CHANUKA IS HERE!

Hi everyone! Chanuka is here! Let's give a cheer!

   This week we did so many Chanuka things so we can be prepared and excited for this fun holiday! As all our friend's daddy's know, we had a very fun "Dads and Dreidels" activity on Wednesday morning. We had so many fun things to do there. There was a big Dreidel that our friends (AND THE RABBI!!) went into and got spun around by our friends to see which letter they will land on. Nun, Gimmel, Hey, or Shin! We also decorated pretty plates for our Mommys as a Chanukah present. Then, Morah Felicia took pictures of our friends with their Daddy's, that we turned into magnets to hang on your fridges.  And last but not least, we had yummy yummy Latkes with applesauce!! :D It was such a fun morning!

   We can't leave for vacation without dance class! Morah Lisa came in and we had a fun dance class this week! We kicked our feet up in the air, flapped them like butterflies,  and reached for the sky with our hands. Then we crawled through our doggy house, and felt the wind that Morah Lisa caused by plopping the large dance mat on the floor.

    This week we created our very own Chanukah Menorahs! We painted our hands and made hand prints, and then we glued bolts as our candle holders! We cannot wait to use it with our Daddy's and Mommys! :)

    We sang many songs these last few weeks all about the holiday of Chanukah.  We learned that we twirl a dreidel and if it lands on Gimmel we win! :D We learned that Achashvairosh was a not nice king, and the Maccabees defeated him! We also learned that the little bit of oil burned for 8 days and nights! In honor of the 8 nights of Chanukah, we count to 8 every morning, on our fingers, in 4 different languages!!! English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian.

   We also learned all about this week's Parsha (Torah Portion), how Yosef had a dream that got his brothers upset so they sent him to Mitzrayim (Egypt). While he was there, Yosef was sent to jail. But we learnt that in NEXT week's Parsha, Pharoah releases Yosef and makes him king of Egypt!

   In your childs backpack we put their arts and crafts and a CJP Peach Room Song Book. In the song book are all the songs that we sing every morning with our little friends, along with some Shabbat songs and some Chanukah songs. We would love it, and so would our friends, if you would sing it with them every morning. You will see how much our friends learn every day and how much fun they have doing so! If you have any questions about the tune or the content, please do not hesitate to call either Morah Ora or Morah Pearly at any time.

(See CJP Family Facebook Group and school bulletin board for photos)

   CHAG SAMEACH!!

                    <3
              Morah Ora
                     &
            Morah Pearly

Dreidelach, Menorah's, Latke's, & More!

     Hey everybody! This week was so jampacked with fun activities and I cannot wait to tell you all about it. This week with Chanuka  just around the corner we are learning more and more and doing more fun activities to prepare us for this fun and awesome holiday!

     On Monday we rediscovered Chanuka in the sensory bin. The Morah's put some hair gel and chanuka items into a big plastic bag and we played with it in the sensory bin. The feel and texture was really cool. Then we designed little pictures of dreidels (hanging from the ceiling at the entrance of our classroom). Some we colored with markers. Others with paint. Some we decorated with stamps. It was a lot of fun.  Also, every day during davening, we take out our toy Dreidels and we play with them while singing Chanuka songs that our Morah's are teaching us!

     Tuesday was an amazing day. With our Morah's and friends, we took off our pants/skirts and socks/tights and painted a negative space Chanuka Dreidel with our little feet  (on the bulletin board)! It was so much fun. Our friends loved that instead of our hands we were painting with our feet. Mina enjoyed jumping up and down to show her footprints off and Geffen loved running around the poster to make sure his stamp was everywhere. :)

     With Wednesday came dance class and more fun! Morah Lisa played new music at dance class this week and our friends couldn't have been more thrilled. Zoe loved dancing with all of her friends. In outdoor play our friends are excelling more and more in their gross motor skills.They are pedaling the bikes all on their own! Mina especially loves the bikes. When ever we get outside, she makes a bee line to them.

     Thursday was a fun day. We broke out our family photos and had fun looking at it. Yochai in particular loves the photos. He loves pointing to his Abba and Mommy and excitedly shows us Cocoa (the dog) when he reaches his photo. Mina loves pointing out her Tatty, Geffen loves pointing to Baby Carmel and his dog, Miley, and Zoe loves showing us her older brothers! We all love our families so much!! On Thursday we also took out sponges in the shape of Chanuka items and used it to paint on a giant piece of paper, where Morah Ora then cut it out in the shape of a Menorah!

     On Thursday we also learnt about this weeks Parsha (Torah portion). We learnt that Yaakov and Eisav met up together and Yaakov gave him gifts, that Yaakov's name was changed to Israel, and that Binyomin, the 12th of the shivatim, was born! We played with our doll babies and pretended that it was Binyomin and we were taking care of him! :)

      Friday was the funnest day of all, because, in honor of Chanuka, we made LATKES a Chanukah delicacy!! Our friends were like professional chefs! They washed the potatoes, helped their Morah's peel and cut them, and with a little bit of this and a dash of that, we had our latke batter! While we were playing outside, Morah Pearly was in the kitchen frying them, and now we have yummy Latkes to eat at home with our family this weekend!

We hope you all have an amazing, fun, and restful weekend.
       
<3
  Morah Ora
         &
Morah Pearly

Chanuka Oh Chanuka Come Light The Menorah!

    Hello Moms and Dads, Abbas and Immas. Mommys and Tattys. This week with Chanuka approaching we started exploring Chanuka games and activites. We made a cave where we davened a few times and played dreidel, since during the times of Chanuka, the Jews had to hide in order to learn Torah and Daven. Our little friends loved it so much! We played a game where Morah Pearly would close her eyes and our friends would hug and kiss our Torah's, and then when she opened her eyes they had to quickly hide it and take out their dreidels and play. :) We all had a lot of fun with it.

    This week we also colored pictures of dreidels so nicely. We have a bunch of little artists in our class. Mina especially loved this activity. She loved taking many different colored markers and making her dreidel picture so beautifully colorful. :) An activity that got Geffen very excited every day was our small wooden menorah. We worked with our fine motor skills with this one. We had colorful wax candles that Geffen would expertly place into the Menorah candle holders.

    This week during Dance class we had so much fun. We had so much fun with the wind that Morah Lisa makes when she plops the big blue mat on the floor. Then all our friends in the Peach and Blue room went on top of the map and started dancing to the music. Zoe loved the feathers that Morah Lisa handed out this week. She loved the softness of it and waved it in the air when the music was turned on.

 
    In outdoor play our friends are having more fun than ever. Geffen is still loving the tree stumps, where we know we can find him climbing from one to the next. Mina loves playing with her friends in the sensory table that we bring outside, which every day contains another fun activity. One day it was lentils another day we had potatoes in water, so we can wash them for Latkes (Chanuka delicacy). Yochai is taking a real liking to the bikes. He is working his legs so well and pushing himself around the backyard, on his own! :) And Zoe really loves walking around, joining in with different activities that her CJP friends are engaged in. :)

    While we were outside we did a fun Parsha activity. We learned in this weeks Parsha that when Yaakov (Jacob) went to go sleep on top of a holy mountain, he put rocks all around him to keep himself safe. However, because he was such a holy man the rocks all wanted to be placed under his head to keep him comfortable, so Gd did a miracle and they morphed into one big rock under his head. While we were outside we placed rocks all around us as well. :)

    This week we made Challah again! We have so much fun kneeding the Challah to make it just right, and then rolling the Challah into our own individual unique shapes, to cook and eat for Dinner or Lunch on Shabbos! :)

    Have a great week everybody!

       <3
Morah Orah
         &
Morah Pearly
 

Family Week

     Hi Everybody! This week was an amazing week! We did a lot of fun new things that our friends loved. On Monday we played with the toys in the classroom and had a lot of fun taking turns on the slide. Our friends also had a lot of fun with the baby dolls. Yochai in particular loved carrying them around and would put them in a shopping cart and push it all over the classroom.

     On Tuesday, because our friends were having so much fun with the babies, we decided to give the babies a bath in the sensory table. :) We got them all wet, soaped them up and rinsed them. Then we placed them on a towel and let them dry. Mina loved it so much that she wanted to clean all the babies herself!

  On Wednesday we learned all about the Parsha (Torah portion) and we learned that Yaakov (Jacob) made a lentil soup and shared it with his twin brother.  We brought Lentils to class and had a lot of fun playing with them. We did a lot of fine motor skills activities with them. We would pick them up, one by one, and put them in play pots, and then we would take spoons and scoop them out. Zoe filled her plate over flowing with lentils. :) And of course a Wednesday would not be complete without dance class! Our friends are becoming so good, soon they will be pros! :)

     This Thursday, our friends decided they wanted to play dress up. Yochai especially loved putting on hats and costumes! When we were playing outside our friends were running around having the time of their lives. Mina and Yochai loved sitting in the tires, Geffen loved climbing the tree stumps, and Zoe loved riding the bikes! This Thursday, because it is family week, we also took out all of our family pictures. We looked at everybody's families, and we all pointed to our mothers, fathers, siblings, and pets and named them all! :D (some videos were posted to the CJP facebook family group.)

     With Friday comes the end of the week, and we are sad it is over so soon. This week we baked Challah for Shabbos!! (egg free) Our friends made the dough so nicely! Mina helped with the Flour, Zoe the Sugar, Yochai the water, and Morah the oil and yeast! then we all rolled up our sleeves and and mixed mixed mixed the dough till it was nice and ready. Then we each rolled and shaped our own piece, put it in the oven, and "DING", ready to eat by our Shabbos table! =D

     Shabbat Shalom, All!!

          <3
   Morah Ora
          &
 Morah Pearly

Thanksgiving Week

     This week we did so many arts & crafts for Thanksgiving and we had so much fun! We did a science experiment where we put salt and glue together on a canvas and then squirted water paint on it and watched it spread. Zoe especially had a fun time with this arts and crafts. She did not want to put he water colors down. :) We then made beautiful pictures out of nature, and also painted over bubble wrap, then rubbed it on paper, which gave the paper a cool design, then we stuck photos of ourselves onto it, and turned it into a little book. All of our awesome arts and crafts were featured at our amazing Thanksgiving Family Lunch on  Wednesday.

      This week in the sensory bin we had Tzeddaka (money for charity) again because our friends loved it so much last week. They share the Tzeddaka boxes (charity box) so well with their friends and we all gave Tzeddaka like the big girls and boys that we are!

     The weather was so beautiful this week that we spent a lot of time outside in the backyard. Every class brings out another activity for our friends to play with and this week the Peach Room brought out a table and squirted shaving cream all of over. Geffen and Mina had so much squishing and playing with it. :)

     And then of course there was our Thanksgiving Family Lunch on Wednesday. Our friends made the delicious lemonade! We all had fun squirting and squeezing the lemons to make fresh squeezed lemonade! Yochai couldn't get enough of our squeezer. He would squeeze the lemon like a pro.

     Looking forward to seeing our friends next week.

     Hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving, and Shabbat Shalom!

                      <3
                Morah Ora
                       &
                Morah Pearly
               





   

Thanksgiving Prep

     This week in the peach room was amazing.  With Thanksgiving coming up we learned all about being appreciative and thankful to everybody. During davening we even sing a song about how thankful we are to Hashem (Gd) for everything he gives us. "Thank  you Hashem for giving me my mummy. Thank you Hashem for giving me my tatty. Thank you Hashem for all my friends. Thank you, Thank  you Hashem!" Mina especially loves singing the songs and always excitedly points to her family photo on our family tree and excitedly says "Mummy! Tatty!" :)

     To prepare ourselves for Thanksgiving we also made a beautiful picture out of nature that will be framed for our friends' families to display in their houses!

 

Parsha

     

This week in the Torah portion of Vayaira, we learned all about Abraham and how Angels were sent from Gd to visit him because he was sick and to tell Abraham and Sara that they will have a son, Isaac. We learned that when we have a friend who isn't feeling well we should go and call them, or visit them, to see how they are feeling right away. We called both Gefen and Mina to wish them a Refuah Shelaimah!

     This week in the sensory bin we had a lot of fun learning all about sharing. Our friends shared their sponges while cleaning Pumpkins, and they also put a lot of tzedaka (charity) into pushkas (charity boxes) to help all the people who do not have so much money.

     On Friday we broke out the Moon bounce castle and all had so much fun! Our friends jumped and bounced and slid down the slide, and had such a fun time! Zoe loved it so much she was laughing and smiling the whole time! :)

     And of course, the week would not be complete without dance class! Yochai loved dancing to the music and waving his pompom around. He danced when the music was on, and froze when the music turned off. :D

     Looking forward to all of our friends coming back next week and having even more fun learning and growing!

           
         Morah Ora
                &
         Morah Pearly!

Transportation Week

    Hello Moms & Dads!

    This week in the Peach Room we learned all about traffic lights and transportation. Our friends had a  lot of fun with all of our awesome games. We took toy cars and drove them through paint, we did arts in crafts with small colored paper,  and we played with toy cars on our city carpet. Our friends learned the colors yellow, red, and green, and what we do when we see those colors.

    The weather this week was beautiful so we spent a lot of time outside where our friends had fun climbing, playing with bikes and pushing them down the hill, and playing with pots and pans :) Morah Ora also broke out the bubbles which all of our friends loved. Zoe would chase them till they were all popped!

    This week during dance our friends has a blast. Geffen loved crawling through the make shift doggy house and Yochai loved rolling on the mat! We all had fun dancing to the music, where Mina kept making her request for "Hashem Melech". :D They will showcase their talent at our Thanksgiving Feast!

    Our friends continue to impress us with how much they are learning every day. Each day is a new adventure with our little friends, that we cannot wait to experience.

    Shabbat Shalom everybody! Till next week! :)

Noahs Ark & Animal Exploration

   Hello Mom's and Dads,

   This week was so much fun, jam packed with so many amazing and fun activities. On Monday, Morah Ora made a make-shift Ark out of cardboard boxes, to teach us all about Parsha's Noach, and our friends loved going and sitting inside.

 Every morning Geffen would run to get the little step stools, put it inside the Ark, and sit on it and play. We also read a lot of animal books to help our friends better understand all the animals that were on the Ark with Noach. Then on Wednesday and Thursday we decorated our Ark :) we put our hands inside paint and we finger painted all around the Ark. We cut out pictures of animals, explained what each animals was to our friends, and stuck them on the Ark as well.

   We are so happy to say that now that all the holidays are over we resumed dance class and our friends, of course, love it! This week was Zoe's first week at dance class. Zoe loved shaking the glittery pompoms that Morah Lisa (the dance instructor) gave out.
   On Friday we had fun playing with our friends, Yochai loved dot painting, and davening outside with all of our friends from CJP! It was so beautiful hearing all of our friends singing together the davening prayers :)

 The highligh of our week was Tuesday: ZOO DAY!! We had so much fun at the zoo, it was hard to contain all of our excitement. There were baby chicks, chickens, roosters, an alpaca, goats, kids (baby goats), and most excitingly, a pony! At first our friends  were a little hesitant and wary of the animals but  they  all quickly warmed up. Mina was very brave and rode the pony all around the backyard! It was so exciting to watch.

   Our friends are growing up and developing so quickly its amazing. When we start singing the clean up song our friends right away start cleaning up the toys they were playing with. When we start to make train and "Choo Choo" noises, they know to quickly go to the library because it is davening time and the good morning train is coming. They know that when it is snack or lunch time we first wash our hands and when we are done eating, we clean up our food before leaving the table. And the moment the lights get dimmed, our friends right away go straight to their cots and get settled in for nap time. All of these things our friends do all on their own with minimal help from their Morah's. We couldn't be prouder of our friends! :)

   Shabbat Shalom everybody!

               <3  Morah Ora and Morah Pearly!

SUKKOT & SIMCHAT TORAH

    The month of Tishrei is coming and going so fast I can hardly keep up. Last week with Yom Kippur over  and Sukkot appearing right around the corner, we had a lot of fun helping to decorate the Sukka that the Rabbi & East Valley Mens Club built.

Now, with Sukkot half way through, and Simchat Torah coming up the activities and arts 'n crafts are only becoming more exciting and fun! On Wednesday and Thursday we created flags out of popsicle sticks to wave around in Shul on Simchat Torah, and on Friday we danced with and made our own Torahs! EXCITING!!

   We cannot wait till after the holidays when we can all have fun with our friends again, all week long! =)

    Love Morah Ora & Morah Pearly

    CHAG SAMAYACH! =)





 

 

 

Yom Kippur

   Hi All!

  Rosh Hashana has come and gone. Now, here comes Yom Kippur! These last few days went by so fast but we still had a lot of fun with all of our friends! :)

   We played with sand in water and sea animals in water in the sensory table and had so much fun learning what all the fishes names were. After, we all went to the library and heard the story about Yona... with props!

   This week we also created our very own Tzeddaka (charity) boxes! With paint, glitter, and cut out papers, we cannot wait for our Tzeddaka Boxes to be ready for us to take home so we can give Tzeddaka there as well. We can also sing our Tzeddaka song at home when we give Tzeddaka. 🎼Tzeddaka Tzeddaka Tzeddaka, that is what we give to the poor people to help them live...!🎼

   This week was a short week but we cannot wait till after Yom Kippur so we can learn with our friends all about Sukkot, and play too! :)

   Have a good and easy fast!

 

Rosh Hashana is finally here!



Shalom!



     Another week has come and gone and we cannot believe that Rosh Hashana is finally here! We did so many fun things I don't know where to begin! We had fun with sensory activities when we played with honey in a ziplock bag.  Zoe couldn't stop because she loved it so much! We played with instruments while singing Rosh Hashana and Shabbos songs and we blew the Shofar- Mina helped us so nicely! We also painted on paper and our Morahs then cut out an apple shape for our Rosh Hashana cards, enjoy the crafts and cards that were sent out!

    When we go outside to play we always have so much fun but this week took the cake! With riding bikes by ourselves, Gefen climbing on the tree stumps, and water day, we were barely able to control our excitement.

     And then there is Dance Class! We got sparkly string pompoms, Yochai loved dancing to the music and we all had so much fun! We crawled through the makeshift doggy house, we rolled on the mat, and we danced. That day we all slept very well at nap time!

     We cannot wait to come back to preschool after Rosh Hashana and continue to have so much fun and learn all about Yom Kippur and Sukkos! :)

     Have a good Shabbos everybody and a good Yomtov! =)

The Shofar in the Shul

     Hi All!

     Another week has gone by and us friends in the Peach Room had a blast. With Rosh Hashana coming closer and closer we learned even more about the Holiday and what we do on this special day. We continued to hear Rabbi Tzvi blow the shofar amazingly for us and we sing "The Shofar In The Shul Goes Too Too Too!" Mina especially loves singing it.

     More things we learned about Rosh Hashana are that we dip apples in honey, we have a fish head on the table, and we do Tashlich; we throw away anything not nice things we might have done to the fish and say sorry for any bad things we did. Zoe really loved seeing the fish and feeding it. We also made beautiful Leshana Tova (Happy New Year) cards for our Bubby's & Zaidy's, Grandma's & Grandpa's, and Sabba's & Savta's.

     And of course, it wouldn't be a proper week of Preschool without dance class. Mina & Yochai loved crawling through the make shift doggy house to Morah on the other end! Then, after dance class we went back to class and our Morah's measured us to see how tall we have grown.  

     This week we had a lot of fun doing a variety of different fun activities. We had water day this week & it was so much fun! We loved to play with the water in the sensory table & getting sprayed by the hose. We also got a whole bunch of new tree stumps that Geffen loves to climb and play with, and we have a lot of fun with them! Also, last but not least, this week our Morah's took out the moon bounce and we had so much fun jumping & playing on it.

     On Friday we baked Challah for Shabbos, and we cannot wait to eat it tonight!


     Shabbat Shalom!

                  <3 Morah Orah & Morah Pearly

   

Rosh Hashana is coming!

             Hey Moms and Dads =)

             Today we finished our first full week in the Peach Room and we had so much fun. This week we also had a new friend join our class, Zoe Luedy. With Rosh Hashana fast approaching we did many fun activities to better prepare ourselves for the holiday thanks to Morah Ora's unique and creative ideas. We washed apples, stamp painted with apples, and colored on stencils of apples. We also made lunch place mats of our hand prints and planted some beans for our beautiful growing garden which Zoe had a lot of fun helping Morah Ora water!

             As you have probably seen on facebook, this week we did a variety of activities to work on our gross motor skills. On Wednesday we had dance class which was a lot of fun! Yochai loved to volunteer to roll on the mat and to crawl through the make shift doggy house. Mina danced so nicely to the music and paused when the Morah turned off the music and said freeze, then continued dancing and laughing when the music turned back on.

            This week we had a lot of different items in the sensory table to help us prepare for Rosh Hashana. We had shofers, apples, round challah's, and more. Gefen specially loved the table, and got so excited when he saw something new placed in it. He would pick it up, show it to one of his Morahs, and we would show him what it was and he would play with it for the next hour excitedly.

            This week, the awesome Rabbi Tzvi has been coming into everybody's classrooms and blown the shofer so that we can participate in the Mitzvah of hearing the Shofer each morning in the month of Elul, leading up to Rosh Hashana. We all love to hear the sounds that come from the Shofer, but Zoe particularly found it fascinating and stared and pointed at Rabbi Tzvi the whole time.

            Nap time is going very smoothly now that we are in our 4th week of preschool. After the children clean up their lunch, they look for which bed has their blanket and quietly sit on their bed, patiently waiting for a Morah to come over and cover them for their nap. We couldn't be prouder of our friends!

            And of course, at the end of each day, our friends love to get the brooms and mops and help their Morah's clean the classroom so that it stays nice, neat, and clean!

            We cannot wait till next week where we will get to learn even more about Rosh Hashana and to make more arts and crafts to hang on our bulletin board to show our moms and dads!

                                                                Shabbat Shalom!
                                                     <3 Morah Ora & Morah Pearly!