This week has been such a joyful week at Sunnybrook. We have observed and marveled as the children negotiate disagreements independently, help and assist each other, recognize and respond to others emotions, work through struggles and challenges, care for our classroom, share their observations and knowledge, listen attentively and engage in conversations, and happily work together. This has been one of those weeks where we see how their efforts and challenges helped them grow and develop so many new skills and understandings!
We are hoping all these May showers will bring June flowers, since May is looking quite soggy so far with no flowers in sight. Despite the clouds and rain, we have been spending as much time outside as possible expending some of that winter energy. The bikes, wheelbarrows, trucks, hoppy balls, shovels, rakes, and buckets have been put to good use this week. Scientists have been excitedly searching out and observing signs of spring, including worms and a variety of insects. The trees are beginning to bud and we are hoping the grass will soon grow green.









Monday students created geometric artwork by sticking lines of tape onto a piece of mat board, then using pastels or water colors to color in the spaces in between. When they were satisfied with their coverage, they removed the tape, leaving white lines to separate the spaces of bold colors.




At the art table the children made a small gift for Mother’s Day, then we took out sticky glitter foam sheets, which the children cut into shapes and made glitter collages.

The sensory table was once again filled with water and lots of pouring and scrubbing toys for water play. It was a very busy area, and everyone worked together to fill the table, clean up spills, take turns with tools, drain the water table, and clean up the tools.



Dramatic play was busy with chefs, bakers, servers, and diners enjoying their various roles in the Sunnybrook restaurant and bakery.




In preparation for our end of year performance, we reread the story of The Little Engine That Could and several versions of The Little Red Hen. Each child chose one of the two performances to participate in, and those in The Little Engine That Could met with Susan to choose roles and begin work on the script for the performance.On Wednesday morning we had a visit from some chicks that are 4 weeks old, twice as old as the chicks we hatched. It is amazing how big they are at 4 weeks! We got to meet a blue cochin, an americana, a buff orpington, and a brahma. Thank you Greneir family for sharing your chicken family with us!
The students worked with Mr. Bond to attach another section of the bird house – only a few more to go until they are finished!



We read the stories Zero by Kathryn Otashi and You’re Mean, Lilly Jean, and discussed some things that good friends do (and don’t do). We read about some strategies one can use to be a good friend, such as offering help, then listening and responding appropriately to a “yes, please” or “no, thank you,” inviting a friend to play, taking turns with materials by asking, “May I have a turn when you are done?,” noticing someone and commenting on a positive observation you have made about them, offering a hug for comfort when someone may seem to need one, or suggesting a play idea then letting everyone decide for themselves what role they want to take.















Zeanny did a combination Spanish and health lesson with us on Thursday morning. We sang several of our Spanish songs, then she reminded us about the super powers of fruits & vegetables to keep us healthy, dairy foods to make our bones grow strong and tall, and grains to give us energy. She then shared that there are some foods, such as meat and beans, that give us protein for strong muscles. She read El Frijole de Benito, about a cat who plants a bean plant and waits and waits for it to grow. We then each planted our own bean in a jar, which we will observe to see how/if they grow and will later transplant into pots to take home (If they grow!).




We took out the parachute for some fun games, and the children chose to fly Henrietta off the parachute five times, then play the Crocodile game, where the crocodile swims under the parachute and eats someone by grabbing their foot. That person then trades places to become the crocodile to go eat someone else. To end they chose to play the slipper game, where they place all their slippers under the parachute then a student calls two names, and those two children run under the parachute, locate and put on their slippers, then race back out.


For Friday science we read Because of an Acorn and Trees are Plants. We pulled down the plant cuttings we placed in water several months ago – the control with water, nutrients, air, and sunlight, one without air, one without water, one without nutrients, and one without sunlight. We observed that the plants without water and sunlight died. The plant that was supposed to be without air wasn’t truly without air, because we couldn’t make the jar air tight, so it was actually doing very well. We observed that the plant that had everything it needed was the biggest and greenest, and the one that had everything except nutrients was a bit smaller and lighter in color. We then examined a variety of parts of plants and decided which part(s) they were – branches, bark, trunk, leaves, fruit, seeds, roots, or stem. Some were more than one part of the tree, such as trunk and bark, or branch and leaves, and some were more parts – roots, stem, leaves and blossom. The children had fun observing the various tree and plant parts with their hands, eyes, and noses.