AFC PINE AM

Yesterday, some of the Pine friends left the classroom in search of materials to build an ocean for our newly constructed submarine.  "We need a lot of blue paper!" "Yeah we need to find big paper to make blue and we also need to make fish and other sea creatures!" "Let's go look!" V, B, and C went on a hunt to find different materials to use. They returned with a huge blue piece of paper and were eager to get started.  E joined the group and took charge in what needed to be drawn on the paper.  "Well, there are a lot of sea creatures in the ocean so we need fish." E began drawing a lot of different fish and then picked up the color orange.  "The orange is all the trash in the ocean." This comment made the teachers stop in their tracks. E didn't say how she knew the ocean was filled with trash, but it was a sad reality.  What could the Pine class to do to help clean the ocean?  Although t...

Welcome back! The Pine kids came back like they never left. They immediately got straight to different work and play, and even noticed we had a new friend in our class! He fits right in and enjoys a lot of the same activities the other kids do. Below are just some of the things J got to do today.  So happy to have everyone back 😊 J, C, & E playing in the rice table exploring different ways to play with the rice and different tools inside of the table.  J & E testing out gems making different sounds by dropping them into different kinds of containers. J loved being able to dump the gems between the two different bowls and hearing the soft patter in the wooden bowl  and the loud ting of the aluminum.  Such a fun first day of exploring and learning! 

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

First thing this morning, the Pine friends ventured into the collaboratory where E, C, & E wanted to build an obstacle course.  "We need to make it really big! It has monsters!" C's suggestion sparked a different way in which they could build an obstacle course. Instead of just lying the blocks next to one another on the ground, they started putting smaller blocks down first as stilts.  "We have to build it up like this so the monsters won't get us." E found different blocks and came across a long cylinder shaped block.  "Here this one should work." E took a step on the blue block and fell backwards landing on her butt.  "Oh, that's too unstable!" She began readjusting the smaller blocks and replaced the cylinder with a square.  E sighed with relief and then began building the obstacle course with the two boys. 

It's always an exciting and fun time at Ambrose when we are visited by the Bristol Bravos! Today they sang the whole center different holiday songs and even played some instruments! Such a fun morning to kick off the holiday season. 

Today the Pine kids were visited by some special guests armed with musical instruments. With only 7 and a half days of school left, Ambrose has been counting down with special surprises each day. This particular Wednesday the kids enjoyed some Christmas music.   While sitting on the carpet the kids were able to listen to an instrumental version of "Jingle Bells" before the Pine kids joined in on singing.  "The were playing guitars!" "There were two guitars but no singers." "There was a different instrument too." "It's called a violin!" "We got to sing the song!" "I don't really know the words, but I know Jingle Bells." We are so lucky to have such talented staff in Ambrose! 

While walking down the hallway back to the Pine classroom, E noticed snowflakes hanging from the ceiling in the front office.  "Look, they made snowflakes! We need to decorate!" "We can make snowflakes for our room." "Yeah let's put them where the pine cones are." "I think we can use cotton balls to show the snow." "And paper! Let's cut them too." In our short walk down the hallway the kids came up with a plan to replace our pine cones hanging in our room with snowflakes. We immediately got to work.  The kids worked diligently as they dobbed, folded, and cut out snowflakes to decorate our room. Each child seemed to take a different approach.  B decided he needed to cut out his snowflake first before making it blue, where as C wanted to dob before he cut.  "C is decorating it and then cutting it and I am painting it after I cut it." "Yeah it's not the same." "I...