Molly Writes to God

 Today we had paper and makers our on the art table to write notes to put in our "Western Wall." Part way through class I heard Molly call to me, "Sasha I made a note for God" She showed me her self portrait that she made and when I asked her to tell me about it she said it was her being happy. We added the note, "I like you God" and then she signed her name. Writing this note to God helped Molly think about all the things in the world that make her happy and she seemed excited and empowered to place the note in our wall. Also, the boys who had built the wall were excited that a real note to God was going in their creation. Hopefully as the week goes on there will be more notes and drawings to place in our wall and we think that Molly's note and enthusiasm got us off to a great start. Beautiful words Molly!

Building the Western Wall!

Today "In Jereseulm" Max, Eli, Ezra and Dylan were hard at work building the Western Wall. The boys knew they wanted to build a wall that was tall and used multiple kinds of blocks. I told them that if their structure was agaisnt the wall then we could keep it up for the next few days. Knowing that we could "keep" the wall was very exciting and motivated the boys to work hard on their creation. by using lots of blocks and negotiation skills the boys worked together to create a beautiful multi-dementional Kotel. They were excited to share that they left lots of cracks in it so that we could all leave our notes to God in the cracks. Beautiful creation boys! I am excited to see how the wall and our connection to Jeresulem evolves over the next few days. 

Making our own hummus!

Today in "Jerusalem" the Tel Aviv class made their own humus with Rohan! They mashed chickpeas which is not an easy thing to do without a food processor. We added lemon juice, oil, cumin and garlic. There were lots of scents and textures to explore throughout the humus making process. A lot of the Tel Aviv kids were apprehensive to try the humus. I told Eliza that in Israel there are restaurants that only serve different types of humus and she was amazed. We decided to save the humus for tomorrow and we will eat it with falafel and Israeli salad. So many wonderful foods to create and explore in Israel!!

Developing Caring Relationships

This morning the playground was very busy. Children wanted to be on the monkey bars, pushed on the swings, playing basketball, going to the bathroom, on top of welcoming the children just coming onto the playground! Sometimes, it just gets a little too busy and it's hard to please everyone's needs. As I was with Sadie on the monkey bars, Alli asked me if I could give her a push on the swing. Before I could tell her I would be over after the monkey bars closed down, Jake chimed in and told me he could give her a push! He ran right over and started helping Alli get somewhere on the swings. Alli and Jake are not the closest of friends, but it was really nice to see the type of relationship they have developed just being in the same class together all year. You can tell that they truly care about one another, and are trying to help the other have a good time.

-Alison and Sauci

Let's Use Our Imagination

To end our morning today, the Haifa class read a book about a beautiful garden, and the man that kept it. The man who kept this garden was Claude Monet. Monet will be the next artist that we focus on. After reading the beautiful book, Sauci pulled out a book of Monet paintings, and talked to the children about his style of art. We took a few minutes looking at the photos and trying to decide what it was that Monet was actually trying to show in these paintings by using our imaginations. We cannot wait to see the children blossom in this next phase of our unit!

-Alison and Sauci

Is it an ice sculpture?

This is a unique sculpture using styrofoam pieces donated by JB and Sam Royal. It is a joint creation by Sam, Teddy Fox, Matt, and Nathaniel. It took on various forms throughout the course of the morning. The children couldn't quite decide what it was but they had fun playing with the pieces that had a nice feel to them. They also experimented by seeing how the styrofoam and packing peanuts changed when put in water. The styrofoam just got a bit soggy but the peanuts disintegrated very quickly and started smelling. Maybe tomorrow our creative children will find even other ways to play with the styrofoam. It will be interesting to see if they find a way to use it as we continue to create the environment for our trip to Israel.

Beginning to prepare for our trip to Israel

As part of our discussion about where to go in Israel,and what we want to see, the Kohavim children began to make a picture of an ocean or sea today. Joshua worked long and hard on this, and was then joined by Matt, Eric, and Teddy Fox. It is unclear right now whether this is the river Nile, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, or the ocean. Today we talked about how we might get to Israel, and whether or not everyone wanted to go. Tomorrow we will do more planning and hopefully we will soon be on our way!

Bringing our own spices to Havdallah

 The Kohavim children have been enjoying smelling a wide range of spices as they have grounded spices with a mortar and pestle many times over the past few weeks. The smell in the room has been incredible, and we all have appreciated the time that Ellen has spent with us. After several times of grinding the spices by hand, the children recently filled their own spice bottles which they brought to the Havdallah service today. They seemed much more engaged in the service as a result of their "spice work". Today they found a buddy with whom to share their spice collection. We will continue to work with Ellen to make the Havdallah experience as meaningful to us all as we can.

It's Still New England

The Unicorn class proudly grew a bean plant from a seed.  We watered it, cared for it, and put it outside when the sunny days were so inviting.  Today we learned that New England weather is tricky, and that our bean plant did not enjoy those recent cold nights.  We salvaged what we could of our crop and trimmed back the dead leaves.  Children who sampled the beans said they were delicious.

Preparing Snack for Yourself

The children in the Levana class love to cook and prepare food. They are always eager to prepare their own snacks. With pita bread, cream cheese and jelly, we each made a sandwich to enjoy at snack time. This activity involved some thoughtful  planning and executing of skills in cutting and spreading. The best part, of course, is eating the delicious sandwich that you've successfully made for yourself.

Moses Goes to Ithaca

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Jared and Sam shared some huge laughs today as they told their story of finding Moses in the basket, packing him into the car, and taking him on the long ride to Ithaca.  "Moses was a little bored on the ride," shared Sam.

Reading Corner

Sometimes the Levana children like to ease back into school on Monday morning with some quiet time in the reading area. This little library corner offers two well-used couches, lots of books, and a bit of seclusion from the larger room. This morning Gabriel recited aloud from Good Night Moon, while Joshua and Adam listened and looked at the illustrations. These gatherings make us aware of how important it is to arrange our room in a way that offers a variety of comfortable spaces where children can enjoy small group or individual activities of their choosing during their school day.

Surprise Visitor in the Sunshine Class

During our Circle Time today we had a surprise visit from Sydni and Jaedyn's daddy.  We were just about to read our favorite story, Ten Little Fish, when Marc walked in our door so he got to  read the story to our children.  He even stayed for our snack time.  Thanks for sharing your daddy with us!!

 

 

Sorting at School and Home

Nathan and Micah were were collaborating on sorting fruits and then extended their activity to sort clothespins as well (getting some nice fine motor work accomplished!) Sorting is all about observing, comparing and contrasting objects, which helps children understand that objects can be grouped in different ways or regrouped.  Children will apply these skills to future math learning when learning about numbers.

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Try having children sort at home -   silverware, putting groceries away (frozen vs. fresh food), laundry sorting by colors or matching socks, or sorting toys by color are all fun.

Photos From Israel!

We all arrived safely but a bit tired from all that traveling!  On Wednesday we are planing a trip to the beach in Tel Aviv!   Don't forget to wear your bathing suit and bring a towel!  On Thursday wear your pajamas and bring a toy/stuffed animal from home, as we will have a special pajama day in Israel!  

Going to Israel with Matt

We enjoyed an imaginary trip to Israel with Matt this week. He asked the boys and girls what we might find in Israel if we went to visit and then he incorporated their responses into the music. Boys and girls said we might find pomegramates. the Holy Temple, the Dead Sea so we could float because there is lots of salt, swim in the Nile River, Mount Sinai,  Red Sea, Egypt, and Jordan.

Then Matt also told us about other things we might find and other places we might see. For example we might vist a "kibbutz" (he explained this was like a farming community where people work together) we might visit Masada and a shuk. Children decided if we were going to visit a shuk we need shopping bags.  

All this inspired us to take a TRIP to Israel next week. Since we will be staying for a while in Israel, and sleep there, we might need to have another PAJAMA Day. We anticipate lots of traveling and experiencing some culinary delights one might find in Israel. Sooo if ANYONE has any special family recipes they want to send in, we would welcome them.

Happy Birthday Israel

 This week we have been talking about Israel's 64th birthday!!! I had informed the children last week that I had a chocolate fountain at home that I used when my children were young. I hadn't used it in a long time, and I wasn't sure it worked well, but I would be willing to test it out at school.

At first, we waited and waited and waited, but the chocolate was not quite melting fast enough. Matty and Nathaniel thought they would bring the classroom timer out to see how loooong it would take. After quite a bit of waiting, we decided to melt the chocolate in the microwave then put it into the machine. Chris Shusterman arrived a little early, and right about the time there was a technical malfunction with the machine (you might want to ask your children what happened to chocolate!)

Christine, thanks for your help. The children were able to enjoy dipping their strawberries into the chocolate and enjoy a great birthday celebration.

Creative juices flowing ~ among other things ....

Day Two ~ We learned from the other day that wrapping the boys and girls in the plastic wrap took a bit too much time, and thus too much waiting. As we had eager participants, this day we used trash bags. The bags weren't quite as long so we needed to keep our cloths clean so we first rolled up our pants and sleeves to keep clean. They were laughing because, of course, they noticed they had NEVER been wrapped in a trash bag before.



They got right to work creating their masterpiece. This day we added another painting tool : a sponge. This required dipping into the paint container and squeezing out the excess paint then dabbing in up and down movement with the paint. This method honored their request for a "rainbow" chair.



We discovered that as we moved around the chair to paint just the right spot, we got paint on our feet. No problem though, we were able to wash the paint right off by soaking our feet in a small tub of water.

The creative juices were definitely flowing. The chair is still in process so stay tuned. It is quickly becoming a stunning piece of art.

Artists in the Making

Day ONE:  As with any artistic endeavor sometimes we get very messy as our creative juices blossom.  This creative process that will develop over time as we create our masterpiece for the auction. As one can see Hadley, Ilana, Joshua, Matty, Nathaniel, and Oliver are concentrating and working together. The prep work in getting prepared for this painting process was to take off shoes and socks and then get wrapped in a plastic tablecloth material.

Labor of???

We have been busy creating our class gift for the Taste of the Town auction. First came the prep work...the sanding. This took lots of strong muscles. Matty, Oliver, and Johua were enthusiastic helpers Thank you for all your hard work.

After the chair was sanded many of the boys and girls commented that the chair was "ugly." Well what could we do to make it look better? It was decided we could paint it. Then came the questions of planning our design. We presented the possible colors, blue, orange, yellow and green. Some thought that the "girls" could use some colors and the "boys" could use other colors, or we could "rainbow" it. Stay tuned for the process designing our beautiful chair.

Pasta Chefs

 Lunch bunch boys and girls enjoying pasta making. What ingredients did we use? All you need is flour, oil, salt, and a pasta attachment for your Kitchen Aid. A quick 3 minutes cooking time in boiling water and voila, a delicious treat.

Culinary Delight

Many of our boys and girls enjoy cooking, although some have indicated they are "eaters" not "cookers." Either way they can all participate in some manner. A couple of weeks ago, right before Passover, we made sushi. 

Our ingredients were carrots, cucumbers, rice, and seaweed sheets. We followed step by step instructions. First we cut the long carrots, using a carrots shredder, then spread the rice, and stuffed it with the ingredients of choice. Some boys and girls wanted just cucumber, some cucumber and carrots. Then we rolled the seaweed and cut it. Then came the taste test. These may be sushi chefs in the making.

B is for...

During our circle time, we read a book about Israel's birthday.  I held up the book and Brett crawled right up and pointed to the cover and said "B"!  I said, "Yes!"  The first letter of birthday is B, just like Brett.  Ben then exclaimed "I start with a B, too".  Lizzie added, "Like a bumblebee!"


We teach letters and phonemic awareness in a natural way.  This is a perfect example of how we follow children's interests.  It is so exciting to see the children begin to recognize letters, sounds and make connections between their own world and the texts that we read!! 

Yom Huledet Sameach to Israel

With our school's youngest children, the Levana class, we celebrated Israeli  Independence Day by talking about Israel as the Jewish homeland, singing Happy Birthday to Israel  in English and in Hebrew, and by creating our own versions of the Israeli flag using white and blue fabric. Two songs that are new to many of the children, Am Yisrael Chai and David Melech Yisrael, were introduced by Matt earlier in the week, and we have added them to our repertoire; singing in Hebrew is one of the ways in which we try to give our children a foundation for a strong, caring bond with Israel.

The Shuk!

Israelis can buy their food at the supermarket.  But most Israelis shop at small corner stores.  Others like to shop at shuks.  Shuks are outdoor markets.  Sellers and Buyers bargain at shuks.

The Lunch Bunch children made a sign for the shuk in the Tel Aviv classroom that will be in the real city of Tel Aviv when we arrive in Israel tomorrow.  We can't wait! 

On our way!

Everyone had did their part and worked together to get us ready for our long awaited journey to Israel!  Dylan was the pilot, Lily and Molly were co-pilots, Jacob and Hannah passengers, Eliza collected the tickets and checked passports, Rachel and Max were the flight attendants, and Eli is planning to meet us in Israel tomorrow for a delicious Shabbat snack!
We ate popcorn and enjoyed popsicles!  We had a layover in London as we were invited to participate in a live dance show with DANCING NANCY.  The children danced and moved so freely... What a show it was!