Happy Tu B'shvat!

This week has flown by with so many items on our Tu B'shvat list! The children enjoyed talking about the trees and the new life it brings for us as well.  They talked about how trees provide us with food, air, they are beautiful to look at, it is homes to many animals and it gives us much needed shade in our hotter months.

In the Dramatic area we turned our area into a Flower shop named Green Room Flowers. The children loved taking turns being in the front of the store, taking the orders.  We had quite a few orders for a variety of colors to cheer everyone up.  It turned into a math lesson as well with "I would like 5 pink flowers and 3 red ones" which we heard daily! The children (especially the girls) loved the arranging part with vases and bottles that I brought in.  The boys took our bottles to a new level!  The bottles are empty coke and pepsi bottles and when they saw them, I heard one boy say to the other,    "Would you like to have a beer with me?" I looked up and sure enough they had sat at a table and were pretending to "have a beer". :o)  We had a talk about the labels and introduced Pepsi and Coke! :o)

We have read several books this week about Trees and their parts. The children really enjoyed learning the parts of a tree and some were amazed about how large the root system can get.  One reference we heard, " They are like an iceberg, small on the top and bigger on the bottom!" I love seeing the amazed look of discovery when they can associate different ideas! We also read Apples and talked about who likes sour apples or sweet apples.  I was amazed that so many like the sour kind! :)

The children have been doing a lot of exploring on the playground and love for me to take their picture!  This week, we had a lot of slide fun and running around just playing together. Gross motor skills were high in the making in the Green room this week!:)  Please look on our Facebook page to see these wonderful events!

We brought in a tree branch and had the children decorate it with string and scraps or tissue paper.  It is turning out so beautiful!

Yesterday, our children made the Challah dough for Shabbot with Morah Devora for all of the classes.  They loved mixing and pouring the ingredients.

In parsha with Morah Devorah the green room has been learning about Parshas Beshalach.
We talked about:
-The big miracle of Krias yam suf, when the ocean split into two, and the Jews crossed the whole ocean on dry land, yet when when the Egyptians were crossing it, the water "closed" on them.
- all of the Jewish people sang a special song together to thank Hashem for this big miracle.
-how excited were the Jewish people when they were walking in the desert for 40 years, to get the Torah, and all the miracles that happened, the clouds that protected them, the fire that showed them where to go, and the "mann", that was the food they ate in the dessert, and on Fridays the got double portion, one for Friday and one for shabbat. That's why every Shabbat at the Shabbat table we have two challash, to remember the double portion of mann.  Ask your children about what they learned, I am sure they will be happy to share!

We hope everyone has a wonderful Shabbat and weekend!

Morah Amanda and Morah Devora