Simple Machines

KDH are always busy in the block area. We've had garages, houses, and animal habitats. Around Purim time there were many castles and palaces. Today, Motty and Dovi called me over to show me a bulldozer that they created. We talked about why they used the cylindrical blocks as wheels. I told them, "You have made a great discovery! You are using a wheel, a simple machine." We examined how well it moved across the floor, so much better than a simple block.
Dovi and Motti brought their bulldozer to our circle time. It sparked a discussion of simple machines. It was pointed out that dragging things along the floor creates friction and makes it difficult to move objects. We rubbed our hands together and felt the warmth created by friction. We determined that putting something on wheels would make our work much easier. Sholom asked a question, " But how will you lift it up on top of the wheels?!" We thought further. How about an inclined plane? We could make one, a ramp with blocks too.
We read the book, Simple Machines by E. Fowler and thought about wheels and axles, inclined planes, levers and wedges and pulleys. Simple Machines are everywhere. Jonah pointed out that spoons, forks and knives are all simple machines. Mia loves the wheels on bikes. Max said his father has tools that are simple machines.
As we begin our Pesach preparation, we will try and connect this to the slave labor the Jews did in Egypt. Do you think they had any simple machines?

Morah Ruth

In Memory and Honor of my Friend Rashi

Rashi and I at Chabad/IJP Big Event 2012

Dear Parents and Friends,

Yesterday was the Funeral of Rashi.  As you can imagine it was heart wrenching, an experience no one should have to go through,  ever ever ever again, ever!

It is so beautiful how so many of you lovingly reached out, touched by the Life of Rashi, and asked what you can do in her honor.  Her 14 year old son Mendel has made a request, to please let his mother's good work continue, through the Chabad building campaign; you can make a donation Here , in her honor.  As Atlanta community members, as Chabad community members, we can let them know, we are with them in their pain.

But many of you want to DO something, for Rashi, for her family.  Do good! Do a mitzvah, in her honor, a real tangible mitzvah, light shabbat candles, study Torah, give charity, be kind to a friend, or a stranger, or better yet the person that makes it difficult to be kind to.  And on a daily basis, when you feel annoyed, or frustrated or like you want to control the situation, think about this, Rashi would say, "just let it be".  There will be so many situations where I know I can channel Rashi.  Don't make a mountain out of a molehill, let bye gones be bye gones, don't sweat the small stuff, live with joy, make a difference; These are all attitudes that Rashi lived- and it is not easy.  So please, when you do make the choice, in the difficult moment, to live this way, say it, say that you have been uplifted and inspired by the life of Rashi Minkowicz. As I will do right now, and pull myself up, and get into the Purim, spirit, because that is exactly what Rashi would tell me to do today!

      

My Friend Rashi

Wednesday, March 12. 

I am probably one of a hundred or so to say this but Rashi was one of my best friends. There are people who come into your life at different ages and stages and with my dear, dear Rashi, our relationship was born with her first week of shlichus in the exciting new suburb of Alpharetta, GA, and grew up with each child, program, party, BBQ, and simcha we shared together.

May her family be comforted among the Mourners of Zion. May we know no more sadness, and merit the redemption, speedily, enough is enough! Ad Matai!

I barely knew Rashi growing up, sure we had many connections and mutual friends in our intimate Chabad world, even sharing relatives. But the first time I really got to know Rashi was when they spent shabbos with us during their first months in Atlanta. I was thrilled to be having a young shlucha move in nearby- someone my age to share this life-long journey, in a foreign town. That first shabbos we hit it off immediately. Rashi was a breath of fresh air, so practical, oh so practical! and down to earth. Early on it was clear that I had so much to learn from Rashi;  her work style, her dedication and commitment to all she did, was truly revelatory. I had never met anyone with such a way about her.  She came to Atlanta and hit the ground running, it was clear if I wanted to keep up, I had to reach out to her, because she was zooming past me (I had 2 babies when she moved her, within three years we both had 3, and then our 4th within a week of each other, you do the math).  In the early days, when she had a camp, and we did not, I would drive out to Alpharetta (40 minutes each way) to bring my kids to her camp.  Some days, when line up was done, we would sit in her kitchen and shmooze over whatever cookies and cake she had freshly baked, or I would spend the day in the shops up North, specifically scrap booking stores, all while she was running camp and of course refusing my help or even camp payment.  She would wave and say, "Have fun making your beautiful scrapbooks! Keep me in mind".  When I think back, she allowed me a young mother of 3 to have a  summer vacation of sorts, while she was busy getting done, what needed to get done.  Rashi had much to get done, a fire (or baby) in her belly, no time for rest.  Certainly no time to scrapbook.  Of course she too cared about her photos and children's memories, but she would come up with a more efficient way to do it.  I could dawdle all I wanted, Rashi had things to do.

She was the most generous person in all her ways. I had never encountered someone who opened her heart and her home to everyone.  To her family, community and of course children and Hirshy.  She was generous with her time, you never felt rushed in her presence, (even though she had so much to accomplish), she was generous with her affection and she was generous with her things.  When we spent Shabbos in Alpharetta for Mendel's Bar Mitzvah, I scored a brand new pair of loafers for one of my twin girls.  They had been Alter's and he wasn't walking, they fit my baby perfectly, Rashi said, "here keep them".  Rashi was the opposite of materialistic, she used to bemoan to me that one day I should help her decorate her girls bedrooms.  I told her I could do it really cute and on the cheap at Homegoods, but there was just not time or patience to spend on such frivolity, that's what it felt like, coming from her.  Rashi did have her stuff that she loved.  Her kids always looked put together- matching, and come Fall and she had her new boots, leather jacket, bag and always a perfect Shaitel.  Unlike the rest of us, she had just a few "I  need's".     Rashi was the opposite of a snob.  She greeted everyone with the same amount of exuberance and tolerance. She was open with and to everyone.  She did not classify people, everyone had a chance with her. 

Everyone knows that Rashi's camp was the most popular destination for camp counselors. She loved the Bais Rivkah girls! And they loved her! I often wondered why that was? why did the girls who work for her have an intense sense of loyalty and adoration for Rashi? Why did they rise to the occasion become the best they could be, around her, helping her with her holy work? I think it is because just as there was not a stingy bone in Rashi's body there was not a judgy one either. I learned a lot watching the way Rashi interacted with these young girls, and more so from the way she spoke about them.  Highlighting the good, and when it was bad- well, she would just move on.  Everyone, including myself, felt safe and real with Rashi.  This is not to say that she didn't say it to you "like it is" and sometimes that can be hard to swallow, but you knew it was coming from such a real and true place. She was never afraid to speak her mind, never!  There was no claptrap with Rashi.  Not to herself and not to the world she interacted with.  Rashi was an open book, she told you how she was feeling, both the good the bad and the ugly.  And then usually, the very next hour, or day, she told you how she was feeling; the good, the happy and positive, and how she got there.  She would share the real and raw  personal work she did in making any situation better, because who could spend time on a disappointment or fail, when there was stuff to get done.   I have countless hours of  conversations  with Rashi, her being my cheer leader and sometimes; her letting it all out- and then snapping herself back into place, pulling herself up by the bootstraps,  "What needs to get done, needs to get done".  "What choice do I have" was an oft comment of Rashi's in our Rashi- Dena Kvetch Diaries (aka whatsapp dialogue of the past 3 years daily)- Rashi got it done. And without fanfare. 

She had so much to do.  I can now see that if your life is going to be short you need to get it all done now! I would often chastise Rashi, when she would complain that she felt overwhelmed,  and say, "let someone else do it", or "do it later" or "who cares", but no, she had a mission and needed it done. 

The stories of her food, gifts, and allowing all the counselors to use her washer and dryer all summer are legendary.  I remember coming into her home one summer evening and seeing about 14 young girls splayed on her rugs, couches and dining room table, all immersed in various stages of conversation, or i-pad/touch/phone media.  One girl had a red iced tea next to her, precariously wobbling on the plush white carpet. "oh, I always have to get new carpets after the counselors leave", matter of fact for Rashi, mind-bending to me.  This was her way, it is what it is, live in the moment. These counselors would come each summer and give of themselves, Rashi was going to make it the best possible experience, she had a goal and achieved it. Rashi's camp  was the most popular place to be, no holds barred, no argument made.  At times, this made me envious, while I had to work like everyone else,  to get  a group of counselors, she had them knocking down her door. 

If we would show up for a swim/pizza date with the Minkowicz's   there were always 3 other families there. Sometimes I would get annoyed that there was no exclusivity to our relationship, but quickly I leaned this was her generous heart. This past summer we went to Alpharetta to join in a Sunday dinner BBQ, I knew it would be us, the neighbors, the neighbors  friends and 18 camp counselors, I had no preconceived notions of any Schusterman/Mink intimacy. As it turned out, it was so hot outside that while Hirshy bbq'd and Eliyahu stood with a beer, Rashi and I sat down in the sweltering heat, swatting mosquitoes- enjoying the peace and quite away from all the "kids" and teens, and this was our first time, in forever, just the four of us, hanging out discussing our lives and enjoying each others company. When we left to go home, I marveled how it was the most enjoyable BBQ and we should do that more often, knowing full well, u don't get to have Rashi alone.

Of course Hirshy, and the kids, got to have Rashi all to themselves.  As dedicated as she was to her shlichus and life's mission, I always knew that she deeply loved her kids and Hirshy.  She would speak of her husband with extreme respect and always defer to his opinions, not because she had to, but because they were her opinions too.  They were a team.  Rashi cared and worried about her children, sharing articles, reading books and looking to constantly better herself as a mom.  She was a most FUN mom, baking, crafting and hanging out with her kids, tea in hand, sun in her eyes.  That is my vision of her, relaxed with a huge cup in her hands, squinting to the sun as one of the little ones is telling her his latest.   There weren't fancy after school activities or Sunday outings, for the most part,  it was good ol' home fun.  Rashi created a home that her children loved to be in, and most everyone else's children wanted to be there too. Barely a shabbos went by without friends of her children coming to spend the weekend. Minkowicz home was the place to be. It was loud, it was fun, it was loving.  It was real. 

As I was in Rashi's home today, holding her baby Alter, hugging him tight (not that he really knows me too well) I kept thinking about whatsapping Rashi to tell her about her precious kids, about the cute shoes I see on the floor from the wedding, and that I was standing at her stove making sauteed grape- tomatoes exactly like she would make them.  It was surreal.  At our children's school today, I wanted to call her up and tell her, "Rashi, they think you died, the ruse is up, it's ridiculous you should hear the things they are saying about you!"  and we would have a good, no a great laugh.

Last week, when Rashi posted yet another picture of her divine looking baked goods, for her Tea & Torah class, I whatsapped her to please, please put some in Tonia's back pack, right now, for me, for tomorrow.  Sure enough, Mira came home from school with a squishy brown bag, with 5 Hamentashen in it, it said "For Dena, (heart) Rashi" . 

Rashi, I am going to miss you too, too much!! You were such an awesome friend. I love you!         

Purim For all at IJP

As the children await Purim their anticipation grows more and more. They excitedly talk about the story of Purim with their Morahs and also with their friends. They are able to recite the complete story from the beginning to end.

Like most Jewish Holidays, experiential learning is built into the very fiber of the expression and core of the holiday.  

In preparation for Purim;

The children have been able to explore their feelings; on Purim we are asked to be joyous.  

The children have been able to explore sound and music:  We make lots of noise when we hear the name of Haman.

The children have been able to explore currency/money: On Purim we give charity

The children have been able to explore friendships: On Purim  we are asked to reach out to our friends and community.  

The children have been able to explore a foreign country/geography/continents: Purim took place in Persia

The children have been able to explore different professions/jobs/careers: Purim talks about leadership and responsibility. 

  In honor of Purim, the extended day children decorated  the doorways of the school. They were delighted to carefully measure the right sizes of various colored streamers to decorate the doorways. After the decorating was complete the children taped streamers to bikes and also to the swings. They wanted to see the streamers blow in the wind.  If we petal faster will the streamer stay straight? If I swing higher, what happens to my streamer? Science and Math for Purim too!   Have a wonderful holiday! 

Dena 

Bringing Purim into Kitah Bet

Purim is in the air!
On a wet Monday morning the children came in to streamers falling on their heads from the door post. Lewis wanted to know "who made that?" and  "how?" Freeda was happy to share, "I made it"
Rikki, who came in prepared with a gragger, recognized the same streamers from Morah Estee's classroom, and let us know "It's almost Purim".

One of our Judaic curricular goals with Kitah Bet, is to imbue our children with the feeling of happiness and excitement toward Jewish holidays.  We have many new trays for our morning activities, dress up in our dramatic play, puppet shows, songs and games all toward this goal.

Rikki's gragger, which Morah Adina told us is also called a monkey drum.

Princess Tirza

This year I decided to tell the children the Purim story before introducing any puppets or stick figures representing the characters in the story. This idea emerged from something I learned as a teacher, regarding allowing these important Jewish Heroes (and antagonists) to come to life in the children's own minds.
What did Esther, Haman, Mordechai  and King Achashverosh look like? Is our own perception based on the puppets and coloring pages from Kindergarten and Hebrew School or perhaps a Hollywood rendition?
After I told the story, I wanted to see what the children internalized and allow them to create their own pictures of what they imagined.  What came from this is our fabulous child centered Megilla hanging on our wall.  Please come in and have a look!

Drawing the different characters and parts of the Purim story

putting it all together

King Achashverosh

Our Megilla

Morah Leah

The Rainbow Fish by Kitah Bet

One of our favorite books to read in Kitah Bet is the Rainbow Fish. Our love for this book inspired our BIG project for the Art Auction.

Here's a peek into the process of creating it.

 Dripping watercolors onto tissue paper with droppers.

Reyn's mom helping outline the fish

 Gluing the colorful fins and creating a fish

The finished product!

Congratulations to the Finch family for bidding the highest and winning our Rainbow Fish. We hope you enjoy having it in your home, we loved creating it.

Morah Leah

KG goes North!

As one of our  introductions to the story of Purim that took place in Shushan, Persia, we learned about the 7 continents. It is important to have context for a story, especially if it happened long ago, and probably has no real association to our time and place.  We don't necessarily relate to Kings and Queens, Palaces and Castles, do we? So how about relating to the concept of a country, city and or state far away. 

We went from the USA in North America to Georgia as a state in the USA and Atlanta as a city in Georgia and then our home in Atlanta.

 This lesson came in handy when Mina was going for Shabbos to her grandma in North Carolina. She wanted to see how far she will  have to travel. She was able to take out the map of  Georgia and then the entire USA map and together with Morah find her distance and destination.  Please talk to your children about distances and cities and countries, etc and report back to us, about any new knowledge.  

KG Drawing at the Easel

Kitah Gimmel Loves to draw especially with paper and markers on the easel.  This is a particularly good position for our young 4 year olds to be busy drawing in.  It helps with their upper body strength which in turn will help with their fine motor skills.   

Cassidy:" This is me in my Ninja mask, its covering my face".

Josie:" I made the letter Kaf, for Cookie

Perly:"This is me with long hair, That's how long my hair is!"

Kitah Alef/Bet Art Project

                                                                                                             B"H
Thank you so much for attending the BIG EVENT, please look at the process that we used to make some of the beautiful art that you bought for us! These turned into flower petals and fish scales.  We loved to use our pincher fingers to squeeze out the water colors, and watch them spread across the coffee filters.  Dot art is an all time favorite as well.  Enjoy our priceless pieces made with love and concentration.  Morah Elle and Mushky. Kitah

Parsley Growing in KDH

On Tu B'shvat KDH planted parsley, which we hoped to have at our Pesach seders. Tu Bshvat which is celebrated in the middle of winter, reminds us that spring and rejuvenation will come.
Our parsley plants certainly helped those thoughts. We were out of school for Winter Storm 2014. When we came back we noticed the parsley had begun to grow. What a wonderful feeling of growth in our cold stormy winter.
Today we looked again. All the leaves looked like they were leaning towards the window. "Why is that?" Sholom told us because they were growing toward the sunlight. Experiment time!! We turned the plants around. What would happen? Would they continued growing the way? Would they grow straight up? Or would they move and bend to grow towards the window again?
At the end of the morning, which was only about an hour and a half after we turned the plants, look what we found!!

Drama in KDH

Teachers are "learners" too. This credo shapes how we teachers think of ourselves at IJP. One way we do this is by having our own quasi book club. This year we've read Reflecting in Communities of Practice and The Kindness of Children. We discuss these books at our monthly staff meetings and grow from these discussions.
Vivian Gussin Paley, author of The Kindness of Children, taught preschool for 37 years. She used storytelling and story acting to help her children grow socially and emotionally. The Kindness of Children is based on her experience of expanding on this practice as a visitor to classrooms around the world, after she had "retired." Paley's experience taught her that having children play, then dictate their stories and finally "stage" them helped them become empathetic and see beyond their own personal situations. It strengthened their abstract thinking. It also aided the teachers in creating a positive and supportive environment in the classroom.
Morah Sara Carter, our mentor, has lead our discussions about this. She is coming into our classroom to assist us with this approach. Last Thursday, Morah Sara came and in observed the children during free choice center time. Since we put up the pictures of the palaces and castles to get into the Purim mode many of the children have been building intricate castles and palaces in the block and manipulative area and that is what she saw on that side of the classroom.
Across the room there was a large sensory bin on one of our tables. The bin was filled with sand and many small objects. Beside the bin were three wand magnets. The children knew they could find the objects in the sand and classify them as magnetic or non-magnetic.
On Thursday, Mia, Luba and Eden were playing together at the sensory bin. When Morah Sara approached them. They told her that they were building a castle in the sand. After further discussion, they dictated to Morah Sara, the following story:
Once upon a time there was a castle and a prince and a queen. Then the castle got knocked down. Then it got fixed back again. The mean guy knocked it down. The king made a new castle.
When center time was over, we called the class together for circle time on the rug. Morah Sara read the story and asked them if they would like to act it out. She explained that we needed actors and an audience. There were no props in this story, therefore two children were the castle. The children expanded on the story and had two guards in front of the castle. Morah Sara explained also that we would be very gentle in knocking down the castle since we did not want to hurt anyone. The children acted out the story and then told Morah Sara, "We need two other children to be the new castle, since it is a new one and not the same as the old one." When the skit was finished, Morah Sara asked the children, "How did it feel to be knocked down?" "It did not feel good," was the immediate reply. The children were very enthusiastic about this activity and we hope to act this out again and create more scenarios.......

Morah Ruth