Little Explorers

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

• Friday, March 21st- We will meet together at Northern from 9:00-10:15 am. Miss Stephanie will be covering this class.
• Friday, March 28th- We will have a combined session from 10:00-11:15 am at Northern.

What a special treat it was to have our youngest learners on our main campus today. They truly showed themselves as little explorers as they took advantage of the Preschool room and more importantly, the outdoor spaces. With the weather feeling like Spring, we had a science table full of things to investigate, including flowers, seashells, rocks, and pinecones. Chalk and oil pastels made for some interesting mark marking on black construction paper and various kinds of sand paper. Our animals needed some saving from some tricky rubber bands, which were then used on our giant geoboards. The most loved space of all was the ampitheatre and the outdoor space outside of SK. There were stumps conquered, pavers jumped on, and pebbles scooped.

We gathered together for a yummy snack and Dr. Seuss’ Mr. Brown Can Moo. Can You? Our favorite songs were sung, including a wild animal freeze dance with our scarves.

I hope you all enjoy this beautiful weather and have a great weekend!

Miss Claire

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

• Friday, March 7th– Spring Break- no sessions today
• Friday, March 14th– Little Explorers will meet from 9:00-10:15am in the Preschool classroom on our main campus (8 Park Road). You can park at the colored shelter, walk up the colored stairs, and take a left at the top of the stairs. Follow the sidewalk and walk past the gym (it will be on your right). The Preschool room will be on the left right by the ampitheatre.

The sunshine and warmer weather brought some energetic kiddos today! There were lots of giggles, squeals of delight, and amazing learning happening. New blocks were introduced on the big rug, including foam ones, Bristle blocks, and Duplos. The playdough was mixed with our stamps and rollers, a pleasant invitation for making fun imprints. One table was transformed into a magnetic wonderland filled with cans, the Magna Tiles, our magnetic balls, the magnetic people, and pipe-cleaner filled bottles to use with our wands. Several sheets hanging from the ceiling mixed with the overhead projector and puppets brought out lots of fun shadow discoveries. The chunky Stabilo crayons and oil pastels welcomed lots of markings to a different kind of surface…mirrors! A crowd favorite this week was the indoor “playground” that included our tunnel, stepping stones, a mini-block mountain, and a trampoline. It was so sweet seeing the students sharing the new items and meeting up for some cozy conversations. We read Bee My Friend by Caroline Richards and even danced like bumblebees with our colorful scarves.

I hope you all have a great weekend and see you in a few weeks!

Miss Claire

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

• Friday, February 28th– We will have our session at Northern from 9:00-10:15 am
• Friday, March 7th– Spring Break- School is closed
• Friday, March 14th– Little Explorers will be held from 9:00-10:15 am on our main campus. More details to come!

What a chill vibe we had this morning during our time together. All of the students seemed quite content moving freely from provocation to provocation, taking part in everything that was offered. Our rice bin became quite the tea and coffee bar as black beans and our tea set items were added to the mix. Doilies, lace, large buttons, and translucent pattern blocks made for some interesting designs and patterns on the wall. A bonus was seeing the students making marks using markers on the large paper on the wall. A large collaborative canvas we had worked on last semester returned with an invitation to glue a variety of loose parts, including pom poms, yarn, buttons, colored papers, and felt shapes. Shaving cream covered an entire table and was scraped, painted, and rolled with a plethora of fun tools. Our dinosaurs stomped through our block area and inspired some excellent singing. Fluffy white “snow” was dripped and squirted with liquid watercolors, making for some fantastic color mixing. Lastly, a giant table and chair fort was created, offering a cozy space for the kiddos to hang out and chat with each other. We finished with our story, Pete the Cat’s Groovy Imagination and our favorite songs.

I hope you all have a great weekend. Stay healthy and warm!

Miss Claire

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

• Friday, February 21st and Friday, February 28th– We will meet together from 9:00-10:15 am at Northern.

• March 2-9– Spring Break, No Classes

All you need for a great Valentine’s Day is some curious kiddos, amazing parents, balloons, and a lot of glitter and sprinkles. Today was a beautiful morning filled with lots of love. Our cakes we “iced” during our last session were covered in colorful sprinkles, lots of glitter, and beautiful flowers. I can’t wait to display them for all to see. The strawberry play dough returned with our cookie cutters, rollers, glitter hearts, and tiny puzzle pieces. Heart-shaped sponges in water made for a fun sensory bin. Our light table was covered in lace and adorned with neon balloon dogs, fillable candies and hearts, and lots of loose parts. Homemade valentines are my favorite and it was so sweet seeing the kiddos stamp, mark, and sticker heart doilies. All of the blocks were out this week, as well as our Beanie Babies, making for some interesting animal homes and schools. The cube was a hit again, filled with hanging heart balloons and lights. The gifted musical stepping stones added an extra special touch (thank you Charlotte).

I think my favorite part of the morning was seeing all of the students sharing in some sweet Valentine love while they received special treats from their friends. We finished with our story, Tiny T. Rex and The Perfect Valentine, reminding us that friendship is the most perfect kind of valentine.

Thank you for bringing all the love today and see you next week!

Miss Claire

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

• Friday, February 7th- no sessions- Winter Long Weekend
• Friday, February 14th- We will meet together at Northern during our normal time, 9:00-10:15 am.

What a fun session we had today, filled with lots of good belly laughs and bright smiles. The students got right down to business, visiting each provocation with enthusiasm and gusto. We had cars zipping along the road, moving under tunnels and down some ramps. The play dough smelled of yummy strawberries and helped us make delicious Valentine’s Day treats with our cookie cutters and sparkly hearts. Paint was swirled and dabbed on tin foil with the best painting tool ever, our hands! Large, squishy noodles were added to some water and stirred as a large portion of “soup”. Some of the kiddos enjoyed interchanging the heart-shaped doilies on the light table, marking with classic markers. Several foam cubes were slathered with a homemade puffy paint to make the start of some pretty awesome mini-cakes. We will be using those again next time. Our sensory bin was filled with Valentine’s Day goodies, including colored rice, confetti, rubber duckies, mini-cups, and champagne flutes. The most visited area of our classroom was definitely the cube as it was transformed into a “funhouse” using long streamers, twinkling lights, and hanging balloons. The belly laughs and smiles that filled that space were everything today and made for a great morning on such a rainy day.

We finished our time together identifying animals and making their sounds while reading our story, Snowflakes on Our Tongues by Mike Ornstein and singing our favorite tunes.

I hope you all have a great upcoming week and see you soon!

Miss Claire

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

• Friday, January 24th is a combined class with We Two. We will be at Northern from 10:00-11:15 am.

There was a beautiful calmness to our time together this week, one that was filled with lots of explorations and discoveries. The students were welcomed by an icy small world table, full of snowballs, blue waters, “ice” cup castles, and lots of animal figures. Our playdough was used to create a magical world full of ferocious dinosaurs, proving to be a favorite of the kiddos. We had magnets galore with new magnetic people that were stuck to cans, Magna Tiles, magnetic wands, a fire grate, and of course each other! Many of the students gathered together on the rug to explore the cars and various kinds of blocks. The light table was covered in a large plastic sheet, perfect for mark-making with our dry erase markers. A sensory tub full of “snow” was shoveled and poured from little Dixie cups to small plastic jars. Together we counted down from 10 as we read 10 Sparkly Snowflakes and finished with some excellent singing, dancing, and dinosaur stomping.

I look forward to seeing you all next week! Have a wonderful weekend!

Miss Claire

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

• Friday, January 17- 9:00-10:15 am at Northern
• Here is the snack signup sheet. Thank you for support!

Brr, it was so cold outside this morning but it was nice and cozy in our classroom. I just loved having everyone back together and it was so sweet seeing all of the kiddos showing recognition of each other. We mashed snow and cranberries using various cooking tools, scooped our rice and oatmeal into gingerbread tins and cups, rolled and smooshed playdough, explored our Magna Tiles on the overhead projector and light table, and marked paper with crayons and oil pastels. Don’t forget about the yummy meals that were mixed and stirred in our lovely kitchen. With snow on the brain, we read So Much Snow by Kristin Schroeder. The singing and dancing was amazing this week and I am so proud of how these kiddos are starting to really shine!

I hope you all stay nice and warm this weekend. See you next week!

Sincerely,

Miss Claire

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

• Friday, January 10th- Little Explorers from 9:00-10:15 am at Northern; We Two from 11:00-12:15 pm at Northern

Click here for the Little Explorers Snack Sign Up

Dear Families,

Welcome to our class blog! I will update this every week with important dates, announcements, and all the photos/videos that I take during our sessions.

What a great first session we had even with a snow delay. It was so wonderful having my young learners back in the classroom, taking full advantage of the space. We built animal homes out of various kinds of blocks and wooden planks, sculpted interesting works out of gingerbread play dough, pine, and glass gems, explored magnets at the light table, scooped and poured oatmeal and rice at our sensory bin, stuck different shapes on our windows with a spritz of water, and stirred a variety of loose parts in our pine water bin. We finished our time with a variation of the classic story, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. Our book, We’re Going on a Gingerbread Hunt took us through sticky ice cream, a candy cane forest, down a maple syrup river, and into a pretzel cave to meet a YETI! We then sang several songs as we moved and grooved our bodies and scarves. We have some excellent singers and dancers on our hands.

I look forward to our time together next week and thank you for your flexibility this week. Have a nice weekend!

Miss Claire