Baby Doll Circle Time Leads to Many Kinds of Exploration

Dear Families,

It was a pleasure talking to you all about your beautiful children. Thank you for signing up for conferences.

Our dramatic play with baby dolls has continued to evolve this week. Everyone has had a hand at caring for a baby (or two or three). We have been giving the babies bottles, changing their clothes, rocking them to sleep and doing more check ups!  We were able to add some life-like baby dolls to our classroom which have been very appealing to all of our friends.

From now on, we will continue doing our special circle time with baby dolls.

 

Our song and movement with baby dolls:

Get Your Baby (tune of Oh My Darlin’ Clementine)

Get your baby, get your baby, get your baby, it’s time to play.

Get your baby, get your baby, get your baby, it’s time to play.

 

My baby’s  on my lap, my baby’s on my lap.

This is my baby, my baby’s on my lap.

 

My baby’s in my arms, my baby’s  in my arms.

This is my baby, my baby’s in my arms.

 

My baby’s sitting down, my baby’s  sitting down.

This is my baby, my baby’s sitting down.

 

My baby’s laying down, my baby’s laying down.

This is my baby, my baby’s laying down.

 

Where is my baby?

Peek a boo.

Bye bye baby.

It was a welcome relief to have cooler weather, and we relished our outdoor time. We spotted airplanes and dragonflies, took turns on the slide, and watched (even joined) some of the elaborate play of the older children. We looked for bugs, explored the yard, rode bikes, and built with blocks.

As our class grows, our friends are relating to each other and seeking each other out more and more. They inquire if someone is absent and remark if someone is sad. As their budding language and awareness of self and others develop we are noticing a growing sense of community togetherness.

Parsha Vayera and Baby Dolls .

Dear Families,

This week we incorporated activities based on the parsha, Parshas Vayera in our classroom. In this week's parsha, we learn about Avraham inviting guests to his house.

Morah Ora brought  more stuffed toys and dolls into the classroom for our friends to enjoy. We decided to invite them to our circle time so that we could daven and dance with them. Our friends enjoyed this work a great deal.

Baby Doll Circle Time provides the opportunity for young children to experience being the nurturer by interacting with their baby dolls (stuff toys) in the same ways that we, as caring adults, might interact with them.

Another fun activity we did from this week was inspired by the part of the parsha where Avraham helped his guests by washing their feet. We set up two bins outside: one with bumpy rocks and one with water. First our friends went through rocks to feel how bumpy it was and then through the water. After that they wiped their feet with a towel. Most of our friends didn’t like to go through the rocks but they loved to go through and jump in the water. 

The Purple Room invited us to be guests in their classroom where we had the opportunity to practice being good guests while watching them be gracious hosts! They prepared food for us, then we sat together and ate. We love interacting with our friends in other classes.

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Ora, Morah Rivky, & Morah Chaya

All About Me and My Feelings

Dear Families-

 

This week we are continuing our “All about Me“ unit.

Thank you for sending your child's favorite book to share with our class. Our friends were so happy to see their books and share them with each other.

Leif’s book: Kindness Makes Us Strong by Sophie Beer 

As the Morahs  read the book, we spoke about how nice it is to be kind!

 

Audrey's book: Brown Bear, Brown Bear ,What Do You See? by Mill Martin and Eric Carl 

As we read this book, we asked our friends what sound each animal makes and we repeated colors after Morah.

 

Asher's book: I Love You Through and Through by Bernadette Rossetti Shustak.

We spoke about how, no matter what, we all love each other! 

 

Next week we will continue sharing the rest of our friends' books.

 

Inspired by the book My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss, our friends created portraits of themselves with colors based on how they were feeling. We talked about how we can feel many different feelings at many different times, and they are all okay to have because they are a part of us. 

Morah provide our friends with paint brushes and different colors of paint.

Our friends began painting with paint brushes, then they decided to use there hands to feel the colors.

Morahs even heard some friends saying, "It's cold!"

After that, our friends mixed all the colors, and we saw their work become different shades and colors.

Morah's job is to provide our little ones with the materials they need so that our friends can use their imagination and creativity. It's amazing to observe each of them to see how we all so different.

Shabbat Shalom 

Morah Ora, Morah Rivky, & Morah Chaya

 

All About Me

Dear Parents,

 
We would like to welcome Leeann to our classroom! She is a joy to have with us!

 

All About Me

This week, in the Peach Room, we learned all about ourselves. Each friend had the opportunity to look in to the mirror and look at themselves. We talked about what color everyone's eyes are and we pointed to our nose, ears, and mouth. We counted our fingers and toes. We used paint stamps to stamp our hands and feet on the paper to see the size of our friends' hands and feet.

Self Portrait 

This week our friends made their first self portrait . Mirrors, black and white photos of each child, and paint pallets were set up for everyone to explore.
Audrey  pointed to her eyes and began painting  them first.
Leeann  enjoyed mixing all the colors and had a big smile on her face.
Liran  looked at the self portrait picture and said “It's me!"
Aria enjoyed looking at herself in the mirror.

Kai looked at the mirror and smiled.

Leif pointed to his nose and looked at his morahs with a big smile on his face.

Friendship Tree

We made a Friendship Tree for our classroom! I explained that everyone in our class is best friends, and even when we do things that upset each other or hurt each other’s feelings, we should always remember that we are friends, so we should use kind words and apologize when we do something wrong. Then I told everyone that we would be making a friendship tree to hang in our room and remind each other that no matter what, we were all friends.

Morah started by drawing the outline of the tree on a poster board. I used the brown marker for this, then colored in the trunk with the brown paint  so that the outline would stand out better. Once that was finished, Morah provided each child with yellow, green and red paint. Our friends dipped their hands into the paint and stamped them on the poster board. Each leaf (hand print) looks so different like everyone in our classroom family.

 

Sharing from Home

For the next couple weeks we will be covering "All About Me." If it’s possible, we would love if each friend can bring their favorite book from home to share with the class . Thank you!

Shabbat Shalom

Morah Ora, Morah Rivky, & Morah Chaya.

Simchas Torah & Mitzvot

Dear Parents,

Hashem wants us to be happy so he gave us one more holiday!

This holiday is all about our special Torah. The holiday is called Simchas Torah.

It means Happiness of the Torah. We are so happy we have the Torah.

On this holiday we dance and celebrate together.

Each day, during davening time, we talk about mitzvot and how our Torah is full of mitzvos. Then Morah reads our friends' mitzvah notes, and we celebrate them because we are so proud of them!

On Monday our friends created their own flags, and we took a walk to the big shul to see where we keep our Torahs full of mitzvot.

Our friends were so excited to see the Torahs, and we sang Torah songs, jumped so high and waved our flags .

Shabbat Shalom 

Morah Ora, Morah Rivky, & Morah Chaya

High holidays

Dear Parents,

Over the past two weeks our friends explored two more big holidays! 

For Yom Kippur we learned about the importance of saying please, thank you, and sorry. We practiced our manipulative skills by putting coins in the tzedakah box while learning how to give to others. Our friends each got their own tzedakah box and a pile of coins, and we practiced putting in one coin at a time, making sure to keep the rest of our coins safely on the table. We listened to the coins drop in and noticed how the sound changed based on how full the box was. 

For Sukkos we built and explored our classroom's own sukkah! Each friend had a chance to sit inside, look through the leafy roof and play with friends. We then went outside to a life-size sukkah and experienced what it was like to sit outside and celebrate. 

 

We worked as a team to make a sukkah decoration. Each child got a palm branch and dipped it into paint, which they then dabbed onto a big piece of cloth, creating a unique design. We practiced shaking the lulav in all four directions, symbolizing how Hashem is everywhere.

Shabbat Shalom and happy holidays!

Morh Ora, Morah Rivky, & Morah Chaya.

Shana Tova U’Metuka

Dear Parents.

We are so excited to welcome our new friend, Aria, to our classroom!

This week we continued to explore and learn about Rosh Hashana.  

 

Dramatic Play

 

In our dramatic play area we had a fish tank with Mr. Fishy on the table, and we practiced doing Tashlich!  During Tashlich we throw away any of the not-so-nice things we may have done to the fish and say sorry for any bad things we may have done.

Discovery Table

Our friends learned about bees, flowers, and honey.

We spoke about how the flowers benefit bees by providing them with the food bees need. Bees feed on nectar and pollen of flowers.

Nectar is the sweet liquid that flowers produce. Then we spoke about how bees need flowers to make honey.

 

While our friends were invited to the discover table, Morah explained to our friends that we dip challah in the honey to have sweet new year.

On Rosh Hashana we bake round challah because they do not have a beginning or an end. This symbolizes that the blessings that come from Hashem to us, should be constant and never-ending.  

Rosh Hashana Project

Morahs gave our friends foil pan, baking brush, honey and challah dough rolls. Each of them chose how many rolls they want to have on baking foil and we counted them! . Then our friends dipped their baking brushes in to sticky honey and glazed the challah dough. 

Our friends tried hard not to taste  the dough and lick the honey.

A big thanks to Rabbi Dietsch for coming and blowing the shofar every day. We love to hear the sounds of the shofar, and we cant wait until Rosh Hashana is finally here!

Dear parents, we want to wish you

Shana Tova Umetuka and Shabbat Shalom

 

Morah Ora, Morah Rivky, &  Morah Chaya.