It’s been a happy, busy day at Wee Friends!

We have a new camera and are still making computer program adjustments so that we can include photos of our daily activities! Thanks for being patient with us as we work out the kinks….

Many different interests were being explored in our classroom today. A few older friends have expressed interest in airplanes and other flying machines. To support their play, we created a pilot’s briefcase filled with a variety of airplanes and jets, a pilot’s journal with various colored pencils, a few library books about airplanes/flight and a felt board airplane matching game. Friends matched like airplanes and like numbers, 1-4.

Many of our friends are still exploring the lives of bears! Today, we incorporated a new cave: remember last winter when we made a life sized mitten (king sized bed sheet sewn together!) to play in as we read Jan Brett’s The Mitten? We pulled it out today and pretended it was a cave. Melinda gathered props and created a puppet play of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Friends listened intently and applauded when it was over!

Paulina led friends outdoors to plant seeds and pick tomatoes. She brought with her trays with white paper and red markers. After harvesting MORE TOMATOES!!! friends gathered on the deck to write about their experiences.

One of our toddlers is very interested in crickets. We all gathered in the music area to listen to/dance to/sing to and have conversations about crickets chirping in the night (soundtrack). Paulina read The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle. We discovered how crickets chirp and we rubbed our hands together and created a cricket chorus! The book has two repetitive sentences and an older friend shouted out these lines when it was time.

For lunch we served WF cucumbers, corn-on-the-cob (thank you Alexandra G.!), bananas and whole wheat pasta with chicken.

Have a great day!

We welcomed friends to school today with a continuation of our ‘exploracion de rokas’! We filled two tubs with warm water and added small glass stones to one and medium sized rocks to the other. With spoons, spatulas, and small/medium/large containers, friends poured, sorted, splashed and picked up the various rocks. We identified different colors of glass stones and added environmental music of a splashing stream to enhance discovery and a sense of calm!

A small group of friends explored the beautiful illustrations and interesting sounds of Boucle d’or by Pere Castor- a French adaptation of Goldilocks and the Three Bears! Thank you, Amy C.! Page after page represented illustrations of groups of three. We counted the objects within those groups and asked “which size is this?” Afterwards, we studied how the number three looks and moved to the art table to experiment with the lines and curves of ‘3’. One friend translated her understanding of the number and the concept of size by drawing three lines and calling them “Daddy, Mommy and Baby”. Another friend drew three letter ‘x”s and applied the same relationships to his drawing.

When a friend expressed that she wanted to be a bear in her cave, a small group of friends moved to housekeeping and we played the instrumental track “Grizzly Bear Cubs With Their Mom After a Storm”. Our cubs created caves and hibernated in the cold winter. When spring came, we added our splashing stream music and caught salmon in the stream, with a fishing pole! Our play-based exploration of the bears enabled us to collaborate as a group: when a friend would contribute an explanation of what she was doing, the rest of the group had the opportunity to listen/watch and follow an ever shifting leader. One friend became the protector of all the girl cubs. He chose to stay on shore (out of the stream) but followed our every move, explaining his actions as he went along. In this type of educational play, each friend ‘belongs’ and has the freedom to find his/her voice in the context of our storytelling. Our play ended with a fish fry and a long bear sleep under the imagined stars.

Our camera was on the blitz today so we aren’t able to tell you today’s story through photos! We’ll be back up next week.

Today’s lunch was WF roasted zucchini, whole wheat torillas with melted cheese and cantelope.

We hope you enjoy your family time this weekend!

Today’s blog is my day to share a passion of mine…teaching children to read through journal writing. Traditionally, reading is taught by asking children to memorize letters and attach sounds to these letters. Then, children are asked to read by “sounding” out the words. I have found this to be backwards and fraught with frustration and failure for both the kids and adults. My great success in teaching reading has been through journaling with children. Wee Friends teaches children to write first, then read. When children write first, learning to read becomes a beautiful journey that is exciting and rewarding for everyone involved.

Wee Friends makes journaling a regular and important part of our curriculum because:

Children have an opportunity to express thoughts, feelings, and words onto paper for others to see and read.

Children learn to value writing, and to respect the writing of others.
We often go into our journal time following a small group story time. We talk about the authors role in the story and connect how the children are “telling” their own story. Children talk with us about what they have written and they share with each other their stories. They learn that everyone’s picture has value.

Children have REAL and RELEVANT opportunities to learn the conventions of print such as; each letter has a sound (or many sounds) and words are made up of these individual sounds combined; print goes from left to right; and print goes from the top to the bottom of a page.

We can show a child the letter B a hundred times and it won’t stick. However, if the child is excited about a story that was read about a bear, came to the table and journaled about a bear, wanted to write about their bear, the letter B now has meaning. It is at that “teachable moment” a Wee Friend teacher is ready to supply the information that the child’s brain is hungry and ready to receive. This emotional connection will guarantee that the letter B is now learned.

Children can experiment with letters, letter sounds, and inventive spelling in a safe way. When children are asked to de-code words (read) prematurely, they are regularly wrong. When they do kids spelling, they are in control and they experience success. They can read what they wrote and they build literacy confidence.

The journey of learning to read starts with the first scribble when children are just toddlers. Children then move to drawing with purpose (circles to drawing people and objects). They then start to understand that writing can be dictated to “tell” their story. Finally, children become ready to start their own kids spelling and begin to sound the words to tell their story them self. It is the Wee Friends teacher’s role to walk with them through this journey and help them when they are ready to learn to write their name, to record their dictated words, to help them start kids spelling when they are ready, and all the zillion steps in between!

Writing gives children time to practice the fine motor control that will help them become better writers.

Yesterday’s blog gave several examples of ways that children develop fine motor skills other than writing. Often they need lots of other fine motor experiences to build the strength to write easily and with purpose. But, we foster a positive journaling culture that children want to be a part of. This means they get lots of time drawing and building the right fine motor muscles!

Have a great day,

Tami

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth