Sunnybrook Montessori School

The winter chill has settled in, leaving a layer of ice to traverse. The shovels, trucks, and sleds have been moving and hauling chunks of hard snow and ice and loads of fluffy newly fallen snow all around.

The art project for the week is a gift for our families. The children have been strengthening their finger skills and coordination while creating ornaments to hang in their homes.

We celebrated a fourth birthday with chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. The birthday girl excitedly passed out the cookies, then answered the birthday questions about what season and month she was born. As we recited the seasons and counted the years, she orbited the candle sun with the globe in her hands before being serenaded with the birthday song.

Along with the cold, December brings an opportunity to gather as a Sunnybrook community while the children perform some songs and poems. They spend group times throughout the month practicing the words, where to stand, how to listen and sing together, when to recite lines, how to enter the stage, when to ring bells, and where and when to move about the stage. This all takes lots of focus and control, which the children have been working hard to maintain. Putting on a performance puts into practice lots of skills the Sunnybrook students work on, and we love to observe how they work together.

Rose taught us some new signs this week after we reviewed all 45 of the signs we have already learned. This week we learned help, school, outside, water, and more.

We took out the big drum and did an introduction to drumming a pattern. Everyone used their listening skills to follow along and master the pattern before we moved on to creating vibrations for bouncing felt balls. We started slowly as rain then went faster and faster until we made thunder, sending the balls flying up and all around.

Friday students continued their use of scales. Previously they worked on balancing the scale by adding and removing items from each end. This week the children each selected an animal or two and placed it in the end. They then gradually added weights until the scale was balanced, and recorded how many of each weight was used to balance the scale.

We are grateful for snowfall and the perfect temperatures for rolling giant snowballs. We are grateful for friends who work together to plan and build snow-people taller than ourselves. We are grateful for sticks that make ideal snow-people arms. We are grateful for shovels to clear the snow from our forts and roads. We are grateful for risk takers who climb and jump like mountain goats.

We are thankful for the cider, cheese, crackers, carrots, kale, leeks, onions, broccoli, squash, potato, corn, beans, and peppers that were contributed for our Stone Soup celebration. We are thankful for hard workers who are persistent, taking on the challenge of peeling and chopping up all the ingredients. We are thankful for the opportunity to gather together with friends and families to enjoy a meal and some good company.

We give thanks for the families of Sunnybrook, who allow us to spend our days with their most precious people, and are generous and supportive of our community and each other, sharing their resources, time, ideas, knowledge, skills, and observations.

We are in awe of the gratitude that three, four, five, and six year old children express for all that they have – families, trees, leaves, unicorns, maple syrup, friends, school, toys – and for their joy in sharing their gratitude.

We are grateful for the many languages around the world which make our world rich and diverse. We are grateful for those who share these languages so we can talk with others who communicate in different ways.

It is with gratitude that we begin the Thanksgiving holiday. We are grateful for the families we love, the food on our plates, and the warm homes where we live. We are grateful for the community of Sunnybrook and the experiences we have every day together. Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the time you spend with friends and family!

We all enjoyed the soggy snow between rainy days. We hauled truckloads, shovelfuls, and buckets of snow, ice, and water. It was great wet fun!

Monday students continued their study of birds by being bird artists. We read the story The Painter Who Loved Chickens, then watched a clip of an artist giving a step by step tutorial of how to draw a bird. The children used pencils to sketch the outlines of their birds, being sure to include a head, body, feet, wings, and beak. They then added colorful feathers. They created some really fantastic birds!

To continue with our bird theme, the children were introduced to a turkey making activity. They used their fine motor skills to paint a clothespin brown and color a coffee filter with markers then spray it with water to make the colors run and bleed together. Once dry, they folded the coffee filter tail, clipped it in the body, and added eyes, a waddle, and a beak.

We continued our discussion of the classroom rules. Last week we focused on the expectation BE SAFE. This week we delved into BE RESPECTFUL. We played the same type of game where the children chose a slip of paper that completed the sentence: “Show us how to be respectful when you . . .” The child would then demonstrate or describe what they would do in a certain situation, such as . . . need a teacher’s attention, spilled someone’s snack, need to get by someone in your way, or bumped into someone.

The block area was busy with the construction of some complex structures with varied purposes.  The children added signs to label their buildings, bridges, and factories.  They lined up people, stacked up rocks, and ordered animals.  There was great collaboration, planning, negotiation, and compromising.

As our winter performance is quickly approaching and we want to be well prepared, we have been practicing and learning our songs and poems. Susan has been leading the children and helping them choose roles for the performance, and they have been working hard to learn the words, motions, actions, and signs. The children were given the opportunity to choose a line from one of two poems we will be sharing, and then practice in small groups with Susan. They also continued to practice the bells, which may accompany our rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Rose quizzed us on our signs. She signed each one we have learned so far, and the children called out what they were. She also taught us the signs for all the seasons and signed the song Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star so we can use some of this for our performance. She then introduced some more feeling/emotion signs. We learned shy, sick, scared, grumpy, and hungry.

The children have been busy writing books this week. Some of the Friday students asked Lyn to read or shared their books themselves with the group.

Friday students took a break from studying the animal groups and did some balancing work. We read Balancing Act by Ellen Stoll Walsh and Just a Little Bit by Ann Tompert, about animals trying to balance see-saws. We then took out some scales and tried to do our own balancing. The children identified that the lower side was heavier, so items should be added to the higher side. When questioned if rather than adding to the lighter side there was something else they could do, they determined that they could remove items from the heavier. When they slowed down and thought about what they were doing, they were able to balance their scales by adding or removing one item at a time.

Snow kept us home on Tuesday, and cold kept us in on Wednesday, but we finally made it out at the end of the week! With warmer temps on Friday we had fun making snowballs, snowmen, and snow trails.

At the art table the children sponge painted the 8 phases of the moon and a giant sun for our winter performance.

During sign language with Rose we learned some emotion signs. We learned happy, sad, angry, surprised, and nervous. We also asked how to sign cold and snow, which look exactly the way one would think! For cold, we hold our hands up in fists and shiver, and for snow we wiggle our fingers down, slowly waving back and forth, like falling snow.

We read The Berenstain Bears Vacation, in which papa bear demonstrated all the dangers at the beach, teaching small bear all the things NOT to do to be safe. We pointed out where our three classroom rules are found, and read them: Be Respectful, Be Kind, Be Safe. We also read the Berenstain Bears: The Bike Lesson, along the same lines as the Bears Vacation. We talked about stopping, thinking, then acting to be sure we make safe choices. We played a game where the children demonstrated how to do things safely, which might involve asking a teacher first, telling a friend no, or just watching and listening and moving carefully. The children took turns drawing a piece of paper that finishes the sentence “Show us how to be safe when you . . . ” Some of the safety procedures the children demonstrated were “walk with scissors,” “move the stool,” “turn on the light in dramatic play,” and “leave group to get ready to go outside.” We will play again next week so the children who didn’t get a chance this week will get a turn.

Susan introduced the poem “Something Told the Wild Geese” by Rachel Field and introduced migration and hibernation. She explained how geese fly in a V, taking turns flying at the front, where they face the full force of the wind. The children lined up in a V as geese and took turns moving up to the front and back to fly in the draft.

As we prepare for our winter performance, we are rehearsing many familiar songs, and learning a few new songs and poems. Susan brought out the hand bells for the children to practice playing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. The children enjoyed playing the tune as Susan directed them.

Friday students continue their study of animal groups. This week they read about birds. They each took a bird figure and studied it. They observed that all birds have two legs, a beak, and two wings. We discussed how all birds have feathers, but they don’t all fly. Some run, waddle, and/or swim. We read that all birds hatch from eggs, and most, but not all, build nests. We examined several different feathers, including peacock, crow, and chicken feathers. We particularly liked the downy feathers that keep them warm. We also read a great book about bird bills and how they are shaped differently for different eating needs. We also examined several nests, observing what materials the birds used to build them.