A Ruach Sampler

  We introduced pine cone math. Each player threw the dice, counted the dots, and  picked pine cones out to represent the amount. There were many lines of pine cones and discussions about, "How many." Book writing continues to be a popular activity in the classroom. Olivia cut out small pieces of paper to  decorate the cover of her book.  The music post is a wonderful addition to our playground. The children  carefully listen to see if all of the sounds are the same or different. It was a busy week, accented by beautiful fall days!

Walk to the Pumpkin patch!

On Monday, Kindergarten Enrichment walked to a nearby pumpkin patch. Along the way we noticed the beautiful colors of the leaves around us. Each child was given two dollars to pick out a pumpkin. Their challenge was to figure out which pumpkin they could buy for two dollars and to carry their pumpkin back to Temple Beth Shalom. The children noticed all of the different sized pumpkins. They tried sitting on the giant pumpkins and lifting the different pumpkins. After walking around, we discovered you could get a middle sized pumpkin and a teeny tiny pumpkin for two dollars. Each child selected their pumpkins and payed. We also chose a larger pumpkin to explore back in our classroom. 

On our walk back to TBS, the children discovered how heavy pumpkins really were. They began passing them to Jesse, but then we had a problem. When Jesse's hands got too full, one of the teeny tiny pumpkins rolled out of her hands and into the street. We safely stood on the sidewalk as our teeny tiny pumpkin bounced and rolled and got squashed by the tire of a car. Realizing this was one of Julian's pumpkins, Evan offered a wonderful way to solve the problem. He offered his pumpkins to Julian. Our walk to the pumpkin patch provided so many opportunities, such as, taking a field trip together, using money to purchase our pumpkins, gross motor strength to carry our pumpkins, and we were even presented with a challenging problem solving opportunity! The pumpkin patch was such a treat, and next time we will make sure to bring our wagon to carry our pumpkins back! 

How Big Should We Build?

Samantha and Molly were pretending to take care of their pretend dog, Charlotte in the block area. When asked where their puppy slept, they decided to build a dog crate for her. But how big of a crate would they need for Charlotte to fit inside? Micah G. offered to assist them in the building process. Together, they used the wooden blocks to build an enclosure for the dog. They had Charlotte climb in and out a few times to check their measurements and make sure they got the size right. When the crate was complete, the puppy climbed in and took a rest. 

Fall Math

Thank goodness for a windy, rainy weekend!   With so many avid leaf collectors at TBS, colorful leaves were getting scarce.  In the Etzim class we are collecting, pressing and laminating our ever-growing collection.  We use our leaves for sorting by color, shape, and size.  The next step?  Classifying and learning to identify trees.  We hold trees near and dear in our classroom.  If you spend a little time in the Etzim classroom you are sure to hear someone say  "Etzim means trees!"

 

 

Food Challenge

We had a food challenge in Adom on Thursday:  What can you build with 10 green grapes and 10 blueberries? Inspired by the delicious fresh fruit and the toothpicks, the children took on the building challenge. Before they could build, they had to count out their fruit. Using one to one correspondence, the children counted out 10 grapes and 10 blueberries. As they built, the children nibbled on the blueberries and grapes. Playing with the fruit provided a sensory experience and encouraged the children to try new foods. After the constructed, the children gobbled up the fruit! What a delicious building activity!

Glitter Slime!

The children in Adom love following recipes, especially when it leads to something gooey, slimy, and fun to play with! The children followed the recipe for glitter slime this week:

Ingredients: 
1 cup of water
1 teaspoon of Borax
1 bottle of Glitter Glue
1 teaspoon of water

Directions: 
1. Combine 1 cup of water and 1 teaspoon of Borax.
2. Pour a bottle of glitter glue into a bowl.
3. Add 1 teaspoon of water to the glitter glue.
4. Pour the borax and water mixture into the bowl.

Following recipes provides so many literacy, math, and science opportunities. After following the recipe, the children were able to explore the glitter slime!

You might want to try preparing Glitter slime with your children at home!

Woodworking:"The Last Hurrah"

  
The woodworkers have put down their tools and  admired their work. The children  commented that they "liked the plans" while others liked to "hammer and saw." The experience was peppered with multiple opportunities to learn. One of our trial and error experiences involved the length of the nails that were required to connect 2 pieces of wood. The wood easily splintered so the nails  had to be thin which made it challenging for the students to successfully hammer. Everyone cheerfully waited and supported their peers until it was their turn and all of us enjoyed the process.

Discovering the world of insects/bugs!

Discovering the world of insects/bugs! Some of the children have developed a sense of responsibility for the little insects they find outside on the playground. They seem to feel a true sense of pride and accomplishment when the relocate one of Gods creatures to a safe location or simply to observe and not disturb an insect/bug. Everytime Noah finds an inchworm he gently picks it up and carries it to the garden. He places the worm gently on one of the plants. He found 5-6 inchworms on the fence, and on his way over to the quiet safe garden, he stopped to show Jesse what he found. They counted them together. Adam and Josh were very excited to show everyone the 50-60 baby spiders in the house on the playground! It was really cool to see so many tiny little spiders all together in one web.

What can you find in nature?

Jacob and Molly spent some of the morning collecting things found in nature. By providing a wooden box with dividers, the children were inspired to collect found objects and sort them into the different spaces. Jacob and Molly collect smooth stones, large stones, sticks, baby acorns, and purple flowers. Observing, sorting, and classifying are important mathematical skills that the children were engaging with while enjoying the wonder of nature around them!

Hammering Away on a Friday afternoon

     

       
 

On Friday, several children continued to work on their  projects. The  Kohavim and Hafia  lunch bunch welcomed some friends from the  Tel Aviv class to join in the fun. The children concentrated on the task and at the end of the session Molly asked, " Can we keep doing this?" The children have enjoyed the process and it provides an opportunity to develop  eye-hand coordination skills.  Next week, we'll be back  to the woodworking shop on Friday afternoon.

Math Moments

In every classroom at any time during the day, the potential for a "math moment" exists. The room is one big learning center where strands of mathematical discovery are continually being woven. Children learn to make sense of their world through everyday experiences. To stimulate a math moment, teachers use a variety of materials and ideas to create an environment in which children explore math concepts.

In the math/science centers there are board games, puzzles, matching and guessing games, pattern blocks, and collections of objects that give children opportunities to recognize numbers and build math skills. But math moments do not occur only in the math/science centers. In play, children construct cities (by sorting and organizing) and use words like long, short,small, and tall. At snacktime a child passes out one napkin per child and the same number of crackers for each person. When the class takes a vote on what stories to read or for some decision, children compare quantities.

Over the last several months the Tel Aviv children have been collecting, and counting the brown seeds they find beneath their feet in the soil on the playground. The children collect the seeds and place them in a bucket and/or bag. As the children find the seeds they count them 1,2,3... Often they will say "What comes after 12, or what comes after 20?" Today Noah asked me to help him count his seeds. He poured them out on to the plastic table and proceeded to count all the way up to 33 seeds, one at a time. At 19 he asked me, "What is next?" I said "20" and he took it from there. He was so pleased with himself as he counted the seeds! At the end of the day Noah put all his seeds back in his plastic bag. Now that's what I call a "math moment!" Every day the children take home bags of seeds. Sasha and I often wonder what happens to the seeds when they get home? Parents might want to find a "math moment" at home and count the seeds all over again! Your children will love it! Have fun!

More than Muffins

The Keshet children baked pumpkin muffins today, and the baking experience revealed a growing level of awareness of how we follow a recipe. The children demonstrate that they understand that print has meaning; the words on the box, accompanied by pictures, tell us what (and how much) of other ingredients we must put into the mix. We measured one cup of milk and 1/3 cup of oil, and we counted and broke two eggs. The children counted twelve 'cups' in the muffin tin, and counted out twelve paper liners to fill them. We counted fifty strokes with the spoon, to be sure we had mixed the batter enough. These pre-reading and pre-math experiences are especially satisfying when they produce a dozen delicious muffins for snack!

Glass Gems

During Lunch Bunch, the Kohavim and Haifa children have been exploring glass gems. They used muffin tins to sort the gems. Some children sorted by color, shape, and even texture! Some of the children used the gems and muffin tins to pretend they were selling cupcakes! Using the glass gems and muffin tins provided wonderful math opportunities such as noticing characteristics of objects and sorting. The children were inspired to engage in dramatic play and the beautiful glass gems provide an interesting sensory opportunity as they feel smooth, different shaped, and a bit cold to touch.

Measuring, Recording, and Reporting, Oh My!

When the children discovered the box in the middle of the Kohavim classroom was a planter, they realized they would need to construct a bottom. If we were going to build a bottom, we would need to know how big the bottom should be! Lily, Noah, and Molly took on the job of measuring. Measurement is something adults encounter in their everyday lives when they are cooking, hanging a picture on their wall, or purchasing clothes. When measuring the planter the children used pieces of white paper, which is a non-standard unit of measurement. As they continue to develop their understanding of measurement, they will begin to use standard units of measurement, such as inches or feet, which are measurements that are easily replicated.

After they layed out the pieces of white paper they counted to see how long and how wide the planter was. Lily recorded the planter was 5 pieces long and 1 1/2 pieces wide. The children then reported their findings to the rest of the children.




 After sharing the measurements of the planter, Lily, Noah, and Molly made a list of materials and tools they would need to construct a base or bottom for the planter. They wrote wood, saw, glue, nails, and hammer.

With the measurements collected and a list of tools and materials written, it was time to start thinking about what we would put in our planter. Many children thought we could plant flowers or vegetables, but we would need to think about what else we would need to take care of those plants. To find out what happened next, read the blog post "Preparing to fill the Planter."

"Put Some Veggies In A Pot..."

We have been talking about plants and how they can provide delicious and nutritious food for our bodies! Thursday we did a taste test experiment of different steamed veggies. We first chopped them up using plastic knives which was hard, but the Tel Aviv kids knew what to do and got the job done! Then we walked the pot full of veggies to the community room to have them steamed...

We had a delicious group snack with all our steamed veggies and some raw veggies. We saw how cooked carrots and raw carrots look and feel different. We encouraged kids to try new foods. If they didn't want to try them, they still had the opportunity to smell them, touch them and learn about the different kinds of vegetables and how they are different cooked than they are raw. Our veggie options included, carrots, red peppers, green beans, broccoli and cauliflower.

After snack, we had the opportunity to chart which vegetables we liked and which ones we didn't. We found a place on the chart to write our names and then could put either a smiley face or check in a b0x to indicate that we liked a certain food or an X to indicate that we didn't. This chart is an early introduction to math skills that they will be continuing to use in elementary school. Kids were able to look at the chart and see that some kids liked all the veggies or that Lily liked carrots. There is a lot of information on the chart, and it is a learning opportunity both to put your own information in the chart as well as look and read the chart as a whole. It was neat to see how invested each child was as they filled it out. Many realized that they hadn't tried the vegetable so they didn't know to mark whether or not they liked it. So we ended up having a second taste test as we were filling out our graph. Micah Gladstone learned he liked ALL the veggies, and he hadn't tried any of them during snack!

It was a great project, and we were excited to see all the healthy foods Tel Aviv kids like. Come on in and check out the chart to  see which new veggies you can introduce to your dinner table!!

I Throw My Latkes in the Air Sometimes

As Kohavim was enjoying the Hanukkah festivities last week, some children were singing the song, "Candlelight" over and over again. The lyric, "I throw my latkes in the air sometimes" sparked a discussion on what would happen if we really were to throw our latkes in the air. We decided that if we did throw our latkes in the air they would either stick to the ceiling or make a mess on the floor, but the children still wanted to try tossing latkes. So we developed a Latke Toss Game together.

In the Latke Toss Game, each player takes turns standing on the taped line. They get three chances to toss the latke from their frying pan. The children tossed the latke (in the game we used a bean bag) at cards labeled with numerals representing the amount of points you would receive.  The closest card to tossing line was labeled 1 and increased with distance to 5. Depending on where the Latke lands, that is the amount of points the player earns that round. Because each player gets three tosses each turn, the children had the challenge of tallying the three tosses together. 

After many practice rounds of Toss the Latke, the children signed in on the score sheet. Then they each took turns tossing the latkes. As the player took their place on the taped line, the other children cheered them on. The player then tossed "the latke" three times providing the other children with addition problems. If the player tossed the latke and it landed on a 2, then a 3, and then a 2 we had the challenge of adding all of those numbers together. What a fun way to explore "throwing our latkes in the air" and engaging in math!

Building Challenge!

 

The children have been playing with different kinds of building materials, experiencing how the stability of their structures are affected by the ways they put materials together and by the materials they use. Some of the children have become interested in stacking blocks; others build tall structures such as rockets and towers as part of their magnitile and block play. On Monday at our morning meeting we invited the children to become expert tower builders by trying to build the tallest structure they can using foam and/or rectangular wooden blocks. We asked the children..Which blocks do you think are best for making tall towers? Which towers do you think will get the tallest? As the children were busy building towers we engaged the children in breif converstions. We asked them about their structures and then in the context of their play encouraged them to build up. For example...Tell me about your building? Can you add a look out tower? Tell me about the house you are building can you build a roof? Some of the other children were really interested in making a car garage and playground. We did not want to interfere with their focus. Today we discussed strategies for tower building, Charlotte suggested, "Building flat helps blocks stay up." Elias and Josie said, "A lot on the bottom will keep them up." We will continue to facilitate science talks, take photos, sketch structures and encourage the children in the tower challenge!

The Shape of Things

Yesterday the children enjoyed building with tooth-picks and and rasins. As we were creating and building we talked about basic geometric shapes around us. The door of the classroom is a rectangle, the snack table is round, the magnetile house on the rug is a square shape... The children built houses, a garage, windows, triangles, squares, rectangles, and so much more! Shapes are all around us, in natural objects, architecture, signs, and even in the numerals and letters we use. Shape knowledge underlies algebra, geometry, and other domains of higher mathmatics. This complex knowledge begins with the very simple foundation of recognizing simple shapes-circles, squares, triangles, ovals, rectangles, and diamonds. Children can begin to notice these shapes in the world around them, and you can help them to do so. As you walk or drive along together, point out shapes you see in signs, rooftops, and windows. Involve your child in shape-spotting games: Who can find the first triangle? How many shapes can we find in that building? Can you find two oval letters in that billboard? I spy a shape with my little eye? You'll find that your child enjoys getting "in shape"! HAVE FUN!

Our morning with math.

Teaching early mathematics concepts to young children can truly benefit them as life long learners. In the developmental continuum, the early childhood years are an essential time period for acquiring a foundation for many educational concepts.  Today in the Etzim classroom, we explored early mathematically concepts by playing with peg boards.  With different colored rings, children in the classroom could be heard counting, creating patterns, and having fun all at the same time.