The petals from the apple blossoms have been sprinkling down, coating the grass in a layer of white. Some of the children have ambitiously chased them down to capture in their hands. There has been much energy and excitement in the classroom, and the weather has been so gloriously perfect, that we have been heading out early and staying out late to soak up as much fresh air and sunshine as possible. Construction on the inground pool continues, and fill from the digging is being hauled over to replace that dug from the ditch under the fence. We played lots of “word tag” games until we became too hot and tired. We watered our flower garden daily, so most of our pansies are faring quite well, and many of our seedlings have sprouted. We even enjoyed a couple of picnics, where we were visited by some rather daring chipmunks searching for dropped food. On Monday we used the power of the sun to create our art. Each child placed objects or shaped clay on a black paper, then we set them all out in the sunshine for the day. In the afternoon we brought them in and observed that the sun had faded the parts not blocked by an object, leaving a “shadow” of the shape.
Gerrie Scott came to read to us for the final time this year. The students made her some thank you cards to show their appreciation. She taught the students the song, “Ten Little Indians” and read the story, Ten Little Rabbits by Virginia Grossman. This week every child began, and some have finished, a book called “My Book About Me.” They drew pictures of their families, their friends, their favorite “things” and their favorite thing about Sunnybrook. We had a lot of fun discussing all of their favorites and we learned a few things that we didn’t know about some of the children! We are excited to share them with families on the last day of school. The sensory table started out with water, then, due to lack of interest, changed to pop-beads, which were quite popular. There were some very well accessorized children at Sunnybrook! A request for dragons was made, which started a week’s worth of dragon adventures in dragon castle cities.
We continue to practice our songs for the final performance – just one or two a day – as the children have them pretty well memorized. We played some parachute games on Tuesday. We read some fun new stories, including one with a unique sheep named Woolbur, who did things his own way, on Wednesday. On Thursday we read all about the sun, the closest star, and how truly hot it is and even though it is really, really, far away, it is soooo much closer than any other star. Then we learned about whole, half, and quarter notes and played instruments to the count of whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes.
For Friday science we did some science art. We used milk, dish detergent, and food coloring to make milk rainbows. After pouring a thin layer of milk in a dish, we dropped food coloring on top, then dipped Q-tips in dish detergent and touched the food coloring with them. The concept of why it does what it does is a bit beyond comprehension, but it was cool to watch nonetheless. Stories we read: Woolbur by, Leslie Helakoski
I’d Really Like to Eat a Child by, Sylviane Donnio
Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by, Mo Willems
The Sun: Our Nearest Star by, Franklin M. Branley
The Story of Ferdinand by, Munro Leaf
Plant a Kiss by, Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Living Sunlight by, Molly Bang & Penny Chisholm
Batter Up Wombat by, Helen Lester
Gusts and Gales by, Josepha Sherman
Step Gently Out by, Helen Frost
This is Not My Hat by, Jon Klassen