Frosty mornings led to sunny fall days.  We enjoyed the crisp air building with blocks, raking up leaves, playing chase, digging in the sand, and playing toss.
Several students asked to take photos around the playground. Here are some of the images they captured.
Our first project on Tuesday morning was to make our invitations to Bring Your Family to Sunnybrook Night, which will be on Thursday, October 19^th from 5-6:30 PM.  The children drew pictures or decorated with colors on their invites, then placed them in back packs to go home.
For art this week students were partnered up to work as a team to create a spider web and spiders.  They planned how they would work together to punch the holes and thread the long yarn web, then each student made their own spider.  They worked very well together and practiced some valuable social, problem solving, turn taking, and negotiation skills.  We are excited for our families to see them on Thursday at Bring Your Family to Sunnybrook night.
We had our first Spanish group with Zeanny on Tuesday.  She began the year by teaching the name song, Me Llamo.  Each child chose whether they wanted to sing their verse lento (slow) or rapido (fast).  She also introduced the body song, Mi Cuerpo.  She read two stories, a counting story featuring the Mexican artist, Frida Khalo, and La Oruga Muy Hambrienta (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) then each of the children took a turn feeding the caterpillar. Before leaving, Zeanny challenged the children to write the word manzana (apple) and draw a picture of a manzana. Many have taken on the challenge, and we are posting them for Zeanny to see when she returns next week.
Arachnids were introduced.  We read About Arachnids and The Very Busy Spider.  We learned that arachnids have two body parts – a cephalothorax and an abdomen.  They also have eight legs.  Most are predators that survive by eating other small creatures.  Many are venomous, and they do not have wings.  We then did a picture sort of insects and arachnids.
Fire safety was a major theme of the week.  We read a book about fire safety and the children shared many helpful suggestions and information about how to stay safe in a fire.  We discussed crawling under smoke, as smoke rises.  We practiced STOP, DROP and ROLL to put out a fire on your clothes or body.  We talked about touching doors before opening to see if they are hot.  We shared that it is important to NOT hide under beds or in closets and to call out so firefighters can find you.  We practiced our second fire drill of the year, using our back exit through the back hallway, up the stairs that lead into the church, and out the front of the building.  We read the story Impatient Pamela Calls 911 and discussed when and why 911 would be used and talked about learning our addresses and phone numbers.
On Thursday we visited the library to meet assistant fire chief Stephen Jones.  He talked to us about fire safety, and we shared lots of information that we knew about fires and how to stay safe.  He put on all of his fire gear, so we could see what he looks like when he is dressed to enter a fire, and how he sounds with his air mask on.  We then went outside to see the fire truck.  This year he brought the ladder truck, and we enjoyed taking turns going up inside and checking out the cab where the firefighters ride.
When we returned to school, we were visited by fire inspector Stacey and Molly the fire dog.  Stacey showed us how Molly will sniff out and indicate accelerants by sitting and pointing with her nose.  We learned that Molly is a food trained dog, so she only eats when she is working or training, but that she gets all the food that she needs in one day, just in small meals.  Stacey told us that Molly is an important tool for detecting fires and with her help they can much more quickly and accurately detect the possible origins of a fire.  We also learned that Molly is one of only two fire dogs in the state of New Hampshire, so she and Stacey work all over the state.  And just like other members of the family, after working during the day she goes home every evening where she lives with her family.   Thank you to Stacey and Molly for our fantastic fire hats, books, pencils, flashlights, and fire safety plans!
We celebrated the birthday of our oldest student on Friday. She marched around the globe 6 times as we named the four seasons for each year since she was born, then all sang happy birthday before she blew out the candle. Everyone enjoyed her vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting and silver sugar sprinkles. Happy birthday!
Friday students had fun being caterpillars with Kira Willey’s Yoga song Caterpillar, Caterpillar.
Friday students continued to study rocks and rock formation.  We reviewed how igneous rocks are formed (by magma or lava cooling inside or above the earth), then started to learn about sedimentary rocks.  We looked closely at a sedimentary rock from Arizona that was loaned to us by one of our families.  We observed all the layers that were pressed together.  We watched two short videos about how sedimentary rocks are formed by particles creating layers and being pressed together over hundreds and thousands of years and bound by minerals into rock.  We made our own sedimentary rock by gathering sediment outside, consisting of sand, soil, leaves, grass, small sticks, tiny rocks, etc. then taking turns adding a handful of the sediment to a jar, then pouring in epsolm salt and water.  We then took turns shaking it up.  We watched as it separated into layers and began to settle.  We will continue to observe it over the next several weeks as the water evaporates and the layers form.  To help better understand how layers upon layers add weight that put pressure on the lower sediment, the children themselves made layers by laying on top of each other so they could feel the pressure of being on the bottom or middle and how that weight presses down.  They had great fun taking turns at different levels of the pile.