Where is God?

On Friday, the kindergartners came in to find a letter from some of the 12th graders here at Temple Beth Shalom who share a classroom with us and the Kohavim children. In their message, the 12th graders explained that they have been thinking about where God is and asked if we had any ideas. The kindergartners used black sharpies and watercolor paints to share their ideas. Below are the children's thoughts that they shared. 

Jacob: In the clouds. 

Dylan: In the ocean. 

Brett Stone: He appears. Like he was always here. 

Evan: In the air. And he comes on the ground on Jewish holidays. I made hearts to love God for all the stuff he gives us. 

James: I think he's in the sky. 

Brett Ellerin: In the sky. 

Julian: He like lives in the like in a rainbow. 

Adam: In the clouds. 

Zack: I think he looks like nothing. Like white. 

Their paintings and quotes will be hanging in the classroom for the 12th graders to see. We can't wait to here where they think God is and to continue sharing our ideas with them and Kohavim. 

Painting a Color Chart

As Adam approached the Easel, he immediately asked, “Are these the primary colors?” He then decided he would use the primary colors to create a color chart. He explained that by making a color chart, the other children would know which colors you could mix to create secondary colors. As he painted he explained that he put red and yellow on top and mixed them together underneath to create orange. He proceeded to mix red and blue, yellow and blue, and red, blue, and yellow. After his color chart dries on the drying rack, we plan to hang it next to the easel for other children to refer to when painting. For the past few weeks, the kindergartners have been exploring color mixing. By developing a color chart, Adam demonstrated his understanding of mixing primary colors to create secondary colors. Thank you, Adam, for making a color chart we can all use! 

Let's make something for Rosie's Place

On Friday, the Kindergartners were excited to explore the flour in the sensory table. As they started to feel the flour they shared their observations with each other.

Dylan: It’s so soft.

Brett E.: But dirty.

Zack: Not dirty, but messy.

They continued feeling the flour and experimented with the mixing spoons, measuring cups, and sifters. As they were playing, Brett S. developed a dramatic play scenario. He said, “We’re making this for Rosie’s place. For people who don’t have food.”  Zack, Dylan, and Brett continued preparing food for Rosie’s Place and asked that the teacher pretend to be the person from Rosie’s Place that comes to pick up the food.

Jesse: Hi. I am from Rosie’s Place. I heard you have something for me to pick up.

Brett Stone: We made eggs!
Dylan: Scrambled.

Zack: And here’s extra.

Brett Stone: We also have little sandwiches.

Rosie’s Place is a soup kitchen for homeless women. The Children’s Center at Temple Beth Shalom prepares Tuna casseroles for Rosie’s place once a month. This is an experience that Dylan, Zack, and Brett had when they attended the children’s center. When children engage in dramatic play, they demonstrate their understanding of the world around them. In this scenario, the children are revealing their experience with Rosie’s Place, their understanding of people who do not have as much food as we do, and the idea of tzedakah.  Together, we will continue exploring the idea of tzedakah and think about how we can help Rosie’s Place. 

What is Science?

Today we began sharing our ideas about what we think science is. The kindergarteners had so many different ideas.

The children said science is...
- making volcanoes
- look at stuff
- observing
- looking for dinosaur bones
- looking at leaves
- making statues
- making everything
- when you discover
- weather
- looking for treasure at the beach

We then read the story, "What is Science?" by Rebecca Kai Dotlich. It talks about astronomy, entomology, meterology, engineering, botany, and many other kinds of science. We also noticed that we already do some of those sciences, such as examining plants or leaves and observing insects. We are beginning to discover that we have a class full of scientists already! We will continue our discussion of science and scientists and start to think about what we want to study more deeply as scientists! 

Chromotography

The Kindergarten children have been so interested in color mixing over the past few weeks. Today, we did a chromotography experiment to explore colors in another way. Chromotography is the process of separating different components of a mixture. In our experiment, we were separating colors. The children drew a line of the color orange, green, purple, and black on individual strips of paper towels. They then placed the bottom of the paper towel in a shallow amount of water. When the paper towel is dipped in water, the water begins to absorb into the paper towel and travels up carrying the colors with it. It causes the colors to separate or split and different colors  get carried along faster and further then others. As we dipped the paper towel with the orange line into the water, the children were immediately filled with excitement as they watched the yellow and red colors travel. We can't wait to see what our paper towels look like when we come back next Friday! 

Using our sense of taste

We continued our exploration of the five senses today, by using our sense of taste! We tasted four different foods: lemons, unsweetened chocolate, pretzels, and honey. We discovered that lemons taste sour, unsweetened chocolate tastes bitter, pretzels taste salty, and honey tastes sweet. The children recorded whether they liked or did not like the different tastes. You might want to try and find some foods at home that taste sweet, salty, bitter, or sour! 

Ideas about God

As we were celebrating Shabbat on Friday, an interesting topic of conversation arose among the Kindergarteners: God. Below are the children's ideas, questions, and thoughts they shared.

Zack: I think God is a boy.
Brett Stone: Me too.
Zack: If God made everything then who made God?
Jesse: How do you think we could find out about that?
Zack: I don't think we can find the answer because you can't see God and God's the only one who knows.
Brett Stone: You could look on your phone.
Adam: Maybe he (God) only appeared.
Julian: Like magically.
Evan: You could look in the Torah.
Zack: Or a Rabbi would know.
Evan: God is a Rabbi because he is Jewish.
Brett Stone: Are all Rabbis Jewish?
Evan: Yes!
Brett Stone: Do they have to be?

Young children are actively working to make sense of the world around them, including their beliefs and ideas about God. We can't wait to see how the kindergarteners questions, ideas, and beliefs about God will develop this year!

Sharing a pumpkin snack from home!

Last Friday, the children had opened up and explored a pumpkin. At the end of the day, Jesse asked if any of the children would be interested in taking the pumpkin home. Adam volunteered and said he would bring photos of what the decided to do with the pumpkin. 

When we arrived on this Friday, Adam was so excited to share with us a photo of his entire family with the pumpkin. His family scooped out the pulp and seeds and then roasted the seeds in the oven. Adam brought a plastic bag full of roasted pumpkin seeds for us to taste. As the children gobbled up the seeds, they thanked Adam and told him how delicious the snack was. What a wonderful connection between our exploration of pumpkins at school and at home! Thank you Adam for sharing your photo and a very yummy snack! 

Fasten your seat belts for takeoff!

On Friday, the kindergarteners worked together to construct an airplane out of the large hollow blocks. After quickly building the airplane, the children encountered a big problem: where would everybody sit? Children began taking their seats and noticed that Brett Ellerin did not have a spot. The children offered many solutions: he could sit on the wing, on the back of the plane, he could squeeze in between two children. Together they agreed on a solution and solved the problem. As they took their seats they began their countdown. 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1!  

What will happen to the pumpkin?

After exploring the pumpkin in Kindergarten Enrichment on Monday, we decided to place it in a sealed plastic container to find out what might happen to it. On Friday, the kindergarteners made their first observations of the pumpkin. The children drew what they noticed and made predictions about what might happen:

What do you think will happen to our pumpkin? 
Julian: I think it will stay alive but it will get rotten. Just like turn brown.
Evan: Get rotten and be dead.
Zack: If you keep it outside, rabbits or squirrels will eat it. Once I kept it outside and squirrel ate it.
Brett: It will turn brown and get expired. It's not good anymore, like I wanted to eat pudding, but it was expired and I couldn't eat it anymore.

While looking at the container the children noticed something:
Evan: It doesn't have holes to breathe.
Zack: It's not a person.
Evan: Plants breathe.
Brett: Apples in the fridge breathe.
Evan: And leaves breathe.

We will have to continue observing to see if any of our predictions will happen and think more about whether the pumpkin breathes or not. We will be observing the pumpkin over the next few weeks to find out what will happen, stay tuned!

We wrote a story... Together!

In extended day, Julian, Talia and Evan authored and illustrated a story together. They each illustrated different parts of the story and taped the pages together. Writing a book together involved discussing and negotiating ideas. They had to agree upon the plot and sequence of the story. With the idea originating from the children, they were extremely motivated to see their story from the start to finish. Below is the text of their story: 

The Little Boy that Got Lost

First, there was a guy and he rode on a mean dinosaur. And then he found his mom and his dad. And then he went in the house and then a happy witch game. It was a good witch. Then, there was a bad witch that came and tried to steal the little boy. The bad witch did not get the little boy, but the little boy got lost. The mom and the dad lived happily ever after in the farm. And then another dinosaur came and gobbled them up for dinner.

What is inside the pumpkin?

After predicting there might be seeds inside the pumpkin, we quickly cut the top of the pumpkin to find out what was inside. Julian and Talia were eager to get their hands inside and discovered there were seeds and also squishy pulp. They asked if we could eat the seeds, so we decided to roast the pumpkin seeds. Julian and Talia worked together to separate the seeds from the pulp. They washed the seeds and then mixed the seeds with a teeny bit of oil and a sprinkle of salt. After 20 minutes in the oven, we enjoyed a delicious snack of pumpkin seeds! Roasting pumpkin seeds allowed us to follow a recipe and engage in a sensory experience. 

Observational Drawings of our Pumpkins

When we returned form the pumpkin patch, Julian, Talia, and Evan used markers, paper, and clip boards to make observational drawings of their pumpkins. Just like scientists do, the children carefully observed the pumpkins and represented the shape, colors, and parts of the pumpkin. After drawing their pumpkins, the children added labels. The children used labels to identify the important parts of the pumpkin, such as, pumpkin, stem, ribs, skin, and even seeds. When asked if they could see the seeds, the children explained they were inside the pumpkin and that if we opened up the pumpkin we would be able to see them. This led us right to our next exploration- what is inside a pumpkin? 

Walk to the Pumpkin patch!

On Monday, Kindergarten Enrichment walked to a nearby pumpkin patch. Along the way we noticed the beautiful colors of the leaves around us. Each child was given two dollars to pick out a pumpkin. Their challenge was to figure out which pumpkin they could buy for two dollars and to carry their pumpkin back to Temple Beth Shalom. The children noticed all of the different sized pumpkins. They tried sitting on the giant pumpkins and lifting the different pumpkins. After walking around, we discovered you could get a middle sized pumpkin and a teeny tiny pumpkin for two dollars. Each child selected their pumpkins and payed. We also chose a larger pumpkin to explore back in our classroom. 

On our walk back to TBS, the children discovered how heavy pumpkins really were. They began passing them to Jesse, but then we had a problem. When Jesse's hands got too full, one of the teeny tiny pumpkins rolled out of her hands and into the street. We safely stood on the sidewalk as our teeny tiny pumpkin bounced and rolled and got squashed by the tire of a car. Realizing this was one of Julian's pumpkins, Evan offered a wonderful way to solve the problem. He offered his pumpkins to Julian. Our walk to the pumpkin patch provided so many opportunities, such as, taking a field trip together, using money to purchase our pumpkins, gross motor strength to carry our pumpkins, and we were even presented with a challenging problem solving opportunity! The pumpkin patch was such a treat, and next time we will make sure to bring our wagon to carry our pumpkins back! 

Painting the Creation Story

On Monday, Talia, Evan, and Julian used water color paints to paint the story of Creation. The children started with blank white pages and added their own interpretations of the story as Jesse read aloud. They painted darkness and light, the seas and the sky, the land with grass and plants, the sun, moon and stars, animals, and the first man and woman. The children each had beautiful interpretations of the Creation story.

Color Mixing

The kindergarteners noticed some red, blue, and yellow paints on the art shelf and asked if they could use them. They took out paint palates and q-tips. They began by slowly pouring paint into the palates. Adam explained that red, blue, and yellow are primary colors. They then experimented by mixing the colors together. As the children experimented, we read the story, "White Rabbits Color Book." In this story, a white rabbit climbs in and out of red, blue, and yellow paint tubs. The children predicted what color the rabbit would make by climbing in the blue tub and then the yellow tub. They then tried it out on their papers. What a colorful science experiment! 

Making a Brit

Last week, the Kindergartners brainstormed a list of rules they thought we should have when we are together. They said: 

- Not hitting people

- No pushing or punching

- Listen

- Never talk when someone else is talking

- No running under the monkey bars

- Raise your hand

- Put caps on markers

- Throw away trash

- Clean up

This week, we looked at our list of ideas again and talked about how in the Torah there are many rules. Some rules are negative, or tell you what you should not do, but there are also rules that are positive, and tell us what we should do. We thought about our list and decided we would have three rules that tell us what we should do when we are together in school. 

1. Take care of everybody. 

2. Respect your school. 

3. Take care of yourself. 

We decided this would be our Brit or agreement. We all agreed this is how we treat each other and take care of each other when we are together. We all traced our hands and signed our names to sign our Brit and it is now hanging in our classroom. 

Celebrating Shabbat in Kindergarten

It is amazing to watch the amount that is accomplished in only three hours of kindergarten. The children arrive full of excitement for Shabbat and join Emily in the sanctuary for their own weekly service. This week they got up close to the ark to see the Torah and led Emily in Mah Yafeh HaYom from the bima. The celebration continued with challah baking, candle lighting and a Shabbat story and snack. And that was just the first hour! I look forward to seeing how the kindergarten Shabbat rituals develop over the course of the year.

Playing with Gak

The Kindergartners enjoyed exploring gak today! They noticed how cold and smooth it felt. They tried squeezing and stretching the gak. Adam discovered that he could separate the gak into pieces and braid it just like challah! He used the gak to braid three different challahs: A teeny tiny challah, a small challah, and a giant challah! Playing with gak is an amazing sensory experience. As the children manipulate the gak they are exploring and naturally using the scientific process as they play, create, and investigate.

What time is it Mr. Fox?

After braiding our chalalhs this afternoon, the Kindergartners walked to the community room where we placed our challahs in the oven and played some games. The first challenge was to a hula hoop pass. The children stood in a circle holding hands and had to work together to move the hula hoop around the entire circle without letting go of each other's hands. It took team work and some practice, but the Kindergartners worked together so well that they were able to pass the hula hoop all the way around the circle in under 2 minutes! Passing the hula hoop required team work and cooperation! 

We then played a game called, "What time is it Mr. Fox?" In this game, one child is Mr. Fox and stands at one end of the room. The rest of the children stand at the other end of the room and shout, "What time is it Mr. Fox?" Mr. Fox then gives a time such as, 5 o'clock, which lets the children know they should take that amount of steps. The children continue asking and taking steps towards Mr. Fox. As they get closer, Mr. Fox will respond with "Midnight!" when the children ask what time it is. Mr. Fox then runs after the children trying to catch them for his "dinner." The children enjoyed taking turns being Mr. Fox, counting out the number of steps they took to get closer to Mr. Fox, and quickly running back away from Mr. Fox. Playing Mr. Fox enables the children to practice following rules of a game, develop sportsmanship, and engage in a gross motor activity. The game also involved counting the steps they took towards Mr. Fox and participating in a call and response.