Capers!

 One of our favorite Ambrose traditions is Capers.  We haven't been able to caper for a few years and we are SO excited that this year we once again get to participate in this amazing experience throughout our building.

What is Capering?  Capering is a time of collaboration and shared experiences between classrooms.  It is a time for the children to experience the learning that is happening in other spaces.  It is a time for us to share what we are passionate about in our space with friends in other rooms.  And, as one friend beautifully put it, "I get to play with ALL my friends!"

In the Birch room we are capering with the Sycamore and Magnolia rooms on Thursday mornings.  We were excited to share our love of painting and our discoveries about lines with them!

We have been noticing lines everywhere.  Lines in our writing, lines in our drawing, lines in books, lines that we have drawn or seen others draw.  All of our lines have come from our mark-making.  Today we wondered what lines we could create using these line segment pieces.

"I made a race track!" ES

"I made a word." JI

Wow!  You put these lines together and created letters!  That is amazing!  Letter lines!

"This one is an 'O'  It is the same size as you!" JI

JI, your discovery sparked ideas in your friends and soon others were noticing what letter lines they might create too!

"I made a three." RM     "Look!  It's an 'M' for RM!" 

Playdough lines are SO fun!  We rolllllllll them out to make long snakes and sometimes we roll those snakes up into cinnamon rolls, snails, or even creations of our own imaginations!

But in another classroom they asked

"What stories live in your playdough."

We had an amazing time exploring the Magnolia and Sycamore classrooms and being introduced to their passions.  We are so excited to be able to caper with them each Thursday!  To see what went on in the other rooms, please follow the links below to check out their blogs.

Sycamore blog

Magnolia blog

Caper's Day

We enjoyed our last day before spring break by Capering with our hallways neighbors.  In Birch Room we continued working on building restaurants and creating menus.  We talked with many of you yesterday in conferences how this is a great way to incorporate early writing and literacy into block play.  The students are working on creating symbols and pictures for food that they want to serve in their restaurants.  This is the beginning stages of reading!

 

This is a Hot Dog stand complete with drinks and candy.  Looks like a very organized and delicious set up! 

We also did tiny paintings with water colors.  With the smaller paper and fine-lined paint brushes the students created very delicate lines and experimented with mixing colors.

 

 

Here are the other classroom blogs to check out and see what the kiddos were up to

Maple: http://afcmaple.blogspot.com/
Spruce: http://afcspruce.blogspot.com/
Magnolia: http://afcmagnoliaam.blogspot.com/

We hope you all have a wonderful safe, healthy and happy Spring Break!

Capers

Happy caper day! Make sure to take a look at the other classroom blogs:

Maple: http://afcmaple.blogspot.com/

Spruce: http://afcspruce.blogspot.com/

Magnolia: http://afcmagnoliaam.blogspot.com/

In the Birch room, students were challenged to draw lines without picking up their markers. Some students wrote their names while others drew a variety of lines.

"I did a star three times!"

Another invitation consisted of pipe cleaners and styrofoam. The students were challenged to make a variety of lines to decorate the piece of styrofoam. Some students decorated their pipe cleaners with beads while others tied them together. Several letters and balloons were also created. This creation is currently displayed on top of the Birch cubbies so make sure to stop by and see their hard work!

"I'm twisting it and making a twisty line."

"I made a balloon!"

"I made a balloon!" 

"I used three pipe cleaners and put them through three beads. I worked really hard to twist them together!"

Enjoy the beautiful day!