Israel's Birthday!

Happy 63rd to Israel.

Havdallah with Eli

Salt turned our sensory table into the Dead Sea.

Eating falafel

Squeezing orange juice (great for muscle development) as we talked about the delicious oranges grown in  Israel.

Everyone gets in on the bead stringing action.

A giant Israeli flag puzzle meant we all had to work together.

Back in the room, Evie and Norah created a patterned birthday cake.

The city of Jerusalem in blocks.  We learned a new word...dome.

Zach's using the shaped sponges to paint the city.  Each child had the   opportunity to add golden domes on the top of their   painted buildings.  You can see the finished pictures on the board across from our room.

Celebrations! Jack and Zac turn 5!

Two birthdays in one week...how lucky are we!  And even luckier when we get to celebrate with sisters, moms and grandmoms.
We have sung our special birthday song with almost everyone....those with summer birthdays get their chance very soon.

Butterflies and Zach's Birthday!

As Part of our Earth Day Celebration, Shelly gave each class a butterfly kit and caterpillars to hatch.  We had been observing and watching the life cycle of our butterflies for about 10 days.  They weren't ready for Earth Day, so we had  a special celebration on Wednesday.  On Tuesday, we were very fortunate because one of the butterflies hatched during lunch.  It was very exciting to see the changes with our magnifying glasses!

On Wednesday all of the pre-school went to the Gan for the ceremony to bless our butterflies  and set them free.  Since we had celebrated Passover and Earth Day, the children were thrilled about setting the butterflies free.  Prior to setting the butterflies free, we revisited the concepts of freedom and new life for the slaves who left Egypt.

Rabbi Ross joined us in the Gan as we said two blessings  before opening the kit and watching everyone's butterflies fly free.

On Wednesday, we had another reason to celebrate! Zach had his fifth birthday.  Zach's grandmother brought the family birthday crown. Zach was very proud of the brownies we had made for his birthday. His mom brought the number five candle and  we sang to Zach as he made his wish .  Happy Birthday Zach!

Texas!Earth Day!Passover!

We have started our final unit of study, TEXAS!  All cowboys need a hat and bandanna, and the children are learning why these pieces of clothing are much more than dramatic play props.

Another buckaroo ready for work.

Painting the Texas flag.....getting the proper position of the colors and the proper proportions is a good visual discrimination exercise.  Painting on the easel strengthens those shoulder muscles too.

Instead of giving the children a star pattern, we made a dot to dot and had them make their own 5 pointed star. This activity provided the children the opportunity to practice number sequence as they made the "Lone Star" for their Texas flags.

Iya is cutting out her star which she placed on her Texas flag.

Another symbol of Texas is the yellow rose.  We brought in some yellow roses for the children to observe.  It was interesting to watch as they tried to paint all the different petals.

After checking to see exactly where the little bits of red on the yellow buds would go, Ben is finishing his painting.

Lilly is standing in front of our new bulletin board.  If you have not seen it, please take a look.  Remember those early still life paintings and our first attempts at cutting---everyone has made huge strides!

Colin was so excited about our Texas flag that he decided to make one he could take home right away!

Another Texas activity--bingo using state and cowboy images.  Texas Bingo gave us a chance to introduce new vocabulary in a fun way, and the children loved guessing which pictures we were talking about.

This year we celebrated Earth Day for our Passover Experience!  Here Zac and Iya are using small shovels to fill old shoes with soil.  They had to work together, as  one child held open the shoe and the other put the dirt inside.  Then they sprinkled in some flower seeds----we hope all our shoes will turn into beautiful planters for our Gan Shalom.

Making bugs out of clay and other natural materials gave the children a chance to connect  Earth Day with Passover.  Pharoah would not have liked all those bugs showing up as a plague!

Finally, we recycled old shoe boxes to make bricks.  We spread putty on the lids and then the children stacked the boxes, just like the slaves who built the pyramids in Egypt. 

Happy Earth Day 2011!

Our Passover Seder and The Passover Play!

    On Thursday, the pre-k classes had a wonderful Seder. The tables were set with placemats and centerpieces created by the children. This year we are connecting Passover to Earth Day. Our placemats reflected this theme as we painted beautiful butterflies and backed them with newspaper. Our centerpieces were painted on pieces of Styrofoam, recycled from the frames for our auction masks.  The children participated in the Seder by singing the first of the 4 questions as well as all our favorite Passover songs. We want to thank everyone who helped us set up and clean up, especially our valiant soup makers!
     At Shabbat on Friday several of the teachers acted out the Passover story, giving it a special Temple Emanuel twist.  Cheryl, dressed in scuba diving gear, was the princess who found Baby Moses.   She surprised us by coming to our room for a photo opportunity.
     We want to wish everyone a Happy Passover as we begin the holiday on Monday night!