What Do I Look Like?!

This past week the Etzim kids have been working on creating self-portirts. During circle time on Tuesday I brought in a mirror and we passed it around and looked at our faces.  We noticed that we have eye brows and ears, eye lashes too! During circle I also introduced using Sharpies. We discussed how sharpies are special pens that are used only for paper and that we must be careful with them. After circle time watch child went to their seats and created their first self-portrait. It was neat to watch them look back and forth from the mirror to their paper. They were so focused! Already we have done a second draft of portraits. I am so excited to watch their observation skills evolve!

There is a turkey knocking on the door?

Right outside the TBSCC entrance there was a turkey standing it at the door!  Adamah was getting ready to go outside and Rachel told us we had a visitor with feathers.  We all walked over to check out the real turkey at the door.  It was quite a sight!  It's not everyday you have a turkey standing at your door!

Another way to represent Daffodils

 After representing the daffodils with watercolor paints, we put out strips of bleed tissue paper. The children tore pieces of tissue paper to form the shapes of the flowers. Next, they wet the tissue paper and watched as the color bled onto their white background. They then peeled up the tissue paper to reveal their creation. It is so exciting to to see the many ways children can represent their observations.

Inspired by Daffodils

A fresh bouquet of Daffodils, water color paints, and cut water color paper was an inspiring provocation last week. Almost all of the children visited the science table where the daffodils were placed. Each child used the water color paints to represent the flowers on their blank canvases, each with their own variation. Come look at the wall of the children's paintings in the Kohavim classroom! We plan to continue bringing in fresh flowers as inspiration. Over the next few weeks, if you and your child are gardening or come across some striking flowers at the market, please bring them in to share with us! 

What's Growing in Kohavim?

The seeds the children planted in our classroom planter have sprouted! Pea shoots are growing tall and decorative corn stalks are not far behind. Every day the plants get a little bit taller, and the Kohavim botanists are ready to observe and care for the plants. They have been watering the planter each morning. They are also using rulers and yard sticks to measure the height of the plants. When you have some time, come by and see what's growing in our indoor planter! 

Do squirrels like pumpkins?

Well, what do you think...
  We could not believe our eyes today when we saw a squirrel feasting on a pumpkin right outside our door!  The children watched from the window as the squirrel opened the pumpkin with his teeth, carried the pumpkin a few feet away, spit it on the ground and then ate it!  The squirrel repeated the process over and over again until something scared him and he ran away.

When we went outside to play we decided to take a closer look at what was left of the pumpkin. 
That squirrel hit the "jackpot" when he found a plump ripe pumpkin in the middle of the winter on a spring like day!   Only in New England! 

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!

Tel Aviv's Creating Self-Portraits!

Over the past two days the Tel Aviv class has been working on creating self-portraits. We have been drawing using colored pencils and mirrors to pay extra attention to what our faces look like. It’s neat to see how concentrated children are when examining themselves in a mirror. I have seen a great deal of detail in this batch of drawing  (lot’s of ears!) which makes me know that these kids are really paying attention to what they see!

We are using these self-portraits as the cover to our portfolios that we will be continuing throughout the year. We intend to do another self-portrait toward the end of the year and use at as a back cover to our portfolios. We are so excited to see all the growth that will happen throughout this year together and we are excited that the group is excited about their new portfolios! 

Emergent Curriculum

Today our curriculum plans took a turn as we went to put the cornbread in the oven.  Right outside the window was a construction sight that captivated us, raised a lot of questions, and challenged the teachers' knowledge of trucks.   Our observations included "Those are new water pipes going in.", "That's an excavator." , "That's Bob the Builder."  We counted seven police officers and construction workers outside our window!

 

 

Oh the Places You'll Go!!!

 Mia brought in several books, one of which is depicted. We asked the children to notice similarities and differences. It was clearly the same book, but the language was different. One was written in Hebrew and the other in English. How did they know it was the same book? The picture on the cover was the same, but the colors were different. The direction of the reading was different as well. The one in Hebrew had darker colors. They were the same in that the man was standing. Which one did they think we could read? They said the English one. Who could we ask to read the one in Hebrew? "My parents" said Mia, other children said "Rohan, Rabbi Jay, and Rabbi Todd."

Not everyone can read Hebrew, but someday!!!

Into the Woods...

The Rainbow class took a hike in the woods with their focusers today.  The kids noticed that things had changed with the beginning of spring.  They discovered some white flowers, a purple flower, some moss, a fallen tree, and a number of great big stumps.  They saw fresh, new leaves on the branches that were bare just a few weeks ago.  Everyone seemed to enjoy exploring. Take a look below...

Into the Woods...

The Rainbow class took a hike in the woods with their focusers today.  The kids noticed that things had changed with the beginning of spring.  They discovered some white flowers, a purple flower, some moss, a fallen tree, and a number of great big stumps.  They saw fresh, new leaves on the branches that were bare just a few weeks ago.  Everyone seemed to enjoy exploring. Take a look below...

Into the Woods...

The Rainbow class took a hike in the woods with their focusers today.  The kids noticed that things had changed with the beginning of spring.  They discovered some white flowers, a purple flower, some moss, a fallen tree, and a number of great big stumps.  They saw fresh, new leaves on the branches that were bare just a few weeks ago.  Everyone seemed to enjoy exploring. Take a look below...

Nature "focusers"

The Rainbow class took time to decorate one of the two parts to their focusers - which one of the children identified as "binoculars". After a quick teacher demonstration and explanation, each child proceeded to put the cap right on the end of the marker, so she could immediately find the cap to put on the marker after she finished. This was another opportunity to remind us to take care of our materials. Drawing on a curved surface is tricky!

The Rainbow parents had decorated the other part of the focusers in honor of their child when we met for Curriculum Night. The kids were delighted to see the half that their parent had covered with designs, patterns, and pictures. We taped the two together to make the focusers that we plan to bring on our upcoming nature walk. Once the focusers were securely taped together, the kids were delighted to use them to look outside. We heard reports that they saw squirrels, a horse, and a bird just outside of our window. With our focusers, we can also look at small areas in the woods or playground area. They will give us a way to bring our attention to a specific area as we look around us. Stay tuned for more about the focusers and our exploration...

My Visit to Kindergarten

As a teacher in the Haifa class, almost all of my students will be moving on to kindergarten next year. The teaching staff here at TBSCC try to foster a growing, educational, playful community in which the students will gain confidence in themselves and their abilities, learning from every experience along the way. That is all fine and dandy in preschool, but what about kindergarten? What happens there? Today, Melissa and I were lucky enough to find out!

With the help of one of the mothers at the preschool, we were able to set up a few observation times at the Broad Meadow kindergarten. We were welcomed into the class to observe and participate, as well as ask the teacher and the students any questions we wanted. We were able to observe a large class art project done in the way of Eric Carle books, as well as circle and choice time. Above is a small groups' work showing an interpretation of A House for Hermit Crab. I saw the students listening to one another, sharing supplies, brainstorming on how they were going to create their picture, and work off the creations of others.

With the main wave of conferences over for the spring, it seems that the question on the minds of many parents is "Is my child ready for kindergarten?" When I asked the kindergarten teacher about her philosophy on teaching, she told me that she believes that kindergarten is an essential building block in how to work in social spaces and groups. There are academics included in the curriculum obviously, but that one of the largest takeaways should be how to be successful with others. While learning letters, math, and science are important as well, if a child does not know how to work with others respectfully, it's going to make things a lot harder down the line.

It put a smile on my face to know that the philosophy that we keep at the Temple Beth Shalom Childrens' Center rings true with what is being taught in the Needham school system kindergarten!

-Alison

The Ants Go Marching One by One.....

This morning during early morning drop off Teddy Freidman and I found an Ant! We were quite excited about our new friend so we put it in a cage and put in some dirt so it could have a temporary indoor home. Unfortunately it escaped and when another early drop off friend became scared it got stepped on. So this meant that we had to have an "ant funeral." We went outside and were joined by our friends as they were arriving to school. We had a quick funeral ceremony which included a rousing edition of, "The Ants go Marching" and then decided that we had to go on an "Ant Hunt" to find more ants. We dug in the dirt but there were no ants or bugs in sight! The kids all started to ask to go into the woods to see if we would have more luck beyond the playground. We compromised and went to the area by the playground and searched for a bit there. Soon Max found a stump that was covered in ants! We looked at them and decided that was an ant colony that must live inside. We put a few of them in our container to observe and then let them out at the end of outdoor time. It was neat to see how one little ant could inspire so much create play. Because of this one little ant we had kids from multiple classes working together to grapple with nature and to examine animal behavior. By the end of the morning we had many kids who had all learned that it's important to be kind to all animals, even if they are just an itty-bitty ant.

Up, Up and Away!

Today on the playground Hannah and Eli figured out if you put a ball on one end of the shovel and jump on the other the ball will FLYYYYYYYY in the air! The whole class wanted to try so we made a line and took turns! It was great physics in action!

Thank you trees for beautiful flowers!

Trees give us so many wonderful things and one of them is flowers! We had the opportunity to go on a field trip right in the building... The Flower Show! Check out these beautiful flowers!

Worms, Worms, Worms!

The Tel Aviv class had a big surprise in the sensory table today..WORMS! The class was intrigued but the fact that there were real worms in the table. This past fall, many of the children enjoyed finding worms on the playground but we had never had so many in the classroom before. Right after circle, the class gathered around the table and looked inside. Eliza was the first to reach in and everyone watched as she picked up a worm. Most were timid to touch and hold the worms but a few kids were excited to touch the worm with one finger. After one finger they decided to hold a worm and soon they were putting worms all over each others arms! Jacob and Rachel played with the worms for a long time. They named and talked to the worms which was quite adorable. I am excited that everyone is warming up to our new class pets and tomorrow we will get to learn more about our new pets for our special Tel Aviv Dirt Day!

Learning by Drawing!

Today the Tel Aviv class had many plants and flowers set up on the art table! Together at circle we read a book about seeds, plants, flowers and fruits and then encouraged the class to look at our plants to see what part of the plant life-cycle we can see! Jacob looked at the plants and drew the flower's life cycle with pastels. He drew the seed, the plant growing and the flower. It's so neat to watch how their learning appears in their art. We will continue to have plants and hang up the Tel Aviv's class' creations as our studies of plants continue!