Sunnybrook Montessori School

Frosty mornings led to sunny fall days.  We enjoyed the crisp air building with blocks, raking up leaves, playing chase, digging in the sand, and playing toss.
Several students asked to take photos around the playground. Here are some of the images they captured.
Our first project on Tuesday morning was to make our invitations to Bring Your Family to Sunnybrook Night, which will be on Thursday, October 19^th from 5-6:30 PM.  The children drew pictures or decorated with colors on their invites, then placed them in back packs to go home.
For art this week students were partnered up to work as a team to create a spider web and spiders.  They planned how they would work together to punch the holes and thread the long yarn web, then each student made their own spider.  They worked very well together and practiced some valuable social, problem solving, turn taking, and negotiation skills.  We are excited for our families to see them on Thursday at Bring Your Family to Sunnybrook night.
We had our first Spanish group with Zeanny on Tuesday.  She began the year by teaching the name song, Me Llamo.  Each child chose whether they wanted to sing their verse lento (slow) or rapido (fast).  She also introduced the body song, Mi Cuerpo.  She read two stories, a counting story featuring the Mexican artist, Frida Khalo, and La Oruga Muy Hambrienta (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) then each of the children took a turn feeding the caterpillar. Before leaving, Zeanny challenged the children to write the word manzana (apple) and draw a picture of a manzana. Many have taken on the challenge, and we are posting them for Zeanny to see when she returns next week.
Arachnids were introduced.  We read About Arachnids and The Very Busy Spider.  We learned that arachnids have two body parts – a cephalothorax and an abdomen.  They also have eight legs.  Most are predators that survive by eating other small creatures.  Many are venomous, and they do not have wings.  We then did a picture sort of insects and arachnids.
Fire safety was a major theme of the week.  We read a book about fire safety and the children shared many helpful suggestions and information about how to stay safe in a fire.  We discussed crawling under smoke, as smoke rises.  We practiced STOP, DROP and ROLL to put out a fire on your clothes or body.  We talked about touching doors before opening to see if they are hot.  We shared that it is important to NOT hide under beds or in closets and to call out so firefighters can find you.  We practiced our second fire drill of the year, using our back exit through the back hallway, up the stairs that lead into the church, and out the front of the building.  We read the story Impatient Pamela Calls 911 and discussed when and why 911 would be used and talked about learning our addresses and phone numbers.
On Thursday we visited the library to meet assistant fire chief Stephen Jones.  He talked to us about fire safety, and we shared lots of information that we knew about fires and how to stay safe.  He put on all of his fire gear, so we could see what he looks like when he is dressed to enter a fire, and how he sounds with his air mask on.  We then went outside to see the fire truck.  This year he brought the ladder truck, and we enjoyed taking turns going up inside and checking out the cab where the firefighters ride.
When we returned to school, we were visited by fire inspector Stacey and Molly the fire dog.  Stacey showed us how Molly will sniff out and indicate accelerants by sitting and pointing with her nose.  We learned that Molly is a food trained dog, so she only eats when she is working or training, but that she gets all the food that she needs in one day, just in small meals.  Stacey told us that Molly is an important tool for detecting fires and with her help they can much more quickly and accurately detect the possible origins of a fire.  We also learned that Molly is one of only two fire dogs in the state of New Hampshire, so she and Stacey work all over the state.  And just like other members of the family, after working during the day she goes home every evening where she lives with her family.   Thank you to Stacey and Molly for our fantastic fire hats, books, pencils, flashlights, and fire safety plans!
We celebrated the birthday of our oldest student on Friday. She marched around the globe 6 times as we named the four seasons for each year since she was born, then all sang happy birthday before she blew out the candle. Everyone enjoyed her vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting and silver sugar sprinkles. Happy birthday!
Friday students had fun being caterpillars with Kira Willey’s Yoga song Caterpillar, Caterpillar.
Friday students continued to study rocks and rock formation.  We reviewed how igneous rocks are formed (by magma or lava cooling inside or above the earth), then started to learn about sedimentary rocks.  We looked closely at a sedimentary rock from Arizona that was loaned to us by one of our families.  We observed all the layers that were pressed together.  We watched two short videos about how sedimentary rocks are formed by particles creating layers and being pressed together over hundreds and thousands of years and bound by minerals into rock.  We made our own sedimentary rock by gathering sediment outside, consisting of sand, soil, leaves, grass, small sticks, tiny rocks, etc. then taking turns adding a handful of the sediment to a jar, then pouring in epsolm salt and water.  We then took turns shaking it up.  We watched as it separated into layers and began to settle.  We will continue to observe it over the next several weeks as the water evaporates and the layers form.  To help better understand how layers upon layers add weight that put pressure on the lower sediment, the children themselves made layers by laying on top of each other so they could feel the pressure of being on the bottom or middle and how that weight presses down.  They had great fun taking turns at different levels of the pile.

Jumping was the name of the game this week.  The children lined up on the tunnel and took turns jumping into the sand below.  They jumped around on the hoppy balls.  They jumped off the log and the balance beam.
The artist Yves Klein was introduced on Monday, who is known for developing his signature blue, which he used to make his monochrome paintings.  The children helped to mix varied shades of several colors, then used them to create their own monochrome paintings.  Monochrome painting was introduced to all students on Tuesday, and they created some unique works of art.As it was our first play date day, while younger children from the community visited with their families, the Monday students took their first trip of the year to the library with Tammy and Susan, and had fun with puppets, trains, the doll house, etc.
We celebrated our first fifth birthday of the year on Tuesday.  The birthday boy passed out bags full of popcorn, dried fruit, and yogurt covered raisins.  As we said the seasons and counted the five years since his birth, he held the earth and orbited the candle sun counterclockwise.  When he reached the sixth fall, he blew out the candle sun.  As the children ate their treats, we read the birthday book he donated, A Birthday for Bear.  Happy fifth birthday!
We had a couple of observers in the classroom.  A college student came to observe our social emotional strategies, and Ann Auger, the coordinator of the Coos County Director’s Network and owner of ECE Visions, came to do an ECERS assessment to give us feedback on areas where we can improve the quality of our environment and program.

Magnets were removed and rocks were added to the science shelf.  The children enjoyed inspecting them and matching the small rocks to their pictures on a guide sheet and learning their different names.
We read the story When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really Angry by Molly Bang, then we discussed emotions – how your face looks and how your body shows emotion.  When you are angry your face and body get tense and scrunched up.  When sad, you may turn your head down, hunch your shoulders, and frown.  When happy, you smile and your body is relaxed and open.  The children shared some strategies for what to do when feeling strong negative emotions, such as taking a break in the quiet house, asking for a hug, or snuggling with a toy.

We introduced role playing, and did some role plays to help introduce perspective taking and using people’s facial and body expressions to give us information about how they are feeling.  After each initial role play, we then did a second role play voicing our thoughts so that everyone could see that we don’t always know what one might be thinking.  We role played a chasing game where all the children were having fun, but then the child being chased got boxed in and felt scared.  We also did a role play where a student was playing with a bus and set it down, and another child took it.  After each role play we discussed the children’s interpretations and understandings, and how individuals could react and respond to each situation.  We had a wide range of understandings and interpretations, which led to discussions about how to respond.
On Thursday we watched some videos of buskers using a variety of items for drumming.  First we watched Gordo using buckets, then we watched Darrio Rossi from Rome drumming on a variety of pots and pans and other items.  We then took out a selection of items and handed out sticks for each child to drum with.  We listened to high and low notes on the piano and determined which “drums” created high notes and low notes.  We took turns playing metal, glass, plastic, and pottery drums.  We followed a conductor and played quietly, then louder, then more quietly like a rainstorm coming through and a train passing by.  The most fun, though, was when the children had a chance to take them out and play like Gordo and Darrio.  The drums will stay under the piano for children to take and use on their own so they can make their own rhythms and explore the sounds of the various materials and items.
Friday students were introduced to rocks.  We read several books about rocks, including If You Find a Rock by Peggy Christian, Rock, Rocks and Soil, and Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor.  We learned that there are three types of rock formed in three different ways.  We focused on igneous rock, which is formed when magma or lava cools and solidifies, either above ground or below.  One type of igneous rock is granite, which is found all around New Hampshire.  We watched a video of a volcano exploding and a video of flowing magma.  We then did an experiment.  We melted sugar, then placed it on a cold pan.  We boiled a water and sugar solution, then placed that in a glass with a stick.  We inspected them when they had started to cool.  We observed that the one that cooled quickly was smoother and rounded at the edges, while the other was much more clumpy and rough.

After a hot beginning to our week, the rapid transition from summer temperatures to fall temperatures was welcome.  The students have been enjoying bouncing around on the hoppy balls, raking leaves into piles, digging out a pit for a “bonfire,” filling trucks up with sand, and playing lots of running games.  They have continued to find insects and other small creatures, though they have been thoroughly disappointed with the lack of worms in our rather dry garden soil.  Hopefully it will moisten up soon.For Monday art students were introduced to the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, and her focus on self-portraits.  We learned that self-portraits are pictures that we make of ourselves.  We discussed making our self-portraits as accurate as possible.  We talked about using a mirror to determine the shape of our face, our hair, eye, and lip color, and the placement of our features.  We looked at a variety of skin color markers and selected the one that best matched our individual skin colors.  The children created some wonderful portraits, which we have hung in our literacy area for all to examine.  The remainder of the students were introduced to self-portraits on Tuesday, and each child took some time during the week to produce their most accurate rendition of themselves.Our study of insects progressed to reading and learning about the process of metamorphosis – the four stages that each insect goes through, from egg to larva, to pupa, to adult.  We read Waiting for Wings, by Lois Ehlert, and A Beetle is Shy, by Dianna Hutts Aston.  Life cycle models for a monarch butterfly, bee, and ladybug were introduced and set out for students to use.Afternoon students put on a puppet show and did a little ribbon dancing after rest.Henrietta and Wolfgang visited on Wednesday to share a problem that Henrietta is having.  She very much wants to play with the other puppets, but she is not sure how to do that.  Sometimes they get upset with her if she jumps in and starts doing things without asking, or if she takes something that someone else is using.  Last week the children learned some ways to initiate an interaction, and they demonstrated their understanding of those strategies by sharing ideas with Henrietta, including asking to play, inviting someone to play, offering a toy, and sharing a play idea. (Thank you to our student photographer for the photo). Thursday was a very exciting day.  We were anxious for our first visit of the year from Believe in Books, who brought Piglet for us to meet.  Andrea greeted us all and introduced herself, Piglet, another friend, and A.O., who read us a story about piglet trying to play with his friends, but being left out, so he made up his own game to play by himself, and was then later joined by his friends.  Everyone was gifted a book of their own to take home.Right before our morning students left for the day we were thrilled to find out that our monarch butterfly, who joined us as a caterpillar on the first day of school, had emerged from its’ chrysalis.  We had been patiently watching and waiting through the stages of metamorphosis, and knew that it would be coming out soon, as the chrysalis had become clear and the black of the wings could clearly be seen.  We were so fortunate to have a parent set up a video camera to record the process, which he later edited and has posted here – http://www.phlume.com/videos/Monarch.mp4  – for everyone to view.  Thank you so much, Chad! It is quite enchanting to watch the process.For science Friday each student got a bin with 11 items to put in order from shortest to longest.  They then traced around them.  Some children also colored them in and labeled them (or had help labeling).  With so many items of varying shapes, it was a bit of a challenge, and took some time and careful comparing to see where each item should go.  For students just beginning to work with length, we took away all but three items, and ordered just those three.

Summer ended in a glorious fashion, with warm sunny days and leaves falling from the trees.  The children discovered all sorts of interesting insects and other small creatures.  There was lots of fun with balls, digging in the sandbox and garden, bike riding, balancing, and playing games with friends.
For Monday art a parent joined us to do a planting project.  She brought tea cups, soil, sand, and jade tree stems.  The children helped stir the soil and sand together to make a jade tree potting mix, then filled their tea cups and selected their jade tree stems and leaves to plant.  Some planted multiple stems, and others chose just one leaf.
Susan introduced a ladybug activity at the art table.  She informed us that ladybugs have an equal number of spots on each side, so the children figured out that if we were to put three spots on one side, we would need three on the other, for a total of six spots.  The children used red circles for the ladybug bodies, then added legs, spots, heads, & antennae.
We read about animal classes on Tuesday, then introduced the first animal class we are studying: insects.  The children had already been exploring insects over the first two weeks of school, but this week learned exactly what an insect is.  Insects have three body parts: a head, thorax, and abdomen.  Insects have an exoskeleton.  Insects have six legs.  Many insects have wings.
We have continued to observe our chrysalis, and we read the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  We recognized that the author made an error – the story said that the caterpillar built a cocoon and turned into a butterfly, but caterpillars that build cocoons turn into moths, while caterpillars that turn in butterflies transform into chrysalises.  We also recognized that the author took creative license when the caterpillar ate all sorts of foods that caterpillars would not eat.

We read about and discussed the end of summer and the beginning of Autumn and discussed what would grow in a garden that we may harvest, such as corn, squash, tomatoes, and flowers.

Friendship skills are a necessary skill for forming relationships, particularly ways to initiate an interaction in a positive manner.  We read The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle, and introduced six ways to initiate an interaction with a friend: offer a hug, invite to play, give a play idea (ex. “Let’s go build with blocks!”), give a compliment, offer help, and share a toy.  We will continue to discuss and work on these skills throughout the year.

After reading Max Found Two Sticks by Brian Pinkney, everyone took a pair of sticks and tapped out some rhythms.  Each student took a turn tapping a rhythm for everyone to imitate.  We tried some fast beats and slow beats mixed together, some slow beats, and some very fast beats, and listened very closely to follow and repeat.
Friday students read How Do Apples Grow? and The Apple Pie That Papa Baked, then shared all the things that they KNOW about apples, such as they grow from flowers, they have up to ten seeds, they have five compartments to hold the seeds because the flower has five petals.  They then shared the things that they WANT TO KNOW about apples, such as why they grow on trees, and why they fall to the ground.  We then did an apple taste test.  We observed and described seven varieties of apple, including Gala, Macintosh, Fuji, Granny Smith, Gingergold, Pink Lady, and Honey Crisp.  They discovered which were crispy, and which were soft, which were sweet, and which were sour.  Most students decided that they liked them all equally, while one was emphatic that he preferred Granny Smith.  The children wanted to count all of the seeds in each apple, so they opened them up and figured out how many seeds each held. After tasting our apples we figured out the answers to their questions.  They thought then answered their own question about why apples grow on trees using information they read in How Do Apples Grow? – because they are the houses for the seeds.  We discussed why we eat apples – because they are full of nutrients, and when they fall to the ground, they make the soil nutrient rich, acting as food for the seeds so they can grow into trees.
Some songs we sang this week were “Ladybug’s Picnic,” “Make New Friends,” “Jump Jim Joe,” “The Hokey Pokey,” and “The Ants Go Marching.” Friday students had fun singing “Pig on Her Head” by Laurie Berkner (but with insects), and dancing to “Caterpillar, Caterpillar” by Kira Willey.