AFC PINE AM

Yesterday the Pine friends continued their exploration on how to create a submarine out of a box. They first started drawing sketches of how it should look.  "It needs to have windows!" "We should make it yellow too." "It also needs a telescope (periscope)." Now that the drawing phase was complete, some friends wandered over to then build a submarine out of the blocks. They worked purposefully and explained the different parts as they worked.  "We need to cut out a circle for it to be the telescope." B, V, & E continued to work with one another and make compromises throughout their building in order to make the best version of a submarine as they could.  The three finished building their submarine, but noticed something was missing.  "It needs a propeller so it can move!" How could they make a propeller? What does a propeller look like? The kids got to work on some research about wh...

At the beginning of this week we started a book called "Not a Box." The main character uses an ordinary box to create different modes of transportation. That gave the class some ideas on what we could do if we had a box. The class took a few walks over the week asking different businesses if they had any empty clean boxes they were willing to part with. No luck.  It wasn't until yesterday afternoon we found three boxes! So today, we took a vote and began drawing up some ideas on what we could do with our box.  At meeting we voted on what we should create.  There was a tie, so we decided to ask E if she would rather make a car or a submarine as the deciding vote.  "I want to make a rocket ship, but nobody else does. I want to help make a submarine!" A few of the kids sat down and began drawing up some ideas on how they wanted to design their submarine.  "I want it red!" "I want it to be all different colo...

B & E picked up some different transparent materials from the table and set them up on the flat surface of the light projector.  "Let's make a car!" B exclaimed as he began rearranging the gems into a rectangle. He picked up two transparent circles and placed them down for wheels.  "There, I made a car!" V had a different idea as she began to take a bunch of circles and cram them together above the car. Although she never expressed what she was making exactly, she definitely had a plan.  "Okay, now let's draw it." V & B picked up different colored markers and began tracing their loose material creation.  They continued to switch positions as they worked in order to let the light pass over them and illuminate the different colored pieces. They seemed to understand that if they stood in the way of the light, their own shadow would cover what they were trying to trace.  "It's finished! We traced t...

The Pine kids continued to explore their shadows and light a little deeper today. While on our walk around the neighborhood, some of them realized we weren't able to see our shadows.  "The sun isn't out so we can't see them!" "It needs to come out so our shadows come out." "Your shadow is just you! It's like you but on the ground." As we continued on our walk, E exclaimed, "My shadow is back!"  He danced around excitedly and started walking with his legs out wide and arms spread out.  "My shadow is right here. It's walking!" The others gazed down at the ground and noticed their shadows were also walking with them.  "They came back out because the sun is out!" "The shadows do what you do." Back in the room, we wondered how else can we make our shadows move.  F had an idea... how about jumping?  Could we make our shadows dance too? The kids watched as t...

Last week B noticed a shadow being cast on one of our classroom walls.  "Shadow!" He sparked the interest of others and they explored using flashlights in the dark room.  Today, the class was introduced to a bright shining light coming from an overhead projector.  What could we possibly do with just a light being projected on the wall? B first looked at the projector and stuck his hand on the flat surface with the light bulb. He rubbed his hand back and forth over it until he noticed his hand being projected onto the wall. He giggled with delight. B pulled his hand back and walked over the the wall where the light was being cast.  First, he made small movements, noticing how the shadow seemed to imitate his actions.  B giggled some more and gradually made bigger movements and then started to dance.  E watched B as he teetered back and forth, waved his hands in the air, and stomped his feet with glee. E decided he wanted to ma...

The Pine friends joined in with kids from Dogwood to participate in weekly capers. They enjoy being able to play with friends from the other class in addition to getting to play with the materials they have out in their room.  This week B, L, E, & C worked on building with magnetic blocks.  "You have to follow the instructions so you can build different stuff! Like me, I am building this thing that doctors use and put around their neck and listen to people." B began constructing what looked exactly like a stethoscope.  "The instructions tell you to build it like this and so that's what I am doing."  "I am using the instructions to build a rocket ship! But I am also making it like this. It needs wheels like like this thing here and a fan!" "Rocket ships don't have fans!" "Mine does!" As the boys and L built they talked about the different modifications they did instead of following the...

Before starting our morning meeting, B pointed to the wall and commented "shadow." He was noticing the light coming through the wall of windows. He got a little closer and exclaimed louder this time "shadow!" Can we see our shadows without the sun?  We headed to the gym with T stopped in front of the tunnel. He placed his hands over his eyes indicating it was dark in the tunnel. I asked if he needed some light and he answered "yes!" We found some flashlights and brought them to the tunnel.  "We can use these to see in the tunnel! We can see the monsters that are in there!" T, C, & E picked up flashlights and began testing them out by shining them on one another, on the walls, and finally inside the tunnel.  After a few rounds through the tunnel and watching each other with the flashlights, E shined the light on the wall. "There's a shadow!" E pointed his flashlight at the wall then poin...

Yesterday, before the snow, a few friends were working hard on creating small structures with various sized blocks.  "We are building a house the big bad wolf can't knock over!" "It has to be a brick house." E & C chose the blocks they used very carefully. C stacked a long rectangle block on the very top of their tower.  "He will climb the rook and use this as a bridge!" C then demonstrated how the big bad wolf was going to walk across the top of the house using the newly built bridge.  "But I think we need to make it stronger so he can't get in!" C started stacking blocks one on top of the other to make the roof of the house stronger.  C finished constructing the top of the house when E noticed something was missing.  "We need the 'stop' block to stop the big bad wolf from coming in the house!" E propped the 'stop' block up against the house.  By the end of t...

While sitting at snack the Pine friends were discussing what we could replace our pine cones, hanging from our branch in the classroom, with when it is winter.  "We could make like the snow falling! We could put cotton balls up to make snowflakes!" Just then, the kids gasped.  "Look behind you!" I turned around to see big snowflakes falling from the grey sky.  "Can we go see it?" We headed outside.  "It's so cold!" "They are so big!" "It's turning all white." "I don't want it to melt!" After running around for a few minutes the kids wanted to head back inside. Once back in the room they ran over and started stacking blocks up against the window and shelves.  "We are trying to see the snow!" "There's so much coming down!" Seeing as it was getting a bit crowded we decided we should find a window in which we could watch the snow comin...

Some Pine friends wandered over to the block area and decided it was time to change the ramps into something different.  "We should make a zoo! We have to put all these animals in closures." B, V, C, & E began constructing two separate towers.  "This tower is for the animals. Well it was for the animals, but it isn't anymore. It's now like for people to come in." "The blocks keep falling over and then we put this down here so it was more steady." They continued to build the first tower and added decorative pieces to "make it look beautiful." "C & me built this other one. It has all of the animals inside." E lifted up the top blocks and peeked inside. All of the "scary animals" were trapped. "This is where we have to keep all of the scary animals. They have to stay in their closure. That's why the 'stop' block is here. It tells people to not go inside!" ...