Adopting a tree

We found a beautiful tree on Gainsborough.  If your ever taking a walk or in the area visit our tree!

The Yeladim each  attached their string/item to the tree with a lot of pride.

We noticed most of the leaves were orange. We are still thinking of a name for the tree....

Shabbat Shalom! The Yeladim look forward to this all week!

Morah Rebecca makes a beautiful flower challah for our Shabbat party each week. This morning when the Yeladim were shaping their challahs Zev exclaimed "Look I did it!" With out any help he tried to replicate the flower challah and it looked great!

 Friendship time happened around the snack table today. It was about the new Yeled who will be starting in our class next week G-d willing, David. We had a discussion about how he might feel to go to a new school with new friends and things we can do to make him feel comfortable.
some suggestions:
Zev: Sing him a song (if he sad that he misses his mommy)
How about making him his own chair.
Binyamin: Give him turns with the toys.
Shaina: Share
Shmuli: show him (if he doesn't know where something is or what to do next)

Mixing colors

The Yeladim chose a leaf to try to match the color onto their own salt dough leaf.

Shaina chose this beautiful Red one.

 She mixed Red and Orange paint.

 Binyamin chose a brown leaf with a tint of yellow in it. First he mixed orange and green and some red to get the brown. Then he added some yellow on top. The colors did look quite similar to the leaf he chose!

 When Shmuli was done he lay his salt dough leaf to dry on the drying rack.

Measuring and making Salt dough

Shaina is pressing the leaf form she chose into the salt dough.

 

Then the dough was baked in the oven to dry out.... To be continued tomorrow....

What is the weather?

No need for classroom weather charts that are sold in teachers stores... ( that don't really resemble a real looking day) To find out the weather we look outside! Zev said it was hot. Until he touched the glass... "actually COLD!"

 It was hard to tell if it was wet or dry outside so Binyamin went outside to touch a bush..."I need a tichu to wipe my hands."

Reminder to parents to send in pictures or notes of the actions worth noting and complementing that your Yeladim are doing at home!

Shaina walked around with it for most of the day... she was so proud!

A new look for Zev! - Zev is 3 years old now!

Noting the change himself.  Zev looked at the picture we took from his cubby and then in the mirror.

Morah Esther: Zev what happened to your hair?

Zev: I left it at one of the stores :) 

 We discussed that now that Zev is 3 years old he is really big and the bigger you get the more Mitzvot you can do. So Zev said he will try to give someone one of my cupcakes. Zev shared cupcakes with everyone! He also said he will hold the Torah.
What should we do at your birthday? Make a crown? ....some other ideas....
Zev: Let's just sing Happy Birthday in American.

 The Yeladim thoroughly enjoyed the cupcakes! I say thoroughly because it was a whole body experience and clothing too! Thank you!

 Zev could not believe his eyes when he opened the Ups package.... a picture is worth a thousand words!
"Cool! Power Ranger Tzitzit!"
Zev made a beautiful blessing on them and gave them a kiss.

Experimenting with Pastels

The Yeladim used pastels to color leaf shapes.

 Then with their fingers they smudged the colors which helped the color to "bleed" onto the paper and create a beautiful art piece highlighting the unique shapes and sizes of the autumn leaves.

 Zev is choosing a new finger to smudge with since his other finger tips were full of color.

Watching the Yeladim practice the ability of control in their fine motor skills was very interesting to observe.

Getting Ready for Shabbat!

Zev found a challah in our pretend kitchen but it was a different color then our fresh challah. "It's a different flavor, its a chocolate flavor challah!"

 We sprinkled RED sprinkles on top of our challahs. (We have been focusing on all the RED things around us these past two weeks)

Our Shabbat party.

The Mezuza continues

All the Yeladim took a lot of pride in showing their own Mezuzah's to the class.

 We opened up Zev's Mezuzah to look what was inside. There were Aleph Bet letters. The Aleph Bet letters wrote out the Shema that we say every day! After finding that out Zev insisted on reading the Shema as we said it from HIS Mezuzah. After that Zev said, "Can you please put it back its really special. My uncle told me."

 Then we went to the Rabbi and asked him why we have Mezuzahs on our doors.
He told us that Hashem loves us and wants to protect us and keep us safe so when we put up Mezuzah's on our doors Hashem will keep us and our families safe.

Baking Apple Pies

From the beginning of the process until the very end the Yeladim prepared the pies every step of the way.

Zev peeling the apples.

Caught on camera! While they were preparing them they started snacking!

Cutting the apples.

Patting, rolling the dough, and layering the apples... We hope you enjoyed them!

Tuesday October 22

The Mezuzah:

Every day the Yeladim sing a song about a Mezuza and then kiss the Mezuzah in our classroom. Today, one of the Yeladim spied another Mezuza! Then they all wanted to kiss the "newly discovered mezuza." While the YELADIM are themselves curious about the Mezuza- what a great provocation- its the perfect time for them to research about Mezuzahs.

As we went for a little walk outside our classroom the Yeladim were each discovering Mezuzahs on all the doors! They were absolutely ecstatic and insisted on kissing each one!

Some conclusions the Yeladim came to after their research:
1. Mezuzas are on all DOORS. Not on walls, ceilings....
2. They all look different. Yet they are all Mezuzahs.
3. They all have a common symbol on the outside. "Shin".
And lots more that I am still observing!... lets see what other important information the Yeladim find out over the next couple days.

(picture above) The Yeladim looked through our art center collaging materials and art materials and picked out only RED things to glue/stick/color on our RED collage.

Friendship time:

At this age is when the Yeladim are graduating from 'solitary play' and 'parallel play' is starting to emerge. This is a critical time for  language development and creating social relationships. That is why it is so important that we focus on proactively giving the Yeladim the speech and tools to interact with pairs. Friendship time happens once a week when we prepare the Yeladim with their 'real life' experiences and what to do and how to act in these situations. This week a very typical scene played out. Dina was playing with the 'build your own truck' game and David became interested in playing it too. David sat down and took it away from Dina and started playing with it. 'Dina had to tell David, "I was playing with that, When I'm done it will be your turn." After Dina and David modeling it, the Yeladim got to pretend to be in Dina and David's shoes and reenact the scenario.

IMPORTANT NOTE TO PARENTS:

We try the best we can as teachers. We plant the seeds and do all the preparatory work for you in school but for this to really work we need your involvement. When you reinforce these key phrases at home when they are playing with siblings this creates a wholesome environment for the child. When they see consistency, this reinforces these behaviors and helps them to be internalized.

Thanks for your help!'

A Baking Experience

Baking in our class subtly comes along with skill building.

The Yeladim are given eggs to crack, ingredients to pour in and measure. These exercises develop independence and a sense of responsibility.

"Spooning" - spooning the flour into the main bowl promotes motor control, coordination and concentration

 Smelling the vanilla extract.

 Shmuli is pouring RED sugar crystals on top of the cookies considering our color RED awareness phase.

Show & Tell

The Yeladim all brought in RED items and were very enthusiastic about explaining what they brought in to the class. Show and Tell is also a time that children learn to listen to others, ask questions or comment on what another child has to say. An important social skill that is learned through experience as opposed to talking about it.

What is INSIDE?

The Yeladim have been uncovering a whole new world of so many popular seasonal items that they never had a chance to just look inside! Since the nature hunt and cracking open acorns, then opening the pumpkins and seasonal squash the Yeladim have been fascinated with finding seeds and things to eat in each of these items. So I thought bringing in some interesting fruits for snack and letting the children be a part of hypothesising what is inside!

LISTENING TO THE COCONUT:

Zev: Is it water?

 Zev: "There's water in there its amazing! It looks like lemonade."

Binyamin: (after tasting the coconut) "No its not yum."

POMEGRANATE:

Zev: "What is in here? Does that one have a noise?"

Drinking the Pomegranate juice.

KIWI:

Black seeds! Should we eat it?

 Zev: Hey that one doesn't have seeds! (after the Morah finished peeling it and cutting it open)
Zev's conclusion: Yeah it doesn't have on the back it has on the front.

Shmuli: This is Yummy!

PEPPER:

I ate it to see what's inside. (opened it with his mouth not to taste it just to get a peek inside) Seeds Seeds and Seeds!

Can you help your child identify the seeds and to which fruit/veggie they came from?

Were there seeds in the coconut?

It has truly been amazing to watch the Yeladim's curiosity peak, as they ask questions, find answers, taste test.. It has been amazing to be an observer as the process of learning takes place.