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!'