Fresh Cold Air

Boy is it cold on the playground in the morning. We are all bundled up, wearing many layers and barely able to move. The games have, out of necessity, changed. The monkey bars are out of the question since crossing them necessitates taking off your gloves. Now these girls have been making a "road" with the snow shovels. Other children are on the swings and others are playing chase. Please continue to send hats and gloves. Snow pants are great when it snows. The fresh air is great when we are prepared.

Music and Dancing in the Shamayim Class

 

The Shamayim children had a wonderful treat today.  Sonia's mom came for a visit and brought her guitar. We got to sing songs we knew and learn songs we did not know.  And we even got to sing our favorite song "If You Are Happy And You Know It."  The music was so fun we could not sit still so we  had to dance.  Thank you so much Marissa for making our Shabbat even more special. Shabbat Shalom!

Modeling in Action

As a staff, we have been reading Beyond Behavior Management by Jenna Bilmes. She states that what we model for children has a more powerful impact than any strategy.   Lila and Jacob's interactions are a wonderful example of how our bonding games with children (from home and school) are shared and then incorporated into play.  Lilah lovingly braided Jacob's hair one day, and then played "Trot, Trot to Boston," with Jacob in her lap.  Jacob is taller than Lilah, so that took some determination!   What lovely exchanges of friendship and affection.

  

Watercolor on bricks

During Friday lunch bunch we like to explorer and make different things such as art, foods, games, puppet show / finger play songs and stories.
This time, we chose to paint with water color on rocks and bricks. It was cool and different. We observed how the water color had mixed together on the bricks and created some new shades of colors.

Shovel, ball, play instructions

And this is how you play:
First, you make sure you have a good size shovel, then you make sure you have a good size ball.
1. Put the shovel down on the ground facing up.
2. Place the ball gently at the end part of the shovel.
3. Place your foot on the open part of the shovel (the spoon like part).
4. Stamp hard with your foot on the shovel.
5. Watch the ball as it jumps high and lands 'somewhere' . (hopefully near you)
6. Run, grub the ball, and play all over again!
And this is how you can get a good laugh, social interaction, exercise and great time!
Wanna try? (:

Is it Chanukah fun or Muscle Building?

 Yes, it's both.  We used craft sticks and white glue to make a menorah as we begin to prepare for Chanukah.  The process of applying glue from the squeeze bottle requires eye hand coordination to place the glue on the stick, muscle strength in the fingers and hands to grip and squeeze the bottle.  This offers the Keshet kids an opportunity for fun AND the development of pre-writing skills.

Space for Creativity

Gluing candles and flames onto a paper menorah today proved to be a very popular art project!  We had ample supplies, but our tables are fairly small.  In order to make enough space, the children decided to work standing up, so they could easily reach all the different materials.  When they work standing, they are building different muscles and gaining new perspectives on their projects.  Each student's creation is unique, but we enjoy watching them observe their peers working on their projects as they each create their own.

Cooperative Play!

As the year progresses, we get to observe children playing in new and different ways.  This week, Avi and Samantha engaged in dyad play.  They played cooperatively together while setting up our classroom menorah.  Avi was handing the candles one by one to Samantha, who placed them into the menorah.  They were counting, identifying colors, and practicing lighting the candles all at once!

Hooray for Chanukah!

We asked the children "What's important about Chanukah?

Here is what they said:

Adam-The menorah
Micah G-Mommy and Daddy
Zach- Mom, Dad and brothers and sisters
Josh- Presents that Mom and Dad give me
Micah R- Candles
Noah-My cousins
Josie-Mom and Dad and my sister
Elias-My brothers
Lily- Mom and Dad
Molly- Presents
Samantha-My brother
Charlotte-The gelt the chocolate candy in the foil
Sasha-Latkes
Lauri-Spending time with family

The Lunch Bunch children ended the day by tracing and then decorating dreidels with glitter!


 

Problem Solving Strategy...Ignore!

 Bruce stopped by today to teach us another problem solving strategy...Ignore!
Bruce kept bothering and annoying Lauri so Lauri took the opportunity to model how to ignore, Bruce.  This one can be challenging but Lauri showed us, it can be done!

When Bruce was done teaching he stayed for a while and joined in on the puppet play with his Tel Aviv friends!  Thanks Bruce!


 

play!

Cooperative play is blossoming in the Shamayim classroom.  During cooperative play, children orient toward a common goal, interacting regularly with each other to achieve this goal.

Sydney, Bella and Victoria spent time in our kitchen area today.  They bought and sold food to each other.  They took turns using the register and communicated their needs and ideas.

Sonia and Rose worked cooperatively to create an ellaborate building to house some of our figures.  The girls negotiated the space so that their structure remained intact and communicated throughout their play time to problem solve together.

Josh, Ilan and Bennett played imaginatively with the magnatiles and each other.  They played good guy/bad guy using the magnatiles as laser beams that changed color.  The boys moved from one area in the room to another while maintaining regular conversation of their next move and idea.

Continuing our Scientific Investigation of our Menorah

Kohavim continued investigating that unique menorah today and made some interesting discoveries. Eliza and Hannah used hand lenses to take a closer look at the menorah and what is inside the small containers. They lifted a one of the small containers and tipped it over and discussed what was happening: 

Eliza: We know why it's (liquid) not coming out. 

Hannah: Cause there's no hole.

Eliza: Cause if there was a hole the oil might drop out. 

Hannah: Or whatever it (liquid) is. 

Eliza: I know it's oil. 

As Hannah left the table to make another choice, Ezra joined the conversation. 

Ezra: I know the secret. You need to take off the tops to light it. 

Eliza took the top off of the container and  spilled some liquid onto the table. Then she touched it. 

Eliza: It's liquidy. 

As Eliza left the table to make another choice, Sabrina joined Ezra in the investigation. 

Ezra: It's juice because juice is yellow. 

Jesse: How do you think we can find out if it is juice? 

Ezra: We should ask G-d if it's juice or oil. Or you can see it on the computer. 

Jesse: Is there an experiment we can conduct? 

Ezra: Find two candles. Put them on juice and on oil. Whichever one stays longer is better and that's what's in there. 

Jesse: Maybe we should get two candles. 

Ezra: Maybe we should touch it because juice is cold and oil is hot. 

Sabrina: (touches liquid) Hot! It's oil.

Ezra: It feels a bit normal. It's oil. We figured it out! 

Later, Lily discovered a book called Harvest of Light by Allison Ofanansky. While reading the book she noticed the menorah in the story was just like our menorah in our classroom. The book follows the process of harvesting olives and turning them into oil for the family's menorah. Lily explained that we must read this story with the whole class. 

At second meeting, we heard from Ezra about his experiment to feel the temperature of the liquid and read the book recommended by Lily. Together we concluded the liquid in our menorah is oil! After reading the book about how to make oil from olives, it became clear that we may have our next experiment!

Nature Art

 

The students in the Kohavim/Haifa lunch bunch looked outside to see the colors of fall. Then we filled a muffin tin with the colors that were seen and they painted  what they saw . Brett said, "I see brown for the trees." Lily noticed that the sky was "white" and Jared saw "yellow leaves."    Jared  looked out the window as he painted his scene.  Jacob saw many leaves on the ground  Dylan,Eliza, and Brett saw different  trees. The children were encouraged to paint what they saw outside the window. Each month, we will look outside and make note of how the color pallets of nature changes.

Pals in Purple

With winter in the air, and the cold temperatures creeping upon us, the children in Levana have broken out their winter gear!
Amongst the fleece hats, animal themed mittens, puffy coats and boots there is always a common color theme throughout. On the playground, it is sometimes hard to tell who is who with everyone bundled up in similar colors! Today, a group of friends spent time jumping around and talking about their purple jackets! It is always fun to connect with someone because of something you have in common. In this case, it was their jackets!

Check out the Floam

The table set with pieces of Floam attracted many of the children this morning.  The tiny, sticky round particles that make up Floam hold together like clay, but can be individually pulled off as well.  Each child explored in his own fashion.  Some were cautious, while others jumped in with both hands.  When a few children had trouble removing tiny particles from their hands when they had finished playing, a teacher took a ball of Floam and pressed it against the hand to pick off the offending bits.  This elicited lots of giggles.  Cleaning up can actually be fun!

  

Beautiful Ice

 A new ice cube tray inspired lots of creative thinking in the Etzim classroom.  First we froze blue stars and put them in our water table, only to find them melting faster than we could play with them.  We next thought about paintin with the stars.  Lots of thought went into what colors to choose, how long it would take, and how we could use them.  Sophie surprised us all by discovering the ice made beautiful star stamps.  We have lots of ideas on how to use our stars next (Jacob - playdough. Eliana - add more color and make rainbows!)

Menorahs and the Scientific Process

Over the past few weeks, Kohavim has begun exploring Chanukah. We have read many books about the Chanukah story, listened to Chanukah music, and have even begun playing dreidel! Last week, the teachers put out an interesting object (seen above in the photographs). Through their exploration of this material it became apparent how the children are engaging with the scientific method.

We asked the children what they noticed about this material. After observing the object, The children immediately identified it as a menorah, but were unsure about where the candles were. They noticed eight small containers of liquid and one candle. They decided the candle must be the shamesh or helper candle, but were unclear about the containers of liquid. They began to hypothesize about the liquid.  Some children thought it might be wax left behind from candles, it might be fire, or even apple juice!

Today, we investigated the menorah together on the rug during our second meeting. When the children explained that this object was a menorah, the teachers asked, "how do we light this menorah?" They suggested we put the candles in. But, when the teachers tried to stick the candles in the menorah they fell right off! Comparing this menorah to another chanukiah we had in the classroom, they exclaimed, "There are no holes for the candles!"

They then suggested taking the yellow caps off of the small plastic containers so they could closely examine them. Comparing the containers to the candles, they noticed both had wicks. They suggested we experiment. We would try lighting the wick of the candle and the wick of the small liquid containers.  As we lit one of wicks in the small containers the children watched carefully. Suddenly, a child explained, "It must be oil cause it's still burning!" The children referenced stories we had been reading about Chanukah and remembered how the oil lasted for eight days. Though some children concluded it could be oil in the menorah, not everyone is convinced. Just as scientists use the scientific method to find answers to their questions and solve problems, the Kohavim children are using it to find answers to their questions: What is inside this Menorah? And how do get this menorah to light? Now that we have drawn a possible conclusion that it might be oil, we may need a new hypothesis to confirm! Stay tuned to find out how we get to the bottom of this unique menorah and how it works!

Good Friends

Sometimes, in the middle of our busy day, we catch a moment of three-year-old joy that I wish we could bottle and distribute.  Mia took such delight in Olivia's antics with the magnifying glass, we could have watched them all day! 

Happy Birthday SYD!!!

 It is our tradition in the Kohavim classroom to make birthday banners for children celebrating the day of their birth. It is a thoughtful process where we ask the children to really think about the things their classmate enjoys. Well yesterday Zack came in and asked if he could make a banner for his sister because her birthday was coming up. He made a plan and said he wanted the banner to be 4 paper lenghts long. We stapled it together and then came more thinking and reflecting on things she might like. Zack shared that Syd's favorite color was purple, she liked fairies, and Mickey. Soon Max Greenstein and Dylan asked if they could contribute to Syd's birthday banner. Zack said sure and off they went to work together on Syd's banner. Thank you Zack for allowing your classmates to contribute their illustrations. Sydney we hope you had a WONDEFUL fun filled birthday and that you enjoyed the beautiful banner Zack made for you. Such a nice and kind brother!!! As a parent my heart just melted with the love of family.

Building Challenge!

 

The children have been playing with different kinds of building materials, experiencing how the stability of their structures are affected by the ways they put materials together and by the materials they use. Some of the children have become interested in stacking blocks; others build tall structures such as rockets and towers as part of their magnitile and block play. On Monday at our morning meeting we invited the children to become expert tower builders by trying to build the tallest structure they can using foam and/or rectangular wooden blocks. We asked the children..Which blocks do you think are best for making tall towers? Which towers do you think will get the tallest? As the children were busy building towers we engaged the children in breif converstions. We asked them about their structures and then in the context of their play encouraged them to build up. For example...Tell me about your building? Can you add a look out tower? Tell me about the house you are building can you build a roof? Some of the other children were really interested in making a car garage and playground. We did not want to interfere with their focus. Today we discussed strategies for tower building, Charlotte suggested, "Building flat helps blocks stay up." Elias and Josie said, "A lot on the bottom will keep them up." We will continue to facilitate science talks, take photos, sketch structures and encourage the children in the tower challenge!

Thanksgiving Feast... Extending hospitality

Time for Planting Bulbs

It was a beautiful snowy day today on the playground, which made for the perfect day to plant some bulbs! Sabrina, Brett, Hannah, Eliza, and Max Goldberg spent the morning planting bulbs. First, the children prepared the planters by pulling weeds, clearing out leaves, and tilling the soil. Then they added hyacinth and tulip bulbs to the planters. Together they arranged the bulbs, dug the holes, and planted the bulbs. Lastly, they decided to make some signs for everyone to know what would be growing in the planters. Hannah, Sabrina, and Max wrote the words "Tulips"  and "Hyacinths" so everyone would know what we planted. They also wrote, "No Digging" so children would know that there are bulbs growing in these planters and they should find another place to dig. We can't wait for our bulbs to bloom this spring!