Let's Explore Living Creatures!

Over the course of the next several weeks the children will take on the role of "young naturalists, they will engage in exploratory play as they look for living things, find out what they are like and what they do, examine where they live, and learn about what they need.
Many of the children will see the study of bugs/insects as an opportunity to become caregivers, the insects becoming pets.  One of our learning goals is for the children to see that it is our responsibility to help care for all living creatures and protect them and their environments.
Yesterday we went on an insect/bug walk in the woods!  The children brought their insect journals, markers, magnifying glasses, bug catchers, and binoculars.  They lifted rocks, tree stumps(with a teacher of course) and searched for bugs/insects.
Charlotte and Samantha found "rollie pollies"!  Charlotte put the little critter in her bug finder and Samantha took the time to draw it in her journal.  Samantha said, "Look I made the rollie pollie in my journal, it's shaped like a circle."
Adam found a bug and was so excited ...He yelled, "Lauri look what I found!"  He ran as fast as he could over to show me, then tripped and fell to the ground.  When he stood up Adam put his hand out to show me what he found, apparently the bug got a little smooshed.  He did not recognize the little critter anymore, he said, "yuck, I lost it."  Then he shook his hand and brushed it off.  I said, "These things happen."
Everyone enjoyed exploring living creatures in the woods.  Both the Tel Aviv teachers and children look forward to many more opportunities to investigate real living creatures, developing new ideas and theories, and sharing them with others!

The Vroom Vroom Connection

In the early days of school, our youngest children communicate with few words but lots of sound effects. We all know the universal language of racecars gunning their engines, trucks beeping as they back up, and the squealing of brakes. Today we welcomed the Keshet children; they were eager to start their engines and get in gear!

What do you like about being free?

At circle time we talked about how the story of Passover teaches us about slavery and freedom and the right of all people to be free! After I read, Moses God's Brave Servant we asked the children "What is one thing you like about being free?"

Rachel- "If you are captured you can change your mind if you want to be free."

Eli- "This morning I had a fight with my brother and I could just walk away."

Ezra- " I can play with my brother whenever I want to, except when he has to do his homework."

Freedom is not an easy a concept for preschoolers to grasp. I was amazed at some of the children's responses. We will continue to talk about the story of Passover and remember how brave Moses lead the Jewish people out of Egypt.

Negotiate!

Negotiating conflict is easier said than done, even for adults! Today we introduced another problem solving strategy...Negotiate. First we showed the children the poster and asked them, "What do you think negotiate means? What are the people in this picture doing?" Their response was, "giving, taking, sharing, talking about it and working it out." They were right on! Then we acted out a few scenarios and talked about how we can negotiate and problem solve in these situations. For example two people arrive at the swing at the time...How could we negotiate in this situation? We "walked through" some options with the children that made sense. The children really seemed to get it!

At the end of the day Hannah and Eliza wanted to use the spray bottle to clean the table. Two children and one spray bottle. Hannah immediately started to negotiate with Eliza. Hannah said, "How about if I spray 5 times and then you spray 5 times Eliza?" Eliza's response, "Yes you spray and then I will have a turn to spray!"

At our second circle I shared with the whole group how Hannah and Eliza used our newest problem solving strategy...Negotiate!

Rebecca sent Sasha and I an email this afternoon. Hannah said, "Mom do you know what agotiating is?" "What?" said Rebecca. "When you share at school. It's one of our very new strategies." It is so nice to hear that the children are talking about and using the problem solving strategies at school and at home too.

Bruce and Willaby Here...

Bruce and Willaby took time out of their busy day and dropped by for a short visit. They introduced themselves, chatted a bit, and sang some songs with us. Bruce (the shark) had us laughing up a storm as he told us a few stories about Dory and his dear friend Nemo. Suddenly the children came down with a case of "giggles"...They could not stop laughing! One thing is for sure every time Bruce and Willaby visit, the children are always wearing a big, bright smile! We can't wait until Bruce and Willaby visit us again!

Fun with letters!

Today the children had the opportunity to decorate a white box or brown paper bag. On Thursday they will use their bag/box to participate in a fun scavenger hunt.

Some of the children sat for a long time picking out letters and sticking them on to their bag or box. When Leo was done he was so pleased with his work! "I spelled DOK, TSB, 5LM, RUF!". Rachel took it a step further and decorated a large piece of paper with the letter stickers.

Story Telling!

Everyday the children who stay until 2:00 look forward to a 100% fruit juice popsicle. Sometimes we read a story or tell a story to the children as they enjoy their pop. On Friday Ally told the children the story of the "Three Little Pigs"; but Ally's version of the story had a very different but beautiful ending. Even though the wolf was a big bully and was not very nice to the three little pigs, at the end of Ally's story when the wolf can't blow down the third little pigs house he begins to cry. The pigs feel bad for him, come out of their house and ask him, "What's wrong, why are you crying?" "I am not good at anything but blowing down houses and I can't even do that!" The pigs came up with a great idea! "Wolf you can work at our cousins carnival blowing up balloons!" The wolf said, "Really you would do that for me, even though I was not nice to you?" "Yes of course we would like to help you and maybe we could become friends". So the wolf lived out his days working at the carnival blowing up balloons and became very good friends with the three little pigs.

THE END!

Rabbi Jay happen to be walking by as Ally was telling the story and sat down with us and listened for a little while. When Ally finished the story we talk to the children about how nice and kind the pigs were to the wolf even though he was not so nice to them. The lesson of the story is be yourself and even if someone is not treating right you can still do the right thing...And in this case the pigs helped the wolf find his "dream job" at the carnival, and as time went on they became friends.

Fishing!

If you need any fishing tips this summer I suggest you ask the children at TBSCC! Not only do we catch fish but ducks, lobsters and sea lions too. Everyday we catch something!

In case you didn't notice the first photo was shot at a different location.

"Help Someone Today!"

Everyday Ali Fransblow says "Lauri will you please read my note." Today it said, "Help someone today." Ali's Mom always sends in a special note in her lunchbox, with an age appropriate message on it. We all look forward to Ali's message of the day!

I said, "Ali you did help someone today! You helped Alana take off her water shoes when she asked for help." She smiled and said, "Oh yeah I did." At the end of the day once again Ali offered to help Julia lead the group in a sing-a-long! Ali thanks for being such a great helper today! We really appreciate you!

"Willaby Wallaby Woo!"

"Willaby Wallaby" came in to sing with us today and boy did he make us laugh! That guy is a lot of fun!

Singing and Signing with Josh

Josh came on board our plane to Israel and was the performer for our long trip. Enjoy the music, signing, and singing on this spring day ( - : !!

Singing and Signing with Josh

Josh came on board our plane to Israel and was the performer for our long trip. Enjoy the music, signing, and singing on this spring day ( - : !!

Drama Stories!

The Vampire and The Sloth

Over there are the invisible people so you can't see them. This is a Vampire and this is his "killer machine" the mean, mean Sloth. The invisible people jumped from here and the Vampire said, "You are not going anywhere, I am going to kill you!" The Sloth jumped and killed the invisible people and then they came back to life. The Vampire made a bridge break in half, the bridge fell on the volcano and the volcano fired at them, and they were dead forever!" The End!

Jay, age 5

How to Beat Super Mario Brothers

How to Beat Super Mario Brothers
Written and Illustrated By Aden

How to beat Super Mario Brothers. You beat it without getting a mushroom. Because a mushroom makes you big, but if you get big you still have an extra dye to use up. You have a lot of extra guys to use up on level three. You lose a guy on all levels. Everything four is a five level. When beanstalks come through, you jump. The beanstalks are not strong.
This game is really cool and it times you for 400 seconds!

Aden, age 4

"Sloth" Written and Illustated by, Teddy Fox

Today the children acted out the story Sloth, written and illustrated by Teddy Fox. We took some great pictures but for some reason they were all blurry. The star of the show was Teddy the Sloth, Ruby played Ryan, Sam played Uncle Jacob and Aden was Matthew. It was some performance!

Sloth

Written and Illustrated By Teddy Fox

The three people in this story are called Uncle Jacob, and my two cousins Ryan and Matthew. So they went on a hunt for the Sloth down my street in Needham. In my neighborhood in the mud is where the Sloth is! And it eats mushrooms, carrots and people. The Sloth was really ugly because he has fuzzy hair that sticks up, sharp teeth, and sharp claws! And they all took pictures with the Sloth, and they got together and became friends. The End.

Teddy, age 4

"Black Deaf" Written and Illustrated by Isaiah

Today our first author went up on stage with his story and drawing and chose the part he wanted to play. I read the story a few times for the group to notice each of the roles before the rest of the cast was decided. Melissa and I helped cast the parts, making sure everyone who wanted to be involved had a role to play. Some of the children eagerly raised their hands; Isaiah the author was Black Deaf, Ruby was the Snake and Aden was the Bad Guy. The group took some time thinking about appropriate costumes and then had a very quick dress rehearsal before they acted out Isaiah's story (Black Deaf) for their friend and teachers.

Black Deaf
This is part one. Black Deaf is a bad guy and he is a mean person, and that is him in the picture. This weird guy keeps following his hose! The snake always follows Black Deaf's footprints. This is a "R" movie.

Isaiah, age 4

The Big Show!

The All Star Lunch Bunchers invited their Unicorn and Sunshine friends into the classroom to watch them act-out the Three Billy Goats Gruff story. We hand delivered an invitation with the time and the date. They arrived fashionably late, and we welcomed them with open arms! Our friends sat and watched three showings! Each and every child who participated in the play did a super job remembering their lines! At the end of each show the children proudly took a bow.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff-Starring The Tel Aviv All Stars!

Today we acted out the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. The children took turns acting out the four main characters, the three goats and the troll. Who ever was not acting out a main part on the stage, was in charge of the sound effects. Those children sat around the perimeter of the rug, and held two wooden blocks in their hands. Every time a goat walked across the bridge, they clapped their blocks together like cymbals; which were used to create the sound effect of the goats hooves.

We asked the children, "What should we use to make a bridge?" Ruby responded, "Blocks would be a great idea for a bridge." Everyone else liked that idea. We acted the story out on our mini stage three times. The trolls were Mia, Isaiah and Teddy F. Everyone else took turns playing one of the goats. We are looking forward to acting out the story again tomorrow!

Revisiting Retelling!

Retelling-reading or hearing a text and telling it back in one's own words-is an important strategy for promoting children's comprehension. To do a detailed retelling, children need to understand the story's sequence, important vocabulary,characters,and key events, and be able to wrap up their retelling with an ending that makes sense. This can be challenging for some children. Repeated readings of the text can help.

In circle today we read the Three Billy Goats Gruff again, but this book had a different author and illustrator. We spent a few minutes looking at the covers of the two books and noticed some similarities and differences (one book is bigger than the other, one illustrator drew the goats with bells,the goats in one book are standing side by side etc...). The children were very observant and gave many details of their observations.

Yesterday we first introduced the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and the storing flannel board pieces. Today we put out some clay with a few puppets (three goats the troll and a bridge), thinking they might want to create a clay sculpture of one or more of the puppets. For the most part all they wanted to do was retell the story with the puppets. At first they needed a little coaching and then they were "off and running!" Some of them new the story better than others. But those children helped their friends with important vocabulary and the story's sequence. Everyone had so much fun retelling the story together!

During the course of the week we will continue to revisit the story by using the flannel board, puppets,books and we will begin acting out the story tomorrow in our morning circle, and everyone will have a part! We can't wait!