The Messier, the Better!

Spring is finally here and the warmer weather means we need to find creative ways to beat the heat. The past two weeks we have had Messy Fridays. With a combination of sensory experiences, art offerings, and gross motor activities, you know it was a big hit! 

Check out some outdoor art options!

The children painted a canvas drop cloth by dribbling water colors from squeeze bottles.

Drawing with chalk was enhanced by spraying water to brighten and blend colors.

Some sensory experiences:

We mixed up some green slime (green liquid tempera paint and shaving cream.)

The car wash has reopened! Soapy water and sponges, so simple yet so fun!

Children mix up some potions with plastic test tubes, funnels, and various containers.

Gross motor play we recently received some frisbees. They immediately became a favorite material amongst the children. There is always a long waiting list, but this has also led to a lot of opportunities to practice sharing and taking turns!

We always try to use washable paints and dyes, but as we all know that isn't entirely fool proof. Stains can still occur. Please send your children dressed in clothes that they can get dirty. We plan to continue our messy fun as long as the children show interest. We will be adding some new messy-fun sensory experiences soon!

Preparing for Passover

A Passover Pictorial Potpourri (Plus a Poem)

So much learning is happening here,

We barely have words to describe it all,

So instead we're sending all these pics, parents and friends so dear,

Please enjoy them, y'all!

Tray activities to reinforce Sefer Shmot, Exodus . . .

Circle Time with hands-on materials--how do we celebrate Shabbat, how do we celebrate Pesach?

                            Each morning, we choose the station we would like to visit . . .

      Some of us try the Matzah rubbing--we notice all the "hills" and "valleys" of our matzah...

                    We paint on real glass--beautiful Elijah cups!  We concentrate on our design.

     

As a class, we make a pillow and a glass bowl.  We donate the pillow to our class library and "couch" area.  We will make plans to "gift" the bowl, too.  We used both in our Mah Nishtana books.

                  More tray activities . . .we experience cleaning for Pesach and setting the table.

         We make bricks, too.  It's not easy!  We collect soil, cut pine straw, and we follow a "recipe."

In Egypt, B'nai Yisrael worked hard building, building, building for King Pharaoh.  We dig, work hard,and make bricks, too.  

We bake our own Matzah, too.  We roll out our dough very flat, and then prick it so it doesn't puff up.

We paint our boxes with real flowers and pastel colors.  No brushes necessary! What will go inside these boxes?  Our Mah Nishtana books, our Elijah cups, Baby Moshe in a basket and more . . .

Yes, it is spring!.  Passover is also called the springtime holiday, Chag HaAviv.  We create our observational drawings by looking carefully at our spring flowers.  Then, we're ready to sketch.  It's fun to work together and enjoy each other's company!
(We received these flowers as a gift from Trader Joe's!  So exciting.  We will write a thank you note, because Kitah Gimmelniks are a grateful group!)

Happy Passover!
The Kitah Gimmel Morahs

Main Event Art

What could be more fun than dripping paint, blowing it, pouring on salt and sticking on bubble wrap! This is the kid friendly way that KDH worked cooperatively to create a color masterpiece to auction off at the 

Main Event.
It actually started quite a while back. We put out paint one morning with paper and straws. The children picked colors and dripped the paint on their paper, and then blew the paint across their individual papers. They colors mixed and new colors were created. Then the children took foam circles and made large circles of color and used bubble wrap to make smaller groups of circles. They experimented with kosher salt and our fake snow to see what kind of other textures were emerge after that dried.
When the paintings had dried we put them all up together, to create one large painting on our bulletin board. That is one way to create cooperative art. Individual art is beautiful but put it all together and it becomes, "Wow!"
For the Main Event the children wanted to do something more collaborative. We bought a large piece of cotton paper and the children all excitedly asked for their turns to be apart of this wonderful masterpiece that emerged right in front of them!

Morah Ruth

Morah Sara

Morah Gail

Favorites!

"This Book is My Favorite!"

     The Kitah Gimmel Morahs regularly share books during snack time and lunch.  First, we spend a few minutes getting settled.   Then, the children have time to get involved in some table conversation.  Finally, it's story time!
     I tend to introduce each story with this statement:  This is one of my favorites!
     Now, is this logical?  There are approximately 180 days in the school year.  How can a Morah have that many favorites, and more?
     The answer is just as logical:  if you've lived your life as a reader, a parent, a grandparent and a Morah, stories are naturally an integral part of your very being.  And so, to say that you have more than one hundred favorite children's books is a true statement.
     Never did this seem more obvious than my most recent visit to the grandchildren.  I went out-of-town to celebrate the Brit Milah of our latest grandson (Mazel Tov!)  While there, I performed some mundane tasks as well:  laundry, garbage, dishes, grocery shopping.
     I had some downtime, so I decided to organize the children's bookshelf, with the children carefully assisting.  The wonders we found!
     "So, there it is," said one of the children.
     "Hey, I remember that one," said another.
      Each one of us had so many favorites!  I've decided to share some of the gems that we discovered in their bookcase.  Perhaps you, too, are looking for a new favorite!
     Here's my list,  not complete, and not in any order--and each one is a goodie.  I've included fiction only, this time around. Most are picture books, contemporary classics and available anywhere:

Llama Llama Red Pajama, Anna Dowdney
Click Clack Moo Cows That Type, Doreen Cronin
Angelina, Katharine Holabird
Caps for Sale, Esphyr Slobodkina
If You Give a Pig a Cookie, Laura Numeroff
Marvin K. Mooney, Dr. Seuss
Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See, Bill Martin, Jr.
Are You My Mother, P.D. Eastman
Knuffle Bunny, Mo Willems
Elephant and Piggy, Mo Willems
Don't Let the Pidgeon Drive the Bus, Mo Willems
Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown
A Pocket for Corduroy, Don Freeman
Madeline, Ludwig Bemelmans
The Little House, Virginia Lee Burton
The Story of Ferdinand, Munro Leaf
Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak
Curious George, Margaret and H.A. Rey
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Bill Martin Jr.
Freight Train, Donald Crews
Harold and the Purple Crayon, Crockett Johnson

     (Of course, new books are being written and illustrated all the time.  Recently, my husband and I met Georgia resident R. Gregory Christie, an illustrator with several awards, including a Caldecott and the Coretta Scott King Honor Award.  We bought one of his books for our grandchildren.  We enjoyed Mousetropolis, a retelling of the country mouse-city mouse story.  I love my old favorites, and it's so nice to find something new, too!)

Morah Susan