Sunnybrook Montessori School

What a great first week we had!  The weather cooperated, allowing us to get outside daily despite the heat and torrential rain.  It was nice to run and stretch and move around after our mornings inside working.It was an exciting start to school.  The teachers and returning students enjoyed welcoming all of the new students, some who had their very first days of school ever!  New students were introduced to the classroom and the daily schedule.  We discussed the flow of the day, from entering, changing to inside shoes and washing hands, to the signal to freeze when the lights go out and the bell rings, then gathering for morning meeting before choosing work for work-time.  New students had a brief tour and orientation to the classroom.  The snack routine was introduced and students learned how to take out a mat, roll it, and flip it before selecting work, carrying it to the mat with two hands, completing it, and returning it to its place.  Some Montessori materials were introduced – some that the students requested, and others that we felt would be engaging for them.  Returning students were helpful guides when friends needed assistance or had questions.Each day we discussed how to be safe and respectful in the classroom so everyone is able to have an enjoyable experience at school.  The children had many ideas and suggestions, including walking inside, not hitting, punching, or kicking, offering help but listening when told no thank you, asking for hugs before taking them, making sure that our touches are gentle, being kind, being honest, being safe by not touching others’ eyes, mouths, or where underwear covers, telling an adult if someone does hurt you or touch you where they shouldn’t, walking around others’ work mats, picking up our work when we are done, and saying please and thank you.

We read many stories and sang lots of songs, including Hickety Pickety Bumblebee (a name introduction song), Way Up High in the Apple Tree, Peanut Butter and Jelly, ABC’s, Jump Jim Joe, BINGO, and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.The easel, block area, play dough, and dramatic play were quite busy.  The children quickly welcomed each other and integrated together.  They enjoyed painting many colorful pictures, building a variety of roads and structures and driving cars around, pushing, kneading, shaping, rolling, and cutting playdough, and cooking all types of food, caring for babies, and making phone calls.  Some new materials were set out, and returning students quickly gravitated to them.  It was a week of getting into (and back into) the space, and learning the (new) classroom set up and routine.We spent Thursday diligently watching a monarch caterpillar brought in by the Shannon family. As soon as it exited the jar and entered the tank, it climbed up the side to the top and began the process of attaching itself. One of the students wanted to know how it did that, so he did some research with Susan. They discovered that it creates a silk pad, then attaches to the silk pad with its cremaster.  It then hangs in a J shape before wiggling and squiggling out of its skin. We observed it throughout the day, and around 3 PM it split its skin and formed a chrysalis. We will observe it over the next couple weeks, along with a second, smaller caterpillar the Shannon’s brought later in the day, until they emerge as a butterflies.
Friday students were introduced to science through reading the beginning of What is a Scientist? And discussing what it means to question and wonder and try to find answers, and how to do that using our five senses.  We read a book about shapes, and observed how many sides and angles they had, and looked around our classroom to find matching shapes.  We are looking forward to further scientific wonderings and explorations!

On February 8, 2018, Governor Sununu signed Senate Bill 247 Prevention of Childhood Lead Poisoning.  This law requires that all schools and licensed childcare facilities test lead in drinking water at all locations where water is available for consumption by children. Upon receipt of sample results, we are required to post them to our website and/or send letters to families informing you of the results and next steps.  Any locations showing 15 ppb (0.015 mg/L) or higher must be remediated.

We collected first draw samples from both the kitchen and bathroom sinks.  They were tested by the NH certified laboratory ENDYNE in Lebanon, NH.

The bathroom sink tested at 0.0068 mg/L.

The kitchen sink (our primary drinking water source) tested at 0.0060 mg/L.

Both are well below the level of concern.

If you would like a copy of the report, please e-mail me at [email protected] and I will e-mail you a copy.

Our final week went quickly as everyone enjoyed their last days of the year with all their friends, many who are moving on, and others who will be returning.  We talked a bit about the last days and saying goodbye, but the reality of the end of school seems to slowly sink in, often several days after we are out.The weather cooled off and brought some dark, rainy days, but there was a lot of activity.  Games of chase, bike riding, digging, and make believe were occupying many students.  We dug up the soil in the garden, and added new soil before planting some flower seeds, which we hope will be blooming in the fall.For art on Monday we read the story Petra by Marianna Coppa, about a rock who goes on adventures, and eventually gets collected by a child, who paints it to look like an elephant.  We then donned our T-shirt smocks, selected our rocks and paint colors, then commenced painting our own rocks.As it was raining Monday, the children did some fun inside activities.  We started with some yoga, then moved on to flashlight dancing, and finally we played many games of hide and seek.  It was surprisingly hard to find the hiders, despite the lack of hiding spaces.  After hide and seek we took out the rainy day activities.For an art project on Tuesday the children requested painting, so we brought the water color paints out to the art table.On Tuesday we had a special visitor.  Janice Mercieri from White Mountain Apiary came in to teach us all about bees.  She brought an observation hive, a piece of honey comb, and a queen bee cell.  She shared so much information about bees and gave us each an opportunity to hold and observe the honey comb and queen bee cell, and to look at the bees in the hive.  We learned so many things!  We learned that when bee larva hatch into adults, the first thing they do is clean their rooms so it is ready for the queen to lay a new egg.  We learned that all the worker bees are female, and there is only one queen.  The queen bee’s only job is to lay eggs, and the only job of the drone bees’, the only male bees in the hive, is to mate with the queen.  Janice told us that honey bees live for only 6 weeks, and within their lifetime, each bee makes only 2 drops of honey!  To make 1 pound of honey, bees must visit 2 million flowers.  Janice also shared that bees do a special dance to communicate with each other, indicating the location of newly discovered crops.  The colony will then vote on where to visit.  We learned that without bees, 1/3 of our food sources would not exist, as they are the primary pollinators of many crops.  We also learned that wax for the honey comb is produced in glands in the abdomen.  It was such an engaging and informative visit.  Thank you, Janice!On Wednesday morning we read Gary’s New Glasses, sent in by the Armstrong family, and talked about who we know with glasses and why people need glasses. We have two friends who got glasses this week, so it was a good story to help everyone understand how valuable glasses can be and how grateful we are to have them! We then wrote thank you letters to Janice.  The children worked hard to draw her beautiful pictures and write their Thank yous.We went outside early on Wednesday, after several friends helped set up an obstacle course.  Many of the children had fun doing it over, and over, and over.Thursday was our clean out and good-bye day.  We cleaned out cubbies, gathered work from the classroom, and several children took little autograph books around the classroom to get signatures and/or pictures/notes from their friends.   We took out some beads so anyone who wanted could make friendship bracelets for their friends.  We read the story Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney, about a girl named Alice Rumphius.  Her grandfather tells her about his travels around the world and his love of the sea.  She decides that when she grows up, she too wants to travel the world to see far away places and return to live by the sea when she is old.  Her grandfather tells her that there is a third thing she must do: make the world more beautiful.  We discussed what some things were that we could do to make the world more beautiful.  Some of the suggestions were to; cover the world in bridges, plant flowers and trees, be kind and care for others, and build a giant ski slide.  At the end of the story when Miss Rumphius is older, she finally finds what she wants to do.  She orders a bushel of lupine seeds and scatters them everywhere she walks, and in the spring the entire town is covered in lupines.  
We continued to practice for our performance throughout the week.  When the big night finally arrived, everyone was ready!  We will miss those friends who are moving on.  It is hard to say goodbye to everyone!  We wish everyone the best as they move up to new schools. (Thank you to the Armstrong family for the performance photos).Thank you to everyone for such a wonderful year.  We are so grateful to have such amazing, supportive families to work with.  We adore your children and so love spending our days with them.  Thank you for sharing them with us!

We spent a LOT of time outside this week enjoying the summer warm temperatures.  There were lots of insects in various stages of development, arachnids, worms, amphibians, birds, etc. to discover and examine this week.  The children collected caterpillars, ladybug larva, worms, and toads to examine.  The balls, badminton, and ball toss games were brought out, and the children were busy tossing, catching, kicking, throwing, and scooping balls.  A new bike was a popular toy for riding and pushing.  Sleds lined the fence to create shelters from the sun.  Digging in the sand and filling trucks for transport kept children occupied in the sand box.  Children began prepping the garden for planting by digging up the soil to make it loose.At the art table the children finished up their self-portraits.  Some artists really studied themselves and thoughtfully considered how to draw themselves.We continued rehearsals for our performance.  We even did a complete run through outside.  It is hard to remember to sing so the audience will hear, but we are confident the children will be prepared and will perform well when the day arrives.Zeanny came for a final Spanish group, and we played loteria, a Mexican BINGO game.  This time there were prizes for the first to get all four corners, four in a row vertically, four in a row horizontally, an X, and then for everyone who filled their whole board (so everyone got at least one prize).  The children had so much fun, and everyone was a good sport when they didn’t win a game.We celebrated two birthdays on Thursday.  For the fourth birthday, the birthday girl passed out beautiful pink ballerina cupcakes.  She smiled her way around the sun with the globe as we counted her birthdays and listed the seasons before blowing out the candle.  The soon to be six-year old shared tasty white chocolate, pretzel, junior mint, & marshmallow snack treats that were too yummy to stop eating!  She graciously waited her turn, then walked the globe around the candle sun while we all counted her six years since birth.  Happy birthday, birthday girls!!The children were busy finishing up projects that they had started, and some children selected some Montessori activities that they were interested in checking out before the end of the year.Over the past couple of weeks we have been eating outside as much as possible.For Friday science we did some colored light mixing to create new colors.  Each student chose a red, blue, or yellow flashlight.  We took our lights to the back hallway where it was dark, and the children divided into groups with 1 red, 1 blue, and 1 yellow light.  They then shone the lights together on the wall to create new colors.  They discovered that when all three lights were shining in the same spot, it made while light, and when all the lights were off, it was black.  Unlike pigments, white light is all colors of light combined, while black is the absence of light.  When we got back to the classroom they requested a disco dance party, so we turned on some Disco music and the kids had fun dancing and jumping around with their lights.