Dad's Day in Kitah Alef

To prepare for Dad's Day we made a special treat - cupcakes! First we mixed the ingredients together.

After they were taken out of the oven and iced, we carefully sprinkled on some colorful sprinkles.

On Wednesday our special visitors arrived! In the kitchen there was an art project to do together - decorating picture frames with stamps.

Another station was peanut butter and jelly sandwich-making for those in need.

Then we gathered together for a special circle time featuring Dad songs!

After circle time we washed our hands and trooped to the kitchen where we finally tasted the cupcakes we made in honor of our special guests.

We went outside to play a bit with our visitors and say our goodbyes.

What a wonderful Dad's Day we had! Thanks for joining!

The Little Yellow Ladybug (KB-5)

One beautiful warm winter Wednesday,

A little yellow ladybug decided to come out and play. 

It was spotted by Leah G who said: "Everyone look here!"

And soon everyone came running from far and from near.

"Let's put it on a leaf," said Morah sensibly 

"This way we can all look at it and everyone can see."

Emmett asked if he can hold the leaf so carefully.

Eli Sollish looked on in interest, but a little nervously.

 Rafi held up Leo so he too can see the new find.

Menny loved to look, but only from a few steps behind.

The children gathered round to examine our new friend,

Eli L said: "Look! It has spots all around and even on its end."

Levi said: "Woah!" And we all quite agreed.

Maddy took a good look and noticed it had wings

Sylvia exclaimed "It's yellow and it's black!" 

Things to discover about this insect were not in lack. 

Then we noticed our friend Ben looked a bit blue,
We had an idea- we knew just what to do!
We brought the ladybug over- we brought it right near,
We brought it right over and brought some smiles and cheer!
We then showed it to Gabi who giggled and laughed
We showed it to lots of friends- who all admired it with a gasp. 

We had lots of fun and got to examine it real close

And then we decided to leave it be, and let it return to whichever place it likes most

"Goodbye little ladybug! Thanks for coming to see us!" We called out then. 

"Thanks for bringing us smiles! And we hope you come again!" 

KDH's Trip to the High Museum

I came into the class today wearing a lab coat. Henia asked me, "Why are you wearing that?" I asked her, "What do you think?" Henia replied, "You probably want to paint." "Absolutely," I answered. Everyone commented, "Just like Eric Carle!" Of the many interesting things we saw and learned yesterday, one was a picture of Eric Carle painting, using a broom. He was wearing a lab coat. Both the broom and lab coat were on display. Dovid modeled our child size lab coats (old white dress shirts) and Morah Sara brought in a broom for us to paint with next week. 

The tour at the museum began with our docent, Miss Beth pointing out that an artist had designed the museum itself. The children found squares, circles and triangles in the building.

On display in the special Eric Carle exhibit, were his original illustrations. Ms. Beth gave us some background to a few of the books and the children played a scavenger hunt game that we brought, trying to find the pictures displayed that they had on their paper.

We visited the African gallery. Yoni liked the headdress and mask best of all at the museum.

We saw a few other art works. Below is huge bowl shaped art work made with hundreds of triangular shaped mirrors. Besides for the beautiful reflections, if you stand in front of in and talk, you will hear an echo!

The visit ended with an art workshop, which Cassie thought was the best part of the outing. We used color stix to make rubbings and then cut out Eric Carle type painted papers to copy pictures of animals.

We noticed that Eric Carle, like us, draws self-portraits. His has a butterfly coming out of his head. 

Max, Henia and Ari Shacham were joyous in the elevators, as we went up and down to the different parts of the museum.

Back at school the children shared what they enjoyed most on the field trip. Noa liked everything. Hannah liked the art in the galleries that we visited. Dovid liked matching Eric Carle's illustrations with those on his paper. Ari Effron, Freeda ,Ruth, Cassie and Sam mentioned the art project. The car ride with friends is always a highlight. Reed, Max and Pearl and Ruth thought that was the most fun. Levi found the docent, Miss Beth, very interesting. Henia was intrigued by Eric Carle's lab coat. 

Shaya summed up all our feelings when he said, "This was the best day ever!" Izzy added, "A field trip with all my friends is so much fun!"

Morah Ruth
Morah Sara

Welcoming Winter

We have been welcoming the colder winter days with new items and activities in our classroom. There are...

 ...new sensory bottles - sparkly night and day, rain, and snow...

 ...sensory snow bags...

...snow sensory bin with woodland animals...

...winter-themed manipulatives like tongs and cotton balls,

and Qtips through small holes...

...winter art using Qtips and white paint...

...and fun winter characters on the wall! Stay tuned for more!

We're Back, and Loving It . . .

(Somehow or other, we sense that this blog posting is a continuation of a theme:  how do we describe a day in the life of Kitah Gimmel?  Below is a visual and textual accounting of our return to IJP after our long winter break.)
  
     After the Break, we noticed many new items in our room.

     Evan entered the room, saw a new puzzle, and said, "I want to do this!"  He sat down and completed the puzzle without any assistance.  Then he went to the Art Table to investigate the supplies.  Caleb sat there, too.

     "Morah India," Caleb said, "Can you write my mom's name on my paper?"  As Morah India writes it, we tell him how to spell it:  L-I-S-A.  Yannai then arrives at the Art Table and begins to work with the group.

     Sammy also sits at Art table.  She creates a three-dimensional structure with toilet paper rolls taped to a piece of paper. The Morahs think it's the first time Sammy's made something like this in class.    Annabelle tries out the new plastic stencil, and immediately she's successful with making designs.

     Lily sat at the table with our new porcelain ceramic tea set.  The Kitah Gimmel children had painted the set during Winter Camp.  Anslee and Sammy join in, too;  there's always room for more.  Lily called out, "We're having a tea party!  Hey, this is a mango.  I'm pretending this is a mango!"

     Later, Lily and Maddy went to investigate the new wooden dollhouse.  Our new Kitah Gimmel girl, Natalie, joined them.  Earlier, Caleb and Evan had warmly welcomed Natalie, giving her a tour of our room. Now she joins the group at the dollhouse. There's room for three at this table.  With three children working together, there's plenty of good conversation--and plenty of room to move around the pieces to dramatize a good story.

     Natalie then noticed the goop on one of the tables.

     "Can I do this?" Natalie asks the Morahs.
     "Sure," we tell her, "You can use the spoons or forks in it."
     "I don't want the spoons or forks," Natalie tells us.
     We tell her,  "That's okay, feel free to use your hands."  And she does--it's messy, but fun.
     Annabelle gets involved with the goop, too.  "What's this?" she asks.  "Goop," we tell her, "with some rocks in it."  Morah Susan reminds Annabelle about the tiger-eye rocks that they played with during their home visit in August.  "These are also rocks, but different than the tiger-eyes."

     Becker sits at the table with Natalie.  He's working with two small glass bowls, some colored liquid and a pipette.  "Look, I got it to the top!"  Earlier, he had practiced squeezing the pipette to transfer the liquid from one bowl to the other.  It wasn't all that easy filling up that little bulb at the top of the pipette.  Now, Becker does it like a pro.

     Morah Donna then arrived.  She was delivering mail to our room!  Several weeks ago, Anslee had mailed us a postcard from her trip to South Africa.  Finally, the card is here.  We look at the pictures on the card. Caleb wonders if that's a tiger on the card.  Evan asks, "Where's the cheetah?"  Sammy asks Anslee, "Did you see any monkeys?" Anslee tells us that her mommy had colored the little drawing of the airplane on the back of the postcard.

     Lily and Anslee head off to the Painters' Porch.  Lily paints a flower, a sun and a park.  The Morah labels her picture with the words, and Lily calls out:  "F-F-F-Flower!"  Later, she tells us, "I made green!  I mixed blue and yellow together!"
     Anslee drops her brush by mistake.  It falls to the floor and makes quite a puddle.  What can we do?  Anslee fetches two paper towels--she doesn't need the Morah to help!  Natalie comes along.  She also wants to paint.  The Morah asks, "Natalie, do you need Anslee to stand here for a minute while you get settled, to make sure you don't stand in the paint puddle by mistake?"  "No," Natalie tells us, "I'll be fine, I'll be careful."

     It was an easy-going morning.  Some of our friends hadn't come back from vacation yet, and we miss them.  Ezra comes back the following day, telling us about his trip to Disney World.  Yinon went skiing, and he saw the President in Washington, D.C.!  Annika wasn't feeling well, so she was home.
     Annabelle is the Bikur Cholim helper this week.  She reminds the Morah, "Call Annika!"  We do, but she's sleeping.  We leave a message for her, we sing our Get Well Quick song:
                                                Refuah Shelemah, Refuah Shelemah,
                                                Get well, quick--don't be sick,
                                                Refuah Shelemah, Refuah Shelemah,
                                                Get well, quick--don't be sick.

     At the end of the day, Evan asks if we can do the Maccabee March, Everyone Can be a Maccabee.  This, along with Drey, Little Dreidel, were favorite movement activities during Chanukah.  It's no longer Chanukah, but Evan has asked so sweetly, we can't help but agree.  So we stand, Evan takes the lead, and we do the Maccabee March.

We're happy to be back! 

Morah Susan, Morah India and the Kitah Gimmel Yeledim