Happy Birthday Samantha!

Today we celebrated Samantha's birthday...She is 4 years old! Samantha read us a picture book that she illustrated herself and Jen read us one of Samantha's favorite books The Very Hungry Caterpiller. Happy Birthday Samantha from us, to you!

Happy Birthday, Lindsey!

On Friday, we celebrated Lindsey's birthday in the Levana class!  We are excited to have another 3-year-old in our class now, and we celebrated in style!  Each student had the opportunity to decorate their own paper crown with festive stickers, crayons and markers!

Then we tried on our crowns, admired ourselves in the mirror, and posed for the camera.

 Then, Lindsey's mom, Amy came to class to bring us a special snack (applesauce...yummy!) and share one of Lindsey's favorite books from home, "Mommy Loves Me". (Yes she does!)   

We sang happy birthday in English and Hebrew.

Happy Birthday, Lindsey!

Excited for Shabbat!

Shabbat was definitely in the air on Friday from start to finish! The excitement and enthusiasm the children had was contagious! The children enjoyed braiding and rolling the challah dough! It seemed as though we were singing all morning long; on the way to put the challah in the oven, as we walked to the Sanctuary for TBSCC celebration and there was lots of singing at our group Shabbat snack! It's such a nice feeling each week celebrating Shabbat with Sasha and the children!

Family Passover Traditions

Ms. Smadar brought in her Seder plate and we greeted one another and noticed the Hebrew lettering. Lily F. brought in her beautiful Matzah cover to show her friends.

Eli brought in a book A Taste for Noah. It a story about a little boy, Noah, who is worried because his class is preparing for Passover and they are making everything themselves, including charoset. Noah does not like charoset, though he has not tasted it. He just doesn't like how it looks. Sound familiar? Every day of the week is asks, "Are we making charoset today?" Finally the day arrives and though he is reluctant he does taste it and decides it tastes good after all.

PassOver Songs

Despite the “April Fool’s snow”, Spring is almost here and that means that Passover is just around the corner! The Unicorns are all getting very excited about the holiday and all the wonderful traditions, stories and songs. The class is busy making kippot, Matzah covers and more to share with their families during the holidays. We have been finding out all about the lives of the Jews as slaves in Egypt and how they were freed from the Pharoah to wander in Sinai and finally reach the land of Israel. The Unicorns love to sing and Passover has some great songs. The Unicorns have been learning the “Mah Nishtana”, " Buliding cities",“Let My People Go”, as well as “The Matzo Man”. Some Unicorns were amazed that “even my Mommy knew that song” and were so happy to share a good sing-a-long with their parents! One of the Unicorn’s favorite songs is called “Baby Moses”; here are the words: Where is Baby Moses, Moses. Moses? In the River Nile. He is in the basket, basket, basket. In the River Nile. The Princess she is swimming, swimming, swimming, In the River Nile. She finds the Baby Moses, Moses. Moses In the River Nile. Passover is all about bringing families and friends together. In that spirit of opening our homes and lives to others, our class has also been invited to a special Seder with our next door neighbors. We will be visiting in the Sunshine room for a mini-seder and snack. We don’t often get to meet with our neighbors this way, so it should be a very exciting day! Check out photos from PassOver, we will be adding more photos to this album

Precious Time!

Shabbat is special day for the Markley family. Most Friday afternoons Mia has the opportunity to spend precious time with Bubbe and Papi. They usually take their time leaving the All Star classroom. The teachers visit with Bubbe and Papi, some of the children nosh on the challah that is in their cubby waiting and ready to go home, Mia, Sandy and Julia enjoy drawing one last picture together before they leave for the day.

Sometimes Mia and her grandparents go to one of their favorite spots in town, Friendlys or they might pick up Adam and then go out for bite to eat. But one thing is for sure, it doesn't matter where they go or what they do, as long as they are together! God bless grandparents!

You Can't Turn 4 Without Latkes and Ketchup!

Happy Birthday Teddy Post!! Yesterday Jessica Post came in to read one of Teddy's favorite Chanukah books along with the book that all the Tel Aviv children write for each friend's special day. The celebration continued today when Jessica helped JB Royal, Sam's father, to make the best latkes imaginable. In my 11 years at TBSCC, I have never seen so many children and adults gobble up latkes like they did today. I brought home 4 for my husband, who sadly, only had 2 left by the time he got home from work! As you can see, the whole Post family enjoyed the latkes, even 10 month old Olivia.