Sunnybrook Montessori School

sled ride

friends

Sleds and shovels were put to good use this week.  Friends pulled each other around the playground, an ocean was created with some teamwork, and snowmen were assembled.  Monday and Friday students had fun sledding down the tiny snow-bank at the end of the driveway.  They are anxiously awaiting a much larger snow pile.

snowball

pull!

digging an ocean

building a snowman

6 years old!

On Monday we celebrated a birthday.  Happy 6th birthday, birthday girl!

We continued practicing for our winter performance, and counting down the days until the much anticipated pajama day on Thursday.  We discussed the three main December holidays celebrated in America; Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa.  Traditions for each holiday were introduced, and the children were anxious to share their own family traditions, including decorating a Christmas tree, giving and receiving presents, hanging wreaths, and creating gingerbread houses. They learned about the Hanukkah menorah, latkes, and how to play dreidel.  They also learned about the newest holiday celebrated by some African Americans, Kwanzaa, and the 7 principles.

dreidel

Some of the stories we read this week were The Night Before Christmas, Hanukkah, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

At the art table the children were busy creating special top secret gifts for their families.  Shhh, we can’t share yet!

building

the farm

floor work

snowflake tracing

coloring in the lines

map work

metal inset

mittens and stars

number work

play dough with friends

present wrapping

sweeping

table work

fine motor work

story writing

tubes and marbles

On Thursday the sensory table was filled with tubes and marbles.  It was a busy (and noisy) area!

marbles and bowls

making parachutes

Friday students had a great time making parachutes for science.  We observed how quickly a pen drops, then observed how slowly it fell when attached to a parachute, due to the air resistance.

dropping the parachutes

Not smiling! No way!

Yay for snow!  The children had so much fun on the snowy playground all week.  They built snowmen and snowballs, chopped them up, dug them out, pulled friends in sleds, built towers out of snow chunks, mixed up mixtures of ice and snow, and had an overall fantastic time with their friends.

bundled up

Yay for snow!

new friend

We were happy to welcome a new friend this week!  The children were excited to show her around and familiarize her with the routine.  She has very quickly integrated into the class and was busy making friends and checking out all that there is to do!

Fa la la la la La la la la

Our circle times have been busy practicing, practicing, and practicing!  The children are really doing well with the songs we have learned so far, and they are quickly picking up the new song we introduced this week.  On Thursday they had fun dancing and singing it around the classroom.  For the mystery number of the day we counted how many times we sing Frosty the Snowman in the song “Frosty the Snowman,” how many fingers we each have, and how many letters are in the alphabet.  We read some winter stories, including But No Elephants, Frosty the Snowman, and The Snow Child.

writing

hugs!

wooden word cards

washcloth folding

trinomial cube

stories

number work

more number work

practicing those fine motor skills

mat work

letter formation

more letter formation

metal insets

art

The art table was busy as always.  Lanterns for the performance were completed, a variety of other drawing, cutting, and stapling projects were created, and several great stories were begun.

drawing

Monday students had fun at the library with Tammy in the morning.  For Monday art they did some painting and drawing with sticks and evergreen branches, creating some very interesting effects.

chillin in the quiet house

marble tube

a different design

Friday students had a lot of fun creating marble runs with a giant tube that one of the friends brought in.  They created an obstacle course around the classroom, where they crawled under tables, tossed balls into baskets, hopped, somersaulted and cart-wheeled across the rug, and walked a tape balance beam.  For science everyone got a balloon to rub in their hair to create static electricity.  They had fun sticking them to the walls, easel, under tables, to themselves, and on the ceiling, then they used their balloons to play keep it up.  They had a great time outside playing in the sun and the snow.  They used shovels to dig and scoop up snow, create tunnels, chairs, and couches in the snow bank, and dislodge giant snowballs.

obstacle course

static electricity

happy scientists

shovels!

digging out the snowbank

Chopping up the ingredients

“Stone Soup is what you need, when you have some friends to feed. Step right up with what you’ve got, and add it all to the big soup pot.”  (from Some Friends to Feed by, Pete Seeger & Paul Dubois Jacobs)  The children were so excited to make and eat stone soup.  They brought in so many ingredients that they spent the whole of Tuesday morning washing, peeling, and cutting them up.  There were potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, tomatoes, squash, green beans, black beans, peas, and broth.  It made so much soup that we were able to make two huge pots.  The first pot we enjoyed sharing together on Wednesday morning, and the second pot of soup was donated to a local family in need.  The older children helped to set up and serve the meal, then everyone sat and shared what they are thankful for before eating.

scrubbing potatoes

washing carrots

preparing

Thankful

enjoying stone soup

What are you thankful for?

In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday, the children took some time to decorate a Thankful Tree with tags listing the things they are thankful for.  We discussed that being thankful means being happy about something that you have.  With no prompting or suggestions, the children quickly and easily shared the things they are thankful for, including mom, dad, brothers, sisters, family, beds, clothes, food, school, and myself.

Thankful Tree

pin punching

writing

painting

alliteration

blocks

lanterns

For Monday art the children made lanterns for our Winter Performance.  They each folded a paper in half, cut lines up, connected it into a lantern and chose ribbons for adornment.  The three day students will be making their lanterns next week.

ball

mud

Mud, mud, glorious mud!  With Monday’s warm weather, the children were thrilled to discover mud in the playground.  It was fabulously messy and fun!

more mud

outside play

planting a tree

Snow play

snowman

Monday morning arrived with some great snow!  The children had a fabulous time making giant snowballs for snowmen and snow chairs.  They had so much fun rolling and rolling and rolling snowballs all around the yard.  Throughout the week the snow dwindled away, but everyone had fun pulling friends in sleds, breaking up the snowballs, and running, running, running!

pulling a friend

shadow tracing

The art table was very busy this week!  For Monday art we did some shadow tracing then moved on to beading friendship bracelets.  On Tuesday we introduced weaving, which turned into making paper chains with the weaving strips.  Many children colored, cut out, and taped up ingredients for the giant pot of stone soup hanging on the wall. The children also continued to work on finishing up some past art work, making more bracelets, creating a variety of items using paper, scissors, glue, and tape, and doing lots of writing and drawing.

bracelet making

weaving

paper chains

singing and writing the alphabet

cooperative stone soup game

During circle we continued to read and discuss Stone Soup.  We also continued discussing Native Americans and introduced the concepts of past, present, and future.   We also introduced a daily mystery number question.  So far we have counted and recorded how many students are in our class, how many days until Stone Soup Day, and how many girls/boys are in our class.  The children reminded us not to forget the teachers when counting the girls!

afternoon work

animals

clock

hundred board

pin punching

play dough

puzzles

rhyming puzzle

states puzzle with Tammy

table work

tweezers

dice addition

firemen with their hoses and ladders

rug work

afternoon group bracelet making

In the sensory table we made moon sand with sand, cornstarch, water, and red food coloring.  It was a very interesting and goopy experience!  The children had a lot of fun molding, piling, pushing, and dripping it.

Friday Science

Friday students had a fun day with Tammy!  They enjoyed making special designs with chalk and paint.  For science they did a soluble and insoluble experiment, testing various solids such as salt, flour, coffee, etc. to see if they would dissolve in water.

soluble, insoluble

We are looking forward to Stone Soup week and Thanksgiving break coming up!