Sunnybrook Montessori School

The first week of fall gave us some fabulous puddles, a few trees with colorful leaves, plenty of itchy fuzzy caterpillars, loads of tiny crab apples for apple soup, and a new slide left outside our fence.  The students scrubbed the slide down, then took turns climbing up and sliding down. Bridges were tested, roads were built, and the crash tests were completed.

Monday students read about the artist Mary Cassatt, who loved to paint portraits of children and their families.  We learned that she was born in the US, but lived many years of her life in France.  She decided at a young age that she wanted to be an artist, much to her father’s dismay.  The children thought about who the members of their families are, and decided who to include; just immediate family, extended family, pets, only people, or family that lives in their home.  Throughout the week many of the children finished up self portraits and created family portraits. 

On Tuesday we returned to our discussion of rules and classroom expectations.  The children shared many ways that we can keep ourselves and other safe, be kinds, and be respectful, including walk in the classroom, ask kindly to take a turn, not hitting, kicking, or hurting, walk away when frustrated and someone won’t listen, keep our indoor shoes on so we don’t slip in our socks, and carry materials carefully with two hands.

We read Fire Drill about a preschool class that practices for a fire drill.  We talked about what we do when we hear the fire alarm sound and why we do those things – to stay safe.  We then practiced stopping what we were doing, walking to the line, standing silently while the teachers counted, walking carefully and silently outside, lining up along the fence silently, responding loudly and clearly when our name is called, and then following silently back inside.

All but one butterfly have emerged and been released to begin their journey toward Mexico!

Our first sign language lesson with Rose Polland was Wednesday morning.  Rose introduced five signs.  To begin, she showed us a bonnet that a girl would wear long ago.  It ties under the chin with a string.  Rose showed us that the sign for girl is made by tracing the thumb down the jawline, indicating the bonnet string.  She then showed us a cap that a boy would wear.  She lifted and tipped it off the top of her head, then demonstrated the sign for boy, made by curving the hand into a c shape and tipping it away from the forehead.  We also learned the signs for friend (hooking pointer fingers together then flipping and hooking again), snack (the letter s sign, which is the thumb in front of the fingers, coming up toward the mouth), and toilet (wiggling the letter T sign, which is the thumb between the pointer and middle finger).  We practiced each sign several times then everyone who wanted showed their favorite sign.

To prepare for our Thursday Harvest Festival we read about fall and gardens.  We read the story Tops and Bottoms and some children helped perform the story using puppets.  In Tops and Bottoms a Hare and makes a business deal with his neighbor Bear.  Hare agrees to plant crops, tend and weed them, then harvest them using bears land, and bear doesn’t need to do anything.  He just needs to choose whether he wants the tops or the bottoms of the crop.  When bear chooses tops, Hare and his family plant beets, radishes, and carrots.  When bear chooses bottoms, Hare plants lettuce, celery, and broccoli.  Finally bear chooses both tops and bottoms, so Hare plants corn and takes the middles, leaving the tassels and roots behind for bear, who finally wises up and decides to plan his own crops!

Thursday morning we welcomed Rachel Cliché, a biologist, who came to press plants with us.  Rachel showed us photocopies of plants that she has collected, pressed, and labeled. She and Tammy took small groups of children out to collect plants, preferably with flowers, then helped each child cut and place it on some newspaper between layers of cardboard.  When everyone had picked and placed their plant, she tightened the straps on the press to smoosh them flat.  They will dry for several weeks, then the children will glue and label their plants.

We celebrated our Harvest Festival on Thursday with lots of fun activities. We had sack races, apple transfer races, acorn on a spoon races, cucumber bowling, apple and pear printing, butternut painting, fall hand trees, fall leaf watercolor painting, and hammering golf Ts into a pumpkin. It was great fun!

We read apple stories on Friday, then had an apple taste test.  The children tried 8 varieties of apple and described the shape, coloring, taste and texture of each.  When asked if anyone had a favorite or preference, they all agreed, “All of them!”

The last week of summer was preparing to put on its’ fall coat for the arrival of cooler temperatures and colorful leaves. Hunters were on the lookout for caterpillars. Work crews were hauling huge loads of rocks for crushing.

Monday students learned about the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, who is known for her many interesting self portraits. We examined several of her self portraits, which included many pets and animals, including her parrots, some monkeys, butterflies, and even a large black cat. We learned that a portrait is a picture of a person, and a self portrait is a picture one makes of oneself. We looked at several other self portraits and discussed how the artists drew or painted to look like themselves, including face shape, facial features, and skin, hair, and eye color. We then selected the medium we wanted to work with and created our own self portraits, using a mirror to examine our faces to be as accurate as possible when creating them. Throughout the week, most students worked with a teacher to study themselves and create their own self portraits, which are hanging in the literacy area. Students who did not have a chance to create a self portrait this week will do so next week.

We are beginning to learn about our planet, Earth, and how we each fit into the Universe. The cosmic nesting boxes were demonstrated. We imagined we were floating around in the blackness of the universe, then began to travel toward a cluster of bright stars. The nesting boxes were stacked on top of each other as each smaller unit of space was introduced, from the Milky Way Galaxy, to the Solar System, the Earth, North America, The United States, New Hampshire (and Vermont), Lancaster, Sunnybrook Montessori School, the Child, and the Atom & each child's energy. This is a big, abstract concept, so this was just a broad introduction. Our focus will be more age appropriately concrete as we progress.

Susan is teaching us some Earth songs, including one about the oceans and water. We played a game where we passed the globe and shared our names, and another where we tossed the ball and caught it, then observed whether our hands were touching land, water, or both. We discovered that there is a lot of water on the Earth! We were introduced to Land, Air, and Water and the land, air, water mat. Each child took a turn placing an animal either on the land, in the water, or in the air, depending on where it lives or spends most of its time.

We released our first butterfly Monday morning. It was busy and ready to go when we carefully carried the butterfly house outside. It took a little bit of maneuvering before we were able to get it out of the net to fly away, but as soon as it was free, it quickly flew the roof.  Two more butterflies emerged Thursday morning, and we were able to release them at the end of the morning.  Susan coaxed them onto a twig which they used to launch themselves on their first flight.

We read some stories about rules and rulers: My Rules for School Book, Officer Buckle and Gloria, and Yertle the Turtle. We began to talk about kindness and how we all like to be treated by others. Next week we will discuss and create our classroom expectations, keeping in mind how to be safe and kind and respectful to others and our classroom so everyone feels safe, accepted, and respected at school.

Thursday was portrait day, and the children all excitedly awaited their turn. They were anxious to pose in their dressy clothes and fancy hair dos.

We introduced the parachute, and had fun bouncing the globe and trying to keep it on. After it fell off three times, we took off all our slippers and mixed them up under the parachute, then when our names were called, we ran under, found our slippers, and put them on as quickly as we could then ran back out while everyone cheered for us. Our final game was Mr. Crocodile. Each child took a turn crawling under the waving parachute and "eating" someone by pulling on their foot. That child would then become the next Mr. Crocodile.

Friday students continued to learn about living things. We read Plants are Living Things and learned that plants are the only living things that make their own food. We learned about the different parts of a plant and their jobs, including leaves, the stem, the fruit, and the roots. We tried tugging a plant from a pot, but found it was stuck very firmly in the soil. We wondered why it would not easily come out. Lyn wiggled it out and we saw that the roots were keeping it steady so it did not tip over or come out of the soil. We learned that the roots hold the plant in place and drink up water and nutrients from the soil. The stem carries the water and nutrients to the leaves, where sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water are combined to make food in a process called photosynthesis. We then looked at several different food items that come from plants and determined whether we eat the leaves, stem, root, bulb, seeds, or fruit.

Apple soup, leaf and sand stew, and mud pies have been featured dishes in the mud kitchen as the chefs experiment with local ingredients.  Children took turns donning helmets and riding the two-wheel bikes with training wheels.  We have been insect hunting, playing toss, hopping on balls, and excavating in the sand box.

Monday students explored color mixing for art.  We read Mouse Paint, White Rabbit’s Color Book, and Mix It Up and discussed what happens when we mix red and yellow, yellow and blue, blue and red, and all three.  We then did our own experimenting with finger paints.  Children selected two or three colors to mix and used their hands and fingers to push the paint around and create new colors.

This week we continued to learn the routine and expectations of the classroom.  We watched a demonstration of how to roll out a mat, take out work, set it up, clean it up, put it away, walk around the mat, and roll it up then put it away.  We learned how to get a teacher’s attention by placing a hand on her shoulder or grasping her hand and waiting until she is able to listen.  We also reviewed how to wash hands properly, first turning on the water and being sure to wet them, squirt one pump of soap, scrubbing all over for a count of 20 and making lots of bubbles, then rinsing, drying, and turning off the water.  We read about Group Time Expectations, which included raising hands to share a question or thought, respecting others by keeping our bodies to ourselves, and sitting up on our spots unless we are reading a story or doing a movement activity.

We read several stories about families and ourselves, including Whoever You Are, We Are All Alike, We are All Different, Why Am I Me? And All Kinds of Families.  We played “The Cold Wind Blows for . . . “ and when something that is true about us was said, we went to the middle of the rug, such as “anyone who has a sister” or “anyone who is 3.”

The caterpillars have been snug in their chrysalises while they transform from green goo into beautiful monarch butterflies.  We have been reading and learning about metamorphosis, how a caterpillar hatches from an egg on a leaf, then eats until it is too big for its’ skin so it splits out of it, eventually finding a leaf or stem to attach to, hanging upside down in a J and wiggling until it splits out of its’ skin for a final time to become a chrysalis.  It hangs for about two weeks before emerging as a butterfly.  We read Gotta Go! Gotta Go!, Are You a Butterfly?, and Waiting for Wings.  As we patiently waited and checked in on them, we observed one chrysalis turning black, and the first butterfly emerged Friday while we were outside before lunch.

Friday students continued their study of living and nonliving.  We created a chart and recorded What we KNOW about Living Things, What we WANT to know about living things, and what we LEARNED about living things.  The children shared that they know living things breath, eat, drink water, grow, and change.  They wondered if all living things walk, talk, or swim.  They discussed what they know about different living things and decided that no, not all living things walk, talk, or swim.  Many of the children then chose to have their bodies traced then colored their lifesize selves in, adding hair, facial features, and clothing.

The first week of school is off to a great start!  In the busyness of our beginning, the camera did not make it out much, so I apologize if we missed photos of your child this week.

The sunshine brought beautiful end of summer days as we enjoyed the new mud kitchen designed and built by Ian and John Schulte.  It was put to good use all week, and the children created many meals of apples, mud, grass, leaves, twigs, and water.  The bikes were zooming, the trucks were digging and dumping, the balls were rolling, and the apples had a party as they careened over the fence.  We had our first indoor recess, so were introduced to all the rainy day activities, including Knex, Magnatiles, Playmobile farm, Reptangles, Squiggs, Bristle Blocks, and Brain Flakes.

Our first week was focused on learning the routine and getting to know each other.  We sang and moved to some favorite songs: Mr. Sun, You Are My Sunshine, Way Up High in the Apple Tree, Ten Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Hickety Pickety Bumblebee, and There Were Ten in the Bed.  We read stories about families and stories about butterflies.  We read Bark George, a story about a dog that meows, quacks, oinks, and moos. 

Students were introduced to the classroom and shown the many materials available for use during work time – both those that are free to use as desired, and those Montessori materials that a teacher introduces before use.  This week as the children were introduced to the routine, some Montessori materials were introduced, and all the open use areas were very busy.

At the art table the children used their finger skills to carefully peel and place stickers, draw with pencils and markers, glue pieces of colorful paper and yarn, cut long lines across paper, and do some leaf and template rubbing with crayons.

The water table was busy with pouring, stirring, squirting, mixing, scooping, and funneling. 

Blue and green play dough was molded, cut, rolled, and formed. 

Blue, green, white and brown paint was brushed and stroked to form stripes, dots, the earth, trees, flowers, clouds, water, rain, and abstract art.

Lots of puzzles were assembled, both individually and by partners and teams. 

Block roads, towers, and tunnels were constructed.

Moms, Dads, children, and pets were busy sleeping, cooking, cleaning, serving, and visiting in dramatic play.

Friday students had their first science study.  We read about Living and Nonliving things and the characteristics of each.  We learned that living things grow and change, and they need air, water, nutrients, and sun to live.  We then sorted some objects into living or nonliving, each taking a turn to pick an item and decide if it grows and changes and is therefore living, or not.