Cooking 101

The Thursday lunch bunch boys and girls have been requesting a cooking day. We will be developing our own recipe book so stay tuned. Thursday however we made waffles. We followed our visual recipe making sure to measure and mix the ingredients. We used a heart shaped waffle maker but there was one problem. There were seven cooks, Ben, Eliana, Jack, Olivia, Reed, Rose, and Sophie Ganot but only 3 heart shaped waffles. What could we do ? We had a decision to make, we could eat in two different groups or at the same time. The cooks decided they all wanted to eat together. Ok well that still left us with a problem, we still just had 3 waffles. Rose thought we should cut them in half so everyone could eat . After we cut them in half we realized that made 6 and we had 7 children. It was quite amazing but one friend said it was ok he could wait for the next batch . 

Working together

It's not always easy to work with a large group.  There are many ideas, goals and differing ways to accomplish these goals. 

Today, Shamayim children proved that cooperation and kindness can help us accomplish our goals.

Friends asked for advice on where to place blocks and all of the children were respectful about individual block placement.

The forest in the Ruach class

I wonder who or what lives in the forest. Children were free to develop their own stories while they manipulated the characters in the scene. 

Beautiful music

It was decided that we could assemble percussion instruments. Audrey, Ben, Josh, and Reed had to select just the right nail length to use to secure the instruments to the wooden poll. Then they figure out how to have it stand up. They dug a hole and worked together to create our first piece in our musical garden which will be expanding.  Learning how to work together, problem solve, tests theories in a safe environment builds confidence and develops critical thinking skills. Please feel free to contribute any unwanted sound making materials for us to explore. 

Rosie's Place - Tzedakah-

We asked your children what they knew about Tzedakah and they responded that it was giving money to people who need it. One if our goals this year is to think about Tzedakah as a daily responsibility. Jacob shared that once he found a penny in the beach and put it in his piggy bank Tzedakah, Eliana shared that she gave food to a girl who then gave it to people who need it, Sophie Sherman shared her nana gives clothes to someone else. Today we made pasta for those at Rosie's place. There are lots of ways we can help. We can think of buying pasta, velveeta cheese for Tzedakah. We introduced the concepts of Acts of Chesed - kindness towards others- those volunteers at Rosie's place that cook and serve meals and us for all all prep work all are acts of Chesed or loving  kindness towards others. Stay tuned as we explore these concepts through out the year and work together to develop ways  we can make the world better by our efforts !!

Taking care of each other

Adam was a terrific friend and water fountain helper! He helped his thirsty friends by turning the knob so that they could concentrate on catching the water in their mouths!

Thank you, Adam!!

Tikkun Olam

Noah, Brett, Sam , and Eliza use recycled juice bottles to collect rain water for our garden. First we cut the bottom out of the bottles then put the lid back on, dig a hole, and place the bottle in. We hope to line our garden with these recycled materials to collect rain water to use for our garden. Olam in action.  Now all we need is rain!

                                                                            

Tikkun Olam

Who wants to help plant a garden to help our world? We talked earlier in the week about what kind of plants we could plant. Children came up with many ideas, broccoli, tomatoes, blueberries, carrots, lettuce, and beans to name a few. Some children want to plant flowers too. What do plants need to live?? ( soil, water, and sun)

Eliza and Sam were our first gardeners.

Lily was inspired to dig too. 

Haper was digging too. 

Sabrina carefully looked at the roots.
We loosen the roots by squeezing them to
help them grow strong. 

Maddie was helping the roots too.

Hole has been dug. Ready to plant. 

Cover it up. Make sure the roots are
covered completely along with some of the stems. 

Sabbaba... A cool worm. Worms are
good for our garden. 

Max completes the process of nurturing
our new plants.

You may want to ask what we planted? Our current garden is full now but we have lots of other ground area
to cover. 

                

Chefs in Motion

The Tzahov boys were busy preparing a delicious meal and establishing their restaurant in dramatic play. They needed some menus and food. On the menu was corn and pizza. There was one problem, they wanted pizza but there was no pizza. What can we do?? Brett decided to make his own pizza slices. When asked how much he wanted for the pizza slices he initially responded $10.00. When the response was too expensive he said, "ok, four dollars, two dollars a slice. The price was just right and customers agreed. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to price our own food at restaurants??

Our last shabbat

Today was our last Shabbat as the Shamayim class.  Each Friday, we get a small piece of dough to form our individual challah.  We take it home and share it with our families (or gobble it up on the way to the car!).

Today, instead of making 13 challahs, the 13 Shamayim children worked together to make one class challah that we divided up to give everyone a piece.  What a special way to share our final Shabbat together - as ONE group!!

A Special Reader Visits the Shamayim Class

We had two visitors come to our classroom today, Sonia's sister, Naomi and her mom, Marissa. Naomi read three stories to us.  Naomi is a wonderful reader and we were great listeners.  Then, Marissa played her guitar and we sang Old McDonald and some silly songs with  hand and body movements.  Thank you Sonia for sharing your sister and mommy with us today.  We had so much fun!

Imagination in the Shamayim Classroom

Today in the Shamayim classroom,  Josh, Ilan, Grayden and Bennett, decided to turn our chairs into a dragon.  This dragon was a very friendly and hungry dragon.  

Team work

It was peace out (quiet time) in lunch bunch. Several activities are set up for this time. On this particular day children wanted to construct with Magna tiles. Brett and Max Greenstein made a plan: they wanted to make something big and use ALL the tiles. They negotiated placement of tiles and shared a vision. Others were working alongside but they did not have as many tiles to work with. One might think ... Trouble coming! Jacob, Jared, and Drew asked if they could add on to their existing structure. Brett and Max graciously said sure, then asked "can you post this on the blog, so my dad can see we did teamwork?" It is wonderful to sit alongside children learning life skills of negotiation and teaching and inspiring one another!

I wonder what is sooo funny??

 Telling stories and developing friendships...

Outdoor Discoveries

 We are truly blessed to have an outdoor environment full of opportunities for exploration. We asked the children if they would like to build a fort using just things they found in nature. We talked about safety reminders to stay together then we started our problem solving. We needed to first decide and plan where we would build this structure as that would determine what materials we needed to look for. We made our plan, and decided we would build our structure near the corner of the fence. What did we notice about the corner? What kind of materials did we need? How would we get them stablized and secure? Math, spacial awareness, problem solving learning, teamwork and cooperation  opportunities in motion. Nathan was so inspired that the next day he brought in sticks from home to add to our structure. We dined and used our imagination to tell stories in our fort. 

A Cooperative Project

The children enjoy working together to create a group collage. Each child selects the pieces they want to glue onto the large posterboard paper. They learn to share the materials as well as the space. There is a sense of group cohesiveness and satisfaction in working together.

road work ahead

Lily and Victoria worked so nicely to build this beautiful road.  They organized their tiles, worked cooperatively and created a road wide enough to enjoy at the end!!

Passover Candyland???

 Zack, Eli, and Ryan enjoy a Passover game. They walked the walk.. preparing the house for passover, telling the passover story, asking questions, welcoming guests, and finding the Afikomen. May we continue to be always grateful and appreciative of all the gifts given  to us by G-d., leading us out of slavery, giving us the Torah, and Shabbat.

A New Approach

Box play continued in the Keshet classroom today, with Joseph finding that he was able to climb into the box in its upright position. He invited friends to join him, and they found that it was easier for them to climb in and out with the help of step stools. Classmates gave one another a hand as they made the big climb over the side of the box to enter, and also helped as they climbed back out. Big smiles all around, and a sense of accomplishment as the children enjoyed scaling the "wall" and then playing for a while inside this durable and fun enclosure.

cooperative problem solving

When you are three and four, problem solving is a work in progress.  We are learning how to share and negotiate.  Have our feelings heard and learn what it means to respect and understand someone else's ideas and feelings - even when they don't match our own.

Working cooperatively is also something we practice everyday.  We use patience to wait our turn, flexibility when our turn becomes someone else's turn and respect when using our words to express our wants and needs.

Today, Josh and Victoria showed that they are well on their way to being cooperative problem solvers! They worked together to complete a dinosaur jigsaw puzzle.  Josh showed Victoria how to look for corners and flat edges and they both showed tremendous patience when the chosen piece just didn't fit the way they wanted.  They both respected each other's space and appreciated the help of a friend.

The pride in their smiles shows how happy they were to complete the puzzle.  However, they should be equally as proud of how incredibly they worked through the process - together!