Pesach Prep and Welcome Everest!

We had a very exciting week, a new friend named Everest joined our classroom and we are so excited. Everest enjoys playing with Trevor, running around outside with his new friends, and dancing during mitzvah notes!  Welcome Everest!

Hopefully you have noticed our awesome matzah factory in the classroom.  The children have enjoyed making matzah dough, rolling it out, poking holes, and then putting it into the "oven".  This experience is not only wonderful for sensory development but our friends are learning sequencing and steps and also connecting real-life tasks to the spirituality of Pesach.  Being able to make the matzah themselves will make it so much more meaningful when they eat it during the holiday.

First, we started by doing netilas yedayim (spiritual hand-washing).

Next, we combined flour and water to make the dough.

Then, we rolled out the dough as flat as we could and made it into a circular shape.

We poked the holes next.

Last, we put the matzah dough on the rack and then into the oven!

In addition to our matzah factory, we have begun practicing the 4 questions.  We have also practiced placing the items in the right place on the seder plate.  Everyone is getting very excited for Pesach.  In the weeks ahead we will continue to practice the order of the seder, the seder plate, learn the Pesach story, and memorize the makos (10 plagues).  Our friends will be very ready for their seders!

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah D and Morah Shoshana

Water play and drama center fun!

Dramatic play has been a big part of the Green Room and since Purim, everyone has enjoyed pretending to be babies.  Dramatic play supports literacy and develops our friends' imaginations.  Monday was Shushan Purim and we tied last weeks lessons into the new week.  We built palaces and castles and pretended to be kings, queens, princesses, princes, and of course, babies.

Shira and Vella during dramatic free-play pretend to be baby and mommy.  The mommy read her baby The Pout Pout Fish while she rubbed her head to " fall asleep".  What an awesome way to practice compassion and nurturing.  Dramatic play is truly one of the best mediums for learning!

 During castle building, our friends balanced on the blocks to walk over the bridge.  They didn't fall in the moat!  Here we see how dramatic play promotes gross motor skills and concentration!

Now that it's getting hotter, we will be doing water play quite often.  Water play is a great sensory experience and lets our friends cool down and still play outside.  Please send your child with lots of extra clothes and a bathing suit.

Vella pours cups of water down the front of her clothes!  How refreshing!

 Nosson and Shira fill bowls and cans and pour water on each other.  Water fights are so much fun!

 Ben found a funnel and filled the jug all the way to the top-developing fine motor skills and coordination.  Way to go Ben!

We went to the moon this week and collected sand.  We brought it back to our sensory table and explored it.  We squished and patted and felt the sensation in our fingers and hands.  Self-regulation was a major skill being developed this day because we had very little sand and a lot of friends who wanted a turn.  We practiced sharing, taking turns, and using our words instead of pushing or crying!

On Wednesday we had sports.  We played catch the ball in the cone.  Shira and Nechama pretended they were ice cream cones and they gobbled it all up!  It's always great having Coach "Pikachu" come help us get our wiggles out and practice fine and gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and exercise!

An awesome accomplishment by Shimmy this week-he drew a B for Ben!  Great job Shimmy, we are so proud of your literacy skills!

On Wednesday after nap we painted pine cones.  On Thursday we explored how they dried and how the paint changed over night.  Then we drew still-life pictures of the pine cones.

The parsha this week is Ki Sisa (or Ki Tisa).  We discussed avoda zara and developed our understanding of some of the important things Hashem expects of us.  We went over each of the Ten Commandments, putting it into words and concepts that our friends can understand.  We focused heavily on respecting our parents, not taking things that don't belong to us, and always telling the truth.  You can ask the following parsha questions to your children at your Shabbos table:
1. What is the name of the parsha? (Ki Sisa)
2. What is the name of the mountain that the Jews reached in the desert? (Har Sinai)
3.  What did Moshe get when he went on the top of Har Sinai? (10 Commandments/Luchos)
4. What did the Jewish people build when Moshe was on Har Sinai? (The Golden Calf)
5. What did Moshe feel when he saw the Golden Calf? (angry)  What did he do? (Break the Luchos)
6. What did Moshe do when he went back onto the mountain? (Get the second set of Luchos)
7.  Can you name any of the 10 Commandments?


Good Shabbos,
Morah D and Morah Shoshana

Purim Week!

This week was all about Purim!  On Monday we used "Floam" to create different shapes.  Tamar was very excited to make a triangle and she said, "it's a hamentasch!"  Ben made a bear like in our Purim story about the little bear to joined the party and everyone thought he was in costume!  The Floam was a great sensory activity that engaged four out of five senses.  It also helped us practice math (shapes) and encouraged discussion of the Purim holiday.

 
On Tuesday we created our beautiful Purim auction project!  We used five canvases and house paint to make a gorgeous work of art.  We each had a color and then poured the paint into the center of the first canvas.  The paint mixed together to create swirls and designs.  We then allowed the paint to drip off the canvas onto the other four canvases.  We hope you can make it to the shul Purim party on Sunday so you can see the painting and bid on it!  Last year our classes auction project was a hot commodity!


Vella stirs water into her pink paint before pouring it on the canvas.

Shimmy chose orange paint!

On Wednesday we had Sports and we practiced obstacle courses.  We had to be careful not to step on the "hot lava".  Everyone especially enjoyed the Chinese jump-rope.  The obstacle course was great for coordination and balance.
 
On Thursday we worked on cutting.  We practiced cutting out different shapes and also cutting on a straight line.  Next week we will focus more on cutting as we believe our friends are ready to perfect this skill.
 
We joined Morah Ora's class to make hamentaschen on Thursday.  We mixed the dough and then added our filling.  Everyone chose sprinkles, chocolate chips, and jam.  They were delicious!

Nechama and Tamar use their hands to knead the dough.

Nosson and Vella check the eggs for blood while Shimmy stirs.

While playing outside with loose parts, Nosson and Shira ran over to Morah Shoshana and said, "look we can make an aleph".  They used the pipes to create an aleph.  This creativity and abstract way of seeing literacy in our natural world is unique to the Reggio philosophy. It is so wonderful seeing our friends prove how effective Reggio is in our preschool.  Great job Shira and Nosson!
 

Good Shabbos and have a freilichen Purim!
Morah D and Morah Shoshana

Happy Birthday Vella!

We started our week practicing writing our names out of playdoh.  This activity developed our fine motor skills and literacy!  We also wrote English and Hebrew letters in salt with our fingers.  This was another great literacy activity and also good for sensory development.


Nosson wrote his name in English and in Hebrew out of pladoh!

Shira made an S out of playdoh!

This week we also went outside and did our workout routine.  Bicycles and wheelbarrow races were our favorite activities.

Vella makes an S in the sand with her finger.

Shimmy and Ben work on making letters in salt.


This week we had a coin drive.  This was very rewarding for the children because over the last few weeks we have been collecting coins and putting our classroom tzedaka into long tubes in the hallway.  We were able to then see how the money was collected and counted and everyone was allowed to participate.  This made the children feel as though something was really happening with our tzedaka money!  It was so fun putting the coins into the truck and pushing the buttons.

Thursday was Vella's birthday so on Wednesday we baked her a cake.  Baking is always fun because everyone loves cracking eggs, measuring, pouring, and stirring.  The best part is that we are able to see a process from start to finish once the cake comes out of the oven.  Vella chose chocolate and it was so delicious!

In Sports we practiced Lacrosse.  We played catch with balls and also threw the balls in the air and caught them ourselves.  We loved seeing how high we could throw the balls and catch them.  Sports is such a beneficial activity-teaching coordination, teamwork, and promoting self-esteem; not to mention the health benefits of exercise and fresh air.
  
Vella put her name on her crown and her friends helped decorate it with pompoms.

For Vella's birthday celebration, we had her walk around the sun and when the music stopped she told us something she learned at age 1 (how to walk), at age 2 (how to light Shabbos candles), age 3 (how to make a crown for Nechama's birthday), and age 4 (how to make a crown for herself).  We had fun dancing and eating cake!  Happy Birthday Vella!

Next week we will be continuing to decorate our room for Purim and we will have themes each day for dress-up so stay tuned for next week's schedule!

Shabbat Shalom,
Morah D and Morah Shoshana