This week we wrapped up our Hanukkah celebration with lots of fun games and good food. 

Pin the latke in the pan game

Flip the latke on the plate game

Play dough exploration with Chanukah inspired cookie cutters and a candle from our Menorah

Lighting the candles with the children while listening to a Hanukkah blessing 

Yummy latkes and apple sauce

On our final day of Hanukkah together we lit all the candles on the menorah; it’s was beautiful!

Shabbos party while the Ima does the candle blessing

Glue and shape exploration, great for fine motor skill development which helps children further develop the muscles required to hold a pencil or any type of writing utensil.

Friends that paint together stay together! 

I want to wish you and you families a very peaceful and restful holiday season. 

Shabbat Shalom

Morah Maya

 Happy Chanukah!

This is a very exciting and celebratory time of the year for our community.  Although your kiddos have most likely experienced Chanukah before on some level, it’s highly likely that this will be the first time that they are able to participate and create their own memories of Chanukah. Below are a few images:  some of the many things that we have been working on this past week.

Light table with Menorah and a visual aid how to sequentially light the candles. 

Big brother showing little sister how to climb to the top of the structure. 

Beginning stages of decorating their menorahs . Painting the base was the first step in the process. 

Early literacy with loose parts

More menorah painting

The children celebrating Shabbat dinner.

“Look I can spin a dreidel” 

The children's amazing finished menorahs that were sent home yesterday for the first night of  Chanukah.

Exploration with loose parts used to decorate their menorahs: The items in the tray are sorted by specific categories. This is an early math tool that will help the children later when doing grouping with numbers for concepts like multiplication and fractions.

In addition to preparing for Chanukah we are continuing to work on Kavod in our classroom . We’re focusing on treating one another and our classroom environment with respect and kindness.  One of the activities that we did this week to reinforce kavod was make up a list of safety rules for our classroom. This is what we came up with in our group time:

1. No fighting with shovels - Jonny

2. No throwing shovels - Mila

3. No toys in our mouth - Morah Maya

4. Walking feet - Yehonathan

5. Being kind not mad or fighting or hitting- David

6. No shooting - Jonny

7. No hurting and no pushing- Ella

8. Don’t color or paint pictures on the wall - Shai

9. Give them space to work on their computer - Yehonathan

We will continue to add to our list of how to treat each other with kindness and respect. I wish all of your families a wonderful Chanukah. I am very much looking forward to hearing from the children about their experiences over the weekend. Looking forward, next week we will continue to celebrate Chanukah! Stay tuned to hear about all of our exploration and fun. 

Shabbat shalom

Morah Maya

Green Room 12/4

It was super exciting to come back from our Thanksgiving holiday to find out that our plants had grown. Sure enough with a little love, sun, water and food from Hashem they are thriving. Thanks you Hashem for all you give us!

This week I began to introduce the children to Hanukkah through books and an array of items in the classroom. On our light table we have a menorah, candles, and dreidels. There are Hanukkah themed puzzles and today we made blue play-doh , which were calling our Hanukkah Play-doh.

We’ve also spent the last two days making cards for the children to send to loved ones for the holiday. We will continue to focus on Hanukkah in the weeks to come. I will go more into detail about the actual story of how the holiday began and why we celebrate it.

 

Shabbat Shalom

Morah Maya

Although this week was short we were able to begin a project that was intended to remind the children of some things to be thankful for. Each child was given a cup with a picture of them on it , some soil and some cat grass seeds.

They all filled their cups with the soil and sowed the seeds. Each day since the beginning of the week we’ve been watering our seeds and giving them sun in hopes that they will grow. The thought process behind this was to give the kids a physical tangible item that could help them understand it concept of being thankful.

Hashem provides us with food ,water , sun and love . All of these things are what we need as people to live and thrive. The children are giving all of the same things to the plants in hopes that they too will grow and thrive. I will be sending them all home today and hopefully with a little TLC the grass will begin to sprout. I’ll also sent home a couple extra seeds in case it doesn’t work and you guys wanna try again.

Today at lunch I asked the students that were present to tell me one thing that they were thankful for and this is what they said.

Mila “ mommy daddy and my pets”

Ella “ my dog and Mika”

Carmel “ for eggs”

Yehonathon “ for Booba and Sophie they are cool pets”

I hope all of you have a very safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday with loved ones.