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Thank you!

Tuesday was an excellent work day with the Montessori materials. The children were very focused on their work.

We read “Monster Musical Chairs” by Stuart Murphy. This book was about subtraction. To reinforce the concept we played musical chairs. We also used 10 corks and each child would take one away then count how many were left. Then two would be taken away and we would count how many were left and so on until 10 were taken away from 10 to emphasize the concept of zero.

The children used chalk outside to color the tree stump and cement patio. One child blew on the chalk and made “chalk smoke” – good observation.

Tammy read “Utterly Otterly Day” by Mary Casanova.

Brigette brought in the shell of a coconut and shared pieces of coconut with all the children for taste and texture.

We listed to some great Celtic stories, one was about a huge oak tree and how the first harp and first flute were made (magically). One story was about how the birds got their colors. We then read an Aborigine story about their beliefs and how the birds got their colors – a very interesting contrast.

On Wednesday two Sunnybrook graduates joined us for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Cloe treated the children to a story… “Musicians of the Sun”, by Gerald McDermott.

Zeanny came on Thursday and gave a great Spanish lesson. She also gave the children a Spanish book naming the animals. Thanks Zeanny.

Tammy and Brigette gave all of us a wonderful scrumptious ice cream party. Thank you both.

We all engaged in a wonderful movement song called “Rattlin Bog”. The children were so enthused about this song.

Tammy read “Molasses Flood” by Blair Lent. It is a fictitious story but really based on a molasses tank exploding in a small part of the Boston Waterfront.

Today is my last day as substitute director and I want to thank all of you – children and parents for the marvelous opportunity of working with all of you. It has been a pleasure.

Thank you Tammy and Brigette – you were both so helpful and enthusiastic.

Cheer,

Gerry

Music and mud, a great week.

What an exciting week. The week started off with Tala’s grandparents, namely Art and Marsha Hammon, bringing instruments to school, namely a cello, recorder, wooded flute and a silver flute. Thanks Art and Marsha. It was a great experience for the children.

Tammy introduced a lesson and art work regarding the life cycle of a frog. We are hoping to acquire some frogspawn in hopes that we will see it transform to tadpoles.

Brigette brought in her pet mice for the children to pet.

Thanks Brigette and Mariyah for the book present to Sunnybrook “Helpin’ Bugs” by Rosemary Longhorn.

Tammy read “Wiggling Worms at Work” by Wendy Pfeffer. We are now on the look out for worms.

Zeanny gave a great Spanish lesson to the children. Thanks again Zeanny.

“The William Tell Overture” by Rossini was a great hit. We read the story, listened to the music and acted out the story. Later in the day many of the children drew great pictures of their impression of the story.

Oh the wonderful mud. The children were so creative. They used the old tires as a dam, dug a trench in the mud for the water to flow down, which ended in a great big puddle (their lake). They floated pieces of wood and pine cones on the lake and built an ant bridge over the river of mud.

We checked out the circumference of a tree using a tape measure, then the diameter of a tree and finally we ended up with 10 children managing to fit on to the stump of the tree.

Thanks Tammy and Brigette for the great support this week.

Altogether a great fun week.

Thanks everyone,

Gerry.

Spring ?

This week we have been focused on Spring – I wonder why? The books we have read… “Lets Look at the Seasons “Spring Time” by Ann Schweninger, “Spring goes Squish” by Marty Kelly, “Catching Sunlight” a book about leaves by Susan Blackalsy illustrated by Charlene DeLage and a wonderful book from Tala’s Mom entitled “The Curious Garden” by Peter Brown. Thanks Heather. In honor of spring we have also planted “Nasturtium” (Tom Thumbs) seeds. We are trying to introduce spring into the classroom.

On Thursday morning we had our Spanish class by Zeanny – the children are really enjoying it. Thanks Zeanny.

We have been talking about what it means to be an artist and have read “I am an Artist” and “The Art Lesson” by Tomie de Paola.

The favorite song this week is “This Land is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie, accompanied by drums and rhythm instruments. This has been performed with great gusto.

A funny event this week was the hat throwing contest devised by the children. They decided to throw their hats on a tree…and they had to come up with ways to recover their hats… e.g. shaking the branches, throwing balls on the branches and finally using a huge stick to retrieve the hats.

The children have done lots of work this week, especially in the language area.

It has been a good fun week at school.

My thanks to Tammy and Brigette for all their patience and hard work.

Thank you,

Gerry

A Busy Week at Sunnybrook

Thanks Lyn and Brigette for the small objects for our alphabet container.

Tammy’s experiment for stalagmites and stalactites is going well; check it out when you drop off your children. The children are amazed at the daily changes.

Lots of language work is going on in the class along with the sensorial and math areas.

We have lovely new labeled control maps for our geography area.

Gregory’s mom, Zeanny, came on Thursday morning and started giving Spanish lessons – Thanks Zeanny.

Brigette brought in a box of toothbrushes for the children with a CD telling the children about oral hygiene.

Books we have read this week – “Little Red Hen”, which we acted out. “Caps for Sale”, also acted out. “Eve and Smithy” by Michelle Edwards, “The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch” by Ronda and David Armitage and “The Granddaughter Who Was Eaten by a Big Fish” a Cree Candian story.

Songs this week are “Sarasponda”, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, “Kookaburra”, “Zum Gali Gali” and “I Love The Moutains”.

Brigette is re-doing much of our language materials and organizing draws and closets. Thank you Brigette.

Thanks Tammy for all your great ideas.

It was a good week; very busy and productive. You have great children.

Thank you,

Gerry

Dancing to an Irish Jig

Our thanks to Lyn Schmucker for repairing the easel…Thank you Lyn.

It has been a very busy week working on lots of materials. We have been working a lot on language skills. Some of the children have been drawing and making books about their favorite stories.

Tammy has been conducting some great science experiments. By using baking soda, water and string we are watching for the growth of stalagmites and stalactites. We are recording the development of the experiment on a daily basis. Another experiment was freezing water and freezing water with sugar added. The experiment was in connection with sap in the maple tree.

Some of the books that we have been reading this week are “Toestomper and the Caterpillars” by Shaileen Collecott, “Sugarbush Spring” by Marsha Wilson Chall, “There’s an Alligator Under My Bed” by Mercer Mayer, “Coyote Walks on Two Legs” about Navajo myths and legends by Gerald Hausman and Floyd Cooper and “Daniel O’Rourke” by Gerald McDermott.

Songs we have sung are Looby Loo, She’ll be Comin Round the Mountain, Eye Winker, Little Arabella Miller and the daily request for The Allee – Allee – O …great favorite.

To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this week we have had fiddle music of jigs and reels with the children dancing to the music. We listened to James Calway, the Irish flautist playing the most amazing music. The children made a “Shamrock Person” and Brigette brought in a green treat to share with everyone. Thanks Brigette

.

Last, but not least, please continue to dress the children in snow pants, boots, etc. Mud season is upon us and it looks like it will continue for many, many weeks.

I am so enjoying working with your children. They are full of energy and enthusiasm for learning. What a joy it is to work with them.

Gerry Tobin

Another Busy Week

Did you see the great photos of the children sledding? Thank you Heather and Matt.

We have had a very busy week. Tammy helped celebrate Mardi Gras by having the children make feather masks and reading a book about the festival.

We have been really exploring many of the materials in school.

We have been making many letter books and alphabet books.

We have been singing many songs some of which are “Medicine Wheel Chant” accompanied by heavy duty percussion, “The Allee Allee O”, “Santa Maloney”, “Sally Go Round the Moon”, “Down by the Station”, “Eye Winker”, “On Top of Spaghetti”, etc. The drumming circle was great; oh how they love the African Drums.

Tammy read a book about the Iditarod and discussed the event which takes place in Alaska every March. We have read many books this week. “Ollie’s Ski Trip” by Elsa Beskow, was a favorite. Ask your children about “Mrs. Thaw”. Other favorites were “The Tomten” by Astrid Lindgren, “The Dot” by Peter H. Reynolds and we re-read “Have You Filled a Bucket Today?” by Carol McCloud…a great reminder about being kind to each other.

Two of our children left for Nova Scotia, Robert will be returning from Poland next week. Charlie is leaving for Florida. Tala is heading off to Hawaii. I can’t wait to see their journals of their trips.

My thanks to Tammy and Brigette for all their help.

Great Week

Gerry

P.S. We welcome two new children this week; Gregory and Mariyah.

Snowy Fun in the Sun

This is my first week back after a number of years. Let me say it is a pleasure to work with Tammy and Brigette. They are so caring and helpful. I am so enjoying your children.

This week we spent some time going over the basic rules of the class; how to carry a rug, how to walk, how to talk softly and how to say excuse me without bumping another person.

Tammy did a great unit on the solar system. We have been worked on singing, movement and differentiating between a minor and a major scale. We are working on matching pitches with the bells and identifying, at the moment, two composers, namely Bach and Beethoven.

We worked with many of the basic materials from the sensory area. We had a couple of beautiful sunny afternoons and the children really enjoyed the sun and snow. It was a great week. Please enjoy your vacation week and if you are traveling in different areas it would be great if your child could keep a little journal with drawings.

One request; if you know anyone who plays an instrument and has time to visit school we would truly appreciate it.

Thank you,

Gerry

This week we enjoyed learning about birds. We read bird stories and learned that the Purple Finch is the state bird of NH. We also looked at pictures of other birds that may visit our bird feeders. The children enjoyed making their bird feeders and hopefully everyone is able to find a spot to hang them in your yard. Help your child identify any birds that come to your feeder and make sure you send in your bird sightings! Each child has a bird journal that they will be recording their bird sightings in by tracing the name of the bird or drawing a picture of it.

We continued exploring percussion instruments during music. We played different drums that we have in the classroom, listened to a drumming CD and identified/colored instruments on our percussion worksheet. On Thursday, February 17th, our afternoon students will be walking to the Congregational Church to see and learn about percussion instruments. Please see me if you have any concerns/questions.

This week we read stories about Chinese New Year. We learned that the holiday celebrates the coming of spring and and is celebrated with family gatherings, gift giving and eating symbolic foods and plenty of festive decorations including Chinese lanterns.

We also learned that dragons are a popular symbol for Chinese New Year. The children were interested to learn that people dress up in dragon costumes and dance down the streets in parades and some of the dragons are 100 feet long! We then made our own Chinese New Year dragons:

Gung hay fat choy!

During music we discussed and read about percussion instruments. We learned that a percussion instrument vibrates and produces a sound when it is hit, shaken, rubbed, etc. We experimented with drums, triangles, maracas, rhythm sticks, tambourines, tone blocks and cymbals. Most children said the cymbals were their favorite although they were, "very loud!"

Last week we read, "Snowflake Bentley" and learned that no two snowflakes are exactly alike and saw some close up pictures of snowflakes. On Tuesday, our afternoon students examined some snowflakes with a magnifying glass and tried a snow melting experiment. We put snow in plastic bags and the children worked with a partner to try and melt it using their body. The children reported they were most successful when they squeezed the bag with their hands or stepped on it.

Our Friday students have been enjoying playing Sight Word Bingo and learning all about money! We are learning how to make change to one dollar.

Construction on bird feeders will begin this week. If you are able to hang your feeder at home make sure to send in your bird sightings!

Reminder: Valentine's Day card swap will take place on Tuesday, February 15th.

"The wind it whooshed, the snow it whirled/ / Bare trees shook like chilly bones./ Children grumbled in their homes." Sound familiar? We had the cure for the winter blues though...On Tuesday Magda came to read a story called, "Sun Bread" about a baker who bakes sun-shaped loaves of bread to brighten up the town during the dreary winter. After the story, the children got to make their own sun bread. They kneaded and rolled out the dough and made some very beautiful and yummy looking sun bread. Thank you Magda! It was such a great experience for the children and the perfect activity for a winter day.








On Thursday we made butter from whipping cream. We placed some whipping cream in a jar and observed the change from cream to butter as we took turns shaking the jar. We sat in a circle and each child had two turns to shake the cream as we sang "The Butter Boogie"

Shake it up
Shake it down
Shake it, Shake it all around
Shake it high, Shake it low
Shake it, Shake it to and fro
Shake it over, Shake it under
Pretty soon we'll have butter!

And we did! Halfway through the process we opened the jar to see our progress and after a few more times around the circle we had delicious butter! We spread it on crackers and shared it at lunch and afternoon snack time.

Shaking, shaking...




Halfway done....



Butter!






Our back classroom is decorated with our beautiful Chinese lanterns and we're ready for Chinese New Year!



North Country Community Band Concert:
The North Country Community Band will hold it's 2011 winter concert on February 1st at 7 PM at the Lancaster Town Hall. Admission is free, donations are welcomed.

Week of January 16th

We had a great week investigating the sense of touch. The students felt the different textures of feathers, sand, salt, rice, sandpaper, cotton balls and paper and then pasted them to make beautiful touch collages.




At circle we looked at "Vase with 12 Sunflowers" by Vincent Van Gogh and read a bit about the artist. After reading a bit about Van Gogh, and looking at some of his other paintings we set up the activity so they could draw their own sunflowers. They are looking beautiful! I'll try to post some of the children's drawings next week:



Our Friday friends enjoyed making footprint snowmen, reading "Harold and the Purple Crayon" and writing/drawing their own purple crayon adventure.




Other pictures from the week: