What a crazy week of weather we had, but we enjoyed it all, from the heat to the rain and in between.  On Thursday we wanted to make the most of the warmth, so we enjoyed a picnic lunch and did our afternoon work outside.  On Friday we had fun in the rain playing with all of the water we could find.

We spent our week preparing for Bring Your Family to Sunnybrook Night.  We learned how to give a tour of the classroom, and the children chose and practiced demonstrating items that they wanted to introduce to their families.  They made invitations to bring home with some new sparkly glitter pens, then used the pens to create as many beautiful sparkly pictures as they could before the ink all ran out.

At the art table everyone was busy making bats.  They used good fine motor skills to hold the template, trace around it, cut it out, then decorate the bat.  Our classroom is now full of mosquito eating bats!

We welcomed a new friend on Wednesday.  Everyone was excited to meet her and show her around.  We are looking forward to getting to know her better throughout the year!

We were all very much looking forward to seeing the firemen and the fire truck at the library on Thursday, but they had to postpone until next Thursday.  Instead, we participated in the Great North East Shake Out at 10:16.  We talked about what might happen if everything started shaking, and the children quickly pointed out that things could fall down off the shelves and walls.  They suggested places to go and ways to protect ourselves, then we practiced finding a table to go under until the shaking ends.

On Thursday evening the children were very excited to show their families their classroom and all of their favorite things to do at school.  They gave tours, demonstrated materials, and visited with friends.  It was fun to have our families at school and to be there at night!

Friday students had a lot to accomplish.  They were very eager to make more bats in the morning, then they took some time to make thank you letters for a donation we received from the Lancaster Elementary School seventh grade.  The seventh and eighth graders had a super hero design contest, and the winners were awarded $100 to donate to an organization of their choosing.  The seventh grade group that won chose Sunnybrook!  It was tremendously thoughtful, and we are so grateful that they chose us as the recipients.

For science in the afternoon, we learned about the digestive system.  The students examined their teeth in a mirror and learned that the front teeth are for cutting the food, and the back molars are for grinding.  To demonstrate this, the students took turns cutting up a peanut butter sandwich with scissors, then adding water (saliva), and grinding it down further with a masher.  We then demonstrated how the esophagus pushes the food down to the stomach by squeezing the muscles (pushing a wooden object through some tights), then poured the mashed food into a plastic bag stomach with some enzymes and acid (coke).  Everyone took a turn mixing and mashing the food in the stomach, then poured it into the small intestine (a leg from a pair of tights), and watching the nutrients come out to be used by the body while pushing the waste through.  Finally, we cut string the length of each section of the digestive system, tied them together, and stretched it out across the classroom – it was more than 20 feet long!