Sunnybrook Montessori School

Montessori preschool & kindergarten in New Hampshire's North Country

When Cold Winds Blow

With such a short week and some crazy cold temperatures, we only made it outside one day.  We were so grateful that it warmed up enough to get out and enjoy the snow.  We slogged through the high snow, shoveled up mounds of snow and jumped in them, hauled the sleds around, and did our best to stay warm.giving a friend a turn with the shovelshadowstrying to pry open the doordiggingsitting in the snowtaking a restangels in the snowAs it was too cold to head outside in the below zero temperatures on Tuesday, we brought the snow inside. The children had fun donning mittens and playing with arctic animals, scoops, bowls, and spoons in the sensory table.playing in the snowemptying the snow tableWe read the book Friends by Miles Van Hout and talked about friendship and what are helpful and hurtful friend things to do. We sang and danced to the song In and Out the Window, pairing up with a friend and working together to do the motions of the song.
dancingWe celebrated the newest four year old birthday on Tuesday. The very excited birthday girl zipped the earth right around the sun as we tried to quickly name the seasons and count out the four years she has been alive. She blew the candle sun out after the birthday song, then everyone enjoyed the tasty mini cupcakes she brought to share. Happy 4th birthday, birthday girl!
birthday girlThe dramatic play area is being turned into a forest with a fairy house, as that was the runner up last time the students voted.  We brainstormed some ideas about the forest and the animals that live there, and what types of houses to include.  They began by assembling a puzzle of sorts.  Susan copied the pictures from the picture book In the Woods, and the children put them together in order, laid them out, taped them together, then adhered them to the base of the wall.  They then began building some animal homes – a hollow stump and a bear den.  A baby bear was also added.  The children will continue over the next several weeks to assemble the animal and fairy homes, trees, forest landscape, and animals.setting out the muralconnecting the picturescutting out a bear cub for the forestsetting up the hollow log homeMammals were introduced through the books About Mammals by Cathryn Sill and John Sill, and Animals Born Alive and Well by Ruth Heller.  We examined models of mammals, and the children observed that they all had hair and four limbs.  We also discussed that mammals are warm blooded vertebrates whose babies are born alive and produce and feed them milk, as the mothers have mammary glands.

The Vashaw-Lanham family gave Sunnybrook a gift of a new puzzle block set, called the four elements. The children loved constructing with it, and it added a bright splash of color to our block play. Thank you so much to the Vashaw-Lanham family! The four elements has quickly become a favorite class material.using the new elements blocks and the tree blocksan area for the moose and deerthe solar system puzzlesand gardenletter workplaying with the doll houseten additionwriting about dinosaursafternoon work timeplay dough with friendsa block buildingreadingbalancing the clownsand pouringcleaning up the spilled sandreading to himselfdoll housereadingFor Friday science we read Just a Little Bit by Ann Tompert and Balancing Act by Ellen Stoll Walsh.  We discussed what equal means, then the children constructed balancing platforms and placed items on each end to make the platform balanced.do these shells weigh the same?balancingare they equal?

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