First Week of School!

 Dear parents,

We are so happy to be back to school!  We had such a wonderful week of getting to know each other and class room exploration.

Mika and Ari are having fun in the kitchen area and pretending to cook and have long conversations.
Abigail likes to spend time in the library, looking through books and naming each picture, and climbing on the loft.

Avigail showed her interest in fruit puzzles. 

Our friends are adjusting very well and already know our morning routine:
Before we come in to the class we need to take off our shoes.  We then find the shoe prints that we made with Morah Ora and put our shoes on the right shoe print cut out.  We then go inside the classroom and wash our hands right away. 

This week we spent our morning exploration and davening time with our Green Room friends.
The green room friends are teaching us so much, playing with us and helping our younger friends while being very gentle.  The Green room helpers have been helping us learn how to give out Tzedaka and recognize their Hebrew letters of their name.  

Because it is so hot out, we skipped water play this week and next, and can't wait for it a get a little cooler in the mornings.  We will share our daily schedule with you next week, as we are still adjusting to the best schedule for the children. 

Next week's unit is "All about me".
We will also continue spending more time exploring the classroom and materials and getting to know each other.

Please send a hard copy or email a picture of your child, a family picture, any pets that they have, a picture of their room or house, and a picture of their favorite toy.  We will be using these pictures to make a book with each child to read together in our classroom. 

We had Shabbos party today, making challah, having kiddush, singing Shabbos songs, and reading special Shabbos stories.  

Please, if you can each send in a plastic shoe box with a lid, that way we can have sensory exploration in a COVID-safe way.  

Also, while we do have water from the water fountain to refill your child's water bottle, if you would prefer they drink bottled water, please send an extra bottle to refill your child's water bottle. 

Thank you and looking forward for next week!

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Ora and Morah Chaya. 

Purim day, Purim day, what a happy holiday!

Dear parents!

We began our exploration of Purim this week. We began by introducing the main characters of the Megillah: King Achashverosh, Queen Vashti, Haman, Queen Esther and Mordechai through finger puppets, dancing and storybooks.

ProjectThis week we painted canvases to create our own Shushan (castle)
Chumi chose green and yellow paint and she decided to mix them together.  Zelda choose green paint.  Abigail choose red paint. They enjoyed painting while morah Ora read them a purim story.

Our friends decorated masks with feathers and glitter so that we could dress up as Mordechai.  We also made crowns with stickers so we could be kings and queens.

Sensory table.
Our friends explored rice, and beans in our sensory table this week. Using funnels and bottles, they each created a gragger or noisemaker. We practiced shaking our graggers to make noise whenever they hear the name Haman.

During davening, we give tzedakah, but this week we talked about how this is one of the four mitzvos of Purim. We touched on the other three mitzvos: hearing the Megillah, sending food gifts to friends and hosting a festive meal. 

We had such a great time with spirit week this week, it was fun to see all of the creative outfits your children were wearing! Thanks for joining in the Purim fun!

See you on Monday for our Purim Costume Dress up Day, and hope to see you at the Purim Party on Tuesday too!

Shabbat Shalom!
Morah Ora.

Dear Peach Room Parents.

We began exploring Tu B'Shvat, or the New Year for Trees, this week. Friends have been working on an ongoing group project. They are creating their own Peach Room Family Tree. Everyday we add some more to our tree as we talk about the different parts of the tree- roots, trunk & bark, branches, and leaves. They explored different textures and mediums in this collage work. Our friends began by painting our cardboard tree all together. Then they added some bark that we found on our playground. We used sponges to create a tree-like texture and we glued some leaves that we collected outside.

In the sensory table this week  we had soil, beans and pots.  We were practicing to plant.

 As we do this we talk about all of the things that plants and trees need to grow healthy- soil, water and sunlight to make their own food.

Next week we are going to plants our own pots to see how beans or seeds grow in to something big .

At the table clay, playdoh and branches were set out for our friends to sculpt their own trees. Playing and molding clay can be extremely therapeutic for a child who needs to physically express their emotions. In addition, their fingers are working to strengthen their fine motor skills and dexterity while their brain is working on their imagination and creativity.

Shabbot Shalom!

Morah Ora

Dear parents!

This week we opened our peach room and we are so happy to have a new beginning in the peach room before Rosh Hashana!

Our friends were so excited to explore all of the centers in the classroom: the sensory bin, kitchen, library, slide and much more.
Learning where all of the materials go, where each center is, and making sure everyone feels loved and safe are our main goals for the next couple of weeks.

This week we have been joining the blue room for Rosh Hashana projects .
We painted the honey jars with different color paint and we made challah dough from scratch.  We baked it in round pans and are excited to dip our challah in sweet honey for a sweet new year! 

Thank you for trusting us to guide your little ones.
Shabbat Shalom! Shana Tova!

Dear parents!

Summer is quickly approaching!  Our friends took advantage of the nice weather this week and had so much fun having water play and getting messy with the mud pit.  Next week we will continue having water play.  

As we wrap up our school year, next week will be a short but busy week as we practice for graduation performances, and complete our projects. Thursday morning you are invited to attend our graduation celebration and our school year will come to a close with 12:30 dismissal. 

To our dear parents, thank you so much for a great year!

Shabbat Shalom,
Morah Ora and Morah Goldie

 Dear parents!

We would like to thank you for your thoughtful kindness during Teacher Appreciation week. Working with your children is engaging and joyful for us and we thank you for all of your support!

As Mother's Day approaches we have been reading books about Mommies. Mommy and Me, Are You My Mother  and Teeny Weeny Looks for His Mommy are favorites. Mommy and Me has sparked some discussion about what we like to do with our mommies. 

We've also enjoyed working on a special project for our own mothers this week .

Dear parents , we are noticing an exciting social/emotional development in several of our friends. Maybe you have noticed it too...they are starting to use the word "No". Why do I use the word exciting to describe this development when it's often viewed as the onset of the terrible two's? Well, I find it exciting because it's normal and expected in typically developing children and it is an important developmental milestone. It signifies their development of sense of self, separate from the important adults in their lives and also a burgeoning development of independence and autonomy. Of course we want our children to be respectful, but does that mean they should always be compliant? When I child says "No" what they are really telling us is,"please give me more choices, I'm ready". The ability to make choices is an important executive function we want to help them grow and develop. It also shows they trust the adults in their lives enough to test this out. Sometimes this resistance can be a sign they want your attention and a better sense of connection. So how do we best navigate this?

Connect with them. Slow down for even just 10-15 minutes a day and meet them in their world, at their pace doing something they enjoy. Let them lead the interaction and give them your full and undivided attention. Then, when that "No." inevitably comes, you can take a deep breath and be thankful they trust you because you've built that connection strong.

 We can also help support them by avoiding yes or no questions and giving them lots of choices throughout the day at school and at home. At this age and stage, giving two acceptable options is developmentally appropriate and shouldn't overwhelm our friends. Let them choose between two outfits, two breakfast options, two lunch options...whenever you can, let them choose. If mornings are hectic, let them choose the night before. By taking that extra time to allow them to choose insignificant things now, you are giving them much needed practice for the more important decisions they must make as they grow older.

For tasks you know they do not like try to give a small choice about when it gets done to avoid the dreaded power struggle. For example, "Friends, do you want to clean up for snack now or in 5 minutes?" They may still complain or start to refuse and you can remind them, "Oh you chose 4 minutes and it's been 5 minutes so now it's time to clean up." Or set a timer and take yourself out of the equation, "The timer says it's time to clean up!"

 There will be times where there really is no choice and we need to set firm limits for safety or sanity's sake. Say for instance a child is throwing food, "The food stays on the table or in your mouth. If you throw food, you are showing us you are all done." The natural consequence follows that their food goes away if they choose to throw it again and we might say something like, "All done. We can try again the next time we eat."

For a playful approach, you can also try making "No" into a game. When one of our friends was saying "No" about everything, I started asking them really crazy questions like, "Do you want bugs/worms/rocks for snack?" to which they squealed and exclaimed, "No!" This gave them a chance to tell me no repeatedly and in a clearly teasing way much to their delight. Then I threw in questions like, "Do you want cookies for snack?" just to see if they would catch themselves automatically saying "No!" This friend caught it and then laughed and yelled, "Cookies!"

"No" is a very powerful word and so is the way in which we respond to it. Thanks for reading and for being such kind and supportive parents. 

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Ora and Morah Goldie

Dear peach room Parents. 

Welcome back, we hope you enjoyed some time off with your families! Our peaches were so happy to be back together and we started off our week with lots of very sweet hugs hello! 

After being away for just over a week, our friends eased back into their school routine smoothly. We kept our focus on interactions and gentle reminders to help support them through this. Although we did not work on any big projects, there were many opportunities for exploration and experimentation through both fine and gross motor provocations. 

Our friends explored a gross motor provocation with bubble wrap using their hands, feet, shopping carts and rolling pins. They walked, ran, jumped, squatted and sat on the bubble wrap. The shopping carts were most effective at giving that satisfying snap, crackle and pop they loved so much! 

Fine motor explorations continued with loose parts play. It is fascinating to see what pieces capture their attention and how they find new ways to create with different combinations of objects .we also did so much drawing and coloring with markers ,paint dots on a peace of paper and on a board . 
Its so amazing how each friend using their imagination and saying what they drawing  
Yehonathan said :morah look i draw alef beis  
Madison said :its a house ! 
Heiley said :morah can u help me make a heart . 
Shai :morah look i have lots of circles. 
Ella :i like coloring with brown marker. 
Angie :i have lots of lines. 
Daniel: i have lots of lines to . 
When our friends scribble or draw  
They are developing imagination and creativity. 
It helps To hold a paintbrush or pencil 
They can names of colors and how to make new colors 
They distinguish shapes, and purposely create shapes. 
They express their feelings & ideas.  



Shabbot shalom from the peach room Morahs!