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!

Artik, Menta, Chocolate Banana....!

This past Monday at Mayim, Lily Shapiro joined her sisters on the Bima to lead the song, "Artik Menta Chocolate Banana!" a song all about Israeli Popsicles. The Tel Aviv class learned this song during our trip to Israel, specifically when we ate Artik Popsicles at the beach! Lily knew all the words and dance moves and all of Mayim was impressed by her ability to lead the group. As a teacher, I was glad that Lily got the experience of watching the older kids sing and enjoy the same songs and dances that she sings in the Tel Aviv class. Jewish music is a wonderful and rich part of Jewish tradition and fun songs and dances can be away for friends, siblings and families to connect even though they are in different class and have had different Jewish experiences. Way to go Lily! You have quite the dance moves!

Dance with Me

Today, the Levana children had dance
class with Dancing Nancy. Today she brought colored balls as a prop
to do all sorts of fun activities and exercises with the kids. It was lots of
fun, and the children were able to use the ball of their choice to do all sorts of things requiring balance and flexibility! Always a fun time, we look forward to Nancy's next visit.

Dancing Together!

The Tel Aviv class has SO MUCH FUN dancing with Nancy on Tuesday! We jumped and flew across the room and had a chance to jump with our friends and teachers in small groups!

 So much laughter and joy!

Dancing Nancy - Dancing Etzim

Introducing... Dancing Nancy

After some discussion at circle this morning, the children were ready to entertain the possibility that Dancing Nancy was not the Nancy they see every morning in our classroom.  The kids found out that she's very friendly and welcoming, and has great ideas for moving around and having fun.  We warmed up together on the floor - putting our feet together to clap.  Ask your child to show you how it's done.   It's not easy!  Take a look at what happened when we pretended that the brightly colored scarves were the autumn's falling leaves.  For a moment, we thought we'd lost Ethan!!!  (not really...)

We Love A Good Idea

One day the Haifa Lunch Bunch were "taking a tour" when we were invited into the Levana classroom for a dance party.  Turns out Tina ends lunch bunch every day with a fun dance party.  We loved this idea so much that we, too, now end our day with dance party fun!   

I'm Happy....Happy to be Painting with my Feet!

We had a great time dancing and painting with our feet today on the playground. it was fun to watch the colors mix right between our toes!!

Duets - Rainbow style

During circle time, the Rainbows talked about the fact that it was our last circle time together.  We wanted to be sure to sing all of our old favorites.  Old Shoes, New Shoes and Old McDonald Had a Farm were two top choices.   Josh wanted to be sure we included the teachers' shoes this time.  A little bit later, we enjoyed a couple of duets, as two kids sang in the middle of the circle.  The rest of the class helped out a little as you will hear.

We had a wonderful time together this year.  Marissa, Savita, and I all wish you and your families a wonderful summer.
- Nancy

Duets - Rainbow style

During circle time, the Rainbows talked about the fact that it was our last circle time together.  We wanted to be sure to sing all of our old favorites.  Old Shoes, New Shoes and Old McDonald Had a Farm were two top choices.   Josh wanted to be sure we included the teachers' shoes this time.  A little bit later, we enjoyed a couple of duets, as two kids sang in the middle of the circle.  The rest of the class helped out a little as you will hear.

We had a wonderful time together this year.  Marissa, Savita, and I all wish you and your families a wonderful summer.
- Nancy

Duets - Rainbow style

During circle time, the Rainbows talked about the fact that it was our last circle time together.  We wanted to be sure to sing all of our old favorites.  Old Shoes, New Shoes and Old McDonald Had a Farm were two top choices.   Josh wanted to be sure we included the teachers' shoes this time.  A little bit later, we enjoyed a couple of duets, as two kids sang in the middle of the circle.  The rest of the class helped out a little as you will hear.

We had a wonderful time together this year.  Marissa, Savita, and I all wish you and your families a wonderful summer.
- Nancy

Innovation in MOTION

The Rainbows had their last visit with Dancing Nancy this morning.  She got them moving and shared her hula hoops with them.  They enjoyed walking, jumping, running, and crawling through the path she made across the floor.  After a while, Nancy noticed that the kids were doing something different.  They came up with a way to scoot along the floor inside of a hoop.  Nancy was excited about their innovation.  The kids are full of ideas!

Innovation in MOTION

The Rainbows had their last visit with Dancing Nancy this morning.  She got them moving and shared her hula hoops with them.  They enjoyed walking, jumping, running, and crawling through the path she made across the floor.  After a while, Nancy noticed that the kids were doing something different.  They came up with a way to scoot along the floor inside of a hoop.  Nancy was excited about their innovation.  The kids are full of ideas!

Innovation in MOTION

The Rainbows had their last visit with Dancing Nancy this morning.  She got them moving and shared her hula hoops with them.  They enjoyed walking, jumping, running, and crawling through the path she made across the floor.  After a while, Nancy noticed that the kids were doing something different.  They came up with a way to scoot along the floor inside of a hoop.  Nancy was excited about their innovation.  The kids are full of ideas!

Scarves Here, Scarves There, Scarves Are Everywhere

Dancing Nancy gave us a real workout today. Moving all around with scarves to soft quiet music was so much fun. We danced with our scarves, twirled them, threw them up, watched them fall, wore them, tossed them to each other, and even made a pretend fire with them. There are so many ways to have fun with scarves. But that is not all we did with Dancing Nancy. We also stretched our bodies, held hands, walked around like a big snake, and even listened to the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Running, dancing, hopping, jumping, and flying from one end of the room to the other really had us moving as well!

Pilates on the ball?

Well, not exactly. Dancing Nancy gave each of the kids a ball this morning, and they had some fun balancing on it, rolling different parts of their bodies on it, leaning on it, and just plain sitting on it. It's not as easy as it looks! What a fun way to do some gross motor work together. The music just added to the enjoyment.

Pilates on the ball?

Well, not exactly. Dancing Nancy gave each of the kids a ball this morning, and they had some fun balancing on it, rolling different parts of their bodies on it, leaning on it, and just plain sitting on it. It's not as easy as it looks! What a fun way to do some gross motor work together. The music just added to the enjoyment.

Parachute Fun!!

The Tel Aviv class LOVED playing with the parachute today. We spun it around and lifted it high and watched it fly through the room! The class' favorite parts were when they sat in the middle of the parachute in small groups and we spun the around and wrapped them up. Dylan wanted to be spun again and again. Their other favorite part was hiding beneath the parachute and seeing how the parachute colors reflected on everyone's faces. They were wiggling trying to make their faces change colors by moving around beneath the parachute. While we were hiding Lauri stuck her hand through the top of the parachute and gave us quite the scare! Thanks Dancing Nancy for giving us the opportunity to move, explore and play today! We had a great time!

taking it all in

When we arrived in the Community Room for Dancing with Nancy, Noah Sussman wasn't quite sure how it was going to go. We had been having dance in the Social Hall the past few times and, although we are familiar with the Community Room, it was a bit of a change from our routine.

We began to stretch and then move around. Noah decided that he was more comfortable sitting with Judi and watching. It was obvious he was taking it all in and figuring out how to help himself enjoy the activity. Sometimes, it is important to allow children time when beginning an activity. The comfort that we may have to "jump right in" may not be the same for a particular child. As the time passed, Noah smiled at his friends as they moved and danced. When Nancy took out the parachute, Noah approached it with confidence...he knew he wanted to do this!

Bean Bag Balancing!

Yesterday the Tel Aviv class practiced balancing with Dancing Nancy! We did spins, hops and jumps across the room to practice gross motor balancing and then the bean bags came out! We did lots of different kinds of balancing with bean bags! We balanced on our nose, toes, knees, elbows and our heads. It was very exciting to practice walking with beanbags on our heads. Max and Dylan balanced four bean bags on their heads! it was quite impressive. The Tel Aviv children took ricks and tried a variety of new types of balancing with Nancy. We had a great time!