Guess Who

By this point in the school year the Shamayim kids know so much about each other. Talking about themselves is a favorite subject, too. On Wednesday each child thought of two or three things about themselves: things they love to eat, things they love about school, and things about their families. We are putting their clues and photos together into a class book for each child to take home. Watch for it coming soon! How many children can you guess correctly? How many can your child guess? This is bound to be a new bedtime favorite.

Here are a few to get you started:

I love to play football with my daddy.
My daddy kisses me and tickles me.
Who am I?

I love my Legos.
My daddy puts me to bed.
Avery is in my family.
Who am I?

I love to play with trains.
I love cooking
My mama, my sister and my dada are my family.
Who am I? 

BINGO!!

Today the Tel Aviv class was SO EXCITED that we had Bingo set up! They loved each having their bingo board and watching and listening for each shape to be called. We had two different groups of five or six kids which each played three games a piece! It was a full morning of hearing Bingo! in our class. Bingo is a great game because it is social, yet individual. Kids kept helping each other by saying, "Look! you have a house!" or "I have one too!"  As they game continued it became important how many spaces each child had left on their board. I had never thought of Bingo as a math game but today i was able to see how kids used counting skills, as well as addition and subtraction to understand how many spaces they had covered and how many spaces they had left to win. It was a great morning and I'm sure we will have bingo in our classroom again soon!

I Had a Little Drediel......

Drediel is such a neat game!! We have all played it so many times but sometimes it takes a group of kids to truly remind you how such a simple game has so many wonderful opportunities for learning! We have been playing drediel all week and we have been using foam letters as gelt which has created a fun literacy twist to what is usually a counting exercise. Drediel teaches taking turns, identifying shapes, patience, good sportsmanship, counting, patterns, fine motor development  and more! The Tel Aviv kids are starting to really master which shape/symbol/color connects to which action and they understand that it's really special when it lands on Green Gimmel  because that means you get all of letters! Drediel is a fun game to play with siblings and friends throughout the week of Hanukkah! We hope you get the opportunity to play with your children and see for yourselves how much they know!

Gold Bird, Silver Bird, Through Our Windows

I promised the children that I would share this video of the bird game so that they could teach it to their families over Thanksgiving. Enjoy! And please let us know how it turned out when you tried it at home.

Gold Bird, Silver Bird, Through Our Windows

I promised the children that I would share this video of the bird game so that they could teach it to their families over Thanksgiving. Enjoy! And please let us know how it turned out when you tried it at home.

Gold Bird, Silver Bird, Through Our Windows

I promised the children that I would share this video of the bird game so that they could teach it to their families over Thanksgiving. Enjoy! And please let us know how it turned out when you tried it at home.

Gold Bird, Silver Bird, Through Our Windows

I promised the children that I would share this video of the bird game so that they could teach it to their families over Thanksgiving. Enjoy! And please let us know how it turned out when you tried it at home.

Dag Maluach- A Game from Israel

This game had us in hysterics.  As Rohan turned her back and counted in Hebrew, the children slowly walked towards her.  When she turned around, it was time to freeze.  Then comes the silly part.  Rohan approached each child, trying to scare them and make them laugh.  It was so hard to stay still!  Enjoy the peek!

Dag Maluach- A Game from Israel

This game had us in hysterics.  As Rohan turned her back and counted in Hebrew, the children slowly walked towards her.  When she turned around, it was time to freeze.  Then comes the silly part.  Rohan approached each child, trying to scare them and make them laugh.  It was so hard to stay still!  Enjoy the peek!

Dag Maluach- A Game from Israel

This game had us in hysterics.  As Rohan turned her back and counted in Hebrew, the children slowly walked towards her.  When she turned around, it was time to freeze.  Then comes the silly part.  Rohan approached each child, trying to scare them and make them laugh.  It was so hard to stay still!  Enjoy the peek!

Board game fun with Chester!

This past weekend Molly took Chester home! While visiting their home Chester, Molly and Molly's dad made a special Chester Board game together! The game which Molly calls the, "Chester Game" is a game where you spin the spinner and then move your piece to the same color lips as the spinner. The goal of the game is to get to the end while collecting the kisses from the book, "The Kissing Hand." The board game itself is even in the shape of a hand! Thank you Molly and Jason for creating such a fun game! We are so glad that you had such a good weekend with Chester and are ecstatic to have this new game to play in our class!

An engaging game of cards

We have had a lot of success forming groups of children interested in playing Uno. It seems like most of the children already knew how to play the game but others have joined in who are just learning. The game involves matching color to color and/or number to number. There are wild cards, cards that say to switch directions, skip a player, take more cards from the pile, etc. The game involves following directions, taking turns, being patient, tolerating frustration, using strategy, and having fun. No gambling is involved!
If you know of any other good card games for children of this age, please let us know. It has really been great to find games that interest so many different children.

Our New Play Doh Game

We opened a new game that you use with play dough. Before we could play it, we had to assemble it. It took us awhile to figure out how to put the game together. Besides the pieces, the game comes with four little cans of Play Doh to use. Once we had all the parts ready, we went over how you play the game. It took a while to figure that out too! We thought we had it all worked out so we started to play. It was a long game, but we were all very patient. We realized that we had not played the game in the right direction and had not used the recycle spot as we were supposed to. The next time we play, we will have a better understanding of how this game should go. We all loved learning to play this game!

A Playful Purim

The Rainbows played a great Purim game called Pin the Jelly on the Hamentaschen this morning. It was fun to choose a favorite jelly flavor and spin around before trying to find the hamentaschen to attach it to! We also watched as the puppets told the story of Purim in our new puppet theater. Everyone had a chance to try out the puppets themselves. Our newly completed groggers made loud noises as we shook them on hearing Hamen's name throughout the story. 

Good Ol' Fashion Fun

How nice to leave the land of video games to play some Bingo! These four players stayed in the game for the long haul as some others came and went. It was great to see one after the other catch on to how to read the balls and figure out the cards. Before we knew it each child was calling out "N 39", "O "67", "I 29" just like the pros! The game lacks video and sound effects, a computer screen, and a lot of action but it makes up for that with comraderie, reading and number skills, and good ol' fashion fun!

Pete's A Pizza

One of my favorite children's books is Pete's a Pizza. I love the book because it lends itself to one of my favorite games: The Pizza Game! Sandy, Julia, Teddy, Avery, and Isaac laid down on the floor to get started. I reminded them of the rule: No laughing allowed! And the game began. First, I put on the sauce (a good tummy rub) and spread it all around my pizzas. Then I added the cheese- plop! plop! On went the toppings. We had requests for peppers, olives, tomatoes, more cheese, and even some silly things like chocolate. Finally my pizzas we ready to bake. Into the oven they went. I could not wait to taste them.

The only problem with this game is that every time I play it, my pizzas run away before I can eat them! But I'll keep trying. This is a great one to try at home.

A Game of "Emotions Lotto" is a Success

The Tel Aviv All Stars seem to be learning and having fun exploring a wide range of feelings that we have been identifying and discussing. During our "second circle" time today, we played a lotto game which required the children to identify the emotions that were expressed in photographs on their cards. The "caller" would hold up a card showing for example, a boy with a shy expression on his face. Each child would look at the card, identify the feeling being shown, and then see if that same picture was featured on his/her lotto card. If so, he/she would cover the picture with a marker. Lauri and I would circulate around the tables to help any child who was having difficulty. All the children caught on very quickly and had a fun time. We played until every card was completed.

More and more Patriots' chains

As the weeks have gone by, the Haifa All Stars have continued to make a chain for the number of points that the Patriots scored in that week's game. Because of the high scoring games for the Patriots, the windows of 0ur room are filled with the chains. The chains have even extended to over the loft.

The children love making the chains and are now following various colored patterns each week. We will continue to create the chains through the end of the season! Hopefully we will be working on these chains until the Patriots are in the Super Bowl on February 6, 2011 !

Assigning roles in a new game

Teddy Fox is teaching Nathaniel Ross and Teddy Post how to play a Pokemon game that he and Nathaniel have played before. Teddy Post is listening carefully since he never played the game. Both Teddy Fox and Nathaniel were very willing to include Teddy Post in their game.