your child wears the labeled helmet that you supply.

After our outside time, we came in and enjoyed our Wee Feast. It was delicious!

 

 

 

 

 

Our menu today was:

Breakfast: Homemade Grits and Banana

Lunch: Roasted Chicken, Steamed Carrots, Homemade Mashed Potatoes, & Stuffing.It was seriously yummy!

Kai, Kaitlyn and Laurie are working on baking homemade pumpkin bread for our snack! We will serve the pumpkin bread with a side of raisins.

REMINDER that we are closed this Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday. Tuition is still due on Friday by 5:30.

Finally, it is more than Wee Thanks that I would like to give to all of you. Rather, Laurie, Melinda and I have an enormous amount of gratitude that all of you have chosen Wee Friends to love, teach, and enjoy your children. It is never taken lightly that each family contributes great amounts of encouragement and support. Daily we receive cool classroom materials that springboard interesting studies, we are blessed with thoughtful conversations about our curriculum, we participate in delightful conversations with you about your children, and we receive the financial support that allows us to have good job benefits, purchase awesome classroom materials, and to continue to make capital improvements to our program. So for this, I give THANKS…

Before leaving for swimming Macy and Kai scrubbed a basket of carrots donated by Cassie’s mom, Michelle. Thank you, Michelle! We are going to eat them tomorrow during our Thanksgiving Feast!

At the Y, WF swimmers continued to work on many skills. The younger class first practiced putting just their foreheads in the water. Next, the teacher sang a song about getting wet from head to toe as they took turns jumping off the edge of the pool into her arms. After that, they walked to the deep end and each WF jumped off the swimmer’s block right into the water! Kai and Simon worked mostly at the deep end of the pool. Today, they spent a good amount of time working on the back stroke.

Back at school, Melinda led a music exploration with instruments. It all started with Nate, who spent lots of time this morning belting out “Down By the Bay”.

Addi brought a matching game that everyone enjoyed playing.

We worked on our Thanksgiving placemats. Thanks to Christina and Alexandra G. for the photo and video! We will invite our friends to use these tomorrow for lunch and for their own Thanksgiving dinner!

After lots of conversation with the girls at the workbench, Kai constructed Tinkerbell.

For breakfast, we served cheerios and raisins. Lunch was whole grain rice with chicken, roasted butternut squash and bananas. For snack, we will serve yogurt and apples.

Have a great day!

We’re getting ready for you! We had our final dress rehearsal this morning for our 4:30 Fall Concert today! Tami had all the Wee Friends help her make a special treat for everyone.

This morning Kai graphed the different types of shoes friends wore to school today: slip ons, velcro, tie or none! Some friends chose to sculpt with Play-Doh and others spent time at the art easel. We also set out water colors. A small group of toddlers played in hopscotch, seeing how far they could jump off a stack of two large blocks.

We bundled up in coats, hat and gloves and spent about 30 minutes playing outside. For breakfast we had cinnamon toast and apples. At lunch we served whole wheat ham sandwiches, grapes and roasted potato wedges. For snack we will have bananas and yogurt.

See you later this afternoon!