Musical Bears

We welcomed all bears and other treasured pets to join us today and participate in Unicorn activities. Music with Josh was great and went very well. Upon arriving from home, teddies were all happy and excited. We built the biggest bear cave you've ever seen. Unicorns learned about bears and a little girl named Goldilocks. Miniature Bears were placed in cards for practice in one-to-one correspondence, sorted by color, arranged in shapes and matched by color and number patterns. Eye hand co-ordination, along with fine motor skills were also practiced by cutting out teddy bear hats. All we can say is that we had a beary beary good day!!!

Musical Bears

We welcomed all bears and other treasured pets to join us today and participate in Unicorn activities. Music with Josh was great and went very well. Upon arriving from home, teddies were all happy and excited. We built the biggest bear cave you've ever seen. Unicorns learned about bears and a little girl named Goldilocks. Miniature Bears were placed in cards for practice in one-to-one correspondence, sorted by color, arranged in shapes and matched by color and number patterns. Eye hand co-ordination, along with fine motor skills were also practiced by cutting out teddy bear hats. All we can say is that we had a beary beary good day!!!

What fun to be able to sleep all winter!

Aden and Eric are busy making "caves" in which their bears will hibernate. Many of the children were interested today in hearing about the different animals that hibernate. Once again we were surprised to find out how much they already knew about this animal behavior. We will continue this week to read books about hibernation, migration, and animal life in winter. Tomorrow some of the children are looking forward to making their own clay bears which when dry and painted they can take home to spend the rest of the winter hibernating in their dens.

Fresh Produce

Despite gloomy skies, the Sunshine class is thinking spring. Today we created prints from discarded produce, including lettuce stubs, previously squeezed lemons, and the wilted celery stalks that Hannah used as paintbrushes. We also planted parsley in anticipation of our Passover seders. Thoughts of growing things brighten the day, and seedlings will soon occupy a sunny windowsill. As we enter National Nutrition Month, we will be talking about eating foods of all different colors, especially colorful fruits and vegetables. Today's snack, red and green grapes that Jacob's family provided, made the point is a delicious and colorful way.

Story Dramas

Over the last several weeks the Tel Aviv All Stars have been exploring Fairy Tales in a variety of ways. The children have really enjoyed listening to stories, eating special snacks, writing different story endings, art activities, but most of all they loved acting out the stories in our puppet theater, on the felt board and up on the big stage (our circle area).

In the past I have mentioned that the teaching staff is reading Learning Together with Young Children, and we discuss each chapter at our staff meetings. In preparation for our up-coming meeting, we were asked to read chapter 6 "Dig Deeper to Learn with Children". The section about Story Dramas really excited me...Because the children have been so passionate about acting out dramas with what ever tools or materials they happened to be using(puppets,props,edible dioramas,felt etc). So in order to frame and further this natural interest I decided to introduce the children to story dramas. They took to it like glue!

What is a Story Drama? Good question! A story drama is when children draw an illustration simple with stick figures or others can be complex, depicting every detail of the story. Next the children are asked to dictate the story to go along with their drawings. The last component of the process is for the children to act out the stories.

Today I introduced story dramas in small groups. They had the opportunity to illustrate and dictate their stories. Tomorrow we will ask the authors one by one to go up on stage with their story and drawing and choose the part they would like to play! The story will be read carefully for the group to notice each of the roles before the rest of the cast is decided. Stay tuned for updates on roles in the plays and details about the dress rehearsals.

Today in Lunch Bunch...

Everyone seemed to be happy to see all their friends in Lunch Bunch today! Ruby was asked to lead the group down to the Community Room for some well needed gross motor time. While we were walking Ruby kindly reached for Teddy's hand and asked him if he wanted to be the line leader too. Well what do you think his answer was?

Willaby Wallaby and Lady came out to play with us. We looked all over for our friend Bunny Foo Foo, but he was no where to be found! The children wanted to hear the story of Bunny Foo Foo so bad, they asked Willaby and Lady to take turns acting out the Bunny Foo Foo story. We all thought they did a great job!

97...and counting!!

Amazingly, we have now been in school for 97 days, and are looking forward to our 100th day of school this week. Because we are now really counting down to our 100th day, we are doing lots of activities involving numbers. Today, all on their own, Lucas, Jake and Jonathan found page 100 in our First Encyclopedia. Lucas copied the numbers from our number chart, and Daniel, Jeffrey and Matthew counted the number of puzzle pieces that they used in building the car puzzle. Jeffrey counted to 100 following the number chart in the book 100 Days of School, by Trudy Harris. And counting by 10's on our abacus was a popular activity. And as you can see, a big game of War was played. The boys carefully evaluated each "hand," determining which card was the biggest number, to see who won each hand. But best of all, it was a cooperative game - as soon as someone was without any more cards, the cards were reshuffled and dealt out again.
The children also began to share their collections of 100 "whatevers," telling us how they counted out 100 objects. Counting 10 groups of 10 seems to be the most popular method. It is great fun to see another side of the children as they share their special collections and speak in front of their classmates. We will continue sharing - and counting- as the week goes on!

Alison Davis

Havdalah

Havdalah

Monday, February 21, 2011

Wacky Wednesday Fun

During quiet peace out time, Lucas and Jonathan select a fun book. In this book the illustrations have something silly/wrong on each page: shoes on the ceiling, bananas on an apple tree etc. Each page has the number of silly misplaced items that one needs to locate. Lucas and Jonathan keep a tally of those found and work cooperatively enjoying the book as they read together.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Tzedakah of Time, Talent, Food

Thank you to all the parents for donating the pasta, cheese, butter, and tuna that we needed to make our meal for those less fortunate than ourselves at Rosie's Place.
We asked friends what we could do for those people who might be hungry? Some friends said we could give them money to buy food, or we could buy food.
We proceeded to make our tuna casserole, carefully cutting the Velveeta cheese into small chunks using our child friendly plastic knives. We didn't have a timer to check the pasta so we relied on our eager friends to taste test the noodles for the needed soft texture. When it was determined it was ready, we stirred and worked together to make our delicious meal.
We also decided it would be nice to make a card of well wishes.
They wanted the people at Rosie's place to know that

1) "It is your card"
2) "I hope you have fun eating and a great day"
3) "I want you to put love"

We are so lucky to have such wonderful children who embrace kindness towards everyone!!!

Stanley Learns About Religion!

Stanley and I have been doing a LOT of sightseeing. Yesterday, Stanley turned to me and asked, "Alison, where are the temples?" And I looked at him, and told him that was a great question. So we went on a a hunt for a temple.

Unfortunately, we haven't found one yet. But we have found lots and lots of churches. Stanley asked me if we could go in some of the churches to see what they looked like. And so we did!

Today we went into a church that has been working for over 600 years. The church was made of stone and wood and had beautiful glass windows. Stanley and I did a little research and found out that this church is part of the Church of Scotland, or in the US, Presbyterian. Even though it wasn't like Temple Beth Shalom, Stanley and I decided that it was a great place to pray.

-Alison and Stanley

Alison and Stanley find Nessie!

This weekend Flat Stanley and I were lucky enough to go up to the north of Scotland on a search for our favorite mysterious creature: the Loch Ness monster!

Northern Scotland, or the Highlands, is filled with lochs, or lakes. And for over 1,500 years, people have been reporting sightings of a creature living in the largest loch, Loch Ness! She is known as the Loch Ness Monster, or more affectionately, Nessie. She is supposedly over 100 feet long, with a round body, and a long neck. People come from all over the world to try to find Nessie, and she has been spotted over 21 times!

A lot of people don't believe that she actually exists because no one has actually ever seen all of Nessie. Stanley and I didn't get to see Nessie, but we did see some strange trails of bubbles leading into the middle of the loch...

-Alison and Stanley

Hamish and Stanley!

This weekend Stanley and I experienced something we thought we had flown away from...snow! We thought we left all of the snow in Boston, but silly us, because we found some more! There isn't as much in Scotland as there is in Boston though.

During our travels, we stopped along the side of the road and met a very friendly furry friend named Hamish. Hamish is a Highland cow, or as they are called here, Highland coo! Hamish is very friendly and has lots of relatives all over the Scottish highlands. Hamish may look like he's trying to be stylish with his shaggy hairstyle, but it's actually helping him stay warm throughout the cold Scottish winters.

Hamish took a break from eating to take this great photo with his new friend Stanley.

-Alison and Stanley

Morning Visitors

On the Friday before our February break, the Sunshine class enjoyed a visit with Ezra's sister Shoshana and brother Jonah. On a day off from Rashi School, they were happy to spend time reading with the Sunshines. Both are familiar faces to the children, since they had also come to visit with us on Ezra's birthday. Many of the children gathered on the rug, leaving behind their play at the Office and other areas of the room. We are reminded that one of the very favorite activities of young children is hearing stories read to them by other booklovers.

Giving Gifts on Purim

Purim is only a month away!  It's time to start getting ready.  A popular Purim tradition is to give gifts to the poor and needy in our communities and around the world.This is one of the traditions that Mordecai instituted when he established the holiday: “They were to observe them as days of feasting and merrymaking, and as an occasion for sending gifts to one another and presents to the poor.” (Esther 9:22)

You can continue this tradition by making meaningful gifts for family and friends. Follow these simple steps:

1. Make a list of some people to whom you would like to give gifts.

2. Gather some clean, large take-out containers, shoe boxes or other similar items that can be closed.

3. Decorate holiday cards and bake hamantaschen or other treats. Choose some additional treats, such as candy, nuts, and raisins. Get some decorations to adorn your packages.

4. Fill each container with a card, delicious treats and other fun trinkets, as well as some coins that can be donated to a charity of the person’s choice. You also may choose to make a donation in that person’s honor and enclose the acknowledgment in the box. Seal up the boxes and decorate the outside of each.

5. Send your packages by mail, or simply visit your friends or family in person and present your gifts.

Adapted from The Jewish Parent Page

Friday, February 18, 2011

What time is it there?

Flat Stanley and I have safely made it to Scotland! We just tried to call the preschool and let Ellen and Rachel know, but it's already the weekend!! We forgot about the differences in time zones. In Scotland, Stanley and I are five hours ahead, and we ran across a phone booth on our way for tea. We decided that we were going to update in the blog so that people can see all of the adventures we are having. Stay tuned for more!!!

-Alison and Stanley

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Hula Hoopla.....

Yesterday we danced with Dancing Nancy. Unicorns had a blast and got some healthy exercise at the same time! We used Hula Hoops and moved them in many different ways. Ellen, our director was the hula hoop champion.

Hula Hoopla.....

Yesterday we danced with Dancing Nancy. Unicorns had a blast and got some healthy exercise at the same time! We used Hula Hoops and moved them in many different ways. Ellen, our director was the hula hoop champion.