Sunnybrook Montessori School

snow play

snowman

The wonderful white snow in our play yard became snowballs that were turned into snowmen and snow forts.  Lots of muscle and great team work produced some pretty impressive snow balls!

snow fort

sled boarding

On Tuesday we had a special visitor join us.  Magda, of the Polish Princess Bakery, brought a box full of items from Poland.  We located Europe on the map of the world, then Poland on the map of Europe.  We learned that in Polish, Poland is called Polska.  Everyone got to see some Polish money, wooden toys, painted wooden eggs, paper flowers, a carved wooden tray, carved and painted wooden storks, the Polish flag, and many other items from Poland.  Magda then read us one of her favorite childhood stories.

alphabet

washing the board

writing

sorting tray

plant care

pin punching

play dough

partner painting

multiplication board

movable alphabet

penguin walk

We continued to explore Antarctica this week.  We discussed how people stay warm in the winter by dressing in warm clothes, and many animals have nice warm fur, but what about the whales, seals, and penguins?  Everyone had a turn to feel some ice water with a bare hand, then hold an ice pack with a blubber mitten.  The children noticed that the fat in the mitten prevented their hands from getting cold, just like the blubber under the skin of the Antarctic animals.

We looked up blue whales to see how long they are compared to our classroom – they are over 100 feet long, which is quite a bit longer than our classroom, and our play ground!  We also looked at pictures of baleen and krill.

We listened to the Antarctic Antic penguin poems, watched a short video of penguins walking, then walked around like penguins by keeping our knees together.  Several children tried holding an “egg” on their feet and walking without dropping it.  It was very hard!

locks

golden beads

number work

letter sound sort

farm and blocks

cylinder blocks

constructive triangles

clock work

fine motor work

painting the mailbox

The art and science areas became a Post Office for the week.  All of the students who wanted one chose a mailbox at the Post Office.  We also made a big blue mail box to put our letters in to be distributed by the Postal clerks.  There was a lot of letter writing going on this week!  It was pretty exciting to get mail in our mail boxes from our friends.

Thank you for the letter

writing

a letter for meme

Thank You

We completed our Thank You letter for Postman Tim.  Everyone signed their names, and we look forward to delivering it when we return from vacation.

practical life work

sweeping

Perro Grande . . . Perro Pequeno

During Spanish Zeanny reviewed many vocabulary words.  We sang a song about friendship and read our favorite stories, Mortimer and Perro Grande Perro Pequeno.

When we return from vacation we will begin to study the warmer continent of Africa.

Enjoy February Break!

Welcome new friend!

We were so excited to welcome a new friend this week!  As a sister she is very familiar with Sunnybrook, but upon turning three she has now officially joined us as a student.  Welcome new friend!

We had some wonderful winter weather this week, so our play yard has once again been busy with all kinds of snow fun.

snow

snow play

touring the Post Office

On Tuesday we walked to the Lancaster Post Office for a tour of the mail room.  Postman Tim showed us the post office mailboxes where people pick up their mail, the bins that hold the packages, and the sorting areas where the postal carriers sort the mail for their routes.  Everyone got a coloring book to take home.

Henrietta Chicken helped us learn about the parts of the letter and where each part goes, such as the date, the greeting, the body, and the signature.  We have begun writing a group thank you note to postman Tim.  Some students have also been writing their own letters to friends.

sight word game

reading practice

lacing his Valentine’s mail pocket

bank game

Antarctic animals

letter sound work

practical life work

work time

As we know, Antarctica is covered in snow, so we began to learn about snowflakes and how they are formed.  We read The Secret Life of a Snowflake by Ken Lebbrecht, and learned that each snow flake is a unique, six sided crystal, made up of over 100,000 cloud droplets frozen together.  To watch a short video of Ken Lebbrecht talking about snow, click here.

writing the alphabet

word reading

golden beads

cleaning up after himself

BEWARE – The shark eats everything!

constructing animal houses

demonstrating how to care for the plants

letter sound work

mat work

Q-tip painting

snowflake patterns

teen board

delivering Valentines

We had a wonderfully fun Valentine’s week.  We learned some new songs, including A Tisket, A Tasket, and I’m Gonna Mail Myself to You.  There was a lot of excitement for our celebration on Thursday.  The students could not wait to distribute their Valentines and check out all of those that they received.  For activities the children made giant Valentine cards, Valentine books, and crawled through our Valentine Mail Pocket tunnel.  Everyone enjoyed eating the yummy treats.  Thank you so much to those of you who brought special snacks!

Valentine books

Lacing

Valentine Mail pocket

Valentine’s Day stories with Kaiden

Valentine treats

playing a sight word game with Zeanny

It was wonderful to have Zeanny and crew back at Sunnybrook!  They were greeted with lots of excitement and hugs.  This week we reviewed several of the familiar Spanish songs to get back into the groove, and practiced our Spanish vocabulary during work time.

Spanish circle time songs

floor work

a, l work

We are so glad to have two more Friday students joining us in the morning!  Welcome to Fridays, friends!

circling the letter D

when fire runs out of oxygen

For science we reviewed the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between plants and humans and animals.  We tried to see our breath, but discovered that the gasses in the air are invisible.  We did an experiment that showed that fire also uses gasses, specifically oxygen.  We talked about why we would stop, drop, and roll to smother a fire, rather than running.  We placed a candle in a bowl with some water in the bottom, then lit it.  Everyone had a turn placing a glass over it and watching the water bubble up and the flame go out.

matching upper and lower case letters

sled train

snowflakes!

Oh what fun it was to play in all the fluffy white snow!  The children made sled trains, shoveled paths, and had a generally fabulous time in all the beautiful, cold, white snow.

snow fun

This week we continued discussing kindness and friendship.  We made a list of what makes a good friend.  Everyone had lots of ideas to share.  They included:

Plays with me

Invites me to play

Speaks nicely to me

Listens to me

Understands when I need to be alone

antarctic animals

We began to study the continent of Antarctica this week.  We enjoyed looking at pictures of Antarctica and some of the animals that live in the surrounding waters.  We talked about the climate, the weather stations that countries around the world have built, and the animals.  We read The Emperor’s Egg and watched the trailer for The March of the Penguins documentary.   Tammy made a life size painting of an Emperor penguin and the children had fun standing in front of it to see how tall they each were in comparison.

As tall as an Emperor Penguin?

instruments

During music we took turns selecting different instruments to play.  We played them piano (softly) and forte (loudly).

lacing

stamp game intro

letter sound sorting

reading to friends

Valentine’s Mail Pockets

At the art table the children made their Valentine’s mail pockets by folding a large rectangle, punching holes in the sides, lacing them up, and decorating them.  We are excited for our party on Thursday!

lacing

making class lists for Valentine’s cards

art work

Zeanny will be back this week.  We are excited to hear all about her trip to Costa Rica and get working on our Spanish again.

continent books

helping a friend zip up

letter sound sort

e and j

play dough girls

movable alphabet

pattern blocks

play dough

puppets

rough and smooth & short chains

short chains

trinomial cube

wooden word cards

Friday students were busy in the morning doing lots of writing and reading work.

Gerry Scott shared a picture book about larger and smaller, and the children took turns identifying which objects were larger or smaller.

smaller and larger

hugs for Henrietta

circling “t”

ring around the tree singing Christmas Carols

birds grabbing bugs

For science we learned about predators and prey, and how different animals stay safe and protect themselves against predators, such as porcupines with their quills, skunks with their scent, turtles with their shells, and some animals that use camouflage.  We then did a camouflage experiment.  The children pretended to be birds and used their fingers as beaks to grab M&M “bugs” out of a plate of skittles.  The M&M’s were different colors, and the skittles were all one color.  We discovered that the “birds” grabbed the “bugs” that were not the same color as the skittle habitat, so the M&M bugs that were the same color as the skittles were safer than those that did not blend in.

recording our findings

Outside!

We were so excited to get back outside this week to enjoy the snow!  The children shoveled off a patch of ice to slide on, made snow volcanoes, pulled each other around in sleds, and made snow angels.

The children have been sharing and implementing some wonderful ideas this week about how to be kind, how to handle various emotions, and how to help others feel happy.  We did many activities and had several conversations about kindness and feelings.

wrinkled heart

continent puzzle map

The children have really been enjoying our new song about the seven continents.  Many of them have been doing the world and continent puzzle maps, and enjoy identifying some of the familiar continents and countries.

letter sound knock knock game

letter sound work

journal writing

pink tower and brown stairs

Russian nesting dolls

story sequencing

sound sorting

sound work

word work

Montessori Birthday tradition

We celebrated a fourth birthday this week!  Our birthday friend held the globe and orbited the candle sun four times, one time for each year of his life.  Everyone loved the Minion Twinkies that he brought to share.

piano and forte with afternoon instruments

more journal writing

Left, Right, Center

continent nomenclature

rug work

constructive triangles

bank game

Dragon Dance

In honor of Chinese New Year, which began Friday, the children made small dragons to take home.  They requested that we make a large dragon, so on Thursday we all worked together to make a giant dragon puppet, which we used to do a dragon dance around the classroom to festive Chinese music.

painting little dragons

assembling dragons

constructing the big Dragon puppet

The Dragon Dance Parade

Some of the most popular Chinese instruments were introduced this week during music time.  We saw pictures and watched videos of them being played, including the two string fiddle called an Erhu, the 23 string guzheng, the dizi flute, and the suona.

We are looking forward to Zeanny’s return in February!  We are excited to get some Spanish back in the classroom.

Science Notebooks

Friday students made shadow puppets for science.  We learned about Punxsatawney Phil, and the tradition of Groundhog Day.  We also watched a short video of a Chinese Shadow puppet show, then put on our own shadow puppet shows.  Later in the day the children also put on some finger puppet shows with a newly donated puppet theater.

circling letter sounds

Puppet Theater

discussing the difference between plants and animals