Good Afternoon, 

This week in the Green Room we focused on two particular areas: Problem Solving and our school wide Shabbos and Shavuos unit. 

Problem solving is an integral part of our daily lives. Every day your children are honing these skills in a variety of ways ranging from simplistic to very complex.

An example of a simple problem might look like a child trying to figure out which foot each shoe goes on and how to adjust the straps on their shoes.

A more complex example could look like a child trying to enter play with other friends who have already begun playing together or two friends who want to play with one another but have different ideas about what they want to do. This could end in a screaming  match or perhaps tears and hurt feelings. But ideally these two children would be able to negotiate something that they are both comfortable agreeing upon.

On this hot day group of friends decided to move all of the chairs from a different part of the yard, and place them under the tree so they could sit in the shade together.

Mila was having a difficult time squeezing paint out of the small bottle so instead she decided to squeeze it on the paper and roll the glass jar over the paper

These two friends found it challenging to lift these big, heavy blocks and put them on the top shelf so they decided to work together.

“Shai, why don’t we work together?" -Ella

“Team work makes the team work”-Shai

“No team work makes the dream work” -Ella

This day was particularly windy so Shai decided to find rocks and put them on the corners of her paper to prevent it from blowing away.

“Now nothing can stop us.

Maybe you need a bigger one” -Shai

Carmel is building a structure and trying to figure out how to get this last block in his hand to balance on the top.

One friend took out a puzzle, had a difficult time, and was unable to complete it so two other friends offered to help and worked together to complete the puzzle. This is an example of problem-solving , team work and a mitzvah all rolled up in one.

There’s two friends worked together to gather rocks from the yard and creating a circle starting with the smallest rock and ending with the larger size rock.

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The second area of focus this week was hearing the story of Shavuos and beginning to make our Shabbat boxes. 

Next week we will complete our Shabbat boxes and celebrate as one Kehillah.  The "Shabboxes" will go home next Friday at our Family Shabbos Party!.

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Maya

 Shabbat Shalom 

This week I’d like to just share some of the moments we shared together. 

Yehonathan being a mensch and helping me set up our outdoor classroom.

Every morning Ella likes to snack on some fresh kale from our garden.

“Do you remember when I told you yesterday we have to stick together?”

Shai hard at work in the kitchen.

Sensory table set up for a tactile experience as well as pattern recognition.

“Ella look! I’m sticky like glue. I sticked it.”

Jonny and Mila working together to create a collage.

Bean bag toss set up for hand eye coordination. Although you may not be able to see it, there are two shapes on the ground. A rectangle for the person who will throw the bean bags and the circle for the person awaiting their turn. In addition to the gross motor skills this activity fosters an opportunity for the children to practice taking turns as well as following particular steps in a sequential process. 

Two friends cooking together

A blue room friend showing kindness to Mila after she fell and got an ouchie on the yard. 

We’re working on a project....to be continued. You will see the final product in next week's newsletter.

Picasso in the making

“Shai isn’t this funny? I making my side pink."

These 4 friends were given 4 markers, each a different color and were able to independently negotiate sharing them meanwhile practicing patience as they had to wait for a particular color to become available.

“ It’s matzo Play-Doh”

“Do you want to lick this off my finger? It’s yummy. You could put it on your finger since you think it’s so hilarious. You’re gonna miss out on this."

Hope you all have a wonderful Shabbos!

Morah Maya

Environment as the Third Teacher

It’s good to be back together after the Pesach break! All of the children came back full of energy and excitement to be back in school. I have began to really expand our outdoor classroom. Luckily we had a parent donate four picnic tables, which has allowed us to do a lot of the work that we normally do inside, outdoors now. 

As you all know, here at CJP we run a program that is Reggio inspired. In the Reggio Emilia approach the environment is viewed as a place that is welcoming, authentic aesthetically pleasing, culturally representative of community, embraces nature and filled with purposeful materials. We also implement the belief that the environment in which we are surrounded by is the “third teacher". We are using our outside space as that third teacher and incorporating much more nature into our everyday learning experiences. 

“There are three teachers of children: adults, other children and their physical environment."

- Loris Malaguzzi 

Morah Maxine is no longer with us and we will now be joined 3 days a week by Morah Tori. She will be a nice addition to our class and curriculum. Tori is a student at ASU studying music therapy and will be doing music with the children. 

Morah Tori singing frozen songs that were requested by the children. 

As we move on from our Pesach unit. I decided to tell the story one last time of the Jewish people being freed from slavery. This time I read them The Big Passover Book from Slavery to Freedom

We looked at the map of Egypt and Israel. One of the children pointed out that David is now in Israel.

I spy 

Water color exploration

“Morah Maya I made a new green and a red over here.”

-Carmel

Beading on the yard

We had a group time where I shared pictures of sea creatures and animals from the Odysea Aquarium. The children heard some fun facts about each animal. In this picture Shai is looking at the jellyfish.

The Green Room students always enjoy this activity. They use tiny eyedroppers to collect colored water and drop it on top of whatever letter or number that they have on the tray in front of them. This exercise is helpful in developing their fine motor skills which will help them moving forward when holding a pen or pencil.

Water play on a hot day 

Drawing on the yard 

Jonny discovered an active ant hill on the yard.

Play-doh on the yard.

“ Is that a rocket ship, it looks like air.“

- Yehonathan 

“Look there’s seeds inside”

-Jonny

Shabbat Shalom

Morah Maya

Welcome back for another episode of “ What’s happening for Pasach?"

Matzah Monday was so fun and busy.  In the morning I told the Pesach story again with our small world. This time I went into more depth about why we eat matzah and how that relates to the story. The Jewish people were in such a rush to get out of Egypt that they didn’t even have time for their bread to rise, and they had to eat unleavened bread. In the afternoon Rabbi Deitsch did an interactive matzah factory with the children on the courtyard.

The children interacting with the small world and narrating their own  stories.

 

Decorating pyramids to add to our small world


 

Poking holes in Matzah

 

Rabbi showing the grains of wheat and explaining what matzah is made from.

 

Making matzah with Rabbi and the rest of our school Kehillah 

 

Feeling the love at the matzah factory

 

Ingredients we used for making charoset (nut free): apples, cinnamon, and grape juice

 

Yehonathan enjoyed the charoset but decided he prefers his apples without peels.

 

Shai was a big fan of the charoset peels and all.

 

The children cleaned our classroom in preparation for Pesach.  The next day I hid fake chametz around the classroom and the children searched high and low to find it. We then collected it all in a bag and pretended to light the bag on fire with a fake candle. 

In our outdoor classroom Carmel built his own matzah oven. 

This image is him waiting for his matzah to finish cooking.

Each child decorated and stuffed pillows for them to use at their family Seder .  I explained to the children that this is a symbol to show that the Jewish people are no longer slaves, do not have to work so hard, and can lean back and relax.

I hope you and all of your families have a wonderful Pesach celebration.

 

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Maya