Graggers!

The children in Kitah Alef are proud of their graggers this year for many reasons. Not only did they display their growing fine motor skills but they helped the environment as well. Our graggers are made of sticks, wire, jingly bells and recycled plastic caps.

Over the past few weeks, we've become familiar with all different kinds of graggers. Anything can be a gragger, really, as long as it makes noise!

In our classroom we have sensory bottles that double as graggers. They are filled with varying materials that produce different sounds.

During music with Morah Adina she showed us a wooden gragger from another country and helped us shake it loud!

In making our graggers our first step was to gather sticks and poke holes in the caps (thanks, Oliver's dad!). When we had a nice assortment, we worked on threading the wire through the holes. The stiff wire was the perfect material for little hands to practice threading. Once they saw it poke through the other side, they slid it down the wire, sometimes with an added "choo, choo!"

The children excitedly pointed out the applesauce caps since they provide a positive, yummy association for them.

After all the caps and bells were strung on the wire, the wire was wrapped tightly around a stick and glued in place. 

We hope you enjoy our unique, environment-friendly graggers - we know the children do!

Chag Purim Sameach!

How is a tree like me? by KDH

There has been a lot of talk about trees as we get ready to celebrate Tu B'Shvat, the new year of the trees,  tomorrow. In the time of the Holy Temple/Beit Hamikdash, mitzvot regarding the tithing of fruits were dependent on if a tree had blossomed by Tu B'Shvat. 

Tu B'Shvat is the time that the almond trees begin to blossom in Israel and the sap in the trees begin to rise. Tu B'Shvat reminds us that even in the dead of winter, spring is just around the corner. When things are difficult, we look forward to better times. We eat the Shivat Haminim, the seven species that Israel is blessed with - pomegranates, grapes, olives, wheat, barley, figs and dates and thank Hashem for the land of Israel.

KDH discussed what we get from trees, how to celebrate with Figgy - our fig tree that is outside our classroom, and how are we like trees. As adults, we often think of the trees' roots as our parents and grandparents, the branches and seeds as our offspring, the fruits as our good deeds. We asked the children their thoughts. 

They told us: 

We need water and so do trees.

We need sunshine as do the trees.

We eat and they eat.

The branches are like our arms.

The roots are like our feet.

The trunk is like our body. 

I reflected on their answers and thought it might be interesting to see how they would turn their thoughts into illustrations, drawing tree people.

Annika and Ezra drew rainbow trees. Shaya's trees has many arms to do lots of mitzvot, and the sun is his kipah. Sammy's tree has lots of leaves like she has lots of hair. Henia's tree person is afraid the wind will knock it down.  Pearl's tree person is a Honey Crisp apple tree! 

Yinon drew the inside of the tree person and told us that trees and people are alike. We like to be outside!

How true! At the end of a busy week, we sometimes ask the children what they enjoyed most that week. The most popular answer is, "Being ouside."

Yes, we are like trees!

Morah Ruth

Morah Sara

Morah Gail

The Children of KDH

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!" 

Baby Bird

 Morah Myriam found a baby bird that had fallen from a nest. We put it in a basket with a blanket so it would be comfortable.

                               The children came to see the bird. Leora: "Birdie! Birdie!"

                            The little bird tried to fly a little but wasn't quite strong enough.

     We gave the bird a little mushed up clementine and apples. Baby bird liked the clementine.

 Levy came over to see the bird too. Morah: "We have to be very gentle with the little bird."

 More children crowded around the basket to see the baby bird. Everyone was very curious.

 The baby bird perched on Morah Myriam's hand. Logan wanted to pet the bird and was very gentle.

 Ana-Chaya also had a turn petting baby bird. And then Levy and Sela came over to see.

 Everyone pointed to baby bird. We decided it was time to find baby's Mommy and Daddy bird.

 After all the children had turns petting the little bird, Morah Myriam spotted birdies' Father who had some food for the little guy. Morah Myriam let baby bird go and he flew away. :-)

KDH's Outdoor Classroom

The beautiful sunny day yesterday beckoned us outside. Not wanting to waste a precious moment of outdoor time, we all agreed to have our snack outdoors. Our plan was to eat on the stage on the bottom level. But once outside, we saw that the stage was still too wet to sit on. We walked up two levels and enjoyed our snack there. 

As we would say in the vernacular, "What mazel!" We were lucky to have gone up there.

Reyn found a lady bug. 

Lewis discovered an inch worm. What fun to watch how it arches its body to move.

And then, the pecans! Lots of pecans. We've seen pecans since the beginning of the school year. They were still in the outer husks and mostly black and rotten.

Yesterday the children found pecans just in the shell. They cracked them open and tasted them. What a pleasant surprise. 

They continued collecting them. Morah Sara went inside on got us a basket. 

We took the pecans and went down to the (now dry) stage. We lined up the pecans in rows of ten. We had 17 sets of pecans with ten in each set. The children counted by ten, obviously up to 170. 

What a fine day! We took the pecans inside and are thinking about what we can do with them.

Suggestions anyone?

Morah Ruth   Morah Sara