Happy chanukah!

Experiencing Chanukah in Kitah Bet

Chanukah has filled the room in Kitah Bet. The children have been spinning dreidels, lighting our wooden Menorah and flipping pretend latkes. We have painted with chanukah shaped sponges, besswax and dreidels dipped in paint. We each created our very own unique menorah from clay, rolled it in glitter and sealed it with mod podge. It is a real menorah that we can use to light on Chanukah.
We have looked at pictures of the Temple and painted a wall of the Temple as a background for our chanukah center. We also have a cave in our classroom. Why? .

Here is the story of Chanukah in the words of the children:

Morah: Many years ago in Israel, what did the Jewish people love to do?
Pearl: Take out the Torah
Shaya: Shabbos and Torah
Morah: King Antiochus said "no Shabbat, no Torah"
Noah: "No Sukkah"
Morah: How did they feel?
Sam: They were mad
Leiba: Sad
Morah: Matisyahu and his 5 brave sons said we wont listen. What does brave mean?
Henia: you can be brave in your house and lock your door.
Morah: Where did they learn Torah?
Sam: In a cave
Henia: In a tent
Morah: What did they do if the soldiers came?
Leiba: They hide their Torah
Shaya: Play dreidel
Morah: When they went into the Temple and saw the big mess what did they do?
Shaya: They cleaned up.
Leiba: They had a little bit of oil and a big fire came out.

Morah Leah

Make Me a Channukia - Kitah Alef

 In Kitah Alef we are exploring different ways of making and decorating Channukiot (Menorahs) The children worked on scratching off the blue color from a ready made Channukia to reveal a shiny surface underneath. They were able to scratch lines and their own designs on the Channukiot.

Here Caleb works diligently to scratch off the blue color on each candle. The children are learning how to hold the stick properly in order to get the best results on their Channukia.

 Later we worked on painting popsicle sticks with a bright yellow color. We will be gluing those sticks down today for a special Channukia. The children turned the popsicle sticks in the paint and also used small brushes to apply the paint. Of course painting on the tablecloth directly was most fun for some.

Outdoor Dramatic Play and Math

What a beautiful day it was today. KDH came outside at the end of a very busy morning of Chanukah fun. The Mad Scientist aka Rabbi Sollish had visited, we had our Chanukah Show and Tell and some of us had made our Chanukah menorahs. 

Cassidy found some of the bottles that are filled with colored water. She set up a roadside shop along our bike path. "I'm selling drinks," she announced. The children came along and purchased drinks. Luba tried out one flavor. "How much does it cost?" she asked Cassidy. Cassidy replied, "It's two dollars." Luba  handed Cassidy a five dollar bill and received three dollars in change. Luba liked it so much, she came back and ordered more. "I need seven more drinks for my family." she said. After taking them home, Luba came back for two more. "How many have you ordered all together?" I asked Luba. That's 1 plus 7 plus 2. Luba counted it up and declared, "That's ten drinks!" Other KDH children were drawn into the action. They found the other bottles around the playground. "Here is the green sour apple," said Motty as he put down the green bottle. "We found pink strawberry," added Ziva. "Can I please have the aqua fruit punch?" asked Eli. "The green apple is good." chimed in Perly. "Here is my seltzer bottle to add to the drinks." offered Sholom. A few of the children wanted to take bottles. When they were told that only "cups" were being sold, they happily cooperated and left the bottles with Cassidy. Ziva offered to help Cassidy sell and serve which Cassidy accepted. After a few minutes we had all the bottles collected together.  We counted them up. We had 12 bottles. A fantastic selection. 

And a fantastic time. Dramatic play. Math. Cooperative play. Learning while playing outside. 

Morah Ruth

Kitah Bet is Thankful

Thank you grandparents and special people that came to IJP for our Thanksgiving Feast. It was very exciting to show off our special school, our classroom and to enjoy lunch together.

The children in Kitah Bet shared what they are thankful for:

Hannah is thankful for "Mommy and  Abba"
Levi Groner is thankful for  "my Mommy, Daddy and my sister"
Shaya is thankful for "baby Eli"
Ari Effron is thankful for "toys"
Henia is thankful for "Tatti and Mommy"
Yoni is thankful for "food"
Noa is thankful for "strawberries and lions"
Rami is thankful for "my Daddy"
Ari Shacham is thankful for "Ima!"
Ruth is thankful for "my sister"
Leiba is thankful for "flowers and cheese"
Pearl is thankful for "flowers"

Chanukah Kitah Alef

 Today we showed the children our very own and new "Shabbat Box". Every week on Friday one of the children will take it home. We took out the kiddush cup and Tehila said "Le Abba" - we talked about how we make kiddush on Shabbat and we bless the Challah. Today Tehila was proud to be the first to take home the special box.

 We have been talking about Chanukah and singing lots of Chanukah songs. We also made a stamp painting with blue tempera paint and Chanukah shapes. All of the children in Kitah Alef love to paint!

 We are reading books about Chanukah and we have a Chanukiah that the children enjoy playing with. Paula Gris was with us today, (Mushkie is in New York) and she taught us a new song:"one little two little three little candles...."

 Shabbat Shalom to all our wonderful families. We are looking forward to seeing you at parent/teacher conferences this coming Tuesday!

Morah Myriam

Chanukah in Kitah Gimmel

Chanukah, the Festival of Lights

Chanukah, the symbols

Chanukah, representational art 

Chanukah, the written story

KDH Show and Tell

Why were there so many hats in KDH today? Luba had a raccoon hat with a tail, Amitai was sporting a top hat, and Bryna looked glamorous in her Hello Kitty hat. Sholom was wearing a wizard's hat, looking like he was ready to pull off a few stunts. Perly had a helmet with him. Is it Purim already?!! No, not that. Adaya had a house, Kemp brought in a book about Homer and Mia had a stuffed animal, named Henry. Why??

Wednesday is Show and Tell day! Each week we have a different theme. 

Today's theme was the Letter "H." 

Show and Tell began after the Chagim. The first week was the Letter F as in Fall and/or Fall objects. 

 Cassidy is showing us the Letter F that she drew filled with fall leaves. 

Our next topic was the first letter of each child's first name.

Laylah wrote her name with Legos and Josie had a jar with the word jar written on it with stickers.

 Libi brought in a lamb that begins with L. 

 Mia had a monkey for M.

 Kiddush cup for K was what Kemp shared with us.

The next week the children brought in objects that started with the first letter of their last/family name. 

 Perly and Bryna Tedoff served us all tomatoes, yum!

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 Ziva had an egg for E as in Efron.

 Adaya showed us her Mini Mouse for M as in Malka.

Motty shared a lime for L as in Levin with the class.

Before Thanksgiving the children all shared something that they are thankful for. 

 Josie is thanking for her parents, who got married. 

 Mina is thankful for her family and the trip her to Disney with her grandparents.

 Eli is thankful for the good things Hashem has given him. He has toys, art projects and a lovely family.

 Sholom appreciates his home and family.

Motty is thankful for the Torah. 

The Morahs are thankful for sweet, creative children, with their sense of  apppreciation and  humor. 

Cassidy actually brought her mother to school for show and tell to show us what she is thankful for. 

Motty asked us, "Do you know why Josie's parents' wedding picture is black and white?  That's because it happened a long time ago!"

Wipe away a tear and then, You gotta laugh! 

Morah Ruth 

KDH Parsha Experts

KDH looks forward to every Tuesday morning when the children become the "Morahs."  Every KDH child has been given a turn to teach the Parsha/weekly Torah portion to the class. Over the past few weeks, we've been taught by Motty, Libi, Amitai and today, Cassidy. Some of the children bring their parents in to teach it with them. Some of them are brave enough to do it on their own. 

The children bring in books with pictures to show us, download pictures, and color them in for us and even make large posters to share. We especially look forward to the pictures given to us to color or paint, or projects to put together and take home. 

Today we hung up the posters that Cassidy designed and printed, with her Dad. Cassidy's posters are depictions of how Yaakov felt when he went to meet his brother Eisav and Yaakov wrestling with the angel. A visit to our classroom to see them is a must!

Morah Ruth