AFC PINE AM

  Hello & welcome back!  I hope everyone had a relaxing break! We are happy to be back in the classroom to continue our learning and play. It sure is cold outside so the Pine class took a little field trip to a place in the building we have yet to be in this year, the collaboratory! The collaboratory is always a fun place to go with the amount of different activities to participate in as well as materials to engage with. Today, the most perplexing provocation was the overhead projector. Yes, we still have a couple of them here in the building!  I love the first few seconds of this video below. You can see how J is trying to figure out how the colors and the shape of the blocks were being projected onto the wall in front of him. You can see how he first picks up the block and tries to recreate the block being projected by just holding it up in front of the wall. The clip is short, but quite sweet to watch as J is trying to figure out exactly how this thing works. ...

  Have you ever looked tried looking at the world in a new perspective? Whether it's through the lens of another person or through a physical object, it definitely provides a different look at the world. Today, B & T tried looking at the world, and one another, through all kinds of different objects. They looked at each other, talked to one another, and asked others to join in their play. The two laughed and giggled as their voices echoed in the tube and their faces pressed up to the edges of the 5 foot pipe. Talk about social distancing!   Have a safe, fun, and relaxing Thanksgiving week! 

  Happy Monday! I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend! What a way to start off our week this week. The boys really impressed the whole Pine teaching time with their desire to play with the train set! Towards the beginning of the school  year the boys had the opportunity to create a track and push the small trains around and around. As you can imagine, that activity did not go as planned and the boys weren't too interested in creating something, but rather breaking it apart.  This morning, however, we revisited the trains and with HUGE success, each boy participated in his own way!  Not only did the boys play appropriately and functionally with the toys, they were also using so many of our core words like up, down, go, stop, in and out. They stuck with the activity for a majority of our morning before heading outside. These boys continue to grow week by week and it is so exciting to see. Proud of them!! 

  We went out to the sculpture park to enjoy the weather and check out a new space in the neighborhood. Each boy enjoyed being able to climb on the mosaic bird, check out magnets on the steel sculpture and climb some walls! It was a nice day to just be a kid and play!  Have a great weekend and stay safe!

I just wanted to take a moment to brag on our boys! It is no easy task to keep a mask on all day, especially when you are 3, 4, or 5! Although some days we go through 2 or 3 a piece, they really  have been doing a great job wearing them to their best ability.    These masks go through quite the beating during the morning. Whether they are being buried in sand, thrown on the floor, or just disappearing under the table, these masks are getting multiple uses 😉 We so do appreciate all of the extra masks you have all been sending. As we head into these colder months I will continue to ask for you to send in extra masks. We are taking extra careful precautions, as always, in order to keep each other healthy. 

  Have you every heard of heavy work? Heavy work is something we typically build into a child's day that provides a purposeful way to engage with something heavy that the child either has to push, pull, lift, etc. The heavy work strategy is just one of the many sensory solutions we use for kids to help regulate and process different sensory needs. Our Pine kids definitely benefit from all kinds of sensory activities, but the pulley system we have started incorporating has really captured their attention!  Today, we brought some of those buckets with ropes out to the playscape to incorporate some heavy work and work on our words of the week: up & down.  At first one of the buckets was empty and the other was full of bean bags. N found this to be incredibly easy to lift as he pulled the ropes back to make the buckets go up.   After a bit of brainstorming, N decided that maybe filling the other one with rocks would help make it a little harder to anyone else wa...

  We got to explore a new area of the playscape today! We now have a new zone in which the kids got to demonstrate all kinds of play skills. The zone itself has a really cool observation deck as well as a small hill. We have had to get pretty creative in our play in some zones because they don't always include a slide or something to climb on. Our boys have gotten pretty innovative now that we are restricted to certain areas in order to stay with just our class.  Today, A really brought out some of his innovation when he climbed onto a broken down cardboard box that was sitting at the top of the hill. He glanced over to me and then back at the hill. I walked over and realized he probably wanted to "sled" down the hill. A giggled as he slid down the mulch hillside. It was a quick ride, but once he got to the bottom he stood back up and climbed to the top of the hill indicating that he wanted to do it again.  Some other friends noticed A sledding down the hill and instantly...

  Our little friends were quite vocal throughout the morning! One place in particular that's always a fun time to check out vocalizations, singing, and screaming is inside the snail. The snail provides quite the acoustics and really allows for the sounds to carry across the school grounds. Today, B & T gave their best efforts to sing and make some noise in the snail. When we first started singing together, B and T were quite shocked by the echo coming from the inside the snail. They looked around with curiosity, but did not hesitate to jump right in!  As we are hearing more words, phrases, and vocalizations from all the boys it's been fun to test out volume and now echoes!  Have a great weekend and stay safe out there! 

  There are some weeks we can't go to the forest simply because of weather. Today, however, we forwent going to the forest so the boys could play in an area we don't typically spend much time in, the mud kitchen! This part of the hillside isn't visited often because of the simple rotating schedule we abide by for all of the different zones that are roped off. Since the boys have really shown expanding play skills we figured the mud kitchen would be a nice change. It was quite successful! As soon as the door of the kitchen opened up, the boys began exploring. They got out pots, pans, muffin tins, bowls, spoons, and cups to begin their pretend play. While some were more interested than others in prepping food, those who chose not to found another way to play. We had some cooks at the stove and a kitchen jam band near by providing all kinds of enjoyable music. A busy musical morning for our Wednesday 😊

  Wow, November, can you believe it? Since August, our little room has had some pretty big changes as more kids have joined us and COVID guidelines becoming barriers to some things we have been able to do in the past. That being said, the kids have had to make changes for themselves in the classroom as well. We are seeing a lot of really good things happening in terms of play skills expanding and friendships growing. So good!  We also have experienced some challenges along the way. In order to combat those challenges, the Pine teaching team has had to make some adjustments to make all children receive the support they need in order to succeed. One of our hardest times is meeting time. This is a time where all 6 boys are expected to sit and participate in a variety of songs, books, and other friendship building games. I'll be honest, meetings were exhausting for everyone! Our little guys in the morning are movers and don't always have the attention span to sit up to 15 minutes....

  Our morning class has reached capacity and our little community is full of busy busy boys! It has been great to watch them each transform since starting at separate dates over the last couple of months. Friendships are growing, play skills are expanding, and everyone is blossoming!  Have such a great weekend! 

  Our time at the forest today was spent with a lot of giggles, jumping in leaves, and running around. The boys took in all the warm air as they ran down the paths and watched the leaves fall from the trees. Ms. Kim from Dogwood had a great idea to rake the leaves that were falling and create a big pile to jump in. It was perfect! Jumping in the leaves wasn't for everyone, but it was an enjoyable experience nonetheless. Happy Wednesday!   

We started our shorter week off this week with some playdoh making! In light of Election Day tomorrow, we first took a vote on what color to make the playdoh. It all came down to one single vote from A to decide yellow or red. The whole table sat with anticipation as A held his picture in his hand to lay it on one of the papers in front of him. What would he choose?! A looked at both colors, looked at his picture, and chose red!    The decision was made and now it was time to get down to business. Although the playdoh making process wasn't for everyone, L, B, and N stuck around to pour all of the different ingredients into the big red bowl. Each one followed directions so nicely! They each waited their turn, watched their friends pour ingredients in, and get excited when it was their turn to participate. Such a fun way to start off our Monday!  I also want to welcome back J! We are so excited for him to be back with the other boys in our class. Big things are going to hap...