Sunnybrook Montessori School

Montessori preschool & kindergarten in New Hampshire's North Country

The First Week

Finding a use for the locks

working with a cylinder block

How busy all of the Sunnybrook students were this first week of school!  Those new to our class were warmly welcomed and quickly became comfortable meeting and making new friends, exploring the materials, and becoming familiar with the classroom routine.  Returning students were busy visiting with old friends, making new friends, exploring our new space, and working with new and familiar materials.

On Tuesday, painting at the easel and exploring rice in the sensory table were rivals for the most popular activities.  Students also enjoyed practical life work, the science area, the drums, and the reading nook.  Instruments, including jingle bells, maracas, sandpaper blocks, rhythm sticks, and triangles, were introduced during music time.  Students took turns leading the group in rhythm exercises.

Wednesday continued with more artwork and rice pouring.

Drumming

Many students spent time working in the sensorial, math, and language areas, where they enjoyed using the red rods, cylinder blocks, number rods, sorting/counting tin, sand tray, sandpaper letters, alphabet books, nomenclature cards, and many other materials. 

Decorating a pillow for circle time

The children also decorated their circle time pillows, which they sat on while Zeanny introduced us to the “YO ME LLAMO” (My Name Is) song, and enthralled everyone with a story about her childhood experience with the chocolate tree in her grandmother’s back yard and the first time she ate (COMER) a cocoa bean.

Thursday began with many requests for Zeanny’s return, which she did after another busy morning of work in the classroom.  In the afternoon Tammy read some pages from the story “Cocoa Ice,” by Diana Appelbaum, in which a young girl shares the story of her family’s harvest and production of chocolate.  The children are excited to read more next week!

Friday students enjoyed their day reading, writing, drawing self portraits, examining the nature materials in the science area, creating art, and playing together on the playground.

Next week we will decorate a “talking stick” and the students will decide on some classroom rules.  We will also begin talking about our families and the country we live in.  Zeanny will be back for more Spanish songs and stories and to explore Mexico with us.

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