The Mitzvos of Purim and Art Auction Project

 Dear Parents, 

         This week our class continued to learn about the festive holiday approaching, Purim.  We also worked on our class project for the Silent Auction at the annual Chabad Purim party.

Clown Face Provocation 

This week our friends were invited to create silly clown faces on mirrors with dry erase makers and some loose parts.  The children were very engaged and created detailed creations.  

Tzedakah

One of the four mitzvas of Purim is giving Tzedakah.  Our friends practiced their fine motor skills as they were invited to give Tzedakah as an activity.  Tzedakah is giving to those in need.   The children were fascinated by the sound the coins made as they hit the bottom of the can.  They noticed the sound changed as the can became fuller.

 Art

This week we made graggers out of  old jar lids.  The children used stickers and markers to decorate the outside of two lids.  Then they filled the inside with rice. Lastly we glued the two pieces together to shake when they hear Haman's name in the Purim story.

Our friends also decorated Shalach Manot boxes for next week.  We discovered giving Shalach Manot to our family and friends is another mitzva of Purim. 

We ere so creative exploring different mediums to create some elaborate designs and patterns.  Dragons that looked like dinosaurs, butterflies, and spiders were some of the designs created.  Morah Felicia wrote down her friends quotes that explain their work directly on their box.  

Group Project

This week our class worked on our project for the silent Purim auction.  Our class created an ABC wall decor piece using a splatter technique inspired by the famous artist Jackson Pollock.   To get started we first stained a piece of wood a dark navy.  Then we chose a bright color scheme to make it pop and went to town with our splatter.  Some friends chose to use stokes creating a softer texture which turned to out to be a contrast with bumpy splatter texture.  We even came up with cool sound effects to make as we splattered paint onto our canvas. "Spoosh, spoosh!"

 Another busy week here in the Blue room.  Next week we will wrap up the Purim unit and we will be sending home all the Purim goodies we have been working on over the last few weeks.  We can't wait to see our friends dressed for spirit week next week. 

Shabbat Shalom  From Morah Felicia and Morah Kayla

Purim!

Dear Parents,
  Here are some highlights of our week.  It was a glue filled week!

           Mirror Design

This week our friends were invited to draw pictures on mirrors with dry erase markers.  They could use gems to accessorize their creations.  Morah Felicia asked each friend what they made on their mirror.  Our friends got very creative with their answers.

Mina-"I'm drawing a dragon.  I'm drawing a green dragon

Zoe- "I'm making a playgroud.

I'm drawing a princess and she is hiding from a dragon."

Jemma-  "I'm making sparkles.  I'm making Bergans and Trolls."

Hammond-  "I'm making a zebra.  I'm putting these on my zebra,  (placing gems on his mirror) stripes"

Yochai- "Look, I made a firetruck.  See, it has two wheels."

Tzippi- "I make a bunny rabbit!"

Math and Fine motor
On an oak tag our friends match colored foam squares to a colored area.  The children build color recognition skills, improve fine motor, and follow multiple step directions.  They worked two friends at a time gluing and sorting the colored squares filling most of the oak tag to create our own "Persian rug".  Our final product is hanging in the classroom.  This project lasted all morning. Some friends worked on the piece for a stretch of time and others chose to do a little at a time then leave to check out another center but then came back multiple times to add more colored shapes on.

    

Creating Palaces

In our art center our friends were invited to create their own palaces made from geometric shapes and and of course glue!  Again the children show great self regulation over how much glue to use.

Dramatic Play
This week we turned our Dramatic play kitchen into a royal palace and royal tea parties.  Our friends used their crowns they made from last week to role play and pretend to be Kings, Queens, Princes, and Princesses.  Just like Queen Esther and King Achashverosh.  The children took turns serving and passing tea cups.  One day Jemma offered to make cake to serve at the party.   She made the cake then King Hammond offered to serve the cake she made.  What an extremely kind King!  As the week progressed some rice from our sensory ended up in the teacups serving as "tea"  This was a pretty messy exploration and discovery. 

Wishing you all a peaceful and joyful long weekend.  Shabbat Shalom Morah Felicia and Morah Kayla

Introduction to Purim

Dear Parents,
  This week in the Blue room we prepared to introduce the next big holiday, Purim.

Basket Design 

One of our fine motor activities this week was basket weaving.  Our used friends cut up pieces of foam and empty baskets to weave the strips of foam through the holes of the baskets.  Through weaving our friends learn patterning, critical thinking skills, and problem solving.  Weaving in and out in a pattern, helps to refine their eye/hand coordination.  They also cross the midline, which reinforces brain development between the right and left hemispheres.

Palace building

Our friends use geometric shapes to build their own palaces on mirrors. Building on mirrors is great to add dimension and a new perspective while working. 

Art 

This week in the art center our friends decorated their own festive masks.  The children had the opportunity to create unique Purim masks using paints, sparkly stickers and feathers.  Next we will add sticks so our friends can hold them up to their faces.

Group project

We painted and made crowns for costumes inspired by a the book, 'Sammy Spider's First Purim.'  Our friends have shown great progress in learning how to share.  Morah Felicia only set out 3 plates of paint and there were six friends painting.  Everyone worked beautifully together without any conflict arising! Way to go!

Math

This week we played a game with a Purim die.  This game provided many opportunities for learning including literacy, self regulation, and math. 

First we named all the images on the die and asked our friends to repeat them back. We repeated this step several times. This was great to introduce holiday vocabulary words such as gragger and hamentashen. 

Next one at a time our friends rolled the die to see what picture was face up.  They matched the picture to the corresponding picture on the master sheet.

Lastly our friends took turns collecting data of each roll!

Sensory 

At our sensory table this week we explored and discovered sound.  With different size bottles and cans we added different loose parts to the containers to make various sounds.  Some sounds were loud and some were soft.   Next week we'll learn when to shake and make noise with our silly graggers. 

With our newly updated outdoor classroom and the weather being so sunny our friends have been playing hard and getting muddy and messy in the mud kitchen outside.  All of our friends are in need of  more sunblock.  We apply everyday before we head out to protect us from that az sun.  Thank you to all who have dropped off their art gifts for our class Purim basket. If you haven't already you still have time!  

As always thank you for a great week.  Wishing you all a peaceful and restful weekend. Shabbat Shalom, Morah Felicia and Morah Kayla

Physics and Loose Parts

Dear Parents, 

What a busy week we had.  Thank you to those who came out to celebrate on Grandparents day/ Special Friends day and all the interviews were fanstastic!  This week we continued to celebrate our trees and celebrated Zoe's 3rd Birthday!  Happy Birthday Zoe.  Here are some highlights this week.

Fruit Matching

In our block center we continued with our fruit matching activity.  Hammond noticed these blocks right away Monday morning when he came in.  He says, " I found two pineapples!" Pointing to the fruits he discovered, he continued to say, "this isn't a pineapple this is a banana."  Hammond searches and finds other fruits on the block shelf, and he immediately starts sorting his finds into separate piles.  A friend, Hana, observes Hammond for some time then she asks Hammond, "Can I join you?"  Hammond replies, "Yes!"  The two work together to stack the fruit then destruct and sort and stack again. 

Racing "Grapes" 

This week in the block center our friends also made ramps out of cut up pool noodles to race rocks that we pretended were grapes.  We presented this invitation by asking a simple question, "Would you like to race these grapes along a track?" to provoke exploration.  The noodles were set up so they were leaning against a shelf creating a sort of ramp in the block area.  First our friends started their grapes at the top of the ramp that was on the shelf and sent their grapes rolling down the chute.  Hammond was the first to start this activity sending one grape after another  down the ramp excitedly waiting for them to stop rolling while guessing  how far each one would roll.  We even collected data. Hammond marked where each grape stopped and then we discussed which grape rolled further.

Mina and Tzippi came over and used the second noodle to create different shapes.  While manipulating the noodle she says, "Look we made a circle!" "I can make a rainbow" said Tzipi
 They twist and swirl forming various courses to race their grapes.  Finally with one friend on each end they form a U shape and take a grape and send it down both sides, giggling as they watch the grapes descend down and stop.  Our friends learn about cause and effect and a pre-understanding of physics.  Depending on the angle the noodle is directed at, they saw the grape either go faster or slower.

Parsha Yitro
Morah Kayla tells us Parsha.  Hashem gives the Torah to the Jewish people on a little humble mountain called, Mount Sinai and the ten commandments were given.  Rabbi Tzvi tells us the Torah doesn't tell us what to do but it's a way of life.

Building and tinkering with loose parts

Our friends use recyclable tubes and wood to build castles.  During construction a problem occurred. We had some friends that wanted to build castles that were so tall and knock them down while other friends wanted their castles to stay up.  "How can we solve the problem?"  Morah Felicia asked her friends.  "What if we have the friends that want to knock down on one side of the carpet so there is enough space for everyone's work to stay safe." All of our friends agreed that was a great plan.  Yochai was so excited to stack his castle so high.  "I built it!" he shouts proudly before he knocks it down to reconstruct several more times 

          

Our friends Zoe and Jemma used long tubes to experiment with sound and talk through the tubes.  Zoe also turned her tube into telescope

 Thank you for another great week.  Shabbat Shalom from Morah Felicia and Morah Kayla