Chanukah Gift Factory and More!

Candle Making with Rabbi Deitsch

As we mentioned last week, the children discussed and voted on possible gifts to make for our families. Spoiler Alert: They chose candles! Rabbi Deitsch was kind enough to set up the candle making activity and walk our class through it! The children were given strings and shown how to dip them into wax to create candles. The process took about an hour, and the children were so calm and safe the whole time! It was truly amazing to watch them regulate their minds and bodies!

 

 

Ariel S. missed candle making with Rabbi Deitsch, so she made candles out of beeswax.

Gift Wrapping Station

The dramatic play area of our classroom turned into a gift wrapping station this week...or so we thought it did! At first the children worked hard to follow the instructions on the signs. They chose empty boxes, wrapping paper, and ribbon. They used scissors and scotch tape to wrap up gifts all by themselves! This shows their abilities to follow a sequence of instructions, a math skill. They also used fine and gross motor skills to manipulate the wrapping paper, scissors, ribbon, and tape. 

At the end of the wrapping station there was space to create cards as well. There were signs so that they could copy the writing onto their own cards. The children enjoyed this process as well as coloring in dreidel pictures this week showing how much their writing and letter comprehension skills have grown this year!

After a while, the children's imaginations allowed the wrapping station materials to transform into new work. Bayla and Ariel S.used the wrapping paper to create beds and homes. Eliya, Hillel, and Leah unraveled the ribbons and used them as treasure in the huge ship that they built. Lucy and Ariel F. chose to twirl around and dance with the ribbons. Imie and Morah Mirele used a wrapping paper tube to look and listen to each other. The morahs were humbled by their ability to create imaginary play scenarios with the materials provided to be used in such a conventional way.

Wrapping Chanukah Presents

Once our candles were made and able to cool for a day, we wrapped them up in our wrapping station. 

First we checked to see if the candles would fit in a gift box. If they did not, we talked about the word, Fragile, and how it means that the candles could break if we are not gentle with them once they are wrapped. 

Second, we measured the candles on the wrapping paper. Third, we cut the wrapping paper to create a rectangle. 

Fourth, we taped the wrapping paper around the candles.

Menorah Exploration

There was a menorah with candles out at the discovery table today. Hillel and Lucy chose to put dreidels in each candle holder. Ariel F. chose to place candles in each candle holder. We discussed how to place candles in properly on Chanukah and which direction to light them from.

Napping is SO Last Year

Over the past few weeks, less and less friends have been falling asleep during recharge time. Last week no one fell asleep, and it was a big challenge for everyone to get all of the nap materials out, rest quietly, and put the nap materials away. Since the children showed us that they were finished with rest time, we decided to introduce a new way of recharging our bodies. Now we can extend open exploration time if the children are very engaged in their work, because we can push back play story drawing and lunch. Once everyone has finished lunch, we sit together for afternoon meeting and learn techniques to calm our bodies such as squeezing our arms and legs or rubbing our eyes and foreheads. These techniques are great tools for times that the children are very energetic or very upset as well.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Thank you all for taking the time out of your evening and arranging to join us for parent teacher conferences! It was great to speak with you all about how much your children have been learning and growing in our classroom this year!

Continuing Our Chanukkah Explorations

Exploring Water and Oil

We began our week with two tubs of liquids to explore. One tub had water and one tub had oil. The children used scooping and stirring tools to explore the two different substances. Bayla noticed that they were both liquids. Lucy noticed that it was gooey feeling on her hands. Eliya noticed that the oil was yellow and the water was white because of the table underneath it. Oree noticed that there were lots of oil "bubbles" when you combined the oil and the water together. Leah noticed that the combination was like soap. Hillel noticed that the water stayed clear when oil was added to it: the whole tub didn't change colors. Ariel S. noticed that there was yellow on top and clear on the bottom. Imie saw that there were swirls of yellow when she stirred. As the children worked, we asked them questions like, "Do you think that water could make lamps at night like the oil did in ancient Israel?" We talked about the possibilities of oil and water as we observed how they interacted with each other.

I had a little dreidel. I made it out of clay.

We had real clay to use to make real dreidels this week! Ariel S. and Hillel started out by using a dreidel as a stamp in their clay.

As the children began attempting to make dreidels, it became clear to them that it would be hard to make the main shape of the dreidel. It was such a different shape than the challahs that they shape each week. Lucy created a ring with her clay, and added more rings until she had a dreidel shape created. When they asked for help, Morah Tara explained that they could start with a ball, and then pound each side to create a cube. Once they understood this process, they began making amazing dreidels. After they created their cubes, they added the tip on top and the point on the bottom. They then struggled again to add the letters to each side. Imie chose to use a toothpick to make her letters. Bayla and Oree began shaping their letters out of clay as Leah was still creating her cube shape. Instead of making tiny letters for a dreidel, Bayla and Oree chose to focus on making larger letter shapes instead. Oree created a Shin out of her clay. Leah said, "There's no 'E' on a dreidel. When we all looked together, we realized that from one angle Oree's Shin looked like an E. What a great discovery! We used Bayla's larger dreidel, and turned it from side to side to see how a Shin could transform into an E. Leah chose to start creating clay letters too.

Leah also chose to create a narwhal with her clay. She used a toothpick for it's tusk!

Amazing Progress in Problem Solving with Each Other

We had an opportunity this week to tie in the Chanukkah story with our continuous focus on problem solving. As we shared the Chanukkah story, we asked the children: When the Greeks told the Jews that they could not keep kosher, keep Shabbos, or study Torah, did the Jews decide that they must simply listen to the Greeks? Did the Jews cry and cry, because they were told not to follow their hearts? Did they each come up with their own plan and solve the problem individually? Did they yell at the Greeks? The children responded that they chose to find a solution to their problem as a community. This allowed the children to reflect on their own abilities to problem solve together in our classroom, and we were able to truly see how capable they have become at this task!

 Leah came to Morah Tara on Tuesday crying. She said that Bayla had her toy cow out, but wasn't sharing it. She told Morah Tara that that was against the rules. Morah Tara agreed with her and asked her what she could do to fix the problem. Leah repeated, with teary eyes, Bayla isn't sharing. Again, Morah Tara told her that she was breaking the classroom rules and asked Leah what she could do about it. Since Morah Tara was keeping other friends safe by watching them play in the cave, she couldn't walk with Leah to talk to Bayla. After a few minutes, Morah Mirele came to sit by the cave, and Morah Tara went to the table with materials to make clay dreidels. At the table Bayla was sitting with her cow next to her feet on one side and Leah on the other. Morah Tara asked Bayla if she remembered the classroom rule about having a toy out at school. Leah said, "We decided that Bayla would have a turn for twelve minutes and then I would have a turn for twelve minutes." Bayla nodded her head in agreement. They did not have a clock near them, a timer close by, or the ability to tell time, but they solved their problem with each other completely on their own! Once we began working with clay, the cow was forgotten about.

Outside near the mud trap- a popular game- Eliya and Hillel were talking. Morah Tara heard them from afar talking about a challenge that they were facing. She couldn't hear what they said about what the problem was, but she did hear Eliya say to Hillel, "We can talk about that later when we share our play stories." Hillel agreed with Eliya and they talked about what they were going to talk about later to solve their problem. Remembering the space we set each afternoon to discuss problem solving skills, allowed them to unknowingly solve their problem in the moment that they were facing it.

On Wednesday morning, Ariel S. and Hillel began building together in the construction/loose parts area of the classroom. Ariel began building a bridge out of the large blocks- a continuation of the work she had done the previous day. Hillel told her, "I don't want to build a bridge in my work." Morah Tara asked them what they could do to solve the problem. Ariel S. suggested that they each build different things. They began to do this, but after a minute they realized that there were not enough large blocks for them to both build their own work. They came together again (without any adult intervention) and discussed what they could do next. Ariel S. said that she wanted to build a bridge. Hillel said that he wanted to build an airplane. Eventually they both chose to build a rocket ship together. They were able to speak calmly to each other and come up with a solution that worked for both of them. They went on to write out a plan on the chalkboard for their rocket ship and then worked together to get it built.

Ancient Israel Dramatic Play

We used another large cardboard box this week as a cave. The children had a conversation about our pretend kitchen materials as they helped the morahs turn the dramatic play area into Ancient Israel. It was fun to see which items they thought were available in ancient times and which were not. Bayla knew for sure that there were no refrigerators back then. Leah remembered that Rivka went to get water from a well from our parsha learning a few weeks ago, so they did not have any sinks. The children became puzzled, though, when we got to our shelves. Did people have shelves back then? Hillel wasn't sure, but Ariel F. thought that they did. We had a great resource available in the book, Long Ago in the Land of Israel. The book made it look like people definitely had shelves in the city, but maybe not on the farms. 

Once we decided what was and was not available in ancient times, the children began to study Torah in the cave, but another problem came up. There wasn't a Torah to study! Morah Tara asked if the children should make a pretend Torah. Oree asked, "Why don't we just get our stuffed Torah from over there?" Another example of the children finding a very quick solution to a problem that even the morahs had a hard time with! They grabbed the pretend Torah and some dreidels. The children took turns being the Jews in the caves and the Greeks coming to check on them. 

After a while, we had a conversation about who the Greeks were. Why were they in Israel? Did they belong to a different religion? Morah Mirele explained that the Greeks came from a different country called, Greece. Then we discussed how it would be helpful to have a map to look at. Morah Mirele asked, "How could we get a map?" Bayla suggested that we buy one at the store. Ariel S. said we could look one up on the phone or the iPad. Eliya remembered that last year, they looked at a globe when Guli moved to Israel. We will work on getting a map or a globe into our classroom soon. If you have one available for us to borrow, we would love to use it!

Dramatic Play Turned Child-Led Learning

It's possible that we could have an entire classroom full of cardboard boxes, and the children would learn just as much as they do with all of our amazing materials! 

All week long, the children chose to bring scissors into the box and attempt to cut the tape off of it.

 By Thursday they were successful at taking apart the large box. We also had a few smaller boxes where Ariel S., Ariel F. and Lucy began using them to spin in like dreidels. 

Some friends chose to use their scissors to take apart the smaller boxes too. After snack time, they went back to their cutting work. They took apart all the boxes! 

This made Ariel F. and Lucy feel frustrated, because they still wanted to play in a box that was put together. They thought for a while about how they could solve their problem, and then they asked the morahs for some tape so that they could put their box back together. 

They were successful at this task! Other friends saw their work and asked for tape to work with as well. The children then taped all the boxes back together and taped two of the boxes to each other. 

A few minutes later, they started to use their tape around the classroom. They created an obstacle course with the tape around the whole class! All the children needed to figure out how to move around the classroom with tape everywhere. Some friends chose to limbo under it. Some friends climbed over it. Some friends got scissors and cut it. Once the tape was cut, Hillel chose to make the tape stick to itself, and put it back together.

This experience was such a great example of how children can find meaningful learning when they are provided with interesting materials and open ended time for exploration.

Happy 5th Birthday, Imie!

We had such a special day baking a cake for Imie's birthday adn celebrating with her! Thanks for a wonderful birthday party!

Our Second Field Trip of the Year

We had the opportunity to sing songs at Renaissance Assisted Living Center on Friday. The children practiced all week long, and had a wonderful performance on Friday!