Helpfulness and Chanukah

Hello Peach Room Families!

This week we focused on recognizing and fostering helpfulness in our young friends. They worked on helping each other as well as helping their Morahs.

Leah helped her friends get their lunchboxes and water bottles from the cupboard. Guy helped clean up and keep our classroom in order. Caleb helped by feeding our pet tortoises and being a good listener. Ronan helped his friends and Morahs with making latkes. Angie helped push our water cart in after playing outside and staying quiet during rest time so that her friends could sleep even though she was done sleeping. Shyli helped finish "lighting" our tape menorah for our last day/night of Chanukah! Morahs helped by recognizing and acknowledging helping words and actions and encourage friends hopefully repeat them.

We love reading their Mitzvah notes from home each morning during davening. We celebrate these accomplishments with them, no matter how big or small. Specific praise from loved ones is so important to our children's developing confidence and positive self-awareness. They really enjoy the ritual of placing their mitzvah note in the mitzvah box and having everyone sing to them. It really sets the tone for the day to find something positive they have done (yes, even and especially on those rough mornings where nothing seemed to go right). It also helps them generalize desired behaviors between home and school. How does your child help you at home? Try to observe your child and "catch them in the act" of doing positive, praise-worthy things. Tell them how much you appreciate them!

Our big project this week as we finished learning and celebrating about Chanukah, was making latkes. The children washed and peeled potatoes in our sensory table. They took turns helping to grate the potatoes and add the other ingredients. They also took turns mixing and scooping them onto a baking sheet. They were amazing little cooks, we were so impressed! Then we all enjoyed tasting our hard work! Do you enjoy preparing food at home with your children? Working in the kitchen with your together is a fun way to build all sorts of skills and confidence. There is even a tangible and hopefully delicious outcome. When children are involved in preparing the food they eat, it can encourage healthy habits because they are invested in the process.  If you have some extra time and an extra dose of patience, it can be a truly rewarding experience. We encourage you to try it over the break. They may surprise you!

We wish you all a safe and happy Winter Break. Thank you for sharing your children with us!

Morah Ora and Morah Lindsey

Peach Room Wishlist:
-paper plates
-bottled water for the children
-plastic spoons
-plastic grocery bags (for dirty diapers and clothing)
-Clorox Wipes

Happy Chanukah!

We are so happy to have all of our friends healthy and back with us this week! This has been a week full of music and celebration in our room. The children are singing and dancing to "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel" and "Oh Chanukah". We are marking each day of the festival of lights by having a different child pretend to be the shamash candle and "light" our tape menorah by adding a piece of colored tape. We also finished our special Chanukah project and sent it home- so hopefully you all received the handmade menorahs your children created in class.

Our explorations continued this week with olives and olive oil. The children have been smashing olives to make oil as well as tasting them. Shyli has decided that she actually does like them and Ronan was a fan as well. Angie still does not like the taste at all. And a project that captured all of the children's attention and interest was creating olive oil lava lamps. They loved pouring water, oil and liquid water color into their bottles and watching what happened. They were enjoying it so much that we decided to have them add beads to their lamps and then they explored how they looked on our light table when they were turned over, shaken and left alone for the oil to separate fully and rest at the top.

Another fun art and sensorial experience this week was a group art project using their feet and paint. There was a lot of laughter and excitement and careful dancing because it was so slippery! We have moved our latke cooking into our kitchen area and added a dreidel chair that spins for fun gross motor play. Leah and Guy and Shyli couldn't get enough time spinning like dreidels. Caleb was observing them thoughtfully and decided he wanted to give it a try. It was good experience in turn taking. Children love swinging and spinning and it is important to their vestibular development for their sense of balance. And it really is just fun!

We are excited to see everyone at Dreidels for Dads Friday morning from 9-10am. Happy Chanukah!

Morah Ora and Morah Lindsey

Chanukah Preparations

We have had a busy week despite some of our friends being out due to sickness. We miss them and hope they feel better soon so they can come back to play with us! With the cooler temperatures we have enjoyed a few extra minutes of time spent in our beautiful outdoor environment which has meant that Angie has been able to join us briefly on the playground. We used dreidels to paint with and the children loved to watch the designs they created as they spun around on the paper with the paints. We are working on a special Chanukah project as a surprise for our families!

In the classroom we have been using our lightbox with a menorah and also for building with the transparent magnatiles. We have some fun activities planned for next week using oil with the lightbox as well.

We created a giant "frying pan" out of our ball pool that we have been using to "fry" our paper latkes with oil. The children are all getting quite skilled at flipping them! They enjoyed  how slippery the oil makes the latkes. We talked about how potatoes grow in the dirt in the ground and so we have to get them clean before we cook with them. We washed them in the sensory table with soap and water in preparation for making real latkes next week.

The children also explored candle wax through fine motor play with candles and our menorah. We used real candles and they have been practicing placing all eight candles in the menorah as well as the shamash candle. We counted the candles and did some sorting by color and broken vs. non-broken. We saved all of our broken candles from this work and the children created a group collage on canvas using candles and bits of wax and wick.

We also taste tested olives and talked about how we use the oil from olives for cooking but also to light the menorah during Chanukah. Their reactions were quite funny! Guy and Leah both really enjoyed the taste of olives. It was not Shyli's favorite...maybe a bit too salty. We will have Caleb and Angie try them today and Ronan when he returns to us, hopefully next week! Enjoy your weekend and thank you for your children, they are such a gift!

Morah Ora and Morah Lindsey

Introduction to Chanukah

All of our friends were happy to be back this week after our Thanksgiving break. They were excited to see each other, with big hugs and even some kisses. Some of our older friends helped our younger friends remember our routines this week. Angie is with us for lunch and nap everyday and has the best smile to greet her friends when she arrives. They are always happy to see her!

This week we began to introduce Chanukah through storybooks. The words and concepts we are working on with the children are Chanukah, Menorah and Dreidel. Guy said, "Menorah" and Caleb said, "Chanukah" very clearly. We are noticing many exciting language developments in all of the children.

Morah Ora created a Menorah on our floor using tape. The children will be using this "walk the line" - a fun gross motor activity targeting body awareness, motor planning, balance, coordination and listening skills. We will also use our tape Menorah to mark each day of Chanukah by adding tape candles and flames.

We worked on creating our first Chanukah decorations. You can see them displayed over our doorway as you enter the classroom. Shyli loved using the paint dotters on her project. Leah and Ronan both enjoyed using the markers as they continue to develop their grasp. Guy used so many stickers on his project as he enjoyed peeling and placing them in layers.

Looking forward to next week when we will begin making our own Menorahs!

Shabbat Shalom,
Morah Ora and Morah Lindsey