Sunnybrook Montessori School

Sunnybrook students have been busy searching for spring, keeping the house clean and tidy, creating snow castles and people, exploring in the woods, baking bread and muffins, mixing up treats, play dough, and slime, doing lots of art projects, being READ to (I hope), and taking advantage of the beautiful warm sunny days and freshly fallen snow! Check out what everyone has been up to this week!

The snow continued to melt away aided by the sun, rain, and warm winds.  It made for lots of great water play!  We dug trenches, scooped up ice, snow, and water, mixed up soups and cakes for birthday celebrations, and shoveled it into buckets.  When it cooled and froze, we slid and shuffled around the ice, trying our best to stay upright.  

Monday students read about Henri Matisse, a famous painter who later in life began to work with scissors, cutting large shapes and arranging them with the help of assistants. The children selected papers then cut and pasted shapes into designs and patterns.

Asteroids, meteoroids, meteors, meteorites, and comets were introduced. We read the story No, Astro! about an asteroid who likes lots of personal space and everything to be just right. Astro gets bumped into, which sends him off course, shooting through space and falling through Earth’s atmosphere, turning into a meteor, then landing on Earth and becoming a meteorite. He decides that the unexpected may not be so terrible after all. We watched a video showing pictures and explaining the differences between asteroids (large space rocks that orbit the sun), meteoroids (small space rocks and space junk), meteors (meteoroids that pass through Earth’s atmosphere), meteorites (meteors that do not get burned up and land on earth), and comets (icy space rocks that orbit the sun).

For an activity/project the children made their own “asteroid belts” by lacing asteroids (beads & buttons) onto a strip of holey plastic ribbon. It took some eye hand coordination, fine motor skills, planning, problem solving, and perseverance to complete their belts.

The fitness center was busy with exercising astronauts. Mr. Poland created a stand for a pedal bike that turned it into a stationary bike, and everyone was anxious for their turn. It was hard to wait, but they carefully kept track, eventually making a list to make sure everyone who wanted to go had an opportunity.

During sign language with Rose we reviewed all the signs we know, then she introduced signs related to spring. First we practiced the sign for spring, then learned grass, flower, rain, and warm.

We revisited how to keep from spreading germs and how to wash hands properly. The children shared and practiced all the handwashing steps and all the times that we should wash hands, including when we come in from outside, after using the bathroom, before eating, after blowing noses, after fingers are in mouths, etc. We began a germ growing science experiment. We took samples and swabbed them onto agar in pitri dishes. We swabbed inside a mouth, inside a healthy nose and a sick nose, the bathroom door handle, the sink handle, someone’s toes, a finger, a block, and the bike handles. We will check on them next week and see what might be growing! Susan made up a fun new song about washing our hands at school, and the children added verses by naming all the times we should wash hands.

We took out the parachute and played some fun parachute games! We bounced the elephant around until he fell off, then everyone got a number sticker between 1-10. The children looked around the circle to see who had their matching number, then when their number was called, they raced under the parachute and changed places. We played a treasure box under the sea game, where a child’s name was called and was given a description of an item, such as, “it cries when hungry,” “it emerges from a chrysalis,” or “you use this to stay dry when it rains,” then they ran under the parachute, opened the treasure box, and took out the corresponding item. Finally we played their favorite game, alligator, alligator, where they swim under the parachute and eat someone by pulling on a foot. That person then becomes the alligator and eats someone else.

During music with Susan the children shared what they know about the god Mars and the goddess Venus, then we danced and moved to “Shake Your Sillies Out” but changed the words to “Move like Mars” and “Dance like Venus.” We then listened to two more compositions by Gustov Holst and guessed which planets they were written for. The children instantly identified the booming drums and clashing cymbals as Mars, and the beautiful woodwinds and strings as Venus. We moved around the room like Mars, the god of war, by stomping and pounding and kicking and punching (safely). Next week will move with ribbons to the Venus composition.

Friday students learned about the muscular system. We felt some of our bigger muscles in our arms, legs, and the gluteous maximus. We looked at our tongue, which is a muscle. We used our muscles to close and open our eyes, pretend to chew, move around, do sit-ups, do push-ups, and hold a plank. We talked about how the heart is covered in muscles that pump our blood through our bodies and we even use muscles to breath. We discussed how exercising and eating proteins, such as meat, nuts, and beans help build up our muscles and make them stronger. We spent our indoor recess time on the mats, dancing, jumping, leaping, running, and doing many tricky moves using our muscles.

As the days lengthen, the temperatures are gradually warming. Combined with the beautifully sunny days this week, it was the perfect recipe for the start of snow melting, our favorite part of the year! We began digging a trench to drain off the melt, but it was slow going. All the water was a welcome surprise and was quickly scooped up and used in soups, potions, and cakes.

Monday students used colored chalk soaked in water to draw on black paper, creating vibrant splashes of color on the darkness.

The children finished up their planet making with Uranus and Neptune. To make the light sea green blue of Uranus, the children used liquid watercolors to paint their planets. For Neptune they used blue and purple watercolors, then sprinkled over them with course salt to create a speckled effect. They were quite beautiful when dried!

We worked on taking down and putting away our health office and setting up our fitness center to get our astronauts ready for their trip into space. They children worked hard packing up all the equipment, taking down posters, hauling all the big furniture to the back room for storage, rolling up the rug, and sweeping the floor to prepare for the new equipment. They set up yoga mats for a yoga area, a weight lifting center, a trampoline, and a smoothie/juice bar to get healthy drinks.

The children have been working on understanding the difference between a question and a comment, so we delved further into that, learning that a comment is when you give information, and a question is when you ask for information.

We demonstrated how to do some exercises with and without weights, including push ups, sit ups, a plank, shoulder presses, and bicep curls. We did some yoga moves, following the directions and moving our bodies into different positions and poses.

During sign language with Rose, the children learned five new animal signs; monkey, lion, tiger, elephant, and giraffe.

Chad from Phlume Media visited to take some classroom footage and do mini interviews for our history project. To let everyone feel included the option to participate was given to all, but only those with permission to be videotaped for publicity were actually recorded. We are hoping the history project video will be completed by fall, and maybe even sooner! We have many hours of footage for review and are anxious to see the final product.

We read about making silence and practiced making silence by closing our eyes, breathing deeply, and listening to the sounds around us.

During Spanish with Zeanny we had fun with colored egg shakers and scarves, working on colors, positions, speed, and greetings. Zeanny read a story about Dora and the new babies in her family and sang a family song to practice the family terms mama, papa, hermana, hermano, bebe, abuela, and abuelo. She blew up a red (rojo) balloon as the children said, “mas grande” (more big) until they finally told her to stop. Then the children took turns playing a toss and catch game with the balloon while everyone else counted how many times the balloon was caught before dropping.

During Music with Susan she introduced the composition Mercury from the Planet composition by Gustov Holst. We first listened to it, then the children tried to determine which planet he wrote the music for. They had a few guesses before Susan asked, “Is it fast or slow?” They answered fast. “Is it light or heavy?” They answered light, then immediately identified it as Mercury. We then used the ribbon sticks to dance as we listened to it again, moving our ribbons lightly and quickly.

During Friday science we began our study of the systems of the body with an exploration of the skeletal system. We sang the Hokey Pokey using the names of the bones rather than the body parts. We looked at our skeleton model and the children asked about different bones. We read Bones by Steve Jenkins, and learned about how important our bones are and why we need them. We then danced to the song Dem Bones.

Shoveling, scooping, pouring, dumping, digging, chopping, baking, celebrating, wishing, blowing, serving, chomping, hiding, spying, chasing, running, racing, piling, pushing, pulling, sliding, sledding, climbing, jumping, kicking, throwing, passing, pretending

Shaving cream, glue, liquid water colors, hands, and paper made for some fun puffy art making on Monday.

The children created Saturns for their planet mobiles and beautiful water color paintings at the art table.

Big Bad Bruce by Bill Pete helped us examine the four R’s of reconciling – Recognize and take responsibility, Reconcile by apologizing, Resolve by working together on a solution, and make Restitution by repairing damages as able.

In our study of the 4 gas giants, the question of whether air takes up space was asked. The children had hypothesized that air does not take up space, so some water, air, jars, and balloons helped us test that out. First we touched a balloon filled with water then one filled with ice. We examined a flat balloon and agreed there was nothing in it. We decided to put something in it, so Lyn blew it up with air. Does air take up space? Yes! We then examined a large glass jar half full of water, and a second jar filled with air. We placed the jar of air mouth down and pushed it into the water. The air in the jar forced the water up and around, demonstrating that the air does take up space!

During sign language with Rose, after warming up our fingers to be ready to sign and practicing all the signs we already know, we learned 5 new animal signs. This week we learned the farm animals cow, horse, pig, sheep, and chicken.

We were excited to have Susan back on Wednesday! We loved having Michelle with us, but we also missed Susan. We introduced the final planet, Neptune, a giant blue planet of wind storms, and the furthest planet from the sun. We played “When the solar winds blow” and the children were blown to the different planets. Susan shared the Greek myth of the god Neptune, who did not like being up on the high mountains, so he dove down into the bottom of the sea and became the god of the water and sea. When a student commented that it was just like the Little Mermaid, we learned that king Triton (from the movie version) is Neptune’s son.

We celebrated two four year old birthdays. After passing out unicorn horn fruit kabobs and some healthy vegan cookies, each birthday girl took a turn sharing the month and season they were born. We counted the years as they dashed around the sun, then sang happy birthday to each one before enjoying their birthday treats. Happy birthday new four year olds!

During Thursday morning spanish with Zeanny we reviewed the colors, parts of the body, positions, greetings, and family members with songs, stories, and games with scarves and egg shakers.

Zeanny returned later in the morning to introduce how dairy products keep our bones healthy and strong. We discussed what food items we eat that are made of milk, such as cheese, yogurt, and ice cream. We learned that bones can repair themselves if they get broken. We talked about how astronauts need to exercise at least 2 hours each day to keep their bodies healthy and fit and Zeanny taught us a fun song about astronauts exercising. We pretended to be astronauts who put on our space suits, climbed aboard the space ship, blasted into space, then landed on the moon and floated around. We talked about how astronauts eat a lot of dehydrated food that they combine with water or milk to rehydrate, then we made our own astronaut food by mixing dry pudding mix with milk.

The cold winds and temperatures kept us in on Thursday, but we had fun with the special indoor recess materials.

Friday students examined their skin and shared all the important things our skin does, such as touch and feel, keep all our parts in, and protect against germs and disease. We looked at our hands and observed that they have lots of lines and wrinkles and ridges. We learned that everyone’s lines and wrinkles and ridges are unique. We became detectives to solve the mystery of the missing lunch box story and used clues from the story to decide where to look. We tried “searching” in several locations, and one of our clues finally lead us to the missing lunch box. We then talked about our fingerprints and how they can give clues about where we have been. We tried making and lifting fingerprints with powder and tape, but it was not particularly successful so we took out the stamp pads and made colorful hand and finger prints all over our papers.

Friday students also had fun playing a letter identification jumping game. We put the first initials of the student on the rug with tape, then the children took turns jumping off the trampoline onto the named letter, then back on before jumping to the next letter named. They are looking forward to our astronaut fitness center in dramatic play so they can use the trampoline and other fitness equipment after break!