After an awesome animal week, the purple room continued with insects.

On Monday we reviewed what an insect is and we learned that some insects go through a metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two or more distinct stages. The insect we are observing and learning about is a butterfly.

The purple room had a very exiting trip to the library. In the library we met a very nice librarian named Debbie, she showed us where all the books are kept and how everyone works together to keep the library clean and in order. Our friends also joined story time in the library, they got to move, dance and listen to two stories. Morah D opened a library card and each friend picked a butterfly book that we took back to our class. What an educational trip!

On Tuesday we visited Morah Felicia’s class and she gave us our caterpillars. Our friends created little houses for each caterpillar, they put food on the bottom of a plastic cup and used a paint brush to gently put our caterpillars inside. Each friend gave a name to their new pet.
Nechama’s friend is Butterfly Rainbow
Vella’s friend is Minnie
Ben’s friend is Nemo
Nosson’s friend is Nero
Shimmy’s friend is Dory
Morah D’s friend is Kelsey

Every day when each child comes into the class, they write in their journal about what changes they see happening. Our friends saw that caterpillars also make webs like spiders and they eat a lot.  We are excited for them to turn into butterflies for us to release at Graduation!

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah D

What an great week! One of my favorites.
ANIMAL WEEK
Monday was mammal week. Morah D brought in her dog ( Brownie ) and Morah Felicia brought in her guinea pig ( Trevor ). Both animals are mammals.
What is a mammal? Our friends learned that a mammal has hair or fur, is warm blooded, makes milk for their babies and can’t breathe underwater. Are people mammals? Yes we are also mammals. Ben thought that even if someone is bald, they are still a mammal. Our friends learned that the largest land mammal is an elephant and the largest water mammal is the blue whale. All of CJP got to play with brownie and Trevor, they felt their hair and even got kisses. Brownie went outside with all our friends and everyone got a chance to walk the dog.
Tuesday was fish day. Morah Gitty brought us different fish for our friends to observe, how do they eat? How do they swim? How do they breathe? A fish is an animal that is cold blooded, they have fins and a tale to help them swim, they lay see-through eggs, they live in the water and have gills to breathe in the water. The largest fish is a whale shark. Our friends put their fingers into the water so they can feel the fish suck on their fingers.
Wednesday was bird day. CJP had chicks, ducklings, and a parakeet in our school. What is a bird? Birds are warm blooded, they have wings but not all birds fly, birds have feathers, birds lay hard shell eggs. The largest bird is an ostrich, one ostrich egg equals to 24 chicken eggs.
Our friends all played, held and observed the duckling and chicks. We had 3 ducklings and 3 chicks. Our ducklings joined all our friends outside, we set up a small pool for them to swim in, they were racing and cleaning themselves in the water.  Later our chicks joined us in the grass and we got to observe how different the ducks are from the chicks. Ducks have webbed feet and chicks don’t, they also are different colors and have a different beak.
Thursday was reptile day, we had lizards and tortoises in our school. Reptiles are cold blooded, they lay soft shell eggs, and have scaly like skin but not shiny. The largest reptile is the salt water crocodile. Our friends got to hold and feel the tortoise shell and arms. We took the tortoises outside so that we can feed them lettuce from our garden.
Friday was insect day. In our school we had hissing cockroaches, horn warms, earth worms and crickets. Insects lay eggs and they have 3 pairs of legs. The largest insect is the giant weta. Interacting with insects can be very scary and it took us some time to get used to them but after a while we were able to conquer our fear and hold all the insects-even the giant cockroach, some friends even put them on their heads!
This has been a very fun week.

Share this week was about the letter P
Nosson brought in his pieces that he can build with.
Vella brought in popcorn
Ben brought pie that we made from scratch with their mom
Nechama brought in a giant pot the we cooked all our friends in

Shabbat Shalom!
See you all next week.

Morah D

What an exciting week!
This week in the purple room we learned and experimented with different solids, liquids and gases.
On Monday our friends learned that a solid is firm and stable like a chair, table and many other things. A liquid is a fluid that conforms to its container like water and juices. Gas is an air like fluid that expands freely to fill any space like air and carbon dioxide (and of course a fart). After learning about solid, liquid and gas it was time to wash hands, we used liquid soap, liquid water and a solid paper towel.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we experimented with balloons. Morah D filled one balloon with water, one with air and one was solid ice. Our friends weighed the ice balloons, water balloons, and air balloons to see which weighed more. Then we bounced the balloons to see which one bounced more, after all the bouncing we made little holes so we can feel the air, water and ice.
On Thursday our green room friends joined us to experiment with dry ice. Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide, that people and animals breathe out and plants breathe in. We put coins into the dry ice and saw them dancing and making noises until the coins froze, then we added dry ice to hot water we heard it boiling and we saw steam clouds coming out. Our next experiment was hot water, bubbles solution and dry ice. Bubbles were popping out of the bowl, our friends used their fingers to pop the bubbles and steam popped from within the bubbles.
In our outdoor classroom the purple room was very interested in bugs and building a house for the beetles, the beetle house was full of different rooms, hiding place and even a small river with a boat so they don’t drown.

Share this week was about the letter O
Nosson brought in his Omer chart
Ben brought in an octopus
Nechama brought in an owl and an orange
Shimmy brought in oats for everyone

See you next week!
Morah D

Colors & Snow

Welcome back, after a long Passover vacation we are back and jumping into spring, learning about colors, different shades of each color and the Omer. What is the Omer? Why do we count the day of the Omer?
To learn about the different colors and shade our friends took all the crayons, markers, colored pencils, sharpies and brought them to the art center. We learned and saw that orange is not just one orange, but there is red orange, yellow orange, sandy tan, tiger orange and peach. Each orange is different, after seeing all the oranges our friends couldn’t wait to see all the other colors and how different they were. Red had wild strawberry, mahogany, ruby and red orange. Purple had violet, royal purple, mauve, orchard and blue violet. Pink had flamingo pink, carnation pink, red violet and maroon. Blue had blue green, sky blue, bubbly blue, slate and turquoise. Brown had taupe, light brown, burnt sienna, chestnut, tumbled weed, raw sienna, tan, ochre and dark brown.

To explore more colors Morah D also made water balloons that our friends dipped in to paint and played soccer or just bounced them on paper, our friends saw that some colors were mixing with others and making a new color. We took our water balloons outside so that all the friends in CJP can also play and discover how fun it can be to paint with water balloons.

On Thursday we made snow in our class. Measuring the correct amount of water to snow ratio, then mixing it together, the mixture first turned to clear slush but the more we mixed the more it turned white. The snow felt cold and smooshy.

From Morah Gitty:
This week we started to learn all about the omer, how we countdown the days until Shavuot,
when we got the torah. Everyday of the omer works on another middah, character trait. This
weeks middah was gevurah, strength of judgment, how to properly discipline with kindness,
compassion, endurance, humility, bonding and nobility.

Shabbat Shalom!
Morah D

This week in the purple room we continued learning about Passover.
 In our math and science center we have been trying to make bricks out of sand, oil and water, then we used the bricks to build cities and pyramids. Our friends thought brick making and building was very hard work, and a discussion followed about how hard the Jewish people had to work in Egypt.
The hammers are back. All week in the purple room you can hear banging because we have been making our Seder plates, thanks to Lev Lvov for the wood pieces!  Our friends have been engraving the wood with all the food that belongs on the Seder plate, each word opened a conversation about why we eat that and how it makes us feel.
Our friends have been working on making their own Hagada that they can use during the Passover Seder, they have written and drawn pictures of every step of the Seder.  I am sure they will love to tell all of your guests about each page.

Have a great weekend, Shabbat Shalom!
Morah D

This week in the purple room we continued learning and preparing for Passover.
On Monday and Tuesday our friends started cleaning our classroom and looking for all the Chametz. To clean our classroom we used buckets with soapy water and scrubbers. We all worked together to scrub all the chairs and tables, then we mopped all the floors. There are 2 buckets in the dramatic play area for our friends to separate all the Chametz from what we are allowed to eat on Passover.
On Wednesday and Thursday we made moon sand from sand and oil, we used the moon sand to build pyramids and bricks. Our friends realized how hard it was to make the bricks and build buildings.
This week we also started learning about the haggada and began creating our own by writing all the steps that we follow during the Passover Seder.

Share time this week is about the letters N.
Ben brought in a nut and a bolt that’s his papa uses to build a fire pit.
Nosson brought in his moms necklace that she doesn’t wear.
Nechama brought in a red nose and a noisemaker, unfortunately she wasn’t able to borrow her brothers nose.
Shimmy brought in noodles that wasn’t cooked and purple.
Vella brought in a notebook

Wishing you a wonderful Shabbat

Morah D

This week in the purple room we started learning about the next holiday: Passover.
On Monday Morah D set up mystery boxes with different Passover pictures and objects. Mystery box question was "What is the theme of the week". Each child pulled out the pictures or object and realized everything they pulled out had to do with Passover. We read Pesach Ba so that our friend can see how our house is changing for Passover.
On Tuesday we washed coins in soapy water and scrubbed each coin till it was shiny, because our house has to be very clean and Chametz free for Passover. We read the story Izzy the Whiz and the Passover McClean, so our friends can see how we need to make sure and check each spot in our house to make sure we have no Chametz in our houses for Passover. On Wednesday and Thursday we played a Passover memory game, this activity helped us talk about the different things we do and see on Passover, while also working on our memory.
       In our art center this week we have been working on transferring art from shaving cream, hair gel and paint on to paper. Our friends squeezed out some gel or shaving cream then squirted different paint colors over it.  They then used a pencil to make a design they liked and then put a paper on top. After removing the paper the design transferred to the paper but the shaving cream and gel didn't. Our friends also wanted to change up the seating in our library, we had so much fun sitting on our tires during Purim, so we painted the tires and put them in our new library.

Share time this week was about the letter M
Nosson brought in his motorcycle that he got from far away.
Vella brought in her mommy with black hair.
Shimmy brought in his book "Where the wild things are" and told us about Max.
Nechama brought in her little sister Mina. Who starts with the letter Mem.
Ben brought in a motorcycle and a motorcycle book, that Papa bought. 

Happy Birthday Vella (Batya)
Shabbat Shalom
Morah D