Chanukah in the Atelier

Kitah Alef Menorahs

 

Kitah Alef children have been interested in mark-making.

Morahs first noticed this interest when working with markers earlier this year. 

Since then, they have been exposed to various methods. 

We wanted to include this thread of interest in the Menorah project. 

The children painted tiles with non-toxic glass paints in vibrant colors.

The slick, slightly transparent paint was then sprinkled with shell-paper glitter

This glitter has a flakey texture and is made from sea shell-emulsion. 

The children topped off their creations with a variety of flat glass marbles and hex nuts were added to hold the candles.

Kitah Bet Menorahs

Kitah Bet's menorah was a sensory exploration.

Their menorah combines a variety of colors and textures.

First, they mixed colorful seed beads, sparkly Epsom salts, and chunky glitter.

The children filled tiny glass bottles with the vibrant mixture.

Next the children glued colorful tiles, glass pieces, and silver metal objects onto the edges of a 

blue ceramic tile.

Finally, the glass bottles were glued tp the center of the tile and topped with hex nuts to became the candle holders.

Kitah Gimmel Menorahs

This year, Kitah Gimmel children have been preoccupied with nature.

They often collect rocks, sticks, and other natural materials when outside.

 We wanted to reflect this interest in their menorah.

The children were presented with shells and pebbles to paint with pastel acrylics in 

blue, purple, and teal.

The children had a choice of either a white marble or a grey, striped glass tile.

Once their shells were dry, they glued them along the edges of their tile.

The children chose from tiles and glass pieces in the same color scheme and adhered them to their tile.

They also used shell glitter on their creations!

Finally, hex nuts were added down the center as candle holders.

                                                    

Kitah Daled Menorahs

Kitah Daled loves building and collecting. 

We often go on neighborhood walks and the children often find "treasures.'

The children started by painting metal bottle caps with colors that reminded them of Chanukah.

The children then glued their metal "treasures" along the edges of a metallic glass tile.

These treasures were mostly hardware odds and ends collected from around the school.

We also found some metal jewelry bits such as beads and chains.

Next, they glued the painted bottle caps down the center of the tile.

Last, they topped the lids with hex nuts to hold the candles.

 

Circle Time in KA!

Circle time is a highlight of our day in Kitah Alef and an important part of our daily routine! It is a chance for us to come together to form connections as a class. It is also an opportunity for us to introduce new themes and discuss our upcoming day! We often bring props to circle time such as shaky eggs, plush Torahs or items from the holiday we are learning about to further our learning in a tangible way! Since children thrive with routine and knowing what to expect, we sing the same songs every day for consistency. 

Before we start circle time we sing:

(Tune of "London Bridge")

"Circle time is starting now, 

starting now, starting now, 

Circle time is starting now, 

on the rug."

When the children hear this song, they run to the rug ready for circle time! We begin by saying hello to our breathing tool, Happy Flower! Happy Flower is a playful way to teach children to fill their lungs fully as they smell the flower, and blow the air out through their mouth. Teaching children how to take a deep breath is essential to their composure and self regulation.

"Lets say hello to Happy Flower

He helps us feel calm.

Happy flower says,

Smile! Cheese!

Take a deep breath.

And blow."

x3

We ask the children “do you feel that?” while putting our hand on our chest.  We practice Happy Flower throughout the day as needed :) We then say bye bye to Happy Flower and return it to the basket. 

Safe Keeper Ritual

In a Conscious Discipline classroom the teacher is the safe keeper who keeps the class and the friends safe. Each morning we say together "My job is to keep you safe and your job is to help" while holding up our safe keepers we made earlier in the year. This symbolizes our commitment to the children and their commitment to helping to create a safe environment for all at school.

 

With our question hands wide open we sing:

"Who is here today, 

Who is here today, 

Who's in school?

Who's in school?

Good morning to (friends name) you're in school!"

If a friend is home or on a trip we wish them well by singing: 

"We wish you well,

We wish you well,

All day long today,

We wish you well!"

We finish our safe keeper ritual by holding up our pictures and saying "Morah's job is to keep me safe and your job is to help!"

 

For Tefilah circle we begin by all the friends pretending to go to sleep! A Morah says:

"Everybody go to sleep..

I do not hear a sound.. shhhh!

The children are asleep,

The room is very very quiet!

(yawn! big strech!)

Wake up you sleep heads!"

Modeh Ani

(Tune of "You are my Sunshine")

Every morning, when I'm done sleeping

I open up my eyes and say,

Thank you Hashem for my Neshama,

and for giving me another day! Hooray!

Modeh Ani, lefanecha, melech chai,

Vekayam, she'he'chezarta, be neshma'ati,

be'chemla ra'ba, emunatecha.

Washing hands

(Tune of "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush")

This is the way we wash our hands,

wash our hands, wash our hands,

This is the way we wash our hands so early in the morning.

Once on the right and once on the left,

Splash!

Once on the right and once on the left,

Splash!

Once on the right and once on the left, 

so early in the morning.

Shema

Hide your hands behind your back so we can say shema!

(Tune of "Where is Thumbkin")

Where's your right hand?

Where's your right hand?

Here I am!

Here I am!

I need you for Shema,

I need you for Shema,

right away!

Shema yisrael, Ado-nai Elo-heinu, Ado-nai, Echad.

(whisper) Baruch shem kevod, malchuto leolam va'ed.

I love Hashem and Hashem loves me!

   

This is followed me a big “Yay!!!” from the children. 

We conclude our circle time by singing our school family song! 

(Tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb")

"We are a school family, family, family, 

We are a school family, here at IJP.

We are Kitah Alef, Alef, Alef,

We are Kitah Alef, say hi to a friend! (Hi, hello! Hi!)

Morah's here to keep you safe, 

keep you safe, keep you safe,

Morah's here to keep you safe,

and your job is to help."

We then transition to our next activity by singing 

(Tune of "London Bridge")

"Circle time is over now, 

over now, over now,

Circle time is over now,

Let's check the schedule to see whats next. 

Circle time is well loved by all the children (and morahs!) Feel free to use this as a guide to run your own circle time at home and see how well the children know the songs! 

KD's Nature Walk

 Fall is in full effect and Kitah Daled decided to take advantage of the changing scenery by taking a nature walk around our neighborhood. 

It was a beautiful day! We paired up with partners and received a clipboard with a list of items to find.

Off we go! 

Our first stop was right outside the school gates. We found so many beautiful red leaves. We checked that off our list.

We kept walking and saw yellow leaves, brown leaves and even some green leaves that hadn't turned colors yet. We also saw a few piles of leaves. 

We worked together in pairs to check things off on the clipboards. 

Look at this interesting gate!

We walked all the way down the street to the pine tree. We found so many prickly pine cones!

We even saw an empty bird's nest!

 

And some mushrooms.

We saw squirrels, birds, acorns, and pumpkins. We could also see the sun and checked that off our list. There was not a single cloud in the sky! 

We chose some acorns, leaves, pinecones and branches to collect in a bag and brought them back to school. 

We worked with Morah Jessica when we got back to paint and bedazzle them.

After they dried, we added them to our parents' blessing mobile hanging above our safe space.

We also used them as part of our grandparents day invitation.

We loved that these special mementos from our class nature walk were able to enhance so many areas in our classroom. 

Planting an Autumn Garden in Kitah Bet

We are so excited it’s autumn! We’ve been following the aspect of Reggio wisdom that calls nature the third teacher, and letting the season guide us both inside the classroom and outdoors. During our morning outside play time we’ve been working hard on our autumn/winter garden. After reading Peter Rabbit and learning through the grapevine about something called a Peter Rabbit Garden, Morah Adi brought us seeds from her local library to plant with our very own hands here at IJP. 

First, friends prepared the beds for our garden. We ripped out any drooping remnants of the garden KG/KD grew last spring, and amended the dirt with fresh soil and compost! We used shovels to mix the fresh dirt in, and some of us used our hands! 

Some of our friends in KB are super into finding and “saving” earthworms on the playground, so we took the opportunity to tell them how important and friendly worms are for our soil and gardens! You can see Benji, Elijah, and Nathan returning a worm to the garden so that it can help us make more healthy soil! 

 

After the beds were ready, we spent a lot of time looking at each of the kinds of seeds Morah Adi got for us! Morah Lindsey gave each friend a chance to look at the seeds, hold them, and smell them. We talked about how each of the kinds of seeds looked different. Then we added all the seeds to a little pail of sand, mixed them together, and sprinkled the mix over the soil!

After we planted our vegetables, we wanted to plant flowers too! We decided to plant two kinds of poppies- California poppies and Flanders poppies- so that we will have flowers in the spring.

After only a week we noticed some of the seeds are already starting to sprout.

We can’t wait to see what comes next. Adi and I have been reading Lorie Hammond’s book,

Growing Whole Children In the Garden, and something she wrote really stuck with us:

“A connection to nature is not primarily an intellectual understanding. It is an emotional and, in many ways, a spiritual matter, which can be gained through authentic and simple experiences.” We hope that these experiences, watching a garden grow through the coldest months, will fuel the already natural predilection so many of our friends have toward caring for the earth."