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

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