Making Costumes for Drama Stories!

Last Wednesday we read Jay's Drama Story, before we sat down to have lunch. We also asked Jay and his friends to pick a role from the story Jay wrote ,to act out. After we decided on roles for the play, we brainstormed a bit about costumes. Jay had the lead role, as he was the main Vampire, he thought the Vampires should be in red and wear capes. I suggested at "Peace Out" time that they make their costumes. Then Mia and Jesse suggested we use face paint. I looked at Alison, and I asked "Did you go to face painting school?" Alison replied, "Yes Lauri ,how did you know?" In the photos below, check out Alison's face painting art!

Mom and Isaiah Tell a Story Together!

Most of us are aware that Kate (Isaiah's Mom) broke her her elbow and is wearing a brace. Well, every time Kate comes to school to pick up Isaiah, the children ask Kate a lot of questions about her arm/brace. Last week Kate asked us if she could come in to the classroom and tell the children what happened to her elbow and how the big black brace she wears, has been her "friend".

Kate thanks for coming in and sharing your story with the children. Isaiah we want to thank you too, for helping mom share her story with your friends!

Kate we all wish you a continued speedy recovery!

Drama Stories!

The Vampire and The Sloth

Over there are the invisible people so you can't see them. This is a Vampire and this is his "killer machine" the mean, mean Sloth. The invisible people jumped from here and the Vampire said, "You are not going anywhere, I am going to kill you!" The Sloth jumped and killed the invisible people and then they came back to life. The Vampire made a bridge break in half, the bridge fell on the volcano and the volcano fired at them, and they were dead forever!" The End!

Jay, age 5

Slaves in Egypt

Bang, Bang, Bang

Hold your hammer low.

Bang, Bang, Bang

Give a heavy blow.

The children are pretending to be slaves in the land of Egypt working day and night hammering and building pyramids. As they use the hammers with one hand and grasp the thin golf tees between their fingers, they are strengthening their small motor skills in preparation for holding pencils and writing.

Building the Pyramids

This week we 've been hearing the story of Passover and building pyramids with all sorts of blocks - wooden, cardboard - large and small. For inspiration, we listen to the Passover CD telling the story.

Ryan, Leo and Avram proudly put the blocks away in such an organized fashion, it warranted a photo.

Building with Real Bricks!

During the course of the week the children have had the opportunity to learn the story of Passover by singing songs,listening to music and reading books. As we listen to our Passover music we have had a lot of fun acting out the story together.

JB Royal was kind enough to donate real bricks and a wagon to the Tel Aviv classroom. I took a small group over to the rug and showed the children how to use the bricks safely ("A Brick Demo"). They couldn't believe we were letting them build with real bricks. Teddy P could not believe it, he kept saying/singing, "These are real bricks!" Then Oliver said, "Lauri we only have a little bit of bricks." I asked, "What else could we use to build with the bricks?" Teddy F said,"The blocks!"
Then I pretended to be the Pharaoh and said, "Build me a city with a lot of buildings!"

As they built I coached/guided them to make sure everyone was building and using the bricks safely. Building with "real" bricks was exciting, fun and it is a great activity for those children who have challenges processing tactile information. Having the children carry the bricks(something heavy),provides input into muscles.

Do I want cardboard matzah or chocolate matzah? Hm....let me think!

The children had the opportunity to work with matzah in some very different ways today. Have you ever noticed the resemblance between corrugated cardboard and a board of matzah? In appearance that is. Pulling apart the cardboard results in pieces which look strikingly like matzah. The children then put a piece of white paper over the cardboard and rubbed using the side of a crayon. A very effective way to do matzah rubbings. As much fun as this was, it didn't hold a candle to the process of making chocolate matzah, and especially the eating part. Keeping the dessert treat in the fridge overnight will certainly make it a delicious and less messy snack to have tomorrow as well. We've got some real chocolate lovers in our class!

Thanks to Hannah, a senior at Brandeis, who helped me today when Lauri was out.

Shalom to all.

Pardon our lack of photos

We'll get them back up soon!

A Celebration

Happy Birthday Jared!

On Tuesday, the Rainbows celebrated Jared's 3rd Birthday. His mother shared a favorite Curious George story with help from Jared who provided the end to many of the sentences. Jared's big sister Abby did a wonderful job reading us a counting story as well. It was fun to see a former Scientist back at the Children's Center.

For it's work, work, work...

While reading a Passover book to the children this morning, it became apparent that their interest was waning and their mind wasn't on the holiday. So we switched gears, played our Passover CD, got up and moved! Much more successful. The children loved moving their whole bodies around, and they were clearly listening to both the music and words which focused on Passover. This is another example of the success we have had re-enacting the important stories we have to tell throughout the year. We also had a discussion today about bullying. The children requested that Lauri and I act out an example of bullying. We got rave reviews and a resounding request for an encore!

Arranging the glass

Nearly 70 colorful glass pieces for our school wide art piece have been created by parents, children, and teachers. Invited to arrange the tiny glass bits on a larger piece of glass, many of the children have responded, "What does arrange mean?" So often we ask children to create by gluing things together. But arranging items into a beautiful composition was a new task for some. The focus was not on gluing items together, but on simply arranging them until they looked just right to the artist. With plates full of tiny colored pieces of glass, this was an intriguing challenge. Some children seemed to have a plan in mind. Others arranged and rearranged and rearranged before declaring they were done.

We'll continue the arranging process over the next week or so. If you'd like to participate, let us know. We'd love for you to contribute.

More photos of the glass art process.

Messy Haifa Day Outside and Inside

Today the tire exploration area on the playground was set up. Stones and little rocks were placed inside two tires and then various "jewels" were added without the children there. Many of the children came over, took little cups and began digging for jewels inside the tires. Some of the children continued to do this during the majority of our outdoor time. The children then took their cup of treasures home. This activity will continue as a regular part of our playground time. Inside we painted like Jackson Pollock. We splattered, brushed and painted with potato mashers, sponges, bathroom puffs etc. a la Jackson Pollock. It was great and messy fun. Our creations are fabulous and look like JP himself did them. Stay tuned....tomorrow we have a real artist coming. Jay Green's Grandmother will be visiting our class with her water colors. We cleaned out the garden yesterday ad sure enough some of the bulbs we planted last fall are coming up. this must mean that spring will be here eventually.

Matzah making~ The tools

We made Matzah today! We entered Simon Hall and our Matzah bakers had everything set up for us. Before we baked we needed to know the ingredients we needed and the process involved. We were eager and excited to start our baking. There were lots of tools needed. We also learned that when we make our Matzah by hand versus a machine, it is NOT square shaped. You may want to ask your children what shape our Matzah is.

Grinding the wheat

Did you think flour came from a bag? The children learned today that making flour is a complicated and multi-stepped process. They put the pieces of wheat into Rabbi Mendy's grinder and then took turns turning it around and around. As the turned, the wheat was ground into a fine powder- flour!

Grinding the wheat

Did you think flour came from a bag? The children learned today that making flour is a complicated and multi-stepped process. They put the pieces of wheat into Rabbi Mendy's grinder and then took turns turning it around and around. As the turned, the wheat was ground into a fine powder- flour!

Julia Wise

I am very excited to join the teachers and students here at Temple Beth Shalom this year! As a teacher, my main educational philosophy centers around helping children develop and foster their own innate creativity. When given the time and environment, children are endless resources of artistry, imagination, and inventiveness. Supporting creative developments inside the classroom allow us teachers to guide children to create their own problem solving techniques. Creativity encourages young children to become confident, and goes along to further assist the development of critical thinking skills. In addition, creativity inside the classroom gives embodiment to children’s thoughts and ownership of their emotions. It is a special kind of freedom and it also allows us to have fun!

I feel privileged to be able to share my love of creativity and adventure with the students and parents of Temple Beth Shalom. I find great joy in watching young children discover new talents and reach higher levels of understanding about themselves and the world around them through books, play, and hands on activities. I try to bring patience, learning, understanding, humor, and fun into the children center classrooms here at Temple Beth Shalom.

“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.”

Matzah Anyone?

What fun to make matzah from scratch in the comfort of our own "home". The children had a great time rolling the wheat between their hands, exploring the smooth, cool texture of the flour, rolling the dough into a ball after the Rabbi Mendy ground the wheat into flour and mixed it with water, and then flattening the dough with a rolling pin.

The final step was to poke holes in the dough with a fork and bring the dough to the Simon Hall kitchen to bake. Chef Teddy Fox proudly held a pole with two pieces of dough ready for the oven. After making playdough matzah in our class yesterday and today, it was fun for the children to make the real thing under strict religious supervision!

Happy #5 to Aaron Spiegel!

What a fun and busy day it was for the Tel Aviv All Stars. Aaron What a fun and busy day it was for the Tel Aviv All Stars. Aaron Spiegel turned 5 today, and his mother, Mira, joined us to celebrate. Mira read a book about Officer Buckle which the children enjoyed a lot. She also read the traditional birthday book that the children create for the birthday child. As a special treat, Mira talked to the kids about all of their birthdays---one of their favorite topics! Trying to give the children a feel for what she does at work, Mira first gathered the relevant data. In this case it was the month in which each child was born. She then helped the children to see how many children were born in each month, which month had the most birthdays, the least, etc. It's a real treat when a parent joins us in the classroom. Thank you Mira and Aaron for sharing this special day with us.

The Youngest Mesnik Turns 5!

Happy Birthday Ruby! I can remember so clearly when I first heard that Lily and Talia were going to have another sibling. It's so hard to believe that this sibling just turned 5! I am blessed to have had two of the three Mesnik children in my class. Ruby is a passionate superheroes fan, so naturally she selected a Happy Birthday Ruby! I can remember so clearly when I first heard that Lily and Talia were going to have another sibling. It's so hard to believe that this sibling just turned 5! I am blessed to have had two of the three Mesnik children in my class. Ruby is a passionate superheroes fan, so naturally she selected a Batman book to share with us all when Sarah came in to read. Many of the children really enjoyed it as they share Ruby's enthusiasm for the ultimate fight between good and evil. This is such a basic theme in the lives of young children. It is fascinating to see them try to work this out through their role playing games, imaginative artistic creations, and story dramas. We certainly feel safer with you watching over us Ruby.