First Capers Day

We experienced our first capers day.  Capers is when the children can travel to different classrooms and shared spaces.  This year each classroom is going to begin by studying a language and How Nature Inspires Beauty.  Our classroom is going to begin by studying construction/ deconstruction and sculptures. Spruce is studying photography and Maple is studying light and shadow.  Today the kids did a great job moving from classroom to classroom.  They enjoyed seeing old friends and making new ones.  You can check out Maple's blog here: http://afcmaple.blogspot.com/  and Spruce's blog here: http://afcspruce.blogspot.com/ to see what went on in those spaces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's explore nature!

Hello all! My goodness, our class sure loves Mother Nature! 

Some students built with blocks and loose parts while others observed some freshly cut flowers from the playscape and painted their observations.

After performing our morning routines and playing, the Birch room went on a long walk. It was perfect weather for a stroll in the neighborhood! As we walked, the students shared what they were seeing, hearing and smelling. Some students stopped to feel and smell flowers while others collected sticks, bark and gumballs. We saw some construction happening and some bees visiting flowers.

The students shared what flowers they liked from this garden and said that the bees are visiting the flower to make pollen while other students said that the bees visit flowers to collect honey.

We returned to school and continued our morning by splitting up into small groups. Some students built in the collaboratory while others built with loose parts in the classroom. While building loose parts, some students began to observe an interesting, shiny rock from the classroom.

A few children were interested in discovering what was on the inside of this bumpy rock. Some students thought there was food in the rock while others thought part of the earth was inside the rock. They were up for the challenge to break the rock apart! They started to use objects, such as blocks and markers to try and break the block and realized that they needed a bigger tool or hammer. We adventured to the tinker room and found a hammer to attempt this challenge. The students were able to break the rock in half! They were amazed to see what was inside and discovered that there was no food inside.

After all of our friends returned to the classroom, we shared our discovery. The students took turns smelling the inside of the rock and said that it "smells like a fire." One student said it smells this way because "the rock was under a rocket when the rocket was on fire so the fire got stuck in the rock." They noticed the orange and red lines inside of the rock and were wondering how the lines were created. A few students thought the lines were from the fire.

The Birch class sure likes to take things apart and make new discoveries about our earth! How will this investigation continue? Stay tuned to find out!

Busy Day Outside

We had a very busy day.  It started with a friend bringing in a grasshopper from his house.  Everyone was super excited to see the grasshopper.  Friends took time investigating the bug, noticing the legs, “ears” and eyes.

Outside we were also very busy.  Some friends helped Ms. Katie and Ms. Lauren weed the garden. They noticed ripe tomatoes, raspberries and sunflowers growing in the garden! Some friends observed a lot of leaves having holes in them and watched a caterpillar eat part of a leaf!

Also kids explored with some new outside blocks. (Thanks PTO!!) Kids worked together to build houses, movie theaters and cars for video games.

We continued the morning by doing some calming exercises in the classroom and yoga! The students seem to really enjoy their yoga time. See you tomorrow for open house!