Hard At Work

 

The Rainbows were hard at work this morning writing and drawing. Everything from surprise recipes to Hello Kitty to squiggly lines came to life on different types of decorative stationary. Molly practiced writing her name. She exclaimed that she was "an expert" on helping her classmates draw circles, bunny rabbits, and birthday cakes. Sophie focused on filling her entire paper with color while Ilan was intent on drawing birthday cakes. Josh and Jack made lots of "scribbles" while Audrey drew her teachers and family. Sami practiced her writing and created page after page of "words." The writing activity lasted throughout the morning with constant enthusiasm.  This activity was put away and taken out again more than once as the morning progressed. There are definitely lots of emerging writers in the Rainbow class!

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!

Our Last Shabbat Helper Of The Year

Sami was our last Shabbat Helper for the year. She calmly helped to recite the blessings over the candles, grape juice, and Challah. She was very eager to look in her backpack and find the Challah. She then excitedly walked around the classroom, proudly showing her classmates and teachers "The big Challah" that she brought. Thank you Sami. It was delicious!

Fun With Floam

Cutting, molding, shaping, squeezing, squishing, breaking, patting... The Rainbows had a lot of fun exploring with this bumpy substance known as floam. Ask your child what his or her imagination created since there were definitely some interesting foods and animals that emerged.

My name is "Rosie"

 Last week we had a new visitor for early morning fun. Rosie is in the Rainbow class. She came early because her sister had a play about the very same time as her Rainbow class. I think the first thing she noticed were the flowers set up at the water table. She was quick to share that mommy loves flowers. We had a birthday celebration in the Kohavim class so the cupcakes were set up with pipe cleaners for pretend candles. There were bears, frogs, and butterflies. Rosie shared that she wanted to fill the bear cupcakes and off she went filling each bear. When Rachel came in she helped as did Teddy Friedman when we needed more candles.

Daddy made Rosie two ducks with the floam, but when daddy left, Rosie said, those ducks needed a 'pond', so she smashed the floam and put the ducks right on top. It was just big enough for the 'small' duck. All the flowers inspired Rosie to say she wanted to make a card for mommy. She asked me to draw a picture of her mommy. We talked about how I could do that. What did I need to do? What shapes would I need? She said I needed a face and it was a circle. Then mommy needed eyes, nose, mouth, body, hands, feet and hair. Mommy's hair is 'curly' so she needed curly hair. Then mommy's card needed "Rosie" as well.

After the picture of mommy and Rosie was drawn, she asked me to please write "Moma" and "Rosie". Then the card needed a car and a train track.. It was so much fun to talk to Rosie and share in her excitement and story telling. Thank you for coming. I hope you come again to share in more morning fun.

Rainbows Hard At Work

The Rainbows had a very busy morning and were involved with many different activities. The children played with rice, painted, used hammers and pliers with golf tees, and played in the kitchen area. Ask your child which activity he or she liked best?

Getting the moves down...

The Rainbows spontaneously broke into song and dance this morning.  They were singing Uga Uga, which is a Hebrew song that Rohan taught the class some months ago.  The kids will be doing their dance at the Shalom Party.

Click the link below for a sample of their dancing skills...
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Uga Uga - impromptu rehearsal
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We hope to see you at the Shalom Party next Wednesday at 10:30am.

Our Shabbat Helper

Sophie was our Shabbat Helper this week. She calmly helped to recite the blessings over the candles, grape juice, and Challah. Today was also her school birthday celebration. What a fun-filled day!

What's In The Blender?

As it is customary on Shavuot to eat dairy, the Rainbows enjoyed making smoothies with Nancy. This yummy treat consisted of yogurt, honey, bananas, and strawberries all mixed together. Although not an ingredient in the smoothies, there were also raspberries to go along with the selection of fruit. Most of us enjoyed eating the raspberries as well as drinking our smoothies. All of the children tried the smoothies even though some did not care for the taste.

Music With Josh

Josh does not usually come on Thursdays so the Rainbows had a real treat as they got to dance and sing with him this morning. We shared our music time with the Levana class, making it even more special. We sang, danced, jumped, and learned a new song that we will sing at the upcoming Shalom party. Thanks for having us, Levana class.

What shape will it be?

The Rainbows were very creative in all the different ways they decided to shape their Challah. The blobs of dough became everything from snakes, to squares, to braided, to round. From small pieces to big pieces, whichever way the dough turned out, we hope everyone enjoyed eating their Challah as much as the children enjoyed shaping it.

A Celebration for Sophie

The Rainbows' day was filled with wonderful activities.  We started with a celebration of Sophie's third birthday.  (It isn't official until Monday!)  Tricia and Scott came to join us and to share a couple of Sophie's favorite books.  One was about Ariel's adventure as she and her friends teamed up to rescue their good friend Sebastian.  The other one was all about princesses.  My favorite part was when Sophie's Dad read that "Princesses are smart, and they read lots of books."  This fit right in with our celebration of Shavuot.  You'll see that we dressed in our pajamas to be comfortable reading "all night" from our collection of books.  We also enjoyed a dairy snack that we made ourselves.  

Happy Birthday Sophie!

Beautiful Music

Once again the Rainbows had the pleasure of listening to Nancy play her flute during circle time. She played such favorites as the ABC's, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and the Rubber Ducky bath time song. As Nancy played, we all sang along and even used our hands as pretend instruments. The beautiful sounds of the flute attracted the attention of the Tel Aviv class across the hall and they got to hear Nancy play as well. What a special treat for everyone!

Fun With Scissors And Tape

The Rainbows worked on their fine-motor skills using scissors and colored tape. The children were given these materials and were free to explore with them as they wished. Some of the children only wanted to cut, while others wanted to explore with the tape, and some wanted to rip the paper. The amount of help that was needed from a teacher to hold the scissors, get the tape started, and then rip or cut off a piece varied greatly. Molly and Sami both felt confident while using the scissors and tape on their own. Molly became the 'expert' on ripping the tape and explained to her classmates, "You pop and pull.", demonstrating her technique with her fingers. Sophie was intrigued by the scissors and at first wanted to try holding them on her own. When she felt ready, she asked me to help her cut. We held the scissors together and she was successful. After a few minutes she was cutting on her own. Rose and Grayden enjoyed using the scissors and both ripped and cut their paper. No matter what type of material they were using, all the children were very involved in their creations.

Creative Play options

The kids had a wonderful time rearranging the bubbles in the community room late this morning. The balance beam presented some challenges as well as two dimensional building options.  The group enjoyed exploring different ways to use the bubbles, the star and hand shaped mats, and the soft play house with tunnels.   Molly decorated and hosted a party.  Rose, Molly, and Jake played catch with Nancy.  The rain didn't dampen the spirits of this group!