Happy Tu Bshvat!

Today is Tu Bshvat.  

In honor the children painted beautiful apple trees!

We gave the trees big birthday hugs and sang 'happy birthday'.

We guessed the tree is 50 years old.

We made special tu bshvat crowns too!

We sang our favorite Tu Bshvat song with musical instruments.

And talked about what a tree gives us.

"It grows fruit", said Henny.

What fruit?

The children came up with:

Apples

Pears.

Canteloupe

Grapes

Strawberries.

We tasted special fruit from Israel.

So yummy!

New Building Challenge

Today the children were inspired by the building prompts that were displayed. 

Henny built a bridge.

Kayle hid some squirrels inside.

Henny placed a lion to hibernate too!

It's lovely to see how the children are inspired by their friends' work.

More fun from today:

Today the writing prompt was TREE.

Amazing work!!

Mendel traced and cut out different sized hexagons!

Marnie sorted the fruit by color.

Marnie was the helper to cut the fruit for snack.

At circle time we did an experiment.  The children labeled a container filled with water and placed it outside.

What do you think will happen to it?

These are some of the ideas we came up with:

The wind will blow it away.

The brids will drink it.

The squirrel will drink it.

It will melt.

It will freeze.

A Change in Course

Today we began painting on paper with water colors, and then saw how the color spread on the paper towel...

...being flexible we changed course and had so much fun!

More fun from today: 

We have new Tu Bshvat playdough mats that help us learn to count!

Ella put 6 apples on her tree!

Mendel put 4 apples on his tree!

At circle time we used musical instruments to sing a song about trees!

"That was fun!" Marnie commented when we were done :)

Shopping Lists

Today we had took out post it notes and pencils...

...inspiring much activity at the writing table.

Ella shows Marnie her long list.

Kayle stuck her shopping list to her cart.

Henny is decorating for a birthday party.

Henny made a flower Challah.

The children used all their muscles today doing 'dolphin pose'.

Ella was the Tzedaka helper.

Shabbat Shalom!

Receiving Thank You Cards

Today we had a visit from the 4's class.

They came into say thank you for the play dough.

Every child received a handwritten thank you card from a friend in the 4's class.

Hillary read the card to Henny.

It meant so much to the children!

More from today:

We spoke about Tu B'shvat and in honor, created a tree as a class.

The children were so enthusiastic to be part of this project.

It was fun to talk about the different parts of a tree as we worked.

We are so proud of how it came out!

Playing with a ramp and watching different items fall through.

Kayle styling our new class pillows.

At circle time, we sang, 'A Bear is Sleeping' 

Kayle mouse tiptoes to wake up Sender turtle...

...and Marnie hedgehog.