Two awesome days...

Highlights from May 26 & 27th

A few children made an large, detailed zoo in the block area. 

The zoo was expanded --other children joined. Eventually, the children incorporated every block, animal, truck and train in the classroom

           There was even a furnished apartment for the zookeeper and the helpers!                   This was a large group collaborative experience. 

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We made a beautiful book of paintings for Mendel's last day of school. The Morahs wrote down the words that the children wanted to share with Mendel. The children used an oil pastel-resist painting technique. They were very proud of their work.

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Each child made his/her own challah to take home.

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In honor of Shavuot, we got to see real Torahs up close with Morah Esther.  We learned about the holiness of the Torah and the Hebrew letters. We talked about rules at home and at school and related these to the idea of the 10 Commandments. The children were given a Hebrew letter which corresponds to the first initial of their Hebrew names. 

Several children chose to kiss the Torah.

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      The children took home their own replicas of Har Sinai, covered in flowers. Wishing you and your family a wonderful Yom Tov. 

Highlights from the Day

                                        Hilary and Sara putting sand and dirt on                                             our Har Sinai poser to make a path for Moshe. 

During Morning Meeting we decided to give names to animals in our class who were not given names.  What should we call the 3 puppet mice? Sara and others have great ideas. We'll make a final decision tomorrow. 

We started to get ready for the end of the year. Mendel's last day is this Friday. 
The children were able to express some beautiful thoughts about what they will miss about Mendel. After the meeting several children wanted to make something for him, but thought that we should surprise him. 

 Mendel developed an elaborate plan about taking Peretz with him. They soon developed a pretend plan for all of us to go to the airport with him to say good-bye. Mendel will be sorely missed.

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Finally, we got to go outside! Peretz and several other children helped with picking up some trash that had blown onto the playground. Many thanks to those who volunteered.

I took a few friends for a walk, but before long, it began to drizzle. While holding hands, we pretended to be puppies, monkeys and butterflies (their choices) as we returned to the school. Then the rain stopped and we joined the others on the playground.

We found a cicada. In addition, we found something that looked like a cicada. It was left from a moudting cicada. It was in the shape of a cicada but it was just like an empty shell (similar to snakes who shed their skins). We looked at the live cicada for awhile and then decided to put it back. Even though we gave it leaves, we decided that it would like it better outdoors. We learned a little about cicadas. The children were fascinated and asked many good questions.

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During rest time,  the children can now pick out something fun to do in addition to reading books on their own for 15 minutes. 

 They often choose to come together as a group at the end of rest time. Morah Shirel begins the PM program with stories, activities (making and playing with playdough is a favorite) and spending time outside, weather permitting. 

A Rainy Day

Despite the rainy weather, we had a fun morning:

                                                     

                                ..........playing in a warm, bubbly sensory table                                                                                                                 

 It always amazes me how relaxing warm water can be for

 

children and many adults

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We spent some time counting the days to Shavuos and counting to the end of the school year. We were surprised when we realized that we have only ten actual school days left. 

We read old favorites and let the children tell us their summer plans. 

Also: a new level of problem solving!

Problem:  Three friends wanted to sit on our three tree stumps during Morning Meeting (see Dalya above).  Three other children also wanted to sit on the stumps.What should we do?

Solution: (suggested and implemented entirely by the children) the first group of three  would let the others sit on the stumps during Morning Meeting if they could sit on them during lunch. When they were told that they could carry out their plan, they all voluntarily offered their stumps to the others! 

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                               Some of the children used plastic shape templates as                                       a way of learning how to make shapes...

Others used them as a springboard for other creations

We got to drive cars in the lobby and we also had a little time left to try on new roles. Below is Sara as a firefighter and Chayla as a baker!

During rest time we listened to the story, The Clumsy Click Beetle, by Eric Carle on Audible.com

What would it be like to be a butterfly?

 We borrowed the 2's class' Butterfly Observation Project. We saw that three butterflies had come out of their cocoons and there were three empty cocoons still attached to the white lid. (see above). The butterflies were not flying around yet. They were opening and shutting their wings in order to help get them dry and ready for flight. We talked about how butterflies begin life inside a very small egg.   

                  

We wondered...what does it feel like to be a butterfly? or a caterpillar? 

We pretended that we were little caterpillars who had just hatched from eggs. We ate and ate and ate. We ate a big green leaf to settle our stomachs. (just like the Very Hungary Caterpillar) We crawled around.     
                                                            

When we were ready, we made ourselves small and still... we were inside cocoons. Some children wanted to try this part -- others wanted to observe. 

The cocoon was very still and quiet...The caterpillars were changing..... 

  

 When they were ready....

 They came out! They flapped their wings so that they could dry. Then all of the butterflies (and observers) took off. What a sight!

We plan to do this activity again if others want to try it out. We have plenty of 

cocoon material left (not-so-soft bathroom tissue) ...

Receiving the Torah!

Each day we have been sharing the story of the Jewish people from the time they arrived in the desert after crossing the sea. We learned that they lived in tents and ate "mahn."  

The children were fascinated to hear about (and see) what happened next. 

Instead of using books, we took out two Torahs. 

 The first one that we looked at was a beautiful pictorial Torah with wonderful illustrations. We could see the picture of millions of people standing at Sinai. We saw the clouds and the fire. We saw that Har Sinai was blooming with flowers!

Then we took out Peretz's personal Torah which we had wrapped up in special fabric. We talked about the Torah as the most precious gift given to us by Hashem. 

We discussed:

• Treating the Torah with great care & gentleness, just the way we would treat a very new baby. 
• The fact that the Torah is written in all Hebrew letters. 
• How each Hebrew letter is very special and holy. 
• We each have a Hebrew letter that starts our name. 

The children gathered around anxiously to see the Hebrew letters in the Torah.

We passed the Torah around the circle. Each child handled it with great care. Some wanted to hold it, rock it and give it a kiss.  

They each wanted the Hebrew letter that starts their name.
Later in the day we divided into groups and worked on creating our own colorful Har Sinai. We made a list of what we wanted to include:

• grass
• flowers
• bushes
• dirt
• trees
• clouds
• blue sky

We used paints, dot watercolors, glitter glue, tissue paper, glue sticks, construction paper and paper towels. The children took turns and worked very hard putting this together. 

  

 Tomorrow we will continue to work on it and fill in some essential missing pieces. 

Next week we will go on a Torah Tour and see real Torahs up close!

Summer is coming... ready or not!

Summer is coming - ready or not!

Today we prepared some flower pots in order to plant

our flower seedlings. We planted the seeds a couple of 

weeks ago and have waited patiently for them to grow. 

They've all grown and are ready to be sent home. You can put them directly into the ground when they get a little bigger and sturdier. 

It was beautiful outside, we all enjoyed time on the playground.

We decided to have lunch outside at the picnic table. 

                                           

                  Picnic fun: Elet demonstrated how he ate his fruit down to the peel and 

                    then used the peel as teeth! (great humor for 4's!)                   

   

We also continued telling the story about the 49 days of counting that leads up to Shavuos 
We drew a picture of Mount Sinai and the special flowers that grew there. 

Muffins and more....

Muffins for Moms....

We made yummy muffins - each child took great pride in having made the muffins.  The process: we divided into three groups so that they could be very "hands on" with either:

• breaking and mixing the eggs, 
• measuring the dry ingredients, or 
• measuring the other ingredients. 
• Then we took turns mixing the liquid ingredients with the dry. 
• We also decided to add strawberries and blackberries to make the batter sweet and lower the amount of sugar needed. 

 The children also worked very hard on making handmade bookmarks (see photo below) for Mother's Day presents. 

Moms joined in this morning and we did a craft activity,(thank you so much Esther!). Then we all went to Morning Meeting, heard a little about The Mixed up Chameleon  and real chameleons.

 We learned about chameleons from other sources on animals - and we watched a brief child National Geographic video. 
Ask your child what is special about chameleons - and why they change colors.
 They will hopefully remember. In any case, it has been really interesting to learn about these creatures and to watch their reactions as they take in fact that they change colors!

We can work it out!

The children were working together with newly made playdough. A friend wanted to join them. They had to figure out a way to incorporate this child into the group play. 

 

 Each child gave some of their playdough until each person 

had enough to play with!  

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Jacob, Mendel and Elet share the resources and build a

 magna-tile garage together!

 Some of the children are making their own sign-in cards. 

Others are working on it. 

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Passing around our new Tzedakah box. Thank you Morah Esther!

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On Thursday, we cut out letter line. We wanted to attach them in a way that could be folded up.  We tried staples - we tried glue....We brain-stormed ideas.  The children came up with: "tape", "staples", "glue", "glitter paint" (glitter glue) "paper clips." Mendel suggested "string." (He remembered how string helped when several children made crowns for one another!)
We used something new.......... brass fasteners and a whole puncher
The fasteners worked out well!