Cakes and Crowns--We Finish Up Experiencing Purim . . .

Cakes and Crowns

      We have busy afternoons. This  week, our Extended Day group had a fun time experiencing some crafts and cooking--all Purim related.

     We love drama.  Purim is the perfect time for story telling.  Today, a few of us  prepared our own silly Monster Puppets.  We can use our puppets for all kinds of stories.  We will continue with paper bag puppets next week.

      Purim is also the perfect time to hone our kitchen skills.  We baked brownies and created a Purim note.  We then placed the brownies in the front office with some tangerines--a quick and tasty Misholach Manot for the staff.

      We designed our own crowns, too.  We know about palaces, kings and queens.  Making our crowns assists us in developing and extending our awareness of Purim.

          Enjoy our photos--the Morahs love sharing the Extended Day adventures with you!

Shabbat Shalom,

The Extended Day Morahs 

       

                   

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

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

Purim Kitah Alef

This week we filled our painted containers with popcorn kernels, rice, beans and pine cones. We added fun Purim stickers to make beautiful and loud Groggers.

 The children worked carefully to remove the stickers and place them on their very own Groggers. Sometimes the Morahs had to help.

 We also made puppets out of toilet paper rolls, colorful yarn, pom poms, and glue.

 Caleb: "I made a puppet!" (Holding up puppet) "It's big!" Morah: "How did you make it Caleb?" Caleb: "I made it go round and round."

 Tehila:(Holding up Puppet and pointing to orange string) "Orange!"

 Sammy knew exactly how she wanted her string placed on her puppet. Sammy: "Right here!"

 We wanted to give the children the experience of making a scroll just like Megillat Esther. We had a large sheet of paper and painted on it with feathers and black ink. The children dipped the feather carefully into the ink and made big and small lines and shapes of every kind on the scroll.

Happy Purim and Chag Sameach from Kitah Alef!!!