Our Dads by KDH

One of the favorite activities each year is Dad's Day at IJP. The children bake something to serve their dads and answer a questionnaire about them. We learn many interesting things about our Dads.

How old are they? They range in age from 13 to 84.

What are their favorite foods? We have vegans who like spinach, radishes and bananas, and carnivores who like chicken, meatballs and steak.

What are they really good at? Important things like holding babies, changing batteries, washing dishes, typing, playing chess and fixing things.

What do our dads do at work? They make money, help people who are sick, make videos, work on the computer, and write books.

When the children grow up they want to be like their dads. They want to get a job helping people, give people treats, have babies and push them in a stroller, have children, bake steak, be tall, go to weddings, and drive!

Our dads love us. How do we know? They do everything for us, they tell us, "I love you, " They give us lots of hugs and kisses, they take care of us, they help us. We found out too, that one dad loves his children, "because he has a heart!"

Thanks to Justine and Robin for purchasing the car kits, low heat glue guns and cutting up the wood for the project. Each car is unique and a treasure to play with and keep.

We end the morning off with a circle time. 

Thanks Dads for coming in!! We love you!

Morah Ruth

Morah Sara

Friendship Mural

We love to emphasize togetherness, equality, friendship, and community with our children.  In light of Martin Luther King Day we made a friendship mural!  We started by taping together individual sheets of paper.  Each child chose one piece to begin with. While they created the masterpiece we talked about how we would make all of these rectangles into one big picture that everyone helped make.

We couldn't stop with just our dots of color, so we added some fun 3D effects.

It's even more fun and collaborative when the children get to pick what goes on next.

Here we are sharing the materials we chose. 

After we display our mural for the whole school to see, each child will get to take a piece home as a  memorabilia of togetherness and friendship. 

Kitah Bet Prepares for Tu B'Shvat and Israel Trip

To prepare for the upcoming holiday of Tu B'Shvat and our "trip" to Israel on Monday, we began by sitting a few characters into our little wooden airplane and following them on their journey across the ocean to this special land.

 We looked at a map of Israel and discussed its physical characteristics. How many points are there? Oceans and seas?

 There are seven foods that are indigenous to the land of Israel: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates. After identifying each in pictures we discussed which foods we were familiar with, liked or didn't like, and would like to try.

 The children couldn't wait to try a pomegranate. All around the circle was heard, "Can we cut it open?" First, we passed it around the circle, feeling, smelling and exploring it from the outside.

 Anslee said it felt "cold"!

 Careful, Morah Rena! Slicing in class provides a good opportunity to talk about knife safety.

 We expected to see seeds inside, but not this many! When we eat most other fruits, we eat the fruit and not the seeds. For a pomegranate, we only eat the seeds! We tried it at snack time and it was a hit.

We noticed the pomegranate seeds and juice stained our plates at snack time. We jumped on that discovery by doing some staining of our own. Using red-colored water and eye droppers, we squeezed red droplets onto paper towels and watched the color spread across them.

A Feel of Snow in Pre Kitah Aleph

When learning about winter, snow is usually learned about as well. In Pre- Kitah Aleph we decided to not only learn about it, but to have a feel as well. In comes Insta-Snow!

First, each child had a turn to help pour the Insta-Snow powder into our sensory bin. 

Then, we added water, and voila! We had our 'snow'

Eli helps to pour water in.

 The children got right into it immediately, exploring the new texture and feel.

They used different mediums and tools to scoop, pour, and mix the snow.

Yonah waved his snow back and forth, making quite a snowstorm.

Adom realized he can take two cups, and pour from one into the other.

Eli decided to pick up some snow and drop it down, and made it look like it was actually snowing, while Levi caught some with his spoon.

Leora threw some snow up in the air and said "Snow!"

 The children kept on saying "More, more!" so we kept on adding more and more snow to our bin. What a fun and educational time we had! 

Dad's Day, 2016--appreciating the interconnectness of all things in Kitah Gimmel . . .

Dad's Day, 2016

     We were happy to get together this past Monday to celebrate Dad's Day.   Because the day was also a holiday, a commemoration of  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday,  we considered both factors when planning our day.

     During the week, we prepared cards for our dads.  We illustrated the cards with our own drawings of our dads, and then we dictated a statement or two to the Morahs describing our pictures.  Here are some of our statements:

    

Shlomit:  It's a rainbow for daddy (and a moon.)

Mortimer:  My dad is a super-hero daddy!

Rami:  Everything is for Daddy! (including a boat.)

Sam:  Me and my Dad are super-heroes!

     And, because Tu B'Shvat is around the corner, we decided to make clay pots with our dads.  Before the big day, we stamped each pot with our green thumb in acrylic paint.  We learned that a "green thumb" means we are good gardeners!  Then we embellished our pots with stick-on jewels, sponge shapes and Sharpee markers.

      

     

     During the week previous to MLK Day, we created a jot-list about the various ways we can demonstrate respect and friendship.  We asked, "How can we be nice to people?"  Here are some of our ideas:

Noa:  Say hello, say good-bye.

Leiba:  Hug a person.

Ruthie:  Share toys.

Levi:  Share books.

Ari E:  Make a rainbow.

Henia:  Share tzedaka.

Hannah: Don't hit or bite.

Reed:  Share toys with friends.

Ari S:  Kiss!

Pearl:  Share toys.

Shaya:  Hug them!

     During Dad's Day, we sang two songs that reinforce the idea of being respectful to everyone.  One song was Don't Walk in Front of Me, V'ahavta L'recha.  The dads sang along with the Kitah Gimmel yeledim.  Then we sang one of Morah Susan's favorite songs, The World is a Rainbow.  We love the message, and it's a very appropriate way to honor the ideals of Dr. King.

Lyrics by Greg Scelsa
The world is a rainbow that's filled with many colors;
Yellow, black and white and brown,
You see them all around.

The world is a rainbow with many kinds of people.
It takes all kinds of people to make the world go round.

Now you be you and I'll be me.  That's the way we meant to be.
But the world is a mixing cup,
Just look what happens when you stir it up.

The world is a rainbow with many kinds of people.
And when we work together, it's such a sight to see.
The world is beautiful when we live in harmony.

P.S.  We are almost finished with our single B-I-G clay pot, below.  Again, we are thinking about Tu B'Shvat, as well as the respect and friendship we spoke about when learning about MLK.  Our completed pot, with an attractive live plant, will be donated next week to Rebecca's Tent, an intown women's shelter.  (If you are interested in contact info for Rebecca's Tent, feel free to contact us.)

 Fondly,

Morah Susan, Morah Yael and those wonderful Yeledim of Kitah Gimmel