Corn Bread Treat

Many thanks to Bella's mom, Amanda for baking one of her specialties, corn bread for us. There were cheerful, delighted comments  from the children after tasting it, "Yummy for my tummy" and  "This is delicious." It sparked a conversation about what kinds of breads we like. "My grandma makes cranberry bread." I don't like zucchini bread." "My favorite is banana bread." The teachers that sampled the corn bread loved it, too. Careful you don't spoil us Amanda!

Dinner's ready!

It is interesting to see how the manner in which children play with the same materials evolves and becomes richer over time.  There are often two or three children working in the kitchen area together in our classroom.  They might share some food or cook together.  This morning Ethan set the table in the kitchen with about a dozen different plates.  He chose and prepared food for each one: a slice of challah, a tomato, some lettuce, or some carrots.  He grabbed a pot and a spatula and banged away - extending an invitation to the rest of the children: "Dinner's ready!"  He was very excited when Harrison and Nancy joined in to sample his cooking.  It's great fun to cook, but to have others enjoy what you've prepared is a wonderful feeling.  Yum, delicious!

chag sameach

Levana and Shamayim shared a special seder on Monday morning.  We met for Havdalah, as usual, and said good-bye to Shabbat and hello to a brand new week.  We wished for all sorts of things for the coming week:  birthdays, mommies and daddies, kitties, thunderstorms and lots of sunshine.

Afterward, Tina showed us a special book called the Passover Haggadah.  We saw pictures of a seder plate and 4 cups of wine and even talked about the four questions.  Many of the kids already knew that we eat matzah on Passover to remind us how quickly the Jews had to leave Egypt.  They couldn't wait to let their bread rise.

We finished our morning by making charoset together and having a little mini feast.  It was fun to share this special day with good friends!!

Introducing Open Snack!

During circle today we gave a tour of “Open Snack” we explained that the snack area can fit four children and you can go there when you are hungry and when there is space. The idea of open snack allows children to determine when they are hungry and how to manage time between snack and play. It also is an opportunity to foster independence. Children can choose the foods they want to eat and refuse foods they are uninterested in without having to consult an adult. We talk about portion control and making sure there is enough snack for everyone in the class to have some. Today we had cheese sticks, plums and pretzels! The class did a great job of only taking one cheese stick and plum apiece and many were independent both with serving themselves and with opening the cheese sticks all by themselves: not an easy task!  Also having snack as a small group is a nice opportunity for children to make connections with classmates and have child-driven conversations. Open snack is a new idea for many of the Tel Aviv classmates and we are looking forward to continuing to use it throughout our year together!

A Shavuot Feast!

So even though it's been awhile, I thought I'd share about last Friday's Tel Aviv Shavuot feast! In my life I have never really known much about or celebrated Shavuot until I found myself in Venice wondering around a deserted Jewish quarter on Shavuot two years ago.  When I knocked on the door of the Synagogue I was confused on why it was closed. A religious man opened the door from the restaurant next-door labeled "Kosher Pizza" and asked me if I was Jewish. I saw that it was a Chabad house, an organization I was familiar with, and my friend and I replied yes and went on in. Inside there were Jews from all over the world studying Torah and eating Italian pizza and cheesecake. It was a feast!  We  ate and studied together and discovered we knew many people in common through Brandeis. This was a meaningful Shavuot experience to me and a story that I shared with the Tel Aviv class.

 Since Israel is the land of "MILK and honey" we celebrate Shavuot by eating dairy products. We made our own pizza and the sunshine class shared their cheesecake with us. We sat around the table and shared memories of the stories from the Torah we had learned about throughout the year. Together the class pieced together both the story of Purim and Passover. It was great to see how many details they remember! I also loved observing how one child would remember something that would trigger another memory for someone else. It was truly a group learning experience. Last but not least, Ezra proudly shared the story of Jonah, one that he knows well because of his own brother named Jonah.  
Through our sharing of sorties both past and present and our delicious homemade dairy treats I felt like we were true Torah Scholars and that meaningful Shavout experiences can be found everywhere, even in a four year old's pre-school classroom.  

Pop!.....Pop!......POPCORN!

Today Lauri brought in her super fun pop-corn maker for her lunch bunch group and as soon as the Tel Aviv class saw it they decided that they wanted to make popcorn in the morning too! It was a great end of circle activity and the class saw the oil and corn kernels go into the mixer and in minutes it started popping! Everyone ran back over to watch the kernels explode and begin to fill up the pop-corn maker. Eli shrieked with delight each time we heard a "Pop!" Many of the students had not seen the individual kernels before and it was neat to watch their fascination with the pop-corn popping process. After the maker was filled each child got a cup of popcorn to eat and they LOVE it. Most went for seconds and some went for thirds and fourths. Eli even asked if we could make popcorn again tomorrow!

A Little Taste of Israel

Each day I try to share something from my fabulous trip to Israel in an attempt to make the country come alive to the children. It may be a thought or recollection or something more concrete like a map, photo or food.
Olivia samples some Israeli crackers. These tiny crackers were perfect for small fingers. Joshua takes a close look at a map of Israel.