A Morning of SO MUCH Paint!!

Today Grace and Hannah had a painting adventure. They were excited to come into the classroom and find a table of animals and trays of paint to use and explore. The made foot prints of the different animals in all sorts of colors. It was a neat project that captivated their attention for quite a bit of time until....
they realized they could finger paint!

The girls LOVED finger painting and the whole time they were painting they kept exclaiming, "finger painting! finger painting" it was like their own special fingerprinting chant! They liked feeling he cold paint and swirling it around on their papers. Grace liked how it felt all the way up her arm.

We saw Adamah Teacher Lauri, and decided to show her our messy hands. Once in the hallway we decided it might be a good time to wash them clean. Our hand washing experiences was an adventure in itself. We loved watching the color of the water get darker and more pink as hour hands became cleaner. The girls liked trying to see who's water was more pink at any given moment.

It's great how a simple activity can continue to morph and change shape as children interact with the activity and it's materials. The material of, "paint" is neat as a way of stamping, is a slimy sensory object and is a neat scientific mixture with water! Each of these steps provide their own set of learning experiences and this morning Hannah and Grace got to experience all three!

A Day in the IDF!

Yesterday the Tel Aviv class visited a "military base" in the north of Israel. During circle we learned that the IDF stands for the Israeli Defense Force and we looked at some pictures of different soldiers in Israel. We talked about how soldiers in Israel are there to defend the people who live in Israel and they care that people stay safe. While looking at the pictures of the soldiers, we saw that they had badges with different symbols. Some had a unit symbol and others had rectangles to show how many years you have been in the IDF.  After circle we put on some face paint and headed to the community room for some gross motor pay and an obstacle course. Children had a turn to try the course and then those who wanted me to time them had the opportunity to race against their own time. It was neat to see how focused each child was while completing the course, they were so proud when they beat their time and it was a fun way to incorporate some gross motor play into our Israel unit!

Paint, Paint all over our face!

After we created our collages Jacob, Micah and Max decided that they wanted their faces painted with the face paint crayons like the Tel Aviv class. Max and Jacob were SO excited to be pumpkins for purim by painting their whole face orange. However, as soon as they were given the opportunity to paint their own faces they squealed with delight as they painted their faces every color of the rainbow. The boys both colored their own faces and colored each others. By using their own face they were able to realize that you have to apply different amounts of pressure on different parts of your face to make the colors show. Soon Jacob became a clown and Max became a spider. Micah stayed a cow which is what he was earlier in the day, he just grew to become a rainbow clown. I love how the boys used the colors to give themselves costumes and identities and then they took on the roles of the characters they created. It's neat to watch how art can inspire imagination. The boys had a fantastic time, and if they ever ask to do it at home just know that the crayons come off very easily with baby wipes! Happy Purim everyone!

Messy Monday!!

Today was a very messy day in the Haifa classroom. Last week we charted the number of people in our families and made handprints, and today we made footprints!! Each child had the choice of colors for their feet or the option to get their feet traced, and we were able to see all the different combinations of colors in the classroom.

We also spent a lot of time at the easel with Rosh Hashanah sponges. Each child that used the sponges had the option to use the sponges as their shapes or to paint with them. We got a wide variety and a lot of paint everywhere!!

-Alison and Sauci

Face and Hand Painting

At summer fun today, the children had the option of having their face and/or hands decorated with a special face paint made from cold cream and food coloring. Rainbows, butterflies, and happy faces were everywhere.