Dear Blue Room Families,

 

What a wonderful last full week of school! There was so much to explore this week!

 Blue Room Friends got SO dirty! Our outdoor learning space provided many opportunities to learn math, science, and sensory concepts. The children loved exploring with water and mud. They worked together to take turns using the hose. They saw what happens when there is more water than dirt and when there is more dirt than water. 

Our friends also filled up different types of containers: large, medium, small, and tiny! This was a chance to experience capacity and volume: a science and math concept. There were also many comments about what it feels like to have water flowing through fingers, sinking toes into cold, mud, and feeling clothes get heavier when they were wet. 

Once the messy work was finished for the day, our class had the opportunity to practice an important life skill: dressing and undressing. Though it seems simple, it is a complex process for growing brains. There are many actions that require crossing the midline, which engages both brain hemispheres at once. Working memory is also exercised as the children differentiate the process of taking off a shirt verses taking off a pair of pants or a skirt. Our friends also talked a lot about how much harder it is to take clothes off when they are dirty and wet. This shows their ability to compare and contrast.

 Our Moving Up Ceremony is on Thursday at 9:30am! We worked hard to create a very special end-of-year project, and we rehearsed our performance on the stage in the shul. We cannot wait to show you all our finished work!

 It has been an incredible year of learning and growing together. We are beyond grateful to all of you for trusting us to care for your children each day. We will miss all of our Blue Room Friends very much as the school year ends.

 

We hope you have a restful Shabbos,

Morah Shaina & Morah Emma

 Dear Blue Room Families,


We had such a fun week: let’s see what we did!

 
We started this week with a fascinating science experiment. We took water beads and let them grow in water! They went from tiny, hard beads to large, squishy beads. Each day we experimented with them in different ways. First, we put them in a big bucket and used loose parts to pick them up and feel them. Next, we put them in zip-lock bags and kept them contained. Last, we shook them and listened to what kind of noise they made in water and without being in water.

We also had the opportunity to explore with shaving cream! We got messy with it and used our senses to identify what we could see, smell, hear and feel. Our friends said it felt like, “silk,” it smelled, “like ice cream,” it sounded, “sleepy,” and it looked like “whipped cream.”

Our friends were very interested in playing “doctor.” They took their stethoscope and listened to each other’s bellies and even had a grand time playing with blue gloves!
As you may know, there is a mild stomach bug going around school so we believe this is where they got their doctor curiosity from!

Morah Emma will be taking over with Morah Shaina for the next 2 weeks! 

Thank you to each of you for trusting me with taking care your child. I had a phenomenal experience at Chandler Jewish Preschool, and I feel so grateful to be apart of your child’s development. May you have a wonderful and restful Shabbos!


Morah Lexi and Morah Shaina

 Dear Blue Room Families,

Happy early Mother’s Day to all you wonderful moms!!

This week we worked very hard and put in a lot of love for your Mother’s Day picture frames and cards! While creating these, our friends had the opportunity to finger paint, paint with a paintbrush, pose for a picture with a bundle of flowers they hand picked and glue on gems!
They were asked questions about their mommies, and we hope you enjoy their answers!

This week we focused on practicing our ABC’s in English and Hebrew! We incorporated sensory objects using wooden cubes that contained letters on them. We also used plastic letters to stamp into colorful play dough. Our friends were able to physically see the letter while practicing to repeat back what letter was being shown.

We had a lot of fun with water play! You may notice that your child is coming home with dirty clothes almost every day. If your child comes home with dirty clothes, please make sure to send back extra clothes for the following day. Thank you! In addition, this upcoming week will be my last week with the Blue Room. Thank you all for trusting me with your sweet babies! they sure do know how to make me smile :) It’s been a pleasure working with them and I will miss them so much! Morah Emma joined us today and will return next week while I am still here so that the children can get to know her. She is an amazing morah, and we are lucky to have her finish out our year in the Blue Room!

 

Be sure to check the CJP Family Facebook group to see photos from this week!

Shabbat Shalom,
Morah Lexi & Morah Shaina

Dear Blue Room Families,

This week we were so excited to see our friends back from Passover break! Shaina and I feel so blessed to be able to teach your children. When each child walked in our classroom after break, it truly made our hearts full knowing that they wanted to come back to school!

This week we explored with paint for a secret Mother’s Day present! Each student enjoyed getting messy with the paint as it was a new sensory project for them. We used several colors that also allowed for teaching moments to occur- we talked about the colors of the rainbow and where we see each color in our everyday lives. Another opportunity to experience sensory processes was when we played and explored with glitter slime. This was a hit! We used sea shells and ceramic circles to make an imprint on the slime.

We’ve been practicing our math skills by laying out written cards labeled from 1-5 and rolling a large die. The children were asked to count the number on the dice and match it up to the numbers written out on the table. They loved it and kept asking to have another turn! Each children has successfully been improving in their counting abilities! Furthermore, we used stamps and each stamp that went onto their paper- we counted!

It’s been getting hotter outside so we are now allowing the children to have water play! Each child enjoys being able to water the garden, sit in a big bucket filled with water and adding water to the mud to bake, build, and explore! If you haven’t already, please send your child with extra summer clothes. Thank you in advance!

Quote of the week:
“We’re looking for beetles Morah Lexi. It’s not yucky… it’s cute!” 

 

Wishing you all a wonderful Shabbos,

Morah Lexi and Morah Shaina

 Dear Blue Room Families:

Shabbat Shalom! This week we incorporated Pesach activities into our learning invitations! Let’s take a look at what we learned!

The Seder Plate:

We ate some delicious matzah! We dipped celery, lettuce and parsley into water with salt. We ate hard boiled eggs. We also made Korech sandwiches out of matzah and lettuce. We explained to our friends that the vegetables dipped in the salt water symbolized the tears of the Jewish people when they were slaves. The hard boiled egg symbolizes the festival offerings brought to the Holy Temple and the Korech symbolizes the sacrifice of the meal they ate for Pesach. Most of our friends did not enjoy the veggies dipped in salt water, but our friend Luka said “This is yummy. Can I have more?” 

Preparing for Pesach

We introduced that cleaning before Pesach is very important and we should make sure to clean up all the bread crumbs. So we decided that cleaning our chairs with soap and water would be a helpful cleaning activity! Our friends enjoyed using various sponges to clean. Furthermore, we used water paint on paper and later painted on sandpaper. The sandpaper symbolized pyramids and how they might feel. I asked our friend Avi what it feels like and he said “sand.”

 Afikomen Fine Motor & Art Project

We ended our week with making afikomen bags that are being sent home! The children are very excited to be put their very own matzah inside of them! 

Shabbos Party with Friends!

We had a wonderful Shabbos party with our Peach Room friends! For the last three weeks we have been having Shabbos parties with them, and our blue room friends love “the little babies!”

We wish you all a beautiful Shabbos! We hope you are hearing all about what our friends have been learning for Pesach - they are LOVING it!

With love,

Morah Lexi & Morah Shaina

Dear Blue Room Families:


This week we focused on building pyramids. We learned that pyramids can be made out of stone, bricks and granite. Each time we stacked our blocks, we counted them. We got up to 17 blocks high! Avi cheered with so much joy when we stacked our blocks so high! Bella enjoyed touching each block as we counted them. With magnitiles, we learned that a square goes on the bottom and we can use 4 triangles to hold it up. This meant that we used 5 materials to make one pyramid!

Our friends were extra caring and helpful this week! We are learning how to clean up after ourselves after snack and help the morahs clean up the tables and floor! Ethan even told Bella, “Here Bella, I can help you open up your lunch box.” When we were in story time, Daria loved to get everyone’s water bottles for them! Esther was happy to pick up another  book for morah when she finished reading the first one. We are really learning the importance of using our words, gentle hands, and doing many mitzvahs.

We focused our sensory play on using dough that looked like matzah. We used legos to stamp our matzah so that it would resemble real matzah. Beatrice enjoyed the squishy feeling of the play dough. Avigail preferred to stamp with legos. Yosef used his fist to pound his play dough flat.

 

We also ate real matzah, and most of our friends loved it. Marlowe described it as “crunchy,” Ariel described it as “yummy,” Mika said “It tastes like Matzah!” and Luka told us that it tastes like “ice cream and strawberries.” The rest of our friends agreed with him! We started to introduce the Seder plate, and next week we will be tasting what goes on the Seder plate.

Our friends are loving the story of Pesach and can almost recite our book of the week saying “Let my people go!” We are excited to continue teaching our friends about all the aspects of Pesach.

We hope you have a wonderful Shabbat and a very fun weekend!

Much love,
Morah Lexi and Morah Shaina

 Dear Blue Room Families,

As we started our introduction to Pesach, we learned and demonstrated some fun activities pertaining to the upcoming holiday! Let’s explore our week:

We had the opportunity to play in our sensory table, which represented Moses parting the Red Sea! We used red magna-tiles, people, and water which made the story easier for everyone to understand. We even got to walk on wood blocks to experience how our Jewish ancestors walked through the parted Red Sea! We also started to learn how Moses' mother sent him in a woven basket down the river. So we took care of the babies which showed our friends how to use gentle hands. In addition, we are starting to get our class nice and clean, making sure there are no bread crumbs anywhere!

As this week was picture day, we spent extra time outside so we decided to have a picnic while we waited patiently for our class to have our turn. We practiced our smiles and got extra time to play.  We even davened outside! It was nice to have a different morning experience.

We’ve been exploring pyramids and inspecting how different pyramids look. Our friends decided to build their very own pyramids out of blocks. They built it higher than their own height! They are so excited to learn more ways that they can build pyramids using different materials. Each time we put a block up, we used our math skills by counting from 1 to 10!

Shabbat Shalom,
Morah Lexi and Morah Shaina

Dear Blue Room Families,

This week we continued to learn about Purim! Let’s take a closer look into our week:

Block Exploration:

This week began with our friends using their imaginations to create a magical castle using blocks. We asked our friends “What can you build?” We put our creativity to the test and created some colorful, tall, and mighty castles. Our friend, Mika, even decided to make an “obstacle course” with her blocks!

Art Exploration:

We sent home groggers that the children finished up this week! We learned that we shake it as loud as we can when we hear the name Haman. We also spent several days making crowns. First we used crayons to color. Next we glued golden stars, pom poms, and gems onto our crowns. Multi-step processes allow children to connect more deeply with their work as well as exercise their delayed-gratification times. Having the ability to accept delayed gratification, when a child does not start, finish, and receive something right away, improves academic and work outcomes as children get older. 

As we used our pincer grasp and hand eye coordination, we learned that crowns resemble royalty and how Queen Esther wore one as well. We wanted them to resemble Queen Esther’s royalty! We even wore them while davening to show Hashem that we are royal queens and kings too!

 

Literacy Exploration:

This week was extra fun due to the GIANT Purim book we read! The book is almost as big as our blue room friends! We also watched a lot of puppet shows by Morah Shaina explaining the story of Queen Esther. The puppets allowed the story to be told in a fun and engaging way that each student absolutely loved. Some of our friends started to even read the story of Megillas Esther to one another. The children are enjoying our Purim activities and are looking forward to our Purim celebration together.

Our tzedakah box got full towards the end of the week so Rabbi came to visit us in our class. He sang our tzedakah song with us as he took our tzedakah money to the poor people so they will have clothes, food, and toys too! We are all so excited to celebrate Purim together next week and show off our fabulous costumes! 

Please remember to bring in your child's mishloach manot items and join us in dressing up for spirit week!

Yosef: Veggie Straws

Avi: Applesauce

Avigail: Granola Bars

Ariel: Clementines

Luka: Mini Peppers

Mika: Mini Carrots

Bella: Original Pringles

Esther: Bananas

Beatrice: Crunchy Rollers

Daria: That's It Fruit Bars

Marlowe: Tree Top Apple Juice Boxes

Ethan: Pretzels

 We hope you have a wonderful Shabbat!

Morah Lexi & Morah Shaina

 

 

Dear Blue Room Families,

This week we started to explore Purim! We are so excited to learn all about queen Esther and Mordecai. Let’s investigate our week:

Block Exploration:

This week our friends were very interested in magnet tiles. We have been discussing castles as our main focus has been about Purim, and they are using their creative and big imaginations to recreate a castle using the magnet tiles. Next week we are going to explore more ways of how we can create castles using other materials.

Science Exploration:

We made graggers for Purim this week using a plastic water bottle and filling it with all different kinds of beans. We used lentils, navy beans, kidney beans, etc. We asked our friends “How loud do you think our graggers can get?” All of our friends said very, very loud! The children were given the opportunity to fill up their water bottles and hear the sound get louder and louder as they put more beans into the bottle.

Art Exploration:

As we started to make our graggers, we also decided to color queen Esther and Mordecai to put inside our water bottles. As our friends were coloring queen Esther and Mordecai, Morah Shania and Morah Lexi were explaining the wonderful story of Purim. We are in the process of painting our graggers with all different kinds of colors as well. We are so excited to take them home and make the most noise when Haman’s name is mentioned!

Literacy Exploration:

Our friends have been LOVING to read! Reading has been requested more often recently so we are making sure to incorporate extra reading time within our days. This week we read The Pout Pout Fish, 10 Tiny Puppies and Calm Down Time. These books have been pivotal in helping our friends explore and express their feelings. Communication for each student has been improving since reading more books on emotions! 

 

 

We wish you and your families a wonderful Shabbos,

Morah Lexi & Morah Shaina

Dear Families, 

This week is our last week of finishing up our Shabbos boxes. We are so excited to be sharing with you all what we have been working so hard on! Here are some highlights from our week:

Let's Make Shabbat Objects:

This week we made challah covers with markers. We finished gluing on our candle holders onto our colorful stones that hold the candles up. We made kiddish cups with different kinds of tape and modge podge! We had so much fun completing our Shabbos boxing and learning what objects we can make for Shabbat.

 

Let’s Clean for Shabbat:

This week we continued to clean for Shabbat. Our friends learned how to clean Kiddush cups in our sensory table. We used soap, water, and sponges in circular motions. We learned that cleaning is an important task and it shows our families that we care about helping out!

 

  

Let's Read about Shabbat:

Our friends love story time! During our story time, we have been asking questions such as:
“Do you help your mommy and daddy clean up at home?” or “what do you eat on Shabbos?” 

Reading time allows us to enjoy snack and lunch while learning and hearing fun stories.

 

This Week’s Birthday:

This week we celebrated our friend Ariel’s birthday, yay! We had so much fun baking the proper ingredients to make a birthday cake. Each student had a turn to mix the ingredients for 10 seconds while we all counted and waited patiently for our turn. We also had a rainy day, so we got the bounce house up in the Shul and bounced and danced around while playing with the bubble machine!

 

 

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Lexi & Morah Shaina

 Dear Families,

This week we worked on our Shabbos boxes. We implemented Shabbat concepts in our provocations and play. Here are some highlights of our week.

 

Loving Literacy

Our friends have taken a great interest in reading books together this week. We read Shabbat 123 and My First Shabbat Book during snack time. We also read several books that were about showing kindness to our peers. The children have been loving story time and during play time, they have chosen to adventure off on their own with a book of their choice. Hearing stories out loud, and then "reading" a book to themselves from memory is an important pre-literacy skill.

 

Art Exloration

As we are working on our Shabbos boxes, the children have been making a few art projects. We exercised our fine motor skills while finishing our candle holders by stacking stone blocks and squeezing glue bottles so that they stick to a mirror holder. Both of these skills are important for building muscles in the hands that will help with writing later on. We also colored the blessings that we will include in each Shabbat box. The children have been learning and seeing what is used during Shabbat.

Math Challenge

This week we continued working with numbers 1-5. We noticed that the children love to exercise their pincer grasp skills by pull pieces of tape so we allowed this interest to bridge their fine motor exploration into math skills by placing several pieces of painters tape on the table with the numbers 1 through 5 on different mats. The children peeled the small bits of tape off the table and matched the appropriate amount with each number symbol. This was a good visual learning activity and they were able to match each number to the tape. We even learned how to count to 5 on our hands!

 

Outdoor Exploration

During our outdoor play time, the children have been LOVING music! We played songs such as Baby Shark, Head, shoulders, knees and toes, gummy bear and much more. Our friends enjoyed dancing to each song and sharing a lot of fun and laughter! We explored all the different ways our bodies move in large ways. The morahs guided the children with different motions, fast and slow paces, as well as cross-body actions that help connect brain and body movements.

We hope you have a wonderful Shabbat!

Morah Lexi & Morah Shaina

Dear Families, 

We had so much this week learning more about Shabbat experiences along with exploring and extending curious interests.  Here are some highlights of our week:

Play Dough/Manipulatives

Let's make a Shabbat meal. This week our friends were invited to make their own Shabbos meal out of play dough. We asked questions like, "What do you eat on Shabbos?" This led to experimenting with sculptures underneath the table. We extended this learning by inviting friends to color underneath the table and by taking other manipulatives to build with. We experimented with a new perspective of visuals as well as gravity.

Block/Dramatic Play

What do you see in Shul on Shabbat? In the block center our friends were invited to create their own shul. We know that mommies daven on one side of shul and daddies daven on the other. 

Art

Let's paint a challah board. 

Inspired by Jackson Pollock our friends attempted to splatter paint their challah boards, which will be added to our Shabbat boxes. Our friends were shown images of  the famous artist's work and we're invite to create their own version.

 

 

 

Practical Life

Let's clean for Shabbat. 

This week we discussed what we do to prepare Shabbat. Cleaning the house and ourselves to look and feel the best after so many days of work is important! The children used soap, water,and sponges to clean the classroom furniture.

Dear Parents,

This we continued to implement Shabbat concepts in our provocations and play. Here are some highlights of our week.

 

Art

Corks and purple paint to resemble kiddish was set out to make grape juice paintings.

 

 

Math & Fine Motor

 

Can you braid a challah?

This week we had intended to introduce braiding challah with play dough. Our friends had a different plan. Small loose parts from another area if the room made their way over to our play dough table to add detail to some freinds' challah sculptures.

 

Let's build a candle.

The children used tan-gram shapes to match and create their own Shabbat candlesticks.

 

How tall can you stack?

A few friends started the process of creating their own beautiful candle holders that they can use every Shabbat. One friend stacked 15 tiles high and another stacked 9 tiles high!

Wishing you all a restful Shabbos.

Morah Felicia and Morah Shaina

Dear Families,

 

This week we started focusing on Shabbos concepts.  What does Shabbos mean to you? What are some things we do on Shabbos? We kept these questions in mind as we set up our play invitations.  At the end of our Shabbat Unit our friends will take home their very own "Shabbat Box"  with some essential pieces they can use each Shabbat, hopefully for years to come.  

 Dramatic Play

This week in the Dramatic Play area, our friends were invited to set the table for Shabbat.  What goes on a Shabbat table, is it different than any other night?  Yes, we see candles, a Kiddush cup, nice tablecloths and dishes because Shabbos is special and we celebrate.  As friends set the table we played a game. The Morahs asked who lights the candles on Shabbos?  Morah asked who says Kiddush, and our friends placed plates and silverware on the table along with bread and they got ready to take turns serving each other pretend food. Our friends also enjoyed dressing up and putting fancy ties and shoes on to go to shul.

Literacy Exploration

Shin starts the word, Shabbos. What else starts with shin? On Friday our friends used gems to trace the letter shin.  All of our friends really enjoyed this activity.

Next week we will continue to explore more concepts of Shabbat. Thanks for a great week. 

We are wishing you all a peaceful and restful Shabbos. 

Morah Felicia and Morah Shaina

Dear Parents, 

This  week our friends worked on planting new vegetable and fruit seedlings in our garden to watch grow and harvest in just a few short months, worked on letter and number recognition, and had a dress up party!

 

Here are some highlights of our week:

This week our friends were invited to match Alef Beis letters on an Alef Beis chart.  They found the first letter of their name in Hebrew and then extended into more letter recognition. 

Our friends explored parts of their face and were encouraged to create their own faces out of play doh and loose parts. 

Our Blue Room friends are very interested in our dress up and dramatic play. If any families would like to donate anything new, we would love and appreciate it.   

 

We are wishing you a healthy and peaceful Shabbos. 

Morah Felicia & Morah Shaina

Dear Parents,

We continued to explore Tu B'Shevat this week.  Here are some highlights:

Block Exploration

In our block area, we created a tree maze using tape on the carpet.  We came up with a couple of different provocations.  One day we did a fruit match. What an amazing gift trees provide for us: yummy food for us to eat that keeps us healthy and strong! The trees give us food, and we get the trees from Hashem. Thank you, Hashem, for the trees and the food! 

Science Exploration

This week our sensory table was filled with soil, sticks, and alphabet letters.  Our friends were invited to dig and hide letters, create mud paste, and add seeds to our soil.  On Friday we added grass seeds to our table.  Morah Felicia asked, "what do you think will happen to the seeds?  Will they stay the same or will they change when we open the table on Monday?"  Our friends guessed they will stay the same. We can't wait to find out on Monday!

 

Discussion

 We asked our friends a question, what do you think grows in soil? Our friends shouted out answers, "flowers" "carrots." Morah Felicia explained to her friends that another very special holiday was coming up called Tu B'Shevat.  Just like Rosh Hashanah is the the New Year for people, Tu B'Shevat is the New Year for the trees.  On Tu B'Shevat we celebrate the trees and thank them for everything they give us.  What are some gifts our trees give to us all year long?   

 Math

This week, we played counting games.  In our garden we picked fruits and vegetables then counted and placed assorted fruits and vegetables into brown paper bags with the written corresponding number up to the number 5.  For example:  One banana was placed in the bag with the number one written on it.  Some skills attained from this activity are numeral recognition, matching numbers to pictures, and one to one correspondence

Art Through a Multi-Step Process

We took a nature walk to gather interesting items. Each child created a nature collage for Tu B'Shevat. We also finished our collaborative tree project as a class.  Check our Facebook group for the pictures to come.  

Thank you for celebrating Tu B'Shevat with us via Zoom!  

 We wish you a beautiful, peaceful, and safe Shabbos. 

Morah Felicia and Morah Shaina  

Dear Families,

This week we spent our time getting back into our routine after winter break.  We hope you enjoyed spending quality time with your families.  We were so excited to welcome all of our friends back to school, and they were just as excited to come back and be with us, their CJP family. 

We were so curious to hear about everyone's time home.  Our friends were asked, "Did you do anything special or new with your families over break?"

Ethan:  I spend time with my family.  I did a walk with my family.

Luka:  I went to Texas and I saw an excavator.

Bella:  I got balloons in my house. 

Avigail:  Etai have cake, Yehonathan have cake, and I have cake, okay.

Marlowe: I went to airport.  I got chu chu train. I play with Bubba.

Yosef said he saw snow over his break!

Beatrice and Esther both smiled so big and said yes to spending time with their family. 

Avi said that he, his dada, mom, nan nan, and gigi all went to the airport too!

Ariel: I went to the pool and did swimming with my family.

Daria: I play with Carmel, my sister.

Mika:  I went to the park with mommy.

This week our friends were introduced to some concepts about the holiday of Tu B'Shvat coming up Monday the 17th!  On Tu B'Shvat we are celebrating the birthday of the trees while learning about the 7 species special to Israel; wheat, barley, figs, olives, dates, pomegranates and grapes! We are excited to continue to learn more about this holiday next week. 

Together, in the Blue Room, the children started a tree collage.  We discussed the many things trees give us and do for us.  Trees give us food to eat, provide homes for other animals, and help clean the air we breathe. These are just to name a few!  Our trees and plants are so important!  During this project we also introduced the parts of the tree. There are roots that start in the ground, then comes the trunk that extends into branches, and finally the green leaves on the branches. Our friends enjoyed using different mediums to create many different shades of brown for the trunk of the tree.

  We celebrated Beatrice and Esther's 3rd birthday this week. Happy Birthday Beatrice and Esther! 

We had a great first week back.  

We wish you all a safe and healthy Shabbat. 

Morah Felicia and Morah Shaina