Extended Day

 Jonah smiled as he talked about painting his "Triple-Double Dragon."

During Extended Day while walking through the playground the children began talking about the leaves. When we went back inside I opened up a conversation with the children about leaves. We talked about the different colors of the leaves and how they are changing color. The next day I provided the children with paint in the color of the leaves that we discussed. They painted with green, brown, green, and yellow on orange paper. The pictures of fall soon turned into dragons and robots. These children have many of their own ideas, and we need to be sure we are listening to how it is that they are making meaning.

Motty focused as he painted. He told the Morah, "I'm painting a robot!"



Dovy, told the Morahs, "This is a dragon". He pointed out the dragon's mouth.

Building Relationships in KA

An important part of life, is building healthy relationships. In Kitah Alef the children are learning to build healthy relationships with their friends and also with their Morahs. When school first began the children most preffered to parallel play.  Now the children interact and play together nicely during the course of the day. We encourage healthy relationship building by creating activities that two or more children can be involved with in the classroom. At this age the children are still learning how to control the movement of their bodies, as well as learning about the nature of gentle touch. Therefore, the Morahs are always there to re-direct them if needed. It is such a delight to see the children forming relationships with their freinds. It warms my heart, when the children greet each other with a smile. They become excited when they see their friends walking through the classroom door.

Building Blocks of Kitah Alef

In Kitah Alef, we are beginning pre writing activities to prepare our toddlers for their next stages. In our classroom there is chalk available to discover. The children might use chalk to write on our chalkboard, or use it for water painting as well. At this age we are strengthening the building blocks of a solid academic and social future.  Our goal is to promote writing in a fun and creative way that encourages the children to develop a natural love for it. This activity also helps build their fine motor skills. The best part is that the children enjoy writing on the board and it provides a meaningful connection to writing for them.

Leiba, water paints at the board with a paint brush. While water painting, Leiba used all the water, she handed the cup to the Morah and said, "More". She smiled as she was handed a new cup of water and continued to painting on the board.

Henia, uses chalk to write on the board. The Morah writes the letter H to model the use of the chalk and the strokes of making the letter. Henia, then begin writing on the board. She smiled as she saw her writing appear on the board.

 

Florie, writes on the board with the chalk. Before she uses the chalk she uses the paint brush to paint with water, her paintbrush makes marks too, with just water.

Seeds... Fly Away. We hope to see your plants in the spring.

Last Wednesday, Menny brought in a most interesting plant to share with us. Menny popped it open and we found a seedpod inside. That by itself was very interesting. We put the plant in our science center under the magnifying glass. Well, it became not just interesting, but exciting...

This morning we came in and wow! 

The pod had grown white fluff with seeds on their ends. It reminded us of dandelions.

                                           We took them outside and threw them to the wind. 

We read The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. We hope that just like the tiny seed in that story, grew into a large plant, we will find some of these plants growing in the spring.

Morah Ruth

KG Magna tiles (magnet blocks) we love to play with!

The children in our class really enjoy the Magna Tiles- a type of block or tile with built in magnets.

 

The Magna Tiles are a fantastic manipulative and educational toy.  A perfect example of our child's play being constructive, productive work.  These tiles  allow the children to  make countless  two and three dimensional shapes, objects, figures and  build amazing structures. Our children develop many skills with the Magna Tiles,  such as patterning, building skills, recognizing shapes and colors, dimensional thinking, while getting magnetic principals.
The Magna Tiles are so innovative that they give the children much space for creativity.
While the children are at play with these toys they often converse among  themselves. This isn't only a great development for social skills but  enjoyable and informative to watch and listen  for us teachers.  It helps us pick up on the interests and ideas of the children.

 When asked what they are building or to describe what they have built, here are some of the responses.

Josie- "These are my caves and I built a castle here. Now Libi and I are making sushi." She continued to build and Laylah asked her sister "what are you making now?" Josie responded "a shark which could break things.
 

Bryna- "I'm building a big tower."



Cassidy- "Do you like my crocodile?"- while opening and closing the triangular shaped mouth.




Ziva- "I was making a house, a long one!"

 

Perly- The house I built was supposed to make Bryna fly!"





Kemp - I built a steep (ramp) so people can go down and drive down"

 
Morah Estee and Morah Boonya