Coats to Kiev

The weather is colder and children are wearing their warm jackets. But, KDH was thinking about cold weather and keeping warm weeks ago when it was still very warm in Atlanta, Georgia. Morah Dena came in and spoke with us about the children at the Simcha School in Kiev. Morah Dena held up the globe and showed us where Kiev is. She continued, “At the Simcha School in Kiev, there are children just like you who go to school. Only their parents do not have money to buy them new clothing. It is also very cold there. What can we do?“  Theo said, “I have old coats in my house that don’t fit me anymore.”  Benjamin was worried, “What if I was one of those children?” The children agreed that collecting coats to send to the Simcha School would be wonderful. The discussion turned to how we would get them to Kiev, which is so far away. “We need an airplane,” a few children chimed in together. Morah Dena suggested that we collect tzedakah to pay for the postage. Menny brought in two of his tzedakah boxes from home and contributed the money. Nessia also brought in money. Our class collects tzedakah each day before tefilla and earmarked the money for sending the coats. KDH sat down together and wrote a letter to send with the coats. Thank you to Judith for packing up and mailing the coats. KDH, your caring an d kindness  should be an example for all of us.

What project should we embark on now?

By Morah Ruth - KDH

A Lizard Drops By!

Today in Kitah Alef Bet, Morah Kim and I discovered a bright brown lizard (who later turned green, and then back to brown).

Never wanting to miss a teachable moment, we enclosed our squirmy friend under a snack cup, and invited friends to come and take a look:

 

Enhance!

Our unexpected visitor was soon released back into the wilds of IJP. I wonder if we will ever see him (or her) again...

Back to a day of playing as usual!

And more in the emergent "animals" theme of the day, Morah Adina brought a real turtle shell instrument to play in Music! It sounded like a mix between a cow bell and a wooden tongue drum.

Sculpture and Ceramics Exploration

"It's almost like dancing, you know. Clay is just a big blob, but the minute you touch a piece of clay it moves. It's plastic. So you have to respond."

- Peter Voulkos, National Museum of American Art (from Children and Their Art, 8th Ed.)

Art that extends into the third dimension opens up an exciting world of possibilities to children. We spent the bulk of the first half of the year working in two-dimensional surfaces, like drawing, painting, and printmaking. Our daily use of play dough, both with tools and without,  helped prepare us for the real deal: Clay.

Among the major differences between clay and play dough is the fact that clay is much firmer then play dough. It presents a greater challenge in manipulation, and requires muscles to work harder to control it. Modeling and sculpture take lots of practice, and we encourage our artists to try different things, like patting, poking, and rolling the clay.

We see clay play as an enriching precursor to their elementary school art experiences, where they will learn more about the basic vocabulary of form for clay sculpture: the slab, the coil, and the ball. Freely exploring this material in our class helps them gain familiarity with it and build their artistic repertoire.

Get On the Boat!

 

We sail the high seas pretty regularly in Extended Day.

Overheard:
"Let's go to the beach!"
"No, let's go somewhere more fun."
"Okay, let's go to Alpharetta!"
(All) "YEAHHH!"

This Friday we had a very special visitor to our classroom.  Our very own Eden's mom- Janine, who is a Veterinarian.  Animals are very exciting to children, and when we were speaking about the animals being saved from the flood, and living with Noah in the Teyva, we could see just how passionate many of our children were about animals and their care.  How wonderful to have a mom of one of our friends come and share her work with us. Making a strong connection between our interests, a friend and her mom. 

 The children started out by sitting together and discussing the needs of a cat? Jonah said a cat needs food,Eden said water,  and interestingly enough Janine said, they need a house and love.  

Janine then introduced biscuit and Quinoa to the children what excitement! 

The children  showed excitement when the cat was jumping up for the keys, laughing aloud.

A chance for everyone to pet the cats- even those fearful get a chance in a safe environment to be brave.

 

Thank you Janine for your visit! 

By Morah Estee