the sunflowers

The snow has been falling in the Sunflowers.  After reviewing the four seasons with the children, we have been reading books together on the topic of winter. One of the books we have read, SNOWY DAY, is about a  boy who likes the snow.  He makes tracks in the snow by walking with his feet inward and outward,  dragging a stick so it looks like the tracks of a snake that slithered by.  The boy goes on an adventure in the snow.  He loves the snow so much that he decides to place a snowball in his pocket for later when he is at home, only to find out it melted.  The boy was okay with that since he was going to do it all over again the next day.  The children made their own footprints with the help of Mr. Potato head’s feet and some toy animals.  They dipped the feet of the toys into shaving cream and then pressed it onto pieces of paper.  The children enjoyed touching and playing with the shaving cream too.

Another way in which it was snowing in the Sunflowers was when the children folded a piece of paper in half and then in half again in order to make snowflakes.  It was great to see how well the children hold and use a pair of scissors. The dexterity that they have in their fingers is magical.  The different designs that came from this exercise were remarkable.  The children also made snowflakes using glue and glitter.  They placed some glue on paper and added the glitter and had a blast shaking the extra glitter off.

Another winter favorite is the book […]

The children have been so excited to celebrate Chanukah.  Painting, building, saying the brachot and, lighting our class Chanukiah has been so much fun, just like we are sure the children are doing at home with their beautiful Chanukiah.  The children painted cardboard rolls with Morah Debra while Morah Aimee and laid it out on the floor before we adhered it to our bulletin board. Using tissue paper the flame was ignited.

The children loved working on different projects that reinforced and recreated the Chanukah story and miracle. They loved being part of Judah the Maccabee’s army and creating their very own shield. Watching the children spin the dreidel has been a blast. Their fingers are really getting a workout as they get better and better at it.

Morah Aimee used blocks to retell the story of Chanukah.  The children built the Beit Hamikdash and then the children became the Greeks and knocked it down.  While cleaning up the Beit Hamikdash the children discovered the menorah, like the one they had in the real Beit Hamikdash, by building one out of blocks. Finally, the one remaining vile of oil that lasted for eight days instead of one, shined as the children used mini lights for the flame.  What a beautiful way to show their creativity.

Happy Chanukah,

Morah Pam, Morah Aimee, and Morah Debra

We hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that your children shared all the songs that they enjoyed learning and singing in class as well as retelling you the Thanksgiving story.  When teaching the Thanksgiving story, the children were amazed at how far the Pilgrims had to travel (sail) on the Mayflower before arriving at Plymouth.  The children also could not believe that the Pilgrims had to learn how to grow their food instead of being able to go to the grocery store to buy it.  The children were thankful that the Native Americans were there to teach the Pilgrims how to farm and harvest their food.

The children enjoyed learning how different the Pilgrims and Native Americans were from just a simple thing as the way they dressed.  They were very creative while they made their own Native American clothing and their Pilgrim hats.  Hopefully your child wore them to your Thanksgiving tables.  Before we broke for the Thanksgiving holiday, all the students came together for a school wide feast.  The Three’s contributions were cornbread and cookies that they made from scratch.  The children had a blast baking with Morah Aimee, singing some Thanksgiving songs with all our friends while sharing a meal consisting of yummy vegetable soups made by the Pre-Kers and cranberry relish made by the Butterflies.  Our cornbread and cookies, and of course since it was Wednesday, PIZZA were so delicious.  The children had a wonderful time eating with all their friends. Hopefully, we will be able to do this again soon.

The children came back to school all excited to share their Thanksgiving stories with us.  The children love celebrating holidays so much that when we told them that […]

Our unit on transportation is coming along. The children love talking about boats so much that they decided to make their own sailboat. The children used giant tongue depressors for the boat and cloth material for the sail. They glued everything onto the ocean background that they worked so hard to paint last week. The children  welcomed  Morah Debra with open arms and showed her how we hold a partners hands or feet to sing ROW ROW ROW YOUR BOAT.  We are so excited to have Morah Debra with us.

Yeah!! We were so excited to spend more time with Morah Jill.  The children truly enjoy their time with her. Singing and dancing is always so much fun.  After singing the HELLO song, the children enjoyed becoming leaves with the help of scarves. Each child was given a scarf to wave around just like the leaves blow in the wind and in the end they fell to the floor like leaves fall from a tree. Morah Jill held up a giant leaf and a tiny leaf and taught the children the Hebrew words for big (gadol) and  little (katan).  The children really enjoyed that.

The children continue to have a bit of a hum throughout the day after spending some time with Morah Jill.

Morah Pam, Morah Aimee, and Morah Debra

We are very excited to welcome our new teacher Morah Debra who will be joining us next week in our class. But first  we wanted to thank Morah Selene for all the wonderful days she spent playing and singing and reading to us. Morah Selene is so sweet so we decided to make a sweet treat in her honor. We learned from Avram and Sarai in the parsha to welcome guests and offer food, so that is just what we did for Morah Selene.

The children enjoyed making caramel apples (pareve) from scratch. Everyone took a turn adding and mixing the ingredients together.  The children brought their chairs over so they could watch from a safe distance as Morah Pam heated and stirred the ingredients.  They were fascinated as the ingredients changed color and texture. When the caramel was cool, the children again took turns dipping their apple into the caramel and then into sprinkles. Afterwards they placed their apple on wax paper to dry. The children were able to taste a small amount of the sweet caramel with a spoon.  We hope your child shared their apple with you.

Morah Pam and Morah Aimee