Documentation for the week of February 27-March 3, 2017
Making Hamantashen with Play Dough
We started the week with a sequencing activity. The children followed picture instructions on the discovery table to create hamantashen using two colors of play dough. Leah, Bayla, and Oree loved this work! This was the first time we have seen them follow instructions in this way at school, and they did a great job! They asked if they could let the play dough dry, so we put it at the top of the discovery shelf for a few days. They also asked if they could sell their hamantashen at a bakery, so we changed our dramatic play area from a mishloach manos basket making station into a hamantashen bakery on Thursday. They were able to shop at the bakery, bag and sell the dried hamantashen, as well as make more hamantashen. It was so fun to see the children naturally expanding their work into bigger ideas and being able to make it happen for them!
Literacy Work
We continued using literacy trays this week. There was a tray for the children to match letters to pictures based on the first sound in the picture.
There was a tray for children to build words with blocks and then write them on a dry erase sentence strip.
There was a tray that instructed the children to write letters on one side and find them on the other side.
The literacy table had Purim words for the children to copy.
The discovery table was transformed during literacy time for the children to create letters out of loose parts on different types of trays.
All of these activities are helping the children recognize all the capital and lower case letters of the English alphabet. Next week during literacy time we will be focusing on creating our own Magillah. After that we will begin immersing our literacy work with English letters, Hebrew letters, and numbers.
Fundraising with the Coin Truck
We had such a fun opportunity to pour our tzedakah coins into the coin truck to raise money for the synogogue! The children were all able to take buckets or cups of coins and pour them into the counting machine. It was so much fun that we continued to do this work for almost an hour! Thank you to everyone who brought in coins to donate! The coolest part was that they gave us all the foreign coins that were rejected by the machine. We will get them cleaned up and explore all the foreign money after our Purim unit!
Graphing the Letters in our Names
We wanted to incorporate our literacy work into a math activity this week by charting the letters in our names. We created two graphs for the children to fill in. One for our English names and one for our Hebrew names. It was challenging for them to see the letter in their name and then color in the corresponding square. Most children wanted to write the letter in the box. This would have been fine too, but they chose to "correct" their mistake and color the whole box in. Once all of the names were charted, we counted the letters. We spoke about which letters had the most and which had the least. We also spoke about the mistakes in graphing that we made. This activity required a lot of thought and impulse control in order to create an accurate chart.
Our Purim Art Project
Every year, each class does an art project to be auctioned off in the silent auction at the Purim party. We chose to create a piece of art similar to the famous artist, Hockney, who is known for creating one large painting by making several smaller paintings. We chose to break up a picture and have each child use sharpies on page protectors for their portion of the piece. Our class originally voted on doing a portrait of the Rebbe, but we could not find a high definition photo for them so we voted again.
There were several ideas that we spoke about. Bayla suggested a Shabbos table. Lucy suggested a picture that "exhilarates the world to be safe with Hashem shining down on the world." Leah suggested that we do a picture of the Purim story. We narrowed our choices down and voted on a Shabbos table. This, too, was a bit hard to find a high definition photo to print, so Morah Tara chose three photos for the children to choose from that related back to Judaism somehow.
When these photos were printed as small images, the children voted one more time using our wood pieces and their voting stones just like we use to vote for our gems and rocks goal each day. They chose a beautiful picture of a Jewish star on a building with bricks. It's going to be beautiful when it is finished, and it would look amazing in any of your homes! (That is a plug to bid on it at the silent auction!)
Blanket Challenges
We had a conflict this week when we had two groups of children building near each other, and they were able to work it out in a thoughtful way that worked for all of them! Oree, Hillel, Eliya, and Ariel S. were building a ship on the gray rug. Lucy and Ariel F. were building a bed on the tile nearby. Ariel F. needed to leave her work to graph her name with Morah Tara, but asked Ariel S. to save it for her.
While Ariel F. was graphing, Oree was trying to lay down on the ship with covers. She had one cover, but it didn't cover her feet so she asked Ariel S. to get her a blanket to cover them. Ariel S. chose a blanket from Ariel F.'s work. This upset Ariel F. when she returned.
Oree and Ariel F. shouted back and forth for a short time, and then Morah Tara took them into the hallway to work it out. Lucy and Ariel S. chose to join them in solving the problem. Oree was able to articulate that she needed the blanket so her feet could be covered and she could feel cozy. Ariel F. said that she was mad that Ariel S. took her blanket when she had asked her to save her work. Ariel S. responded that she was trying to help Oree. Morah Tara asked how they could solve the problem. Oree said that they could take turns. Ariel F. did not like that plan. Eventually they all decided together that they could build a new place to sleep together.
By this point, Lucy and Ariel S. had moved onto other work, but Oree and Ariel F. worked together to use planks and fabrics to make a bed together. There was another conflict as they worked about who got which blanket so that they could both stay warm and cozy. This time, they were able to work it out together by explaining to each other why they each needed the blanket. Ariel F. suggested using two small blankets to replace one large blanket by Oree's feet. Oree got upset when she thought that Ariel F. was going to take the blanket they both wanted away from her, but Ariel F. clarified that she was going to put the two smaller blankets on top of the large blanket so Oree could see her plan and then decide if she liked it or not. Oree decided that she did like it, and Ariel F. took the large blanket. They happily got under the covers and got cozy together. This experience was so great to witness because these two girls hadn't spent much time playing together before, and they were able to work through a conflict in a meaningful way that strengthened their bond with each other.
When we think about our work as teachers, this is the work that we consider the most important in our classroom and it's been such a wonderful experience to watch the children grow their vocabulary and problem solving skills with each other throughout the year.
Outdoor Work
Oree, Imee, Lucy, and Ariel F. chose to fill cups with water and draw on the concrete with it. Oree and Imie used paint brushes, but there weren't any more paintbrushes for Ariel F. and Lucy so they searched for branches to use as paintbrushes. Some branches wouldn't work so they tried to find branches that worked better.
Lucy and Ariel F. scavenged flowers from the ground near the bushes. They added water and made flower soup!
The children worked to create very interesting loose parts forts again this week!
Hooray for mud! The children had so much fun getting muddy on Monday! Oree got a bit discouraged when she got mud on her hands!
Ariel S. chose to use a large paintbrush and dip it in the mud. Then she took the paintbrush up the hill and painted on the concrete!
Morah Masha brought in more loose parts this week! Ariel S. used the large gutter drain to create a long water slide. Lucy and Ariel F. used chalk inside the water table to change the color of the water. Lucy said, "It's like food coloring!"
