Sunnybrook Montessori School

As we anxiously await the arrival of spring, we continue to make the best of our snowy play yard.  We did some sledding, puddle jumping, ditch digging, snowball sitting, potion making, house building, and ball kicking. 

Rain kept us in on Friday, so we did some dancing, tumbling, and crab walking.

Monday students were introduced to the artist Eric Carle, who is well known for his picture book illustrations, including The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  We learned that he creates his pictures by painting large sheets of tissue paper in different designs, then cuts and glues them together to create collage illustrations.  Each student made a plan and drew a sketch of what they will collage.  They then proceeded to paint papers using various implements, including paint brushes, a roller, and a spiny ball.  Next week they will cut their papers into the needed shapes, then paste them together to create their pictures.

We read This Little Chick about a chick who learns to make the noises of the other farm animals by playing with them, and From Egg to Chicken about the life cycle of a chicken.  The sensory table was set up in a safe place against a wall for the incubator, and we discussed how our job is to keep the eggs safe from being jostled by keeping our distance from the table.  An egg cycle activity was also introduced, where you can follow the development of the chick within the egg.  Alicia delivered and set up the incubator, then returned when it was 99.5 degrees to put in the eggs.  One side of each egg was marked with an X and the opposite side was marked with an O, so we can track to ensure they are turning properly.   We watched as the eggs entered the incubator, where they will stay for 21 days. We check them regularly to see if they have turned, if their temperature is steady, and if they have enough moisture. So far they are doing well! On Thursday morning we had a visit from some chicks that have already hatched, so we know what to look forward to.

After reading Horrible Bear, Henrietta Hen and Wolfgang Wolf chatted with us about how we speak to our friends.  Henrietta shared a story about the time Wolfgang ate her snack, and she got so made she said something very unkind.  She told Wolfgang he was not her friend anymore, which made him so sad.  We discussed what else we could say if we get upset instead of something hurtful, such as “I am so sad that you ate my snack!” and how to resolve that.

Susan introduced Living vs Nonliving with the story Living and Nonliving.  We learned that living things breathe, need water and nutrients or food, and can move on their own, even plants, who make their own food with sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide.  We then did a group sorting project where we looked at models of real things and sorted them according to whether they are living (plants & animals –fungi, monera, and protist kingdoms were not discussed) or non-living (everything else). 

Illustrators, artists who draw the pictures in books, were introduced.  The children were introduced to 6 children’s book illustrators; Eric Carle, Jan Brett, Brian Pinkney, Lynley Dodd, Yangsook Choi, and Mo Willems.  The children then sorted books by illustrator, placing them next to the photo of the illustrator who made the pictures in the book.  They matched the styles to determine the illustrator.

The children began assembling their bird houses with Mr. Bond.  They each attached the four small sections at the base of the walls that will support the floor.  It was a lot of work screwing in all the screws!  Everyone worked hard to turn and push them in, with a bit of help from Mr. Bond.

During music Susan continued to teach about pipes, and each child made their very own kazoo to take home.  I am sure it was a restful afternoon/evening with all those kazoo players tooting around!

During Friday science we read the story about Penny the sailboat, built by grandpete and sailed around lake Winnipesaukee until her boards were too spongy and broken to sail any longer.  We used the data we gained last week during our sink and float experiment to help guide us today with boat building.  Our goal was to create a boat that could float.  We discussed how a failure can be just as helpful as a success, as we can learn just as well from what didn’t work as what did.  The children had a great time experimenting with the materials set out, creating boats from ping pong balls, aluminum foil, tape, wooden sticks, tongue depressors, wax, yarn, wood, and pipe cleaners.  They tried out all shapes, sizes, and methods of adhering materials together.  Next week they will use their knowledge to build a boat that will hold something!

Yay for spring!  We did some ice skating and sledding on our tundra toward the beginning of the week.  Later in the week we were so excited when we got outside and discovered some lovely puddles that were just right for scooping up snowy water with birdseed, and muddy water with chunks of ice.  We chiseled out a ditch for drainage and filled our buckets and sleds with water and slush.  A Friday snowfall was just right for rolling enormous snowballs, which were much too big to stack!On Monday we looked at some beautiful marbled paper.  We then made our own by carefully dropping inks into pans of water, then carefully pulling and swirling the colors, moving slowly to keep the colors separated.  We then gently laid our papers on top before slowly picking them up and placing them on the drying rack.We read several stories about friendship, kindness, and handling frustrations, which initiated important conversations about the ways we communicate with and treat others and how we handle challenging situations.  We read Wanted: Best Friend, Words Are Not for Hurting, Be Kind, and I Can Handle It.  “You are not my friend” is a common phrase young children use to express their displeasure, but it is a hurtful phrase.  The children shared other ways to communicate when they are upset that are kind and informative, such as “I did not like it when you took my puppet.  It made me sad.  Please give it back.”Believe in Books sent Katie, A.O., and Cat in the Hat to visit on Tuesday.  A.O. read us two stories from the Sneetches book, The Zax and What Was I Afraid Of?  After the stories everyone had a chance to greet the Cat in the Hat with a hug, high five, fist bump, or wave, then chose a book to take home.  We posed for a photo with The Cat before he, Katie, and A.O. returned to the Theater in the Woods.Mr. Bond brought out everyone’s boards for their bird houses and worked with them to measure and mark the lines for cutting.  Each child worked to set up the layout of their board, which Mr. Bond took home to cut in preparation for assembly, which will begin next week.The Shannon family will be bringing fertilized eggs to our classroom next week with an incubator.  We will monitor and observe them until they hatch in 21 days.  On Wednesday they brought eggs from their hens for us to examine and a catalog showing various breeds of chickens.  The catalog listed the names and showed a photos of the adult chickens, the chicks, and the eggs.  It also told whether the breed was used for eggs, meat, or both, and if it is heat and/or cold temperature hardy.  We found the chicken breeds that laid the eggs in the carton, Golden Laced Wyanotte, Buff Orpington, and White Leghorn, and used the photos to determine which chickens laid which eggs, according to color; light brown, dark brown, or white.  We then opened an egg to find the germ spot, yolk, and albumen.  We looked at the germ spot to see if it had been fertilized, and it appeared to be, as it had a ring around it.Zeanny continued teaching about fruit and healthy eating during health and Spanish on Thursday.  We watched and sang along to the fruit song, then she read La oruga muy hambrienta (The Very Hungry Caterpillar).Susan once again brought our her piccolo, fife, alto recorder, and flute.  She reminded us that the longer the pipe, the lower the pitch.  She played each one and asked us to identify which had the lowest pitch and which had the highest, first trying to guess by looking at the lengths of the pipes.  She introduced some new woodwind instruments; a slide whistle, a train whistle, a flutophone, a harmonica, and a kazoo.  To wrap up music she brought out some boom whackers, which make their sound when the air passes through them when they whack something.  First the children organized them from longest to shortest, then everyone took a turn whacking them on things; shelves, the pole, the floor, chairs, tables, our bodies, and the wall.  We found that they made the best sound when we whacked them on our bodies, but we had fun testing them out on most anything we could find!Friday students read Who Sank the Boat? then did a float or sink experiment.  To begin, we determined which materials we were working with and made labels for each one; wood, metal, glass, plastic, rubber, and other.  The children then took turns picking items, determining what they were made of, and hypothesizing whether they would sink or float before testing our hypothesis.  We discovered that all things wood floated, and even when we tried we could not make them sink.  We found that glass sank unless it had air trapped inside, and that all metal sank.  We were able to make metal items float if they were a particular shape, which spread their weight over the surface of the water.  We will use this information next week when we get busy building boats.

Above freezing temperatures and the later arrival of night were warmly welcomed and taken advantage of.  Slushy snow and muddy puddle water made lovely potions.  A squirrel lure was created to study visiting squirrels.  Tracks were discovered the following day, showing that it was an effective lure.  Now to get the squirrels to stay for observation . . . Snowball fights were had.  A snowman was constructed.  The gate was finally extracted from the ice.  Afternoon students spent the after hours outside further enjoying the snowy warmth.Monday students read about how paper is made, then used wood pulp and scrap paper to create their own colored sheets of paper.  They selected their favorite colors, tore them into small pieces, then blended them up with some water to make a pulp.  The pulp was poured into a screen frame and pushed down to extract the water.  The newly formed paper was turned out and rolled to extract more water and flatten it a bit before setting up to dry.We began to learn about authors, illustrators, and story writing.  In honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday, we read several Dr. Seuss stories, including Yertle the Turtle, Gertrude McFuzz, Horton Hears a Who, and Cat in the Hat.  We had discussions about the characters and their feelings and our thoughts about the different stories.  We read about what authors do in What Authors and Illustrators Do and Ralph Tells a Story.  We also had a special visitor, Lisa Savage, who read the fun syllables story Tinka Tinka Skunk.At the art table the students used Dr. Seuss character stencils to trace and color their own copies of the characters.  Some students really enjoyed tracing stencils!Number scrolls have become a very popular activity lately – we have some very skilled number writers.The children set up a concession stand in the dramatic play area for those attending shows at the shadow puppet theater and on the big screen.Mr. Bond introduced the final project of the year. He brought out a board – there will be one for each student – and showed them the birdhouse they will each build using that board. This week they ordered the pictures for the steps of the project. Next week they will draw the lines on their board for Mr. Bond to cut into the pieces needed to build the bird house.Zeanny came on Thursday morning for Spanish and Health.  She showed us different types of fruit in different forms – fresh, frozen, canned, juice, and dried – and told us that we should each have 2 servings of fruit per day.  We learned a fun Spanish song about fruit, El Baile de la Fruta.  We washed our hands then washed and cut up the fruit for our tasty fruit salad!  It had apples, mangos, peaches, pears, kiwi, clementines, grapefruit, star fruit, strawberries, pineapple, raspberries, cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, bananas, and dried cherries.  It was so yummy!We celebrated a fifth birthday with the end of winter birthday boy.  He counted that his birthday is four days before the start of spring.  He shared that his birthday is in the month of March, in the season of winter, and that the earth has orbited the sun 5 times since his birth.  He walked the globe around the sun while we listed the seasons and counted the years to his fifth birthday, then blew out the candle.  He brought tasty blueberry muffins topped with mini chocolate chip cookies to share.  Happy birthday 5 year old!

Winter continues, keeping a foot of hard packed snow on the ground and our sledding hill busy.Cold temperatures kept us in for inside activities on Thursday.Monday students watched the animated story of Harold and the Purple Crayon.  We discussed how Harold used his crayon to draw lines to create pictures.  We then planned out and made our own line drawings.After art and snack, Tammy came to take the children to the library for their monthly Monday library visit. They had a lot of fun reading and playing battleship!We read the book The Street Beneath My Feet and learned about all the things that are down in the ground beneath us, including water and sewage pipes, electrical lines, burrowing animals, artifacts, insects, bones, subway systems (in some places), underground caves, different types of rock and soil, coal, and way deep down, magma and melted metals at the center of the earth.  We really enjoyed examining the pictures and seeing all the things that could be down below.  We introduced the marble run, which the students had a wonderful time assembling in a variety of pipe systems.The floor map of Main Street was painted, and the final photos were glued to their blocks.  When everything was dry, the building blocks were placed where they go on the map and traced.  Each block has a corresponding number so they can be placed in the proper locations.The theater area was busy with children dressing up, playing with puppets, and putting on shadow puppet shows.Perspective taking was introduced through the story Big Bad Bruce by Bill Pete.  The first time we read it, we pretended to be Big Bad Bruce and talked about how he was feeling and what he was thinking.  The second time we read it, we took the perspective of Roxie, the crafty old witch and discussed how she was feeling and what she was thinking.  The children shared that Bruce liked to be silly and roll rocks down the hill, not thinking about whether someone would get hurt.  They shared that Roxie was mad when a boulder almost hit her so she made a magic pie that caused Bruce to shrink, but that she was really kind-hearted and went looking for him and took care of him afterwards.  We will continue to practice and talk about perspective taking, which is an important life skill.

Mr. Bond helped us finish up our handy toolboxes that we started almost two months ago. The children each attached the final side to complete their project, which they have been assembling piece by piece. Thank you so much Mr. Bond for planning, purchasing the materials, cutting the pieces, and helping us assemble this amazing tool box!We did some brainstorming about how to reduce our use of some products, such as paper, soap, and paper towels, to reduce waste and conserve resources.  The children suggested reminding ourselves to use less, making signs to remind us, and to use a hand towel to dry hands rather than paper towels.  The children decided that everyone having a hand towel hanging in their cubbies would eliminate our use of paper towels and they voted to adopt that practice.  We will implement that within the next couple weeks.Thursday morning Zeanny did a nutrition and Spanish lesson.  She reminded us about how to properly wash our hands and why, and to eat fruits and vegetables to keep our bodies strong and healthy.  She read Oliver’s Fruit Salad and we decided that we will make a community fruit salad next Thursday.Susan introduced pipes & woodwind instruments during music.  First she played a penny whistle, then assembled and played a wooden alto recorder, then a fife, and finally a silver flute.  We learned how to make the notes by covering holes with our fingers so the air would push through different holes. We compared the pitch of the different instruments and observed that the recorder was the lowest pitched while the penny whistle was high pitched.We celebrated a fifth birthday. The birthday girl gave everyone a cupcake covered with blue frosting and fishy sprinkles as well as a party hat to wear. She then took her place with the globe to walk around the candle sun, then blew out her candles after being serenaded with the Happy Birthday song.Friday students read some stories about houses and building with bricks, then got busy constructing their own houses.  They were given several materials to work with, including clay, paper towel and toilet paper tubes, cylindrical containers, cardboard, etc.  Everyone chose to use either clay or tubes, and created a variety of house styles, from tents, to caves, to log cabins.We did some dancing before heading out.  First we did some freeze dancing, then cooperative musical chairs where they make sure that everyone has a space to sit, and finally ribbon dancing.