Sunnybrook Montessori School

Montessori preschool & kindergarten in New Hampshire's North Country

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We were introduced to pour painting in the style of Holton Rower during Monday art. We watched a time lapse video of the assembly of a base and the pouring of cups of acrylic paint over the base. We watched as it flowed down and was pushed further out into a flower pattern as additional colors were added. The children made their own mini pour paintings after donning T-shirt smocks and selecting blocks and their preferred colors of acrylic paint.

pinkblue, black, and greenpinks and bluered and blueflower patternblue and whitepink, pink, blueblack and greencopper and bluedotsflowing colorspour paintings

The children began playing doctor last week, so we brought out the medical instruments and set up a physician’s office in the dramatic play area. There were so many busy doctors and nurses seeing all the patients with ailments and in need of check-ups. We introduced some models of the nasal cavity and the inner ear, as well as our skeleton, John, with his 206 bones, that the doctors could refer to as needed. We took out the game Operation so surgeons could get some practice keeping their hands steady and earn a little money.

The nasal cavityOperationHow much did the patient weigh?attending to patientsgetting an injectionsuch a busy hospitalgetting a vaccinationtaking notes about the patientButterflies in the tummysome animals in need of a doctor

We read our Using the Toilet story and discussed bathroom etiquette and respect for others. We talked about how everyone has private areas that are covered by underwear and those areas are only for themselves to see and sometimes their doctors and parents and occasionally teachers if help is needed in the bathroom, but not for friends or anyone else.

I flush the toiletFive green and speckled frogssitting on a speckled logeating some most delicious bugs. Yum! Yum!One jumped into the pool, where it was nice and coolreading with Tucker Turtle about how to STOP, THINK, then ACTLego housedoll house girlspouringdot paintingcleaning nametagsloving Legospouring sandnumber scrollbuilding wordscreating a design

Work continued construction on the house. The children attached planks for the third wall, sawing off the parts that were too long, and added a roof that they can climb on (after asking a teacher). We are so grateful to the Sansoucy’s who donated two drills and a bunch of lumber, and the McIlveens who donated a big stack of lumber this fall!!

adding boards for a third wall
screwing in a boardsawing boards for the roofsawingcutting down the longer boardssitting up topenjoying the viewsmilescutting downsitting up top while we finish off the sawingtaking turnssawing the last blockup on the roof

We received some new large hollow blocks, and the children were anxious to play with them. Some students demonstrated how to carry the longer blocks to keep everyone safe. They constructed some fantastically creative structures!

How to carry a long boardtall, tall towerlemonade for salea magnificent fort for spyingtall towers in the fancy fort

Rose read and signed the story of Mr. Gumpy’s Outing, about Mr. Gumpy who takes the children and animals out for a ride in his boat, as long as they agree to ride peacefully to avoid tipping. They go along calmly for a while until eventually they begin to squabble, flap, trample, bleat, hop, chase, etc. and the boat tips over and they all end up in the water before going back for tea. The story had many familiar signs with a few new ones, including boat, tip, river, squabble, and trample. Rose then taught us how to sign and sing “Sally the Camel,” which was a lot of fun!

boatIf you don't SQUABBLEThe calf TRAMPLEDThe boat TIPPED

Susan continued work with high and low using the glockenspiel. Children took turns striking a note that was either higher or lower, whichever Susan asked them to find. They then had fun playing the boom whackers again all around the room.

Longer is lowercan you find a note that is higher?higher or lowerstiking a note that is highertaking turnsmakes a good sound on a headwhackboom boom boom

During Spanish with Zeanny we sang some of our songs then played a super fun game of color tag. Zeanny would say a color in Spanish, and everyone who was wearing that color would run and she would try to tag them. If tagged, you became a tagger until all but one had been tagged. That person then became the next tagger. It was so much fun!

Kindergarten students are at the end of the alphabet, so they worked on the letter U. They painted a forest of trees and brainstormed a list of things to add to the UNDERSTORY. They discussed all the things that might be found in the understory of a forest. They discussed what you would see looking up if laying on the ground, and painted it. They even painted some snags – trees that had fallen and got stuck in another tree. They counted the days up to 145 and painted the fence pickets again, each child painting a multiple of a number, while Susan challenged them to find particular numbers using math questions.

paintadding treesadding a snagbrown trunkspainting treesa forest of treespainting trees

Worms were everywhere this week and the hunters were busy finding them all! The children collected buckets and bowls FULL of worms! Dozens, and dozens of worms!

finding wormsworms under stumpsso many worms!a whole bowl of wormsworms in dirta pot of wormswatching a worm wiggling out of the sand

sandboxkicka stick constructionwagon ridemuddy watermixing mudchopping woodbikingsand playpouring brown waterbalance bikegirls in a wagontipstirring up the ingredientssisterszoomingbarefeet in the sandmaking an obstacle course for himselfmud in the gardenmud kitchendiggingbalancingsilly girlconstructingburriedpull upsWhere did the boy who belongs to those boots go?fly trapsrocking on the hilloutside lunch on a sunny day

Friday students built a worm jar with Michelle. Michelle discussed with them how worms burrow down through the soil and sand and how they eat the leaves and greens at the surface and aerate the soil as they pass through. We found some worm castings (worm poop) and discussed how they are full of nutrients that make the soil rich and healthy. The children then found cups and bowls, which they filled with soil, sand, or leaves & grass. We placed a smaller jar inside a large jar and the children took turns adding their sand or soil to create layers, then put in a layer of grass and topped it with some carrot and cabbage greens and moistened it by spraying with water after adding several handfuls of worms. The top was covered with cheese cloth then black paper was placed around the outside to make it nice and dark, just the way worms like it. In the afternoon we took a peek and saw one worm beginning to burrow down. We are excited to check it out next week to see more burrows and how the layers may have changed and mixed.

worm hunting
worm casting
getting some sand
collecting grass and soil for the worm jar
soil for the worms
a jar inside a jar
adding soil over sand
pouring in some soil
spraying to moisten
adding more soil
scooping in some sand
a bowl of soil
adding grass
putting in the leaves
getting it wet
just right for worms

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