As you all know by now, the children in the Rainbow Class have begun to
explore taking sides, forming teams, telling secrets, and other exclusive
behaviors. These types of choices are very normal for four and five-year-olds,
but it was beginning to harm friendships and hurt feelings in our class so the
morahs decided to create a special activity to bring the children together as
one team.
Introducing the Team Rainbow Class Challenge!
An
indoor-outdoor event set across several school days, spanning across winter
break where the only way to win is to get everyone to accomplish every
challenging event!
Opening Ceremony Each Morning
We start flashing the lights. We turn on the
Bulls’ classic entrance music, and we announce each of our team members.
Everyone cheers! Then each child takes their Safe Keeper Card and slam dunks it
into our Safe Keeper Box as they say out loud, “I commit to being safe!” We’ve
been using this method of holding everyone accountable for their actions all
year, but now we are making it even more important and fun.
Once all our friends join us, we circle up and
shout our team cheer:
We
are safe!
We are kind!
No one gets
left behind!
Teeeeaaaaam Rainbow Class!
We are kind!
No one gets
left behind!
Teeeeaaaaam Rainbow Class!
Next
we announce each challenge and get to work!
Rock Spiral Challenge
Using
a photo as a guide, work together to create a rock spiral in our outdoor
environment. The challenge is not finished until everyone walks the entire
spiral from start to finish! Can we do it?
Team
Rainbow Class can do anything!
Hillel got us
started on this challenge by choosing the location to start our rock spiral. He
chose to start in the middle of the palm tree stumps.
Next, everyone
began bringing rocks to this location. Hillel began creating a circle with the
rocks. Once a circle was formed, the children were stumped for a while. They were
not sure how to turn their circle into a spiral.
Bayla stepped in
and figured it out. Bayla then worked with Imie to place the rocks in a spiral
as Ariel F. held up the picture for them to look at. Everyone else continued to
bring more rocks. Everything went smoothly for a while until they were ready to
curve the spiral in the other direction.
Morah Tara
suggested that they trace the photo with their fingers and then match their
work with the motion. This did not seem to help figure out the puzzle.
Morah Mirele
suggested that they go up to the top of the hill and see what the spiral looked
like from far away. This was very helpful! Ariel S. and Bayla came back to the
rocks and were able to curve them to create a new spiral.
Meanwhile, Hillel
and Eliya were digging out the biggest rocks they could find and carrying them
to the group working to create the spiral.
Once the rock
spiral was complete, all of Team Rainbow Class walked from one end to the
other!
We
did it!
Cup Tower Challenge
Work
as a team to build one tower using every plastic cup in our classroom! Every
team member must contribute at least one cup to the tower. Can we do it?
Team
Rainbow Class can do anything!
The team got right to work when they were given a large stack of plastic cups. Everyone began building in a frenzy with towers growing and falling for a few minutes. Whenever a tower fell down, the children raced to grab the cups and add them to their own stacks.
After a while Team Rainbow Class became very focused on collecting cups. Everyone stopped building.
Bayla said, “I don’t have enough.”
Lucy said, “I don’t have any.”
Hillel gave his cups to Eliya. Leah chose to do the same. Eliya had a large stack of cups. Bayla suggested that we pass the cups out like cards so that everyone has the same amount. Eliya started this process by making a stack of two cups and then making another stack of two cups for Bayla. He went back and forth until he and Bayla had the same amount of cups. They checked their stacks to make sure that they were even.
We sat holding cups for a while. Eliya sat on top of his cups. Bayla and Leah did the same after they saw Eliya make that choice. Lucy and Imie whimpered and repeated, “I don’t have any cups.”
Hillel suggested that we make two towers and see which could be bigger. Morah Tara reminded Hillel that the challenge was to work as one team to build one tower.
The children began to grow tired of this activity. It seemed too hard to solve the problem. Everyone wanted to hold their cups and were afraid that if they began building their friends would take their cups from them.
Leah said that the carpet was too squishy. Hillel said that the tower would fall if it gets too high.
The children moved to the tile floor where they had a smoother surface to work on and started building with their cups again. They started to build a successful tower. Then some cups fell down. Ariel S. knocked the rest of the tower down. Everyone tried to grab cups again. Morah Tara reminded Team Rainbow Class that the goal was not to collect the cups; the goal was to build one tower with everyone’s help.
When Bayla placed two cups on the floor to start a tower, Hillel took them. Bayla started to cry and yell, “You can’t take my orange cups. Give them back!” Hillel moved his body away. Bayla continued trying to get Eliya to share his cups and start building. Eliya continued to hold onto his stack of cups.
Imie walked over to Hillel, Leah, and Eliya crying. She said, “I don’t have any cups.” Hillel looked at Morah Tara and said, “She didn’t ask nicely or say, ‘please.’”
Imie tried to stay calm, but yelled to Hillel, “Please, can I have some cups?!”
Hillel said, “Fiiiiiiiine,” and gave her three cups.
Bayla took a break, and then told Hillel calmly, “Give me my cups back.”
Hillel replied, “You didn’t say, ‘Please.’”
Bayla responded, “Please, give me my cups back.”
Hillel went to Eliya who was holding the cups in his stack and got two orange cups to give back to Bayla.
Meanwhile, Lucy, Ariel S., and Ariel F. were building a tower on the floor. A few cups fell from the tower, and everyone remembered not to pick up the cups and add them to their stacks. Instead they took the fallen cups and put them back onto the tower.
Eliya began placing his cups on the floor. Hillel followed him placing cups on top to create a second tier. Lucy came after Hillel adding a third tier of cups as her friends said, “Lucy, we can’t build the tower too high or it will fall down.” Lucy continued for a while with her work, and then heard her friends’ words.
After a really long time and a lot of work (This challenge took over an hour to complete.) everyone on Team Rainbow Class put at least one cup onto the tower that we all built together!
We did it!
Following the Line Challenge
Part Two: Hold hands with two friends and work together to walk along the chalk line without falling off the path or letting go.
Part Three: Hold hands with the entire Team Rainbow Class and complete the chalk line course without breaking the chain or stepping off the path. Can we do it?
Team Rainbow Class can do anything!
Morah Tara stood at the starting line and asked each friend to begin walking once the friend in front of them had enough room to walk without much interference. Right away it was challenging for everyone to understand how to walk along the line. There were two major challenges. The chalk was too light to see in the bright sun and the chalk line made loops that were challenging to follow. A few friends figured it out right away. A few friends needed guidance from their morahs or a chance to start again from the beginning to get it right. Morah Mirele got orange chalk and made the lines more visible.
Morah Tara helped Team Rainbow Class break into groups of three. This was also a confusing event at first. The children learned that they needed to all face in the same direction and that they needed to decide before they began the course which person was going to be the leader. If the second or third friend in line tried to be the leader, the whole group fell off course and had to start from the beginning. Another hard part to this work was that the leader of the group needed to wait for the last person in line to start onto a loop before they could continue moving forward. If they tried to keep going before everyone was where they needed to be they crashed into the last person in line. After a few tries, all three groups were able to complete the course successfully!
For part three, Ariel F. was the leader. The children worked together to form one chain and all face the same direction, then they started onto the course. Morah Tara guided Ariel F. along the course when she got stuck. She knew to wait for all her friends to move within each loop before moving forward. It was challenging for the rest of the team to remember to stop moving their bodies when she stopped. Team Rainbow Class finished the course successfully on the first try!
We did it!
Tire Line Challenge
Team Rainbow Class can do anything!
Leah and Lucy went to the tires by the stumps and started rolling them to the top of the hill. Everyone else went to the tires by the wash where they put them a few weeks ago. Bayla, Eliya, and Ariel S. rolled tires across the playground and up the hill by themselves. Imie, Ariel F. and Lucy worked together to roll a tire.
Once there were several tires at the top of the hill, the children started to line them up. Bayla told Lucy that there could only be two tires in a line. Lucy agreed with her, but put her tire where Bayla disapproved of. After a minute of discussion, Morah Mirele assisted them in deciding which direction they were going to create the line of tires. Once there was an agreement, they were ready to get more tires from the wash.
Ariel F. and Ariel S. worked together to get another tire to the cement. Bayla and Leah were rolling a tire together and Lucy was trying to help them. Eliya and Imie were rolling a very large tire. Leah told Lucy that they did not need her help, and then Eliya yelled, "Lucy we need you with our tire. It's humongous!" Imie agreed with Eliya, and Lucy ran over to them to help get their tire across the playground.
It looked like we were done moving the tires and ready to run through them, but we only counted 9 tires when we thought that there were 10 total. All of Team Rainbow Class then went on a hunt for the tenth tire. We looked and looked, but we couldn't find it, so we decided to finish our challenge. Imie started from one end, and Bayla started from the other. After speaking about it for a minute, they were able to move around each other to each walk through every tire. The rest of the team followed after that.
We did it!
The Last of our Chanukah Explorations This Year
We had a great time making menorahs this week. The children drew really amazing pictures with sharpies on their menorahs! Morah Masha came into our class for this project and talked with us about the properties of Kosher menorahs.
