Shalom.

Here we are, another week flew by in the Green Room. It is a sweet experience to witness these tiny humans caring for themselves and reaching out to comfort and care for their peers as well.

When your child is not at school he/she is truly missed. The other children inquire about them and show concern in their absence. Upon their return, there is an increase of excitement. Some children welcome the additional attention while others are still warming up to it. They are developing their voices and abilities to care for themselves and create their own boundaries based on their needs and wants, as well as reaching out to others that need comforting. We are a caring community.

Levi celebrate his birthday this month and the children built additional memories together celebrating. Gavi shared his experience on visiting the dentist. Sarah, Alice, Tzippi and Ava put the art materials to use this week and Morgan spent a long period of concentrated cutting with scissors. Mason shared his play-doh planets. Ari is busy taking notes in class and she and many of the others explored making flower patterns.  The Magna-tiles drew a lot of attention this week. Hammond and Tzippi counted apples on the trees for bringing in a sweet New Year. Zoe is drawn to the counting spindles and the babies are popular with her and Jemma, the boys also spent time caring for the babies and acting as firemen. Saya returned this week and slipped right back into the routine washing her hands after she arrived and getting busy cooking in the kitchen. The children enjoyed the bubbles she shared on her return and playing tag this week. We are happy to have your child with us.

Rosh Hashanah has kept us quite busy. Morah Shternie visited and it was a highlight singing and learning some new songs. 

Song:

Dip the apple in the honey
make a bracha loud and clear
I'shana tovah umetukah
have a happy and sweet New Year.

I have heard many comments during arrival that children are having a tough morning or are running short on sleep. Keep in mind we model how to manage our own emotions. As the airline employees remind us, we must put on our own oxygen masks first before we can help another!

The things we are modeling for our children and managing our own emotions are often challenging to face as adults. Please be patient with our little souls and remember they are in the early stages of learning these skills. May we all reflect and nurture ourselves, others, and take care of our things, being mindful of our own actions and move into the New Year with well wishes and a positive mindset.

Morah Cindy and Morah Devora

Conscious Discipline Tips of the Week:

https://youtu.be/EiMdSXokbY0 by Becky Bailey

Button Pushing – Conscious Discipline Skills
If you are interested in more Conscious Discipline information, check out more videos on You Tube or pick up a book by Dr. Becky Bailey .

Healing Our Triggers and Relationships

Replace trigger thoughts with:
I’m safe.
I am calm.
I can handle this.

Shalom.

Greetings from the Green Room. We enjoyed another week of discovery, getting acquainted with ourselves, one another and the things in our environment.  The children are actively engaged in many tasks: dressing, language, phonics, sorting, construction, writing and art activities. I hope you were able to enjoy some of the photographs on the Facebook Group. 

Daily davening and circle time are enjoyed. We have many singers and performers and Mitzvah Notes are always a highlight, even some self-proclaimed "rock stars"!  Independence is on the rise as the children learn to store their water bottles, lunches, backpacks and change their own clothes and shoes after water play. We are blessed to have an extensive outdoor environment and so pleased to add the use of the atelier this week. It is another beautiful resource that Chandler Jewish Preschool has provided for the enrichment of your child. They are sequencing and preforming longer, more complex works and building concentration. 

We continue to focus on building connections through routines and transitions for the entire month as their comfort levels increase and their skills strengthen and grow. We shared the S.T.A.R. breathing technique from Conscious Discipline by Dr. Becky Bailey. She is the author of many publications and focuses on building connections using 1. eye contact 2. touch 3. being present/mindful and 4. creating a playful setting. If you are interested in learning more see the link below, check out her YouTube videos or pick up one of her publications. Next month we will be sharing her I Love You Rituals.

We are focusing on our class guidelines for care and work:

1. We take care of ourselves

2. We take care of others and 

3. We take care of our things 

1. We choose a work

2. We do the work and

3. We return the work to the shelf, ready for use by another 

https://youtu.be/C3PtrlnUm4U Conscious Discipline

I marvel at the knowledge your children already possess and look forward to learning about them and with them. Dr. Maria Montessori refers to the child of 3 - 6 as a "social embryo". He/she is learning to function independently within a group outside of his/her family in a positive way. They are developing patience, refining and controlling movement, communication skills, a stronger will, along with the ability to act or not to act with intention. Their peers are becoming very important to them as they undergo the practice of self-construction and discovering where they fit and how they relate to the world outside of their home. We support that within the Reggio Environment and keep the child's best interest in mind. 

Note: Returning to school is a change from your child's summer routine and some bumps are natural and to be expected. Your child bonds to you first. It is natural after the weekend and longer holidays that they may experience a bit more difficulty separating from their caregivers to the school environment. We encourage them to feel their feelings and validate their concerns with patience and kind words. They learn that feelings will come and go and how to calm themselves using strategies and skills we model. They are returning to a safe and nurturing place. Often the tears and tantrums quickly dissipate as they reunite with their friends, morahs and environment soon after parents are on their way. Thank you for entrusting them to our care. It is helpful as the parents model trust and confidence for the children to gain it and display it themselves. It is our experience that a quick and positive drop off allows your child the opportunity to transition quickly into action here at Chandler Jewish Preschool.   

Reminder: We are not currently napping in the Green Room. We do offer a "Quiet Time" that your child may rest on their mat with a book or quiet activity. Please provide a sheet as the state requires for this purpose and plan to launder it weekly.  We do have a few children that prefer to transition to the Blue Room for naps after lunch. 

Thank you for all you do for your child and for Chandler Jewish Preschool. Please spread the word.

Morah Cindy and Morah Devora 

Our first week of CJPK!

Welcome back to Chandler Jewish Preschool and Kindergarten,

It has been a week of new beginnings and transitions. We are happy to have your child in the Green Room. We met with each child this week and they were able to explore creating a letter in their name to begin creating our classroom alphabet.

This week the children are getting acquainted with our environment and growing independence within our classroom. Morah Briele worked with Morah Devora to teach her our davening songs and celebrations and we ended our week on Friday with Shabbat Sing-A-Long and Shabbat Party.

The children are learning Grace and Courtesy Lessons: How to Enter the Classroom, How to Store their clothing, backbacks and lunches, How to sign in, How to Carry a Chair, Pouring, Restroom and Washing Practices, How to Undress, Dress Themselves, shoes, socks and all. These skills are lifelong and we appreciate the foundations they have brought from home to build on at CJP. We love your children and enjoy seeing the happy reunions as they come together as we get to know them.

We are singing the ABC Song, Days of the Week along with Yadam lemaala al harosh, al haktefaim achad staim shaloch. We are counting to twelve in Hebrew, English and Spanish.

The daily outdoor and water play is a fun time to observe the children interacting with one another.
We see Hammond takes great care with his sister Hailey. Mason, Morgan and Gavi are refining their movement skills using the bicycles often. Levi, Alice, Tzippi, gain strength as they climb the play structures. Zoe, Jemma and Ava enjoy being in the water. Sarah was baking cakes while Tzippi and Ava made mud pies.

We missed our friend Ari, who isn't feeling well! We hope you are feeling better for next week!

Thank you for entrusting us with your children and navigating the first week of school together.
Looking forward to many more wonderful weeks ahead!

Please see the private CJP Family Facebook Group for pictures of our week!

Morah Cindy and Morah Devorah

Processed Art

I have a very clear memory from when I was 6 years old and in kindergarten.  We were given paint and paper, and we were instructed to paint a rainbow.  However, not just any rainbow.  The teacher had an example in the front of the class of the order the colors needed to be in.  We had to paint our rainbow just like that one.  I remember vocalizing that that wasn't the right order for the colors.  My teacher disagreed, and told me my rainbow had to look like the example.  When I got my picture to take home, I threw it into the trash.  It had nothing to be proud of.  It wasn't my work.

Now-a-days, many preschools, including CJP, have the philosophy of encouraging "Processed Art."  This philosophy encourages artwork to be entirely created by the creator.  In it's purest form, no piece should be prepared or cut out by an adult.  Who are we to say that snowmen should be perfect white circles?  If a child finger paints red onto a blue piece of paper and tells you its a snowman, then it's a snowman.  If a child draws a bunch of circles and tells you it's a picture of their house, then that's what it is.  I went to a workshop on this a couple of years ago.  The instructor went on a rant on the tragedy of coloring books.  "How dare you ask a child to finish YOUR work?!" he raved.

In preparation for graduation, each student in our school is making a butterfly canvas.  I printed out pictures of real butterflies for "inspiration," but the materials that were used were entirely chosen by the Green Room friends.  I set out some things, like a variety of paints, feathers, glue, etc.  They could use these materials or they could grab anything they wanted off of the shelves.  My instructions were simple.  I said "Let's look at these pictures of butterflies, and make our own."  Everyone joyfully complied.  Everyone called their creation a butterfly.  Everyone's work looks different.  Everyone's butterfly is truly theirs.  Do any of the finished products look like a butterfly to me?  That doesn't matter.  It's not my work!

It was brought to my attention Morgan's Rosh Hashanah picture was inadvertently left off of the blog.  Sorry about that!

Morah Gitty and I wish you a wonderful weekend, Shabbos, and Shavous.  Remember, we have no school on Monday in observance of Shavous.  See you Tuesday!
-Morah Deena and Morah Gitty

A Year of Memories

Hello Green Room families!  It's been an exciting week for us.  Our caterpillars have built their cocoons!  I love listening to the verbal observations our friends made about the process.

As you know, every morning, we daven (pray) with the kids.  Morah Gitty does a great job of having it be an engaging and meaningful experience for the kids.  Just a couple weeks ago, she added something new, where the boys could choose to wear tzitzis (traditional tassels) and yarmulkes (head covering) to do a special prayer.  The girls also have a special prayer to do that talks about the special mitzvahs Hashem has for us, lighting Shabbat candles and making Challah. The Green Room friends have enjoyed this addition to our morning davening!

For those of you who are not new this year, you know to expect an end of year portfolio, highlighting the amazing accomplishments your child has made over the last year.  This week I have been working on pulling this all together, and in doing so, I am reminded of the amazing year we have had.

Do you remember this absolutely adorable photo shoot we did for Rosh Hashanah?

You've also probably noticed that there's a very important person missing from the photos above: Luke!  He's so much a part of our Green Room Family that it's hard to picture a time without him.

I want to take an extra moment to say THANK YOU for the gifts you brought us for teacher appreciation week.  I love doing what I do, and it sincerely means a lot to know that you appreciate me.  I know Morah Gitty feels the same way!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, a restful Shabbat, and a Happy Mothers Day!

-Morah Deena and Morah Gitty 

All Things Bugs

Hello Green Room!

The Green Room is all about bugs these days.  As I mentioned in my newsletter last week, the friends have been enjoying working with plastic bugs frozen into ice cubes.  Fortunately, my husband has gotten used to finding such things in our freezer :)  I am hesitant to put out the same materials more than one day in a row, however, what's incredible to watch is how this activity evolves day by day.  Some days the friends will work on this activity for a good half hour, discussing the best way to melt the ice, and what kind of bugs they can find.  Other days, they don't even look at it, but then the next day they're using new tactics to extract the bugs, and asking deeper and more meaningful questions.  It's great how the variety of bugs has opened up new discussions about the many creatures in Hashem's world!

On Wednesday we read the Book  Aaaarrgghh, Spider! by Lydia Monks.  Everyone LOVED this story about a spider that wants to join a people family.  After we finished the story, Morgan asked about a black spider that has a red spot on it's back.  I didn't know what he was talking about, so I consulted Google and found out that he was referring to a breed of spider that literally jumps!  So, we took turns being jumping spiders!

This also opened up discussion that some kinds of spiders bite, and some do not.  We also chatted about how scorpions and bees never bite... but they do sting!  Here we see Morgan and Ava looking through books and drawing bugs on Thursday morning!

Our whole school is nurturing caterpillars, which will turn into butterflies, which we will set free on graduation day.  Morah Felicia gave us a hand in transferring the caterpillars into their own space.  We're excited to observe the process!

Our interest in bugs is continuing to grow, and I look forward to continuing to learn about all things creepy-crawly with the Green Room Friends.

Have you checked out the CJP Instagram page lately?  Make sure to follow @chandlerjewishpreschool for amazing updates that you won't see here OR on the private family Facebook group!

Morah Gitty and I wish you a Shabbat Shalom and a wonderful weekend!
-Morah Deena and Morah Gitty

ANIMALS!

Hello from the Green Room!  We've had an amazing week exploring animals.  On Monday was mammal day.  Morah D brought in her dog, Brownie.  Morah Felicia brought in her guinea pig, Trevor.  We talked about how mammals have hair, and that we people are mammals too!

On Tuesday I brought in (plastic) bugs that were frozen into ice cubes.  To practice our fine motor skills, the friends used tweezers to pick them up.  They investigated and explored different ways to melt the ice.  Luke went for a crushing technique, while Levi chipped away slowly.  Everyone was making verbal observations on the temperature of their hands when holding the ice.  There was also a lot of commentary about the bugs themselves!  "I know this is a lady bug because it has spots," said Luke.  "It's a beautiful butterfly," exclaimed Morgan.  Just a few months ago, Morgan was scared of bugs.  At the end of this activity he asked: "Can I use my imagination that this is alive?"  Awesome, Morgan!

Wednesday was one of the most fun days we've had all year!  Morah D brought in chicks and ducks!  We had the BEST time holding them, observing them, and loving them!  Make sure to look at the Facebook group for all of the amazing photos.

Wednesday was also the day we got to go shopping as a class at the Usborne Book Fair.  We're so grateful to have Gavi's mom as our very own Usborne Book Consultant.  Check out what we bought!

Thursday was reptile day!  We love exploring the similarities and differences between species.

We hope you have a wonderful Shabbat and a restful weekend.  Shabbat Shalom!
-Morah Deena and Morah Gitty