The crown jewels

Serious jewelers at work!  Not only did the Shamayim children create one of a kind pieces, they strengthened their finger and hand muscles along the way!!

Taking pride in hard work

Today, Ethan worked very hard on his magnetile structure.  A few children wanted to help Ethan. However, Ethan really wanted to complete what he started on his own.

While we strive to teach the children inclusion and team work, we also want to promote self advocacy. There were plenty of magnetiles for Ethan's friends to work on another structure by themselves.

 

This allowed Ethan to have his voice heard and respected.  Sometimes it's ok to work on something by ourselves!

Beautiful job, Ethan!

The Leader of the Week is...

Ben's stick was picked today!  Ben was more than happy to be the Havdallah leader!  He can't wait to hang out with Chester this weekend!

Torah, Torah

I just sat back and enjoyed the beautiful music which was totally child initiated. Again what a gift to share in the joy of Torah!!!  Hope all enjoy as much as I did at lunch bunch today. 

Shavuah Tov!

We joined together with Etzim and Adamah for Havdalah this morning in the community room. With the help of some Havdalah helpers, Ellen led us in the blessings. After very spirited dancing, we shared some of our wishes for the week to come. Together, we chanted our wishes aloud as we tapped our laps: 

We wish for ___________

In the week to come.

Shavuah Tov to Everyone! 

Some of the children's wishes for the week to come included their moms and dads, families, Disney, Tom Brady, snow, and Aruba. What do you wish for in the week to come? 

Ha Motzi to Song Mia Inspired

Singing to G-d ... It was very interesting today as the guitar and harp were set out for exploration. During the discussion of what to play, Mia said: "How about we play music to G-d". That inspired Josh to start singing the Ha Motzi. Enjoy

Musical Monday~ Inspired Music

Josh and Ben were jamming to Shabbat Shalom. I believe they have been inspired by the beautiful music we have been hearing on our Shabbat gatherings in the sanctuary. It is wonderful to have those Shabbat feelings every day!!!

The third stick person

Grayden got his wish today.  He said he wanted to be the stick person.  Lo and behold, his stick was randomly selected from the bucket.  We sure hope Grayden always gets what he wishes for.

Helping Ellen

This morning Ellen came onto the playground and asked if anyone could help her pick up trash that had accumulated on the hill.  Grayden was eager to help.  Not only did he get to climb onto the hill but then he got to go around on the playground and get his friends to help clean up.  Way to go Grayden in this win-win task.

Open for Business

Today we officially opened our Dunkin Donuts shop for business.  There was tons of excitement as children were busy making signs, getting their aprons on, and preparing to open.  Everyone took turns being workers and customers.

Micah R. decided to make a welcome sign.

Molly wanted to make an open and closed sign.

Josie and Emme made labels for the different sized
cups.  We have small, medium, large, and extra large.

Jolie, Samantha, and Lily waited patiently in line
to make their purchases.

Josie and Zach put on their aprons and worked
the register taking everyone's orders.

During our class meeting, we brainstormed a list of what materials we still needed to make our shop even more fun.  We came up with donuts, cookies, muffins, more bagels, more cups, and napkins.  Tomorrow we are going to use salt dough to create some pretend delicious treats for our store.  

The Adamah Office!

On Friday, the Adamah class came in to find an office set up in our classroom!  Complete with a phone, clipboards, markers, pencils, labels, envelopes and tape, we all worked hard, just like our parents.  Samantha said, "My Daddy told me this morning that he was coming to school, and I was going to work!"  It looks like he was right!

Challah on Shabbat!

The Adamah children truly  enjoy making challah!   On Shabbat Sammantha, Hayley, Graham and Sally enter the room, help themselves to challah dough and a bit of flour.  When it's time to put the challah in the oven guess who is still at the table kneading, rolling and playing with the challah dough?  That's right...Samantha, Hayley, Graham, and Sally!  

How do we use these blocks?

The Adamah class has wooden blocks of different sizes neatly lined up and organized on the shelf.  It might seem obvious to us how to use them, but the children are challenged to come up with new and creative ideas.  So far, our blocks have become tracks for cars, garages, castles, and even an ark for the Torah. 

When all the blocks are out on the rug, it can feel intimidating to get them back on the shelves in the right spots.  But by matching the block shapes with the pictures inside the cabinet, we're starting to figure out where they go.

Justin is looking at a curved block, and matching it up to the picture.

After Ben matched his block to the right spot, he slides it to the back of the shelf.

Musical Monday Lunch Bunch

During our first week of lunch bunch we discussed various interests in an effort to make Lunch bunch a meaningful experience. This is consistent with our belief that developing curriculum  around children's interest will foster a love of learning.  The Monday lunch bunch group decided that they wanted to do "Banding" otherwise known as making some beautiful music together.  We brought in some pictures of different musical instruments and introduced string instruments. ( we will get to wind and percussion instruments later)

The children had an opportunity to look at two string instruments: the guitar and the harp. I asked them to observe both. What what the same and what was different. It was determined they they were similar in that they both had strings and both were made of wood and both had holes in them. Then I asked them to consider the sound and make a prediction, if they would sound the same or different? Mia tests out her predictions. You might want to ask your children what they thought. Observing, thinking, and making predictions are important life skills. My hope is that as we explore different musical instruments, we will create our own music using recycled materials and make a musical garden outside. I had the privilege of visiting the Irvine school in Baltimore that had an outdoor garden which was very much used.

Recycled Materials Musical Garden

If you have any materials similar to those seen please feel free to donate for our percussion musical garden. Thank you !!

V'ahavta

Visitors to our Shabbat celebration often comment on the fact that even our youngest children know the Hebrew words to the first line of the V'ahavta. Using the hand motions to help them remember the words, we often hear the children reciting them in the classroom. As they get older, this familiarity will support them in learning to read Hebrew, including the rest of the V'ahavta prayer. And you shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. V'ahavta Et Adonai Elochecha, B'chol L'vavcha Uv'col Nafsh'cha Uv'chol M'odecha.

There is a turkey knocking on the door?

Right outside the TBSCC entrance there was a turkey standing it at the door!  Adamah was getting ready to go outside and Rachel told us we had a visitor with feathers.  We all walked over to check out the real turkey at the door.  It was quite a sight!  It's not everyday you have a turkey standing at your door!

We help take care of our environment

 Ben, Jack, and Josh help load the dishwasher. In the Ruach class we use dishes and glasses to do our part to reduce waste in the landfills. Josh looks for the start button to get the process of cleaning going.

Shmirat HaTeva

Rose, Reed, Josh, Jack and Audrey wash and  rinse their recyclables. 

 G-d has blessed us with a beautiful world. The Ruach lunch bunch boys and girls are embracing the concept of taking care of our world with enthusiasm.  We have noticed that many of the foods we bring for lunch such as yogurt drinks, yogurt containers, cottage cheese containers have a triangle and can be recycled. It takes a bit of effort but it makes a BIG difference. Thanks you boys and girls for doing your part to take care of our world by reducing waste and reusing materials. We posted a  sign with gentle hands holding our world to remind us that we can take care of our world. 

Hevenu Shalom Aleichem

 

Emily is teaching us the tricky motions to Hevenu Shalom Aleichem. Pat, clap, shoulders, wooo! It's a challenge to follow the quickly moving pattern and I can almost seen the wheels turning as the children focus on learning it. Ask your child for a demonstration!

I'm so happy!

I love the joyful anticipation with which the TBSCC children welcome Shabbat. It's clear that Shabbat is a welcome end to their weeks and I know the positive associations they are developing now will only grow in the years to come. 

Celebrating Shabbat in Kindergarten

It is amazing to watch the amount that is accomplished in only three hours of kindergarten. The children arrive full of excitement for Shabbat and join Emily in the sanctuary for their own weekly service. This week they got up close to the ark to see the Torah and led Emily in Mah Yafeh HaYom from the bima. The celebration continued with challah baking, candle lighting and a Shabbat story and snack. And that was just the first hour! I look forward to seeing how the kindergarten Shabbat rituals develop over the course of the year.

Putting the Torah in the Ark

Our new weekly tradition is to honor one class each week with the responsibility of holding the Torah during the Shabbat celebration and then returning the Torah to the ark at the end. This week the honor went to the Etzim class. Laura held the Torah while we sang and prayed. Jacob sat next to her and hugged the Torah, too. Then the whole class carefully claimed up on the bima. Eli and Hillary opened the ark and Laura set the Torah inside. Then Julia, Eli, Lindsey and Abby worked together to close the heavy glass doors to the ark. What a unique experience! Ask your child about it!

Rainbow Dancing

Playing with Gak

The Kindergartners enjoyed exploring gak today! They noticed how cold and smooth it felt. They tried squeezing and stretching the gak. Adam discovered that he could separate the gak into pieces and braid it just like challah! He used the gak to braid three different challahs: A teeny tiny challah, a small challah, and a giant challah! Playing with gak is an amazing sensory experience. As the children manipulate the gak they are exploring and naturally using the scientific process as they play, create, and investigate.

What time is it Mr. Fox?

After braiding our chalalhs this afternoon, the Kindergartners walked to the community room where we placed our challahs in the oven and played some games. The first challenge was to a hula hoop pass. The children stood in a circle holding hands and had to work together to move the hula hoop around the entire circle without letting go of each other's hands. It took team work and some practice, but the Kindergartners worked together so well that they were able to pass the hula hoop all the way around the circle in under 2 minutes! Passing the hula hoop required team work and cooperation! 

We then played a game called, "What time is it Mr. Fox?" In this game, one child is Mr. Fox and stands at one end of the room. The rest of the children stand at the other end of the room and shout, "What time is it Mr. Fox?" Mr. Fox then gives a time such as, 5 o'clock, which lets the children know they should take that amount of steps. The children continue asking and taking steps towards Mr. Fox. As they get closer, Mr. Fox will respond with "Midnight!" when the children ask what time it is. Mr. Fox then runs after the children trying to catch them for his "dinner." The children enjoyed taking turns being Mr. Fox, counting out the number of steps they took to get closer to Mr. Fox, and quickly running back away from Mr. Fox. Playing Mr. Fox enables the children to practice following rules of a game, develop sportsmanship, and engage in a gross motor activity. The game also involved counting the steps they took towards Mr. Fox and participating in a call and response. 

Mah Yafeh HaYom

שִׁים שָׂלוֹם Sim Shalom

Sim, sim, sim shalom
Sim, sim, sim shalom
Tovah u’vracha

 שִׂים שָׁלוֹם טוֹבָה וּבְרָכָה

Grant peace, goodness, and blessing.

What should we change the dramatic play area to?

We decided in Kohavim it was time to change our dramatic play area. We asked for the children's ideas and they had many! They suggested a construction site, library, post office, and many different types of stores. We agreed that this time we would change the dramatic play area to a type of store and next time we would try one of the other ideas. This week, the children voted for which type of store they thought we should transform the dramatic play area to. The choices were: Shoe store, Dunkin Donuts, Toy store, or a Food Store. All of the children casted their votes by writing their name on a yellow post-it note and placing it next to the choice they liked the most. Before story, we tallied the votes together. After counting the number of votes for each store we compared to find out which had the highest number of votes. We determined that Dukin Donuts, which had 9 votes, had the highest number of votes. It is official, we will be changing our dramatic play area to a pretend Dunkin Donuts!

We then made a list of what we thought we might need to change the dramatic play area to a Dunkin Donuts. Below is our list of ideas:
- Donuts
- Hot Chocolate
- Coffee
- Munchkins
- Milk
- Snacks
- Bags
- Iced Tea
- Egg and Cheese
- Cash registers
- Money
- Cups
- Aprons
- Chairs and table
- Chef hats
- drinks
- Straws


Stay tuned as our transformation of the dramatic play area to a pretend Dunkin Donuts continues!

Challah Braiding 101

The children in Kohavim are always so excited to make challah on Shabbat. So many of the children are interested in braiding challah that we decided to make a step-by-step guide. Last week, Emme used a camera to take photos to document the different steps of how to braid challah. Today, the children came in to find the Kohavim teachers used the photos to create a step-by-step guide. Though braiding challah can be tricky, Kohavim was up for the challenge. And with the step-by-step guide, they created delicious braided challahs!

Playing in Nature

During extended day on Monday, we went behind our classroom to see what we might discover in nature. Evan explained that if we turned over large rocks we may be able to find some different insects. At first, we flipped some rocks to find worms and roly polies. Then, Evan turned over a rock and discovered a salamander! The children had such a giggle as they tried to hold the wiggly salamander in their hands. You never know what you might find right outside your door! 

Shabbat Songs with Emily

We went to the sanctuary today where we sang Shabbat Songs with Emily. We even learned some new sign language to say, "Thank you, God" or in Hebrew, "Modim Anachnu Lach." We then shared with each other things we are thankful for:
James said, "Toys and Torah"
Brett Stone said, "Food."
Dylan said, "Legos."
Julian said, "Video Games."
You might want to share with your child what you are thankful for and ask them to teach you the sign language!

We then had the chance to open the ark and take out the Torah. Jesse held the Torah as we gently touched its beautiful and colorful cover. We then sang the Shema, which many of the children remember from the Children's Center is the Torah's favorite song.

We ended by singing and doing the American Sign Language for Ma Yafeh Hayom.