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!

Library and Mother's Day Work

Documentation for the week of May 8-12, 2017

Our Field Trip to the Library

We had a great time going to the Chandler Sunset Library on Monday. All the children were so helpful and safe throughout the experience! We safely got into and out of the van, we went to a children's program with many other children, and we took a tour of the library with a librarian named Debbie. After the tour, we played and read books in the children's section. Here are some great quotes from the children to show what they took away from the trip:

Oree: "We were going to a field trip. We were reading books at the library."

Hillel: "I liked when we got to play in the children's area and then I went back when I was not at school and we got a library card. Even babies can have those."

Bayla: "We went on a tour of the library, and did you know we own it?! Do you know how? Because we could get books for free. We don't have to pay!"

Ariel S.: "I liked to play with the pull toys in the kids' area."

Eliya: "When we got there we went in and there was a program. We did a song and there was ABC's and bubbles. Then they gived us a tour, and then we played for a little bit, and then we went back to the school."

Ariel F.: "I liked in the program when she showed us the letter and it had a line and a this kind of loop and this kind also. It was A, B! She pulled from her bag out a real banana and a balloon and a bowl."

Leah: "We went to the bubbles. We saw a pretend person (a mannequin) that had a spatula, and we said goodbye after the field trip."

Imie: "I liked when me and Morah Mirele readed a book together."
Lucy: "I liked when we put the books into the book drop, and then we got to see how the librarian took it out from the other side onto the cart." 

Mother's Day Work

The children worked very hard this week to create thoughtful gifts for all of the moms of our class! Each child spoke with a morah about what kind of picture they wanted to draw for their mommy. They then decided if they wanted to look at a picture on the iPad or draw a picture on their own.They also answered questions about their mommies to make a second special gift, and the answers, as always, were so fun to hear! We hope that you enjoyed our Muffins and Moms experience this year!

Building a Safe Obstacle Course

Lucy and Ariel F. were very involved in a specific obstacle course this week. They went to the circle of palm trees and set out two tires, a chair, a table, and the slide on the ground. They put the tunnel on top of it all. Then they took turns climbing through the tunnel. This was challenging, because they could not see where the ground was or where the tires were as they climbed through. They also struggled, because the materials kept shifting beneath them. Throughout their process they were able to stay very calm when it didn't go as planned. They also focused on climbing through the obstacle course safely and worked to help each other by using their words. As Lucy went through, Ariel F. told her to place her hand where she could feel the top of the tire. At one point the structure fell apart, and they rebuilt it with such calm determination. Their focus was rewarded when they rebuilt it successfully! 

On Tuesday, they were so excited to return to their work only to discover that the spot where they had built their obstacle course was muddy! They were, again, able to stay calm and find a way to solve the problem. They worked together and asked Morah Tara for help to move all of the materials up the hill to the grass. They began the process of building and climbing through again. It was clear how proud of themselves they felt as they accomplished all the challenges that they faced!

Building with a Cord

The Van Horn Family donated several new loose parts to our outdoor classroom this week. The children explored a long cord for a few days. At first Eliya tried to tie it to a tree and climb up the tree using the cord as a belay. This didn't quite work, so he and Hillel tried to tie it to the Chuppah. Next they attached one end to the large play structure outside and then attached the other side to a tree at the top of the hill. 

The next day, Leah, Oree, and Imie wanted to take the end of the cord attached to the tree and attach it to the other end of the shade structure. They asked the Morah to help them tie it so tightly around the other side. At this point, everyone was interested in this work. There was already a piece of PVC pipe attached in the middle. The children tried to use the PVC piece as a zip line across the cord. The cord was too rubbery to hold them up, and several friends moved on to other play. 

Leah, Oree, Lucy, and Ariel F. chose to keep working with the zip line. At first they tried to use tires standing up and walk across the top. This wasn't really working either. Lucy chose to keep trying this strategy, but Oree and Ariel F. chose to lay the tires underneath the entire length of the cord. This was challenging work, because the tires were so heavy. They spaced them out as Leah helped roll them to the right spot. Eventually Lucy chose to join her friends in their work. They set up the course and then used the rope to walk along the tires. Oree added water inside each of the tires to make it seem like there was hot lava if they touched the ground. Everyone came back at this point to try out the new course. It was amazing to watch such an innovative process occur entirely based on the children's creative ideas. 

Adrenaline Rush Risk Taking Exploration

We had the same building work available this week as we did last week. There were many cool structures built, but one of the main activities the children chose to do was to use the large fabrics to create something similar to an indoor slip-n-slide. Eliya and Hillel lay the fabric out making sure that it wasn't twisted at all. Eliya told everyone, "Take off their shoes and socks because if you don't do that then you just slip on the carpet and you won't slide." Once it was flat on the floor, Eliya stood at one end and told his friends to get ready. When he said, "Ready, Steady, Go!" Lucy, Hillel and Imie ran really fast and then slid on the fabric.

Then Eliya took a turn at running and sliding while Hillel called out, "Ready. Steady. Go!" The children took turns setting out the fabric, negotiating who was going to have the next turn running and the next turn calling out, and then running and sliding. Similar to Ariel F. and Lucy's work, this work showed the Rainbow Class friends' ability to calmly choose a task, solve problems, and work together to enjoy their work and feel an intrinsic sense of reward and accomplishment.

A New Vocabulary Word This Week: Manipulation

A popular way to "win" an argument in our classroom lately has been to say something like, "If you don't _____________, then I'm not going to be your friend anymore!" This is a developmentally appropriate behavior, but it is hurtful, and has started to cause problems at school. During morning meeting on Wednesday, we had a discussion about it directly. We brought up a few examples of these occurrences that happened during the week. We asked the children how they felt when a friend said something like this to them.The children reflected that it deeply hurt their feelings when a friend said to them, "I'm not going to be your friend anymore!" or, "...then I'm never going to play with you again!" or, "If you don't _____________, then you can't come to my house for a play date!" 

We also asked everyone why they were motivated to make statements like this to their friends. The children were very thoughtful in this reflection activity. Imie said that she had tried and tried to get her friend to play in a different way, but her friend wouldn't listen to her words so she got very frustrated and told them that she wasn't ever going to play with them again. Eliya said that he just wanted a really long turn with a toy, so he said that he wasn't going to be their friend anymore unless they let him have what he wanted. This scenario was hurtful to the friend who brought the toy to school, because they felt obligated to let Eliya have a longer turn, and it was hurtful to the other friends who also wanted a turn. They felt like it wasn't fair and that they were missing out. 

Our conversation continued to explore other options. It is hard to say exactly how you feel when you grow more and more frustrated (even for adults!), but it's still important to be truthful in your statements. It's simply not true that a child in our class won't be someone's friend anymore. What is a true statement? It's true that you might feel very angry or very frustrated or that you don't want to play with that person right now. You might also not want to play a particular game with someone, because you were hoping to play in a different way.

We also spoke about how, just like it's not okay for children to manipulate other children, it's not okay for adults to make manipulative choices either. We discussed an example: What if Morah Masha came into our classroom and saw everyone busy at work building structures, and she didn't like it. What if she told Morah Tara, "If you don't change the work in your classroom, then I'm not going to pay you!" Would this be fair to Morah Tara or helpful to solve the problem? What could Morah Masha do or say instead? Ariel S. suggested that Morah Masha could talk to Morah Tara about why she wanted to change the classroom around. Lucy suggested that Morah Masha could ask Morah Tara about why she was letting her students do the work in this way.

After our conversation, we worked to re-frame these statements as they came up in play. The children began stopping themselves mid sentence, and they were able to say something that was more accurate. It's exciting to see progress already occurring, and it is something that we are continuing to work on.