Dear Parents

Our friends have been busy making final preparations for our annual CJP Family Shabbos Dinner, that will be tonight at 5:30.  They worked so hard on completing their Shabbos Box projects which will be on display tonight and ready to be sent home with them on Monday. As Morahs, we provided the provocations and materials for each of these projects, but they are truly the product of your child's creativity, preferences and work. Each one turned out so unique and beautiful, we are proud of their hard work and hope you will be too!


Our three big projects this week were creating candle holders, Kiddush cups, and a shabbos box.

Shabbos boxOur friends painted Shabbat boxes and as they were working we noticed their preferences for both specific tools and color. Shai preferred green to all the other colors and covered her entire box with paint. Angie liked brown and only painted a small part of her box before deciding to paint more. Hailey enjoyed experimenting with the texture of the paint on her skin and how the colors changed when mixed. Yehonathan chose his favorite color, blue, and used the paint roller to apply the paint onto his box. We had such fun with all the different colored paint!

Kiddush cupsOur friends worked on creating their Kiddush cups using a lot of glitter and modge podge. This was very sticky work so thank you for your patience if your child brought some sparkles home with them on their clothes or in their hair. Friends could choose between blue glitter or purple. Some used their hands to spread it onto the stem while others decided to tip them upside down and watch gravity take its course as the glitter combination dripped. 

Shabbos candle holder

In the sensory table they scooped colored sand in to small glass jars. Again, they selected the colors, order and how much sand they wanted to use as they layered it into their jars. We asked them to tell us which colors they wanted and which they were using as we worked. Then they helped squeeze glue onto the top and stick the foil funnel into the sand and glue, completing their candle holders! While this project was related to Shabbos, our big idea, we also worked on hand-eye coordination and learning colors. They turned out beautifully and we can't wait to use them at home!

Challah and counting 

This week we worked on using their pincer grasp. Pincer grasp is an important fine motor skill used for day to day things like gripping a pencil or using silverware. We started out by using hand over hand to help them place the cranberries or raisins on the "challah" loaves using fingers, then worked up to using plastic tweezers. By the end of the week it was exciting to see most of them had mastered some level of this skill. We extended this provocation by helping them count the raisins both in English and Hebrew. Then they were rewarded by eating them- yum!

Chicken soupOn Thursday morning we made delicious chicken soup as our contribution to the Shabbos Dinner. Cooking in the classroom provides so many opportunities for turn taking, measuring, stirring, it is the ultimate science experiment! They enjoy group cooking experiences. We hope those of you who are coming tonight enjoy the finished product!

Shabbot shalom!

Morah Ora and Morah Goldie