Triangles and Purim

 

 

In the Levana classroom we drew, traced and cut out triangle shapes this morning as we begin our learning about the Jewish holiday, Purim. Triangle shapes are a familiar part of the celebration of Purim. There are the delicious hamentaschen cookies, Haman’s hat and the song that we sing, My Hat it Has Three Corners.  While cutting out a triangle, Abby gleefully exclaimed, “it looks like the top of a house”.

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.

Happy Mother's Day!

We hope all the mom's out there who received a fused glass surprise this mother's day enjoyed their child-made pendent! We just wanted to share what the finished products look like for everyone who has been curious about the Tel Aviv glass projects. Some of the kids picked pieces of glass and layered and glued them on top of each other while others cut the glass themselves to create the design they wanted. It was neat to see how different each child's pendent is and how much they expires both their personality and the energy they placed towards the project. You can look and see the focus they spent creating the pendent just by looking at the finished product! The class has been very focused on glasswork this past week and the Tel Aviv mezuzah's are out of the kiln and will be ready for bidding at Taste of the Town this Saturday night!

More children are stepping forward to share

Although I did not get a picture of this(batteries stopped working), I wanted to write about Jesse Barnet's presentation at our second morning meeting today. Jesse worked hard on "an arts and crafts book" which involved many skills. He drew pictures using different writing implements, attached one picture to the next, and carefully cut fringe along the whole perimeter of his book. Jesse also shared the fact that he made a building out of wooden blocks that had people and furniture in it. He was proud of both of these things and was eager to share them with the class. More children are starting to share their work during meeting time as they see their classmates doing so. There will be times when we divide the group in half to hopefully make it easier for some of the children to speak in front of their peers.

Wednesday Work Day

The office supplies were in high demand in the sunshine room. We had children cutting, stapling, writing important messages and dictating to Secretary Judi. We were so busy we almost missed our "coffee" break of water, crackers and oranges!

Intense Concentration

It was wonderful to see the Rainbows enter the classroom with big smiles as we all returned from our break. The children had fun rediscovering all of the different play areas together.

There were some tiny farm animals wandering about on the table that occasionally wandered into puddles of blue gak. The Rainbows stretched, rolled, and flattened the floppy, flowing material.

There were also several pair of scissors available and the kids put them to good use. These scissors are chosen for ease of use with small fingers on young hands. The red curved handle is grasped in a pinch, using the whole hand. This proves to be much more comfortable than the two holes of a standard pair of child sized scissors. There were looks of great concentration as the kids took the wiggly gak and tried to find a way to cut it. Once success was achieved, the faces showed pride and pleasure at the accomplishment.

Applesauce Anyone?

Jacob, Dylan, Max, Sadie, Eli, and Rylan all help out making the applesauce for the Classroom. We carefully placed the apple in the apple peeler, then friends had to cut it using a plastic knife. Rylan wanted to use both hands to make sure to cut right thru to the bottom, while Sadie and Max used their index finger and hand to cut through. The applesauce was delicious though, it didn't look so great. You may want to ask friends what ingredients we needed to make it. What happened to the apples after they were cooked.? Did they look the same?