Learning and Decorating a Super Special Chupah!

Today I had the joy of spending time with the Kohavim class! They are busy getting ready for Jesse's wedding celebration so we did a teacher switch!!

The Kochavim class has been busy talking about weddings and are starting to learn about different traditions that are part of a Jewish wedding. This gave me an idea, my 2nd and 3rd grade Mayim students had created a book tilted, The Chesed Guide For Kids to help teach kids about  how to understand and show respect and kindness during different Jewish life cycle events. This book has a whole chapter dedicated to weddings that is easy to read, and written by some older siblings who we know and love. 

The Kochavim class was already busy at work creating a chupah, but we took sometime to talk about what exactly is a chupah and why do we use them at weddings. We looked in the guide and read and examined Abby Berger's (Sister of Haifa Student Jared Berger) page and learned about the chupah in our tradition. 

We learned that it has four poles, no walls, a canopy and that it is open so that the wedding couple is able to feel the warmth and the welcoming of the community around them.  We also learned that they often had decorations. 

The Kochavim class was very eager to start decorating their chupah. Eliza, Lily and Eli spent a lot of time with the water colors using eye droppers to create flowers that they can add to the chupah they are creating. Jacob, Hannah, Max, Eli and Sabrina colored and cut out hearts that they will decorate the chupah with as well.  Some made signs I taught a few of the kids the phrase, "Mazel-Tov!" Ryan even wrote it in Hebrew! 

I enjoyed seeing how focused and engaged they were as they worked hard to create something special for Jesse. Having a meaningful product gave them a lot of drive as they created beautiful works of art. It was a great morning and I am excited to hear how the project comes out! Thanks for such a fun day Kochavim, it was great spending time with you!

Concentration and Coordination

The children experimented with rubber mallets today.  We had a fresh piece of styrofoam block to work with and a cup full of golf tee "nails".  As you can see below, the children had intense focus as they worked to line up a nail and to bring the mallet straight down on it.  Some kids were very determined to get the nails in straight and took a number of attempts to achieve success.  Others were fascinated with the job of removing the nails with a pair of pliers.  It took a lot of coordination to squeeze the handles together, aiming to get a grip on the head of the nail, and to pull upward while maintaining the pressure on the handles.  It was delightful to see the children sustain the concentration, energy, and determination to achieve success.  

Let the Purim preparations begin

Since we are looking forward to sharing several aspects of the celebration of Purim with the Keshet class, we have already started sharing the story of Purim with the children.  We also started work on creating our groggers today.  Step one: decorate the outside.  Allison and Isabella took particular interest in this activity, spending a very long stretch of time working on attaching a beautiful variety of colorful stickers to their groggers.  Both girls were very focused, and as you can see in the photos, very happy with their creations.

trying something new

Gabriel and Max LOVE trains!  Whenever we have the trains out on the rug in the morning, they quickly hang their coats and get right to work building, tooting and moving along the tracks.

Today, after working with the trains for a little while, both Max and Gabriel came to the tables to work on their challah bags.  It was so fun to see the boys try something new.  They stayed focused and, as you can see from the pictures, created beautiful bags!

Real Tools at work in play...

The Keshet kids had another opportunity to work with the real hammers today.  You can see that Abby and Allison are extremely focused as they sit across from one another, pounding the golf tee "nails" into the thick, heavy foam.  Abby grinned and giggled as she exclaimed "It went all the way in!" when her nail ended up flush with the foam.  So satisfying!  

This activity was offered throughout the day today and the children continued to be interested and engaged for long periods of time.  This is a great way to develop their eye hand coordination,  You can see the determination in the eyes of the girls in the photos below!

We Made New Situpons!

This week we announced to the Tel Aviv class that we were making brand new situpons! In the Tel Aviv class we have situpons for circle time that show us where we are sitting for that days circle. The old situpons were created the first week of school. They were made with markers and stickers and each one had the child’s picture on it. These new situpons were made with a very popular medium in the Tel Aviv class: watercolor! The group was so excited that they could paint new situpons and they had become well aware that the old one’s were getting a bit worn. It was great to see the buzz surrounding the art table that day because each child knew that they were making something that had a purpose; we use situpons everyday! While I was sitting with them, Micah Rosin turned to me and said, “You know how I put all these colors in? I stayed here for awhile!” The focus was amazing, and it shows in the product! We can already see beautiful development in each child’s art since the beginning of the year!

Lauri and I added the pictures and laminated the designs later in the week, and the lunch bunch group was SO excited to see the final product. They dug through the pile to find their picture and quickly found a space on the rug to give them a test run! We loved creating a practical product together and are looking forward to all the circles we will enjoy while sitting upon our new situpons : )

 

What do you want to do?

Looking around the classroom today, I was intrigued by the ways that the children found activities that engaged them fully.  The focus in their eyes shows the attention and energy that they are putting into their various creations.  Now that so much has been accomplished in getting to know their teachers, their classmates, and the routines that structure the day for the Keshet group, the children are exploring their activities more deeply.  It's wonderful!

Tree Pose!

Today the Tel Aviv class started their day with morning stretches to “Modeh Ani” and some yoga! We have wonderful cards with different yoga positions on them and one by one we picked a card and tried to mirror the poses on the cards. I was so impressed with how carefully and thoughtfully the Tel Aviv children moved their bodies to imitate the pose. It was a very calm activity and all the children stayed in their own spaces and focused on themselves and their bodies, which was very impressive for our first yoga session! Yoga is a great way that our class takes cares of our bodies and teaches us about flexibility, concentration and awareness of our body in space.  Nice work Tel Aviv class! I can’t wait to do yoga again with you soon!

Look at that!

In the Keshet classroom, there are moments when we can see focus and determination in our young students.  The children are able to choose an activity, work hard at it, and persevere in the face of challenges.  Whether they are constructing a special train track or slicing cheese to add to our tuna noodle casserole for Rosie's Place, they are involved and very capable.

Un-Tying Tie-Dye

Today the Tel Aviv class untied and cut the rubber bands on their tie-dye to unveil their beautiful tie-dye creations! Taking the rubber bands off the shirts could be done either by cutting or by untying the rubber bands. Both of these take lots of concentration and fine motor skills.

The Tel Aviv class was SO excited to see their finished product, but for many the number of rubber bands was frustrating. The Tel Aviv kids knew that teachers weren’t going to help them so much with this task, but they were determined to complete it. Hannah worked for a very long time untying every single rubber band. Lily figured out how to cut them fairly quickly and then she helped Eliza and Eliza then helped Ezra! It was great to see how they each were able to help each other to accomplish what was a fairly challenging task. Yet when the task was completed a beautiful orange shirt was reveled and we are so excited to wear them at Shalom Day next week!

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!

Step by Step Building

The Tel Aviv class has been hard at work building their recycled castle of Shushan! We have looked at books and pictures and seen different types of castles for around the world to help inspire us to build our own unique castle creation. Eli saw many castles with a draw bridge and was so excited to make one for our own castle. After poking some holes and using some string we created a real working draw bridge! Ezra and Max have been hard at work with the architecture of the structure. They keep adding new boxes with tape as places to store the treasure so that it will be safe from Haman! All of the class has spent time painting and decorating the castle. It has been a true teem effort. We also have been using our partner puppets that we created earlier this week to re-enact the Purim story in our new castle. Everyday it keeps changing and I can't wait to see what it looks like next week!

Zachary at the Easel

It is always interesting to watch a child at work. Zachary just couldn't get enough art yesterady. After a morning full of art, he finger painted and painted with watercolors, but he still wanted to do more. "I can paint at the easel," he said. So we set up the easel and he got to work. First, he mixed all the colors, stirring and pouring, focused on his conconctions. Then he moved on to the wide, long strokes he was making with two brushes at a time on the large easel paper. Finally, he decided he wanted to try finger painting at the easel, abandoned his brushes, and began to work with his hands. Zachary's concentration on this project was intense, and he sang to himself while he worked. Art in action!

Focus

Focus is one of the critical skills children need to thrive now and in their future.  Focus is the ability to pay attention, remember rules, think flexibly, and exercise self control. In today's distracting world, the ability to focus is not only important, but also quite challenging.  "Researchers talk about young children being “alert” and about “orienting” (being able to focus on achieving what they want to achieve) -- think of a fourteen-month-old trying to get Cheerios onto a spoon in order to feed herself or himself). For older children and adults, focus includes those two aspects, plus being able to concentrate." (Mind in the Making)

As I watched Nathaniel during freeplay, his ability to focus was clear.  He approached the table, oriented himself by finding the materials he needed, a scrap of paper and a thin marker, and began to write the letter R.  The busy classroom swirled with action all around  him, yet Nathaniel continued to pay attention to the task at hand, working to achieve his goal.  He made a series of Rs, and then paused, seemingly to consider his work.  Opportunities to engaged in such self directed projects at school are helping our children to learn to  focus and preparing them for success.