Good Afternoon!

**PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR CHILD HAS THEIR SNOW GEAR FOR TOMORROW!

We kicked off a new week of PREK1 sign in where we focused on a specific physical characteristic of various shapes: the number of sides! Each friend blindly picked a shape from a bowl and counted the number of sides. They sorted the shape into a category on the board based on the number of sides their shape had. As they taped their shape on the board, some friends commented on other shapes in their group!

K.G.2: Compare shapes using informal language to describe their similarities, differences, and parts (e.g. number of sides, length of sides, and vertices).

Throughout the week, we’ll add the book we read during PREK1 group to our chart. Today, we identified the title, author, and illustrator and talked about the specific jobs of the author and illustrator. The illustrations in ‘A Story For Small Bear’ were so beautiful!

K.RL.3.2: Define the role of the author and illustrator of a story in telling the story.

This morning we puzzled over pattern blocks, trying to find new ways of putting them together to make shapes.  Several friends made flowers.  They found different solutions using hexagons, trapezoids, diamonds, triangles and squares arranged in different ways.  One friend noticed that the diamond shape resembled a flower seed and added those shapes to the center of her flower where the seeds would be.  Several others did this as well.  We had grown a large sunflower in the garden this summer and we had examined it up close after it had gone to seed.  Friends spent an afternoon removing the seeds with tweezers.  It was fun to see the kids so aware of where the seeds are formed in a flower!

In the art center, we used classroom objects that we see every day to make shape paintings.  We enjoyed some of the new textures, like the dots and lines we could make with the bristle blocks.  This activity opens up new ways of seeing the world, as we break it down into the shapes that are all around us.

Breakfast: Whole wheat English muffins with butter and fresh orange slices

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce, mozzarella cheesy flat bread, fresh green peppers/carrots and fresh banana/grapes/apples

PM snack: Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh carrots/cucumber/pepper.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-01-27

Happy Friday!

PREK1 kiddos ended the week exploring with magnatiles for their sign in activity. Each group member was given a card that showed a picture of a shape created with several magnatile shapes. For example, Ryan was tasked at finding one square and two triangles. He used those three shapes to make a new shape: a trapezoid!

We continued exploring shape building at the light table.  We found that there were a variety of triangles offered to explore.  We tried making different shapes out of the triangles, finding we could make hexagons, diamonds and squares using only triangles.  We also made other kinds of structures like “rocket ships” and “houses” using a mixture of shapes.

Our younger friends enjoyed a shape game to see how many shapes they remembered.  The searched blindly through a jar of beans pulling out all of the shapes and trying to remember what they were called.  Friends also enjoyed re-hiding them for the next friend!

Breakfast– Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh pineapple.

Lunch– Turkey on whole wheat bread, fresh pineapple/kiwi/pear/grapes, and fresh cucumber/broccoli/pepper.

PM snack– Fresh pears, cheddar block cheese, and goldfish.

Wee Sprout– Fresh broccoli/cucumber/pepper.

Have a lovely weekend!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-01-24

Good Afternoon!  Enjoy the pictures from our day!

Breakfast:  Whole grain brown rice cakes with cream cheese and fresh apple slices.

Lunch:  Turkey lunch meat, whole grain wheat tortillas, bananas and cooked butternut squash.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole grain Goldfish crackers with mild cheddar block cheese slices.

Wee Sprout:  Cucumbers.

Have a great weekend!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-01-24

Good Afternoon!

We kicked off our Thursday by matching rhyming words for our PREK1 sign in activity. Children came to the board where they chose a yellow card from the bottom of the board. We worked together at finding the matching rhyming word. Once they were able to identify the match, each child wrote their name next to the match!

K.RF.3.1: Identify and produce rhyming words.

Later on in PREK1 group, we continued working on rhyming words by reading ‘The Shape Of Me And Other Stuff’ by Dr. Seuss. There were seven cards up on the chalk board, all waiting for their rhyming word match! Each group member got to choose one card from my hand and work at finding the match. They came to the board where they taped their card to complete the rhyming word puzzle piece or as one friend stated, “Hey! That makes a rectangle.”. (Can you tell we’ve been working on shapes this week?! )

K.RF.3.1: Identify and produce rhyming words.

This morning we offered a pegboard, pegs, and rubber bands to explore, allowing our kids to experiment and figure out what to do with them.  The kids quickly realized they could make shapes like triangles and squares.  As they continued tinkering, several friends wanted to connect their creations to make a long “maze” that went all the way around the board.  One friends said he was pretending to make water, so I offered to add some boats.  After that friends began making roads and airports for cars and airplanes.  We always love watching activities evolve as groups of kids apply their imaginations and creative problem solving skills!

At the art area friends explored with shapes, moon sand and beads.  Some worked together to make volcanoes while others worked by themselves to create mosaics with their materials.  There were many ideas about what to make with the materials offered.

PREK2 During group we read ‘When A Line Bends, A Shape Begins’.  On each page we took a moment for two friends to look and find a shape in the picture.  After the story we tried to recall what shape we had found and what the shape was in the picture. 

Breakfast– Toasted oatmeal squares cereal with fresh pineapple.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded turkey, fresh kiwi/pears/pineapple, and fresh green beans/pepper/broccoli.

PM snack– Trail mix with pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, raisins and granola.

Wee Sprout– Fresh green beans/broccoli.

Have a wonderful night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-01-23

Good afternoon!

This morning, a friend asked Miss Bekah to read “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” We pulled out the plastic blocks and BounceBlocks to sit in while we listened to Miss Bekah read. Cece joined our friends from her chair.

We then made our way to the kitchen to make a white collage using tissue paper, coffee filters and pipe cleaners. Our older friends practiced their fine motor skills to squeeze the glue from the bottle onto their papers. Our younger friends used sponge brushes to dab glue on their papers. We then worked on placing small pieces of the white items onto our blue papers.  The collages look like the snow we had falling outside.

Breakfast: Whole grain Oatmeal squares cereal with  fresh cantaloupe slices.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh pineapple and peas.

Afternoon Snack: Whole grain wheat Ritz cracker with peanut butter and 1/2 mozzarella cheese stick.

Wee Sprout: Red bell pepper.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-01-23

Happy Wednesday!

This morning we engaged with the finger puppets.  We worked at placing our finger puppets onto our fingers and Miss Bekah turned on a song for us called Put Your Finger In The Air by Greg and Steve.

We then headed up to the front of the classroom to roll, toss and kick balls.  Several of us rolled our textured balls down the incline of the slide.

We then got out our textured ramps and hollow block ramps to roll our cars down.

We then gathered with Miss Bekah and worked on patterning with the Duplos making an ABAB pattern.

We then wore our BounceBlocks as hats as we ran around the front circle.  We also worked on our balance skills while sitting in them.

Breakfast:  Oatmeal with cinnamon/sugar mixture and fresh kiwi.

Lunch:  Farm fresh scrambled eggs, fresh cantaloupe, cooked broccoli and whole grain wheat bread.

Afternoon Snack: Round yellow corn tortilla chips and hummus.

Wee Sprout:  Cucumber/Red bell pepper.

Have a wonderful evening!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-01-22

Good Afternoon!

PREK1 friends came to the sign in board where they found a shape sorting activity. They had a bowl full of various shapes that they sorted onto laminated shapes of different colors. As they sorted each shape, they identified the shapes that they could. One of our oldest children sorted through the bowl of shapes, finding all of the squares first. Once she placed the squares into the correct group, she searched for the triangles next and so on.

K.4.1: Identify and describe geometric objects: circle, triangle, square, rectangle, diamond, trapezoid, hexagon, octagon, parallelogram, sphere, and cube.

This morning we explored different ways to put shapes together using stamps in the art center.  We found we could put two squares together to make a rectangle, two triangles together to make a diamond and a square/triangle combination could make a house!  Katherine said, “I can draw one just like that!” and she did!

We learned about all of the three dimensional shapes that could be made with a circle at the round table this morning.  We talked about how stacking circles makes a cylinder, bringing a circle to a point makes a cone and spinning a circle makes a sphere.  We explored what we could build using these three dimensional shapes. 

PREK2 At group today we read the story “Triangle”.  We enjoyed a group calming activity slowly drawing different shapes in the air, counting their sides as we went until we got to a circle with no sides.  At the end of group, we drew a card with a shape on it.  We identified the shape and placed it on the board.  If we didn’t know, we asked the group for help.

Breakfast– Overnight oatmeal with cinnamon and fresh pears.

Lunch– Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat bread/flatbread, fresh grapes/oranges/kiwi, and fresh cucumber/green beans/snap peas.

PM snack– Hummus with tortilla chips.

Wee Sprout– Fresh pepper/cucumber/green beans.

Have a wonderful night.

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-01-22

Good afternoon!

Miss Bekah created a path for our friends this morning with the textured stepping stones. We all took turns walking down the path and feeling the various patterns under our feet.

We then made our way to the kitchen to play with loose parts. Our trays consisted of a variety of wooden arches, canoes, animal cutouts and rectangles. Some friends worked on stacking their pieces and trying balance them. Other friends noticed that their arches were tall enough to fit an animal or their canoe through it.

Miss Bekah brought out the trampoline for our friends as well. We took turns with one other friend to jump on the trampoline together. We held hands or held onto the rails of the Habi-trail while we jumped.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios cereal with fresh oranges.

Lunch: Refried beans with shredded mozzarella cheese, whole grain wheat flatbread, fresh kiwi and cucumber.

Afternoon Snack: Homemade Vegan chocolate chip muffins and fresh pear slices.

Wee Sprout: Green bell peppers.

Have a wonderful evening and stay warm!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-01-21

Good Afternoon!

To kick off our Tuesday, PREK1 group members came to the sign in board where they chose a laminated shape. They took their shape and turned to the board where they matched their shape to the correct outline. They identified the shape before writing their name next to it!

K.4.1: Identify and describe geometric objects: circle, triangle, square, rectangle, diamond, trapezoid, hexagon, octagon, parallelogram, sphere, and cube.

Later on in PREK1 group, we dove into rhyming words by reading ‘Hop on Pop’ by Dr. Seuss. Before we began, a few friends gave rhyming word examples such as ‘vest’ and ‘nest’.

This morning we sorted shapes at our welcome activity.  We picked a tray then inspected it, deciding what shape we thought our tray might be for.  Next, we collected all of the corresponding shapes from the middle of the table to add to our tray.  We tried a circle, square and hexagon tray.

In the art center, we experimented with color mixing.  We filled different shapes with hues of color we mixed using eye droppers and watercolor.  We made interesting new colors like lime green, turquoise, maroon and blue/violet.   

PREK2: In group today, we listened to the story, “Ten Animals in the Antarctic”.  We counted the animals on each page together as we learned what kinds of animals we may find there.  One of our friends was asking about animals that live in cold places, so we had some interest around that earlier.  After the story, we picked a shape from the tray and sorted it on the board.  We counted how many shapes were in each category as we went. 

 Breakfast– Corn Chex and fresh pineapple.

Lunch– Refried beans and shredded cheese quesadillas on whole wheat tortilla/flatbread, fresh pears/pineapple, and fresh cucumber/snap peas/green beans.

PM snack– Homemade muffins with string cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/snap peas/green beans.

Have a lovely night!

-Wee Friends Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-01-21

Good Afternoon!

This morning we filled the sensory table with water and ice cubes.  We then added bears and polar bears, trucks, scoops and tongs to use to explore in the table.  The friends worked with the tongs to pick up the ice cubes.  We also talked about how polar bears like the cold.  One of our friends, touched an ice cube and said, “cold.

We then all sat on the reading step together to look at a book independently or sit with a baby doll.

Several of the friends played in the front area with the Little People, car hauler, airplane and bulldozer.

We the built with the waffle blocks, connecting them together like a puzzle.

Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat bread toasted with peanut butter and fresh blueberries.

Lunch:  Whole grain penne pasta with shredded chicken, fresh orange bell pepper and pear slices.

Afternoon Snack:  Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts:  Cucumbers.

Have a wonderful evening, stay warm and go Irish!

WWF Teachers

Link to pictures: 2025-01-20