A Visit to the Museum!

Last Friday the Tel Aviv class had the neat opportunity to visit the Kohavim class' Menorah Museum! It was so exciting to see all the different kinds of menorahs and to see the different sizes shapes and colors that they come in!  The Kohavim class was eager to share the stories of their menorahs with the Tel Aviv kids. Hannah and Lily even proudly displayed the menorahs that they had made last year when they were in the Tel Aviv class!  The museum was a neat way for us to learn about each other and our Hanukkah traditions and see that maybe next year the menorahs they make will be in their very own Menorah Museum! 

In the window...

In the Keshet class we had a preview of things to come.  Chanukah begins on Saturday, but the children had a chance to see how wonderful it is to share the light from the first candle on our menorah with everyone nearby by placing it in the window.   

The kids were amazed to see the candles melted down "SO FAST!", and seemed to disappear as they burned and melted away so very completely.  We lit the wooden shabbat candles in play, and later tried out the class menorah which was fashioned from foil that we had used to protect our table when we painted on Tuesday.  Blue and silver - how beautiful!  We look forward to lighting both menorahs on Tuesday when we are together once again.

Rabbi Todd Visits for Chanukah

Rabbi Jay comes to call

Rabbi Jay came by to visit the Keshet class this morning.  He talked to us about the holiday that's coming up soon: Chanukah!  He shared a song with us that described how we will light the candles on the menorah, one more on each night of Chanukah.  We put the menorah in a window so we can share the light from the candles with lots of people.  During the holiday, we might give a present to someone we love to bring some light into their holiday.  Rabbi Jay also taught us about the dreidel, spun a number of our dreidels for us, and led us in the Dreidel Song.  At the end of his visit, he asked if he might return another day.  The children were excited by that idea and agreed that he should come back again.   Rabbi Jay then explained to the children that he has a room upstairs where we can go visit him.  He even has some toys to share.  We'll be sure to take Rabbi Jay up on his kind offer.

Eight Little Candles, Burning Bright

The Levana classmates enjoyed a busy day working on a classroom menorah. We began with a large roll of paper, and worked hard to tape it to our floor. Sonia demonstrates the small motor skills required to tear the tape and attach it to the paper and the floor. We then spent lots of time tracing large circles for each candle, and decorating with crayons and markers.

Then came the performance... 
                               
                               Eight little candles burning bright, Chanukah is here.
                               Eight little candles in a row, with a flame so clear.
                               Melt little candles, one by one, you have been such fun.
                               Eight little candles go to sleep, when Chanukah is done.

In their role as candles, the children combined movement and song, and enjoyed the candle crowns that they had made earlier. We were happy to have our Unicorn friends join us, first as an audience, and later as co-performers. Pretending to melt and go to sleep is great fun, especially when shared with friends.

Menorahs - Time to light the first candle!

Marissa led us in the special blessings and used the shamash to light the first candle in celebration of the first night of Chanukah. Several parents joined us, making it a wonderful event. We put the menorah in the window so we could share the light with all who passed by. We also showed the children how they could "light" the menorah that they made together in class last week. The tissue paper represents the flames. Welcome, Chanukah!

First You Buy the Wood

The Unicorn children have been learning about making a plan before they enter into play. This helps children to organize their thoughts, define roles when entering play, and explore the centers in our classroom with greater meaning. Today we reviewed the many steps involved in Kira's plan when making menorahs to bring into our classroom. We learned that Kira went to the store, bought the wood, sawed the wood into pieces, used her drill to put holes in the wood, and THEN brought the menorahs into our classroom for us to decorate and paint. Our menorahs can hold candles or crayons, and we had a great time learning how they were made and decorating them for our families.

Menorah Making Day 3: Hot Glue

Today we worked on finishing up our very own menorahs. Each child had the opportunity to help hot glue on nuts so that we would have a place for each of the nine hanukah candles. We used hot gun which was a neat material to learn about. Everyone learned which parts of the hot glue gun were hot and which were safe to touch. We also touched the glue sticks that went into the hot glue gun and many were surprised that the sticks were neither hot nor sticky, yet when we pressed on the hot glue gun the glue became both hot and sticky. Some children were eager to give the hot glue gun a try and together we squeezed the handle until glue came out. Others were very excited to simply point to where they wanted each fixture and I was able to apply the glue for them. Hannah liked the hot glue and later turned the plastic drill in dramatic play area into a hot glue gun and she was trying to fix the "broken table." All the children were excited about adding places for candles and can't wait to use their menorahs for Hanukkah. They have made some beautiful creations!

Menorah Making Day Part 2

Over the last two days the Tel Aviv class have been using makers and oil pastels to add accents and color to their mod-podge menorahs. They have enjoyed using a variety of media and adding a little but of something every single day. We even found some shiny dradial sequins to share and decorate our menorahs with! I am impressed with their dedication to this project and it is neat to see how hard each child is working on creating a beautiful and meaningful piece of art. Tomorrow we will start to add the nuts and bolts in which we will place the candles. We are so excited to add this step so our menorahs will be ready for Hanukkah!

Menorah Making: Day 1

Today the Tel Aviv class got started on making their very own menorahs! We started off reading the book Melly's Menorah during circle. It showed that anyone can make a menorah and how special it is to contribute the menorah to a family's hanukah celebration.

Our menorahs are made from blocks of wood. Each student got their own block and together we spent some time sanding out blocks. After it was smooth and soft we added color by decorating our blocks with tissue paper and mod-podge! I was impressed at how had each child worked as they decorated their blocks. There were a lot of steps to the process: put mode-podge on the wood, tear a piece of tissue paper, place it, and then put more mod-poge on top! Step by step, every student covered the whole top of their block. Ezra worked hard until every bit of wood was covered! All the blocks look beautiful. Eliza worked hare to make her block very smooth. Lily liked bunching up the tissue paper because she thought it looks like flowers. Eli loved using purples and yellows, his two favorite colors! Tomorrow we are going to add paint and oil pastels! I am excited to watch these menorahs evolve over the next fe days.

A Special Visitor

The Rainbows were happy to have Rabbi Todd come to visit our classroom this morning. Rabbi Todd spoke to us about the upcoming holiday of Chanukah. The children listened as he told the story of the Jews who were not allowed to go to their temple. We tried to imagine how sad it must have been to be unable to go to temple. Once the Jews were finally able to go back to the temple, they were concerned that they only had enough oil to last for one night. We heard about the miracle that allowed the oil to last eight days when it seemed it was only enough to last for one.

The rabbi explained to us how we can make Chanukah special for our friends and our family members by being helpful, kind, and caring during this holiday of eight days. In this way, each of us can bring joy to others - by putting a bit of extra light in their Chanukah.

As Rabbi Todd counted out the eight days that the oil lasted, he invited the children to come and light a candle in our colorful wooden chanukiah. They were proud to help. Once all of the candles were lit, the children walked Rabbi Todd over to the window where they put the chanukiah so everyone passing by could see the candles burning. We are all looking forward to the Festival of Lights.

Lighting a Different Kind of Menorah

Yesterday the Haifa class was lucky enough to have Rabbi Jay come visit! We talked about Chanukah of course! And then, instead of lighting the Chanukah candles, because it is not Chanukah yet, we decided to light the candles for different reasons and ways to make people smile. We were able to fill up a whole menorah by coming up with ideas like: hugging someone, telling someone you love them, sharing a toy with someone, giving someone a big kiss, and playing with someone. It was great to see the kids verbalize all of the great things that can bring smiles to someone!!

-Alison and Sauci

A Class Menorah

Using paper towel and toilet paper rolls, the Rainbow children helped to make the first part of a class Menorah today. They painted the rolls using blue and white paint with some children using the colors separately, while others mixed them together. Some of the children noticed that there were sparkles in the paint! While all of the children began painting in the same manner using the paintbrush on the outside of their rolls, as the painting progressed so did their styles. Jack began to paint the inside of his roll while Ilan painted his hands and then put them on the roll. Audrey decided that she liked Ilan's style and painted her hands first as well. Stay tuned to see the finished product on Thursday!