Sunnybrook Montessori School

We are pleased to announce that Sunnybrook has developed a scholarship fund for families who may need assistance paying tuition.  Scholarship applications will be included with all enrollment packets, and are due by May 15th, 2015 for the 2015-2016 school year.  Please spread the word to family and friends that you feel may have an interest in Sunnybrook, but may require some assistance.  Enrollment packets are now available.  Please contact Lyn at [email protected] for information or an enrollment packet.

king of the hill

The snow is melting, which meant lots of wet, messy, water play!  It was such a great week to be outside, so we took advantage as much as possible.  The warmth made the snow perfect for molding, so for the first time since December we were able to pack it and manipulate it into snowballs, snowmen, and snow castles.

WATER!

missing mitten? missing boy?

cooperative snowman

relaxing

snowman

wheeee!

paper marbling

On Monday we used special marbling paints that we dropped onto a paper dot on top of water, then swirled the paints around before carefully laying a piece of paper on top.  The paint adhered to the paper, making our very own marbled paper patterns.  The children were quite enthralled, trying different techniques and watching the paints pool, swirl, and make patterns.

marbling

clay

color cube

cylinder towers

Asia continent map puzzle

dice addition

drawing

We continued with our fish unit, focusing more specifically on sea horses, sharks, and food chains.  We read a book about seahorses which compared the various seahorse parts to those of different animals, such as seahorse and horse head shape, seahorse and monkey tails, seahorse and lizard eyes, seahorse and insect skin, and seahorse and kangaroo pouches.  We then read the story Mr. Seahorse by Eric Carle, about a father seahorse who carries around the baby seahorse eggs until they hatch and swim away, and some of the other fish fathers that he meets who help care for the eggs.

In the book, National Geographic Readers: Sharks, we read some interesting information about sharks.  We learned that some shark eggs are surrounded by an egg case called a mermaid’s purse, that shark skeletons are made of cartilage rather than bone, and that sharks were on the earth before dinosaurs.  We listened to the entertaining story, The Great White Man Eating Shark, by Margaret Mahy, about a boy who pretends to be a shark so he can have the beach all to himself.

We also read the book Who Eats What? and learned a new song about an ocean food chain.  We found out that plants are the only living things that produce their own food, and that they are the foundation of every food chain.

afternoon floor work

fish sorting

sound work

writing stories

story time with Tammy

table work

walking the line

water transfer

water work

a fish story

The sensory table was filled with water and fish, and the children continued to swim them around and examine them, even taking them out to find them in the fish books at the science table.

fish fins

letter sound sort

nesting dolls

clay numbers

oo words

rhyming match

reading about sharks with Kelly

coloring the ocean

For art the children used permanent markers to color an ocean on a clear shower curtain.  At the end of the week we hung it on the wall, then moved it to hang from the ceiling to create an ocean room for a submarine.

yellow submarine

The Friday students had an eventful day.  They spent some time in the morning playing in and painting the submarine before science, which caused them to all be covered in yellow paint.

sink or float

For science we did a sink or float experiment, selecting and testing different objects, then recording our observations.  We discovered three items that originally floated, but then something caused them to sink.  Ask your child why the bottle, sponge, and brass bowl floated at first and then sank.

The Polish Princess Bakery

Before recess we decided to take a field trip into town.  We walked down to the Polish Princess Bakery and everyone chose one item for an after lunch snack.  After we returned the children had great fun sledding and playing a make-believe game together before heading in for the afternoon.

outside play

Winter is finally waning!  We really enjoyed the warmer days this week and all of the snow that has filled up our playground.

surfing

teeter totter

table work

The children were ready for school to resume after a week of vacation.  They were very busy and engaged with their work, particularly the transfer activities in Practical Life.

transfer pipetting

practical life work

sound sorting

more table work

metal insets

blue art

For Monday art students were introduced to monochrome art, specifically the use of blue.  They then proceeded to make their own blue art. The blue art materials remained at the art table, and we saw many blue pieces created.

more blue art

blow painting

During the month of March we will be focusing on fish.  We began by listing characteristics of fish, which include living in a water habitat, scales, gills for breathing, fins, and a bony or cartilaginous skeleton.  We discovered that sharks, rays, eels, and seahorses are all fish, but whales, dolphins, crabs, squid, octopus, and jellyfish are not.  We learned about what a habitat is, and read the stories Animal Habitats and About Habitats: Oceans.

afternoon table work

alphabet puzzle

drawing

fish nomenclature

fishing

floor work

letter work

mat work

fish in the water

The sensory table was filled with water and fish, including many sharks, rays, deep water fish, eels, and tropical fish.  We started to learn the names, including the hammerhead shark, great white shark, mako shark, eagle ray, blue spotted ray, manta ray, hatchet fish, angler fish, viper fish, gulper eel, moray eel, trigger fish, butterfly fish, and clown fish.

reading

more reading

even more reading

stories with Tammy

Meeting Tom & Jerry

Wednesday morning we were very excited to meet a special visitor!  A friend’s bunny, named Tom & Jerry, joined us for a short while.  We formed a circle around him so that everyone could see.  He preferred to stay close to his family, but he allowed everyone to take a turn patting him before he returned to his crate and home.

jars and covers

walking the b

waling the swirl

Phases of the Moon

For Friday science we continued with our space unit.  We learned about the phases of the moon while reading and discussing the story Faces of the Moon.  We read about the different names, including new, gibbous, crescent, and full, and we learned about what it means when the moon is waxing and waning.  We discovered that what we see of the moon each night is determined by where it is in its’ orbit around the earth, which affects how much we can see of the sun’s light shining on it.

coloring the map

sweeping a spill

rocking

Once again we spent some recess time inside, and some out.  It was so exciting to finally get to sled on the giant snow hill when the dumpster was removed!

Thursday afternoon sledding

indoor recess games

We wrapped up our study of reptiles this week by learning about alligators & crocodiles, and lizards. We learned to tell the difference between alligators, which are typically darker, have u shaped jaws, and have teeth that are not as visible when the mouth is closed, and crocodiles, who are greenish or light brown, have V shaped jaws, and have a notch in the upper snout for a lower tooth to fit in when the jaw is closed.  We read that there are thousands of lizard species.  The smallest is only ½ inch long, while the largest, the Komodo Dragon, can get up to 10 feet long.

writing on the chalkboard

sweeping

reading

princesses pouring

mat work

geometric solids

practicing the letter “e”

“Hello?”

bulldozer puzzle

Chinese Characters

In celebration of Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, the children practiced writing some Chinese characters.  We read several stories about how families all around the world celebrate by cleaning, hanging colorful scrolls with poems, giving gifts of money, enjoying feasts, setting off firecrackers, and watching a parade with the lion, who scares away the old year, and the dragon who welcomes in the new.  We read a story of how the animals for the Chinese calendar were chosen, and colored pictures of the animals racing across the river.  We also colored and cut out dragon puppets.  All together we sat down and made some fried rice, then did some dancing while we waited for it to cook and cool, then enjoyed eating it all up!

more Chinese character
writing

Dragon Puppets

making fried rice

collages

At the art table the children were very busy cutting out pictures from magazines and making collages.

For Friday science we read the book Gravity, by Jason Chin.  We learned that everything has gravity, and the more massive it is, the more gravity it has.  The sun has gravity that pulls on the planets, which also have gravity.  The earth and moon both have gravity which pull on each other, but because the earth is larger, it has more gravity.  We also learned about the moon.  We watched a video of the first time Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.  We learned that the moons gravity pulls on the water on earth, which causes the tides.  We also discussed why the footprints made by the first astronauts on the moon are still there.  The children said that footprints that were made in dust on the Earth would be blown away by wind, washed away by water, or destroyed by other footprints.  As the moon has no wind, water, or life, the footprints from 45 years ago are still there!