Intown Jewish Preschool

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

Exploring the World Around Us

Our ever curious Kitah Gimmel Yeladim are always asking questions about their surroundings, our planet, the moon... the questions just keep coming. We embrace these questions and view them as opportunities to teach and to learn alongside our young explorers.

How wonderful is it that we got to kick off camp with a Topplin' Tots, a mini, soft play world for us to enjoy! Margot, Goldie, Adom, Yael, Mason, Parker and Gavi certainly are enjoying the adventure in the ball pit!

Liav took his time one morning to assemble a map puzzle of America!

Lily is learning how to give instructions to our bug bot so he can navigate around his habitat.

Sela and Mason are looking at the map trying to find islands and the north pole.

Adom knows several of the names of the animals that live around the world! He was able to spot Madagascar because it had a picture of a Lemur! He then proceeded to tell us about Puffins and Pandas! Thanks for the animal info, Adom!

Elliot and Margot are trying to find all of the animals from the list of animals. Margot wants to know where the unicorns live and Elliot is looking for a bike shop, because "Our school lives next to a bike shop," he says.

Parker says we live in Atlanta and wants to know where it is on the map and Erez would like to have a closer look.

Gavi has a construction site and he's building his neighborhood and he knows the name of his street!

Yonah, Mina, and Mason are looking at maps of midtown, the neighborhood of our school and some of our houses!

Look! Lily, Leora, Yonah and Sela are finding their favorite animals all over the world!

Squirrel is building a big house in his neighborhood!

Asher appears to be building onto Piedmont Park, the giant park across the street from IJP! We are so lucky to live in such a great neighborhood!

Orli is reenacting the Parsha in this small world!

Lev is exploring the world of texture, "This feels like music," he exclaims.

Goldie enjoys flying the spacecaft all around the plants and stars!

Ivy's beach play sounded like this, " The girl got shells on the beach with her dad. I never went to the beach with my dad." Hopefully soon, Ivy :)

Sam is spinning around placing dot after dot in our dots exhibit! "This is a fun world!"

Leora is a good big sister and is showing Eliza how to navigate around the waterslide, a new and exciting addition to our water play!

While we've had all of these amazing learning experiences in our classroom and on our playground, we've added another layer to our learning process, The Atelier with Morah Jessica! Here we get to explore our world through various types of materials and textures, as Morah teaching us new techniques and broadens our love for learning and investigation.

Credit Cards, Wallets, and Restaurants in Extended Day

We have big wooden blocks in building three. The children are always creating a new structure with them. They have made air planes, buses, and castles. This week the have built a restaurant. The puppet theatre has become the cashier window.

At the art tables card stock was transformed into credit cards with colorful tape, stickers, gel pens, and permanent markers. Wallets were made by cutting, folding, taping, and gluing foam sheets and cardboard.