AFC PINE AM

Early in our day today B & F started building tall towers to knock over. Just then, one of the tree cookies fell off and rolled away. F's eyes lit up. He picked up the tree cookie again and pushed it across the carpet. B perked up and exclaimed, "I know what we can do!" B worked quickly as he put one block on top of the other and rolled the tree cookie down the ramp.  "It worked! F, it's your turn!" B noticed how far the tree cookies were rolling and got another idea. He started building an exact replica of the other ramp.  "We have to try and get them to roll to the other ramp! F is trying too!" The two boys continued to roll the tree cookies down the ramp. B then started lining up tree cookies between the two ramps.  "I had to make a road so that the different things can roll to the other side." The two continued to take turns as they pushed the different round pieces down the ramps.  All ...

We headed to the forest this morning with binoculars in hand. What will we be able to see using these binoculars? There was a lot of debate on how to use them. Many friends tried out different ways to look through the binoculars.  L began using her binoculars to look at the ground and the leaves.  "Look a leaf!" C took a different approach with his binoculars.  "I can see things like this, but they look really small. You can't see anything if you use them the other way. It's all like not working." C continued to use his binoculars in an unconventional way, but was content because he was able to see things.  Why did the binoculars work one way, but not the other? Why was it blurry sometimes?  "My feet look so tiny! If I look like this I can see my feet, but they are so small!" "Binoculars help you see things close up." "They like make it kind of bigger." "You can use...

Last week E & B wanted to know if we could build something so we can look out our window.  "Maybe we can make a telescope!" B picked up a small tube and peeked inside. He handed it to E so he could take a look too. "We need like a smaller one to go inside and then a smaller one to go in that one too." E & B went around the room and looked for tubes that would fit into one another.  The boys sat and helped construct a telescope!  "We will be able to see like all of the planets and stuff." Today, we set up our telescope and see what we noticed outside.  "You can see out the window! I can only see a tree right now.  I think it's in the way." E looked over and noticed clipboards and started drawing the tree she saw in front of her. V saw E making some kind of observation and wanted to give it a try too.  "I can only see the tree out there. I can also see the moon!" The kids to...

This morning the kids made an extra spooky treat today in the kitchen. V, B, and L headed to the kitchen to make a smoothie with some extra fruit and yogurt.   Each one took turns pouring in the different ingredients into the blender.  "Look at all of these peaches! We should use all of them." "We need to use all of them because we have a lot of friends in our class." Next, they each took turns cutting up the banana to add it to the blender.  "We have to cut them up in small pieces." "Yeah the blender will cut them all up. It spins really fast!" "We have to add yogurt next! I eat yogurt at home." After the smoothies were finished being made, they headed back to the classroom to share with their friends.  While sitting and enjoying the smoothies, one table erupted in laughter. "WE HAVE SMOOTHIE MUSTACHES!" The table started cracking up again. Between drinks they would p...

E walked over the picked up the fan. He's been so interested in watching how it pushes the different materials across the table so it was no surprise when he started pushing the button to make the pinwheel spin around and around.  E hit the button. Nothing happened.  Frustrated, E hit the button again. Nothing.  E continued to press the button and inspect the fan from all angles.  "It's not working. It needs a battery!" E tried one more time before realizing he could make the pinwheel move by blowing on it. He puckered his lips and started blowing the pinwheel watching spin and spin.  Several others tried to use the fan as well and didn't have any luck.  "I think it's broken." "Maybe it needs a battery." "I think it got wet in the rain." "Maybe we can fix it!" "How are we going to fix it?" How are we going to fix the fan? Do we even need to fix the fan if we can...

On our way back from the gym B noticed something about V's feet.  "Hey, I have bigger feet than V!" "Yeah my feet are smaller than yours." "I wonder who has the biggest feet?" "Ms. Jill! She has really big feet." When we got back to the room they decided we should find out who has the biggest feet.  How could we measure our feet? E sat and thought for a minute.  "Like we have to first count our feet and then we have to know what their temperature is." This was an interesting solution, but the other kids didn't seemed convinced. She thought again and moved to the center of the carpet across from B.  Without any prompting E put her feet up against B's. They both looked at their shoes and noticed that the toes of E's were just slightly taller than B's.  "I have bigger feet than B. I need to sit by you because you [Ms. Jill] have bigger feet too." C sat down and put his ...

B sat down at the table and looked at all of the different loose materials. He grabbed two of the tree cookies and propped them up. B began using his mouth to try and blow them over.  "It's not working. They are hard to move." He looked around and noticed a fan in the corner of the room.  "Hey, we can use this fan!" He pointed the small fan towards the tree cookies. Nothing happened.  "They still aren't moving. Maybe I should get it closer." B put the fan an inch or two away from the cookie. It swiveled.  "It moved! I made it move with the fan! Maybe it needs to stand up like this so it can roll." He pointed the fan directly at the curved edge of the tree cookie. It didn't roll.  "Maybe like I can keep pointing it here and it spins like this." E noticed how B was using the fan to blow different materials around and asked for a turn. He picked up the pinwheel and pointed the...