Shabbat

During out Shabbat unit, the children enjoyed rolling clay, pushing a candle in and using glitter and jewels to make their own shabbat candle. The candles were beautiful when they were lit during the preschool Shabbat Dinner. The children enjoyed seeing their candle shine so bright at a table filled with family and friends.

To help the children experience preparing for a Shabbat meal we created our own challah covers using blue paint and a blush brush.

The children used practical playing to dress up, slice the challah and have a Shabbat Party of their own. They learned Shabbat songs and danced to the music.

Winter

It finally snowed! Before we went out to play in the snow, we played with "foamy" snow. We swished it with our hands and made circles with our fingers to make a snowman. We went outside to play in the cold snow. After sledding down the hill, the children gathered some snow into a bucket to bring to the big sink in the classroom.

"It feels like playdough". "It's cold". Some children wanted to cut the snow with a plastic knife and use the playdough shapes and cups to play with the snow.

Since it is cold outside we spend more time indoors. The children enjoy making towers out of so many things like blocks, legos and plastic pins.

We spend time in the "big playroom" where the children are all learning to pedal, ride a scooter and pull a friend along.

Here the children enjoy climbing up and down the hills.

The children enjoy hiding in the "bear cave" below the slide.

December

During the month of December, the children enjoyed learning about Chanukah. We made Chanukah candles using tissue paper and glue and learned how to spin the dreidel.

The children continue to enjoy coloring with crayons and markers. You can hear the children name the colors they are using and discuss with a friend what they are drawing.

The children are learning hand and body motions to go along with the words to a song. All of the children love to "Bim Bom" on Shabbat and "Put a penny in the Tzedakah box, hurray". We are learning to count our pennies as we put them in the Tzedakah Box. Some of the children like to save a penny for their pocket!

The children are learning to share, and take turns with a toy. They enjoy walking into the room each morning and greeting each other with hugs! They all enjoy each other's company.

Look at all the things we can do!

The children enjoy hearing their favorite songs on the cd player. This circle time includes movement to music as well as hand and body motions we apply to words of a song. Each animal in our Old McDonald Farm song has a body gesture that the children are beginning to remember and use when they are not laughing at Morah acting like a duck.

The children are acting out making and eating chicken soup in our play kitchen. They are using words like "table cloth" and "more?".

The children are learning to build a tower using legos and are using words and phrases to describe what they are doing - "wow this is tall", "fall down", "stay there", and "awesome".

The children enjoying pushing the foot pedal and seeing how they can turn water on and off. They love the feel of the water on their arms. They are learning to roll up their sleeves before they begin playing at the sink.

The children are listening to a story during library circle time. The children will now pull out their favorite books and bring them to Morah to read. The children sit and listen to several stories before snack, after lunch and anytime in between. During center time many of the children will go to the library and look at the pictures in a book and recite the words they heard and memorized.

Thanksgiving

The children have been jumping in the leaves and were getting excited about the next Holiday -Thanksgiving! To initiate appreciation, we began discussing with the children how they have such wonderful lunches packed for them every day for snack and lunch.

The children enjoy their lunch time together and love to find their favorite food packed in their lunch box. The children began naming each of their snacks and we reminded the children to say "Thank You" to their parents for packing such yummy foods. We practiced singing songs about being thankful for our food, families and friends.

In preparation for the preschool Thanksgiving feast, the children practiced their gluing skills to decorate their place settings with a spoon, fork and plate. We used the place settings to create a colorful Thanksgiving mural to decorate the room for the Feast.


The children who all must help bake at home, worked patiently with Morah to help make the cornbread for the feast. Every child took a turn to add an ingredient and stir the mix. The children are learning their shapes so we decided to cut the cornbread into squares for the feast.

On the morning of our Thanksgiving Feast, the children enjoyed playing in a big new ship. We called the ship "the Mayflower"!

The children sang our "Thank You" song along with the rest of the preschool in one large "circle time". It was such a thrill for the children to see Mommies and Daddies in the big playroom. We all sat down and after giving thanks, enjoyed our corn bread along with all the delicious foods made by the children from the different classes. What a feast, and how wonderful to enjoy it with both families and morahs together at the table.

"Red, Yellow, Orange and Brown.

All the leaves come falling down! "

The children in the Young Toddlers classroom enjoyed exploring the season of fall! We used the colors of the leaves to paint our brown fall bags. We used our fall bags to collect the leaves and bring them into the classroom to see and feel. We painted leaves on our class tree and drew with colored pencils using red, yellow, orange and brown. We sang our fall tree songs and had fun going through the motion of raking the leaves into a pile and jumping in!