Sunnybrook Montessori School

The ice rink that has taken over our playground is helping all of us to improve our balance and gross motor skills!  We have been making good use of all that ice by playing hockey (with baseball bats and balls), riding bikes (yes, you read that correctly), boot skating, collecting ice chunks, and running and sliding on our bellies.  We took a break from the ice to play “wonder ball” and to be birds, both those that migrate such as finches and bluebirds, and those that stay here including eagles, hawks, cardinals, and blue jays.
For Monday art we had a lot of fun felting wool that we had purchased at the Farmer’s Market this fall.  First we pulled wisps of wool off, which we laid out in layers, criss-crossing so they would knit together.  We then covered them with soap and water, patted them down, then rubbed, rubbed, rubbed so that the tiny scales would hook together.  When we were satisfied, we rinsed them and set them out to dry.  (This is a good explanation of why wool felts).
The art table was busy the rest of the week with animal habitat diorama making.  Students chose a shoe box, decided which animal to make a habitat for, then painted it the appropriate colors.  Once dry, some students finished their dioramas by drawing, cutting out, and pasting the animals in, as well as adding leaves and trees. We continued to discuss food and where it comes from.  We learned that there are five food groups, and discussed which foods come from plants and which come from animals.  We then used our food pictures to sort them by “plant” or “animal” sources. Making silence was introduced this week.  First we read the story, When I Make Silence.  Next the candle was lit and the picture was turned to the word “Silence,” then we all closed our eyes and sat silently smelling the candle, breathing deeply, and listening to the sounds of the classroom until the tingshas chimed and we opened our eyes.

We reviewed our classroom rules that the children had discussed several months ago, and decided that they are all rules about safety and/or respect, so we condensed them into three expectations of our classroom: 1) Be respectful  2) Be safe  3) Be kind.   One of the students has copied them down and is illustrating them for us to post on the wall.

We celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss by reading “The Cat in the Hat” and having a visit from the cat in the hat with Believe in Books.  We had fun listening to the story Green Eggs and Ham, which was read by Sally from Believe in Books with signs and lots of expression to keep us captivated.  After the story we all greeted the cat in the hat and chose a book of our very own to take home.
Friday students had fun with balancing items on a board scale.  They each set up a board on a block fulcrum, then tried to make the weight on each end even using bean bags, tree blocks, and dinosaurs.   They also discovered that moving items in closer to the fulcrum or further away effected the balance.
We began constructing our log cabin first thing in the morning. We cut and taped the roof, then cut out windows and a door. Later everyone took turns gluing paper towel and toilet paper tubes to the outside. We finished one end of the house, and are looking forward to having everyone else help finish it up next week. The children had a lot of fun playing inside!
Stories we read:

The Napping House by, Audrey Wood
Feeding the Sheep by, Leda Schubert
Footprints in the Snow by, Cynthia Benjamin
My Many Colored Days by, Dr. Seuss
The Cat in the Hat by, Dr. Seuss
When I make Silence by, Aline Wolf
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type by, Doreen Cronin
Fox in Socks by, Dr. Seuss
Just a Little Bit by, Ann Tompert
Balancing Act by, Ellen Stoll Walsh

 
New songs introduced this week:

Aiken Drum (introduced by Sue and the students she had taught)

Upsy Down Town

Two Little Blackbirds

Have you ever heard of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?  Simply put, Maslow said that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfill the next one, and so on.

The needs, in order, are:

1. Biological and Physiological – air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, physical contact, sleep

2. Safety – protection from elements, security, order, stability, freedom from fear

3. Love and belonging – friendship, intimacy, affection and love

4. Esteem – achievement, mastery, independence, self-respect, respect from others

5. Self-Actualization – realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences

When the basic physiological and safety needs are met, relationships become the focus.  As caregivers of young children, we take primary responsibility in making sure that the first three needs are met.  (Esteem needs, which I will come back to in a later post, are met through a careful combination of individual work and guidance by others.)

Everyone needs to have a feeling of belonging, acceptance, love and connection.  Two of the ways that we do this with children are:

1. LISTEN & LEARN – listen when they are excited, listen when they are sad, listen when they have news to share, listen when they are angry, listen when they ask you a question, listen when they don’t understand, listen when they learn something, listen when they are talking . . . just truly listen and learn about the child!

2. EMPATHIZE – understand and share the feelings of others.  Very well explained here (https://youtu.be/1Evwgu369Jw)

what it might sound like – “Wow, it is really sad that your snack spilled all over the floor.  That stinks!”

Listening and empathizing are a good start to building a healthy, trusting, relationship.

More to come next week . . .

(information from – http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html#needs5)

(image from – http://figur8.net/baby/2014/11/06/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-and-how-it-relates-to-your-childs-education/)

Vacation week is arriving just on time!  Our classroom was bursting with excited energy, so we spent as much time outdoors as possible, including “running” sessions with Sue during morning work time.  Tuesday brought us a late start due to the icy roads, but it also brought the best snow of the winter so far.  We were finally able to build snowmen and make snowballs.  We got out pretty quickly after arriving for the day, and stayed out for a long time to take advantage of the weather.  The colder temps soon arrived, turning our playground into an ice rink, which the children also really enjoyed!  We spent some time in the field out behind the school searching for animal tracks (which were nowhere to be found, as the snow had all been melted into ice), then we pretended to be different animals of the world – some semi-local, such as black bears, snowshoe hares, and lynx, and others from far off lands, including lions, jaguars, cheetahs, and parrots.
The Monday students were introduced to the artist David Hockney, who has had a long career creating a variety of art pieces.  He currently creates enormous, colorful, works of art, using multiple canvases, usually depicting trees and natural scenes, which are the works of art that we examined.  Each child decided how many “canvases” they wanted to work with, anywhere from 4 to 10, then created their own giant colorful works of art. We were happy to have our monthly Monday visit from Gerry Scott. She read us the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear by, Eric Carle, then gave each of us a new, hand-knit pair of slippers. We love them! Thank you Gerry!
Circle times were condensed to allow extra outside time, but we briefly talked about sheering sheep and spinning wool into yarn when we introduced the song “Sarasponda.”  We took out the parachute on Thursday and had fun singing “Ring Around the Rosie,” bouncing yarn balls all around, taking turns running under and back out, and then sitting underneath all together to quietly sing “I Love the Mountains.”Friday students began work on New Hampshire animal winter habitats.  Each child decided which animals they wanted to include, then painted their shoe box to match that animal’s winter habitat.  There were some bear caves, some winter woods for deer, and some snowy fields for snowshoe hares.  We will continue work on our dioramas after vacation, and the rest of the class will also have the opportunity to make their own. Books we read this week:
Toot & Puddle by, Holly Hobbie

No Moon, No Milk by, Chris Babcock

Gregory the Terrible Eater by, Mitchell Sharmat

From Head to Toe by, Eric Carle

The Lion and the Mouse by, Ian Andrews

Silly Sally by, Audrey Wood

Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type by, Doreen Cronin

New Songs we learned:

Sarasponda

I Love the Mountains

When we arrived for school on Monday we had our own personal ice rink to skate and glide on.  Then we got a bit of snow, which made it even more slippery.  By the end of the week when the temperatures were almost too cold to go out, there was just enough snow so we could walk without trying too hard to balance.
For Monday art, the students learned about pour painting and the artist Holton Rower.  We made our own pour paintings by placing a small cube on a piece of mat board, then choosing multiple colors of acrylic paint and pouring them over the cube and each other, which pushed the previous colors of paint outward.  The effect is beautiful and they were super fun to make! Everyone was ready for our Tuesday field trip to the Post Office.  When we arrived, post man Tim took us into the back room and gave us a tour.  We saw where the mail and packages come in through the loading dock.  We saw the mail carriers sorting the mail to take out and deliver.  We saw the big orange bins that hold packages.  We got to go around behind the front desk and see customers waiting to mail their letters and we peeked into the office to wave to Post Master Rob.   We concluded our tour at the back of the customer mail boxes where customers come to collect their mail.  When we returned to school we had fun playing in our classroom post office, writing, addressing, mailing, sorting, and collecting letters.  During circle time we wrote a thank you letter to Tim.
We continued to learn about food in addition to the post office.  On Wednesday we mixed, rolled, cut and baked biscuits, and we made our own butter by shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking some heavy cream, then rinsing and kneading it in cool water before adding salt.  When the butter and biscuits were ready, we enjoyed them with strawberry preserves, and oh were they yummy! Finally Thursday arrived, the day of our Valentine’s party!  Cupid (Sue) had visited over night and left a Valentine Heart on the fence for everyone.  It was such a pretty sight, all of those red hearts with white snow behind them! During the morning each child took a turn distributing their valentine cards.  Many children played hop scotch with the heart bean bags, made valentine cards for friends and family members, played roll and color the hearts, and follow your heart, a game where you turn over a heart and everyone does the action written on it, including hop on one foot, skip, sing “ABC’s,” parade like elephants, crab walk, wiggle like a worm, fly like a butterfly, sing “Skidamarink,” and hop like a bunny.  By the end of the morning everyone was ready to enjoy all of the delicious treats that were sent in.  We enjoyed donuts, fruit, cupcakes, cookies, popcorn, snack mix, chocolate covered strawberries, and so many other tasty snacks.  Thank you so much to everyone who sent something in! We also celebrated a fifth birthday on Thursday with pink and red frosted cupcakes.  It is hard to believe she is already five! Happy birthday birthday girl! For Friday science we expanded our discussion of being healthy.  We listed different foods that keep our bodies healthy, then shared other things we do to stay healthy, including sleep to recharge our bodies and brains, and exercise.  We played the follow your heart game and noticed how we could feel our muscles working, how our breathing was faster and heavier, how our hearts were beating more quickly, and how we started to get warm when we exercised.
After a long, busy week, we decided to spend the afternoon at the library, where we played with Duplos, the doll house, the puppet theater, the new car table, and the ambulance, then we enjoyed some sunny outside time when we returned to school.
The Books we read this week:
Fancy Nancy at the Museum by, Jane O’Connor

Hamilton by, Robert Newton Peck

The Jolly Postman by, Janet & Allan Ahlburg

Dear Juno by, Soyung Pak

The Giant Jam Sandwich by, John Vernon Lord

A Is For Salad by, Mike Lester

One Zillion Valentines by, Frank Modell

The Valentine Bears by, Eve Bunting

Frog and Toad All Year Long by, Arnold Lobel

All of our songs this week were repeats, but included:

Peanut Butter and Jelly

Gonna Mail Myself To You

Skidamarink

A Tisket A Tasket

Days of the Week

The Hokey Pokey