Respiratory System

This week in the purple room was all about our respiratory system.
Our friends learned all about how we breath and where the air that we breathe goes.
Our bodies breathe either through our mouth or our nose. Our nose has tiny hair inside that cleans the air from dirt. After we take a breathe the air travels to our air tube called the trachea. The trachea is covered by the epiglottis and every time we breathe it opens up to let the air in. The epiglottis protects our respiratory system from food that we eat because our trachea is behind our esophagus. Ones the air is in the trachea it travels to our lungs where the air is cleaned and spread all over our body. We also learned about the function of our diaphragm. It’s located at the bottom of our lungs and every time we breathe in, the diaphragm goes down and give the lungs more room to expand, and every time we breathe out, the diaphragm comes up to help our lungs get rid of the air it’s not using.
We made our own lungs using balloons and straws to see what happens to our lungs when we breathe in and out.  Please check out our documentation board that documents all of the learning that has taken place over the past month as we learned about the human body.

Questions to ask at home.
Why does the epiglottis need to close our trachea?
Where is the trachea located?
How many lungs do we have?
What does the diaphragm do when we breathe in?
What do the little hairs in our noses do?

Menorahs from Scratch!

This week in the purple room we were waiting for Chanukah to start and we were finishing all our Chanukah projects and our menorahs.
Our friends made a beautiful menorah from scratch. We first had to sand our wooden plank, so it can be smooth. Then we painted and drew Chanukah pictures. While our menorah was drying we melted crayons and poured them in to dreidel molds. When everything dried it was time to put our menorah together. Our friends used wood glue to glue all the parts together so it can be ready for them to light their own menorah on Chanukah .
Our purple room friends also made their own Chanukah booklet, where they drew pictures of their favorite Chanukah games, food and much more. We were also getting ready for dreidels and Dads, and each friend answered questions about their daddy’s, Tatty’s or Papa’s.

Looking forward to continuing the Chanukah celebrations next week!

Morah D

Chanukah

This week in the purple room we learned about Chanukah and played many Chanukah games.
We learned all about why we play dreidels and how it helped the Jewish people learn Torah. Our friends decorated foam dreidels and tried to make their own dreidels out of clay. Our friends learned that the letters on the dreidel stand for Nes Gadol Haya Sham which mean a big miracle happened there, but if you live in Israel the dreidel has a Pey instead of a Shin because in Israel the dreidel letters stand for Nes Gadol Haya Po which means A big miracle happened here.

On Wednesday and Thursday our friends started making their own menorah that they can use during Chanukah to light the candles. We started by sanding down the wood to make it smooth and then we painted it.  We will be finishing them next week so you can light them at home with your families!

Share time this week was all about the letter E.
Nosson brought in his egg toy, it was yellow inside and made sounds.
Vella brought in an Elton John CD that she found in her moms car.
Shimmy brought in an electricity box that he made with his papa, it lights up and has blue tape.
Nechama brought in her brother's elephant and an emergency room that her brother built with legos, the emergency room had a toilet and water.
Ben shared an elephant that he found in our class room, it was a baby and was hard.


Shabbat shalom
Morah D

Chanukah story!

After an awesome thanksgiving week where our purple room friends learned all about what being thankful means and enjoyed a wonderful thanksgiving meal with the whole CJP family we returned to a new and exciting week.

This week in the purple room we have been learning all about Chanukah.  Our class was decorated with dreidels, menorahs, candles and many different Chanukah stickers and books.  Chanukah is coming up and all our friends are very interested in why we celebrate Chanukah. We learned about the story of Chanukah, that there was a very mean king named Antiochus, who didn’t let the Jews learn Torah and he made the Bais Hamikdash very dirty. We played the game of dreidel and learned that the Jews also played dreidel when they were in the cave.  The Jewish people would secretly learn Torah and if they saw Antiochus' soldiers coming they would quickly hide the books and play dreidel.

Our friends can’t wait to eat all the latkas and sufganiot, as we learned that we eat food that is cooked in oil.  This is because during the time of Antiochus the Jews only had enough oil for 1 day, but Hashem made a miracle and the oil lasted for 8 days and nights.

We also introduced a new Montessori math work to our classroom, and we have been learning how to make the number 11-19 in a tangible way.  

Looking forward to more Chanukah learning and preparation next week!

Morah D

Our Digestive System

This week in the Purple room we learned about the digestive system, and how our food travels through our body.
Our friends learned that we eat food with our mouth, we break the food down with our teeth, and we have saliva that makes our food smooth so that it can go down our esophagus smoothly. Our friends got to feel their esophagus in their neck and learn that the esophagus connects our mouth to our stomach where the food gets broken down even more because of the gastric juices in our stomachs.  After the stomach the food moves to the small intestine and the large intestine. We tried to build a digestive system in class using pipes and Morah D used a small rock to show how it moves inside the pipes.

Share Day this week was all about the letter B. 

(Direct quotes from each child below)
Ben brought in his Batman suit that had lots of black and yellow on it.  We had a special guest, Jemma from the Blue Room, who loves batman so she came for share to see Ben in his Batman outfit.  We all got to try the costume on, thank you Ben for sharing!  Vella brought in basil that grows in her backyard. It was green and she cooks with it.  Shimmy brought in his book that he read to the class, we all laughed because of all the oops in the story.  Nosson brought in his boat. It’s his bath toy that he shares with Bayla and Nosson got his boat from "before he was born".  Nechama brought in a bear toy that had fur but not real fur, she drew on the bottom of her bears feet so that she knew it was hers and not Dovid’s. Nechama bought her bear from target if anyone wants one.

In this week's parsha of Toldos we learn about how Yitchak and Rivkah had twins, Yaakov and Aisav. Yitzchak loved to learn and Aisav loved to hunt and play games. One day Yaakov was making a delicious lentil soup, Aisav came home and was very hungry and asked Yakov if he can have some. Yakov said sure in exchange for the Bracha of the first born, Aisav agreed.  Yitchak was getting older and it was time for him to give the first born bracha. He called in Aisav to tell him, Aisav was so excited so he went out to make a meal for his father. Meanwhile Rivka told Yaakov about this and told him to dress up like Aisav so that Yitzchak will give him the Bracha. When Yaakov went in Yitchak said you feel like Aisav but you have the voice of Yaakov, so he gave him the Bracha of the firstborn.  We made lentil soup this week just like Yaakov did in the parsha!

Shabbat Shalom

Morah D

Our Hands and Letter A Share

This week in the purple room we learned about arms and hands.
Our friend drew their hands, counted their fingers and practiced writing numbers.

Our room was filled with different materials made of different textures and we enjoyed using our hands and fingers to see how each one felt.  We used rocks to paint with instead of paintbrush’s. 

Morah D set up a challenge table and each area was filled with a different material.
The first station had cubes and letters, our friends used their hands to make the letters out of cubes.
The second and third station had glass stones and rocks to make letters.
The fourth station was rubber bands and we used our fingers to make the letters.

Share day is back and this week was the letter A. All of our friends had to bring something they have or found that began with the letter A.
Ben brought in an airplane named Dusty that has a spinner and is not a mooksa toy.
Nosson brought in an airplane that "he didn’t know where it came from because it was in his family before he was born". His airplane is also not a mooksa toy because it has no batteries and no screws.
Shimmy brought in an action suit that had a belt, cape and a suite with muscles attached.
Vella brought in her sister Ava for share because she starts with the letter A. "Ava was not warm, her hair is soft and she has hard knees".
Nechama brought in her arm band from when she was born, it was hard, soft, and squishy.
In this week's parsha of Chayei Sara we learned with Morah Gitty all about Sara and the 3 special gifts:  Her candles stayed lit from Shabbos to Shabbos, Her challah always satisfied her guests and Hashem rested above her tent. We also learnt about how Yitzchak found a wife, her name was Rivka!   He knew she was the right one when Sara's 3 special gifts came back. At the end of the parsha Avraham passes away at 175 years old.

Shabbat Shalom! Please check the facebook group for lots of pictures from this week.

Morah D

Using our Feet!

This week in the purple room was all about our legs, feet, and toes.
On Monday we learned about the different parts of our legs. We counted our toes, all our friends counted 5 toes on each foot. We learned that we use our feet to walk and our knees to crawl. Ben told us that "Boo Boo uses his knees to crawl and feet to walk" and then all our friends tried to crawl on their knees.
Tuesday and Wednesday were fun days in our classroom, we used our legs to do different obstacle courses that Morah D set out for us.
Tuesdays obstacle course started with playing soccer to pass, run and kick the ball using our legs.  After soccer we jumped over tires. We had a line of feet facing different directions, and our friends jumped and turned their bodies in the direction of the feet. We finished our obstacle course by dipping our feet into paint and walking on paper to see our footprints.  We had lots of fun slipping in the paint and getting dirty.  On Wednesday instead of dipping our feet into the paint we tried to use our toes to grab the paint brush and paint with our toes.
Thursday and Friday were muddy days.  Our obstacle course was crawling through tires, pulling on ropes and dipping our feet in mud. Our friends used lots of sand and water to make the mud, which felt very dirty and gooey to them.  The mud was also different from paint, and our friends realized that they can feel different textures with their feet as well as their hands.

This week we started learning Parsha with Morah Gitty.  In this week's parsha of Vayera we learned all about Abraham and Sarah’s hachnasat orchim (inviting guests). We created Abraham's tent which had 4 doors for all to visit. We also learnt about the 3 malachim (angels) that came with 2 pieces of news, one that Sara will have a baby and the other that the city of Sedom will be destroyed. We also learnt all about akeidas yitchak, how Avraham always listened to Hashem.

Lech Lecha

This week in the purple room we learned all about parshas Lech Lecha and the different faces we see every day. On Monday we learned who Avraham was and how he found Hashem. When Avraham was 3 years old he thought the sun was Hashem. At night he noticed that the sun disappeared and the moon appeared instead. He knew that the sun and the moon could not be Hashem. An angel came to Avraham and told him about Hashem.  Avraham became a very important person, he was teaching everyone about Hashem. To test Avraham, Hashem told him to leave his fathers house and go to a new land. Avraham listened to Hashem and left, but he wasn’t sure where to go. He saw all kinds of people on his way, and Hashem finally told him to settle in Canaan.  Avraham was very old and he didn't have any children.  Hashem promised him that he was going to have as many children as the stars in the sky and finally Avraham had a son named Yitzchak! Avraham was a very kind person and loved having guests that even when he had just had a bris, he still invited people to his tent.

We made self portraits this week, and learned about different kinds of faces and what they might look like when we are happy, sad, excited, or angry.  On Monday we made silly faces using rocks.  We also counted different parts of our face.  We counted our eyelashes, some of our friends had 90 lashes, while others only counted 10 or 20.

Our friends used jems to create sad faces, and used cubes to build robot faces.  This turned into building big robots and Nosson tried to create the tallest robot and make it the "Hashem robot".

On Thursday and Friday we used cut up papers and clay to make faces, and we had Morah Jac come to our class so that our friends can draw her face.

We also learned about other parts on our faces that we can’t see. We learned that lashes protect our eyes from dust and dirt, we also have wipers inside our eyes and every time we blink the wipers clean our eyes just like the wipers on a truck. Our noses also have little hairs inside that clean the air we breath in. Our friends tried breathing through our nose and mouth to see which was easier. The mouth won.
 
Have a good Shabbat!
Morah D

Breishis and Creation!

Welcome back!

After celebrating so many great holidays we're back to a full and fun packed schedule.  

During the past 2 weeks our purple room friends have fully experienced what a sukkah is. We ate in a kosher sukkah outside where we can see the stars and we ate in a non kosher sukkah that we built inside our room were we couldn't see the stars. We also learned all about Simchas Torah and that we begin reading all of the Parshiot from the beginning.

This week in the purple room we learned all about parshas Breishis and parshas Noach.  We learned that Breishis is the first word in our Torah and in this first parsha Hashem created the world. We began a collaborative project to demonstrate what was created on each day of creation.  On day one Hashem created light and darkness. Our friends used yellow and black paint to paint the light and dark.  On day two Hashem created the heavens and water.  To recreate the shomayim our friends used white cotton balls and glue, to create the water they used blue and clear stones and then poured blue glitter on top.
Tuesday we learned all about what Hashem created on the third and fourth day.  On the third day Hashem created land, mountains, fruits, vegetables and flowers. Our friends worked together outside to collect leaves, flowers and rocks.  They made sure to only collect materials that fell on the ground because they didn't want to hurt what Hashem created. We used all of the collected materials to make land, trees, fruits, vegetables and a mountain. On the fourth day Hashem created the sun, moon, stars and he hid the holy light for tzaddikim in the future. To make the sun we used yellow markers to make circles, to make the moon and stars we used black and gray markers to make a half moon because Shimmy  told us he has never seen a full moon.

On Wednesday we learned about the last two days of creation. On the fifth day Hashem created birds, lizards, fish, and leviathans. To recreate the fifth day our friends searched through all of the animals in our room to find which animals were created and which were not.  We used some of the birds and sea creatures to add to our canvas.  On the sixth day Hashem created all the other animals and finally he created people. Our friends took all of the animals and paired them up because Hashem created all the animals in pairs and glued them to our picture.  To make people we used twisty sticks and cotton balls. We also learned that's Hashem created people last because he wanted the world to be ready for them.

We finished the week off learning about Shabbat. Hashem rested on the seventh day and enjoyed what he created, that's why we also rest on Shabbat and keep it holy. The next parsha is parshas Noah, and some of the animals that were on the ark came to visit us. The petting zoo brought chickens, sheep, goats,ducks,a rooster, and a llama for all our friends to play with and brush their hair. 

Please ask your children about what Hashem created, they were all so excited to learned and create each day.
Shabbat shalom
Moral D

Yom Kippur

This week in the purple room we learned all about Yom Kippur.

On Monday we learned that on Yom Kippur many adults fast, but the children are not allowed to fast. Our friends learned that we wear white clothing so we look like angels.  We also don't wear leather shoes on Yom Kippur.  It is a special day to do teshuva and say sorry for anything we may have done wrong over the past year.  We daven to Hashem to write us in the book of life for a wonderful sweet year!

On Tuesday our friends learned about Kaparot, we take a live hen or rooster and turn it over our heads 3 times and say a pasuk.

In our math center this week, we played the game uno.  You can learn a lot from Uno! We matched colors, numbers, counted our cards and had fun playing a game while learning.

On Wednesday and Thursday we read the story of Yona and the whale.  We spoke about how he didn't listen to Hashem and was swallowed by a big fish, but he did Teshuva and Hashem forgave him. 

We discovered that we can use our math rods for building a maze! It was lots of fun. We tried to balance a pillow, a cup and a bell while counting our steps walking through the maze and trying not to drop the pillow, cup or ring the bell.  This was very hard and very funny.

In our out door play ground our friends had to clean up all the toys and help Morah move the stumps to create new seats all over our play ground, the stumps were very heavy but we learned that if we turn them over and work together we can roll them to their new spot.

Have a great weekend and easy fast.
Morah D

Building our own Shul

Rosh Hashana is almost here! In the purple room we learned all about the different names of Rosh Hashana, we ate green and red apples to see which one is sweet and sour and dipped sweet apples into honey for sweet new year. Our friends learned about teshuva, and tashlich, and what we say on Rosh Hashana.

SHANA TOVA
Our dramatic area was filled with pictures of a round challah, shofars for friends to feel and blow, candles for them to light and say a bracha, apples and honey for them to try and a machzors for them to daven with.

Our block area was filled with pictures of different shuls, so our friends built there own shul, an Aaron for the Torahs, and seats for them to sit and daven.  We even had Rabbi Tzvi come blow the shofar in our new shul. The next day in our block area our friends built an Aaron Kodesh next to Kitchen 18, and they only served meat-not dairy, because Kitchen 18 doesn't have pizza.

Thursday was a busy day with baking honey cake.  We filled up the whole school with a holiday smell, that reminded Ben and Shimmy that they made a lemon cake for their grandpas birthday.
Nosson said "that's cool, I will need a cake when I'm Bar Mitzvah'd".
Ben said "call us when it's your Bar Mitzvah and we'll make you a cake".

Shares this week
Vella brought in her blue stone that she loves "I can see the whole carpet when you look through it" and again it was hard.
Nosson brought a monster truck "The wheels spin, some of it is glass"
Ben brought an ambulance "It's white on top gray on the bottom" Nosson said "No it's silver".
Shimmy brought a butterfly "It's made of wood, it's smooshy ".
Nechama brought in her bobcat, the whiskers were made of strings and it's eyes were hard.

Have a good weekend & Shabbat shalom
Morah D

PS Please see the Facebook group for lots more pictures of our week!

The beginning of Rosh Hashana learning!

This week in the purple room we discussed what everyone did during the long weekend.

Vella said " I played and went to bed."

Nosson said " I watched a video, and played on my Ipad, and I went to the park with my cousins the Lipskers. "

Ben said " I went to a new park and we didn't see anything it was so dark."

Shimmy said " I went to snow."

Nechama said " i went to Target and bought a dinosaur."  which she brought on her share day.

Our friends are very excited that we finished  our calendar!  After so much fun and hard work we were finally able to put our calendar together.  While we were putting the calendar together we enjoyed remembering who wrote each number and letter. We learned the days of the week in Hebrew and English, and we learned that Hebrew letters are also numbers.
 

During our quiet time we are still have lots of fun while learning independently. Each friend wrote there full names in Hebrew and English using dry erase markers.  Later during the week we added writing Hebrew letters, upper case ABC, and numbers 1-10, learning that the number 10 is made of two numbers 1 and 0.

  

Rosh Hashana is close by, so our friends started learning about the different names of Rosh Hashana, why we blow the Shofar, why we eat apples dipped in honey, and much more. To have a fun discussion about the holiday Morah D hid objects that pertain to Rosh Hashana in balloons filled with water and froze them.  The next day our friends had to chisel the objects from the ice and tell us about why and what the object is used for.

Share day started last week. Each friend brings in something very special to them, they tell all our friends about it, the class is able to ask questions and have a chance to feel/touch what they brought.

Last week Nosson brought a sling shot that has many colors and he showed us how to use it.

Last week Vella brought in a hard-not-soft doll named Claudine " I pretend to play with it and I love it"

Last week Ben brought in his Spiderman that "He has a bottom which says 4 years and up."  Nosson replied "Spiderman wears leggings and underwear on top"

Last week Nechama brought a fluffy pilliow that she has had for a very long time and she sleeps with it.

Last week Shimmy brought in Dusty the plane and boat "it lands in water, it is red and black and white"

   

This weeks share.

Shimmy brought a ball and a Frisbee that is purple, the Frisbee was hard but the ball was soft.

Ben brought a tortoise that is sharp, sticky, and smells like clay, AND OF COURSE ITS HARD.

Nechama's share came all the way from target to visit us. He is very hard. Nechama also showed us the correct way the dinosaur roars.  

Vella brought her blue stone like the letter Ll and she really really really loves it.

Nossson brought in a snake that opens its mouth and its not hard on the bottom.

Shabbat Shalom Morah D

Calendar for the New Year!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
  In the purple room this week we worked on our Hebrew calendar. All of our friends wrote the Hebrew days, months, year and numbers. Look out for the official Purple Room calendar next week, made entirely by our class! 

  Mitzva was a big topic this week, learning what a mitzva is and how we can do more mitzvos through out the day.
Nosson said " To help someone, and say' please can I have'. If we do a mitzva Hashem gets closer."
Ben " Light candles"
Batya (Vella) "I put on my shoes and say Thank you to my mommy."
Shimmy " Say Thank you to my mommy."
Nechama " Saying Thank you."



Many mitzvos happen every day in our class.  Vella was running around in the classroom and Nechama said "Vella don't run it's the rule, you can get hurt. Stop I don't want you to get hurt your my best friend."

Our class room mitzva we spoke about this week is saying Hi and how are you when we meet new people and our friends.



















Our sensory bin this week has been filled with dirt and play food, our friends searched through the dirt to 'dig up' the food and told everyone the bracha for that food.











   Our math area this week has all been about numbers recognizing them and counting. We used our puzzle pictures to count the number of pictures and connect them to the right number

Our block area was filled with pictures this week of buildings, parks, castles, roads, and playgrounds.
Ben and Shimmy built a castle on a hill.
Ben said: "No it's not a hill it's a volcano"
Shimmy said: " Morah D all the blocks don't fit we need a screw driver."

It was another wonderful week full of learning and exploring.  Looking forward to next week when we will begin to learn about Rosh Hashana.

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah D

Welcome to Pre-K

Welcome back to another fantastic year at CJP! We started off the school meeting new friends and talking about our Summer.

Batya (Vella) Spent her summer "learning silly letters".
Nechama went to Bear-izona "I saw black bears, white wolves, and a fox".
Ben went to Disney "I went to downtown Disney, its a hotel. There was a monorail slide under."
Shimmy went to Disney too "We went to  snow and saw a wolf."
Nosson traveled all over "I go to the water park with my floaties and goggles, I lost a blue thing on my goggles, I went to NY on a flight and someone picked us up."  So if someone found Nosson's blue thing from his goggles please bring it to the Purple room!

All our friends were so excited to see our new room and all of the new centers.We have a library with many books and it is also a quiet space if anyone needs some time to themselves.  Dramatic Play is where all of our friends can dress up, cook, set up a Shabbat table and let there imagination take them away.
 



















Block and Circle time: This area is very special, during circle time we pray to Hashem and have very important discussions about our feelings, parsha, brachos, and many other lessons.  Our friends also use this area for blocks where they have been building parks, zoos, their own homes.



Math and Science: Our friends learn numbers using our new math materials like the spindle box. We also have 3 new friends in our science center: a tortoise named Shelly who loves lettuce and 2 Parakeets named Ricky and Lucy who loves to sing and play with toys.



This week we have been going outside to document the progression of our playground, each friend has been using a paper and colored pencils to draw what they see and add anything new as the build our playground.
When I asked them what they drew these were their answers:
"Nechama drew trees
Ben drew tire tracks
Nosson drew bike track and steps
Batya (Vella) drew the rainbow class " because I love Imie"
Shimmy drew the hose and bike track".

The purple room friends have been working on writing their names in Hebrew and English. We are also working on creating our own calendar.  We have been practicing writing each day of the week, the numbers 1-31 and decorating them with branches, buttons, glitter, sugar, cocoa, sparkles, and googly eyes. This has been a very exciting, imaginative and educational week.

Shabbat Shalom.  Looking forward to a great week next week!

Morah D

The Beginning of the End (of Preschool)

Documentation for the week of May 15-19, 2017 

Stumps did not Stump the Rainbow Class!

There was a very interesting situation that occurred on the stumps this week. It was truly impressive to watch the children negotiate and problem solve through it! At first, most of the Rainbow Class was hopping from stump to stump in a circle. Oree and Bayla were experimenting with jumping over one stump to the next one in the circle. They were very nervous about it, but also brave! Ariel F. and Lucy have mastered this skill, and were also attempting to skip stumps as they jumped. Imie, Hillel, and Leah were jumping from one stump to another without skipping. The challenge in this work was to make sure that the stump that one child was hoping to jump to was open for them without another child already standing there. This was difficult with so many friends on the stumps at one time! Everyone was able to use calm voices and ask their friends nicely to move so that they could reach their individual goals.

Several friends then chose to run away and play Elsa and Ana- a game they had previously started playing and forgotten about. Hillel and Eliya both wanted to be Olaf. They each tried to convince the other to be Christoph, but neither of them wanted to be. Leah and Oree took over and created a guessing game to decide who would be Olaf. Hillel won the game. Eliya tried again to convince Hillel to let him be Olaf. Leah suggested that there could be two Olafs since there was more than one Ana and Elsa. Both boys disagreed. They decided to play another guessing game. Leah led the game this time, and Eliya one. Once all of the roles were decided, they went into their imaginary play.

Lucy, Imie, and Ariel F. chose to stay on the stumps. They were able to negotiate their way around with fewer people much more easily. Then something interesting happened: Oree and Bayla returned to the stumps and wanted to sit on them. Since they had been jumping earlier, they understood that the children who were jumping needed a stump to be open if they were going to jump to it. Without much discussion at all, Oree and Bayla continued to move from one stump to another and sit so that their friends could continue their jumping work. This went on for several minutes. At the same time, Imie was afraid to jump from a certain stump, because the space in between was larger so she kept jumping all the way around the circle in one direction and then returned around the circle in the other direction. Lucy and Ariel F. were continuing to jump in one direction, but they were skipping some stumps and not skipping others. 

The children's ability to work through this challenge with such ease shows how much they have grown. They were able to plan, predict, and execute their personal work while having a vast awareness of the friends around them. The children respected each other and each other's work. There were times that the children grew frustrated, but they did not lash out or give up. They took breaths, calmed their bodies down, and used their words kindly when they asked a friend to move. 

Human Piles and Human Pyramids

On Tuesday afternoon the children were getting a bit rowdy. They were singing and dancing while holding hands. At one point they chose to pile on top of each other near the library mirror. They were having lots of fun until two friends got hurt in the human pile.

Morah Tara suggested that instead of a pile, they could try to create a human pyramid! They looked at a picture of a human pyramid together, and started to mimic the picture. This moved into an exploration of body types. Our friends who were very tall and strong needed to be on the bottom while our friends who were smaller needed to be on top. The children spoke to each other about what their bodies were like in relation to each other, and decided where each friend should be in the pyramid. Hillel really wanted to be on the top and Lucy really wanted to be on the bottom, but they realized that that wouldn't be safe for everyone's bodies. We built a few human pyramids after that!

End-of-the-Year Artwork

We began to work on an art project for the children to take home at the end of the year. On Monday we painted canvases and let them dry. 

Next we gave the children papers with boxes on them. Each box had the name of a child in our class underneath it. The children worked to draw a picture or write a message to each of their friends in our class. After that, they cut the boxes out and found a bowl with that child's name on it. 

Next week we will use mod podge to put the papers along with a class photo onto the canvases! We thought that this would be a great project for the end of the year, because it allows the children to express themselves, provide a caring gift to each of their classmates, and have something to hang on their wall at home to remember the Rainbow Class!