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

Willing and open to exploring new things...

I has been a joy to behold as the children's natural curiosity has unfolded as they have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the world of bugs.   Sasha and I have been so lucky to be a part the process the and spirt of investigation, as the children  have taken on the role of a scientist, wondering about the insects and bugs!

Everyone is so comfortable handing and approaching the insects we find  outside on the playground or on our nature walks in the woods!  The way the children have dug into the worm farm  remind us of  archaeologists! They place the worms on their wrists like bracelets, on top of their hands and on their shoulders!

Their comfort level with insect and bug has carried over to other other living creatures.  Yesterday Micah G brought his dog Rusty to school for a visit.  As the children who don't have animals at home or contact with animals in general, where so open and willing to engage with Rusty!   They pet his belly, feed him treats, and  played catch with Rusty! 

 Micah, Rusty is one special guy!  Tell Rusty he can come back and visit anytime.

Celebrating with Adam!

Rabbi Todd came in to celebrate Adam's birthday!  We sang "Happy Birthday" in Hebrew first and then English!  Then Rabbi Todd read Adam's Birthday Book and a few books Adam hand picked from home.  The first book was about Star Wars...surprise, surprise!  The second book was a wonderful story about an up -coming holiday, Shavuot.

Last week just before Adam's 4th birthday he successfully mastered sliding down the "fire pole" on the TBSCC playground!  He was so proud of himself!  Check out the photos in the collage.  Here is how it is done...hand, hand on the pole, then bring your belly button to the pole,and down you go!

Capture this Moment Please!

 Ben asked me to take his picture today because he was "looking smart in his shirt.  This is a smart shirt because it has a fancy collar."  We agree, Ben, that you are, indeed, quite dapper!

Children Inspiring One Another

 

 

 

 

It was a busy lunch bunch day on Friday. It started with Brett and Max Greenstein deciding they wanted to write a book. When we read our books we will provide them with details about the author, who wrote the book, and the illustrator. On this day, Max Greenstein and Brett decided to write a book together. Max wanted to make sure that both names were written on the front cover of their book with the word author (Athr) written.

Brett and Max worked together on their story line. Then there was a problem, who was going to be able to take the book home? They negotiated taking turns. They decided that Brett will take it home first, then he will mail it back to Max. Great cooperation and problem solving.

Soon they had other children sharing in their excitement of writing books. Jacob, Nathan, and Drew came over. Jacob and Nathan wanted to write picture books with many pages as well. Drew decided he only wanted to write one page to his book. Max became the expert and showed Nathan how to secure the pages together using a stapler. There was some trial and error involved before this process was completed. First the pages were stapled but they could not turn the pages so that it could be read. What to do? We found a staple remover and figured out that in order to turn the pages we needed to first make sure the edges of the paper were straight together.

After this process was complete the children were eager to read their books to one another. Children are truly inspiring!

It's Lunch Bunch Yoga

 It's a cooking and yoga lunch bunch day. On this day, some yoga pictures were put on the rug for observation. Jacob carefully studied the pictures and decided he wanted to be the instructor. Drew was an eager participant. Jacob modeled the pose and both enjoyed being yogi animals. Can you guess what animal they are pretending to be?

The wedge and lever...

The wedge and the lever help focus our energy to make work easier. Micah and Noah found it was easier to pry the golf tees out of the styrofoam with the spoons. But Micah had a better, "The spoons breaks when you take out the tees. You can use the hook part of the hammer, that works better and it does not break." Micah showed Noah how to pry the tees out with the hook side of the hammer. Noah took his time and proceeded to remove all the tees from his piece of styrofoam. Each time he pryed out a tee he said, "Look another one!" The children figured out first hand, the hammer allows us to push the golf tee into the styrofoam easier than by hand alone, the spoon enables us to pry them out, which is difficult by finger strength alone.

Lunch Bunch Illustrators

After we eat our lunch we have what we call "peace out" time. It is a time where we choose activities that are more sedentary, such as drawing, puzzle making, reading and chatting quietly. On this particular day, some children elected to draw. They chat and enjoy one another's illustrations and often ask one another about these illustrations. It has been noticed that Jacob is a "great drawer."  Brett admired Jacob's picture and asked if he could draw one for him. Jacob demonstrated the process and Brett looked carefully. We will often have students teach one another and become experts in their respective talent. This provides them with confidence! Max Greenstein shares his story with Olive while enjoying some peace out time as we build our connections with some of our Haifa students who share lunch time with us.

Toothbrushing Routines

After we eat we take care of our bodies by brushing our teeth. Noah volunteered to assume the responsibility of being the hygienist. This is a big responsibility as there are many steps involved. First we need to count how many boys and girls there are, put out a cup for each child to rinse his or her toothbrush, call each child up when it is their turn, show them the steps, dip the brush into your cup, brush, throw out the water that is left over in your cup, then put you cup in the basket with the dirty dishes to be sanitized in the dishwasher. Whew... all done... cross his or her name off the list and on to the next one. Thank you Noah for being such a good peer teacher.

A board with numbers?

Today we introduced a board with numbers and a message on the number 11.  Some noticed that perhaps it was a calendar. One classmate said that "we did not start school on a Saturday so why was there a number "1" on a Saturday. This prompted another discussion about what other messages we could put on the our boards and what ways we can use a calendar in our daily lives? Stay tuned for important events we hear about to post on our calendar!

We decided we could put important events on the dates to help us remember what was happening on these days. Well today the message was "Maria's birthday". What does "birthday" mean we asked. "It's when we turn to another age, it's like when you turn 4 or 5 and go to a new school, it's like when you turn 5 then 6, it's a day you celebrate the day you were born."

Jesse had prepared a banner for the children to decorate for me. She asked the children what they thought Maria would like on the banner. She might like "cake," "her kids," "hearts because she likes the class," "Kohavim kids." Commenting on that idea, the children said "No, don't draw her kids. Draw the Kohavim kids because she wants to be a teacher."
 I am truly so very blessed to be learning alongside these Kohavim children.Thank you to all the boys and girls for their thoughtfulness and hard work.

TBSCC Band!

After a fun filled day outside at the Bike Rodeo, the children embraced a nice long leisurely lunch together! When lunch was over Hannah, Sarah, Eliza and Eli put on a music show with the instruments. They sang a few of our favorites...Down by the Bay, ABC's etc.

They invited the Bet Team in to join them. The Bet Team had a choice to be part of the show or the audience.

What is in the Bag???

Teddy Fox and Matt brought in some 'mystery' fruit for their classmates. Here are some of their clues...

Teddy Fox:
~ "It's red and green"
~ "It's yellow on the inside"

Questions asked by children to determine what was in the bag.

~ " What does it grow in?" Teddy's answer: "In hot places"

Can you guess what it is?

Matt:

~ "It grows on a tree"
~ " It's orange"
~ "It's round"
~ "It has a hard peel"
~ "It's a little sour and a little sweet"

Can you guess what it is?

These opportunities for leadership promote confidence in their abilities and also extends their thinking skills and expressive skills. The 'teacher'/student needs to think of clues that will help their classmates guess what is in the bag thinking of descriptions as related to size, shape, color, etc.

The 'science' pieces comes into play as well as we taste the fruit and describe it.

It's a Boom Boom Talent Show

It's a Boom Boom Talent Show

Happy Birthday Matty!

Mommy and Daddy aka Christine and Mike came in to celebrate Matty's birthday. Mommy and Daddy had planned to read a Pokemon book Matty selected, but Matty quickly took over and read to his classmates. He was so proud to read all the characters and show his classmates. Thank you Matty for reading to us, and thank you Christine and Mike for coming in. Matty was going to have a special lunch date with both Mommy and Daddy. We hope it was a fun filled lunch date.

Look ~ Can I build this?

The Kohavim boys and girls arrived back from Thanksgiving break to a new challenge. On the tree trunk of our playground there was a picture of a wooden structure. We asked the children, if they thought they could build something similar, and also to think of what materials they could use. From the picture the first item they said they needed were 'lots of sticks' 'tree seeds' 'tree branches'. Then in the planning process what else did they think we might need? Some boys and girls thought we would need 'glue and a 'rope' for the structure to stand. Off we went to explore and gather sticks and branches. Everyone worked cooperatively and gathered all the sticks in a big pile, some were long, wide, and some were small. Now came the real challenge. We didn't have rope or glue, but somehow by positioning the sticks just so they stood up. When asked why they thought this happened, some thought "the bigger longer sticks made it steady and together, the bottom sticks helped hold up the top ones!!! Great thinking boys and girls!!! They decided that it was a campfire and wooden fort, so we had snack and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Curious Minds need to Know !!!

tToday we received a NEW box of building straws and jacks. The first thing they noticed was the picture on the front of the box, and asked if they could build it? We will be making another 'blueprint' and plan it out for tomorrow.

 As we opened the box, there was something different looking than how we have typically seen the 'jacks': they were all connected. Could we build with them all connected? If not, what could we do? Joshua helped to separate the jacks for future building. As he was disconnecting them, he asked, how are the straws and jacks made? How could we find an answer to this question? Who could we ask? We looked for a name on the box of the company that manufactured this item, and learned that it was Rayclo, Inc, in South Carolina. I asked Joshua if he would like to write the President of the company? Providing children with meaningful writing experiences gets them excited about the process of writing, increases their self confidence that their ideas and questions are valued and important. We will be sending Joshua's letter out tomorrow.

Clay Master pieces

 

Monday lunch bunch friends elected to explore clay. Last week we made clay pots from natural clay. The children really remembered exploring with Mr. Clay last year, with their feet, then their hands. Monday we worked on our rolling technique, and some friends made some clay pots, by pinching and others by coiling and then pinching.
This week we worked with a different type of clay called polymer clay. After looking at the many possibilities for creation, they went to work. After rolling and cutting they discovered new creations just 'happened'. Samuel was amazed and said he made a "snail". Then when a friend asked how he did it he explained the process of "twirling" and rolling and viola. Hadley elected to make beads. She carefully rolled out the clay in lines, then rolled it into a ball to get her rainbow bead. Then she needed a hole in the clay which was easily made with a golf tea. She said these bracelets were for a special person in her family.
This clay will be baked and ready for next week. We are looking forward to many more beautiful creations. One of a kind creations for our budding artists.

Imagine that....

The block room has been a source of much imagination. Today friends were determined to make a long bridge from one end of the room to another. Can you imagine, trying to construct a bridge with many architects, each with a different vision of just how that bridge was to be completed? There were many: No not that way, you made it fall. Frustration in the process of having each idea represented, but in the end they were able to work cooperatively and finish it. Oh the pride.... Then came the imaginative waterfall and the water proof houses under the bridge. But that is another story.

Teddy Friedman~ I want to show mom

Teddy was unable to show mom (Rebecca) his climbing skills and asked me to please post this on the BLOG so mom could see. Rebecca this is for you!!!