Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Green Slime!
Movement with Nancy!
Both the children and teachers are so glad Nancy is back!
Afternoon in the Woods
The Tuesday Kohavim and Haifa lunch bunch decided they are going to be naturalists. After eating lunch and doing some yoga, we decided to go for a walk into the woods right behind our school. As we walked we listened to the crunching of leaves under our feet, smelled the fresh air, and looked around to see what we noticed. Max immediately found a tree branch that reminded him of antlers, he put it up next to his head and said, "I'm Fred the Moose" (Fred the Moose is a start of a favorite song that we often sing together!). Ezra walked along a fallen tree as if it were a balance beam and used his arms to stabilize his body as he walked. Many children pretended with found materials. Brett, Max and Ezra acted out Star Wars together, while Nathan, Eliza, Drew, and Lilly collected large sticks to construct a birds nest. Eliza and Lily used team work to move large rocks into the bird's nest to be the "hatching eggs." What a beautiful walk into the woods!
Welcoming a New Child
On November 1st, Kohavim will be welcoming a new child, Sabrina! This week, we have been getting ready to welcome Sabrina into our community. The children have been thinking about what Sabrina might need at school, what she might want to know about school, and how we can help her when she comes to Temple Beth Shalom.
Children have written messages and drawn pictures to tell her all about Kohavim. The children carefully thought about what they want Sabrina to know. Lots of messages included phrases such as "welcome" and "have a great 1st day!" The children also included information about the areas of our classroom, the playground, Shabbat and Havadalah. Max Greenstein wrote in one of his drawings, "This is the temple and it is fun!" We will be mailing our drawings and messages to Sabrina this week! We have also been searching the classroom to find what Sabrina might need at school. Hannah and Lily used clipboards to record what they found:
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| Hannah drew and wrote "hook" so we know Sabrina will need a hook or cubby. |
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| Lily drew and wrote that Sabrina will need a photograph on our check in chart, a mailbox, and a hook or cubby. |
The Kohavim children are so excited to welcome Sabrina into our classroom that they decided we had to figure out which day she will be starting. The teachers explained Sabrina would start on the first day of November, which is the month that comes after October. Together, we looked at the calendar and figured out which day is the last day of October. Then, Hannah added a message to the following day: "Sabrina Coming." The children then counted to discover she would be coming to school in 10 days!
Falling Leaves Are Everywhere!
Today the Etzim class were falling leaves, whirling and spinning with Dancing Nancy! Then we went back to our classroom and took some time to look at the leaves we have collected over the last week. We looked at what happens when our leaves get old. We examined the different shapes, colors, and textures of the leaves, and then headed outside to build our collection!
Today I Feel Silly
Haifa Lunch Bunch silly faces inspired by the reading of Today I feel Silly by Jamie Lee Curtis. We're pretty silly don't you think? (And we LOVE to have our picture taken!)
The Whole Wide World is Our Playground!
Nature inspires creativity in a child by demanding visualization and the full use of the senses. ... In nature, a child finds freedom, fantasy, and privacy: a place distant from the adult world, a separate peace." — Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, Algonquin Books, 2008, p. 7
Yesterday the Tel Aviv class spent their entire morning outside, much of it in the woods! When the class arrived they were excited by the abundance of leaves covering the forest floor, even more than last week! The class immediately started to explore, sticks, rocks, trees, sticks. The group went to touch, smell and explore all the materials they could find. They went to try balancing on the log and some went to climb the “mountain.” Each time they go into this wooded area they are excited to try these safe risks and improve upon them with every visit.
After some exploring time we re-grouped to have an outdoor circle time! Together we sang our welcome song, loud enough that even Adam’s house could hear it! We decided that circle was extra fun outside because it meant we could use our outside voices! We then did a class Havdalah that was beautiful and intimate and we each shared something special we did over the weekend. Lastly, we had a lovely group snack of animal crackers and grapes.
As soon as snack was over individuals began to explore play. By now the class had become accustom to their environment and all dove deeper into imaginative play. A group of boys took the bag of grapes “camping” and made a circle and went on a pretend hike. Some girls decided to take a plane (a log!) to Cape Cod where they played house. Later there was a group of water skiers on a boat! Adam and Joshua were superheroes! Their imaginations were filled with ideas and soon the sticks and leaves became props to further their imaginative play. It was a beautiful sight to see the group deep in rich play while exploring the world around them. The weather was perfect and all of us enjoyed our time outside together. Toward the end we created a big class leaf pile and soon enough even I was covered in leaves. We all had a blast and we hope that you will enjoy the fun video of our trip!
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