We're Big, We've Got This

We're Big, We've Got This

     So, we've been here before.  We're the Kitah Vav-Zayin-Ches group.  We're certainly older than the campers in Kitah Alef, Bet, and Gimmel. We're even older than Dalet/Hey, traditionally the oldest group at Intown Jewish Preschool.  This is why the IJP Administration calls us "The Older Division."  It's a badge of pride.  It comes with extra responsibilities, as well as a certain amount of figuring out where exactly do we fit in and what would we like to do.  

     Some things never change; we know we like to play in the mud every now and then. (above, Pearl and Dovid join in with some of the younger children.)

     We also know that we like games with rules and strategies. We bring out games every Monday during Arrival Time and we try to squeeze in board games whenever we have a free moment during the rest of the week.  We're familiar with chess, Mastermind,  Hedbanz, Mancala and quite a few other games.  The Morah taught us Chinese Checkers.  (She thought she knew this game as a child, and then very recently, she actually learned the real rules.)       

     Our artwork shows our skills.  We know how to read and write.  We design our own bags, independent of a Morah.  (Above, Chana and Levi work on their bags.  Below, some of the results.)

     Now this was fascinating, from the point of view of a Morah.  We headed out to the Beltline on our scooters, ready for a good time of racing about, people-watching, and then cooling off at Chabad Center.  Pearl wanted to know, "Why is there a truck on the Beltline?"  Before a Morah could respond, the group read the words, Trees Atlanta!  The truck was there for, "Growing, Protecting, Educating."  Yep, we know that.

     Books have more meaning for us.  We can read a lot words.  (Above, Henia and Chana share a book about the White House, one of our Fourth of July themes.)

     We write, too.  When we shared Fourth of July concepts, we wrote some of our thoughts on our group mobile.  Chana wrote about being free to be a Jew in the United States.

     There are so many Junior Counselors on the playground!  Some of us went around and interviewed the new staff, asking them about their favorite foods, books, etc.  We wanted to learn a few facts about them.  What do they like to do in their spare time?  We wrote down their responses.

     Then, we started preparing for our Puppet Show.  It will be an original story, and we're still working on it.  Something about Mr. Banana Pants, and something about this and something about that.  After much discussion, we're ready to work on the script.  

     We decided that we must, must have tickets for the puppet show and that they must be numbered.  We're using our writing and math skills to get this job done.  Junior Counselor Yulie took us around to all the other groups so we could figure out how many tickets we would need.  Our conclusion:  we need an additional five.  We have to get to work on this.

     We build on our art skills, too.  Last summer, we learned how to paper mache using newspaper, glue and water. We make bigger bowls this time around, with a plan to use them to collect our tickets during the show.

     So it's all coming together for us.  We're using all our abilities as the oldest "bunk" to organize ourselves in our work and play.  (And, just in case we give the impression that we're only about literacy and math, here are a few pics where we're all about moving and fun!  Enjoy!)

Have a Happy Fourth!

Morah Susan, and the campers and junior counselors of Kitah Vav-Zayin-Ches

Brick by Brick, Our Construction Continues . . .

Building!

(This is our fourth--yes, fourth--blog post about building!  A quick recap:  a few months ago, we noticed a construction site across the street from our school.  We visited the area regularly to see the progress.   We handled some of the natural clay from the site.  Before Passover, we prepared our own bricks, much like Jewish people did in Egypt a long time ago.  We now use these bricks to build small structures.  We are also building with recycled materials--a perfect tie-in to Earth Day!)

  

     We are ready to make our own bricks.  How will be do this?  What do we need?  We head outdoors to gather our materials.  We dig in the dirt.  As we dig, we talk about water and dirt--and the Passover story:

Leah:  Dirt is outside!

Annabel:  Water is in the sink, and a bathtub,

Avraham Chaim:  And in a water-bottle, and shower.

Leah:  Pebbles are little rocks!

Emmett:  (while outside, supervising the digging )  I'm Paroah!

Rafi:  and I'm Moshe Rabbenu!

Sylvia:  I'm Princess Batya!

(Above, Sylvia cuts pine straw, preparing the straw for our brick mixture.  Below, Rafi, Emmett, Shayan, Ben, Harper and Maddy work in the dirt pit.)

(Above:  Eli and Emmett dig below the cedar chips.  Below:  Eli, Eli and Asher work together.)

(Below, Ben and Eliza sift the soil.  We don't want pebbles and leaves in our mixture!)

     We review our "recipe" for making bricks:
     6 cups of dirt to 1 cup of cut-up pine straw, a few tablespoons of water. 
    And then what?  We will pour the mixture into our molds.  Shayan reminds us we will have to place the bricks in the sun so that they dry.

Above:  Gabi places some of the soil, water, and straw mixture into his mold.

Our bricks are drying in the sun!  After the Passover Break, we check on our bricks.  Our Morah helps us pop the bricks out of the molds.

Above:  Leah releases her brick from the juice-box mold.

Above:  our bricks!

     We continue to build in our room.  Because Earth Day is coming up, we bring some cardboard "trash" to our workspace.  We recycle several boxes and small crates to form a building. Our Morah helps us tape the pieces together.  We are ready to create narratives about our structure.  We add people, and we paint sections of our building.

     Eli adds some people in the little compartments.  The individual spaces become apartments, offices and classrooms.  We call our building a "condo."

Ben adds a bus to our structure while Shayan gets a story going.

(The bigger boxes become the condominium's swimming pool and gym.)

     We are ready to name our structure.  It's a condominium high-rise, with a swimming pool and a gym.  Shane and Eli and friends paint some of the walls.  It's a perfect addition to the Beltline!  We vote on names for our building.  (The Morah suggested "Condo on Cooledge"  Rafi said, "Condo on Cooledge, that's cool!)  Here's our vote tally:

Condo on Cooledge, 3 votes

15 Condo Skyscraper, 5 votes

15 Here, 2 votes

604 IJP, 1 vote

Gymnastic Class Condo

Chicago City Condo

Decatur Condo

So, 15 Condo Skyscraper it is!

Our Morah writes down some of our discussion.  We will "read" it back the next day, and later again at the end of week.  Reviewing our narrative reminds us of all that's occurred.

We continue to visit the construction site across the street, even while we build our own house.

     The house is almost finished!  Amazing!  The roof will have a fire-pit and a bathroom!  Perfect for having a party, or a just a place to relax.

     During the week, we made our own binoculars.  On an earlier visit, we had brought along the real binoculars from our room, and a pair of binoculars from our Morah's house.  Now we use our pretend binoculars--fun!  There's so much to see, so much to learn!

The Builders of Kitah Gimmel