"TRGTS" open for Business

Jacob is carefully sorthing the coins Quarters, dimes, nickles, and pennies. Sophie S. and Mia are the customers. Ben wanted to write the sign and looked at our board for reference.

 The sign is created, money is sorted, people are shopping with recycled bags. When we discussed that money was needed to buy items some children thought we could make money, which we did, and others thought that we needed to work for our money, and some thought we needed cards to pay for things.  It is quite interesting to hear the conversations about the concept of money. Equally interesting is how expensive groceries are at this target.

A Great Way to Celebrate!

We love to read books in the Etzim classroom.  When we read a book in our class we start by looking at the cover.  We discuss the cover art and talk about what the book might be about.   We open the book and examine the title page.  Today when we opened our new book we found something new inside.   A bookplate!  We read the inscription and learned that our new book was a gift in honor of Ellen's new brother, Jacob!   We all agreed that a gift of a new book is a great way to celebrate a new brother!   We were asked to read "Jacob's book" many times today!

The Donut Chef

Happy Birthday Ben! Today Ben's mother, Holly, joined us to read what might become our new favorite book, The Donut Chef. It celebrates the "old-time" favorite donut vs. new, fancier types. We had a great discussion about what "old-time" means. Josh wondered if they were thinking maybe Pharaoh preferred glazed to jelly! Thanks Holly!

It Feels Crispy!

Today the Etzim children continued their exploration of their senses with texture painting. We had decided yesterday that we would explore what paint feels like when we add cornmeal, lentils, cocoa, salt or baking powder to paint. We spent a long time exploring how the paint transforms as the ingredients meld into the paint. Audrey thought her paint was "too crispy" and switched to a spoon! We have been exploring not only our senses, but our vocabulary, as we introduce new, juicy descriptive words to talk about our experiences.

I Can Write That!

Lilah likes to make a choice with her parent when she says good-bye in the morning.  Yesterday, Lilah chose the writing center while saying good-bye to her father, David.  Lilah proudly announced. "I can write your name."   She carefully wrote it out "D-A-D!"

Preparing to fill the Planter

After collecting measurements and information about how to construct a bottom for our planter, Ryan took on the job of making a list of what we would need to put plants in the planter. He recorded a list of  things we would need to care for plants. He wrote soil, seeds, and water. He also represented seeds by drawing many tiny seeds. 

Dear Ellen,
We need soil for our planter.
Love, 

Next, Lily, Eliza, and Molly wrote a letter to Ellen requesting soil. They wrote, "Dear Ellen, We need soil for out planter." All of the children and teachers signed the letter. Then a group of kohavim children delivered the letter to Ellen's office. Stay tuned to find out when we receive our soil and what we decide to plant in our classroom planter! 

Whose Eyes are Those?

 

During the first week of Haifa Lunch Bunch Olive noticed two holes on the wall.  "Whose eyes are those?" she asked.  The whole group joined in a  long conversation and decided to add eyebrows, a nose and lips.  We had so much fun the next month we turned the eyes into a caterpillar, then a butterfly.  Last week we created Tootsie the Bear!  We wrote a book about Tootsie, with each class member writing a page of the story.  We were delighted and surprised to walk into lunch bunch one day and find a letter waiting for us from Wednesday Mayim, asking us why "you keep changing whatever is covering the holes?"  We responded "Because we like being silly."  We look forward to what we'll create next with this expressive and imaginative lunch bunch!

That's My Sister Molly!

Jack checking out his family picture!This week the Etzim children spent a lot of time sharing their family books with each other.  Each child has their own book that contains a photo of their family, a list of their favorite colors, etc, photos of their favorite home toys taken during our home visits, and some more recent classroom events, like shaking the lulav!   We'll add artwork and photos as the year goes on.  These books provide a nice home-school connection for the children. They spark conversations about our families and events we've shared at school, and they give us a great place to share our special creations all year !

Author, Author!

The Writing Center is a very popular spot in the Etzim classroom.  Equipped with crayons, markers, colored pencils, scissors, staplers and a variety of rotating materials, children are free to explore their emergent literacy through drawing, writing letters, dictating stories - creating individually or with peers.  Please enjoy this book written and illlustrated by Lilah Gaffin (please note Lilah also chose the use of a different color for each letter on the title page!)

Molly Reads to Us

Today Molly read a book to the group.  She made up her own story and held the attention of everyone with her reading.   It has been a lot of fun watching our playground friendships expand as we have different groups of children together for camp!

An Early Birthday

What could be more fun than celebrating your birthday a month early?  As our friends won't be together in July, Madison celebrated her birthday today with a little help from her Mom Karen and her sister, Mia! Karen read us a book and then Madison read us a book all by herself!  For Mia it was a toss up between the book and pulling off her sock!  Happy Birthday Madison!

Building A Song Jar

What's more fun than choosing an egg from our song jar?  Bringing an item from home to put inside an egg!   We choose our songs based on what is in our eggs..  Olive brought an egg with a baby and we sang "Rock-a-bye-baby."  Jacob brought a birthday duck and we decided to sing "Happy Birthday."  Nathan brought a soccer ball and a fish and taught us a song he made up!  Madison brought in a picture of an owl, which we are going to make a home for tomorrow.  Our next job is to find a song about an owl.  Great "homework" everyone!  The more items we bring in, the more songs we have to choose from so keep them coming!

Inspired By A Good Book

Nathan loves to sit and spend some time with a good book.  Sometimes this is a book from our library, but Nathan also loves to share books from home.  When Nathan brought his Elmer book in to share, it inspired us to create Elmer and Teddy collages to use as props while reading the story.  Thanks for sharing, Nathan!

 

Lots of Letters!

Do you know how to make an A? If you need some help, just check in with Micah. "You just draw a banana bottom at the top!" While Micah was working on his A, Jared was busy sharing his "J" made from pattern blocks!

Unicorn Journals

Today we introduced journals into the Unicorn classroom. Journals are a wonderful tool to utilize when exploring emerging literacy. Our Unicorn friends have an ever-growing interest in letter writing and storytelling. We look forward to their drawings and accompanying stories in the months ahead!