May Self Portraits

Our final self portrait of the year combines our recycling activities with creating self portraits. How many times do you throw out a puzzle when you lose a piece or two? KDH likes to reduce, reuse and recycle. We took old puzzle pieces and painted them a beige skin color. Then we added hair,eyes,and other details with yarn, googly eyes, felt, and sharpies. What a fun way to recycle and create art at the same time!

So Much Better When We're Together!

Kitah Gimmel has been learning about friendship. To establish what we know about friendship, I asked the children, "What does it mean to be a friend?"

The answers were varied, but not surprisingly connected back to the most salient aspect of children's lives: their play.

Dialogue: What do friends do for each other? What does friendship mean?

Nina: Do silly things.

Yael: Play around.

Asher: Play together.

Jonah: They share, they play with you.

Talia: They hug you.

Dovi: We can go fishing.

Eden: You can make art with them, also you can read a book with them.

Vivian: You can play with them if you have a play date.

Nadav: You can go fishing and share your toys.

Luba: You go to New York and play.

 

Morah: If you feel sad does a friend try to make you feel better?

Max: Yes.

Morah: How?

Max: If you hug or say "Are you okay?"

 

Morah: Can friends tell you a joke?

Children: Yes.

Morah: Can friends make you laugh?

Children: Yes.

 

Making connections: What can colors teach us about friendships?

 

Colors can have relationships just like people! The color red is delightful on its own, but one might become bored if painting exclusively with this color. Blue as well, stands strongly on its own, but there is a limit to how much one color can do. The example given to the children was, imagine if you came to the easel and there was only one color available to paint with. Even if you LOVE the color red, it would become tiresome to make painting after painting in red only.

The magic happens when colors get together! When red and blue exchange each others' properties, they create a new and vibrant hue- purple! Just like with people- having (and being) a friend means we bring something new and enriching to each others' lives. We have someone to play with us, share their toys with us, and make us happy when we are sad.

I took out two jars, one filled with red water and one with blue. I asked, "What do blue and red make when they mix?"

 

Nina and Dovi: Purple.

Yael: They'll be friends together and give big hugs.

 

 

I joined the jars by putting a paper towel in them, one end in each jar.

 

 

Morah: What do you think will happen to the color?

Ezra: It will go over.

Motty: Turn purple.

 

Morah: "If we have two friends by themselves there is only so much they can do by themselves. If they get together they can create something magical and amazing."

Feeling happy!

What makes KDH children happy? This is the question that was discussed early on in the school year. Click here to check out the original blog post: "What Makes KDH Happy."

To end the year we added, “What makes you happy and what do you do to make others happy?”

AmaraLia told us that she planted lots of flowers outside and made her Grandma very happy.

Menny responded that he is happy and makes others happy when he shares.

Ari feels happy when he colors.

Isaac gives hugs and kisses to his Mom and Dad.

Esther helped her big brother, Jacob by bringing him something when he was sick.

Kira joined in that she makes her little brother Mickey happy by bringing him what he needs.

Benjamin makes his Grandpa and Grandma happy doing what they ask him to do.

Einav and her Mom feel happy when they do things together. She added, “We also buy new dresses for my Mom and make her feel happy.”

Theo spoke up about his trip to England to visit his grandparents. He joked with us that his parents wrapped him up like a gift and brought him to them making them very happy.

Nessia remembered that once when she arrived at her Bubbe, her Bubbe squealed with delight when she saw her. Nessia also makes her sister, Talia, happy, by telling her how nice her new glasses look.

Ana likes to make babies happy by making funny faces at them.

KDH children bring joy and happiness wherever they go....

Kitah Gimmel's Butterflies Flutter Away!

...Except they really loved being at IJP, and it took them all afternoon to finally fly the coop.

Baby Bird

The IJP backyard is teeming with life as we enjoy the Spring season. Every day we check up to see how our garden is growing and the children dig up worms from the dirt in the yard. We listen to the sounds of birds chirping and try to identify the sounds. A few weeks ago we were able to watch as robins built a nest high above us in a tree.

Imagine our excitement yesterday when we discovered a baby bird next to the recycling bins. The children watched the bird during the afternoon and we hoped that the bird would return to its parents. This morning the children discovered the bird behind the sand toys storage box. As they watched the bird flew to the corner of the yard behind the swings.

It stayed in the corner and did not move anymore. Asher brought us worms to feed the bird.

Morah Goldie was very concerned about the bird and put the bird in a box. After many efforts, she finally got the bird to eat a worm.

Carefully moving the bird

Feeding the bird

KDH wanted to know what kind of bird this was. Miss Donna printed a picture of a baby robin that looked exactly like this bird. Morah Goldie emailed a picture of the bird to the National Aviary and they confirmed that it was a robin. Baby robins are speckled on the bottom and only later on get the color that adult robins have.

We heard lots of robins chirping and think that the birds were looking for their baby. Thankfully, the bird flew out of the box and we are hoping it is united with its parents.  

"Are you my mother?"

Morah Ruth

Shabbat - Dramatic Play in Kitah Alef-Bet

I was lucky to be a guest at this impromptu shabbat Dinner. I tried my best to be quiet and listen to their dialog and follow their play.
Perly brought out the Shabbat candles, kiddush cup and challah. He placed the wooden block with the picture of his dad on the table. "I'm setting up shabbat" he said.
Bryna noticed and came to join. She reached for the candles. "dont touch the candles, they're hot" Perly reminded her. Cassidy noticed their play and brought a stuffed Torah to the Shabbat table. Ziva came to join too, she got the wooden grape juice bottle and poured everyone some kiddush.  Ziva told her friends  "We have to make a bracha and we have to sing all the songs before we can eat the food."
Bryna began to say the blessing "baruch atah ado-nai.." Then bryna noticed an empty spot at the table, "there's still one more spot for a baby" and she brought a baby to the table.
Cassidy announced "now it's time to eat challah" but Ziva said "not yet, we still didn't sing all the songs"
One more thing Ziva remembered had not been done yet, "we need to clean for shabbat" and she dusted the table and everything on it. Josie joined too and sprinkled some salt on the challah. Ziva lit the candles.

Shabbat Shalom!

Ladybugs

Last Friday, KDH children put the adult ladybugs that we had grown in our ladybug land into our garden. Ask a KDH child, "Why are ladybugs good to have in a garden?" They will tell you, "Ladybugs eat the aphids that destroy the plants."

There are four stages in the life of a ladybug: eggs, larva/grubs, pupa and adult ladybug. KDH got the ladybugs in the larva stage. We put them in our ladybug land and documented their growth daily. After the ladybugs emerged from the pupa stage, we fed them a raisin. It was fun to put them in the garden. Menny saw the second set of wings that they use to fly! Ari and Benjamin exclaimed that they hoped they would not fly away from our garden. 

We have squash, potatoes, peas, pole beans and pepper plants in our garden. Ladybugs would certainly help assure that we have a good harvest. 

Morah Ruth

Dramatic Play in Kitah Gimmel

IJP children are very busy  playing in the dramatic play area. In our dramatic play area we have a kitchen with a sink, stove and play food, we have the dress up closet with different outfits for the children to choose from and we have the babies with the crib and a little stage for the children to rest or act on.

There were two different games,  or role playing going on.  Asher, Eden and Jonah were playing "astronauts” and they were in their spaceship. Asher tried to get rid of aliens that invaded their ship; with the help of computer system,

he said,

 "do you see them, let’s make them disappear”. 

Jonah (the dog pet) said, 

"I will press the buttons".

Eden enthused,  "lets go to the window they are outside". 

Then she added “now I will check the gadgets are not broken because I am the mommy” and opened the c.d. player to check if the ship is fine. 

Vivian and Luba were playing sisters. Vivian says,  "we are pretending we are going to sleep” 

then Luba hurt her hand like Vivian,  "I need a cast like my friend ". The children like to act out 

different roles and a lot of  the roles are inspired by what they see and experience at home with

 parents and family members or at school.

 The children talk about what they are doing, the social interaction and collaboration with 

other children is one of the most important parts of dramatic play.

By Estee

Ice Cream Art!

In Extended Day, we read the book The Ice Cream King by Steve Metzger, illustrated by Julie Downing. The whimsical pages told a story about a boy whose mother takes him for ice cream, and tells him he can get anything he wants. It's all about me, me, me, from the boy's perspective, until he realizes the one thing that's missing from his banana split sundae- someone to share it with!

We made our very own "ice cream cones," mixing equal parts of shaving cream and glue, and then adding a "flavor" with food coloring drops.

And some of the finished pieces:

If you've never done this before, I highly recommend it. When it's dry, it feels so cool! Springy, foamy, and puffy. This is the blog that gave me the idea: http://www.littlerunningteacher.com/experimenting-with-puffy-ice-cream/

(of course, at IJP, your ice cream cone can be upside-down or sideways, you can borrow a scoop of a different color from a friend, and you can make it any flavor your heart desires!)

Inspired by Books

Check out the special slime tray in Morah Estee's class today:

it was inspired by a book we read recently called Yuck! That's Not a Monster! A sweet story about a monster family that has one adorable, non-monsterly member. 

Spelling is a Family Affair

 

Talia spells out the names of all her family members. There are so many! "Thank goodness I don't have more," she is thinking.