Sunnybrook Montessori School

indoor recess with magnatiles

The cold weather kept us inside this week.  The children had a lot of fun with the indoor recess activities.  They constructed rocket-ships, airplanes, and bunny houses with the Magnatiles, played Sleeping Queens and Loot, and grew gardens to feed the animals.  We are hoping for warmer weather next week so we can get out and expend some energy!

Sleeping Queens and Loot

more indoor recess time

building airplanes

printing

We were introduced to the artwork of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, specifically his famous “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.”  We learned how he created his art by carving several plates of wood, then applying paint to the carvings and creating a print in layers.  We practiced this type of woodblock printing at the art table with some heart “carvings.”

We read the stories I Am Tama, Lucky Cat by Wendy Henrichs and The Beckoning Cat by Koko Nishizuka, both stories about the Japanese Lucky Cat and how he brings good fortune.

spooning

teamwork

teen board

the illustrator hard at work

sorting plants and animals

For a science activity we reviewed the difference between living and non-living then discussed and sorted photos of living organisms into the plant and animal kingdoms.

We began learning about Chinese New Year and the Chinese Zodiac Calendar, which we will be learning more about next week.  We read the stories This Next New Year by Janet S. Wong and The Cat’s Tale by Doris Orgel.

sorting

smelling jars

plant cleaning

O’Clock

letter sound sorting

journal writing

drumming

counting tray

Spiderman’s brown stair tower

Asian animals

reading Al

printing

The art table was busy with students making koinobori carp streamers for Japanese Children’s Day, coloring their feelings buckets, stamping their passports, and printing with the heart carvings.

making koinobori

the puzzle master at work

The students were very engaged with puzzles this week.  Every day our language area rug was covered by puzzles being constructed by groups and individuals.  They were really using their visual discrimination skills to match shapes and colors together to assemble them.

continent puzzle maps

puzzling

puzzles and drums

Curious George

We had a special visitor on Thursday with Believe in Books.  Curious George came to see us.  We listened to the story Curious George and the Dump Truck, then gave George hugs, high fives, and waves.  Each child got to pick a book about Curious George to take home.

mixing colors

During science Friday students had fun mixing colored water to make new colors.  They each had three small dropper bottles, one of each primary color, red, yellow, and blue, which they used to make the secondary colors of green, purple, and orange, then mixed them all together to make brown.

Gerry Scott joined us to read a story for circle then the children had fun circling letter sounds in the Friday message and dancing with scarves.

circling “h”

shoveling off the playground

caterpillar house

It was great to have some warmer weather this week.  As the playground was still covered with ice, we played games in the driveway and on the snow bank.  We were finally able to get back on the playground at the end of the week, where the children had fun shoveling the playground into pathways and rolling snowballs.

plant cleaning

plant care

wiping dust off the leaves

We were introduced to the Chinese born American author illustrator Ed Young this week, who uses a variety of styles to illustrate.  We examined and compared several of his books, and noted that unlike most illustrators, his work varied from book to book.  We read the story The Lost Horse, and compared it to Yeh-Shen, Twenty Heartbeats, and Seven Blind Mice.  We also read about some things that were invented or come from China in the book Look What Came From China, such as paper, fireworks, and fried rice.

letter sound work

making a book

playdough

stars

wooden word cards

peeling the onion for fried rice

On Wednesday we made fried rice and tofu, then tried eating them with chopsticks.  Most of us moved on to spoons pretty quickly, but everyone had fun trying.  The tofu was a big hit!

trying chopsticks

fried rice and tofu

making cards for friends

We spent quite a bit of time last week and this week reading Have You Filled a Bucket Today?, How Full is Your Bucket?, and Will You Fill My Bucket?, stories about feelings. We discussed things that make us happy and things that make us sad, and how we can handle these feelings.  Bucket pictures were available to color, and we used colored flowers to record the things we do to help others feel happy, and things that help us feel happy.    Many students really took this to heart and spent time doing and making nice things for others throughout the week.

origami fish

At the art table the children did some origami folding.  They made some fish and planes and puppy dogs out of square pieces of paper with some help from Tammy.

animals of Asia

bank game

Chinese math

continent book

cube buildings

play dough geometric solids

number rod addition

pink tower and brown stair

sorting tray

transfer work

On Thursday we read the story, My Brother Martin, by Christine King Farris.  We learned that a long time ago, some people were unkind to others because of the color of their skin, and that a boy named Martin Luther King Jr. vowed to turn the world upside down, and that when he grew up, he succeeded in doing just that.

volcano

For science the Friday students made a baking soda and vinegar volcano.  They had fun taking turns pouring in the vinegar and watching the resulting reaction.

hanging in the igloo

kindergarten students reading

In the afternoon, the kindergarten students were excited to read to the younger students, who then also read stories to everyone.

reading Popcorn

reading about Mat and Sam

Red Light Green Light

It is wonderful to be back at school after winter break!  The cold weather kept us inside most of the week, but we were finally able to get out on Thursday to play a game of red light green light.  Hopefully the rain will melt away the ice that is covering our playground so that we can safely use it when the temperatures allow.

catching snowflakes

puzzle

sorting stars

Asia is the area of study this month at Sunnybrook, with a particular focus on China and Japan.  We started our exploration by locating Asia on the world map, then China, India, and Japan on the Asia map.  We examined pictures of the land, people, food, animals, and customs and some items from Asia, such as a Kokeshi Doll from Japan, some Japanese coins, brass bells from India, and chopsticks.  We learned to say “arigato gozaimasu”, which is thank you very much in Japanese, and “Xièxiè”, which is thank you in Chinese.

fans, journals & Chinese Addition

letter sound sort

movable alphabet

painting

stories

puzzle teamwork

making lanterns

At the art table the children made beautiful red lanterns, which we hung from the ceiling, and decorative fans.  They also enjoyed coloring some pictures of China and Japan.

We listened and danced to a variety of Asian music.  We had fun moving energetically to some Indian music, and slowly and gracefully to Chinese flute music.  We also began to learn about woodwind instruments during music time.

We read many stories from and about Japan and China, including Grandfather’s Journey, Crow Boy, The Paper Crane, and The Crane Maiden.

story sequencing

stars

golden bead addition

Chinese math

painting at the easel

afternoon work

brown stair towers

passports

We will be missing Zeanny this month, as she is visiting family in Costa Rica.  We look forward to her return in February.

Friday kids ready to head outside

Continent Books

On Friday the kindergarten students spent much of the day working on Continent Books, which they asked to make and had started earlier in the week.  During circle the students enjoyed one of their favorite circle time activities; finding and circling letter sounds in the message.  For science, they made a hot water volcano by placing a small jar of hot water in a larger pitcher of cold water, which caused the hot water to spurt up and settle on top of the cold water.

hot water volcano

circling letter sounds

gift wrapping

The children had a fun week!  They enjoyed making and wrapping presents for each other, decorating gingerbread men, creating winter scenes, doing puzzles, and reading lots of holiday stories.

wrapping an original piece of art

decorating gingerbread men

The Polar Express

puzzles

more wrapping

dinosaur puzzle in spanish

truck puzzle

indoor recess bunny apartments

Tuesday kept us inside with below zero temperatures and Wednesday brought our first snowy play day of the season.  Everyone had a fabulous time pulling the sleds around and shoveling them full of snow.

shoveling snow

reptangles

filling the sleds

SNOW!

During Spanish Zeanny shared the tradition of Las Posadas, where families travel around town re-enacting Mary and Joseph’s search for lodging.  They form a procession, knocking on doors and requesting lodging until they arrive at a home where they are invited in and the fiesta begins.

red rod maze

artists at work

counting tiles

cylinders

dancing to holiday music

nesting santa

trying to stand with a partner

constructing the fort

Everyone was super excited for pajama day!  The children pulled all of the tables to the center rug and built a giant fort.  They had such a great time playing bears and other make-believe games.  They could not wait to make and eat the popcorn and hot chocolate.  We popped the kernels from the popcorn that the children harvested during our market week in November, which made lots of yummy white popcorn!

pajama day mural

chalkboard art

popcorn and hot chocolate

folding up the blankets from the fort

Frosty the Snowman

practice in pajamas

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

On Thursday afternoon the students went to the library to watch The Grinch Who Stole Christmas on the big screen, then headed back to school for a visit from an old Sunnybrook friend.  Everyone was so excited to see her.  We sure do miss her!

making books with an old friend

Friday students had fun preparing for the winter performance, making Christmas stories, building igloos on the playground, making more forts in the classroom, and singing lots of holiday songs.

The winter performance was fabulous!  The children did an exceptional job and it was a wonderful evening with the Sunnybrook families.  Thank you to everyone for joining us!  Wishing you all a very happy holiday season and a fun and relaxing vacation.