It's Winter!

Sensory Exploration
Winter is a very quiet season. The world of nature - the trees, the animals - are at rest. It is very peaceful.
We wanted the young toddlers to gain an appreciation for this calmness and peacefullness. To fully explore, connect and experience the world around them by using their senses.

At circle time, we spoke about how it is now the season of "Winter". Everyone had a turn to try and say this new word (to help us with our speech and communication skills). But what is it like outside in the winter time? We went on a walk to the woods to find out, singing "What do we see? What do we see? What do we see in the winter time?" (filling in hear, smell, and feel)


There is so much to SEE.

We noticed our shadows on the ground. Our shadows were "walking" as we walked.



The children looked up to see the trees. Most of the trees had "no more leaves". "Where did the leaves go?" Morah asked. The response, "Leaves fell down."






We saw snow and ice. One piece of ice had a leaf stuck inside it.

We stopped to SMELL the snow, the trees, and the air to raise our awareness of using this sense. Everything we TOUCHED was so "cold".

Do you hear anything? Let's LISTEN. It was so quiet. We heard some ice crack as we stepped on it. We payed close attention to the sounds as we heard the water in the river rush over a rock.Back in our classroom we worked on reinforcing this listening skill. At snack time, all the children were so so quiet and we then heard the sound of a child biting their carrot, crunching a pretzel, or drinking their juice. We were so excited at the sounds we discovered by really listening.

Helping Toddlers Understand the World Around Them
We found a really big piece of ice outside. We put it in a box and brought it into our classroom to experiment and see what would happen. While the ice had not yet melted, Morah overheard a conversation between an adult and one of the toddlers. The adult commented on the ice in the box, to which the child adamantly declared, "No. Snow!"
As educators it is our responsibility to help the children understand the world around them. Hearing this, Morah realized the child had not fully understood the new winter vocabulary of "snow" and "ice".

Bearing this in mind, we brought in a bowl filled with chunks of ice and a bowl filled with soft flaky snow for the children to COMPARE. We noticed: Both are cold. The snow is white and can be squished in our hands, while the ice hard - we were able to bang two pieces together, unlike the snow.

We put the ice by the science table and went back to look at it the next day. The observations: "Where ice go?" "Water." "My hand is all wet." "Cold."
We tried the experiment again - this time looking at the ice when it was half melted so we saw both the ice and the water. The ice is MELTING.

Cotton as Snow. Do the children understand the representation?
As adults, we use different mediums to represent things. Paper circles for a snowman. Green for grass. But does a toddler see the connection? We can only know if we talk about it. So we added some white fluffy cotton to our sensory boxes - being careful not to link it with the real snow outside. As the children engaged with the cotton we talked about it's features - it was white and soft.
Later on we looked at our winter scene board and saw the snow on the ground and on the trees. Morah asked the children, "Is there any snow on our class tree." We went to look and saw, "No snow." Morah continued, "Snow is so cold and white and soft (as we have previously experienced). Is there anything else in our classroom that is white and soft?" After a moment, two of the children excitedly went to the box filled with cotton saying "Snow!" Morah then asked, "Is this snow? Let's feel it. Is it cold?" We touched it. "It's not cold like real snow, but it is white and soft. Would you like to use it as pretend snow to put on our tree?" Now that we know what we are using the cotton to represent, the children put the "snow" on our class tree.

Happy Birthday!
We have been sharing so many special birthdays together. Happy 2nd Birthday to Evan, Maggie, Mateo and Miriam Sara.

Enjoy,
Morah Chaya K, Morah Chaya G and Morah Batsheva

Chanukah in the Young Toddlers Class

We started our Chanukah unit by hearing the Chanukah story. Just as the Jewish people lit the menorah in the Beit Hamikdash (Holy Temple) in the story of long ago – we too light a menorah on Chanukah.

Here are some of the experiences we enjoyed doing over the holiday.

We played with our play menorahs, using our fine motor muscles and dexterity to place the candles in them.

With hammers and thumb tacks, we worked with our daddies to create our big school menorah. Each day of Chanukah, the children from all the classes gathered together to light our big menorah. We are so proud of the menorah we created with our daddies


On Chanukah we play with a dreidel (spinning top). The children were intrigued as they watched the dreidel spin round and round. We have been playing the dreidel game while practicing our color matching skills. We each have a turn to spin our big dreidel. When it falls on its side we get a foam circle which matches the color on the dreidel.

It is customary to eat fried foods on Chanukah such as latkes (potato pancakes) and doughnuts. The children enjoyed decorating doughnuts together with Mika’s mommy – Thank You.

Happy Chanukah and have an enjoyable and safe winter break!
Morah Chaya G, Morah Chaya K, and Morah Batsheva

Our Thanksgiving Exploration and Preparation

Click on the images to see them in big.

SHARPENING OUR OBSERVATION SKILLS

Think of all the benefits a heightened sense of observation has on our lives. And, there is no better time to begin to sharpen that skill than from the very beginning of a child’s life. In our classroom, we focus on this in our everyday activities. Helping children notice details by asking them questions that will elicit new observations, is part of our approach to their overall education.

There was a new visitor at circle time – his name is Froggy. He wasn’t wearing any clothing yet, but his basket had lots of clothing in it! The children chose the clothing he needed. We got him a shirt, pants, and shoes (sometimes he gets to wear a jumper). Now he was ready to go to school. The children were really excited to sing our good morning song to Froggy as he joined in our circle time.

When it was time to go outside we noted that Froggy isn’t ready to go outside yet. (We are always working on this.) It is cold and windy outside in the Fall – he needs a jacket. We got Froggy a jacket and put on our own jackets as well.

Froggy has been helping us build our vocabulary as we decide what clothing he needs. He also teaches us how we need to assess and prepare before going outside in the cold.

We Can Take Care of the Animals

Some birds and squirrels have joined our fall tree. We have been pretending to fly like birds and have been observing different pictures to heighten our awareness of what birds do.

When we looked at this picture Ethan exclaimed “Duck” while Matteo said it was a “Bird”. Amanda pointed to the birds outstretched wings and told us that the bird “Have swings”. Evan added on “Bird in the blue sky” to which Morah asked “What is the bird doing in the sky?” and the children replied “Flying!”

Now we were ready to observe a more detailed picture. What do you notice? Maggie pointed out that there were “Trees” at the bottom. Dylan pointed to the top right corner of the picture and noted that there was “Tree” up there too. Miriam Sarah looked at the birds and started waving her hands like a bird saying “Bird. Flying!”
When we looked at this picture Shaina told us “That’s a bird.” Morah drew our attention to the bird’s mouth “What’s inside the bird’s mouth?” Morah asked. Mika then told us “Bird eating”

The next day Morah showed the children a container filled with food for the birds (we noticed there was a picture of a bird on the container). Some of the birds might be hungry – we can help them and give them some food to eat. The children brought our bean-bag birds and we pretended that they were eating the bird food. Morah then told the children, “The birds outside are also hungry. Let’s put some bird food outside so the birds that are outside can eat.” The children helped fill the birdfeeder with bird food and we hung it outside so all the birds can come and eat.
Yes, we can be empathetic to others and help them with their needs.

...More News from the Young Toddlers Class
*Birthdays are such a special time. We baked a cake and decorated crowns for Amanda’s birthday. Happy 2nd Birthday Amanda!

*We would like to welcome our new friend Evan into our class.

Fall Is Here!

It's fall time and we are getting ready for this new season. We are laying the foundation of what the fall looks like and giving the children lots of positive experiences outdoors.



The children went on a walk to observe the world around us at this time of year. We found lots of different color leaves on the ground and on the trees. We picked up the leaves, touched them, jumped in them and watched them fall when we threw them in the air.

Now that we had a better understanding of the words "tree" and "leaves" we took a look at the bare tree in our classroom. Morah asked the children, "Does this tree have any leaves?" The children replied in the negative. Morah then asked if we would like to paint a picture of leaves for the tree. Some of us were very excited at that and went quickly to get a smock. We painted many different color leaves and now our tree has lots of leaves like the ones we saw outside. We have been singing fall songs to help us learn new vocabulary words and learn about the new season.
Tune: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
I'm a tree so tall, tall, tall
Now my leaves must fall, fall, fall
The leaves are tumbling, tumbling down
They're red and orange, yellow and brown
I'm a tree so tall, tall, tall
Now my leaves must fall, fall, fall

While we sing, we hold different color leaves with our hands up high like a tall tree. When we come to the words that the leaves fall, the children let go of the leaves and watch them tumble to the ground. Here they can pretend to be like trees and do what trees do so they can have a better understanding of what the fall season means.
The children have been practicing their color recognition and sorting skills by sorting different color foam leaves. We sort them by matching the color of the leaves to the color of the basket.



We have begun creating a fall story book about the different color leaves. We have introduced the colors red, orange, and yellow and will continue to notice and speak about colors throughout the day as it comes up.

There is a new addition on the wall of our library area! Many pictures were put up of the children in our class doing different activities. The pictures are on the children's eye level so they can interact with the photos. The children really enjoy looking at the pictures of themselves and their friends and have been talking to each other about the people they see and the things they are doing. This hones our observation skills as well as our vocabulary

We found a worm!

Hey look what I see! There's a worm in our classroom!
We were intrigued by what we saw and watched the worm crawl all around.

One of the children exclaimed, "He's coming to my shoe."
Morah replied, "What will happen if your shoe goes on the worm?"
"It can get squished. Let's move our feet away from the worm so it won't get hurt."

Another child wanted to touch the "worm". Morah reminded us to be careful and gentle with it. The children gently touched the worm and were amazed when it curled up into a spiral and then stretched itself out again.

Morah then asked "Where does the worm belong?"
"The worm belongs outside. We can put him outside in the garden so he can feel comfortable."
We then prepared to go outside by putting on our jackets, and we let the worm crawl onto a paper so we can carry him outside.

Notice how the children:
-Are eager to explore the things around them
-Used their observation and communication skills as they engaged with the worm
-Learned that we can care for animals
-Expanded their knowledge of knowing where different things belong

There are so many things we learn as we play during our day

Can this piece fit here?
What happens when I try?
We are learning trial and error and how things have different shapes and sizes as we build puzzles.









I want to learn more about this toy.
What happens when I bang on it?
What happens when I shake it?
I am pleased with the results when I shake it. I want to do it some more.
We are learning that we have the power to make things work.




What happens when I press this button?
What happens when I press the other button?
What happens when we all press the buttons?
We are learning cause and effect and that different things work in different ways.









Can I talk to someone on the phone?
We are learning how to imitate the things we see others doing.








I can sit next to my friends at the table.
What happens when I push the color stampers on the paper?
Do all the stampers look the same?
It makes my paper look very different after I use the stampers.
We are learning how to create new things using colors.

What happens when I use a brush?
What does this blue paint feel like?
We are learning how things feel by using our muscles in our hands.

What can this little boy and girl do?
How can I use this toy?
Can I make it spin?
We are learning how to use our toys to make up imaginative stories.

What is inside my lunch?
What does this taste like?
Where does my food belong?
Where does my friend's food belong?
We are learning good table manners and how to eat politely with our friends at the table.

We are learning good listening and concentration skills, as well as an appreciation for story books, as we sit together to read in our library.

How did this ball get here?
Can I make this ball move?
How many balls are there?
We are learning to follow a path to get the results we want.




Who is there in the window?
Where are these friends?
What are they doing?
We are learning to wonder, think and explore the world around us. There is always something interesting we can find.





Does this piece fit here?
What happens if it won't go down?
We are learning to experiment using different pieces to find the right way that will work.