Sharing and Taking Turns

This week we have been talking a lot about friendship and what it means to be a good friend. Early in the week we read the story, "The Rainbow Fish" and saw that sharing can fill our friend's buckets and ours too! The "Rainbow Fish" is a beautiful story about sharing, and we discussed about how sharing can be a really nice thing for friends to do for each other. We also talked about how sharing is when you give something to someone  and you don't always get it back; however, taking turns is when you give a toy to someone and then they play with it but then in a few minutes the other person gets a turn as well. We practiced building using the vocabulary, "My turn, now your turn" as we built a tower brick by brick. We also gave them painting partners who they partner painted with throughout the week. We continually empathize that it is important to show all our classmates friendly behavior and now we are learning so many tools to know what friendly behavior can be!

Our Mitzvah "Giving" Tree!

Today in the Tel Aviv class read the book, "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein. We discussed all the wonderful things trees give us and the wonderful things we can give each other. Not only can we give friends art or share with them but we can also smile or give a friend a hug when he or she is sad. Helping each other are everyday mitzvahs. This week we are going to be working on creating a mitzvah tree so that we can record and announce the mitzvahs that happen in our classroom all the time. Today we focused on paining the tree but soon we will make handprint-leaves where we can record our mitzvahs. Hopefully by spring/summer our mitzvah tree will be in full-bloom!

We take care of others.

The Rainbow class made a tuna noodle casserole for Rosie's Place this morning. They had the thrill of working with real (butter) knives as they sliced up the cheese to mix with the elbow macaroni. They enjoyed adding butter and stirring the mixture as well.

We are just learning about the guiding principles that help us understand why we behave the way we do at school. We talked about these ideas and what they really mean during our circle time today. The principles are:

We take care of ourselves.

We take care of each other.

We take care of our things/things around us/the world.

Our cooking project today is a wonderful example of the second principle. We are taking care of the people who don't have much to eat by sharing some of what we have so that the people who visit Rosie's Place will have a healthy meal. Thank you to all of the families who regularly stock our supplies of elbow macaroni and Velveeta so we are always ready to cook together.

Sharing Space!

Eliza asked me to fix the paper on the easel because she wanted to draw with Hannah. Eliza went on to tell me, "The first picture was going to be for Hannah and the second was going to be for me." The girls did such a nice job sharing the crayons and space at the easel! When they were done the girls walked over to Hannah's backpack put the picture of a rainbow in Hannah's new Hello Kitty backpack. Eliza was surprised to see that Hannah had a different backpack. Eliza said, "Hannah I didn't know you got a new back pack...Where did you get it?" Hannah's reply, "Marshalls!" Sharing space and materials is not an easy thing for preschoolers to do, but today in this moment Eliza and Hannah made it look easy!

" I did a DOUBLE Mitzvah"

Friends come into school very excited to share their stories about mitzvot from home. So mommies, daddies, brothers and sisters, friends appreciate and are acknowledging the many things you do for them, as well as telling us how they were helpful at home.

" One friend was sooo proud, she said " I did a double mitzvah, I gave my Mia her sneakers to wear this morning and I gave her her socks".
" Katie, gave me crayons"
" Mommy put soap on my hands and turned on the water for me."
" My sister let me sleep with her stuffed animals".
"My bubbe gave me a cup"

Today a friend saw a member of the Sunshine class having difficulty turning on the faucet to wash hands. This friend just extended kindness by turning on the water, totally self initiated.
It is truly amazing to see how the Unicorn friends have really embraced being kind to others as well as acknowledging and appreciating the kindness of others.