Sunnybrook Montessori School

Fall has arrived!  With the change in seasons came the change in weather.  The mornings are crisper and the days are just perfect.  We had such beautiful weather that we spent the entire afternoon outside on Wednesday.  The children had fun bringing their work out.  They used a tape measure to measure a variety of items on the playground, including the picnic table, balance beam, a tree (as high as we could reach), the fence, the tunnel, and the toy box.

During Monday Art we learned about the artist Frida Kahlo who was famous for drawing self-portraits.  We studied several.  We recognized that they were fairly realistic, with proper skin color, hair color, eye color, and clothing.  Most of them also featured pets or animals native to her home in Mexico.  The children then drew their own self-portraits, selecting skin color, eye color, and hair colors that they felt best matched their own.  Throughout the week, each of the students created their own self-portraits. The returning students were excited to see Henrietta (a hen/chicken puppet) and Wolfgang (a wolf puppet) this week, and introduce them to the new students.  Henrietta and Wolfgang helped us talk about emotions and began to introduce some strategies for dealing with strong emotions, including getting a hug or taking a break in the quiet house where there are books and toys to look at.  We will continue to discuss emotions and how to recognize and understand them throughout the year. We celebrated a fifth birthday on Wednesday.  We counted while our friend held the globe and walked around the table with the candle sun five times, then sang happy birthday before enjoying some yummy cupcakes.

On Thursday we finally took out the instruments!  We began with percussion instruments, so we did a lot of tapping, banging, and shaking with drums, triangles, sticks, sandpaper blocks, tambourines, maracas, xylophones, tone blocks, etc.  We practiced following the conductor and getting louder and quieter like a rain storm or jet passing over. Friday students had their first walking field trip of the year.  Before departing, we drew a map so we knew where our destination was and some of the landmarks we would pass on the way.  We were joined by Melissa Grella, who started the Community Garden several years ago.  She led us all the way there, where all of the children helped to harvest carrots planted last spring.  She showed us how to find the stem, then reach down to the top of the carrot, hold it carefully in our fingers, then pull it out.  After we pulled all of the carrots in the two boxes, everyone got to have a taste.  We then walked back down Main Street, stopping at the food pantry to drop off the carrots with Myra Ingerson.  The children truly enjoyed themselves!

Once again we are excited to be holding our monthly play dates.  On the first Monday of each month, October through May, young children ages 2-4, their siblings, and caregivers are invited to join us at Sunnybrook.  From 10-11 AM all are welcome to visit, work with the materials, enjoy a snack, do an art activity, listen to a story, and sing some songs.

We hope to see you there!

Dates:
May 2

Please Note: If SAU 36 is closed due to inclement weather, Sunnybrook will also be closed and the play date will be cancelled. Closing information can be found at sau36.org or wmur.com.

The summer weather drew us outside for a lot of fresh air time.  We used the jump rope and the balls and we played chase, working hard to make our legs strong.  We also practiced Frisbee throwing.  We pulled the long logs that we used last year back into the playground to build a tee-pee.  We found a variety of creatures on our playground as well.  We were visited by a pigeon, a cicada, a family of chipmunks, lots of aphids, some worms, a few millipedes, lots of daddy long legs (Harvestmen), a bee, and a variety of beetles. On Monday the students were introduced to monochrome art and the artist Yves Klein, who invented his own color blue.  The children all created their own blue art work by cutting and gluing scraps of blue paper.  At the easel they used blue, white, and black paint to create monochrome paintings.  They observed that adding white to the blue made lighter shades, and adding black created darker shades. During circle we discussed hand washing and limiting our paper towel use.  We read the story Trees to Paper about how paper is made and demonstrated how to dry our hands with one or two paper towels to help save trees.  On Wednesday we did a handwashing experiment with bread.  We placed an untouched piece of bread with a gloved hand into a baggie as the control.  We passed another piece to each child in the circle to touch with unwashed hands.  We had a student merely rinse her hands in water without using soap or scrubbing then touch a third slice of bread and place it in the bag.  Finally, I washed my hands very thoroughly with soap and water, touched a fourth piece, and placed it in a bag.  We have been watching the slices of bread very closely all week to see if anything will happen.  So far, there has been no change. On Thursday we celebrated our first birthday of the year.  The birthday girl requested ribbon dancing for our circle time activity, which everyone very much enjoyed.  After thorough hand washing, everyone was anxious to eat the fall cupcakes she brought to share.  In a Montessori classroom, the birthday child holds the globe and orbits a candle sun for each year of her life.  Our birthday girl orbited the candle six times.  Afterwards, she was serenaded with the birthday song and the eating commenced! For Friday Science the students took off their slippers, then divided into two groups, each with a set of slippers.  Each group then decided how to sort the slippers into two sets based on a similar characteristic.  One group sorted them into squishy ones and hard ones.  The other group sorted by monster slippers and not monster slippers.  They then divided into three categories.  Group one sorted by animals, monsters, and not animals or monsters.  Group two sorted by soft, flimsy, and hard.

We had a fantastic first week at Sunnybrook!  The new students were warmly welcomed by the returning students.  They quickly and easily integrated into the structure and routine of the environment, becoming comfortable with the daily routine, use of the materials, and the overall atmosphere of the school.  It was enjoyable seeing old friends reunite, and new friendships being formed.

The toasty summer weather motivated lots of running and exploring on the playground.  All of the toys that were neglected during the summer months were put to good use, and new skills acquired were proudly displayed.  We were excited to be gifted a large exercise ball, which the children had a great deal of fun inflating, then pushing, rolling, pounding, and kicking all around the yard.

The newly implemented Morning Meetings have been a great start to our days.  They have helped to set the tone for the day, introduce new activities, and pull us together as a cohesive Sunnybrook group.  We have been singing lots of name songs and introducing some basic classroom expectations.  We have also begun to learn some sign language, starting with the letters of the alphabet.  Thank you to everyone for making this possible.

At the art table the children had supplies available to do some watercolor leaf printing, and to use some donated dot marker paints, which were very popular!  The easels were also very busy all week, with lots of new paintings completed.  The color mixing resulted in some beautiful colors.

In the sensory table the children decided that they wanted water, so we filled it up with water, soap suds, and some fun tools.  They did well staying dry and keeping it off the floor with all of the pouring, scooping, stirring, and mixing they did!

During circle times we learned some songs that helped us get to know each other and we read a few stories, including We Are All Alike, We Are All Different and This Little Chick.  On Thursday we pulled out the parachute and played some games, lifting and lowering it, shaking it, and grabbing animals from underneath and running back to our spots.

We also noticed this week that some pumpkins are starting to grow in our pumpkin patch that we planted last spring. They are still small and green, but we are excited to watch them grow and change color.

Friday students were introduced to Science Fridays when we read What is a Scientist?  We learned that scientists observe, ask questions, test, and document.  We then read the story Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young, which demonstrated how important it is to use all of the information we can to understand something.  During recess we practiced observing and comparing by collecting apples, seeing how they were alike and different, and noticing what they look like.  Some had bruises, some had black spots, some were cut, some were mushy, others were hard, and some had been chewed up by an animal, which we knew was a chipmunk, as we had observed it earlier in the week.  We even opened up the apples and counted seeds to see if they all had the same amount.  Throughout the year we will hone our senses and our scientific skills of questioning, testing, and documenting.