Materials That Inspire Exploration and Creativity!

This beautiful presentation of materials beckons children with the magic and wonder it holds. The calming shades of blue and the careful arrangement of the geometric shapes on a large mirror draws the children in, helping them to focus and inspiring their exploration and creativity!

Good bye to Sukkot

We welcomed our new week- "Shavua Tov" to all of our friends. We said good bye to Shabbat and good bye to our Sukkah we so diligently worked on. Just as we worked on building our sukkah, we worked cooperatively to take it down. One friend said, "We are doing a Mitzvah, we're cleaning!" They have really embraced all aspects of helping each other, from passing juice, pouring water for each other, and working cooperatively to clean up. Making decisions who holds the dust pan, who holds the brush, taking turns. All part of learning to be a good friend to each other.

Birthday Celebration

Today was Dylan's 3rd Birthday Celebration.
Dylan's mom came in to read a wonderful book~ Katy~ By Virginia Lee Burton. This is a great book about Katy, a big, strong, red crawler tractor who lives in the city of Geoppolis. During the summer months, Katy, equipped with her bulldozer, works on the roads of Geoppolis. During the winter, Katy is equipped with her snowplow, but because she is so powerful, she must wait for a very big snowstorm before she is called into service. Katy waits and waits and wait. Then one day, a gigantic snowstorm hits Geoppolis--the streets are covered with snow, and no one can get around town-, not the police chief, not even the firemen. Does Katy have what it takes to clear the streets of Geoppolis so that everyone can get around the city safely???...
You might want you ask your children what Katy had to do.

Our friends get to choose how they want their birthday chair decorated, Dylan chose a red car and his friends helped decorate it.
We sang Happy Birthday, both in English and Hebrew. Thank you Dylan for sharing your mom and those delicious fruits with us.

What Is That Stuff?

The Sunshines made Gak today. We began with a recipe; Ali told us, "That's a list that tells us what to do when we make stuff."
Glue, water, borax, and food coloring, all mixed together. Lots of stirring and stretching. Around and around the table went the bowl, with each child adding a special something to the process. Finally, a smooth and shiny mound for us to divide and form into our own creations. A very satisfying group endeavor!

Havdallah

Monday mornings the school starts by saying goodbye to Shabbat with a beautiful all school Havdallah meeting. We sing a song to say farewell to Shabbat and welcome a new week. We smell the sweet spices, light a havdallah candle and sing the prayers. Naomi is looking at the light in her finger nails ....a symbolic way to view a bright new week. Every week the Scientist class has a different child helping Ellen. It is a great honor and all the children look forward to being part of this service. Everyone will get a chance!

Same vs. Different

The Haifa All Stars are learning ways in which we are all the same and ways in which we are different. We have charted the number of persons in our families, the color of our hair and the kinds of apples we like. Some of us have 3 people in our family and some have 6. Some of us have blond hair and some have brown. Some of us are taller than others. Some of us have bigger hands than others as this picture shows Ilana and Jay tracing and coloring their hands to decorate our walls. We will continue with this theme the remainder of this week as we trace our bodies.  Stop by and see our charts and our painted foot prints. Stay tuned.

Negotiating and building together

The Kapla blocks lend themselves to lots of imaginative play. Today we built a house, a garage, a swimming pool and a "really really big" deck. It was so big that it was longer than Naomi, even when she stretched herself out!

Also, the big pile of blocks stimulated some negotiations. The children discussed whether or not one group could use "all" of the blocks, but the final decision was that each group could use "some." Jeffrey said, "we can give them some." A great decision to share after careful negotiations! Diplomats in the making!