Moments in Our Day

 Ayelet prepared an imaginary birthday cake for Moshe.

In the above picture Moshe is blowing out his imaginary candles.

The Yeladim squeezed fresh orange juice at snack! This exercise is great for building inner core body strength.

'This is yummy!'

What beautiful weather out today! After thanking Hashem for this beautiful day on our walk we found our class's favorite - an extra large worm!

Pointillism Continued

There is a weeping willow tree we always pass on our walks. This week when we walked by it all the sudden went bare of all its leaves that had fallen to the ground. It literally happened in a few days from all its leaves to none. We would like to display our observations of this tree and the in between fall and winter season through pointillism. For our project the Yeladim collected twigs and branches on our walk today.

The fallen foliage is represented on our 'ground' through pointillism - red, green and brown lentils. The Yeladim used Q-tips to glue the dots on.

The pointillism technique was used in a few Literacy activities today. Below the Yeladim are using painting dots to practice sight words.

Hebrew letter literacy: The Yeladim used 'chocolate chip pointillism' to practice Hebrew letters.

'I did it myself!'

After those chocolate chips the Yeladim did a through teeth brushing!

Georges Seurat

Today a French painter was introduced through The Art Book for Children - yellow one. The Yeladim worked on sounding his name out the way it is pronounced in France.

We discussed Georges Seurat's art technique he introduced called 'pointillism.' The Yeladim looked closely at the detail of 'A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.' We 'spotted'

- a boat that looked like its sinking

-a girls with a small bunch of flowers

- a lady fishing

- a lady taking a monkey for a walk

- 8 parasols, 7 open and 1 closed. We talked about what a parasol is. Binyamin commented, 'We had one on a beach!' (Beach umbrella)

Skills in Our Day

Counting; The Yeladim counted out the number of beads to represent the number on their tile.

The sounds around that center was music to my ears. Each child was counting out loud.

The Yeladim worked meticulously trying to cut the stems off the strawberries. This is one of the Yeladim's favorite centers. Each day most of the children will 'drop in' to cut,chop,peel etc. sharpening fine motor skills.

Hebrew Vocabulary: Each day at snack we talk about where each of the fruit/vegetables being served grow. Is it on an 'Eitz' or the 'Adama'? We google a picture of the plant to double check. The Yeladim in our class know vegetation does not grow in the grocery store and love seeing the vegetation in its source.

Creativity: Moshe saw opportunity in the whole in the back of the chair. He inventively used the big block as a ramp from chairs.

The Yeladim looked so cute on our walk outside I just couldn't resist this one!

The Yeladim enjoyed listening and telling about their plans for vacation.

Ayelet presented her plans and then said, 'Wait! I have one more thing!' She brought in a spaceship she made at the Air & Space Museum. We use this time of Show & Share as an opportunity for children to build their 'public speaking' and not be shy as well as practice having a conversation with questions and answers. One of our friends asked how she made it. Ayelet explained, 'then we put triangles on it so it could fly.'

Moshe added, 'We need astronauts to blast androids.'

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Benjamin was also very excited to share his plans.

Thank you parents for your participation in Show & Share! It was very meaningful for the Yeladim.

New Art Books

Some new great Art books were brought into our classroom to further grown the interest of the children in different kinds of Art.

We read a book called 'Action Jackson' which described what a day in Jackson Pollock's life was like and how he created his Art method.

In 'The Art Book For Children' there was a great picture of his 'Number 1' in 1948. We learned as we read 'Pollock signed this painting in two different ways - with his name and with his hands.' After a closer look, the Yeladim found both! 

Magnatile Moments

The new Magnatiles that were brought into our classroom have been a big attraction. I've observed lots of collaborative building, sharing, turn taking, math skills, communicating, engineering and lots more great skill building!

The structure above was built by a few Yeladim together. 

They were short one square to complete the structure.

Moshe; Look I made one from these! (two isosceles/obtuse triangles)

Benjamin: "Morah Esther this is the Garage!"

Ronny: We're decorating (the rectangle structure with all sorts of triangles)

Ayelet offered to take a picture when they were done building. (with a mirror block)

Zalman: I sorted out these colors.

Ofir figured out how to make a hexagon out of equilateral triangles!

Mini Jackson Pollocks

(Math)We took a poll to see what number our painting should be called. After tallying it all up we chose a final name, 'Number 34' referencing the ages of the Yeladim in our class.

We added a twist to Jackson Pollocks painting technique - writing skills. The Yeladim each wrote or traced their first letter of their name on the Canvas in Hebrew and English. 

The Yeladim thoroughly enjoyed the Jackson Pollock painting method. It was definitely a full body experience. It was very interesting to observe how quiet the room was while the Yeladim were completely focused on their work. 

The Yeladim used a combination of sticks and brushes in their paint colors.

Looking forward to Displaying the Yeladim's artwork at our Children's Art Gallery & Special Friend/Grandparent day on January 27!

Fruit Family

Moshe's family was not chosen as the Fruit Family this week but he so much wanted to be that he and his mom bought a delicious assortment of mini colorful tomatoes and mini peppers. Ps - that was definitely the most tempting way of presenting tomatoes! Like Morah Oshrit commented, 'Haayin holech lifnei hapeh.'

Thank you to the Levin family for being the Fruit Family of the week! Bella was excited about the big heavy watermelon. Today she was excited to get involved in the preparation for snack and to serve it to her friends.

Fruit Family & Shabbat Prep

Thank you to Hadad Family for being the 'Fruit Family' this week! The Yeladim enjoyed the variety of fruits and vegetables as well as the special Shabbat treat. Ofir put them away in the cabinet and has been saving them all week for Shabbat. It was one special Shabbat celebration this week!

Ofir is offering fruit to his friends.

Kneading the Challah dough.

Working with the dough to create beautiful braided challot required the Yeladim's refined dexterity.