Snowy weather made for a short, cold week!  The wind kept us inside on Wednesday, but we made it out to enjoy the snow Thursday and Friday (though there is minimal photo documentation of this).  The children had fun throwing snowballs, making snow angels, playing freeze tag, and finally using the sleds to pull things around in the snow. We were excited to see lots of birds enjoying the food in the feeders and finding their tracks all over the snowy ground.We read several versions of the stone soup story and discussed the overarching themes of caring for others, kindness, generosity, and building community and relationships through sharing meals and good conversation.  We talked about sharing with those in need and showed the children where the food donation box is sitting on the filing cabinet.We read the story Mouse Was Mad about a mouse and how he handles his anger.  He hops, he stomps, he screams, he rolls around in a ball, and finally he stands perfectly still and breathes.  Other animals show him how to hop, stomp, scream, and roll around, but they are all in awe of his stillness. We practiced being still and breathing to calm ourselves just as mouse did.  We pretended to be angry and noticed that our shoulders raised, our muscles tensed, our faces scrunched, and our breathing got fast.  We practiced breathing to help everything relax and discussed appropriate ways to calm ourselves when we are angry.  We made a model of the brain with our fists and discussed the parts of the brain that control different things.  We learned that the frontal cortex is where we do all our thinking and problem solving, and the brain stem is the area that controls our emotions and fight or flight.  When we get angry we flip our lid – the brain stem & limbic area take over, and we are no longer able to reason and problem solve.  We talked about things that we can do when we are angry until our frontal cortex is in control again and we can talk and reason.We added another side to our pencil/note holders during woodworking with Mr. Bond.During Spanish we practiced our usual songs and our Los Posadas song.  The children are starting to get the words down (much better than I am)!  We played a Simon Says type game, standing way up tall – gigante – and crouching down low – pequena. We also practiced dancing the merengue a couple of times.  We are getting better and better at marching while moving our hips, jumping, clapping, and making a train around the room.Practicing and preparing for our winter performance has been a daily activity.  The children are familiar with several of the songs, and we are now working on our accompanying music.  Each child selected a song that they wanted to play an instrument or hold a picture for and we began practicing that.  Some are playing a block from the glockenspiel, some are ringing hand-bells, others are shaking jingle bells, and a group are holding pictures for a New Hampshire Winter version of the Twelve Days of Christmas that the children wrote with Susan.Friday students had a quiet day.  A Sunnybrook Alumnus visited for the morning and taught us how to make silly putty.  She is an expert!  She guided them through it, adding ingredients, food coloring, and glitter, then helped them mix it until it was just right!  They all had so much fun mixing it up and playing with it for the morning.