Monthly Archives: December 31, 2018

Thank you to Ethan and the entire Sternberg family for gifting Brain Flakes to our class. This alternative to blocks is a construction toy that lets imaginations run wild. The discs clip together and then pull apart. Right now the class is enjoying taking them apart and sorting them.

Our cozy corner has been busy.  The way the children tenderly wrap their “babies” in blankets is a tribute to the love they feel at home. And everyone knows of Baby Becca, Aryeh’s real-life baby sister. The corner includes our bookshelf, and  the children can increasingly be found “reading” on the comfy green carpet and around the room.

Speaking of books, the children are insistent that snack and lunch time include story time. In keeping with our winter theme, this week we read The Snowy Day. Because we have been talking about mittens, we introduced a mitten matching game designed to foster color recognition.

As a companion to the game, each child decorated a (paper) mitten. The children chose the color of construction paper they wanted to use (we said the name of the color together), and the type of glue brush and textures to add to their mitten. As much as possible, we give the children freedom to make their own decisions, which is so important for their development.

And, there’s nothing like a crisp winter day for some outdoor fun.

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Sherry and Morah Blimie

The talk of WINTER  is a constant in the Sunflower’s classroom.  The children know that there are four seasons. FALL,WINTER,SPRING, and SUMMER. All the children share with us how they love the winter season.  In our morning conversation, the children went around the circle and said what they liked best about winter.  Playing in the snow, making snow angels, sledding, and building a snowman were the top favorites.  We then made an invisible snowman in our circle describing what the eyes, nose, mouth, and arms were made out of, along with what color the snowman’s hat and scarf were. The children then started “gathering the snow” in their hands into a “snowball”  then “rolling the snowball until it was big enough to make each part of the snowman”, while the real snowman that we made dried in the Art Studio. To create each of the three tiers of the snowman the children used items with different textures.  After Zachary’s father came to read a book to the Sunflowers, he joined the class in watching  it snow in our classroom.  The children and Zachary’s father loved spreading the snow around on the” ground.”  The snow was made out of one of our favorite things, shaving cream.  The children like how the shaving cream feels; it is almost like snow, but not as cold. Making our “snowflakes” out of doilies and crinoline was another way the children enjoyed creating a wintery vision in our classroom.

We can not wait for more mom’s and dad’s to come and read and spend some time in our classroom.  Please contact the Morot via email to set up a time.

Morah Aimee taught the children some amazing poems about winter […]

Painting has recently become a favorite activity. This week we donned our smocks and created colorful freestyle art. Painting is wonderful in so many ways: it’s a wonderful sensory experience and helps to develop fine motor skills, color recognition, and creative expression. The children love to experiment with different implements and textures,  and of course, their hands.

Another sensory experience: we made play dough using Morah Yafit’s recipe. In keeping with our winter theme, the flour was “snow” and the salt bits of “ice.” The texture is wonderful. The children literally couldn’t wait to dig their hands on in. How did it feel? Warm, soft, squishy. White like snow. The children made mitten hand prints and snowflakes. And, of course, plenty of patting and rolling out the dough.

Fun in the indoor play area. What better way to roll a big bouncy ball than with your friends?

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Sherry and Morah Blimie

Our exploration of winter continues. The children dug for snowballs and snowflakes in the sand table and had an icy treat for snack. We sang winter songs with Morah Jill.

Every day we bundle up and play outside. With many of the children now wearing mittens (or gloves), it was only appropriate that we read The Mitten by Jan Brett. We then decided it would be fun to create our own mittens. Since the children love working with play dough, our mittens will be dough based. Morah Yafit gave us a new recipe that we are making this week.

The children love to bake and are becoming more confident with measuring, adding in, and mixing the ingredients. On Tuesday, we joined the 3s and made “snow” cookies, courtesy of confectioner’s sugar the children sifted themselves. Yum.

Whether outdoors or indoors, the children engage in gross motor play every day. Teamwork (and a lot of squealing), played a big part in the children’s scooter play. It was fascinating to watch the children figure out how to hold hands and scoot in unison, and is evidence of their growing ability to engage in group, rather than parallel, play.

We love mixing!! We love making things!! So we decided to make play dough! All that measuring and observing what happens, seeing the changes. Science and math alive int eh classroom! Stem at it’s best. And the turn taking and the team building!!

And then we get to play with it!! The children get so creative! Play dough is very forgiving in more ways than one. If you make a mistake you can always start again. This is a message we share with the children all the time. We can always try again. And the sky is the limit with what we can create!

We were so excited to see the snow outside so we decided to make our own.

Spraying, pouring, mixing and squishing.

It felt so cool!

When we went outside to see the real snow, it was exciting. We could dance in it and open our mouths to taste it but since there was not that much snow, we didn’t get to wet.

Next, we went to check on our garden. Guess what!! The Yeladim found ice in the garden! They collected the ice so we could observe what will happened to the ice.

We went into the class and make our own ice. When we asked the children how to make it they responded, “Water and the freezer!!” So smart!

This week we are focusing on another great letter, the letter ” I “. Morah Lilli read the book  Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni. The yeladim knew so many words that begin with the letter I. How funny that this was the week that we found Ice!