AFC PINE PM

    Wow we cannot believe today is the last day of school! It has been such a wonderful year despite the many challenges we all have faced. We all feel so lucky to have taught, laughed, and loved these boys over the last 9 months. Thank you for such a great year, it's appreciate you!  Pictures don't want to upload 😔   I will be sharing photos with you in an email. So sorry! 

  It was the perfect hot afternoon to enjoy some Kona Ice before heading to the forest for the last time this school year! It feels like just yesterday we were going to the forest for the very first time. Happy last Wednesday of the year! 

  This afternoon we settled out on the playscape to run around and play. We also had one other task to complete: making tye dye shirts! The kids were so excited to get to decorate their own shirt with the colors of their choosing. This tide in nicely with the color study we did a few weeks ago.  As the kids used the squeeze bottles they noticed how the colors bled into one another and started creating secondary colors!  "Look look, it's turning green! The yellow and blue mixed and made green!" "Oh my is kind of orange with yellow and red." "These are so cool!" "My shirt looks beautiful!" This was so fun! We are going to let the shirts sit overnight here at school, wash them out tomorrow, and let the kids wear them at school and then home on Thursday. We cannot wait to see how they turn out. 

  Such a lovely and hot afternoon to play out in the water! The kids loved running up and down the hill avoiding the crazy daisy, dancing through the bubbles, and finally enjoying some delicious popsicles. Such a great day for water!  Our class picture 💖

  No matter where we are or what we are doing, these kids always seem to gravitate towards drawing! It was no different today out on the playscape. Many of the kids started requesting to draw with paper and markers, but it was too windy! The paper may blow away... so the next best thing was some sidewalk chalk.  L & O made their way over to the sidewalk, picked out their favorite colors, and started drawing. L, however, started doing something different. She started tracing her hand! This gave us an idea. What if we traced our whole bodies?  Within minutes several kids ran over to try their best to try and trace one another.  "I look like a gingerbread!" "They are so funny!" "F & O are holding hands! That's so funny!" The kids worked hard as they started coloring in different parts of their bodies, adding in all kinds of facial features, and of course adding their favorite parts of the outfit.  "Look, I added a hat to F's body!" ...

  This afternoon was filled with different kinds of games involving tadpoles and frogs. In our best effort to learn a little more about these amphibious classmates we have tried out different ways to try and relate to them. After being able to study them a little closer during our arrival time, the whole class did their best to try and play leapfrog. A lot harder than we anticipated! After lots of giggles, a lot of assistance trying to jump over our friends, and overall chaos we decided that maybe we should just hop like frogs all the way down to the gym.  "This is so hard!" "I'm getting tired!" "Frogs jump all the time, but I can't!" Once we arrived at the gym the kids ran over to the scooters and laid down on their bellies. They began pulling themselves around when L yelled, "I'm a tadpole!" The kids started cracking up and began "swimming" across the gym floor.  "We are the tadpoles!"  The fun didn't stop th...

  The Pine room is quite excited because we have some new classmates, but these classmates are amphibians! L brought in a tank FULL of little tadpoles that the kids are just so excited to watch grow into toads. We don't know much about these tadpoles yet, but L was very knowledgeable about the life cycle. We are all looking forward to learning more about these tadpoles for the last two weeks! 

  Thursdays have become by far our hardest days at school. It comes to no surprise, especially this time of year! Every Thursday we typically have to review rules and expectations quite a lot. After a little chat about keeping our hands and feet to ourselves, using kind words, and listening to one another the kids were ready to get to playing outside with these expectations fresh in their memories. They did great! Once we got outside all 5 of the Pine kids lined up to partake in a little turn taking game with bean bags!  "We have to stand in a line!" "Yeah and take turns." "If you miss your first shot, you can try again." "Okay!" "Let's all get a bean bag!" The game lasted about 10 minutes with everyone happily playing alongside one another. A great way to end the week.  Have a great weekend! 

  O climbed to the top of an overfallen log and studied the flowers that were coming off of it. She carefully plucked it off and excitedly squealed at its beauty. As the boys whizzed past her yelling and screaming, O kept her composure and calmly took her time examining different trees and leaves around. She made the forest that is often full of screams and laughs into a very tranquil place. We can all use O as an example to take our time and slow down. 

  This afternoon started out as any other with the kids settling into different activities around the room mostly pertaining to colors and shapes... they have been on a kick with it the last few weeks. It was time to clean up, however, and get on to our meeting when L asked "Who is going to be in charge of meeting today?" It took me a bit by surprise because the kids don't typically ask who is going to lead meeting, but it does change from day to do day depending on which special guest (therapist) we have coming to be with us.  I answered with, "Well, we all are!" L looked at me a bit confused, but soon learned that it didn't have to be a teacher leading the group, it could in fact be a child! In fact, it could be all four.  The kids were buzzing with excitement to pick a part of meeting to lead. They were given four choices of the part they wanted to take charge of: reading a book, leading music, doing yoga, or playing a self-regulation game.  Each child to...

I am always surprised by the imaginative play that comes from our class. They are always thinking of new ways to entertain themselves and get everyone involved. So today, we were out by the slide and the rockbox and after a few minutes they were not as entertained as they have been in the past. Then, like a lightbulb, L had a plan. He was going to try and scale the wall to climb up on top of the grass. Now, this wall isn't very high and many of these kids are able to pull themselves up without much help, but of course they needed to make things interesting.  L found a rope and asked if it could be tied up so he could use it to help pull himself up. Easy enough! As L tried his best to use the rope to climb, the others noticed and were sure they could help too. Within a matter of minutes kids were cheering each other on as well as working together to get each other over the wall. Success! Enjoy this video of the many attempts for everyone to make it to the top.   

  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making us feel appreciated! We feel so lucky to have a group of kids who are considerate and show us love every day. There was no way the teachers could eat this cake by ourselves, so we sliced it up and had the kids join us in celebration. Such a great day 😊