Three has become four

Lexi has smoothly integrated herself into the tight group of girls consisting of Mia, Julia, and Sandy. It is to the credit of all that Lexi is now an integral part of this group of friends. They run around together, dance, swing, role play, and chase the teachers across the playground. These girls love each other, school, and life in general. Go "La La girls!"

The YAD

The word Yad- יד -Pointer-Hand- was very popular today. The YAD Pointer is a long stick shape pointer for pointing to the words of the Torah reading. The traditionally made Torah pointer always has a pointing finger of a hand at the end of the long stick. Today we saw the YAD when Rabbi Jay pointed on the Hebrew script.  The Unicorns wash their YADYIM-hands- with the MAYYIM-water- מיים - Sometimes I get sooo silly when I sing " wash wash wash, wash your YADYIM-ידיים -wash wash wash, wash them with the MAYYIM........

It's the Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship!

How does a child become friends with clay? Easy, familiar friends-the kind of friends who fling themselves into each others' arms when they meet, who sit close to each other, who speak without words.  Over the past few days the Lunch Bunch children began building that sort of friendship with clay.  We took out the table in the dramatic play center to make room and placed a big white tarp on the floor.  In its center, we arranged a block of light gray clay.  Some of the children met clay yesterday, others were formally introduced today.
We said,"This afternoon we get to have another "play date" with the clay, with our whole bodies."

The children touched the clay with their feet and toes, introducing themselves to the clay and listening for the clay's response. We encouraged the them to be bold, to see if the clay can play games:  "You might experiment with standing and/or jumping on the clay.  It's strong and can hold you. See how it feels under your feet.  Can you use your toes to explore the clay?"

One at a time each child climbed up onto the clay and jumped off,they dug their toes into the clay, they stomped and hopped all over the clay. Slowly the clay changed shape, offering a response to the children's play!

Nathaniel, Joshua R. and Samuel leaned into the clay with their whole bodies, pressing their hands into it. Sam thought, "I wonder if you can roll this clay into a big roll." The boys began to roll, push and fold the clay until it looked like a large flat piece of clay all rolled up!

The Lunch Bunch children began a beautiful friendship with clay this week, offering themselves to the clay with generosity and great affection, learning how it moves and changes shape and receives their offerings.  Their friendship, born in exuberant physical play will deepen over the weeks ahead as the children and clay continue to encounter one another.

Not long ago......

Just like our ancient Jewish scribes, Unicorns practiced their Torah writing.

"It's Delicious"

 

What is an edible Torah??

It is all about food in the Unicorn Class!

To complete our Simchat Torah celebration we decided to make edible Torahs. We learned that "edible" means you can eat it.

You might want to ask your children what ingredients we used to make our Torahs. And what they needed to do first, second, and third in the preparation process, before they could say "It's delicious!

Such great chefs.

Simchat Torah Celebration

We created beautiful Simchat Torah flags and marched to the sanctuary to see the Torahs!
Rabbi Jay introduced us to the Torah Roll. All the children were able to hold the open Torah and feel the parchment paper, holding it gently underneath and look at the script. The Unicorns were fascinated as part of their Jewish tradition was brought up close and personal to them.

~More photos ~from Simchat Torah and Sukkot~

Holding up the Torah

This morning the children held up the Torah. Rabbi Jay asked the children to pretend that their hands were pillows supporting the Torah as he unrolled it. The children learned that the Torah is a book in the form of a scroll and that it has lots and lots of Hebrew letters.

Rabbi Jay told the children that when they turn 13 they will learn to read the Hebrew in the Torah. It takes one entire year to read the Torah from one end to the other and then we read it all over again.

Making a Torah...

Today we celebrated Simchat Torah by unrolling a real Torah with Rabbi Jay. We learned that it takes a whole year to read the Torah. The Torah is very special. It teaches us how to be Jewish and what Mitzvot, good deeds, we should do to lead a good and honest life.

The Scientist class made their own Torah. Each child stated a rule to "live your life by" and drew a picture to go with their rule. The children understand just how important their rule is!
Each Scientist took great pride in their work.

We will be taking our class Torah and braking it down into individual Torahs so that your child can bring it home.  It's a keepsake for sure!

Full Body Exploration with Clay ~ "Oh My"

"Kids Meet Clay", "Clay meet the kids" we said to many giggles and laughter!!!
Then came the invite to play with the clay using our whole bodies. Could we actually do that??? Sure we can!!!

So we took off our shoes and socks, rolled up our sleeves and started our exploration.
We pulled, squeezed, poked with our fingers, squeezed between our toes, stuck our elbow in it, and jumped and jumped on it.

During this process how did the clay change as we used it?? It looked different. You may want to ask your children what they thought.

Friends had many ideas of what to do next so stay tuned for more creative expressions.

Old Fashion Fun for the Tel Aviv All Stars!

Last Friday Sam invited me into the dramatic play center to make lemonade.  Isaiah heard we were making lemonade and said,  "I know how to make lemonade, I made it with my mom!" Sam said, "I know we need sugar."  Aaron said, "Can I help?" Aden asked, "What are you doing?" Isaiah said, "Making lemonade."  Aden said,"That's nice."  Teddy said, "Let's have some challah with it!" The children had so much fun pretending to make lemonade that they decided this week to do it for real!

Today was the day we made lemonade out of lemons!  All the children participated.  We squeezed the lemons, used the juicer, added sugar and water.Then we all enjoyed fresh squeezed lemonade with our snack. Ruby put into words what we were all thinking which was, "This is the best lemonade I ever had!"

Noticing Numbers

Math is everywhere! Increase your child's awareness of numbers and their many uses, by pointing them out. A few simple idea for home, for waiting in a restaurant, or to try in the car.

For 2-3 year olds: Have a number hunt. Look around the house to find numbers. How many can you find? Check food packages, clocks, shoes...everything!

For 3-5 year olds: Once your child shows an interest in writing, add a twist to the number hunt above by asking her to make a list of all the numbers she finds. Or create a new challenge by naming the number and then seeing how many examples of that number your child can locate.

For 5-6 year olds: Move on to a newspaper based number hunt. Point out the many useful things numbers can show us. What times are movies playing? What is the temperature going to be like today? Who won the Red Sox game? What day is it today? How much do apples cost? Give your child a newspaper based job. He can help the whole family by checking the weather every morning and reporting to the family.

Meet the "Toe-Rah" !

In preparation for Simchat Torah,
Rabbi Jay stopped in to visit with the Rainbows today. He introduced us to the Torah, and helped us learn how to say its name: Toe - like one on your foot, and Rah - like a big cheer! The children were delighted to see the beautiful tee-shirt that the Torah wore and to have a chance to touch the paper on the outside of it. Rabbi Jay showed us the Hebrew letters inside and we sang about the Torah together. He also let us touch the tiny finger at the end of the yad, the torah pointer that helps with keeping one's place while reading from the Torah.

In addition to our visit with Rabbi Jay, we enjoyed slicing and cutting apples in order to make applesauce. The children added some tasty cinnamon and enjoyed the aroma as it cooked. We later delighted in sharing the warm apples for snack.

Getting ready for Simchat Torah

We learned that all Jewish books are special, but the Torah is the most
special. We read most books by turning pages, but the Torah is a rolling
scroll. We read the Torah by turning it over and over again from beginning
to end and then back to the beginning again. It takes a year to read the Torah.

Meet Bibi the bird!

Bibi is helping us to introduce some Hebrew as part of our daily routines...

We ask friends and teachers to pass the water- Mayyim -מיים , Juice- Meetz- מיץ

then saying please- B'va-ka-sha-בבקשה , and thank you- Todah Rabah-תודה רבה

Some of us choose to greet our friends in the morning circle by saying Boker Tov- Good morning- בוקר טוב . We are also counting in Hebrew as well... 1.אחת-Achat- ,2.שתיים Shtyim,3 שלוש . Shalosh ,ארבע 4. Arbah , 5.חמש Chamesh ....

When we asked the kids if they know how do we say apple in Hebrew, Sadie responded:

You should go and ask Bibi, she will know...

The children are having fun speaking Hebrew and will learn more as the year goes on.

Lunch Bunch Clay 101!

Clay comes from the earth: ancient, organic, substantial. It smells cool and dark. It is grainy inside its smooth moistness.Clay requires muscle. We engage clay with our own hands and feel it on our skin.There is an intuitive aspect to working with clay; through many encounters, we develop a sense of it's fluidity and substance.These encounters take place over a stretch of time, not in a day or a week.

Today the All Star Lunch Bunch children seemed to enjoy their first encounter with clay!  The children had the opportunity to manipulate clay by rolling it into flat sheets and used their fingers to pinch and poke a single lump of clay into a variety of shapes.

Stay tuned for more updates from the Lunch Bunch crew, regarding their explorations with clay!

The Proper Way To Wash Apples!

Today in the sensory the children had the opportunity to play with ladles,bowls, apples and water.Some of the children used the ladles to scoop the apples into the bowls.While others compared the apples by size and counted how many apples fit in their bowl.

Sam however had a different idea. Sam provided the group with his version of the "proper way"to wash apples before you eat them."First you put the apples in the water and swish them around.Then you blow them with your mouth. After that tada, they are ready!" You learn something new everyday!

Applesauce

The Sunshines enjoyed a feast for the senses today as they worked together to make applesauce. Fine motor skills and some effective grips were on display. We practiced the give and take of working together.."my turn to sprinkle the cinnamon.." and learned some new cooking vocabulary as we talked about chopping, dicing and sifting. When we returned from Havdalah. we were greeted by the aroma of applesauce cooking in the crockpot. "Is it time for snack yet?"

A Good Week

Each Monday, we welcome the new week with a havdalah ceremony and today was the first of the new school year. All of the children and teachers gathered together in a big circle and Ali started the music. The Community Room was dark and we lit the tall braided candle. It really glowed in the dark room! Jeffrey held the kiddush cup up in the air and we all sang the blessing over the grape juice. We continued with the sweet smelling spices, as Sam walked around the entire circle of children and teachers, stopping to let each of us inhale the sweet scent. Then Aden held the candle up high, the rest of us held our hands up as we said the blessing over the fire. We tried to catch the reflection of the flames in our fingernails. When we were done singing, Avery and Aden entinguished the flame in the juice and we wished each other a shavuah tov, a good, sweet week.

Havdalah is traditionally done on Saturday night, to mark the end of Shabbat. If you'd like to try it at home the full ceremony (takes just a few minutes) can be found here:
Havdalah Blessings- Words
Havdalah Blessings- Music (play a clip or download the whole thing for 99 cents)

Math1234567890?

Each week the Haifa All Stars are keeping track of the New England Patriots score by putting together a colored chain. Each circle of the chain represents one point that was scored by the Patriots during the game.

Every week we are using two different colors for our chain. This week, the children created the chain using red and white strips. The children cut each strip of paper for the chain and then put it through the previous loop and staple the strip to create a circle.

If you have been following the Patriots during the first three games of the season, you know that they have scored a lot of points thus far. This week, the score was Patriots 38 and Buffalo Bills 30.

We are connecting each week's chain to the previous week and hanging them along our window. When you are in the classroom, come in and check are We are connecting each week's chain to the previous week and hanging them along our window. When you are in the classroom, come in and check our New England Patriots point chain. It is pretty amazing to see how long it is already!

Counting to 100

The 100th day of school is one of the most eagerly awaited events in the Scientist classroom! The anticipation is great as we count down daily, looking forward to our special "100th Day" party.

Each day, during circle time, our class leader puts a sticker on one more number on our number line, helping us keep track of how many days we have been in school. And just so we can visualize what "100" actually looks like, each day we also add one more marble into a special bag, representing the number of days that we have been in school. So far, we only have 9 marbles in our bag, with 91 waiting to be added.

Party Central will kick into high gear some time during the winter - usually around the end of February or early March. Stay tuned!