Groggers Galore!

So many groggers, and so much conversation.  How are the groggers alike and different?  We tried, but we couldn't stump anyone! Then the children picked a grogger to celebrate. So many groggers, and so much fun.

Costumes and Sign In!

Can Cleopatra and Superman guess how many quarters equal the length of their blocks? Even dressed in costumes, our children were eager to try our morning sign-in challenge.

King Ahasuerus, Queen Esther and a member of the Wiggles sign-in.

Do super heroes have extra power to figure out the quarter challenge?

A little bunny decided that she would see if she could measure with quarters!

King Ahasuerus and Superman have signed-in and are happy about Purim.

Two Queen Esthers and Cleopatra have measured their blocks, and are ready for fun.

The Curious George super heroes have conquered the quarter challenge. 

Making Groggers For Purim

Our first step was to dot paint a paper plate.

Choose the colors you'd like for your streamers.

Scoop the beans so you have filled the plastic cup half way.  What an easy way to integrate the concept of one half into the childrens' conversations.

Fold the paper plate in half.  Once it was partially stapled, the children could pour their beans into the grogger.  It was good to call over a friend to hold open both sides of the grogger.

Shake those groggers to drown out Haman's name.  Happy Purim!

Making Delicious Hamantaschen!

Making our dough.....using our emerging reading and math skills to read the recipe.  Cracking eggs seems to be the favorite job when we we are cooking!

We are starting to shape the dough.  The children kept telling us to stop because they knew the hamantaschen shape should be a triangle. 

They were all amazed when those circle shapes became triangular.

Each pinch of the dough required the use of different fingers working together, and also required the children to exert more pressure with their fingers than they usually do. 

Yum! 

Morning Sign-In Challenge!

What learning opportunity can be found in a variety of empty boxes ?  Each morning this week, the children have been greeted with a different sized box and challenged to find something to fill it up.  The only restriction placed on them was that we had to be able to close the box.  At first, the children found anything that fit into the box with little regard for how much space it took up.  Each day at circle, we discussed why some choices were better than others,using words like length, height and depth.  We also talked about the things that we could use to connect  manipulatives in order to change their size. As you can see from the pictures,on Friday we put tape, pipe cleaners, and wire on the table so the children could experiment with their manipulatives to meet the challenge. We also want to thank Lilly for applying this new learning by bringing in her own box filled with jewelry and other treasures to share with the class at lunch on Friday.  We are very proud of the Curious George class!

The Curious George Celebrates a Birthday and Shabbat!

On Wednesday, we celebrated Ben's birthday.  He was so excited about his 5th birthday that he put the number 5 candle plus 5 more candles on his cupcake!  

On Friday, we were the Shabbat leaders!

The class said the blessing over the Shabbat candles.

We all had some juice as we said the prayer for the wine.

We all came together to say the prayer over the Challah.

Alex, Evie, Lilly and Norah joined hands to dance and sing at the end of the Shabbat service.

While the girls danced, Calvin enjoyed his last few bites of Challah!

Rabbi Robbins came to class to talk to us about Purim.  She read us a Purim book, "Sammy Spider's First Purim."

Every Friday, we end our circle time with a Shabbat blessing.  This week we were lucky to have Rabbi Robbins to join us for this special way to end our week and celebrate Shabbat!