Sunnybrook Montessori School

The classroom was buzzing with energy and excitement in anticipation of the upcoming holidays and winter break!

Guitar accompaniment for Let It Snow

The children have been diligently practicing and preparing for the winter performance.  Kelly will be accompanying the students on the guitar for our child friendly version of “Let it Snow,” so she joined us for practice time on Wednesday . We are all looking forward to entertaining our families and friends Friday evening!

Feliz Navidad

Dancing to The Nutcracker music

We read a lovely version of The Nutcracker by Susan Jeffers and danced to several of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker compositions, including the battle between the Nutcracker and the Mouse King, The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, and the Spanish Chocolate Dance.

bring me 9

locks and play dough

stone soup game

farm animals in Spanish with movable alphabet

ten board

triangles

working hard on her map of Africa

blocks and farm

chains

golden bead work

hundred board

pattern blocks

pictures for mom and dad

Puff the Magic Dragon Puzzle

star ornament

We were very busy at the art table this week!  Each student made a star ornament to take home for their tree.  Thanks to some wonderful donations, the class had a fabulous time creating the most lovely holiday centerpieces.  The children spent quite a bit of time perfecting them, returning to add and adjust throughout the week. They are anxious to bring them home after the performance on Friday.  We also completed the holiday cards for the elderly, which were given to the residents of Ice Pond Village near the elementary school.

centerpiece construction

art

winter centerpieces

snowmen

more centerpieces

stencils

Recording Science

Friday students did a freezing experiment.  They measured out ¼ cup each of water, oil, dish soap, rubbing alcohol, and mouth wash to see when each one would freeze.  They observed that the water and dish soap froze first, then the mouthwash and oil, but the rubbing alcohol did not freeze at all!

What will freeze first?

checking our experiment

Birthday kids enjoying their cupcakes!

On Friday we also celebrated two five year-old birthdays!  After the birthday girl and boy took their turns walking the globe around the candle sun, and being serenaded with the birthday song in both English and Spanish, we enjoyed some cute piggy and Thomas the Tank Engine cupcakes.

Outside Time

This month our circle times are dedicated to preparing for the winter presentation.  The children have been working hard practicing the songs and poems that they will be sharing and are excited to perform for you.

In the spirit of caring for and thinking of others, the students created holiday cards to distribute to the elderly.  They will continue to work on the cards this coming week.

play dough with friends

counting and labeling pegs

clock work

art with Zeanny

cylinder block

sound work

building and counting peg towers

movable alphabet

painting

snowflake

work time

more work

December Journal

writing and reading

The Nutcracker

We read the story of the Nutcracker, and did some dancing to the music.  We will continue to explore and dance to the music of Tchaikovsky.

rolling down the ramp

recording our science findings

Friday students had a great time with ramps during science.  They rolled various items down the ramp and compared how far each thing rolled.  They found that the perfectly round, dense marbles rolled all the way across the room, and quickly decided that they were the most fun.

Arnie the Doughnut

Gerry Scott joined us for circle to read the story of Arnie the Doughnut.

love the library!

In the afternoon we visited the library so we could see all of the wonderful gingerbread houses and have some fun playing with the puppets, doll-house, and trains.

Snowballs

cutting carrots

The children were so excited for stone soup!  They prepared on Tuesday by chopping up all of the vegetables that they brought in.  The afternoon students had fun mixing up some carrot cake cupcakes to eat after the meal.

more carrots

garlic

more garlic

making spanish food bingo cards

During Spanish we played  food BINGO.

BINGO

writing

work

wooden word cards

trinomial cube

tong transfer

magnetic letters

blocks and animals

flower puzzle

handwriting

making turkeys

On Wednesday the children spent the morning making Thanksgiving turkeys.  They wrote all of the things that they are thankful for on the feathers.  While waiting for the stone soup to cool, the children had fun dancing with scarves to “Let it Snow.”  When it was finally time to sit and eat, everyone shared something that they are thankful for, then we enjoyed sharing stone soup, crackers, and cupcakes together.  It was a wonderful week full of excitement and friendship.

scarf dancing

stone soup

yummy cupcakes

Thanksgiving Turkeys

Playing with the new wood stumps

At the market

The classroom hosted the Sunnybrook Market this week where the children practiced buying, selling, and processing food.  Each child withdrew $5 from the bank each day and used it to purchase items.  They bought beans for sorting, boiled potatoes for cutting and ricing, celery for cleaning and cutting, carrots for cleaning, peeling, and shredding, popcorn for husking and removing kernels, and garlic for separating and peeling.  They recorded their purchases on the receipt and the grocer helped them add up the total.  There were a lot of requests for carrot cake, but we ended up with more carrots in belly’s than shredded in the bowl.  There were lots of orange faces to be seen around our room.

selecting the items

The Market

scrubbing carrots

washing celery

withdrawing cash

processing the food items

ricing potatoes

husking popcorn

cutting a potato

shredding and peeling carrots

selecting a potato

washing up

doing the dishes

At the art table the children made wallets to hold their money.  Some students finished painting their clay tablets with the natural dyes.

We read several more stone soup stories and discussed the feeling of community that the characters felt when they shared their food, worked together, and enjoyed each others company, like families do at Thanksgiving.  We talked about sharing with those in need, and many students are excited to bring some food items to donate to the local food pantry. Some of the stone soup stories we have read are Bone Button Borscht by Aubrey Davis, Stone Soup by Marcia Brown, Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth, Cactus Soup by Eric A. Kimmel, and Nail Soup by Eric Maddern.

letter formation

map tracing

handwriting practice

weaving

9 long chain

afternoon scarf dancing

afternoon work

salsa dancing

During Spanish we continued to practice salsa dancing, the names of food items, and the color names.

food in spanish

colors in spanish

Friday students spent a fun day with Tammy.  They were excited by the snow when they arrived at school, so they cut out some paper snowflakes.  Afterwards they solved some four digit math problems with the golden beads.  For science they marbled paper by mixing oil with oil paints and swirling the mixture on top of some water.  They then printed their papers by placing them on top of the swirled paint designs.   I am excited to see the beautiful designs they made!