Sunnybrook Montessori School

As the winter solstice approaches, the days are getting shorter and colder. We turned off the lights and used a flashlight to shine through the pages of a story to see where different animals go in the winter. We introduced the shadow puppet theater then Monday students drew, cut out, and attached their own shadow puppets to sticks, then used them in the theater. They continued to create and play with shadow puppets throughout the week.

The children continued working on their costumes for Woodland Stone Soup, which will be delayed until after break. There were lots of buzzing bees and animal adventures to give the costumes a trial run.

During sign with Rose we practiced the ABC’s and our sign names, as well as our song The More We Get Together. Rose then introduced some seasonal signs, including snow, skiing, sledding, Merry Christmas, winter, and cold.

The kindergarten students did some number rod work. First they built all the numbers from 1-20 using the 10 rod and 1’s, recording their work by tracing the rod and 1 cubes then writing the corresponding number. They also used the number rods to do 5 addition work. They were each given a sheet with five tracings of a 5 rod, then tasked with building 5 equations and recording the number sentence.

Pajama day was lots of fun with many activities to choose from. Children made snowflakes using pipecleaners and beads. They created then repeated the pattern for each of the 6 snowflake branches, making it symmetrical.

They had fun building and playing under the big tent and in the box forts. And dancing like ballerinas in the Nutcracker just like Lyn’s niece, Hannah.

They created some snowy snowman pictures.

And they did some festive winter holiday stamping.

We celebrated a fourth birthday with the smiling birthday girl. She donated one of her favorite stories, Llama, Llama, Holiday Drama, which we enjoyed reading before she walked the globe around the sun four times. Happy Birthday newest four year old!

The children found lots of fun ways to spend their indoor and outdoor time this week. Thank you to Rose for the new big blue sled, which was a very popular new tool in our snowy yard.

Friday students read, talked about, and acted out what different animals do in the winter. They migrated south as birds, munched on berries, grubs, grasses and nuts to fatten up for winter then went to sleep as bears, and they hopped to the best spot at the bottom of the pond to hibernate as frogs. We learned about adaptation, the way snowshoe hares and some other animals will shed their coats of brown hair from the summer and fall and grow in white hair for the winter so they continue to blend into their surroundings. The children then looked around the classroom to see what colors would be good camouflage for our environment then colored some hares to blend in. The children hid their hares around the room in places they would be difficult to spot, then they went on the hunt as foxes and coyotes. As predators they used their eyes to search out and “eat” hidden prey.

Our week at home while we awaited test results was busy with remote learning. We had fun singing songs and reading stories on our morning zooms, then using those stories to do activities throughout each day.

Monday we read The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett, which initiated some gingerbread baby creation activities. Some families made gingerbread houses and gingerbread cookies, which they shared on our zoom.

Children made color monsters by blowing paints into shapes and describing which emotions they represented and what made them feel that way.

There was lots of outdoor play like the Six Snowy Sheep who engaged in fun snowy activities, and plans for how to spend a snow day, like Geraldine in Geraldine’s Big Snow.

And some fun indoor activities . . . including Thank Yous to CLiF for the presentation and books.

The kindergarten students did some 10’s and 1’s math work.

Tacky the Penguin inspired some penguin activities.

Stacey Zemla, a parent and art teacher at WMRHS, introduced an ornament art project to Monday students. She gave each child an ornament outline for them to draw on with black pastel. The plan was for their artwork to be turned into a wooden ornament cut by a saw that reads the pixels, cutting away any white space that remained. The children enjoyed making their ornaments, but we discovered their art was a bit more involved than the machine could read, so we are switching gears and doing a top secret gift project instead.

We celebrated a fifth birthday on Monday with our newest five year old. She quickly orbited the big red sun with the globe while we listed seasons and counted years, then smiled through the serenade of Happy Birthday. She donated a beautiful book, Over and Under the Snow, which we read together, finding all the hidden animals in the forest. Happy fifth birthday, collector of tiny things and observer of all things small and wondrous!

We introduced the format of the Woodland Stone Soup performance and began by practicing and recording the first four songs. They are all very familiar songs, and the children very enthusiastically and cooperatively lined up and sang them while being recorded. We were grateful for the unseasonably warm day that allowed us to take the time to practice and record.

The children began working on their costumes, which so far consist of animal ear headbands. They drew, cut, and attached the ears, using photographs of the animals they are being to determine shape, color, and size.

There have been some exceptional feats of engineering this week in the outdoor block and rock area!

During sign language with Rose, we read her fingers as she spelled out the names of the children and we identified whose name she was spelling. Some of the students have become quite adept at identifying many of the letters and using them to determine who Rose is addressing. We also practiced name signs, the alphabet, numbers through 11, and we rehearsed signing The More We Get Together, which we are working on for our winter performance.

We read The Color Monster, a story about a monster whose emotions are all mixed up, so a little girl helps him sort and identify each one. We used our faces and bodies to demonstrate how our bodies show our emotions and talked about different strategies we can use to manage our strong emotions, such as walking away, taking deep breaths, getting a hug, taking a break, etc. We used our strategies in the song If You’re Happy and You Know It to help practice and remember them.

We said our Good-byes to Tammy on Thursday, and the children gave her cards that they made. They shared memories of Tammy and what they liked doing with her. Some of their memories were playing outside with her, their late afternoons together, and doing the bead chains. Some alumni students who are now 13 and 11 sent some recollections to share as well. After 11 years, it is hard to say good-bye. We wish her all the best as she moves on!

Kindergarten students continued work on their letter books, counting by 5’s and 10’s as they celebrated the 60th day of school.

Friday students sang some winter songs and discussed some holidays that are celebrated in December. We began exploring earth, soil, and rocks. We discussed how soil is made by dead plants and animals and what happens when it builds up in layers, pressing down and compacting the detritus beneath into layers of rock. We examined and sorted some beautiful rocks, admiring their colors, shapes, and textures.

Thanksgiving week is typically a time when we give a little more thought to the many things we are thankful for, but we encourage the Sunnybrook students to regularly consider and express gratitude for what we have. Science has shown both physical and mental health benefits for those who cultivate gratitude in their daily lives.

We read some stories about being thankful, including Thankful by Eileen Spinelli and Giving Thanks: a Native American Good Morning Message by Chief Jake Swamp. The children selected a small book to record all the things they are thankful for with drawings and words. They didn’t have to think very hard to get started, and they shared some truly authentic ideas. They are thankful for family, the Easter Bunny, bridges, water parks, picking apples, toilets, train tracks, sisters, etc.

Each child received a copy of Woodland Stone Soup to take home. After the holes were punched in the pages they wound a coil through the holes to secure it together into a book, then wrote their name on the front. We hope that you enjoy reading them with your child. They worked so carefully over several days to create beautiful illustrations and are now looking forward to performing it for you next month.

Story telling bracelets were introduced, and the children who were interested used colorful beads to represent different aspects of the stone soup story. They laced the beads onto an elastic cord, and can use them to tell the story. First they added three colorful glass beads for the three travelers, then 3 brown wooden beads for the 3 round, smooth stones. Next they added some sparkling gem encrusted beads for the villagers followed by a large wooden bead to represent the cooking pot. Three decorative glass beads represent the ingredients, and finally, a heart charm was added for sharing stone soup and connecting with others as friends and community.

During sign language group we reviewed everyone’s names, then guessed whose names were being signed by Rose. We learned the signs used to introduce ourselves – my, name, is – then children who wanted to took a turn introducing themselves using their sign names. We reviewed the numbers 1-11 and sang a fun number song while signing. For our winter performance we will be singing the song “The More We Get Together” so Rose taught us all the signs and helped us sing through it a couple times. We learned that signs change depending on the meaning of the word, for example, when signing more, if talking about more people or more time, we would sign it differently.

We are so grateful that we have been able to spend 12 wonderful weeks together so far, and that everyone has remained healthy and safe. We are thankful for the Sunnybrook students, families, board members, and teachers that make up our community. We are thankful that we live in an area where we are able to spend our days outside, enjoying nature and all the outside opportunities for exploration, play, and learning.

We wish you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving! Even though you may be apart, hopefully you will still find joy and gratitude.