Happy Birthday Elias!

Kohavim was so excited to celebrate our first birthday of the school year this week: Elias turned 5 years old! Earlier in the week the children brainstormed a list of ideas that Elias might like to see on his birthday banner. They thought Elias might like to see Legos, Star Wars, Sports, and Toys on his banner. All of the children and teachers added decorations, stickers, drawings, and messages to Elias birthday banner. On Friday, Elias's mom, Karen, came in and told us a version of the story, "Jonah and the Whale." We then sang happy birthday in Hebrew and presented Elias with his birthday banner. What a great way to celebrate! Happy Birthday Elias! 

Rose Turns Four Today

Rosie's dad, Robert, read Gruffalo, a great book written by Julia Donaldson and then we  shared a delicious watermelon birthday cake created by him. Thank you for this spectacular surprise treat! 

Everyone is happily engaged in listening to the Gruffalo story.

Rose paints her birthday poster at the easel.. 

Happy Birthday, Rosie.

Harold is 3!

We kicked off our last week of school with a birthday celebration for the latest Levana 3-year-old.  Harold brought a wonderful Eric Carle book to share with us, "The Very Busy Spider".  Harold's mom, Amy, read the story, as big sister Eliana, baby brother Isaac, and Dad Adam listened intently with all of us us.  We sang "Happy Birthday" in Hebrew and English, we made and wore birthday crowns, and we enjoyed a delicious watermelon snack.  We offer huge thanks to Harold's family for bringing the extra special treat for us to enjoy.

Happy Birthday, HAROLD!

Sophie's Birthday and the Costume Party Extravaganza

The end of the year has brought numerous birthdays and celebrations. At the beginning of

this week we celebrated Sophie S's birthday. At the same time, we had an end of the year costume party. After reading a book for Sophie's birthday and serenading her with a multilingual rendition 

of the birthday song, the Etzim busted into a spontaneous castle dance party! Projecting famous

fairy tale castles on the wall, we danced to the corresponding Disney songs. A fun time was 

had by all.  We are continuing our end of the year celebrations with Beach and Crazy

Hair day!

Happy "Fake 5" Nathan!

Today we celebrated Nathan's almost 5th birthday! Mom and Dad came in to read a Richard Scarry book to the entire class. Nathan turns 5 at the end of July, so we made sure to celebrate the Haifa way during school!

-Alison and Sauci

Birthday Central

Brett is almost five! Brett's birthday is on Wednesday when we do not have school. So he brought his family today to celebrate! His sister Ruby read a really silly book about a sleepy construction site, and the students enjoyed the funny faces and learning the different names of the equipment!
-Alison and Sauci

More Summer Birthdays!

As our year is quickly coming to a close, we are getting to celebrate lots of summer birthdays! Harper brought her whole family and a book that she had learned to read for the class. Memorizing and using the pictures to remember the words is a great pre-reading skill!

-Alison and Sauci

A Birthday Celebration x 2

Keshet had such a wonderful time celebrating with the Fox family today!  Harrison brought in Marcus Pfister's Rainbow Fish book and Ethan chose to share The Cat in the Hat with us.  Mom and Dad read the two stories together.  The kids shared some sweet moments and some silly ones as we listened to the two tales.  Together we sang Happy Birthday in English and then in Hebrew - once to Ethan, and then to Harrison.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Harrison!        Happy 3rd Birthday, Ethan!

At snack time, we were delighted to sample the baking of the Fox family.  There were blueberry muffins AND pumpkin muffins to share.  The muffins were just delicious.  Thank you for sharing your birthdays and your talents with us this morning!

Happy Birthday, Graham!

Graham celebrated his third birthday in the Levana class with his mom and brother Ben.  Graham's mother read us, "Otis and the Puppy", which we all really enjoyed.  We sang "Happy Birthday" in English and Hebrew, with our birthday crowns on.  Happy Birthday, Graham!

Happy Birthday, Piper!

The Levana class has another 3-year-old!   Thanks to Patience and Josh Shriber for coming in to celebrate Piper's birthday with us.  Piper brought two funny and fun books, "We are in the Book" and "Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed." We giggled our way through the two stories, and enjoyed singing to Piper in English and Hebrew.  Happy Birthday!

Olive Turns Five!

The number of five year olds in the Haifa classroom is growing!! Olive turned five right before vacation! She was able to share her special day with Mom, Dad, and sister Audrey. Olive brought in two silly books that were enjoyed by everyone in class!

-Alison and Sauci

Sam and Abby Turn Five!!

This past week we celebrated lots of birthdays, including our twins, Sam and Abby! Both Mom and Dad came in to read, as well as their grandmother! Sam and Abby each picked out a book to read, and it was a wonderful day to celebrate with the class and close family!

-Alison and Sauci

Happy Birthday, Ilan!

Ilan's mom, Abby, came to join us on Friday to celebrate Ilan's 4th birthday! Abby read The Happy Man and His Dump Truck. The man fills his dump truck with all sorts of farm animals instead of dirt. We had so much fun "clucking, oinking and barking" along with the book.

 

 After, Abby brought writing booklets for us to write our own farm animal stories. Thank you Abby and Ilan - we had a great time reading, writing and celebrating with you!!

Hayley's Birthday

 

Another of our Levana children turned three. Hayley's mom and dad came in and read a favorite Passover book, The Matzah Man. It's a Passover version of the Gingerbread Man. The children listened intently and chimed in "I'm the matzah man" at the appropriate moments. Happy Birthday, Hayley.

Happy Birthday, LILY!

The Levana class loves to celebrate birthdays!  We had a great time this week celebrating with our newest three-year-old, Lily.  Lily and her mom brought two great books to share with our class, including a very special book that her uncle wrote and illustrated called, "The Magic Leaf", when he was just in elementary school!  She also shared the story, "Curious George Visits the Aquarium", since Lily herself had just visited the Boston aquarium as part of her birthday celebration.  Lily's mom and her stuffed Curious George read and sang with the whole class as we celebrated together!

Happy Birthday, Lily!

Crowns for Queen Esther, King Ahashuerus, and OLIVIA!!

We love decorating crowns in the Levana class.  It's what we do to celebrate birthdays.  We were so excited to have Olivia's mom with us today to read 3 great books to the newest 3-year-old in our class.  (Olivia liked reading simultaneously with her mom!)

 

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Birthday Olivia!

Happy Birthday Samantha!

We have a new 3 year old in the Levana class!  Samantha turned 3 today, and she brought some wonderful people to celebrate with us.  She brought her mom and dad, sister Sarah, and fabulous babysitter, Savannah.  Sarah read us a wonderful book, "Welcome to Your World, Baby" by Brooke Shields.  Samantha's mom explained that the girls got this book when Samantha was born, and now they do together all the things described in the book.  Samantha pointed at the illustration of the baby girl in the book and told us, "This is me when I was a baby, but now I'm big like Sarah!"

Sarah then read a Doc McStuffins book and we sang Happy Birthday in English and Hebrew. 

Thank you to Samantha's family for coming in and celebrating with us!  We hope the rest of your birthday is as fun as this morning was.

Happy Birthday Joshua!!

Tuesday was Joshua's 4th Birthday!! His mom and grandma came in to sing, celebrate and read to the class. Joshua was so excited to share his books from home with us and we were excited to give our birthday book to Joshua! I have been impressed with how thoughtful the Tel Aviv birthday books have become as the year has gone on. Each child created something that they spent time on and dictated a special message for Joshua. We hope that you enjoy the book and thanks again for sharing your mom and grandma with us! It was such a special day!!

Haifa's First Five Year Old!!

The way the classes are split up, the Haifa class hasn't had any birthdays to celebrate this year. Yesterday, our first Haifa-ite turned five: Aleeza!! Aleeza's parents were able to come in on Aleeza's actual birthday and read us two very silly books about losing teeth. We then presented Aleeza with the first birthday book of the school year, in which each child (the birthday girl too) made a picture and wished Aleeza a happy birthday. We then sang Happy Birthday both in English and in Hebrew as per the request of the class.

We loved getting to celebrate with Aleeza, and we can't wait for more of us to turn five!

-Alison and Sauci

Levana Class Celebrate Abby's Third Birthday

 

It was Abby’s third birthday and the Levana children always enjoy celebrating a classmate’s special day.  Everyone gets to decorate and wear a crown. Abby’s Mom came in to read one of Abby’s favorite books, Little Pea . In this story, Little Pea doesn’t like to eat the candy he’s served for dinner. His parents ask him to eat five pieces before he can have his spinach dessert. Watching children laugh, getting the joke in this silly book makes all of the adults smile, too.