AFC PINE PM

While out on the hillside, M yelled excitedly at something he found with a friend from Dogwood.  "Look! Look! It's little mushrooms!" "They are brown and so small." "Yeah, they are tiny! I don't know if there are anymore around here." "See how tiny it is. I think they are poisonous!" "Yeah, we can't eat these ones." "I don't know how they got here." "I think they just grew here." "Someone planted them here!" L soon became very interested in what the boys found. He examined the fungi with both his fingers and his eye.  "Look, there's the mushrooms!" L dug around the surrounding area looking around for other small mushrooms to pick.  "I don't see anymore. I don't like them, they are yucky!" M, W, & L continued their search around the hillside to find more mushrooms. They looked around in the grass

F started looking through each hole. He would crouch down, take a look through, then pop back up. Friends from Magnolia ran over and started looking through too. As they looked through, they would yell, "hello!" F got an idea. He decided he was going to yell 'hello' too, but through each tunnel.  They continued to bob up and down switching between looking through each hole and yelling in it.  The group would erupt in giggles after exchanging different yells and vocalizations.  "It sounds loud when you yell in it." "You can see different parts looking in." "Yeah you have to turn it like this." The playscape provides for so many different opportunities for the kids. They were able to hear sounds much louder than they normally would and focus on other parts of outside looking into the narrow tunnel. 

K was determined to climb on top of the large log and walk across. Despite the obvious size difference between Kara and the log, she took many precautions as she started her journey to the top of the log.  "I need W to move. It's hard with two people." K allowed W to climb up first. She watched how he moved both his hands and his feet to make his way on top of tree trunk.  "It's so big. I am scared!" K was very nervous to climb up by herself. She would look around nervously before moving her hands or feet.  "I can't do it." With some words of encouragement K finally made it on top.  "I made it! I think it would be better if I stood up." K stood up and got a very worried look on her face.  "It's too high. I'm so scared." After a few seconds she thought of another way she could get across the log. The task seemed daunting.  "I think I can do it like this.

When we arrived at the forest with our color wheel M immediately found a wild strawberry and a yellow leaf to add to our color wheel.  "Look, I found a yellow leaf and one of those of red berries!" The kids set off into the forest going on a color hunt. They all ran in different directions to find more materials throughout the thick trees.  "I see a lot of green." "I think there is some red over there!" "This is just brown, we don't need that." Our time at the forest was driven by the colors we have been creating in our room with our hands, brushes, and eye droppers. Some children took the time to search the grass for things like wild strawberries or small flowers while others looked above their heads to find some purple and red berries.  "The leaves are yellow because they are changing." On the way back from the forest the whole class excitedly pointed out an entire bush full

K confidently asked to have one hand covered in blue and the other in red.  "It's going to be purple!" She stamped her hands firmly onto the canvas and then carefully peeling them away.  "It is purple!" F also used blue and purple. He rubbed them together and stared at the brand new color on his hands.  With some help, F was able to see the purple he created come off his hands and transfer onto the white canvas.  "The blue and the yellow made green. It's like my shirt!" Next M and J both wanted to rub their hands together with yellow and red. They both giggled as the cold paint slid between their fingers.  "The yellow and red made orange!" The color mixing skills came in handy when dying rice. In order to make more than just primary colors, the kids realized they needed to mix the food coloring in order to create secondary colors like green, orange, and purple.  W

Playdoh has been a huge hit in the Pine room. Everyday this week we looked at different ways we can use it, today we decided making dinosaur prints was our best option.  L sat down and swiftly pressed the dinosaurs foot into the playdoh.  "A footprint! He has his feet in here." L continued to stamp the dinosaur's feet into the dough. He would study the prints as he pressed them in.  "He has his feet in. They are big!" "Look! They are two!" "They look the same. He has two." W took a different dinosaur in his hand and furiously stamped the feet into the green dough.  "Stomping. He's making footprints." W sat there and looked at the many different kinds of prints the dinosaurs were making. He continued to comment on the sizes.  "This is small. That one's big." "Hahah, look he has 5 footprints!" "That's a big one! He has big foot.