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The Sunflowers were very excited to return to school after a long weekend in which we celebrated the holiday of Shavuot.  To get into the spirit of Shavuot everyone enjoyed whipping up a quick (pareve) cheese cake. The children took turns adding and mixing the ingredients together.  They had a lot of fun smashing the graham crackers to make the crust.  We hope you enjoyed the scrumptious cake.

In keeping with the theme of “getting into the Shavuot spirit” all the IBECC children joined the Rabbi in the Bet Midrash for a final Shabbat sing-a-long.  At the end the Rabbi opened the ARON KODESH and showed the children the Torahs.  Everyone had a fine time dancing with the Rabbi and the Torahs.  What a great experience for the children to have been so close to the Torahs.

The look on the children’s faces as Morah Pam wheeled in the giant house was incredible.  They had never seen anything so big.  The furniture and miniature people and other fixtures were adorable.  The children had an amazing time taking turns playing with the house.  There may be a future designer in our bunch as the children used the furniture to decorate the house.  Listening to them discuss where they should put a chair or a bed was quite cute. They did not want to stop.

The children are looking forward to celebrating Father’s Day on Sunday.  They had a fun time making their special present for their dads.  We hope you enjoy the gift.  It was made with a lot of TLC and a lot of laughs (hands were tickled as they became covered […]

In preparation for the upcoming holiday of Shavuot, Rabbi Rosenblum came for a visit to show the entire school how a Torah is made. You take the hide of a kosher animal and take the fur (hair) off by soaking it in a special solution, and let it dry.  Then this becomes the parchment paper.  It takes 62 pieces to make a Torah.  Next, you take a feather from a kosher animal, along with the special ink to write the Torah.  All the children, especially the Sunflowers, enjoyed being a scribe, just like a sofer, the man who writes the Torah. Dipping the feather into the ink and then coloring the letters, everyone had a blast.  The children were able to touch the hide of the animal and they said it felt very soft. Every child received a piece of parchment with their Hebrew name written on it, just like how the Torah is written.

The children have been very busy preparing for the End of Year Celebration and are excited for their parents to come and sing with them.  They were very happy to hear that at the end of the singalong there will be food.  The children loved rolling the dough between their fingers to make delicious sugar cookies to share with their parents.

The children truly love butterflies.  During our center time, the children enjoyed making a flock of butterflies out of playdough. They all took turns to use the butterfly cookie cutter.  It was wonderful to see everyone take turns.

The Sunflowers always enjoy playing outside.  Their creative minds are always in motion, running, […]

We enjoyed celebrating Lia’s 5th birthday last Friday.  Her mother, Sheara, joined us and we ate the cupcakes that the children helped to make and presented Lia with the treasure box that the children decorated for her.  Lia wore the beautiful crown that she had decorated with many number 5s written all over it and drawings of her entire family.  Sheara read a story to the children about worms, something they all enjoy watching in the playground.  Then the children played the circle game Bluebird Through My Window and the Israeli circle game, Uga, Uga, Uga.  Just one more birthday to celebrate (Emily’s) before we end our school year.

We had our last music class of the year, with Morah Jill, this week.  She introduced songs about caterpillars and butterflies in honor of our butterflies. The children pretended to be butterflies and flew around the gym room while singing their song.  They used gauzy scarves as a prop for wings.  They really enjoyed the expansiveness of the gym to act out the songs.  They also learned a song about the Torah for Shavuot.  It is always a fun time with Morah Jill.

We are following a tradition from Israel for Shavuot.  People in Israel, and many of the children, gather baskets of fruit to deliver to family and friends for the holiday of Shavuot.  We will do that too in Gan Tziporim.  The children will go to our outdoor classroom to gather fruit (which we have placed on stands to resemble a marketplace) to put into a basket that they can take home to share with their families.  It is yet another way we get to teach the moral value of sharing to the children and to […]

Our butterflies were finally big enough to release into the sky. We invited the three year old class to join in and wave goodbye to our butterflies. Some butterflies didn’t want to fly away they wanted to stay on the orange. The children are still so fascinated with the butterfly metamorphosis. They admire their butterfly art wall every day as they walk into the class. They are so proud of the work they have done.

The children continue to work on their Shabbat box. They chose from different color paints and used their hands or a foam paintbrush to decorate a shoe box which will transform into their own Shabbat box. Some people do the mitzvah of tzedakah before Shabbat starts. The children have decorated their own tzedakah box. They glued on different color tissue paper onto a tzedakah box. They asked where the coins are for the tzedakah box? They are looking forward to doing the mitzvah of tzedakah and filling their tzedakah box up for those in need.

The children colored some Shabbat symbols pictures to create their own Shabbat matching game to add to their Shabbat box. They are getting so good at matching the pictures.

Morah Jill joined us for her last music class of the year. The children used dot dots to make her a thank you card. They danced with scarves and pretended they were butterflies flying. The animal songs really came to life with Morah Jill’s stuffed animal puppets. They sang a Torah song in preparation for Shavuot. They each got a turn to hug the Torah.

Stay tuned for more!

Reminder end of the year party June 7 at 9:00 am in the classroom.

Can’t wait to see everyone.

Morah Blimie and Morah […]

Simon, Uriel, and Ella build elaborate structures with the wooden blocks and additional materials (tools, cars and trucks, little people).

An opportunity is presented to the children to use other senses, more fine motor, and a different creative outlet, when they are given table toys to play with.  These include peg boards, counting cubes, magnetic sticks and balls, colorful glass stones and bowls, and at times, puzzles and games.  Lauren and Lia used the peg boards, counting fish and counting cubes as a means to “bake” and “decorate” a birthday cake.  Since Lia’s birthday is this Sunday, birthdays were very much on their minds.  They took a lot of time to build on their ideas and to collaborate on the best toys for their purposes.  They even brought over a box that had held ice cream cones to elaborate on their birthday plans.  Lieba incorporated the magnetic sticks and balls to decorate her cake.  Several others mixed the glass stones in bowls to simulate cake batter.

Graduation preparations are seriously underway.  Beautiful and vibrant liquid watercolors will add pizzazz to our mortar board graduation hats. When they are completed they will be something to behold!

What’s a birthday celebration without a cake or in this case, cupcakes.  As is our custom, Lia poured in the ingredients (cake mix, water, oil, and eggs),  and shared the mixing fun.

Another table toy presenting many creative outlets, is playdough.  Not only is it fun to play with but it is calming and therapeutic; a nice way to end the school day.  The children continued their baking obsession and started using cookie cutters and rolling out shapes for cookies.  They proceeded to offer them to their Morot.  It was intriguing to see […]