Holding up the Torah

This morning the children held up the Torah. Rabbi Jay asked the children to pretend that their hands were pillows supporting the Torah as he unrolled it. The children learned that the Torah is a book in the form of a scroll and that it has lots and lots of Hebrew letters.

Rabbi Jay told the children that when they turn 13 they will learn to read the Hebrew in the Torah. It takes one entire year to read the Torah from one end to the other and then we read it all over again.

Making a Torah...

Today we celebrated Simchat Torah by unrolling a real Torah with Rabbi Jay. We learned that it takes a whole year to read the Torah. The Torah is very special. It teaches us how to be Jewish and what Mitzvot, good deeds, we should do to lead a good and honest life.

The Scientist class made their own Torah. Each child stated a rule to "live your life by" and drew a picture to go with their rule. The children understand just how important their rule is!
Each Scientist took great pride in their work.

We will be taking our class Torah and braking it down into individual Torahs so that your child can bring it home.  It's a keepsake for sure!

Full Body Exploration with Clay ~ "Oh My"

"Kids Meet Clay", "Clay meet the kids" we said to many giggles and laughter!!!
Then came the invite to play with the clay using our whole bodies. Could we actually do that??? Sure we can!!!

So we took off our shoes and socks, rolled up our sleeves and started our exploration.
We pulled, squeezed, poked with our fingers, squeezed between our toes, stuck our elbow in it, and jumped and jumped on it.

During this process how did the clay change as we used it?? It looked different. You may want to ask your children what they thought.

Friends had many ideas of what to do next so stay tuned for more creative expressions.

Old Fashion Fun for the Tel Aviv All Stars!

Last Friday Sam invited me into the dramatic play center to make lemonade.  Isaiah heard we were making lemonade and said,  "I know how to make lemonade, I made it with my mom!" Sam said, "I know we need sugar."  Aaron said, "Can I help?" Aden asked, "What are you doing?" Isaiah said, "Making lemonade."  Aden said,"That's nice."  Teddy said, "Let's have some challah with it!" The children had so much fun pretending to make lemonade that they decided this week to do it for real!

Today was the day we made lemonade out of lemons!  All the children participated.  We squeezed the lemons, used the juicer, added sugar and water.Then we all enjoyed fresh squeezed lemonade with our snack. Ruby put into words what we were all thinking which was, "This is the best lemonade I ever had!"

Noticing Numbers

Math is everywhere! Increase your child's awareness of numbers and their many uses, by pointing them out. A few simple idea for home, for waiting in a restaurant, or to try in the car.

For 2-3 year olds: Have a number hunt. Look around the house to find numbers. How many can you find? Check food packages, clocks, shoes...everything!

For 3-5 year olds: Once your child shows an interest in writing, add a twist to the number hunt above by asking her to make a list of all the numbers she finds. Or create a new challenge by naming the number and then seeing how many examples of that number your child can locate.

For 5-6 year olds: Move on to a newspaper based number hunt. Point out the many useful things numbers can show us. What times are movies playing? What is the temperature going to be like today? Who won the Red Sox game? What day is it today? How much do apples cost? Give your child a newspaper based job. He can help the whole family by checking the weather every morning and reporting to the family.

Meet the "Toe-Rah" !

In preparation for Simchat Torah,
Rabbi Jay stopped in to visit with the Rainbows today. He introduced us to the Torah, and helped us learn how to say its name: Toe - like one on your foot, and Rah - like a big cheer! The children were delighted to see the beautiful tee-shirt that the Torah wore and to have a chance to touch the paper on the outside of it. Rabbi Jay showed us the Hebrew letters inside and we sang about the Torah together. He also let us touch the tiny finger at the end of the yad, the torah pointer that helps with keeping one's place while reading from the Torah.

In addition to our visit with Rabbi Jay, we enjoyed slicing and cutting apples in order to make applesauce. The children added some tasty cinnamon and enjoyed the aroma as it cooked. We later delighted in sharing the warm apples for snack.

Getting ready for Simchat Torah

We learned that all Jewish books are special, but the Torah is the most
special. We read most books by turning pages, but the Torah is a rolling
scroll. We read the Torah by turning it over and over again from beginning
to end and then back to the beginning again. It takes a year to read the Torah.