WWF Daily Explorations, Tuesday 5.24.11

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Yesterday afternoon we had so much fun coloring a mural and tracing our hand and footprints. This morning some of us were able to dip our feet in paint, and place our painted feet on the paper with Miss Lisa. For those that did not have a chance do to it today, we will do it first thing tomorrow morning. We will then brush on some glue and sand to look as though we have been walking on the beach. We are loving these warm, summer days!

Miss Paulina brought us a big box to crawl in. We used our imaginations to create a train tunnel and numerous other things. The children had a great time doing this, as well as playing with our train track we drew on long paper yesterday. We brought in our trains and even taped some cardboard over them to make tunnels.

While Miss Lisa and some of our friends helped to water our freshly planted flowers, Miss Paulina explored our garden with the children. We cannot wait to taste test some of our garden produce.

Ball rolling and climbing the log cabin house seemed to be the activity of choice outside today as well.

Marta was our kitchen helper. She helped Miss Lisa wash and dry the table, count and place our plates and spoons. We had chicken salad with apples, corn, and cantaloupe. What a great summer menu.

Miss Lisa read us a summer book about bumblebees and flowers, and then one of our favorites, ¨Busy Toes.¨

Wishing you a day full of sunshine!

Regards,

Lisa, Paulina, Amy and Marty

WF Daily Explorations Tuesday May 24

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Tuesday, May 24th

Happy Birthday, Yonatan! MG 9459Yonatan turns three today!

INDY 500 Study

Today we began a new study: race cars and the Indy 500. After an incredible brain storming meeting yesterday, our friends have come up with some incredible ideas for the study. We’ve promised a real derby race as a culminating event! MG 9460

In the truck room, we gathered all WF cars in a big pile on the floor. We sorted them in several different ways: race cars, cars of different colors, cars with stripes and cars with numbers. We counted the number of cars as we sorted them into piles. We explored different materials in the truck room that we could create ramps with. F.3.13 Talk about the cover and illustrations prior to the story being read.F.3.9 Sort a group of objects by more than one way. F.3.13 Categorize familiar objects by function and class. F.4.7 Sort a group of objects by more than one way. MG 9463

After lunch, a group of older friends gathered to listen to Twelve Little Race Cars by Scott Pruett and Indy Cars by Kate Riggs. We created a message board asking “What do we know about race cars?”

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While our swimmers were at the Y for their weekly lesson, other friends sorted colored buttons into MG 9465

their corresponding colored bowl. F.3.12 Apply one to one correspondence with objects and people. F.4.6 Sort by one attribute (e.g., size, shape, color).

For lunch we served chicken apple salad, broccoli, whole wheat bread and cantelope.

Enjoy your day!

WF Farm, Monday, 5.23.11

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Today, we spent our time at the farm investigating the marshy area of the pond.  We used nets to catch as a variety of living creatures:  a tadpole, several small fish, mosquito larvae, dragon fly larvae, a HUGE beetle (identified as a “toe biter” by Charlotte’s daughter Robin), several waterbugs, crawfish, fly larvae, snails in all shapes and sizes, a variety of marsh plants, and tons of small organisms that are just moving about in the water. 

Another highlight was we were able to  investigate a baby dragonfly that had just hatched.  Because his wings were not dry yet, he let everyone examine him closely without flying away.  What a treat!

Unfortunately, I forgot the WF camera, so I have just a few pictures from my iphone to share.  But, the children really had a marvelous time scooping the water with their nets, sorting through their nets to see what they caught, and then sharing their catch with friends.  Also, this was a great chance for the children to assess how far they could step into the marsh without the water going over the top of their boots.  At some point, each child “filled” their boots with marsh water, but everyone handled the cold water and “dumping” their boots with good humor.

We brought back much of our marsh catch and placed it in the aquarium in the art room.  Ask your child to show you!

WWF Daily Explorations, Monday 5.23.11

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Things are really beginning to bloom here at WWF!  We started our day with planting Marigolds in our flower boxes.  We had fun digging the holes, placing the flowers in them, and ¨packing¨ the dirt around them.  We then filled our watering cans and helped to water them.  We also watered our garden.   It was a lot of fun filling up our water cans and dumping the water all around us!

We are continuing to motor along on our tricycles and push cars.  Sunscreen was applied in abundance today, how nice that was!  Finally, some sun!

Finn helped to set the table for lunch.  We counted the number of friends we have here today  and counted as we placed the plates and spoons on the table.  The children really seem to be enjoying this.   We had chicken, rice, and corn with fresh fruit salad and carrot sticks.  We are all doing a great job with using our spoons and using the sign language we have learned thus far.

This afternoon we will be playing a matching and counting game with magnets.   Weather permitting, we will enjoy some more outside exploration time.

Please be sure to check your child´s cubby at the end of the day for wet clothing.  With the warmer weather, and lots of water play, we will most likely be changing clothes several times a day.

Enjoy the day, and we look forward to another great week here at WWF!

Regards,

Lisa, Paulina, Marty and Amy

WF Daily Explorations Monday May 23

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On two occasions today, unprompted by the teachers, large groups of friends gathered together first for a game and then for a more complex task of scissor cutting. They played, worked cooperatively, and laughed and conversed all the while. A few younger friends enjoyed shaking, rolling and studying plastic tubes, filled with different liquids.

MG 9407Wee Friends gobbled up the delicious birthday snack Taylor brought last week: bananas on a stick, dipped in strawberry yogurt and rolled in graham crackers-then frozen!!!!!!! Thank you Taylor!

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Waiting to load up and head to the Farm.

Kid Quotes:

When asked “What has been the best part of your day?”  here’s how your children responded:

Jane: “Helping Addi (her lunch buddy) and I like to be in the front for naptime.”

Jacob: “I was at the Farm with Tami and I was doing fishing.”

Alexandra: “I like my mommy and candy.”

Kai: “Catching a crayfish-it was a baby.”

Addi: “I like Kai and Jane and Annie.”

Taylor: “My best part was catching a baby fish.”

Simon: “Going outside!”

Owen: “Fishing!”

Isaac: “Going to the Farm.”

Macy: “I like my mommy.”

Oliver: “Stepping in mud puddles at the Farm.”

Check the blog later today for today’s farm adventures!

For lunch we served whole wheat pasta with tuna, pears and carrots/cucumbers.

Have a great day!

WF Daily Explorations Friday May 20

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SCISSORS!

This morning we practiced using scissors, cutting from a variety of different magazines. For our younger friends, we discussed how to hold scissors and practiced opening and closing them. For all friends, we talked about how to safely pass scissors to a friend. One friend created a collage with her cuttings.

Many of our child-driven activities have an improvisational quality to them. To support our doctor study, Laurie started to play “Mind Your Manners” and friends quickly gathered to dance and sing. Melinda expressed “Let’s use our new green mats!” So we paused our music and began singing “My space, my space, here I am in my space…..my space, my space, only me!” When friends had established safe spatial boundaries in which to move their bodies, we pressed ‘play’ to resume “Mind Your Manners”. Technical difficulty (bad disc!). Laurie turned around to see friends quietly waiting for the music on their mats. Melinda exclaimed “I see you all waiting patiently and happily!” As friends watched and listened, Laurie inserted “If You’re Happy and You Know It”. Friends clapped and stomped and shouted! From there, 4 friends at a time played a watching/listening follow the leader game called: “Troll Freeze”: one friend is the troll leader and whenever he/she turns around, the following trolls freeze and drop to the ground. Then, a friend who finished Troll Freeze rolled himself into the mat and said “Look! I’m a hot dog!” Other friends joined in, going nuts over being hot dogs with green buns. More singing ensued and it was time to go outside. Melinda then guided our friends as they rolled their hot dog buns up and placed them into the basket.

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This all lasted 25-30 minutes and while it reads with a frenetic quality, the transitions were terrifically smooth and logical with teachers and Wee Friends watching and listening closely to one another for the next inspired spark.

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Now, what to do with the instant, exuberant (accidental?!) interest in hot dogs? Any ideas?!

Have a great weekend!!! MG 9426

WWF Daily Explorations, Thursday 5.19.11

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Another very busy day at WWF! Our morning began with an interesting and brand new art project. Lisa prepared some bowls with paint and gave the children long pieces of string and a sheet of paper. They dipped the string in the paint and dropped it on the paper several times making very interesting curvy lines. They also tried rubbing and rolling the string on the paper getting different effects.

Some children spent time outside planting tomatoes with Amy. They dug up the dirt using shovels and gently placed tomato starters in. These plants grew out of the seeds we had planted with the children earlier in the spring. Our garden is starting look like one!

While outside today we made lots of music. This week we have added a new song in Spanish that goes like this:

Dos manitas, diez deditos,

Dos manitas, diez deditos,

Dos manitas, diez deditos,

Dos manitas, diez deditos son.

Uno, dos y tres deditos,

Cuatro , cinco y seis deditos,

Cinco, seis y siete deditos,

Ocho, nueve y diez deditos son!

(to the same tune of “one, two and three little fingers”).

Today we had our first try to have a lunch helper. We are hoping to have one child per week who would like to help us setting up the table and preparing the food for their friends. Today and tomorrow will be Umi’s turn. We are excited!

Among the teachers we have been discussing about our role as teacher in “learning through play”. As teachers it is essential to be able to recognize a “teaching moment” and approach it the right way. We are excited about a new tool we have found, and would like to share with you.

When children play we want to watch and look for signs that will tell us we are being invited to play with them. Sometimes these are as subtle as a gentle gaze at you or as clear as taking your hand and saying “come play with me”. The key here is to do it with respect and honoring the intentions and level of sophistication of their play. We have found the following acronym to be helpful.

“Approach play with SOUL”

Silent

Observe

Understand what is going on, and

Listen

Have a wonderful day!!! We? We have SOUL!!!!

Paulina, Lisa and Amy

P.S Sometimes technology gets us and Wednesday our blog post was saved as a draft and never posted!!! So here it is, better now than never!

Despite the clouds and light drizzle this morning, we made our own sunshine inside this morning. Miss Lisa did some fun farm cards with our friends. We identified the animal and the sound it makes, and did some discussion on our farm trip. We worked on individual collages this morning. As we picked different objects (tissue paper, gift
wrap, cotton balls, etc). We talked about the texture, its size and color.

Miss Amy had some avid gardners outside. Things are beginning to sprout! For lunch we had cheese tortillas, mixed vegetables, and

fruit salad. We look forward to more outside time this afternoon.

Have a great day! Regards, Lisa, Paulina, Marty and Amy

WF Daily Explorations Thursday May 19

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Thursday May 19

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAYLOR!

Taylor turns 6 today!

Today both groups of friends went to tumbling class!

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Back at school, Tami read aloud several books and Melinda led a sculpture activity using salt dough. The recipe we use is as follows:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

7 tbls water

(add water and flour to achieve desired consistency)

Here are a few of the many benefits of children working with salt dough:

1)Working with salt dough helps to gain control over hand and arm movements which improves coordination.

2)Great for fine/gross motor muscle development.

3)Salt dough is a natural outlet through which children can express their emotions.

4)Cooperative play and dramatic play can be seen when children use salt dough.

5)Discussing what has been made helps build communication skills and develops imagination

6) Dividing it up can be used to help children learn about numbers and counting.

7)Playing with salt dough with others helps children understand the importance of sharing.

To foster independence, Tami designed a salt dough “station” that friends can access on their own. There are two different colored/sized measuring cups for each dry ingredient. A small glass is used for the water, with 7 tablespoons clearly marked in words and a black line. A large ceramic bowl and wooden spoon are available for mixing.

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Today nearly all of Wee Friends created with salt dough. They knew exactly the order of turn taking and waited patiently for their own turn!

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Today for lunch we served cucumber and cream cheese on whole wheat tortillas and fruit salad.

Have a great day!

WWF Daily Exploration, 5.18.11

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Light rain and drizzle did not keep us from enjoying yet another indoor, pretend picnic. We also sang our picnic song. Feel free to check out the words on our board and sing it at home. It will be music to your ears!

Miss Paulina played the guitar for our music time today. We used our shakers and learned a new song in Spanish. We learned some new movements to this song. A special thank you to Jason, one of our parent´s for sharing his wonderful guitar and vocal talents during this time as well. It was a nice treat for all of us.

We enjoyed some outdoor time. We played run and stop with Miss Lisa to burn off some energy. We are enjoying riding our bikes, helping to push our friends on our bikes and swing when they need help. We have some real experienced climbers on our log cabin.

Lunch today was chicken and rice, corn, and bananas. We are working at using our table manners while eating. All of our friends enjoyed helping themselves on seconds. We are doing a great job using our sign language to signify ¨more,¨ and ¨please.¨

Miss Amy will be joining us tomorrow as Marty will have the next two days off. We will miss Marty, but always look forward to Miss Amy, and the talents she brings to us.

Enjoy the day.

Regards,

Lisa, Paulina, and Marty