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