Sunnybrook Montessori School

ponies

We are well into autumn.  The leaves are gone and the cold has arrived!  The children were still anxious to get outside and run around with their friends, dig in the sandbox, and play pretend.  On Friday the cold weather finally coincided with some precipitation, and the excitement of the first small coating of snow had the children requesting early outside time.  They made snow angels and snow balls and attempted miniature snowmen until all the snow was used up.  It was great fun while it lasted!

sandbox play

riding on the tunnel

snowballs

snow angel

stories with Kelly

We were so thrilled to have Kelly Frink, our new teacher, join us this week.  She instantly and seamlessly integrated into the classroom, making all of the children feel special and welcome.  She is such a wonderful addition to Sunnybrook!

table work

watering plants

wooden word cards

clay pot creation

For Monday art the children were introduced to clay pot making after a discussion of Native Americans and their use of natural materials to create clothes, tools, houses, weapons, and other necessities. They learned how to make pinch pots and coiled pots. The clay remained at the art table throughout the week, and various items were molded and constructed, including pots, snowmen, and forests of trees.

painting clay creations

painting pots

drawing

We continued to read Stone Soup stories and discussed the characters in the different versions.  We had a brief introduction to Native Americans and the tradition of Thanksgiving, a feast with family and friends, just like Stone Soup at Sunnybrook.

lacing beads

counting tray

writing stories

e words

geometric solids

letter formation

matching shapes

magnetic color cube art

mammals

metal insets

number puzzle

number work

sound sort

star sorting

metal inset pin puch

multiplication board

number rod addition

puzzles

sandpaper letters

stars

dancing and singing to “Let It Go”

Friday students had a busy morning of work and were so anxious to get outside to enjoy the snow that they requested we skip circle.  They had so much fun enjoying the little bit of white stuff covering the ground.

For afternoon science we learned about density.  We all crowded together in a tight group, then spread out a little to try to understand what density means.  Then we proceeded to the science table where we took turns pouring different liquids into a cylinder to create a density column.  We weighed each liquid before pouring it in, and noticed that the more dense liquids were, the heavier they were.  We started with honey, then karo syrup, dish soap, water, vegetable oil, and finally rubbing alcohol.

density column

Over there!

The snow is on the way!  The days are getting shorter, the weather is getting colder, and the children have been running, running, running to stay warm.

We began to learn songs for our Winter Performance, which will be held on Friday, December 19^th, only six weeks away!  All these cold weather songs began talk of winter, snow, and holidays, and initiated some winter themed art.

teamwork

jumping rope

snowflake art

Stone Soup is what you need, when you have some friends to feed!  This week began our study of the Stone Soup story (click for video of the story by Marcia Brown).  We read three versions of the story, and will continue to read and discuss others throughout the month.

matching geometric solids to shapes

reproduction painting

strengthening those fine motor muscles!

puzzle teamwork

puzzles

sorting shapes by color

sound game

star sorting

table work

demonstrating the peg board

mammals or not mammals?

We continued to learn about mammals.  We know that people are mammals, as we have hair, we are endothermic, we have four limbs, and our babies are born alive and drink milk from the mothers.  We did a mammal and non-mammal sorting activity, which the children had a lot of fun with.  We discussed whether each animal had hair or fur, four limbs, if babies are born alive, if babies are fed milk from the mother, and the hardest, if they are endotherms, which means warm blooded.  The children enjoyed revisiting the activity on their own or with friends.  On Thursday we learned about  whales, which are marine mammals. We also discussed how endotherms stay warm.  As humans, we put on clothes to keep us warm.  Other animals have lots of fur, and whales have blubber, or fat, under their skin.

afternoon work

chain of friends

telling time

cutting out monster teeth

drawing on the chalk board

floor work

farm play

helping a friend turn on the water

magnetic letters

letter sound game

color mixing and locks

building peg towers

play dough time with friends

matching letters

Kandinsky style circle art

During Monday art the Monday students learned about the artist Wassily Kandinsky.  We examined some of his abstract paintings which include a lot of geometric shapes, specifically his “Several Circles” painting.  The students spent the week creating fabulous Kandinsky style circle art.

filling in her sunshines

making circles

circle painting

water bead fun

The children continued to enjoy scooping, spooning, sorting, and playing with the water beads in the sensory table.

scooping and pouring

Friday students had a special fun day with Tammy while Lyn met with families for conferences.  They were busy, busy, busy all day long!

pushing the log

There was a lot of excitement this week in anticipation of Halloween.  We made good use of our outside time running all around, playing word tag (I stretch a word out into the individual sounds and the children decode the word, shout it out, then run across the playground to the opposite fence), pushing logs, loading up sleds, digging, and being animals.  We even had fun playing in the rain on Wednesday when those bodies just needed to get out and MOVE!

circling letters from the Friday message

rhyming puzzle

sound game

writing

black on silver art

Monday students made black on silver art by tracing and cutting out shapes from black paper and gluing them onto silver paper.

In the sensory table the children used scissors to cut, cut, cut up yarn, string, paper, felt, and ribbon into small pieces, which they then used to create collages at the art table.  It was some great cutting practice, and the variety of materials gave different levels of resistance.

cutting

During circle we continued to discuss living and non-living.  We remembered that both plants and animals are alive and need water, air, and nutrients/food to live, and plants also need sunshine.  We began to learn about classifying animals into different groups, and began with mammals, which are animals that have hair or fur, give live birth to their babies, feed their babies milk from their bodies, and are warm blooded.  Friday students also learned about the other classes of animals; birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates, such as arthropods.  They then made a list of mammals.

tong transfer

drawing

beading

color match

color mixing

hanging his painting

letter work

teen board

North America puzzle map

clock

pattern blocks

teen board

water beads

Thursday morning we were joined by several Elsa’s, Yoda, Bruno Mars, the Hulk, Optimus Prime, Twilight Sparkle, a mermaid, some army men, a witch, a cheerleader, Mini Mouse, Super Man, Olaf, and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.  It was quite an experience!  Everyone (costumed and not), enjoyed making and playing with slime, feeling and watching the water beads grow in the sensory table, creating white marble painting spider webs, constructing structures with toothpicks and marshmallows, drawing on large orange poster board, creating and then being spiders and flies on a giant spider web, eating all of the amazing snacks that families donated, and finally taking turns hitting the spider piñata and gathering up the candy.  During circle we made a giant spider web by passing a ball of yarn around to our friends and each holding a section. Thank you to everyone who donated treats, candy, rubber band bracelets, bubbles, and the piñata!  Everyone truly enjoyed the day!

slime

water beads

spider web marble painting

spiders and flies

toothpick marshmallow structures

orange poster paper art

army guys having snack

moving the table for the party

spider web

organs

Friday students had a relaxed day.  For science, they took a turn being traced, and some of the students colored and cut out organs, which they glued to their body tracing.  They had fun playing with the water beads, which had grown a lot overnight, using the slime, and making more spider web marble paintings.  We had a surprise visitor during outside time.  Mima the Mime came to perform for us.  She turned on some fun dancing music and used her juggling sticks to amaze us.  Some of us did some moving and dancing with her, too!

Mima with her juggling sticks

watching Mima the Mime

scarf dancing

balancing

This cold rainy week was filled with lots of exciting activities!

During Monday Art the students learned about the artist Jackson Pollock, then had a fabulously messy time creating their own splatter art masterpieces, which are currently displayed on our classroom wall.

Jackson Pollock splatter painting

masterpieces completed

scooping out the pumpkin

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins!  We were thankful for the three pumpkins that were donated by a generous family this week.  The students were so excited to cut them open and scoop out the seeds and guts.  We then soaked the insides in water, removed the stringy fibrous parts, then dried and roasted the seeds with salt and cinnamon sugar for snack.  They were so yummy!

Next it was carving time. The children decided that one pumpkin should be scary, one should be happy, and one should be sad.  They designed faces and the students took turns carving them out.  It was some very careful work!

pumpkin guts!

carving the last pumpkin

During circle we discussed germs and how they are transferred from one person to another.  We demonstrated sneezing into our elbows and when we need to wash our hands. The children had a lot of good information to share!

The rainy weather and excitement of the week had our bodies full of energy, so we tried to do some singing and dancing to help get it out.  On Wednesday we brought out the parachute for the first time.  It was fun to shake it really fast, to sit underneath and sing, and to take turns going under while everyone else was shaking it.

writing

color mixing

completing the trinomial cube

continent puzzle map

floor work

golden beads

handwriting

magnetic letters

painting

number work

sound cylinders

table work

hundred board

working those fine motor muscles

sweeping

making spider webs and spiders

At the art table the children had a fun time making spider webs and spiders with Tammy.  They painted plates black then used pipe cleaners, pom-poms, and eyeballs to make spiders.  The next day they punched holes around the plates and laced spider webs through them for their spiders to sit on.

Painting the plates black

Assistant Chief Jones with all of his gear on

On Thursday everyone was anxious to get over to the library to see the fireman and the fire truck.  Ronnie read Firehouse! by Mark Teague then Assistant Chief Jones arrived.  He talked to us about having smoke detectors in our houses, how to stay below the smoke if there is a fire, how to cover our faces with our hands and to Stop Drop and Roll if there is fire on our clothes, and that we should have a safe meeting place outside if there is a fire in our house.  He then showed us how he puts on all of his gear for a fire, and what he would look like with everything on.  He said that his job is to help us if there is a fire, and that underneath all of his protective gear, he is still the same person.  If we are ever in a fire and see him, we should crawl to him and not be afraid because it is his job to help get us out.  Finally we headed out to see the fire truck. Fireman Jones showed us several of the tools that they have on the truck, and told us what they do with them, then everyone who wanted to had a chance to climb up into the fire truck to see inside.

Firehouse! by Mark Teague

taking a turn in the truck

checking out the tools on the firetruck

leaf observations

Friday students read about scientists and what they do.  They learned that a scientist asks questions, learns from her senses, makes observations and records them, and tests things.  We then practiced being scientists by observing leaves.  We observed their size, shape, color, texture, and edging.  We measured some, traced some, and did rubbings.  We noticed their veins and stems and observed differences and similarities between them.