AFC PINE PM

We celebrated our last day before break with A LOT of fun activities including:  sitting by a bonfire, making and decorating cookies, playing with our friends from Dogwood, and hearing a book read by Grandma Marty!  Have a great and safe break. Thank you for the sweet gifts, we are so happy to have each and every one of you in our class!  So much love,  Ms. Jill, Ms. Kim, & Ms. Margie

This afternoon the Pine kids explored some snow while sitting at the table inside. It was such a surprise!  F used different sized cups and even a funnel to push the cold snow around. He only touched it every so often. He would occasionally bring it close to his face and examine the small bits of snow that were quickly melting in his warm hands.  B on the other hand was no stranger to using his hands while working with the snow. He touched it and giggled as the snow melted between his palms. Every few seconds B would pull his hands out and seemed to wait until they warmed up again to play in it. He continued this same routine for several minutes on end until his little fingers couldn't stand it anymore.  "Ms. Jill look, I made a snowman like the movie!" L unveiled his small snow tower. It was the exact shape of the cup he was using.  "He is small not big." Just then L crushed the snowman with a tin bowl.  "I made him go...

During capers today M found Ms. Julie building with popsicle sticks. The group was making all sorts of shapes, letters, and different designs they were familiar with.  "Can I have some popsicle sticks? I want to make a game!" Ms Julie handed M some sticks and he got to work. He started making some kind of grid pattern, but stopped once there was one complete square in the middle and open ended ones along the edges.  "It's for tic tac toe!" M handed a pile of yellow legos to J.  "Here, since we don't really have markers we can use these instead!" The two began playing a game of tic tac toe.  M made a simple game out of materials that were near him. He didn't need paper and pencil to still play. How resourceful! 

What do you do when you want to swing by yourself and nobody is able to push you? W found a way to swing no problem and even inspired M to swing himself that same way.  It's great to watch the kids learn from one another on how to do things a little differently. It's a whole new set of problem solving! 

While sitting at snack L noticed something about his goldfish.  "These are different. Some of them have holes and some don't have faces." L inspected each goldfish before placing them in his mouth.  He began sorting the fish into different piles: ones with holes, ones with no faces, and ones with faces. He continued to look closely in order to determine whether or not the fish were worthy of belonging to a certain group. The ones he believed didn't make the cut, he put them in his mouth.  L continued to sort all of his goldfish until they were in their respected piles then chowed down. 

J sat down at the table and immediately got to work on a new drawing. In the past, J drew pictures of people that mostly consisted of members of her family. Today's drawings were different though!  "I made a haircut, and now I'm making some ice cream." J chose colors very carefully, and mostly depending on the smell of the markers (thanks Mr. Sketch Scented markers!).  "Oh this one smells like strawberries so I am going to use it all. I love strawberries!" She popped the cap open and started coloring vigorously across the page.  J then picked up the brown marker, smelled it, smiled and started coloring it.  "It's chocolate! I love chocolate too!"  J's drawings have really evolved over the last few weeks. She is choosing to draw other things she likes rather than just familiar people. She is beginning to use more descriptive words as she self talks her way through her drawings. We love being able to see the...

In the video below you can watch as F plays with two kids from the Dogwood classroom. This is the second day the three boys have played this seemingly simple game of chase. They don't say much, but you can see how happy they are playing with one another as they run back and forth.  Without any explanation or much communication, the three boys knew exactly what they were playing and how to play it.

J stood on top of the rock looking nervously down at the ground.  "I can't jump, I'm scared!" She crept closer to the edge as she kept her eyes on the ground below.  "I am going to try." She took a deep breath, "3, 2, 1, ready, steady..." and jumped!  J landed gracefully and started laughing as soon as her feet touched the ground.  "I'm going to do it again!" Several kids gathered around and jumped off one by one to hang in the air for just a second before crashing down onto the ground.  They took turns jumping off, encouraging one another, and laughing when they landed. It's so fun to see these moments of courage and bravery throughout the day. 

"I found something! I found something!" L ran over carrying a round log with a giant hole in the middle.  "Look it is a hole." L picked it up and drew the attention from another friend in the Magnolia class. "L I can see you in the hole!" She bent down and peered through the space in the log.  "I can see something! I can see you too!" The two looked at each other through the hole and started giggling.  A friend from Dogwood noticed the commotion and saw the hole and had a different idea on what to do with the log.  "Look you can put it on a stick like this!" She strung the log onto the stick like a bead on a string. The two of them laughed at how well it was staying on until the stick cracked and the log tumbled to the ground.  By now M joined both S and L and saw what happened.  "It looks like the moon!" he exclaimed encouragingly.  "The moon is a circle." "Not all ...

W sat down at the table and began working with his playdoh. He worked in silence as he rolled the soft dough with his hands against the table. W made a long snake like shape. It caught L's eye as he passed by the table.  "He made a snake! I want to make a snake too." L sat down and began mashing the dough into the table. At first, he poked at it, squeezed it between his fingers, and then finally laid it across the table.  "I want to make a snake, but I can't." Can't do it? That is not a phrase we take lightly in the Pine room. How can we figure out how to do it? L watched W roll the playdoh into the snake like shape. He laid his playdoh out like W and started pushing it under his hands.  "It's not working, I can't do it." L began getting a little upset because his dough was not turning into a snake. "Can you do it, I can't." With some encouragement and W modeling how to roll the dough, L was successf...