Stars in the Sky and Sand on the Ground

Dear Parents,

  This week in the Blue room Morah Kayla explained the Parsha of Lech Lecha.  Long ago lived Avraham and his wife Sara.  Many people didn't know about Hashem back then, and Avraham and Sara taught them all about Hashem.   Avraham and Sara were very old and didn't have any children of their own yet.  One day Hashem came to Avraham and told him he needed to pack up and move.  This was going to be hard work!  They lived in a desert where the land is dry and hot with very little water or protection from the sun.  Avraham didn't even know where they were moving to.  Hasham just told him to follow him, and so they did.  Hashem led them to the land Canaan (Israel).  When they arrived  Hashem told Avraham he would have as many children as they were stars in the sky and sand on the ground, and the land Canaan would be his forever.

One morning all of our friends grabbed their back packs and traveled around the room like Avraham and his followers traveled across the desert.  It was hard work making sure we had everything we needed for a big trip, and staying all together was even harder!

                                                              Table top 

We practice our fine motor skills using a wooden mallet and golf tees to hammer in cans and make our own constellations.  All of the children ended up needing help holding the tee so they could hammer it down.  Once I realized this I pre poked the lids and put the tees in just enough to hold them steady while the children hammered them down on their own.  Another objective here is to build self confidence through independence.  This activity was definitely the most popular this week.

                                                              Art

This week we worked together as a group to create a starry night mural.  We learned mural means a big painting usually created on a wall just like we have our very own mural in the hallway!  We introduced a new technique called splatter painting to create textured stars with white paint.  Then we added foam glitter stickers for the 3-D effect. In the beginning of this project personal crowding in personal space was an issue because we were using one big canvas.  Our friends really problem solved on their own by defining their own individual spot.  Once they started working each friend respected their friends work. 

Another day this week we created individual pieces of sand art using glue and sand.  First our friends were given the opportunity to use bottle glue by squeezing it out onto their paper.  Then they took the sand to put on top of the glue.  After the glue was all covered we removed the sand to reveal our design.  Jemma said, "This is looks like a spider web."  Our friends showed great self regulation with the glue.  All of them used just what they needed and avoided the massive globs of glue puddles that tend to form during projects like this.  

Thanks for a great week. 
Shabbat Shalom Morah Felicia and Morah Kayla 

                                                            

Exploring Animals and Parsha Noach

Dear Parents,
    This week in the classroom we explored animals through our centers and Morah Kayla also explained the Parsha Noach in our morning Daven circle.  With props and puppets she created an interactive experience that made the story come alive to our friends.  We learned long ago when Hashem created the world he wanted everyone to make good choices and do the right thing.  Not long after Hashem created the world, most people were making bad choices.  There was one man that wasn't like everyone else. He chose to the right thing and he taught his family to make good choices too.  This made Hashem happy he wanted all the people to be like Noach.  Hashem told Noach to build a teiva, a big boat, to hold 7 mommy and 7 daddy kosher animals,  a pair of mommy and daddy non kosher animals, and Noach's family because Hashem was going to bring a mabul, a flood to wash away all the bad.  Noach tried warning all the people of the flood that if anyone wanted to stay safe from the flood there was room.  No one listened to Noach.  The day came when rain started fall and didn't stop for 40 days!  What a long time.  After the rain a rainbow appeared. Hashem promised Noach that he would never bring a flood again and the rainbow was a symbol of that promise and how important it is to always try your best to make good choices.

                                  Our friends each took a turn making it rain on Noach's  teiva.

                                                           Blocks
Let's make a home for our animals was our provocation.  We first had to decide would our animals live out in the wild or captivity in a zoo?  Mina suggested, "Zoo"  and we  agreed on a zoo home for our animals.  What does a zoo have?  "A building and Crocodile lake."  After some time of constructing they built their zoo structure with natural wood blocks  and used net fabric pieces to make spider webs.  They caught their animals and then rescued them from any danger.

 






More coming soon! Stay tuned!