A bunch of fresh tulips

A bunch of fresh tulips, glass jars of mixed paint, and brushes inspired beautiful still-life paintings.  The children captured the details of the flowers, noticing the different shades of orange and the small amount of yellow at the base of the petals. They shared and negotiated the paints, which were on a lazy susan. Fresh flowers serve as a perfect provocation in our studio.
  

Group Building: Negotiation in Action!

Earlier this week Ellen gave the Tel Aviv class a neat box of Styrofoam blocks.  Micah Gladstone was so exited to have a new building material and he quickly got to work.  Shortly, a few more kids decided to add on to his structure with magnet tiles, then a few more added to it with wooden blocks. Before we knew it the whole class was at the rug creating a very intricate group building structure! There were so many children and building materials on the rug and they worked together and used their words to create a structure that everyone was excited about.  I was impressed that they used their words to plan different areas of the structure and made sure that multiple children’s ideas were heard. Great Negotiation Tel Aviv! Amazing class Structure too!

role play

Today while Sonia, Ava and Bella were decorating their challah bags, Sonia finished first.  She didn't want to leave the table, although she was quite satisfied with how her bag looked...just the right amount of stickers and color.

She decided to stay and help Bella and Ava get the stickers that they wanted.  Sonia began holding up stickers and asking which ones each girl preferred.  In certain circumstances, this teacher/adult role play could end quickly if the person "in charge" became too bossy or controlling.  However, Sonia was fair, respectful and took her job seriously.  Ava and Bella took turns with the sticker choices and were able to express their opinions and desires to Sonia.  The girls remained at the table decorating until it was time for clean up and circle.

Building the Western Wall!

Today "In Jereseulm" Max, Eli, Ezra and Dylan were hard at work building the Western Wall. The boys knew they wanted to build a wall that was tall and used multiple kinds of blocks. I told them that if their structure was agaisnt the wall then we could keep it up for the next few days. Knowing that we could "keep" the wall was very exciting and motivated the boys to work hard on their creation. by using lots of blocks and negotiation skills the boys worked together to create a beautiful multi-dementional Kotel. They were excited to share that they left lots of cracks in it so that we could all leave our notes to God in the cracks. Beautiful creation boys! I am excited to see how the wall and our connection to Jeresulem evolves over the next few days. 

Sharing...easier said than done

We have been talking a lot about friendship and what kindness looks like through the eyes of a three or four year old. The Sunshines easily recognize that checking on someone who is sad, inviting a friend to play or sharing a toy are all great ways to show friendly behavior.

Today we tried working in pairs on a single project. We are building a castle for Queen Esther in Shushan and we need to stack colorfully decorated boxes to make our palace. The children worked in pairs to color their box. At first, figuring out where the box should sit was a challenge. They realized that if they were sharing, it couldn't really sit directly in front of either child. Once placement was established, the children found that they needed to take turns in certain areas and wait patiently to turn/flip the box if their partner was not finished in his/her section.

It was great to hear the beginning of these negotiations and we know that practice will definitely get us closer to perfect!!

Kohavim Band ~ Moving and Grooving ~

 
 
 
 
 
 

The Kohavim boys were inspired by Matt's music. As one can see, the selected the instruments, the conductor, planned the music, and initiated a 'parade' to show the other boys and girls in the other room. This may seem like a simple task, but it involved planning, negotiation, taking turns, and listening and watching. All skills we are working on. Matty the conductor moved his 'stick' up which meant the music was to be 'loud', down meant slower and softer. Then they had to agree on the song to proceed into the other room. It ended up being a series of songs. Thank you Matt for the inspiration. We will be posting a video at another time for your musical enjoyment.