Side By Side

 "I can do it!" said Lindsey with pride and excitement in her voice.  The monkey bars are one of our most challenging playground choices.  It is a true rite of passage on the day a child masters this skill.  Samantha had been watching Lindsey as she struggled from from bar to bar.  When you drop a hand to get to the next bar it requires strength most three and four year olds have not yet developed.  Samantha yelled "Lindsey!  Go this way!"  By using the side bar Samantha is able to maintain a more manageable grip.  Lindsey jumped on and made her way down the entire bar on her first attempt!!  She was thrilled, as Samantha cheered her on!  Lindsey then repeated her new skill so many times a teacher finally had to convince her to rest.  Congratulations Lindsey, and great mentoring Samantha!

What Goes Up....

Today on the playground the Etzim and Adamah children spent some time getting to know each other.  Some of the boys, Eli, Nicholas, and Jacob, sat at the top of the slide while Harold invited them to experiment with speed and balance as they tried different ways to get the car up and down the slide.   There was a lot of laughter and screaming as the car flipped, jumped and raced it's way up to the eagerly awaiting excited Etzim boys!  Go Harold!

First Day Fun!

We had a blast getting to know each other, exploring the classroom and digging on the playground!!  Looking forward to seeing everyone again on Wednesday!!

Outdoor Bowling

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There is nothing like outdoor bowling to conquer a hot and muggy summer day! The Yarok and Adom age groups showed their bowling prowess today with inflatable bowling.  We sure have some real pin masters on our hands this summer at TBSCC!

The Outdoor Read Aloud Experience

An exciting new tradition has developed this summer on the playground at the Children's Center.

Children listen to read-alouds in different areas of the playground. Our first such read-aloud took place on the benches next to the swings where we read a book an ABC book about trains. The second read-aloud took place near the playhouses where we read "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein. For this read-aloud we pretended to be on a tour bus on our way to Disney World. Over the course of the summer, ask your children where else we did outdoor read-alouds. Changing the environment can make reading a fun and novel experience! 

Run! A Human!!

Today part of the Haifa class got to go outside for a second outside time. During choice time we asked the class who would like to go outside, and six of the students said they did! The small group allowed the children to have more room for their creativity to flow wildly.
Harper and Aleeza turned the entire playground into a fairy land. The fairies liked to play at night, but that is when the humans tried to catch them in jars, while they just wanted to flutter freely. They spent much of their time trying to find different hiding places to stay safe from the humans, and even enlisted the help of their Rescue Bot friends!
In the end, everyone returned safely to the Haifa class as humans, but you never know who or what will be fluttering around at night!
-Alison and Sauci

playground play and new friends

One of the many benefits of our TBSCC playground is that we get a chance to play with children in other classes.  When the Shamayim children are outside, we are joined by the Etzim class and the Levana class.  It is so fun to see new friendships form and witness interactions between children who do not know each other very well.

Today, Olivia (Levana) and Jacob (Etzim) were baking and serving ice cream in their "shop" underneath the fire pole.  Max (Shamayim) came over and Olivia asked him if he'd like peach ice cream.  Max said he would and the two shared a lovely treat together.  Max said he was finished after fiddling with the wood chip "dessert" and was on his way.

We hope Olivia, Max and Jacob find each other again on the playground.  It was wonderful to see all of the children laughing, smiling, and exploring today.

Fun on the playground in all kinds of weather

What a difference a day makes! Earlier this week we enjoyed a midwinter day's dream with unseasonable warmth. A day later we were all bundled up on the playground! What crazy weather we are having for the second winter in a row. Luckily we are prepared for anything mother nature can throw at us at TBS. 

Snow Makes Everything Great!

From working together with classmates and siblings, to snow angels, to finding giant pieces of ice, or showing off our biggest smiles, the Haifa class had a blast in the snow this week!! We were using our minds to figure out how ice was created, where the snow came from, what we could do with it, and how much fun it could be!

-Alison and Sauci

new year - new snow

Happy New Year!!  It was so fun to come outside in our snow pants and boots and frolic in the snow covered playground.  We made snow angels, ate a little snow and explored this brand new setting.

Pals in Purple

With winter in the air, and the cold temperatures creeping upon us, the children in Levana have broken out their winter gear!
Amongst the fleece hats, animal themed mittens, puffy coats and boots there is always a common color theme throughout. On the playground, it is sometimes hard to tell who is who with everyone bundled up in similar colors! Today, a group of friends spent time jumping around and talking about their purple jackets! It is always fun to connect with someone because of something you have in common. In this case, it was their jackets!

Signs of Fall

The hurricane last week sure blew a lot of stuff onto our playground. Last week, our students entered onto the plaground to find leaves and branches of all sizes strewn across their playground. On Friday, a few Haifa and Kohavim students decided to work together to rake and shovel up all of the leaves on the playground. Instead of throwing them over the fence, they have been working very hard on creating a large leaf pile that they hope to eventually jump into! If you have leaves at home, I know where you can find plenty of hardworking kids to help you make big piles!

-Alison

Can You Push Me?

Yesterday on the swing Elias asked me to push him, but unfortunately I was busy helping another child on the playground. When I was done I walked over to Elias to see that Zach was pushing him! Elias said that he didn’t need a push anymore because Zach was helping. Zach was so proud that he could do the job of a teacher and help out his friend. I love watching how friendship can extend beyond playing together and include helping and doing favors for each other. Thanks Zach! We rely appreciate your ability to be a good friend!

"Checking in" at the playground

As a floater yesterday, I had the chance to walk around the playground while three different classes were outside. One group caught my eye; This group of children was sitting in the playground while checking in with one another's long weekend. We shared what we did during Simchat Torah.
To continue their conversation in dyads, the children brought the cozy block chairs from different parts of the playground, and kept on engaging with one another.

The playground offers the opportunity for siblings and close friends to continue to be together.

Working Together to Try New Things

On the playground, there is a balance beam. While we have had variations of balance beams on the playground before, this one is a more permanent challenge. On the balance beam, students can work together, test their abilities, and not worry about falling and getting hurt. Here we have Jared working on walking across the beam, while Ben is here working on his balance! There are a myriad of uses for this structure, and the possibilities are endless!

-Alison and Sauci

Beautifying our Playground

Over the last few weeks the B'nai Mitzvah program has been working very hard to help beautify the Children's Center playground. From painting plywood with chalkboard paint to planting flowers, they are helping us make our playground a wonderful place to spend our time. Today, the Haifa class helped out the B'nai Mitzvah group by planting some sunflower seeds. We are going to take care of the sunflowers until they are ready to be planted outside! We cannot wait to see them germinate and see how tall they grow while we are still in school!

-Alison and Sauci

What Goes In There?

This morning we made our way down to the playground to find lots of empty planters. These planters had been built over the weekend during Tikkun Olam Day, but they are currently empty. Eli and Avram were a few of the first children on the playground, and they asked me what they were for. I jokingly told them that they were places to grow Avrams and Elis, and this is the result!

-Alison and Sauci

Let Me Show You

With the weather feeling like summer, there are a few spots on the playground that have become hot spots of learning. One of these spots is the monkey bars. Jake Goldfine has quickly mastered the art of making it across the monkey bars quickly, or falling gracefully if he can't make it. Other students have noticed, and have been drawn into trying the monkey bars themselves. One student in particular, Sara Shaff, has noticed Jake's success, and wanted to try herself.



Jake and Sara have recently developed a friendship in class, and this has extended onto the playground. Sara has been very cautious with her attempts on the playground, and Jake has been very supportive of Sara, and is constantly showing her ways to get further on the monkey bars.

With the support of her classmate and her teachers, Sara has almost made her way across the monkey bars! It's so nice seeing our students supporting and teaching one another.

-Alison and Sauci

Problem solving on the playground

When all of the classes go outside onto the playground, not only do the children of TBS get a chance to run around and play, they also are exposed to unique problem solving scenarios that do not always present themselves to us in the classroom.

Olive and Jacob tried to pull apart the tricycle and the hool a hoop.

On the playground today Jacob, Olive and Abby experienced a predicament that can be seen quite often on our blacktop...a hool-a-hoop had trapped a tricycle.  In order to separate the two playground items, the three children worked hard together and communicated  about how they each thought was the best way to get the hool-a-hoop off.
  

Here, the children all talk about how to lift the hool a hoop over Jacob.

                                  

Through their planning, communication, negotiation and different executions, SUCCESS was had!

Abby and Jacob enjoying their success after their problem solving.

On the Playground