What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Shabbat?

  We knew that a special Shabbat was coming up.  

(Above:  Leah and Eli use the pipettes.  We know how to squeeze the bulbs to bring up the grape juice.  Then we release it on our cloth.  We're creating our own tie-dye Shabbat tablecloth.)

     Of course, Shabbat is always special, but this time around, we were getting ready for a group Friday night dinner.  For many of us, the Shabbat Project means it's time for us to get-together at IJP, enjoy each other's company and celebrate Shabbat together.

Our tablecloth is finished.  After we dripped grape juice onto the cloth with the pipettes, our Morah gave it a spritz of some permanent dye.  We will be able to enjoy our tablecloth for a long time!

(Above: We pounded some grapes with a mortar and pestle--Emmett shows off his home-made grape juice!)

(Above: Eliza, gets a closer look at our Shabbat web.)

                                         So, what information about Shabbat did we share?

We know a lot about delicious foods!  Avraham Chaim and Harper told us about challah. Avraham Chaim also enjoys meatballs and carrots.  Dalia told us about chocolate milk and string cheese.  

And what do we like to do?  We had quite a few things to say about how we spend the day:

  Menny:  going to shul,

  Leah:  playing with my baby brother,

  Gabi:  playing with my mommy and daddy,

  Eli S.:  Playing Duck, Duck, Goose with Mommy and Daddy,

  Ben:  going to Aunt Tova's.

  Eliza: going to my Bubbie's

And we spoke about customs and rituals.

  Shane, Dalia, Emmett:  the Blessings!

  Eli L., Dalia, Sylvia:  the Shabbos candles,

  Annabel:  drinking the grape juice,

  Maddy:  touching the Kiddush cup.

We shared other information, too.

  Shane:  I put on fancy clothes and my kippah and go to shul in the car.

  Eli L:  I put on fancy clothes and take a bath and go to shul and then make Kiddush and Havdala.

  Ezra:  I put on my clothes with my brother, and my mommy gets dressed for Shabbat and goes to listen to     the rabbi's speech.

  Harper:  I light a candle 'cause I'm a big girl and then I play outside.

  Rafi:  I play with my brothers and then I go to the guests and bring them inside.

  Shayan:  I go to Ezzy's house to play a little bit and then go home and get ready (for Shabbat.)

  Asher:  my mommy gives me a shower.

  Logan:  I eat my challah.

Above, Emmett and Shayan prepare their challah for our communal Shabbat program.

After we pound our dough, we place it in our baking pans.  Then comes the important part:  choosing our special toppings!   (Dalia, Leah, Ezra and Eli choose their toppings.)

(Avraham Chaim, Logan and Harper working together.)

 We prepared beans for Shabbat. Everyone takes turns cutting the tips off the beans.  Our Morah gives us individual attention.  (Above, Leah and Menny cut beans.)

 We prepared our green beans early on Friday morning.  We wanted them nice and fresh for our Friday night dinner.  (Above, Dalia takes her turn at the table.)

 We take our time, we don't want to rush.  (Above: Shayan, Rafi and Emmett are careful with their plastic knives.)

 (Above, Avraham Chaim and Ben prepare their beans.)

 Harper, Eliza and Maddy are focused on their work. Sitting with our friends gives us time to socialize, as well as learn a new skill.

 (Above, Annabel slices off a bit of her green bean.)

 (Above: Gabi listens to a buddy as he works.)

Asher knows how to hold the veggie with one hand while cutting with the other.

(Above: Shane prepares his beans.)

 Notice the raised shoulders?  That's some serious concentration!  Sylvia is hard at work.

 The look of success!  Eli shows himself to be a capable sous-chef!

Fondly, The Morahs and all the Shabbat-loving yeledim of Kitah Gimmel

A Meaningful Shabbat in Kitah Bet

In preparation for our school-wide Shabbat party we've been discussing all of the elements of Shabbat! We like to get an idea of what the children know about Shabbat so we know where their interest lie and what we can be tevhing more of. Let me tell you this, our class loves to eat on Shabbat more over, they mentioned that they love cake on Shabbat! Why cake? Because Shabbat is special, of course! 

We asked, "When does Shabbat start?" 

They responded, "When it gets dark!"

So we explored light vs. dark.  Look at our lights, candles and mirrors of reflection.

What do we do on Shabbat? 

"We eat cake and challah!"

"We play!"

Challah baking is an all time favorite, sensational activity where we get to roll, squish, squeeze, and push the dough around while socializing with friends?! 

What do we put on our Shabbat table?

"Food! Challah! Candles! Kiddush cups! Chicken!"

See our loose parts table! What does it look like sideways?

We made our own candle holders and we think they're pretty neat!

We even have our own Shabbat Party with our very own Ima and Aba!

Seasonal Sensations

The Things We Love . . .

     It's fall, and seasonal items are readily available in our room.  How did this happen?  We collected a variety of leaves, acorns and pecans from our yard.  Pine-cones, magnolia leaves and pods, and ears of corn were brought in by the Morahs.  (Above, Eli dips an ear of corn in paint.  He creates an interesting effect on the bulletin paper by rolling the corn back and forth.)

     We go for a Leaf Hunt.  We notice some maple leaves, some oak leaves.  Some of the leaves are still green.  Many are brown, and some are red and yellow.  We collect our leaves and place them in a pot.  By venturing out in an intimate half-group, with the other group in Play-Ball, we are able to engage in some meaningful discussion:  What have we noticed about fall?

     We place our leaves on clear contact paper.  By taking the leaves out of the pot and hanging them up, we will be able to get a good view of each individual leaf. 

     It's beginning to look a lot like fall in our Painters' Porch!  We can look outside, see the seasonal changes on Monroe Drive, and enjoy our collection of leaves.  What about that clay "maple" leaf hanging from the window frame?  We made those with cookie cutters and our own salt dough, scented with cinnamon.  We had passed around some cinnamon sticks during Circle Time to experience the feel and smell.  (Above, Sylvia's dough leaf is on view.)
Salt Dough Recipe:
  1 cup salt
  2 cups flour
  1 cup water
  coloring--optional, your choice, we used some tea
  scent--also optional, we used cinnamon
  air dry for a week or so, or bake for 2 hours at 150 to 200 degrees

     Our home-made dough (above) reminds us of our YomTov pomegranates.  We roll it out, and place "seeds" in the dough.  The squishiness of the dough is appealing and we like to stay at this table a long time. Yet, we learn to share.  A friend comes along and asks, "Can I have it when you're done?" We learn to be patient, and to invite a friend to join us.
Play-Doh Recipe:
  1 cup four
  1/4 cup salt
  1/2 cup water
  1 to 2 tablespoons cooking oil
  coloring, scent if desired  (just a tad bit of a fruit drink did the trick) 

     A collection of citrus fruits is on display at our nature table.  Can you find the etrog?  The lemon?  There's some grapefruit and a tangerine, too.  This is not a hands-off activity--the children are expected to handle the fruits.  During Circle, we cut up the fruits and participated in a quick compare-and-contrast discussion.  Now it's our opportunity to get a close-up view of each one, while working individually or in pairs at our small table.  (Maddy examines the citrus fruits.)

     We can handle our small pumpkin, too.  (Emmett uses tweezers to move pumpkin seeds from one bowl to another.  What a fun way to experience the seeds--and increase our fine-motor skills as well.)

     Sensory experiences are everywhere in Kitah Gimmel.  The Days of Creation are introduced with a collection of trays.  We are independent and responsible.  We take a tray to investigate, and then return it when we are finished.  We learn about light and dark,  the sun, moon and stars, trees and flowers, fish and other animals, people and, of course, Shabbat.  The trays reinforce our Circle discussions and the books that are shared during Lunch.  (Above, Ben works with "grass" and "insects."  We learn that Hashem made our World.)

     (Above:  Annabel, Maddy and Ezra working cooperatively at the light table.)

(Gabi, experiencing soil, trees and turtles.)

(Leah and Sylvia, noticing the moon, sun and stars.)

(Rafi, hard at work, is involved with his forest of trees.)

(Harper, noticing that even small animals are important in our world.)

     (Book recommendation:  Above, we borrowed the book We're Going on a Leaf Hunt from Kitah Dalet-Hey to jump-start our actual Leaf Hunt.  This book is a take-off on the traditional Going on a Bear Hunt chant--but in this book, a skunk appears!  It's fun. The chant is a great activity if you're going on a car trip, hanging out in a park--it's easy to memorize, and you can change the action-words for extra interest.)

Enjoy your week!

The Morahs of Kitah Gimmel

We love our babies in KDH

KDH had a special visitor yesterday. Yannai came in with his mother and introduced his baby sister to the class. We all sat on our lilly pads around the pond,to meet Avigail.

After Yannai and his mother introduced Avigail, the children had questions.

Maddy: Does the baby have a changing table? 

Mrs. Cohen: Yes, she does.

Ezra: Does she go in a rocking chair?

Mrs. Cohen: Yes, Avigail likes to be rocked in the rocking chair.

Sammy: Can she walk yet?

Evan: Can she even crawl?

Mrs. Cohen: She is only two months old.
Does she smile?
Yannai: She smiles the most at me!

Yannai: She does something even if she does not want to do it.

Class: Tell us about this.

Yannai: If you lay her on her back and she does not like it, she will still be on her back.
Hmm, that is something to think about...

Later that morning, Henia used the arch blocks to create a rocker for her doll. Playing house with our dolls occurs during center time on almost a daily basis. Sammy informed us that we had a crisis on our return after Succot, as some dolls were missing. Thankfully, they were found. Today, Natalie, Maddy and Annika were sleeping with their dolls while Anslee, the mom sat up talking on her phone. Maddy invited Yinon to come join them.

Love, creativity.kindness and friendships in KDH.

Kitah Alef Prepares for Sukkot and Simchat Torah

In the short time we had between Rosh Hashana and Sukkot, we packed in multi-sensory experiences to introduce the children to the themes of Sukkot and Simchat Torah.

Using the color green like schach and popsicle sticks like the natural walls of the sukkah, we engaged in an open-ended painting process. Some children scraped the paint on their papers like Riva while others explored the feeling of the paint with their hands. Another time we used a box to shake the paint and sticks together to see what resulted.

Some people hang decorations in their sukkah so we transferred this idea to our classroom space. Together we can make our room even more beautiful. 

Another day we decorated CD's by gluing on colorful sequins with toddler-friendly glue brushes. Some children were kept busy just by brushing on the glue like Oliver and Leo, while others liked to sprinkle the sequins on and see them stick.

Busy workers used tools to build a small sukkah in our classroom. In doing so we learned the names of various tools as well as their differing uses. Hudson chose to bang the sukkah with a hammer and Eric moved the saw up and down, feeling the bumpy effect made by the ridges.

Hendrix made a connection between the tools and the screws in the furniture around the room. He looked all around, turning his screwdriver wherever he found a screw.

We explored the mitzvah of shaking a lulav and etrog with a plush play set. One day we brought in real lemons to feel and smell since they are similar to an etrog.

Rabbi Sollish presented an interesting demonstration of a real lulav and etrog. He showed us each part of the lulav branches and then brought the etrog around to see. 

Thanks to Kitah Bet, we had a small-scale sukkah on the playground to use! We stood inside, sat inside, and sometimes pretended to have a meal inside too.

 Immediately following Sukkot is the holiday of Simchat Torah. This is where we rejoice in having the Torah by finishing reading through it and starting all over again. It's customary to take all of the Torahs out of the ark to dance with them!

We made flags for the children to wave as they dance with the Torahs on Simchat Torah. To make them we pressed paint under bubble wrap to blend the colors. The bubbles were fun to pop too!

When our flags were finished, we brought them to circle time to dance together with our Torahs! 

Chag Sukkot and Simchat Torah Sameach!