Raising Butterflies sparks several Jewish Values!

As you know the Tel Aviv children had the opportunity to raise caterpillars to butterflies! Today we let them go free in the woods. It was amazing ,we placed the butterflies on the children's hands and they each spent a little time with the butterflies and then watched them fly around in the fresh spring weather as they played in the woods. The weather was perfect for our walk to the woods!

What is Jewish about Butterflies?

"There are more than 160,000 species of butterflies, found all over the world. Each species varies in color, size and survival techniques. According to the Creation story in the Torah, butterflies were created by God on the sixth day, the same day that humans were created. Observing butterflies in nature is a lesson in the awe of nature. As one watches butterflies soar,
Flutter, dip,land, and take off once more, one cannot help but be amazed by the beauty and delicateness of butterflies, as well as be awed by the skill of the butterflies creator. "

"As the children engaged in the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies, the partnership between the children and God becomes concrete. Becoming a butterfly( in a classroom) requires help from God and help from the children in the class- a partnership that children can engage in on a daily basis. Studying and caring for butterflies, be it in nature or in the classroom, leads us to think about Creation and the brit, the partnership between God and people."


Throughout the whole process the children were gentle, respectful and caring toward caterpillar/butterflies. Sometimes, the activities we are involved in with children are Jewish moments, even if it's not readily apparent. Jewish values lead to Jewish behaviors. Observing
butterflies, and caring for caterpillars as they grow into butterflies, sparks several Jewish values, including:

Bal Tashchit - Do not Destroy.

G'milut. Chasadim -Acts of loving kindness

Brit - Partnership with God

Ma'aseh B'reishit -Miracle of Creation

Tza'ar Ba'alei Chayim - Kindness to Animals

Acapella Havdalah

 

Yesterday the Kohavim, Tel Aviv, and Etzim classes gathered together for their last Havdalah celebration of the year.   The Havdalah CD was missing, which ended up being a lovely gift as everyone joined their beautiful voices together to sing the Havdalah songs, share in the blessings and wishes for the week to come.  It was wonderful to watch how much the children have learned over the last year!  It has been a pleasure to celebrating Havdalah with you Tel Aviv and Kohavim!

Friends Helping Friends

The other day I was on the playground and I just watched what was a really precious moment and it just kept getting cuter. Way to go Micah for being such a good friend and helping Josie each step of the way! I'm sure she appreciated you getting the block, helping her on the swing, moving the block and then giving her a starting push. However, I know that most of all, she appreciated you being her friend and swinging right along side of her. These two were stuck together like glue for the rest of that outside time. 

Being a bucket filler can really help a friendship stay strong. 

What's That in the Grass? It's a Worm!

Everyone is using scissors to trim the grass.

Nicolas, Lilly and Ellen take a close look at the worm we found in the grass and named Squirmy.

We brought Squirmy to the Tel Aviv worm farm.

Pointing to Squirmy in his new home

Thanks to the Tel Aviv classroom, our worm has found the perfect home.

Worms!

How long is a worm?  A real big earthworm might reach from the top to the bottom of a small book.  Some are even longer than that.  When you look closely at an earthworm, you see that it's body is made up of many rings, or segments.  It moves with the help of hairs like bristles on a brush.. Worms can be smaller than earthworms or could be longer than an automobile- like the giant Australian worm!

The Tel Aviv children have been learning a lot about worms!  We read books about worms, measure worms, dig for worms outside, count worms, and play them.   We have also talked about how to be gentle and  care for worms, as they  help the environment!

When you get a chance check out our worm farm.

Preparing for the Auction!

Today the children sketched/drew insects with black markers and then painted them with water colors.   Some chose to draw freehand and others looked at pictures from the WORLD OF INSECTS BOOK and sketched an insect or bug.  Their drawings are amazing!  Caterpillars, butterflies, beetles worms and bees!  Tomorrow we will paint the chair, and the last step will be to glue the drawings on the chair with modge podge.

Josh and Chester 's Visit...Fantastic!

Chester and Josh had a great February vacation together!  They spent so much quality time together with Josh and his family.  Chester and Josh spent time visiting with Bubbe and Grampa, went on a group play date with his Tel Aviv friends, played with Zach W and his new remote Morphibian, enjoyed sledding, went bowling ,and went kitchen appliance shopping!

At our morning meeting, Josh really enjoyed reading Chester's journal and sharing Chester stories with all his friends! 

Josie can't wait to take Chester home for the weekend tomorrow!

Guess Who?

Happy Purim from the Tel Aviv class to all of you!!!!

Havdalah is Fun!

We always enjoy getting together with Tel Aviv and Kohavim, but today was especially joyful!

Tel Aviv/Etzim Play

We don't get to play with the Tel Aviv class nearly as much as we'd like, but a freezing day provided us with a great opportunity to slide, climb, and hang out! What a fun day!

Soufganiyot!

Yum Yum Yum! For our special Hanukkah Shabbat we decided to turn our challah dough into delicious jelly filled donuts! I felt like we were celebrating Hanukkah in Israel! We used a spoon to put the jelly on the dough and then rolled it into a ball. There was a lot of good fine motor skills involved and we had to make sure there was no hole for the jelly to ooze out. The Tel Aviv kids did a great job making this special Shabbat snack! 

Welcome to our Thanksgiving Feast

On Wednesday, November 21st 2012, Kohavim and Tel Aviv joined together for a Thanksgiving Feast. The Kohavim children created invitations that they hand delivered and decorated an elaborate table cloth that stretched the entire table. Both classes prepared food for the feast. The children in Kohavim made mini-pizzas, fruit kabobs, and cream cheese pin wheels. Tel Aviv prepped pasta with a choice of sauces and popped plenty of popcorn for us to share! As we all sat around the long table, we enjoyed great company and great conversations!

Pumpkin Muffins

The children have been exploring pumpkins throughout the week...we opened them up and took out the seeds, estimated the amount of seeds each pumpkin had, decided which pumpkin was the big, medium and small and today we made pumpkin muffins.

Tomorrow we will eat the muffins and pumpkin seeds at our special Shabbat group snack!

Belly Swinging?

 

Brett and Zach are what we call "belly swinging". Today they added a new twist...swing, push with your feet, and then for the grand finale fall off the swing!

Shaking the Lulav & Etrog

 

Not only is shaking the lulav one of the mitzvot (commandments) of Sukkot, it is tricky to do and lots of fun. The palm branches are quite tall and fairly heavy and with the etrog (the yellow citrus fruit) in the other hand the shaking requires both coordination and concentration. You can see from our faces and bodies how hard we tried.
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haolam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu al n'tilat lulav. 
Our praise to You, Eternal our God, Sovereign of all, whose mitzvot teaches us holiness and who instructs us to take up the lulav.

Thank you God for letting us shake the lulav.

Our First Shabbat Together!

First we spent some time outside playing on the playground. Josie and Zach enjoyed spending time in the kitchen area, making goldfish cakes. Molly and Charlotte decided to play house and care for Molly's baby. They put the baby on the swing, fed her and changed her diaper multiple times. It is so nice to see the children playing and connecting with both their new classmates and their old friends.

At circle time we read Sammy Spider's First Rosh Hashanah, sang our welcome song, picked our first STICK PERSON for next week (very exciting stuff Adam will be our leader for the week), and talked about our hopes for the Jewish New Year. During free play we braided our own challah and had the opportunity to make New Year cards.

We ended the day by gathering together for delicious group Shabbat snack...We said the blessings, sang songs, ate challah and apple cake! It was a wonderful ending to a fantastic and fun first week!

Sasha and I wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year!

BIG Bag of Dirt Fun

 Our planter was ready for filling. The bag was really big. With more team work we were able to put it on top of the planter. We started with asking the children what tools we could use to open the bag? We looked for tools we might find in nature and we thought  sticks might work.  This process was taking far too long so Eli came up with using scissors. Then came the process of taking the dirt out little by little. Finally all the dirt was out. You might want to ask your children what interesting 'critters' we have found in the dirt. We will be planting and just enjoy the sensory experience of 'dirt'. I wonder what discoveries we will make as we explore???

Team work at its Best

 It was a great deal of work and the children helped to accomplish the task of completing the base for our outside planter. We needed strong hands to hold the ends while others cut using a saw.  Lots of helping hands. It took 3 pieces, but they weren't all the same size. Lots of measuring and cutting to make it just right. Luckily we had many boys and girls willing to help.  Thank you boys and girls for all your hard work.