Happy Birthday Zachary!

Our day started with a visit from some special visitors--Zachary's mom and dad came in to celebrate his birthday with our class.  They shared the book Baby Beluga.  We enjoyed reading and singing along so much that we read it twice and then sang Happy Birthday in English and then in Hebrew.  The fun continued later with a special snack that Zachary's mom and dad brought in for everyone--graham crackers and apples!  Thanks so much and Best Wishes to Zachary for a Happy Happy day on his actual birthday--Wednesday.

Happy Birthday Ally!

Today Ally brought her mother and her brother Jesse in to visit.  Ally shared one of her favorite books with us. She read Hello Kitty Colors and Jesse helped her out.  It was great to see Ally's bright smile when the children sang Happy Birthday both in English and in Hebrew.  Jesse, thanks so much for lending your voice as well!  The children enjoyed meeting Jesse because Ally regularly tells us about her big brother.

When we visited the Levana classroom later in the morning, we sang Happy Birthday again.  It certainly was great to celebrate Ally's third birthday with her today.

Happy Birthday Micah!

On Wednesday we all celebrated Micah's birthday! First we sang "Happy Birthday" in Hebrew and English. Then we read Micah's special birthday book that his Tel Aviv friends made for him. We ended by listening to one of Micah's favorite books he brought in from home.

Happy Birthday Zach!

Today we celebrated Zach’s Birthday. His mom came in and together we sang and red stories. We even read Zach’s birthday book. It was great to see each child’s face light up as Rachel read each page out loud. The classmates were so proud to have their work in a real book and read to the class and Zach was so happy to have a book from his new class. We love this tradition just for these reasons and we are looking forward to celebrating every child’s birthday (even the summer ones!) at some point throughout our year together. 

Creating an Etzim Birthday Tradition

Josh Green had a birthday last week.  His mom, Liz, came in to help us celebrate by bringing Josh's favorite song, My Name is Cheech, and I Am A Schoolbus Driver.  We think this is a wonderful way to celebrate a birhday in our classroom and invite all Etziim families to bring their child's favorite song in to share when their big day arrives!   Josh also brought in the family birthday frog, who makes an annual appearance on birthdays as he croaks out Happy Birthday!  The children all enjoyed this celebration, and singing and dancing with Josh so much!  Thanks Josh and Liz!

A Celebration for Sophie

The Rainbows' day was filled with wonderful activities.  We started with a celebration of Sophie's third birthday.  (It isn't official until Monday!)  Tricia and Scott came to join us and to share a couple of Sophie's favorite books.  One was about Ariel's adventure as she and her friends teamed up to rescue their good friend Sebastian.  The other one was all about princesses.  My favorite part was when Sophie's Dad read that "Princesses are smart, and they read lots of books."  This fit right in with our celebration of Shavuot.  You'll see that we dressed in our pajamas to be comfortable reading "all night" from our collection of books.  We also enjoyed a dairy snack that we made ourselves.  

Happy Birthday Sophie!

Did you see the paper today?

Today we had a visit with Grayden's parents: Melissa and Peter Loeb.  They came to help us celebrate Grayden's birthday.  Tomorrow Grayden will be three years old.  We started the fun a bit early.  Grayden's mom read us one of Grayden's favorite bedtime stories.  It was The Paperboy by Dav Pilkey which is a wonderful story with some gorgeous illustrations.  As you can see in the photographs, we had a few laughs as we followed along with the paperboy on his early morning travels.  

Grayden's family is donating a copy of The Paperboy for us to enjoy anytime we would like in our classroom.  Here is a big THANK YOU from the Rainbow class.

Happy Birthday Grayden!

Happy Birthday, Eliana!

The Levana class was very happy to have Eliana's family visit us today to celebrate her third birthday. Amy read one of our favorite books, Five Little Monkeys. This was great fun since we all know the rhythm and rhyme of the story, and Harold helped to lead us in reciting the chorus. Then the children all demonstrated their own jumping abilities, and they certainly rivaled the monkeys in the story. Later, we enjoyed a special frozen treat with our snack! Thank you, Adam and Amy, for spending this special time with us. Happy Birthday, Eliana!

Happy Birthday Olive

Happy 4th birthday to Olive, who celebrated in our classroom with her parents, her sister, Audrey, and the entire Rainbow class!   We had a wonderful time listening to two of Olive's favorite stories, and it was a lot of fun to have the Rainbow class visit us!

Olive's Dad, Marc, had the room roaring with laughter during his version of  The Pout Pout Fish.  

 Thank you Marc and Karen for making Olive's birthday so much fun for everyone!

Happy Birthday Sam and Abby

Before our April break we were delighted to have Sam and Abby's mother and father join us for a four year old birthday celebration!   Michael brought his guitar, which was a wonderful treat for everyone.   We sang some of our favorite songs (Happy Birthday) and heard some wonderful books.  Thanks Rachel and Michael, and Happy Birthday Sam and Abby!

Who's turning 3?

The Rainbow class enjoyed a visit from Abby Bernstein today. That's Ilan's mom! She came to join us in celebration of Ilan's third birthday. Abby brought along a favorite book of Ilan's called Trashy Town. She read it to us in circle to our delight. Once Mr. Gilly had been ALL OVER Trashy Town, he had finally filled his great big trash truck. After all his hard work, he enjoyed a warm bath. When the story ended, we sang Happy Birthday to Ilan in English and in Hebrew.

Happy Birthday, Ilan!

Birthday Fruit Party

The Unicorns love a special guest, and what is more special than having a parent visit our classroom? Today Sam's Dad, Richard, joined us to share a book and celebrate Sam's 4th birthday! Later we had a beautiful fruit feast as Sam brought in strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. Thank you, Richard, for reading to us and Happy Birthday to Sam!

Someone Else Turns 5!

Over the weekend, Jake turned 5! Jake is our second birthday of the year, and we were so lucky to get to share in his celebration with his mom and his grandmother! Jake's mom read us a great book called Matt's Mitt, which is one of Jake's favorite stories. It was Jake's dad's favorite story as a kid, and it's great to see it coming to the next generation!

-Alison and Sauci

Happy Birthday Max!

Max will be 4 years old on December 24th! Kathy and Adam joined Max and his Tel Aviv friends for a special birthday celebration! We sang "Happy Birthday" in Hebrew and English, read Max's birthday book from his classmates and then read a few books that Max picked out from home. As of December 24th, everyone in the Tel Aviv classroom will be 4 years old!

Happy Birthday Eliza!

Today we celebrated Eliza's Birthday! We sang Happy Birthday and danced around her in a circle. Karen, Eliza's mom, joined us for this fun celebration. Together we read the birthday book the class made for Eliza, then Karen shared a special dreidel book with the class. Afterwards, we played with dreidels. The book was so fun we might even read it again tomorrow. Thanks Karen for joining us so we could celebrate Eliza's big day together!

Happy Birthday Teddy Post

Teddy loves learning anything related to Judaism. His mother, Jessica, joined us today to celebrate Teddy's fifth birthday and to read some Chanukah books that Teddy selected. One of the books was called: What Do You Do on a Jewish holiday? It was a flap book which gave clues to a particular Jewish holiday that the children then guessed. They guessed correctly on most of them except for Lag B'Omer. This year we'll be sure to recognize and teach that one more thoroughly. Since a celebration of Lag B'Omer can involve having a picnic, it should be fun to celebrate while we're learning more about the holiday. Jessica also read us a counting book about Chanukah. Thank you Jessica for celebrating Teddy's special day with us. Thank you also for giving the class a fun game about Chanukah that we will be sure to play. Teddy blew out five real candles on his playdough cupcake which he later told me "is a cake but in a cup!"

Happy Birthday Matt

Our Kohavim birthday celebrations continue as Chris and Mike Shusterman joined us to celebrate Matt's fifth birthday. Matt is very interested in Pokemon, so he chose a book which he himself actually "read" to his classmates. They were all quite mesmerized, obviously familiar with some of the characters and their powers. Chris and Mike are very fortunate that they have not been subjected to major exams and quizzes like I was when my son lived and breathed Pokemon. What a mom won't do to share her child's interests. Thank you guys for joining us, for enabling me to walk down memory lane, and most importantly, for making Matt so happy on his special day.

Birthdays Galore!!

Today we had not one but TWO special birthday celebrations, Jacob and Lily!! Today was Jacob’s “official” birthday and Lily had her special celebration today for her birthday on Friday! Jacob’s mom, dad and brother Zach came in this morning and read two special books with us. Jacob shared one of his favorite stories, Harold and the Purple Crayon. I was not surprised that such a budding artist would love this book so much. It was great to see how engaged the class was with the story and a few children picked purple canyons out to color with later in the day!

Lily ‘s Mom Amy came in at the end of the day and also shared books with us. One of the books, Winkin Blinkin and Nod, was a book that Amy had when she was young and now reads to Lily. It is a lovely story with beautiful illustrations. The book was created from a poem and since then there has also been a song written to the same lyrics. After Amy read the story she played us the song on her phone. The class was mesmerized! it was so sweet that Lily and her mom shared such a treasure with our class.

Happy Birthday Jacob and Lily! It was wonderful to spend the day celebrating you and your birthdays today!

Happy Birthday Eli!

We had a great time celebrating Eli’s birthday last week. Eli picked out two great books and we are so excited that he’s four! Also check out his great new four-year-old hair cut!! Happy Birthday Eli!

Tel Aviv’s Muffin Munch

In honor of Ezra’s birthday Ezra’s mom, Karen, baked the class delicious carrot and apple bran muffins. She included some icing which the children got to spread themselves. It was great to see each one take on the task of spreading and using those fine motor skills! Then they each got to top the muffins off with carrots, apples and bananas! Delicious! Thanks so much for such a special treat!