Sunnybrook Montessori School

On Monday’s woods walk, the children were hoping to make it all the way out to a pond in the town forest. We spent so much time exploring along the way that we ran out of time to get there. Our first stop was at a tree that had fallen over years ago, leaving it’s roots exposed. The children walked along the tree and climbed up the roots, testing their balance and strength. They wondered what could have caused the tree to fall, and what might be living in the small tunnels at the base of the roots. As we continued on, there were more small pools of water to search. Emily pointed out leaf buds developing on young trees that were at just the right height for everyone to get a close look at. Just before turning back the children took turns climbing up on some big rocks on the hillside to enjoy the high vantage point. 

The warm temperatures kept us outside a lot this week, biking, kicking and throwing balls, jumping up and over the dirt mound, digging in the pit, creating mud, coloring, hunting for fairy house materials and making fairy houses, making flower soup and oobleck with corn starch, playing tag, cooking in the mud kitchen, drawing and coloring, playing superhero families, climbing, digging in the sand, excavating dinosaur bones, and enjoying the rain and sun.

During sign language with Rose we practiced signing each other’s names, sang and signed Hurry, Hurry Drive the Fire Truck and Tingalayo, and read the Piggie and Gerald story Let’s Go For a Drive.

We had fun with frog songs and games and introduced a fresh water version of the Phytoplankton song. We read The Wide Mouth Frog and Salamander Room. One of our friends introduced two science experiments – pulling a metal rod out of a cup of water with a magnet, and dissolving salt in cold water and hot water to see which dissolved first. We then tied rocks to string and looped them over a stick to hang into the salty water and set them up on the windowsill to evaporate and see what happens with all the salt in the water.

We took out the parachute and played some new games. We sang Ring Around the Rosie and Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush. We made a mushroom and all stepped in, pulling the parachute around us to make a tent. We called out two names, and those students ran under and gave each other an elbow bump. We counted off by 3’s, and when our number was called we ran and switched places. We played hair dresser, rubbing the parachute over heads then pulling it up to make everyone’s hair stand on end. Then we played the shark/alligator/wide mouth bass game, where the bass goes under the parachute and pulls under a frog, who then becomes the bass.

Kindergarten students worked on reading, writing, geometric solids, and pin punching their continents for their continent maps.

For Friday science we read Balancing Act and Just a Little Bit, about making a balance level. They then built their own balances and selected a large animal for one end, then added smaller animals to level it out, then recorded their findings using pictures and/or words.

The forest adventures of the Taproot students on Mondays have quickly become a favorite activity. On Monday’s walk in the woods we went looking for signs of spring. We noticed there were lots of birds singing, buds appearing on tree branches, and lots of puddles from the melting snow and ice. The children inspected under rocks and decomposing logs for insects. Just before our turn around point we discovered what may be a vernal pool. There were no signs of any frog or salamander eggs, but we are eager to check again on our next visit.

We walked to Lancaster Play and Learn to meet up with their students and teachers to take a walk around town with our egg shakers dressed in our purple gear to celebrate the Week of the Young Child. We walked back past Sunnybrook, down to the end of Main Street, and back to school, making our music and chatting along the way.

Michelle brought flowers with her to school on Tuesday in honor of the Week of the Young Child and carefully cut them down. The children created beautiful bouquets to place around the classroom and brighten things up.

Rose continued with spelling out and helping us identify the names of students, using more distinctive letters at the end or middle to help us determine who she was spelling. She read Happy Pig Day! by Mo Willems, which we all loved listening to and putting our fingers on our noises to sign “Oinky, oink, oink!” To wrap up we sang and signed Tingalayo, and learned a new verse at the end.

We looked at and discussed the book My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohman and talked about how sometimes we may get frustrated by social situations and feel strongly about particular experiences, but it is so important to be mindful of how we use our words. We revisited an interaction that happened earlier that morning and how the words, tone of voice, and body language impacted the outcome and how we could have changed that by altering the way we interacted. The children demonstrated yelling “Stop, go away!” while leaning in with an angry face and intimidating body language, which escalated the behavior of the other student. They then demonstrated calmly saying “Please stop yelling. We do not like that.” Some students also demonstrated yelling “Leave me alone” and calmly saying “I need some space please.” Both statements are the same message, stemming from the same need, but delivered in different ways. When we use “I messages,” stating what you need, rather than “you messages,” putting your needs on someone else, it feels better all around.

Amphibians were introduced with some books we read and tales from the students about their interactions with amphibians. We learned that frogs, toads, salamanders, and newts are amphibians. They prefer cooler, moist places, and have moist skin. They eat worms, insects, and other small animals. Metamorphosis was introduced and we used frog magnets to walk through the life cycle of a frog from egg, to tadpole, to froglet, to frog.

We had a visit from a bee on Wednesday, which was a bit distressing to some students. We chatted about why bees are so important and how we want to protect bees and keep them safe, as they are responsible for pollinating the plants that produce most of our food. We discussed strategies to avoid getting stung by standing perfectly still if a bee is near us or lands on us, so as not to startle them. We talked about how bees really don’t want to sting and only do so if they feel threatened. Several students became very passionate about protecting bees and created Don’t Kill Bees signs to post around the yard. They started the Bee Patrol and educated others about how to protect bees and why they are important.

To build on the interest in bees, Friday students read a book about bees and watched two videos about why bees are so important. The children then took on bee roles. We had a queen bee to lay eggs, a baby larva bee who was fed by nurse bees, guard bees who protected the hive from intruders, pollen packing bees to pack all the pollen into cells, bees to fan the nectar, and harvester bees who collected nectar and pollen and spread pollen to other flowers. They were very busy maintaining their hive, caring for their young, and producing honey.

Kindergarten students were very excited to do some writing this week. They read some books about being authors and produced their very own books, about butterflies, Star Wars, a cat who got lost in New York City, John Deer Tractors, and a girl and her adventures at home. They also did some reading and some numeracy and other literacy work.

The Seeds and Sunbeams students spent a frosty morning adventuring in the Town Forest with Michelle, Emily, Melissa, and guest teacher Gretchen. Guest teacher Gretchen led us into the woods to find a maple tree, which we identified by looking at the bark and leaves of the trees. She explained how the weather this time of year with warm days and nights that dip below freezing cause the sap in the trees to start flowing. The trees are tapped to collect sap which is then boiled for a long period of time to concentrate the sap into syrup. We learned that it takes 40 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of maple syrup! The children participated in an activity to mimic the flowing sap, and one to collect the sap from the buckets. The  highlight of the lesson was getting to taste maple sap and syrup, which were both popular with all but a few children.

For art children created ocean scenes using watercolor paints, then drew, colored, cut out, and pasted ocean creatures to their underwater backgrounds.

Rose continued with name signing identification and recognition. She demonstrated how people who are deaf sign very, very quickly, so quickly that it is hard to see all the letters signed, so she taught us to look for particular letters that would help us distinguish between children with similarly spelled names. We practiced identifying the names that start with A, C, E, F, K, and L. We are getting good at reviewing water and water animal signs. We sang and signed Hurry, Hurry Drive the Firetruck and Tingalayo, then Rose read and signed the Gerald and Piggy story, I Love Slop. It was pretty funny!

We had a visit from Wolfgang and Henrietta. Henrietta told me all about all the things that she saw children doing in the classroom that they shouldn’t and I told her I didn’t think that I needed to know all of that, especially the “small stuff.” We asked the class what Henrietta (and the rest of us) could do when we observe situations that we feel might benefit from some intervention or a reminder. The children shared that for some things we could give a friendly reminder, but for others we need to get a teacher. We chatted about when to get a teacher’s help (safety situations – when someone or something is hurt or could potentially get hurt, or something is or could get broken), and when and how to give a friendly reminder. If we observe something like someone not packing up their snack, which does not need to be brought to a teacher, we can simply say, “Your snack is still out” then walk away – our job is done. It is never a student’s job to make sure someone follows the rules, but offering a friendly reminder is okay if you think someone has forgotten something.

We also chatted about the size of a problem and how to problem solve different scenarios. We read There’s a Bear in My Chair! then discussed how every day we all encounter a variety of problems. We probably manage a lot of small problems every day, and maybe a medium problem, but really big problems are pretty rare. We talked about how small problems may feel big, but they are things that we can manage, take a deep breath, and move on, while medium problems typically require help from an adult, and big problems may require emergency assistance. We put some small “problems” in a small cylinder, some medium “problems” in a medium cylinder, and a big “problem” in a big cylinder. We then took turns choosing a paper with a scenario and stepping into a small hoop for small problems, medium hoop for medium problems, and large hoop for big problems.

We celebrated a fifth birthday with the birthday girl. She told us the date of her birth, that she was born 5 years ago in the season of spring, and then proceeded to walk herself and the globe around the sun before sharing tasty chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting and sprinkles.

The weather called for a variety of outerwear, from single digit weather to the 60’s, from sunshine to pouring rain, it was quite the ride. Students built fairy and toad houses, scrubbed up the tables and benches, pulled out the balls for games of soccer and toss, created all types of mud meals, and began digging out around the house to create a place for a layer of wood chips as required by licensing to provide a padded surface for safety.

Friday scientists read Water is Water, Boats, How I Became a Pirate, and the acted our Mr. Gumpy’s Outing. We talked about which materials from our sink and float experiment floated; wood and some plastics, and sank; metal, glass, and rubber. The children then got busy building boats. They used aluminum foil, ping pong balls, wooden popsicle sticks, yarn, pipe cleaners, wax, and tape to assemble and test out a variety of boat shapes and materials. They even added flag poles and flags.

Kindergarten students have begun writing out their newspaper articles one on one with Lyn then typing them out. They have been reading, tracing, coloring, and pin punching their continents, learning how to read a clock, learning and reviewing all the names of the geometric solids, doing some writing, and were introduced to the ch sound and coin names and denominations.

Spring has finally arrived, and it brought us rain, snow, mud, wind, sun, and lots of puddles!

Monday was the initial Seeds and Sunbeams adventure with Michelle and Emily Champigny from Taproot for those participating students. They went sliding down the icy trails, learned how to identify maple trees by looking at the bark and the shape of it’s leaves, explored a tunnel in the snow made by a mouse or vole, touched velvety moss covered rocks and soft ferns, and discovered branches covered in turkey tail mushrooms.

We celebrated a fifth birthday with the birthday girl! She told us she was born in the spring in the month of March five years ago, then walked herself and the globe around the sun five times while we listed the seasons and counted her birthdays before enjoying tasty cupcakes with sprinkles.

Rose warmed us up for sign language with the Firetruck song, then invited children to come up and spell out their names by pointing to the letter signs on the alphabet poster. She reviewed and shared more ocean and water signs then read I Will Surprise My Friend by Mo Willems.

We read A Tale of Two Beasts and talked about how to recognize how others are feeling and acknowledged that we all might have different perspectives about things. We also discussed offering help before stepping in and helping when we see a friend struggling, because sometimes even if it is hard and frustrating we want to do it ourselves, and working through hard things is the best way to learn and improve.

We read the story Swimmy by Leo Lionni about some small fish who work together to stay safe from the bigger fish. We played some ocean games with the parachute. First we made big waves and shook all the ocean puppets off the parachute. Then we put ocean animals under the parachute and took turns going under to get an animal when our names were called. Finally we played great white shark, taking turns going under to chomp on the foot of another child who then became the shark.

Kindergarten students chose their own literacy and math work, practiced reading, worked on their news articles, learned the names of the geometric solids cube, sphere, cone, pyramid, cylinder, and rectangular prism, and played some games to practice identifying objects of those shapes.

Friday students explored the water cycle. We read portions of Rivers of Sunlight by Molly Bang and set up an experiment with hot water that released vapor, which was cooled by a bowl of ice, causing it to condense and then precipitate and collect down in the water. We used our water cycle mat to place arrows showing how the water moves around in the water cycle, precipitating, collecting, evaporating, moving, and condensing.