Sunnybrook Montessori School

Snow plows were busy keeping the roads clear, while thrill seekers took turns sledding down their constructed mountain.  Explorers took turns pulling each other through the snow-covered tundra. Architects were constructing towers and experimenting with ice adhesion.Susan continued to enthrall us with the music and story of Peter and the Wolf through the week.  We laid on the rug and listened to the music all the way through, taking note of the various instruments, their speed, and their tunes and considered how each story character would be moving and what they might be doing.   We then listened to the music accompanied by the narration and the picture book illustrated by Charles Mikolaycak.  After completing the story, we discussed what might happen next and how the individual character stories might progress.  Several students wrote and illustrated short sequels for some of the characters.At the art table the children worked with Susan to trace, cut, staple, and paste together forest animal headbands.  We had many owls, moose, deer, foxes, bear, bunnies, porcupines, and even a butterfly roaming our classroom.The animals and fairies continued to work on setting up and decorating in the forest & fairy house, and play animals and fairies.The Hanson-Phillips family provided a special pizza party treat for the Thursday afternoon students. They loved their cheese and pepperoni pizza. Thank you so much for the Scorpios pizza, Hanson-Phillips family!On Wednesday we were excited to welcome local game warden, Glen Lucas, who came to do an activity about mammals.  All mammals have fur or hair, some all over their bodies, and some just in select areas.  The mammals we learned about are animals native to our area which are covered in fur.  The children had a wonderful time taking turns wearing an animal picture necklace and naming the animals pictured.  The remaining students were then given furs which they matched with their animal pictures.  The students observed the different animal fur sizes and colors and used that information to find their match.  Before packing the furs back in the box, Glen set them out on the rug and the children took turns feeling the soft furs and again naming which animal each fur came from.  Thank you so much, Glen!On Thursday we pulled out the parachute for some fun active games.  We all took off our slippers and tossed them into a big pile under the parachute, then mixed them all up.  We held onto the edge then counted to three and listened to hear the names called, then raced as quickly as we could underneath to grab our slippers and get them back on our feet.  We always love shaking the parachute, so we pulled Flash the sloth from the shelf and worked as a team to shake, shake, shake him off the parachute three times.  We played our favorite game last.  Rather than crocodile or great white shark, this time a wolf crawled under the parachute and pulled someone underneath by their feet.  That child then became the wolf, crawling around and pulling under another child until everyone had a turn.For Friday science we introduced measuring with the query “I wonder how long the rug is?”  The children suggested we use a tape measure, but we encouraged them to think outside the box.  What else could we use to measure the rug?  One student suggested a human chain, so the children decided to lay down in a row.  We discovered that the rug was 3 children long and 2 children wide.  They then worked in pairs to find items around the classroom that they could use to measure the rug.  They found that the rug is 4 ½ large pieces of paper long, 14 name tags long, 14 tunnels long, 6 big boards long, 7 small work mats long, and 4 large work mats long.  They recorded their findings on the easel after counting out their measurements.

Sledding, snowman building, and shoveling kept us busy in the snow.  The children built up a little snow hill to sled down, then took turns holding the sleds for each other.  They fanned out to make snow angels and rolled snow balls for snowmen.  They pulled each other in sleds around the paths they shoveled out, and followed the leader through the yard.For art on Monday we spooned marbles out of jars of paint, dropped them on paper in a box, then shook the box to make the marbles roll the paint around, creating colorful lines back and forth across the paper.  This activity continued throughout the week with varied shades of green paint and green paper to make needle covered branches for the evergreen trees in our classroom forest.In the sensory table the children grated up bars of soap and unwound rolls of toilet paper, then mixed them all together with water to make “clean” snow. They loved the feel, and had so much fun smooshing and molding it.The students were very busy painting evergreen and birch tree trunks and branches, then assembling them in dramatic play.  They colored and cut out flowers and mushrooms to adorn the forest floor, and painted the base of the fairy mushroom house that will be set up next week.  The children are very excited about these projects and this dramatic play theme.  The bears, bunnies, and foxes have been very busy in our forest already, and the fairies are anxious to move in soon.We celebrated a new year’s birthday with our newest five-year-old.  It is hard to believe that she is 5!  She happily orbited the globe around the sun while we listed the seasons and counted up the five years since her birth.  After singing Happy Birthday everyone enjoyed the delicious fruit salad she brought to share with some strawberry cream cheese dip.  It disappeared very quickly!We played some fun games to reinforce the concept of personal space through the introduction of “own” and “common” space.  On Tuesday we played NEAR and FAR, where we got as near to something (the wall, a shelf, etc.) then as far from it as possible.  We ended by being as FAR from everyone else as possible and as NEAR to ourselves.  On Wednesday we continued by building bubbles around ourselves and being careful to keep them intact by staying just far enough away from others to prevent them from popping.  On Thursday we practiced moving in different ways within our “own” space and the “common” space, while keeping our bubbles intact.

We continued our introduction to Mammals with a sorting activity.  Each child got an animal, which they examined then placed on a tray of either insects, arachnids, birds, or mammals according to how many legs it had and what type of covering (feathers, hair/fur, or an exoskeleton).
The civil rights movement was introduced through several books about skin color, which lead to discussions about getting to know people by talking with them and spending time together, rather than determining who they are based on appearance.  We looked at a map of the earth showing skin tone, and saw that the closer people live to the equator, the darker their skin, though now with ships, cars, and airplanes people of all skin shades live all over the earth.  We learned that skin tone is determined by how much melanin is in your skin, and that lighter skin gets darker when exposed to the sun for longer periods of time.  We read some books about Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges, and the unfair laws that prevented those with darker skin from sharing water fountains, schools, and restaurants with those with lighter skin, and how people worked together to abolish those laws.Susan introduced the story Peter and the Wolf by playing clips of instruments playing Prokofiev’s compositions for each character in the story.  We began by listening to the short clips, then moving our bodies to the music.  We then gathered back together to listen again and guess which type of animal or person each instrument & music might represent.  We matched music to the bird, cat, Peter, duck, grandfather, wolf, and hunters.  Next week we will listen to the full story and continue to become familiar with the instruments representing the characters.For science on Friday we continued exploring scales.  The children examined a variety of scales used to weigh food, people, and other items.  We looked at digital scales and balance scales.  Each child took a turn weighing him/herself on a body weight scale, and we recorded each child’s weight.  The children then paired up in small groups or worked as individuals and chose a balance scale.  They selected an animal or two to weigh.  They placed the animal in one tray of the scale, then carefully placed weights in the other tray.  With some guidance, they carefully added and removed weights until the scale was balanced, then added up the weight of their animal.  At the end of the morning, we examined our lists of weights and ordered them from lightest to heaviest, and created bar graphs showing the weights of the children and the animals we weighed.

With such a short week and some crazy cold temperatures, we only made it outside one day.  We were so grateful that it warmed up enough to get out and enjoy the snow.  We slogged through the high snow, shoveled up mounds of snow and jumped in them, hauled the sleds around, and did our best to stay warm.As it was too cold to head outside in the below zero temperatures on Tuesday, we brought the snow inside. The children had fun donning mittens and playing with arctic animals, scoops, bowls, and spoons in the sensory table.We read the book Friends by Miles Van Hout and talked about friendship and what are helpful and hurtful friend things to do. We sang and danced to the song In and Out the Window, pairing up with a friend and working together to do the motions of the song.
We celebrated the newest four year old birthday on Tuesday. The very excited birthday girl zipped the earth right around the sun as we tried to quickly name the seasons and count out the four years she has been alive. She blew the candle sun out after the birthday song, then everyone enjoyed the tasty mini cupcakes she brought to share. Happy 4th birthday, birthday girl!
The dramatic play area is being turned into a forest with a fairy house, as that was the runner up last time the students voted.  We brainstormed some ideas about the forest and the animals that live there, and what types of houses to include.  They began by assembling a puzzle of sorts.  Susan copied the pictures from the picture book In the Woods, and the children put them together in order, laid them out, taped them together, then adhered them to the base of the wall.  They then began building some animal homes – a hollow stump and a bear den.  A baby bear was also added.  The children will continue over the next several weeks to assemble the animal and fairy homes, trees, forest landscape, and animals.Mammals were introduced through the books About Mammals by Cathryn Sill and John Sill, and Animals Born Alive and Well by Ruth Heller.  We examined models of mammals, and the children observed that they all had hair and four limbs.  We also discussed that mammals are warm blooded vertebrates whose babies are born alive and produce and feed them milk, as the mothers have mammary glands.

The Vashaw-Lanham family gave Sunnybrook a gift of a new puzzle block set, called the four elements. The children loved constructing with it, and it added a bright splash of color to our block play. Thank you so much to the Vashaw-Lanham family! The four elements has quickly become a favorite class material.For Friday science we read Just a Little Bit by Ann Tompert and Balancing Act by Ellen Stoll Walsh.  We discussed what equal means, then the children constructed balancing platforms and placed items on each end to make the platform balanced.

Our final week before Winter break brought cold and snow.  The children made good use of the new shovels and sleds donated by the Armstrong family.  They filled their sleds with snow and hauled their loads.  They shoveled out paths for walking.  Friends took turns pulling each other around the yard.
On Monday we read about wind, which is formed when cold air and warm air meet and change places.  We read the story When the Wind Blew.  We talked about how we can blow out and make a small wind and how that is used in art.  We watched a video about glass blowing, which showed us how artists use extremely hot melted glass, which they collect at the end of a blow pipe, then blow it and shape it into various glass pieces, such as paperweights, pitchers, sculptures, etc.  We then used our breath to make art by dropping liquid water colors onto paper and blowing air through straws to move the colors around, creating beautiful patterns.We celebrated our most recent fifth birthday.  The birthday boy brought a special cake to share with his friends.  After holding the earth and walking it around the candle sun five times through the four seasons as we counted out each year, we sang happy birthday and he blew out his candle.
On Tuesday we read the story The Snow Child, an old Russian Folktale about an elderly couple who never had children, which they desperately wanted, so one winter day they built a snow child who magically came to life.  Many children colored and cut out stick puppet figures of the old woman, the old man, and the snow child.
The children continued to practice daily for their Friday winter performance, perfecting the songs and their presentation of This is the Jacket I Wear in the Snow.
Wednesday was gingerbread day.  We read the stories The Gingerbread Man and The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett.   Children then made foam gingerbread men using kits sent in by the Armstrong family, and several children made their very own paper gingerbread houses with assistance from Susan.  Many children helped to mix up a batch of gingerbread, measuring, pouring, and mixing ingredients together, before rolling and cutting out the gingerbread people.The much-anticipated pajama day finally arrived, and everyone excitedly participated in pajama day activities.  Many children made relaxation glitter jars by mixing water, clear glue, glitter glue, and glitter, then gluing the top on the jar and shaking it up, then watching the glitter swirl around and slowly settle back at the bottom.  Many children also used white circles, orange triangles, pompoms, pipe-cleaners, etc. to make snowmen.  Purple and white popcorn was poured into the popper and the children enthusiastically listened and watched as it slowly heated then began to pop, finally pouring out into the bowl.  They enjoyed dipping their gingerbread men into melted white chocolate and sprinkles, and drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows.  Tammy and the children strung up ropes and hung sheets to create our fort, then we snuggled up with our stuffies and blankets to listen to holiday stories, including How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Polar Express, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.In the afternoon, after rest time ended, the children played a fun game of friendship building cooperative musical chairs, where rather than children being eliminated as chairs were taken away, they had to figure out how to make sure that everyone had a seat.  They had a lot of fun squishing everyone in!
For Friday science we did a citrus taste test, a much-requested activity.  We discussed how citrus fruit are similar to each other and different from other fruit, particularly how they have thick peels that need to be removed and the insides are divided into segments filled with pulp.  We tested a lemon, a lime, a grapefruit, a tangerine, a clementine, and an orange.   The sweeter fruits were preferred by most, particularly the orange and clementine, but some loved the lemon and the lime and the grapefruit.
Our Winter program, selected and lead by Susan, was a huge success.  It was wonderful to have so many families in attendance.  Thank you so much to everyone for joining us and sharing some time together.  We wish you all a wonderful holiday season!  Enjoy your family time!  See you on January 2^nd.