Child Led Learning And Shabbos Dinner Prep

Documentation for the week of January 23-27, 2017

Shabbos Dinner Discussion

Our class began discussing the CJP Shabbos Dinner at Morning Meeting on Monday. We held a discussion that was similar to last week where we spoke about what we need to do to prepare for the Shabbos dinner on Friday. The children worked together to create a great list of items. They were most interested in creating invitations for their families and in arranging flowers for the tables.

Shabbos Dinner Invitations

On Tuesday, the children were invited to create invitations to send home. We talked about what information that their families needed to have in order to successfully attend our event. We decided that they needed to know where, when, and what they were attending. There were invitations on the Discovery Table for the children to copy with all the information about our dinner. Ariel F., Bayla, and Imie worked together to decorate and copy the letters on the front of the invitations. Hillel wrote the letters on the front and on the inside. Everyone worked very hard on their invitations, and they were so proud of their finished products!

Messy Work

As you have all learned by now, the Rainbow Class has shown us that they are interested in doing messy work. We decided to put several different colors of paint on the Discovery Table on Monday (mixed with soap for easier cleanup and stain removal) for the children to explore. The end product was a huuuuuge mess, but the process that they went through was in-depth and extremely meaningful. They spoke to each other about what happens when they combine colors together, how they could scrape the colors away with the various tools that they were given to use, and how it felt on their feet as the paint dripped off the table. They were thoughtful and reflective in their sensory experiences. It was inspiring to watch (which helped us to be inspired to clean it all up!)

On Wednesday, we made goop. We combined all kinds of things into a bucket and watched what happened as the substance changed. We started out with oil and baking soda. We added liquid watercolor, then water, then flour. We continued to add more water and more flour to watch the substance change from liquid to solid and back again.

Later in the day, the children chose to work with watercolors at the table. Morah Tara asked if they would be interested in painting with the goop to see how it was similar and different from the watercolors. The children chose to do this, and then continued their exploration with the different states of goop that they could create.

Deeper Exploration in our Shabbos Store 

Our Shabbos Store dramatic play took an interesting turn this week! Hillel became very interested in finding a way to feed paper through the receipt roll. He and his friends started out by using regular paper. They quickly realized that they needed to cut the paper into thin strips to make it fit. Morah Mirele showed them how to open the compartments so that they could feed the paper in more easily. 

The children continued to explore this work throughout the week. They experimented with different types of paper, different widths, and lengths of paper to see which paper worked best. 

Character Building Work Continues

We continued our gem and rock character building work this week as well. The children were very motivated last week to make helpful choices simply because we were charting them. This week we chose to add an incentive to keep them interested in this activity. Each morning before we davened, we set a goal for how many helpful choices and hurtful choices we would make that day. The children voted until they reached a goal that everyone was satisfied with setting. If the children met their goal, we had a special activity planned for them in the afternoon! We counted our rocks and gems during afternoon meeting each day this week. 

On Monday, we did not reach our goal of more than 60 gems and less than 15 rocks so we set the same goal for Tuesday. On Tuesday we reached both of our helpful and hurtful goals! We had a dance party to celebrate! On Wednesday, we set a more challenging goal: more than 100 helpful choices and less than 10 hurtful choices. We stayed below our hurtful choices goal, but we did not reach our helpful choices goal. The children decided that, even though they didn't get their special activity, they would get extra time outside since they reached one of their goals. The morahs agreed to these terms. On Thursday, the children decided to continue with the goal that they set the day before, and they reached it! Their special surprise was a game of Hot Lava set up by the Morahs. 

We began choosing classroom jobs as a way to work on character building as well. We worked together to create a list of possible classroom helper jobs early in the week, and the morahs helped each child choose a job later in the week. You can see the list posted by the play story boards. Our current plan is for the children to keep their special jobs for the rest of the year, but we will reassess as the year continues.

Creative Building in the Classroom and on the Playground

There has been so much building happening inside and outside this week! Eliya began building a large tower in the construction area. He remembered that if he uses the whole space he needs to invite all of his friends to play so he very specifically built his tower on half of the rug. This left room for Imie, Ariel F. and Lucy to build a Kids Museum on the other half using green laminated strips of paper. They then went to the table and drew signs for their museum.

Outside the children used chairs and large loose parts to build a table and play house. They chose family roles and made supper together. Then they went to another area to go to sleep. They continued to play in this way all week long!

There were very impressive holes dug outside as well. The children struggled, at times, to work together and to allow other friends to dig in holes that they started digging at an earlier time. The morahs were SO PROUD of the children as they spoke kindly to each other and found ways to work together or to move on to other work so that everyone was able to dig.

Choosing Independent Work

Imie and Oree both chose to work independently this week. It was fun to watch them create meaningful stories in their heads as they chose to work on their own. Oree played outside with some metal bowls and Imie built with blocks and animals. When Morah Tara asked her if she wanted to paint with her friends she said that she did, but she didn't want to get messy. They decided together that she could sit at the other table to use watercolors. She painted an observational drawing of the animals she had been working with.

The Rainbow Class is Interested in Having a Meet Up 

During lunch this week, the children discussed how much fun they have when they go places with their friends. We spoke about how everyone could chose a time and a place to meet up and play together outside of school. They talked about meeting at a park, at the "kids museum," and at the science museum. It would be great for this to actually happen for them! Please let the us know if you are interested in planning an event like this!