Mini Yard Day in Pre- KA

Spring is around the corner! It can be felt in the weather (most of the days;) and seen in the beautiful flowers that were planted on Sunday! Sunday was Yard Day at IJP, and it was so nice to have so many families come and help to improve and beautify our preschool. There were new flowers planted, and a new bridge/ ramp built near the sandbox, which Pre- KA especially loved running back and forth on. 

So, we decided to have our own mini Yard Day in Pre- KA!  

We filled a sensory bin with soil, different beans and seeds, and some flowers.

We put in shovels, scoopers, and watering cans to give a complete feel of digging and planting.

When we placed the bin down, the children immediately ran over and started digging and scooping!

Kitah Aleph and Kitah Bet saw how much fun we were having, and ran over to come dig and plant with us!

Then, each child got a little planter bowl, and got to 'plant' some soil into it to make our very own plants!

When we went back inside, each child got a turn to carefully water their plants.

Then, we placed them on the windowsill of our classroom!

We cant wait to water them each day, and watch them grow!

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah's Leah, Leah, and Shahla

We Love Our Playground!

No addition was unnoticed on our newly renovated playground this week.  The students took the afternoon Morahs around showing all of the exciting new features added to their already amazing outdoor learning area.  Some were fans of the flowers while others loved the bigger outdoor kitchen.  We had a great time exploring what felt like a brand new space and took full advantage of new learning experiences. 

"Look! We are a family making dinner together!"

"We can wash our hands and water the flowers at the same time!"

"Let's take turns picking up the rocks.  If you move one, you have to put it back then it's the next person's turn." After all of the rocks were taken from the pile, the students counted them then made their favorite shape! 

"We collected all of the rocks, now we're going to hide them in our wood building." 

Flowers Everywhere - Kitah Alef

 Kitah Alef enjoyed sorting and playing with the flowers from our Shabbat Dinner. We placed the flowers in a sensory table to touch and explore. Gaby places each petal on contact paper to make a collage.

 Then the children use the flowers as paint brushes, dipping the stems and the petals into different colored paints, primarily pink and white.

 Logan dips the flower into the paint watching the different patterns the flower prints make on the paper.

 Sylvia carefully chooses where she once to place each rose petal on the contact paper. She continues to place more and more petals one on top of the other in the center of the contact paper watching it stick to the surface.

 Yisroel uses pink, white, and yellow to make his painting using the flower as a paint brush, with his sister Freeda watching.

 Zoey helps Annabelle from Kitah Bet collect the flower petals in a jar for sorting. She then explores painting using white and pink paint and one of the flowers she found in the bin.

Matzah Painting, Spring Nature Walk, and Pesach Jam Session - Kitah Alef

 Kitah Alef ventured out into the lovely spring air this week. We painted with brown paint and rollers to make "Matzot". Everyone enjoyed painting outside.

 Caleb and Annabelle made an extra painting outside. Annabelle: "I want pink!" Caleb: "I want red!"

 With the weather so nice we decided to go on a nature walk to see what we could find in the garden.

 The children found smooth pebbles. Sammy: "I put them in my pocket."

 We also found a rosemary bush. Morah Myriam: "Can you smell the rosemary?" Caleb: "I smell it!"

 Morah Myriam: "Should we take some back to the classroom?" Sammy: "Yes!"

There were yellow flowers. Caleb: "Yellow!"

 We brought some rosemary back to the classroom and everyone had a turn smelling it.

 Tehila, Evan, and Ezra watched us from inside the classroom. The children made faces at eachother through the window.

 On Wednesday we had a special treat. Evan's Daddy, Paul, came in to play his electric guitar for us! He even brought in his amplifier. The children danced and we sang "Where is Baby Moses", "Old McDonald", and "Let My People Go!"

The children each had a turn strumming the guitar. Morah Myriam (pointing to guitar) "What is this?" Ezra: "One, two, three..." Sammy: "It's red." Caleb (pointing to arm of guitar) "It's black!" Evan's Dad also sang us a song about everyone's shirts. "Tehila's shirt is green" (Tehila drums on her drum) "Sammy's t-shirt is wonder girl"  Morah Myriam: "What is your favorite song?" Caleb: "Ee Ay Oh!"