Monthly Archives: May 17, 2019

The Sunflowers know that the ocean is blue

The Sunflowers are loving our unit on UNDER THE SEA.  They literally put their entire bodies into it especially their hands and feet.  Feeling the cold squishy paint between their fingers or toes was so much fun.  The children had a wonderful time. Their facial expressions as they placed their feet into the paint and spread it over the paper was priceless.  They couldn’t believe it was ok to do this.  Clean up was even more fun.  Stepping into a bucket filled with water was cool.  The kids had a blast washing their hands and feet in this bucket.  Morah Pam of course supervised and was quite impressed that we did not make a mess.  Our underwater creatures are coming along.  Starfish, octopus, and jellyfish were so much fun to make.  Each fish was made out of a different material and decorated with a different texture.

 

Spring is here and the children enjoyed making a flower with tissue paper.  The children could either scrunch up the tissue paper or lay it flat over the flower.  The amount of focus and concentration that the children put into this activity was amazing along with showing great dexterity.

The rain stopped and the children were able to go outside and play.  Running around and playing games with each other was an incredible sight to see.  Their imaginations are never ending.

Wishing everyone a Shabbat Shalom.

Morah Pam and Morah Debra

By |May 17, 2019|
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Caterpillars and more in the Butterfly class (Toddlers)

The children are showing such fascination with our caterpillar exploration. They looked at our wall to see the pictures that are hung up of the process of how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. They then check on our real caterpillars to see if there are any changes. Our classroom caterpillars are currently in the chrysalis state. Using modeling clay the children formed their very own caterpillars by rolling out pieces on the table. Then they took another piece and looked at the picture on the wall to see what the chrysalis state looked like and created their own chrysalis out of modeling clay by bending a snake-like looking creation. Our last step was to create a butterfly using a flat piece of modeling clay. We used our very strong muscles to press down on a butterfly cookie cutter to shape it. Our modeling clay needs time to dry before we finish our masterpiece.

 

The children even tried to shape their caterpillar into the letter J and held it vertically, just like they observed the real caterpillars doing inside the enclosure.

 

Happy third birthday to our friend Chana. We gave tzedakah and took turns putting it in her special tzedakah box that she brought from her house. We sang Happy Birthday, ate delicious cupcakes, and gave Chana the special treasure chest that we all decorated for her .

We baked a cake and decorated a special picture frame for Morah Sherry’s Goodbye Party. The whole school joined us in celebrating Morah Sherry becoming a grandmother. Morah Sherry showed us pictures of her granddaughter. All the children took turns hugging her and saying goodbye.

We loved feeling the warm weather while we played on the slides, dug in the […]

By |May 16, 2019|
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Gan Tziporim

It is a thrill every year when the little jar of caterpillars are delivered and we can observe them eating (some sort of food at the bottom of the jar) and growing and eating and growing.  And then they move to the lid of the jar and hang down in a “J” shape and are suddenly a chrysalis.  We wait for what seems like forever, but is really about two weeks, with the chrysalis changing from a very light color to a very dark one.  When it darkens like that you know the butterfly will be emerging very soon.  This year, we returned to school after the weekend, and two had already emerged and then a third came out of the chrysalis right in front of us! The fourth came out the next day.  The children were very excited and totally enchanted by this miraculous event.  They were riveted by every movement that the butterflies made.                                                                                                                                                                         We provided several books to explain the butterfly’s life cycle, explain the butterfly’s anatomy, and explore the variety of caterpillars and butterflies that exist.  The children looked through these books after snack and lunch.  The pictures, both photographs and illustrations, were beautiful and informative.  One […]

By |May 15, 2019|
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Spring time in the Butterfly class (Toddlers)

Our week began with the exploration of how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. We even have our very own caterpillars in our classroom so we can watch and see them transform. The children love reading our “Very Hungry Caterpillar” book by Eric Carle. They are busy researching caterpillars and butterflies. They have discovered that a caterpillar first starts out as an egg.  As the ” Very Hungry Caterpillar” book by Eric Carle says, “Pop! Out of the egg came a caterpillar”. Once it’s a caterpillar it forms a chrysalis. Once the caterpillar has completed its metamorphosis, it will nibble its way out to become a beautiful butterfly. The children observe the caterpillars in our clasroom every day to look for changes in its form. Thank you to the Aminof family for donating the book “Thanks from The Very Hungry Caterpillar”.

The children’s interests are so focused on what is happening with our caterpillars. We hung pictures of the stages of the metamorphosis on our wall and they discuss them constantly. They even decided to make their own versions. We began with the egg. The children used modeling clay to form their own eggs. They formed tiny little balls. They are very good at rolling tiny little balls our of clay!! More to come…

 

During music time the children pretended to lay on the floor like a caterpillar. They rolled up into a ball like a chrysalis and then jumped up and waved their hands and flew like butterflies.

In preparation for our friends Chana’s birthday party, we baked cupcakes and made her a special treasure box with gems that we glued on. We used dot dot markers to create a beautiful birthday crown for her.

Stay tuned to find […]

By |May 14, 2019|
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Gan Tziporim

Morah Yafit, introduced the letter Ayin to the children.   They cut and glued pictures of the vocabulary words: pencil- eparon; tree- etz; and cloud – anan.  Morah Yafit always reviews past vocabulary before moving on to the new letter and new words.  The children have retained quite a few vocabulary words and are really doing well with the Hebrew alef-bet.

The children have continued to work on writing the letter “Dd” and understanding the phonetic sound of the letter.  We make sure that they are holding their crayons in the correct writing position so that they have the best outcome.

We reminded the children that they may like to write about some of their fantasy games or about the recent holidays.  Several of the children chose to write about Israel  or about the rain which has been pouring down for the last few days. They drew pictures of their subject matter and then dictated their words.

More work with the phonetics of “Dd”.  The children had to identify which animals on the page had a name that started with the initial “Dd” sound.  These included:  dragon, dolphin, deer, and dinosaur.

Our tiny caterpillars grew larger and fatter, and then hung upside-down in a J shape. They then proceeded to spin a chrysalis around themselves, and finally after almost two weeks, emerged as butterflies.  Four butterflies are now living in a soft-sided cage in our classroom.  We placed pieces of orange on the bottom of the cage for them to feed upon. It appears that butterflies enjoy eating sweet things.  We read several books about caterpillars and butterflies:  The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle; The Butterfly by Anna Milbourne and Cathy Shimmen; and Becoming Butterflies by Anne Rockwell, […]

By |May 14, 2019|
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The butterflies are coming… the butterflies are coming… to the Sunflowers

The Sunflowers could not believe how much the caterpillars changed over the weekend. They went from eating and crawling around to curled up in their chrysalis.  Morah Rachelle came into our classroom and showed us that now that the caterpillars have made their chrysalis it was now time to move them to a bigger habitat to become butterflies. Morah Rachelle took the cap off the container where the caterpillars had been busy eating. The had now planted themselves on the cover to begin their metamorphosis into a butterfly. Next, Morah Rachelle placed the cap onto a special stand which was placed into the butterfly habitat.  Now we have to wait until the chrysalises open and out will come beautiful butterflies. Waiting for the butterflies are slices of oranges for them to eat.   The butterflies will drink the juice from the orange slices.  The children were in awe over seeing all these changes and cannot wait until the butterflies arrive.

The sunflowers began a unit on UNDER THE SEA.  All the children were able to answer the question of WHAT LIES UNDER THE WATER IN THE OCEAN?  There are fish, sharks, dolphins, sand, and rocks just to name a few things.  The children enjoyed making a starfish and octopus and cannot wait to make a jellyfish and so many more fish as we will be making a mural for our UNDER THE SEA unit.  The children sat so nicely as Morah Pam read a few books regarding the ocean. SWIMMY  By Leo Lionni was a favorite. Morah Pam read it three times!  that’s how much we love the story.

Stay tuned for more exciting times in the Sunflowers.

Morah Pam and Morah Debra

 

By |May 13, 2019|
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The Sunflowers are Going to Party Like It’s 5779

The Sunflowers were so excited to enter their classroom only to realize that they were not in New Jersey.  It was amazing how our room transformed into Jerusalem just in time to celebrate Yom Haatzmaut.  What a wonderful experience everyone had davening at the Kotel.  It was very moving.   Watching the children focus on saying every word as they passed the Torah around while singing Torah Tzevah Lanu Moshe….and the Shma was incredible.  The children were able to write a note to say something special to Hashem.

The children then went on to view a special exhibit at an art gallery in Tzfat.  The children were able to view the work from all the classes at IBECC.  There was even a display that the children could be hands on with.  They were able to weave ribbon through a grate. Boy, did they have fun.

Singing songs and dancing with the entire school was so much fun. Everyone enjoyed dancing or spending time with their siblings.  The Rabbi played his guitar.  Learning the HATIKVAH  was great. It is such an important song. Waving our giant flags was great, too.  It was pretty remarkable that we were able to wave our flags since they are the same size as us.

Having our snack in Tel-Aviv was the best experience.  The children were given money with which to buy ice cream or ice pop and a chocolate ball.  With smiles and ice cream all over their faces, we could tell everyone enjoyed their snack along with their experience in Tel- […]

By |May 9, 2019|
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Yom Ha’Atzmaut Sameach Gan Tziporim

First thing in the morning, before our celebration of Yom Ha’Atzmaut began, the children all joined together to apply the frosting for the birthday cake for Israel.  They spread the vanilla frosting all around and then enjoyed licking off their spoons.  Morah Yafit used a steady hand to apply the blue gel to create the Israeli flag.  After lunch, we shared our cake with the Sunflower class.

Our first visitors to Cafe Tel Aviv-Yaffo were the Toddler Class and Gan Paparim.  Our children helped sell the goodies we made to our visitors.  Paper Israeli Shekels (copies) were distributed to our customers so they could pay for their treats.  Our servers asked if their customers wanted chocolate or vanilla ice cream served on a cone or frozen ices.  They collected the money and then served the desired treat.  Meanwhile, at another area of our cafe, some of our children sold the traditional Israeli chocolate balls. They also collected the Israeli Shekels for this tasty treat.  Our next visitors were the Sunflowers.  They lined up properly and the selling of the ice cream and chocolate balls was again repeated.  A delicious time was had by all!

We davened in Yerushalayim at the Kotel.  We recited all of our morning brachot, and then the children expressed their thanks or wishes to Hashem.  Thank yous were given for trips to Disney World and wishes for new baby brothers and sisters were expressed.

The children had fun frolicking in the sand at the beach in Eilat.  They enjoyed digging for shells and also examining the many varieties of shells available to see there.

The children enjoyed choosing just the right spot to showcase their artwork in the galleries of Tzfat.  Then they used […]

By |May 9, 2019|
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Yom Ha’ Atzmaut in the Toddler class

We boarded our plane one last time to Israel for our school wide Yom Ha’ Atzmaut event. Our first stop was in the pre k room. Tel Aviv was set up in their classroom. The children’s really loved having ice cream or ice pops and chocolate balls from their cafe for snack. Of course, we used Israeli money to pay for it.

Our next stop was to Tzfat which we found in our art studia. The children looked at the different artwork hanging up from the different classes. Some art had different materials glued on it while others had markers and paint.

Our next stop took us to the three’s class which had turned into Yerushalayim. The children drew on a paper what they wanted to ask Hashem for and hung it up on the Kotel wall.

Our last stop was Eliat in the Exploration Room which was prepared by our very own class. It really felt like we were at the beach. We loved making sand castles in the pool filled with sand and digging with shovels in our sand table. Looking at the fish on the wall reminded us of the ocean. We explored and used a magnifying glass to see the seashells up close.

The children were so proud to wave their flags, dance and sing with the Rabbi in our Israeli Day Parade.

All that traveling made us hungry. We tried falafel, a popular food in Israel.

We also prepared for Mother’s Day this week. We said just like Israel has a special day that we celebrate, we have a special day called Mother’s Day to celebrate our Mothers and give mommy extra hugs and kisses to say thanks for all that you do for us. […]

By |May 9, 2019|
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THE SUNFLOWERS HAVE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLARS

One of the Sunflowers favorite authors is Eric Carle. One of his books is called A VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR.  We are in the midst of seeing live how a caterpillar eats a lot and then is full and then builds a chrysalis in order to become a butterfly.  We are fortunate to have two containers of caterpillars eating away at their food getting bigger and bigger.  Every day the class observes any metamorphoses that have occurred over night.  The excitement in the children each day is amazing.  We can not wait to see this excitement grow as the metamorphosis continues.

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The children have been busy getting ready for their trip to Israel.  Yom Ha’atzmaut is almost here and the children can not wait to visit some of the many cities in Israel.  Eilat, Yerushalayim, Tzfat, and Tel- Aviv to name a few.  In our classroom, the KOTEL is nearly complete.  Everyone is excited to be able to daven there on Thursday.  The children cannot wait to wave their giant flags at our special Yom Haatzmaut celebration

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Mother’s Day is nearly here and the children’s faces light up every time we ask them ” what is something special your mom does for you?”  It is wonderful to see how much mom is loved.

Looking forward to the remaining fun and festive week.

Morah Pam, Morah Aimee, and Morah Debra

By |May 8, 2019|
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