TuB'Shvat + Grandparents Day = Fun Fun FUN!!

   This week we had an exciting week in the Peach Room! A new friend joined our class. We welcomed Caleb Zawacki to our gang! Our friends are so happy to have a new friend to play with. Zoe, Geffen, and Yochai shared their toys so nicely with Caleb and made him feel like they have been friends for ever.

   This week we focused on individual exploration.  Our friends played and explored everything in the classroom and in the backyard and had so many new experiences.  Yochai is becoming better and better on the bicycles. Zoe is really starting to love the library and the large selection of books we have. Every day Zoe chooses another book and asks her Morahs to read it to her and the rest of her friends. Geffen is fast becoming the class cook and chef! Geffen's love for the kitchen is amazing. He loves to put all the different foods into pots and pans and make soup and other delicacies for his friends! Then he puts the food away on the shelves and pretends to wash out all the dishes like a champ!  Caleb really enjoys playing with the cars and reading books about cars, trucks, and trains too!

   Because of Tu B'Shvat (the birthday of the trees) we did fun activities with fruits, vegetables, and flowers. This week we painted with flowers and it was such a fun experience! We also painted with silver foil which was different than a regular paper and we noticed how shiny it is in the sun. Our friends also loved playing with our fruit and vegetables blocks. The children were able to name all of the fruits and vegetables, and we built a very large tower with the bricks!

 This week we started Sports with Jump Bunch and it was a great opportunity to work on our balance, spatial awareness, and hand-eye coordination! Our friend Mina was not feeling well this week so we called her to wish her a Refuah Shaleima (a prayer to get well quick). We can't wait to see her next week! <3

                          This Friday was a blast! Our Grandparents (and some other relatives) came to school for our Tu B'Shvat program! We had an amazing Sing-A-Long with Rabbi Tzvi and then enjoyed riding the train, drinking freshly squeezed orange juice, eating yummy fruit kabobs, and doing an art project together.

   Shabbat Shalom everybody! Can't wait to seeing all of our friends next week! =)

   Morah Ora and Morah Pearly

Fruits & Vegetables

   Hello everybody!

   This week in the Peach room we were very busy! We learned all about fruits and vegetables in honor of Tu B'Shvat which is coming up next week.  On Monday we had a very fun activity; Morah Ora put out different spices and glue and the children painted them on to the paper, the paper smelled so good when we were done!


   Tuesday was a lot of fun. The Morah's put out a tree provocation with clay and branches. Our friends formed the clay and branches and formed their own beautiful original trees

 On Wednesday we found the block center with pictures of fruits and vegetables on them!  Now we can sort which fruits and vegetables come from trees and which come from the ground.  Geffen especially had so much fun with this activity, stacking the blocks on top of each other when our friends named each food. Mina and Zoe were so good at knowing the different names of the fruits and vegetables, and Yochai enthusiastically said "Amen!" every time one of the Morah's explained which Brocha goes to that fruit/vegetable.

   On Wednesday our friends also had Music and Movement Class with Mr Sam and the Blue Room. Our friends had so much fun, but unfortunately this was our last class with Mr Sam. We cannot wait for Jump Bunch next week!  And last but not least, our friends baked a delicious cake for Zoe's birthday.

   With Thursday came ZOE'S 2ND BIRTHDAY!! The first ever birthday party that we threw in the Peach Room. We had a fancy pink table cloth and plates. We had a lot of fun music that we danced to, with glow in the dark sticks. We also had a mini disco ball that shined so many different colors on the wall to make the party even more fun. Zoe's Mama and older sister, Hannah, came and enjoyed the party with us. The cake that all of our friends baked was absolutely delicious! And of course we cannot forget that in honor of Zoe's birthday, the Peach Room got a new beautiful book in the library.

   Then comes Friday. With the end of the week we made yummy Matzah for this week's Parsha. In this weeks Torah Portion we learn that after the last 3 plagues (a total of 10), the Jews were FINALLY freed from Egypt. Because the Jews packed and rushed out of Egypt so quickly, the dough did not have time to rise and baked on the back of the people who were carrying it. Hence, the dough turned into Matzah. So too, we are baking Matzah ourselves!

Our friends did a lot of exploring outside this week. The Morah's put silver foil on the gate, and all of our friends from CJP painted it with their hands and/or with paint brushes.  We also painted with a plunger and made lots of circles with it (see Facebook for pictures!).

Looking forward to another wonderful week with your children.

   Shabbat Shalom!

     
Morah Orah and Morah Pearly

Exploring Our Bodies!

   This week our friends had a lot of fun exploring our bodies. Our Morah's traced our bodies and we colored them in.  We traced our toes and fingers in clay. It was so interesting and fun pushing our toes/hand into clay and watching it mold around ourselves. Geffen loved it so much and wanted to mold both his hands and feet!

   This week at Music & Movement, Mr Sam had a very fun game for us! We danced all around while he was banging a beat on his drum, and then when he stopped, one friend would choose a funny pose from his book and we would try our best to mimic the stance. Mina especially loved this activity and would giggle every time she fell trying to balance.

   In last weeks Parsha (Torah weekly portion) we learnt that Moshe (Moses) was born and went to Paroah (Pharoah) and told him to let the Jews out of slavery in Egypt. When Paroah refused, Moshe warned him that all of Egypt would be punished till he free's them. In this week's Parsha we learn about the first 7 of the 10 plagues. Our friends had a lot of fun coloring and stamp painting little pictures of the plagues for us to take home with us as a little art 'n crafts booklet next weekend. We also learnt a new song on the Parsha that Yochai and Zoe really enjoyed singing along too.

   We are proud to say that Tot Shabbat is back on and our friends could not be more happy and enthusiastic about it! =D

    We cannot wait to see all of our friends and their parents at the CJP Shabbat dinner this Friday night! :) It is gonna be so much fun!

   See you all then!

                <3
   Morah Ora, Morah Pearly, Mina, Yochai, Geffen, & Zoe.

Preparing for Shabbos!

Shabbos is coming, we're so happy. We're gonna scream and shout out loud! :D We are so excited for all the Shabbos activities and events that are coming up that we simply cannot stop singing Shabbos songs! This week, we baked yummy yummy cookies for the shabbos sale on Friday. We had so much fun mixing all the ingredients together. All of our friends helped pour all the ingredients in like pros, and then we all mixed it together!

 
   This week our friends had so much playing in our classroom kitchen! Geffen loves to pretend that he is peeling and cutting up vegetables, Zoe loves to pretend that she is washing the dishes, Yochai loves putting food in the pots and then putting it on the stove top, and Mina loves to take out the Shabbos Candles, wave her arms around them, cover her eyes, and pretend that she is bringing in Shabbos. :)

   Every week during Davening (morning prayer) our friends have so much fun singing and dancing and learning about the Parsha (Torah Portion), but this week was ESPECIALLY fun. We learned this week that Moshe Rabeinu (Moses) was born and told Paroah (Pharoah) to let the Jews go, but Paroah said "No, no, no. I will not let them go!". On Facebook we posted an adorable video of Mina repeating after Morah Pearly that Moshe was born in this weeks Parsha. Our friends love Davening so much. Mina and Zoe love the song "Thank You Hashem for giving me my..." and always shout out what they are thankful for (ie. Mommy & Tatty/ Mama & Papa). Geffen and Yochai love the Tzedakka (Charity) song, and always sing along with their Morah's, and all of our friends love the Torah song, and dance and hug their Torahs lovingly. :)


   Our friends also know most of the songs by themselves now, along with the motions. When we sing "The good morning train is coming how are you? Choo Choo!", all of our friends do the arm motion of a conductor pulling the train horn. It is very cute. Also, every day when we say Shema, Zoe covers her eyes, and when we sing "I open one eye, I open two..." Mina always covers her eyes, and then uncovers them to the words of the song. :) This week we also started sitting on circle "spot" mats during Davening time. Our friends learned that when we say "Sit down. Criss cross apple sauce", they quickly plop down on their mat and cross their ankles over each other. Try it at home and you will see! :)

   This week we had a lot of fun playing with markers and crayons and play dough. On Wednesday we had so much fun creating our very OWN silly putty from warm water, salt, glue, and a tiny drop of coloring. It is a very fun activity to do at home and our friends had so much fun seeing what they created by themselves and then being able to play with it.

   And of course, we had our new Music and Movement class this week again. This week we sang so many fun songs with Mr Sam, and Mr Sam took out his big snake blanket and we had fun covering our bodies with it while singing the snake song.

   This week, as every other week, was so much fun and am looking forward to next week when we can have so much more fun with our friends again.

          <3
    Morah Ora
            &
   Morah Pearly

Our Very Own Shabbat Box!

   This week in the Peach Room we had a lot of fun. We started to get ready for our CJP Family Shabbat Dinner. When our fathers and mothers come with us to the fun Friday Night Shabbat Dinner, we will have a whole bunch of beautiful Shabbat arts & crafts to take home with us. We are going to be creating our very own unique Shabbat Challah cover, Kiddush cup, Candles, and a self decorated Shabbat box to bring it all home in.

   On Monday and Tuesday we started decorating our Shabbat boxes. We covered them in paper and glued different designs and items on the box to make it our own unique craft. We also played outside with our friends from the older classrooms and had so much fun. Yochai is really enjoying looking at all the different plants. Mina loves playing with her bigger friends, Zoe really enjoys riding on the different bikes we have, and Geffen enjoys to run all around and play with everything and everybody.

   Now on Wednesdays we have a fun new music and movement class, given by Mr Sam!  He had many different puppets that he introduced to us, and our friends had so much fun talking to them, but specifically Yochai and Zoe. We played a fun game that helped us learn the first 7 letters to the ABC's. Mina especially enjoyed singing along to the ABC song, with Mr Sam. We enjoyed ourselves so much and we are looking forward to the following weeks where we will have this new music and movement class more. On Wednesday we also started decorating our Challah Cover. We used paint in squeeze bottles and squirted different colors all over our cloths. Each one of our friends chose a different pattern of colors and designed their Challah cover to their own unique taste.

   Thursday we created our candles! We took chalk and colored sand with it. Geffen had so much fun at this new activity! Then we took our colored sand and poured it through a funnel into candle holders to decorate them, and then covered the top with glue, as our own individual unique craft. It was a lot of fun working on our fine motor skills, holding the chalk and raking it back and forth over the sand. Another awesome activity we did on Thursday that helped us excel in our fine motor skills was we took toy nails (golf tees), and with toy hammers we banged them into our toy cardboard boxes.

   Friday was a very special day. We had Tot Shabbat with Morah Masha! :) We had fun singing Shabbat songs, making Challah, and drinking grape juice! The second special thing that we did on Friday was that the Green Room (3 year olds) invited us to their classroom for lunch, to enjoy the pasta that they cooked, with them!

   Looking forward to all the fun and exploring that we will have in the Peach room next week!

         <3
  Morah Ora
          &
Morah Pearly

Back To School =)

   Hey everybody! We are super excited to be back at school with all of our amazing little friends! :)

   This week in the Peach room we had a lot of fun. On Monday we welcomed all of our friends back to school with a big hug and smile. We played with play dough, markers, and puzzles, and rehearsed all of our shapes, colors, and numbers. We also had a lot of fun outside in the backyard. Mina and Zoe went excitedly to the bikes and Geffen quickly made his way to the tree stumps, where he loves climbing.

   On Tuesday our friends wanted Morah Pearly to read them a lot of different books. Mina loved the Dr Seuss "Fish" book, Zoe loved the "Mitzvah Hands" book, and Geffen could not get enough of the book, "Aleph Bais Trip on the Aleph Bais Ship". We also colored a lot of beautiful art, which Mina enjoyed, and did not want to put down her markers. This week we also started a new fun game where at snack and lunch time, our friends have to find their seat with the Aleph Bet (Hebrew ABC's) letter that their name starts with. Once they find it, they sit in their seat and eat their yummy food. Our friends are becoming better and better each day at recognizing their own Aleph Bet letter all on their own!

   Wednesday was such a cool day because we made snow!! With some hair conditioner and baking soda, we created Snow in Central Arizona! We shared our snow with our friends outside and we all had so much fun playing with it and developing our fine motor skills by forming them into snowballs! :) On Wednesday Morah Ora moved some furniture around and we got a cool new kitchen for our friends to play in. All of our friends love it. Yochai loves setting up and putting the food and candle sticks on the table, Mina enjoys to pretend wash the dishes, and Geffen loves putting food into the pots and pans and putting it on our oven.
 
   Thursday was a fun day because we planted our new plants!! Our Morah's put soil into the sensory table and with shovels and a rakes we planted the seeds for our beautiful new garden. Our friends really enjoyed putting soil all around our plants and digging.

    In this week's Parsha we learnt that Yaakov (Jacob) finds out that his son Yoseph (Joseph) was alive and he comes down to Mitzrayim (Egypt) and lives there with his entire family (Over 70 people). We learned a song for this weeks Parsha. It will be in your child backpack. They would really like it if you sing it with them over the weekend.

   Then comes Friday. On Friday we welcomed Yochai back to school. We missed him so much. In the morning we had a special sing along party with Morah Masha and the blue room. Zoe and Mina really enjoyed singing along to the Shabbat songs.

   With every week comes new and amazing fun activities, and we cannot wait for next week to do more of them! :)

  <3 Morah Ora & Morah Pearly

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