Sunnybrook Montessori School

Our two days before winter break were much anticipated. On Monday the children measured, poured, stirred, whisked, mixed, and blended up some butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs, flour, etc. to make sugar cookie dough.  It was left to refrigerate for a couple hours, then taken out, rolled flat, and cut into shapes. The children also sifted and mixed the icing for decorating, adding colors and stirring them up.Tuesday was the most anticipated day of the entire year – PAJAMA DAY!  Children arrived in snow man pajamas, spider man pajamas, dinosaur pajamas, striped, polka dotted, and plain pajamas.  It was gloriously cozy and fun.  They had a variety of activities to choose from, the most popular being the bouncy house brought in and inflated by Ian Schulte.  There were lines of children waiting for turns all day, and it was occupied from 7AM – 4:30PM, when we finally deflated it.  Thank you so much, Ian!  The children had a most wonderful time!Cookies were decorated . . .Glitter jars were filled with clear glue, glitter glue, glitter, and water to shake and watch settle (except when a bit TOO much glitter and glue were added) . . .We popped popcorn, made creamy hot chocolate, and ate it all up with our cookies.We took out the big drum and placed felt balls on top, then took turns narrating stories that the drummers followed, gradually getting louder and louder until all the balls were bounced off the drum.  We told rain storm stories, starting out with a pitter patter of rain and ending in a thunderstorm.  There were unicorns and moose tip-toeing, walking, then running stories.  There were stomping bear stories, and through it all, lots of drumming, laughing, and smiles.We finally settled down for some stories at the end of the morning, then after lunch snuggled under the tent for a quiet afternoon of even more stories. To end the day, the children engaged in an indoor “snowball” (yarnball) fight. So much fun!   It was truly the most magnificent day of the year!

The children were on the go, gliding over the packed snow as they pulled friends in sleds all around the yard.  We made rainbow snow all over the playground by spraying colored water wherever we found nice white patches of snow.Monday students did some winter night pictures by using pastels on black paper.  We tried writing on the black paper with markers, colored pencils, and crayons, and discovered that they were all hard to see and not very bright.  We then tested out the pastels and found that they created vibrant pictures on dark paper.  Some beautiful works of art were created and posted on the wall!We learned about several different fall/winter celebrations this week.  On Tuesday we learned about Diwali, a primarily Hindu celebration, which is very popular in India, and has expanded to other religions as well, each with their own stories and traditions.  We watched a National Geographic video about the November celebration of Diwali and read a story about four children who share their Diwali traditions with their class.  We learned that statues of the goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, are displayed during this time.  Rangoli designs are created from sand, typically in the shape of a lotus blossom, in the entryways of homes, special treats and foods are enjoyed and shared with friends and neighbors, fireworks are set off, and diyas (oil lamps) are lit.  The children colored in Rangoli designs throughout the week.

Susan shared the traditions of Saint Lucia, which is celebrated in Scandinavia, but primarily Sweden. Saint Lucia is based on the legend of Lucia (a 4th century saint) arriving in a glowing white boat with her head framed in light, bringing food to save a town from famine.  She told of the primary traditions associated with the holiday.  Girls dress all in white with a red sash. The oldest girl in the family wears a wreath with candles as a crown and wakes the family by singing the song “Santa Lucia” and carrying special buns and hot drinks to the family. Whole towns have processions, too. Boys carry star wands and girls wear wreath crowns and carry candles. It’s the official beginning of the Yuletide season in Sweden.  The children created their own green paper crowns with shining candles, and sparkling star wands.Susan also talked about the Danish tradition of Jul Nissen (elves) that appear throughout people’s houses for children to find throughout the season. They are supposed to bring good luck.  The children had a fabulous time coloring and cutting out elves to hide all over the classroom! Can you spy the elves?The pencil holders that the children have been diligently working on for the past two months were completed on Wednesday.  Each child chose to drill two or three holes for pencils, then used Mr. Bond’s hand drill to crank it around and around to drill out the holes.  Everyone finished in time to take their holder home.  Thank you so much to Mr. Bond for such an amazing project and so many new experiences with ordering the steps, following directions, working with different tools, building up finger, hand, arm, and core muscles, and focusing to carefully and safely use the tools.  It has been such an amazing first part of the year in woodworking!Our week was dedicated to practicing for our performance.  The children listened and participated so well.  They followed instructions about lining up, following in line, singing clearly, watching Susan, attending to the cues, and listening quietly.  They were very impressive with their practicing and the Thursday night Winter Performance was truly spectacular!  They definitely showed off their hard work!  Thank you to Chad Fillion of Phlume Media, who video taped the performance for all families to access.  We so appreciate it!!  A lin Thank you to everyone for joining us to celebrate this season together.  It was wonderful to gather together with everyone.  We so appreciate your contributions to the pot luck and your help cleaning up after – it was the quickest clean up we have had yet!Friday students did a fun candy cane experiment.  They placed candy canes in four jars, then filled the jars with different liquids – vinegar, soap, hot water, and cold water.  We then made predictions about which liquid we thought would dissolve the candy cane the fastest.  Seven students hypothesized that the hot water would work the fastest, and one hypothesized that the cold water would be fastest.  We then observed to determine which it was.  The hot water did dissolve the candy cane most quickly, with vinegar following closely behind, and cold water following as the third fastest.

We worked on balancing while maneuvering over the icy ground. Sleeping beauties were gliding across the ground, pulled by their trusty companions.  Sled trains and dump trucks were pulled and pushed over the ice and snow.  Bird seed scattered for the birds was collected and redistributed to various parts of the yard.  Rainbow snow was colored using spray bottles filled with tinted water.Monday students had a visit from Zeanny for a health lesson on fruits and vegetables.  Zeanny told us how fruits and vegetables are full of vitamins with super powers that help to keep our bodies healthy by boosting our immune systems so we are better able to fight off germs and illness.  We tried some carrots, celery, grapes, and clementines to keep our bodies healthy.

As Monday was a play date day, the children took their monthly trip to the library with Tammy.  After a story, the children were busy playing in the ambulance and with their favorite library toys.

There were several projects to work on this week.  Students finished up their candle holders and painted the posters of the animals for the Five Days of Winter song, including two sleeping bears, three munching moose, and four snowy owls.  They also made their five snowstorms by adhering snowflake stickers to circles on sticks.  For family gifts they each used acrylic paint markers to decorate wooden circle ornaments, creating colorful creations to hang from their trees.We continued to rehearse throughout the week, once again working in both large and small groups with Susan.The Winter Solstice was introduced.  We sang our Four Seasons song and talked about how the days get shorter and the nights get longer, bringing colder temperatures and winter weather of snow and ice. We learned that the seasons are caused by the tilt of the earth and that the further we live from the equator, the shorter our winter days and the longer our winter nights.  We learned that many cultures hold winter celebrations around the time of the solstice that often include lights and candles.

The first holiday we learned about is Christmas.  Most/all the children in our class celebrate Christmas, and the children shared their Christmas practices and traditions, such as bringing inside and decorating a Christmas tree with lights and ornaments, watching Christmas movies, hanging stockings, going to church, finding their elf around the house doing different things, being visited by Santa and his reindeer, and getting and giving gifts.

We also learned about Hanukkah, which is 8 days long and is a Jewish celebration.  At Hanukkah it is tradition to light a candle on the menorah each day.  Some may play dreidel with food or coins and eat traditional foods, such as potato latkes with applesauce.We read the story The Night Before Christmas and learned about Saint Nicholas Day, celebrated on December 6.  Saint Nicholas is revered for generously caring for others, giving money and protection to those in need.  Susan shared a story about Saint Nicholas.  There was a man with three daughters who was very poor, so he had no money for their dowries for them to marry.  Saint Nicholas is said to have dropped money down the chimney so the daughters could all be married (other versions say the money was thrown through the window and landed in stockings and shoes left to dry by the fire).  His generosity and giving spirit inspired the origin of Santa Claus.The children continued to build their pencil holders, attaching the final side and determining how many holes they want to drill for holding pencils.Friday students learned about the incredible elastic brain.  We read about how our brains are in control of everything we do, from blinking and breathing to moving, seeing, feeling, thinking, and remembering.  We read that the more we practice something, the better we get at it and the stronger our brains become.  We learned that making mistakes is an important part of learning and that everyone makes mistakes.  We played a game of memory and used our strong brains to remember where the cards were and match them.

Sledding, sliding, skating, shoveling, and snowballs were the highlights of our snow play.  We had a few days of perfect snowball making snow, so we rolled up some snow to build Fuzzy the snowman with fancy stick hair.  We pulled friends in sleds, built a snow castle on the picnic table, observed snowflakes that fell on hair and hats, filled the toy bin with snow then emptied it out, skated around on the ice left at the bottom of the bin, discovered squirrel tracks under the bird feeders, pretended to be reindeer pulling Santa in the sleigh, and ingested as much snow as we could, despite constant reminders not to.Monday students were introduced to the artist Wassily Kandinsky, whose well known Squares with Concentric Circles inspired our art for the day.  We read The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and Lots of Dots by Craig Frazier, then we created our own dot and circle paintings.  First we used various cups and containers to print black circles on our papers.  Once dry, we added color as we desired.The art activity for the week was creating small candle holders to hold LED tea-lights, which will be used during the Winter Performance.  The children used watered down glue to adhere pieces of tissue paper to small glass jars.  They create a nice colorful glow when lit up.We celebrated our first sixth birthday of the year. The birthday girl told us she was born in the fall, in the month of November, so we listed the seasons and counted the years as she walked around the sun. After the Happy Birthday serenade, everyone enjoyed some tasty fruit pops. Happy Birthday, Birthday girl!We continue to practice our songs, both in small groups with Susan, and all together, as well as the merengue with Zeanny.  We are starting to get the steps down, marching while wiggling our hips, clapping hands with a partner, going under the bridge, hopping and turning, rolling our hands, and making a train. There were plenty of tutus to go around.  Thank you to all of you who are sharing!We read some stories about feelings and emotions, Visiting Feelings and My Many Colored Days.  We talked about how our bodies feel and the faces we make when we are feeling different emotions.  We talked about what we do to help calm and comfort ourselves when sad or angry or frustrated, such as getting a hug, walking away and taking a break, or having some time alone.  We then passed out pictures and decided what emotions the child in our pictures were showing.  The children placed their pictures according to their interpretations of the child’s facial expressions and body language.We read the stories The Jacket I Wear in the Snow and The Mitten, then introduced the mitten matching work that we place on the shelf in practical life.

Readers were busy reading books all week, both to themselves and others, as well as listening to stories. 
Thursday morning we took a walk to the library to hear author Deborah Bruss read her newest story, Good Morning, Snowplow!  She told us that the illustrators of her story are from California, where they don’t get snow like New England, so she was wondering if they would be able to accurately depict a wintery night time and the work of a snowplow.  She discovered that although they currently live in a warm, sunny climate, they each had once lived where winters were snowy, so they did a beautiful job capturing the serenity and beauty of a snowy night.  We really enjoyed her lyrical text and hearing her share her story.  She also read her stories Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and Book, Book, Book, which were equally engaging.  We were so grateful to meet Deborah, hear her read, and discover some new stories to add to our classroom collection.Our own classroom authors have been busy creating their own stories this week.  Many authors and illustrators have been excited about writing books.  They brainstorm a topic (or topics), create the characters, setting, and general story line, then illustrate their books.  When they have completed one or all of their illustrations, either they or a teacher adds text – sometimes quite detailed, and sometimes one word labels.  Some of the stories this week have been about seahorses, cuddles with family, dangerous animals, Little Red Riding Hood, and singing rocks.For Friday science we read The Heart and learned about the most vital organ in our body.  We learned that the heart is the size of our fist and is a muscle responsible for pumping blood through our bodies.  The red blood cells carry oxygen from the heart and lungs to the tops of our heads and the tips of our toes to keep us healthy.  We learned that the white blood cells fight off the germs that make us sick.  We used stethoscopes to listen to our heartbeats, then read about exercise and how important it is for keeping our bodies healthy.  When we exercise we breath faster, which means our heart pumps faster to move all the new oxygen.  We did some crazy dancing then felt and listened to our hearts beating very quickly, as they worked hard to move the oxygenated blood through our bodies.