Sunnybrook Montessori School

Monday students read about Geoffrey the groundhog who came out of his burrow on February 2nd to predict the weather. A shadow means 6 more weeks of winter, and no shadow means early spring! We looked at some photos of some cool shadow art (by Tim Noble & Sue Webster – the photos we saw were child appropriate, but CAUTION some of their work is not) that molded piles of trash or wood to create sculptures that, when a light shone on them, made shadows of people or animals. We traced the children who were interested in being traced and they colored their “shadows.”

We played lots of animal games outside – animal charades, animal movement races, and hibernation, adaptation, or migration. We played Simon Says and sang movement songs. We went sledding and sled boarding on our mini snowhill and began building a snowpile in front of the igloo to shape the entrance. We made snow castles, rolled around, pulled friends in sleds, and had snow battles.

We watched several videos of foxes hunting in winter, which many found quite hilarious, and learned how they use magnetic north and their keen hearing to catch prey. Did you know they can rotate their ears independently and hear rodents tunneling under the snow up to 40 feet away? We discussed why they jump way up to dive down headfirst and the children had some great insights and ideas about why foxes hunt the way they do.

Susan and Michelle took groups of 6 students at a time snow shoeing in the back field while the other children used colored water in spray bottles to color the snow. The adventurers had a glorious time trekking into the deep snow and discovering some wonders of nature. They spied bird nests and even a robin (?) that should have been long gone.

Some children acted out The Mitten by Jan Brett.

During Sign Language with Rose we practiced all the animal signs we have learned so far, then learned some farm animal signs. We learned pig, cow, horse, chicken, and sheep. First Rose made the signs and we guessed what they were. We guessed almost all of them with minimal prompting. Rose also taught us the sign for butterfly and a rhyming song about butterflies flying away.

Kindergarten students played some games of “What’s Missing?” in small groups, hiding Cuisenaire rods in their hands and placing the addend on the table so their fellow students could determine which rod was in the hand that would be needed to make the sum.

Monday students had a remote day during which they did mitten activities for art, math, and literacy after reading The Mitten by Jan Brett.

Animals adapt to the changes of winter in different ways. Susan introduced some fun games and activities where we pretended to be different animals adapting to winter. We learned that many animals, such as snakes and groundhogs will huddle all together in a den or other safe place to keep warm. Penguins will huddle on the icy tundra to share body heat and block the wind. Geese will migrate south to warmer climates where food is easier to find. Foxes will listen under the snow for mice and voles, then herd and pounce to capture them. Susan would call out the name of an animal and the children would fly south, huddle, den up together, or hunt and pounce.

When animals are in their dens, the dens will trap their body heat and block cold winds, helping to keep the animals warm while the temperatures drop. We used blankets to create dens and huddle up together to protect us from the “cold” while pretending to be snakes and groundhogs.

We collected sleds full of snow and dumped them on our little snow pile to build up our sledding hill so we could finally do a bit of sledding. What excitement there was over our little hill when it was finally ready!

Work on the igloo continued. Removing the blocks from the tins, adding layers with water to freeze them together, packing on snow to fill in the cracks, placing out the pans, and refilling them with water to freeze more blocks kept everyone busy.

During sign language with Rose we practiced the ABC’s and all the animal signs we have learned over the past few weeks. Rose introduced 5 new animal signs for animals that live in the jungle, as well as the sign for jungle. We learned elephant, lion, tiger, monkey, and giraffe. Elephant is made by running the hand and arm out from the nose in the form of a trunk. Lion is shown by pulling the hand over the head from the forehead back to show the mane. Tiger is made by showing the stripes on the face using the fingers crooked toward the face and pulling back toward to ears. I bet you can guess monkey and have probably made this sign many times! Giraffe is the hand cupped at the neck and moving down to show a long neck. We then learned the signs for the song “One Elephant Went Out to Play on a Spider’s Web One Day,” including the sign for spider, made by tucking in the thumbs, crossing the hands at the wrists, and walking the fingers forward like spider legs.

During Spanish we practiced all our songs about the body, emotions, and colors. Zeanny introduced a song with the spanish words for all the family members and then read the story Mortimer by Robert Munsch. We then got to pick a colored egg shaker and moved it as directed, shaking lento, rapido, abajo, arriba, and adelante.

Kindergarteners worked on making sums of six with Cuisinarie rods. They finally got a chance to catch up on recording the days on the fence pickets, so they added days 75-85, then used the igloo ice blocks to make sets of ten. They made predictions about whether there would be enough blocks to make more sets of ten, then counted out and organized them into groups.

We celebrated another 5th birthday. The birthday girl very excitedly shared that she would have a unicorn cake at home with her family on her birthday and told us the season, month, and day that she was born. She walked carefully around the sun while we listed the seasons and counted for her. Happy Birthday 5 year old!

Friday students delved into rocks and how they form. This week we learned about igneous rocks – rocks that are formed by cooling magma or lava. Lava that erupts from a volcano and cools and solidifies outside the earth is called extrusive (ex-out of) rock, such as pumice and obsidian. Magma that cools slowly inside the earth crystalizes into rocks such as granite and are called intrusive rocks. We learned that The Granite State is the nickname for New Hampshire because we have so much granite! (We also learned that Lyn’s nickname in college was shortened from Lynny Poo to Poopy, which the children found hilarious. We will remind them that we do not call other people that). We watched a brief video about igneous rocks forming and then some short videos of volcanoes and flowing lava. We checked out some rocks, then did a little experiment by melting crayons down to see some “lava” type liquid, which became solid heart crayons for those who chose to make one to take home.

Our short week focused on how woodland animals move and how to recognize their tracks and track patterns. Susan demonstrated how straight line walkers and diagonal walkers move. Diagonal walkers move so efficiently that they place their back paws exactly where their front paws were, so it appears that a four legged animal has only two legs. We also watched a slow motion video then tried galloping like rabbits again, where they land on their front paws then their rear paws come up and land in front, so their tracks show small prints in the back and the bigger hind foot prints in the front.

We practiced our Woodland Stone Soup performance, but with so many children out sick, we were missing so many performers and narrators. We have decided that we will postpone the recording until the end of the year and combine it with the end of the year performance when we hopefully have full attendance.

Kindergarteners continued doing addition and counting work with Cuisinaire rods.

During sign language with Rose we reviewed the signs for common woodland animals. The children remembered almost all of them and were excited to show the signs or identify them as she made them. The one that stumped us was groundhog, where you make the sign for ground, which looks like picking up and sifting soil, followed by the sign for pig/hog, which is made by tapping the back of your hand under your chin. One of the favorites is woodpecker, where you make a tree with one arm, and use two fingers to make a beak with the other hand to peck at the tree. We then learned the signs for common pets, including dog, where you slap your leg then snap your fingers, cat, where you use your fingers to show the whiskers, turtle, fish, snake, and bird. We then learned how to sign the poem “There was a Little Turtle who Lived in a Box.”

We spent time inside . . .

And outside . . .

We froze blocks of ice in aluminum bread tins then began building an igloo with Susan. The children had so much fun removing the blocks from the pans, loading up their sleds, hauling them over, and helping to place them, then refilling the tins with water to freeze again. So far they have built a round base and an entrance about 4 blocks high. We are anxious to have a final product, but are greatly enjoying the process.

We celebrated a fifth birthday with our newest five year old. He informed us that he was born in January in the season of winter. He smiled his way around the sun while he slowly orbited holding the globe so we could say the seasons and count the years since he was born. Happy birthday, birthday boy!!

During Spanish with Zeanny we played a color finding game. Zeanny would say “veo veo” (I see) and name a color in spanish. The childre would then try to identify what she was looking at. We then played “Simon dice” (Simon says) and the children did all the motions she named, trying to only moved when prefaced by “Simon dice.”

We are hopeful everyone will be feeling better soon and be back at school!

As winter arrives, all living things adjust and adapt to the changes in daylight and weather. In the fall we studied how plants adjust and change and are now delving into how we as people and the animals around us adapt. We are making up a song to help us share our learning, called “What do we do when winter comes?”

For art on Monday the children used pastels to color on a paper, then flipped that paper over and drew on the back, transferring the pastel onto a second piece of paper, leaving the imprint behind.

We celebrated a sixth birthday with the newest birthday girl, who celebrated at home last month. She told us she was born in the month of December, in the season of fall (almost winter), and then she orbited the sun 6 times while we counted out the years. Happy Birthday 6 year old!

What do we do when winter comes?

What do we do when winter comes?

What do we do when winter comes

When the cold and snow arrive?

We put on layers to keep us warm

We put on layers to keep us warm

We put on layers to keep us warm

When the cold and snow arrive.

We discussed what happens to animals during hibernation. Their heart beats reduce to 4 or less beats per minute, for some stopping all together, and their breaths also reduce or stop. Frogs burrow down into the mud and freeze, ice crystals forming in their blood, then thaw again in spring. We learned that there are true hibernators, such as frogs, but many hibernators actually go into a state of torpor, where they will wake up several times during the winter to eat and expel waste. Bears are not true hibernators. They go into torpor.

We played animal charades. The children chose an animal, acted it out, and answered questions others asked to help them make an educated guess, such as What color(s) are you? What do you eat? Do you have hair or fur? We saw a tiger, a bear, a unicorn, a cat, some bobcats, and several other animals.

The narrators practiced their lines for Woodland Stone Soup.

During sign language with Rose, after practicing our letters and “The More We Get Together” we learned the signs for all the animals in Woodland Stone Soup. We learned raccoon, chipmunk, mouse, groundhog, chickadee, woodpecker, bee, bear, (deer to introduce moose), moose, rabbit and fox (which wasn’t in our story but we wanted to know anyway). Ask your child to show you how to make some of these signs.

Susan showed the children how different animals move and walk, and everyone had fun flying like birds, waddling like raccoons, galloping like hares, bounding like frogs, and walking like deer.

Kindergarteners had a busy week learning the letter Ii, which they made out of ice, and will begin building an Inuit Igloo out of ice blocks next week. They used little icicle pieces to make winter fairy houses. They had several days to add to their fence timeline and for the 70th day they did lots of skip counting and addition work, using and working on the patterns they are learning.

During remote schooling on Friday, children learned all about chipmunks and how they dig out burrows with lots of rooms, just like our houses. They have a kitchen where they store their food, a bedroom where they sleep, called a nest, and even a bathroom where they expel waste. They played some chipmunk games where they gathered up food then charted and compared what they collected, and they designed their own chipmunk burrows.