Let's Talk About Illuminated Hagadot, and More . . .

Passover Prep . . .

      We headed outside on a bright and sunny day.  We're ready to paint with flowers.  It's springtime!  It was time to prepare our special Passover boxes.

(Above, Becker and Yinon, with flowers dipped in pastel colors, get ready to paint their boxes.)

 Above, Lily tries the mint green.  No paint-brushes are necessary--we use our flowers!

 Yannai works with deep pink.

Anslee and Annika stretch to pick out their flower-brushes.

     And what were we planning to put in our boxes?  We created attractive real glass Elijah cups.  We checked out the bunches of green and purple grapes on our table.  Then, we painted our glasses with acrylic paint.  We were careful!  This paint is permanent, and the glass is delicate.  (Maddy paints clusters of grapes on her glass. She was smiling, anticipating bringing the cup home! "I'm giving this to Mommy," she told us.)

During Morning Arrival, we had some hands-on experience with Passover items.  We took turns pouring "grape juice" with our silver kiddush set.  A little messy, a lot of fun!  (Sammy chooses the kiddush cups during Morning Arrival time.)

Annika prepares her Mah Nishtana book.

      We took our time preparing our Mah Nishtana books, the 4 Questions.  We used gold and silver paints. The Morah asked the class, "Who has heard about illuminated Hagadot?"  Yes, several hands actually went up.
     The Morah showed us a few Medieval Hagadot on our class iPad.  Want to see some for yourself? Google Bird's Head Haggadah (Germany 1300), Golden Haggadah (Spain, 1330), Washington Haggadah (Germany/Italy 1478).
     We used a sponge to paint some our pages.  We used romaine lettuce, too--because it's one of the foods on our Seder plate.  Then we used a feather, much like a sofer, Hebrew scribe, would use. Rabbi Sollish introduced us to this concept when he showed us a Megillah and a quill several weeks ago.
     There's a lot of history and tradition in our Mah Nishtana books!  Morah Susan told us she had seen several old Hagadot in a New York City library.  Some of them were several hundred years' old! They were kept in a locked safe until the safran, the Hebrew librarian, took them out to display for her tour group.  We will take home our own illuminated Mah Nishtana books next week.  We will keep them handy, ready to use at our Seder tables.

Evan paints his page.  We're making our own illuminated book!

     And there's always room for some fun.  We get down with it!  Morah India leads the way to Rabbi Joe Black's Afikomen Mambo.  What a catchy tune, and what a fun way to experience Passover learning.

Chag Samayach, Everyone!

Morah Susan, Morah India and all the boys and girls in Kitah Gimmel

Preschool Paparazzi

PRESCHOOL PAPARAZZI

Have you even gotten down on the ground to take a picture? It's something I see professional photographers do ALL of the time.  They're constantly striving to get a better picture at a new angle and interesting angles. Who else gets really good views at new angles?  Our creative little ones, of course!  They experience the day like no other so we asked them to help us document what life is like here at IJP.  We had SO MUCH FUN capturing our day to day, can you see how much fun we are haivng?!

Annabelle got a close up of our Rosh hashana sensory bin.  Look at those oats, apples and the worker trucks!

Ari E found an artsy angle at one of our flower beds.  Maybe she was looking for lady bugs too!

Ari S. loves taking pictures of his friends.

Cassie is always cooking up something in the kitchen, here she may be adding to her very own food blog. 

Dovid is always thinking of others (and how to get the most friends in one shot)!

 Evan said he wanted to take a picture of Yannai and his water bottle.  Nicely done!

 Freeda took a picture from on top of the ship after a fun birthday celebration. 

Hannah takes great close ups!

 Henia gave us a glimpse into our Aleph Bet bayit! We use this to learn all of our letters!

Izzy is giving us a glimpse into yoga!

Lily took lots of photos of silly faces...

Noa took pictures of Ari climbing up the slide... 

 And then she got a close up of his star wars underwear...too funny not to post.

Pearl is giving us a view of the long walk the little ones take up to the next level of the playground.

This is what Ruthie sees during Ivrit.  Morah Leah always tells the best stories. 

Sammy couldn't resist this smiling face waiting for a photo opp. 

Shaya is a great action photographer. Here he caught not one but THREE of his friends going down the slide at the same time. 

Nobody loves Yannai's mommy more than Yannai! 

The Adventures of the Shoeboxes in KB-5

"Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere"

- Albert Einstein

The imagination of children is an incredible, beautiful thing. Something that in the eyes of us grown-up can seem invaluable or even as just garbage, can be seen as so many wonderful things through the lens of a child and their imagination. 

One day Morah Estee brought in some empty shoeboxes to our classroom, and we placed them in our block area for the children to do with them as they pleased. The many things that the seemingly simple shoeboxes became were amazing, and it was so fun to watch the children come up with new ideas and scenarios each day. 

They became carwashes 

Hats and Superhero masks

Baby cribs

Luggage on the airplane ride

And they even became instruments as part of an impromptu Kitah Bet band that was complete with singing and drumming! 

There is always so much to learn from children and their ability to take something and turn it into something even better. As the saying goes- one man's trash is another man's treasure. In Kitah Bet, we sure do know how to find treasure.

Shabbat Shalom!

It's Funner Together in KB-3

It says it in all the books ;) "In most 2 year olds, parallel play is primarily seen in their play. As the children mature, they start to play with each other."

At the beginning of the year sharing, waiting our turn, negotiating and collaborating was difficult. As morahs, we did our best to guide, model and give  the children the tools to develop these skills. It is a delight to watch the shift happen within our classroom.

The above pictures are a peek at our KB-3 children playing together.They worked together building a magna-tiles castle. Some children held up the tower while other children added new squares. In another picture Shane and Annabel are taking turns throwing the ball to each other. Morning trays are usually a one person activity but often, the children ask to play together, they pull over a chair and make space  for each other and share. 

Morah Leah & Morah Kim

There's No Post-Purim Blues Here, Part I

      It was Monday, Shushan Purim, in Kitah Gimmel.  No more costumes, no more silly hats, no more pajama day.  It was time to get down to business--with just a tad bit of silliness.

     The Morahs had done a switcheroo with the furniture.  This made the art table more interesting and the puppet theater more inviting.  The children had taken turns, in groups of three and four, to present little puppet plays. Then the Morahs had a turn.  Oh, the fun--all while encouraging expressive language and story-telling skills.

     On Tuesday, Morah Susan reintroduced Peanut Butter and Jelly by N.B. Westcott.  She sang it through, and we joined in for the chorus and some of the hand motions.  Then, surprise, surprise, all of us had the opportunity to make our own sandwiches!  To be more exact, these were mini-sandwiches with thin, party-sliced bread and some gourmet apple butter.  Yes, this was some left-over Mishloach Manot foods from Purim, and what a perfect way to share.  We didn't want to ruin our appetites, so we prepared our mini-sandwiches after lunch.

     Some of the children told us they had never made a sandwich before.  With the mini-breads, it was easy and fun.  We spread the apple butter ourselves, being careful with the plastic knifes.  We're Kitah Gimmel, we can handle the responsibility!

Because the bread was so small, it was easy spreading the butter from one side to the other.

The entire sandwich fits perfectly in one hand!

     Tasty!  And we made them all by ourselves!

     Both activities, the puppet theater and the peanut butter book/song/food preparation foster literacy through fun.  Yep, we had a good time.

Morah Susan and Morah India, and the boys and girls in Kitah Gimmel