How is a tree like me? by KDH

There has been a lot of talk about trees as we get ready to celebrate Tu B'Shvat, the new year of the trees,  tomorrow. In the time of the Holy Temple/Beit Hamikdash, mitzvot regarding the tithing of fruits were dependent on if a tree had blossomed by Tu B'Shvat. 

Tu B'Shvat is the time that the almond trees begin to blossom in Israel and the sap in the trees begin to rise. Tu B'Shvat reminds us that even in the dead of winter, spring is just around the corner. When things are difficult, we look forward to better times. We eat the Shivat Haminim, the seven species that Israel is blessed with - pomegranates, grapes, olives, wheat, barley, figs and dates and thank Hashem for the land of Israel.

KDH discussed what we get from trees, how to celebrate with Figgy - our fig tree that is outside our classroom, and how are we like trees. As adults, we often think of the trees' roots as our parents and grandparents, the branches and seeds as our offspring, the fruits as our good deeds. We asked the children their thoughts. 

They told us: 

We need water and so do trees.

We need sunshine as do the trees.

We eat and they eat.

The branches are like our arms.

The roots are like our feet.

The trunk is like our body. 

I reflected on their answers and thought it might be interesting to see how they would turn their thoughts into illustrations, drawing tree people.

Annika and Ezra drew rainbow trees. Shaya's trees has many arms to do lots of mitzvot, and the sun is his kipah. Sammy's tree has lots of leaves like she has lots of hair. Henia's tree person is afraid the wind will knock it down.  Pearl's tree person is a Honey Crisp apple tree! 

Yinon drew the inside of the tree person and told us that trees and people are alike. We like to be outside!

How true! At the end of a busy week, we sometimes ask the children what they enjoyed most that week. The most popular answer is, "Being ouside."

Yes, we are like trees!

Morah Ruth

Morah Sara

Morah Gail

The Children of KDH

Peace Begins With Me

At IJP we do yoga, but not just any kind of yoga... We practice Yoga Yeladim, a fusion of Jewish learning, body awareness and spiritual understanding all rolled up into a yoga mat! Through this practice, your children are becoming more mindful, spatially aware and are gaining physical and mental strength to be carried with him/her for a lifetime. 

So, what exactly do we do in class? First we place our shoes mindfully on our "shmat", the mat we decorated just for our shoes! 

We then do a series of om's, the universal sound.  This unites and grounds us as we begin our daily journey together.  Yoga is not all about movement and poses; meditation is a vital part of yoga and we teach it with mantra's and bells.  Our brains can be so cluttered with thoughts that we practice a few simple ways to keep those thoughts simple. Have you heard our mantra, "Peace begins with me,"? It's actually a meditation!  We can also meditate with sound which really helps us to stay present and focused on one thing: the here and now. See our yogis tuning into the frequencies of the singing bowl and  tingsha bells.

Now it's time for movement!  We generally go from seated to standing using a short story and incorporating traditional yoga poses (sometimes with traditional names, other times we just make the names up as we go!). 

Sun Salutations are a staple in our class as well.  This ensures that we are fully activating our entire bodies while moving from standing, to plank then to down dog, up dog, and back to standing in its most simple form.  Some days we mix it up and add all types of variations.  

What makes our yoga class the MOST FUN?! Our songs of course.  Most of our songs are from Kidding Around Yoga and can be found here. A few of the favorites are: Jogging Through The Jungle, Yoga Negila, Toe-ga, Every Little Cell, and Yummy Yoga. 

Here we are playing Toe-ga, yoga for our toes, an all-time favorite. Once we gather our pom-poms we use them to make a picture or to blow across our mat. 

After all the movement and songs, we make sure to go to our special gardens.  This is a place we can always visit whether we're happy, sad, angry, or feeling any other way, it's always there.

Namaste and Shal-om!

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM: ACTION PAINTING

            As Educators, we all know that learning does not end with formal schooling, nor does creativity end with childhood. At IJP, art is used as a forum for true exploration and expression of the inner self, to encourage each child's natural creativity and curiosity.  Inspired from the creativity manifest in our Kitah Bet activities, I’ve (Yael) developed an interest in learning and reading more about art, starting with its different styles throughout history. Gravitating towards the Abstract style the most, I was intrigued with the action paintings of artists like Jackson Pollack, as well its emphasis on utilizing art as a way of personal emotional expression. I loved his paintings and thought that this was a kind of art our Kitah Bet students could do and appreciate.

 It's okay if we paint the paper too!

 Lily likes to sing and paint at the same time. 

            After winter break, we started working on decorating blank picture frames that we had in our classroom. The type of abstract expressionism we did is called action painting, a type of painting that focuses around the hand movements and the actual process of making the art. Each child was able to choose whichever color he or she wanted and spontaneously splashed and dripped paint all over the frames. Not only did the splatter painting beautify our picture frames, but the children noticed a whole ‘nother, bigger piece of art which was being created along with them: the paper underneath the frames! The big white sheet of paper that we put underneath the frames as a back splash had now become a beautiful piece of art in its own right. After the paint dried the next day, we decided to practice cutting with scissors and cut the sheet into different shapes and designs with our new “training” scissors.

Lev thinks the backsplash looks cool!

Elliot is painting with orange, like his shirt!

 Asher and Erez are sharing the green while Adom splashes with blue.

 Orli slowly drips and splatters the yellow and blue paint.

 Mina generally paints with two hands. 

            There are no rules when it comes to art and creative expression, a fact which seems to be intuitive to children, as is seen from their uniquely expressive and abstract drawings, and is something that is highly encouraged here at school. What looks like a scribble to us can represent anything to the artist and knows no bounds. Our students’ art is showcased around our classroom, accompanied with a short description from the child. One child’s paper with circles on it is her new baby brother, while another’s colorful scribbles represent his brother taking a nap. Our Kitah Bet students are natural born abstract expressionists, their art filled with endless possibilities and lots of self-expression. 

Guy's/Special Visitor Day in Kitah Alef

Guy's/Special Visitor Day

We couldn't wait for our Special Visitor Day. To bake our cupcake treats we took turns pouring the ingredients into a big mixing bowl.

Then we mixed it all up and put it in the oven to bake.

When they were cooled, we carefully spread chocolate frosting on top (and tasted a bit, too!)

Then it was time for our visitors to come!

 There was so much to do together with our guests. Some read books in the library, some played with playdough at the table, and others explored the slide and kitchen areas.

Our mitzvah of the day was preparing sandwiches for the needy. 

Afterwards we all gathered to the circle area for Circle Time together. We sang a few mommy and daddy songs as well as our unique Kitah Alef Family song.

Lastly, we trooped to the kitchen to share our cupcakes with our guests! Yum! 

Thanks for joining us!