Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

After visiting a farm and learning about wild and domesticated animals, Gan Daled listened to "Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saens. Saint-Saens is a French composer who lived about 150 years ago. Although he was a serious composer, Saint-Saens wrote a musical joke with the writing of "Carnival of the Animals" using animals instead of people. The children had a wonderful time dramatizing different movements to the music. For more information on "Carnival of the Animals" go to: http://www.thumper.net/tlkmag/archive/mm/cofa.htm

Challah Baking

Ganon Bet bakes challah in honor of Parashat Chayei Sarah. Thank you to Gabriella and Jordana's mom for coming to help us bake the challot. We had so much fun measuring,pouring,mixing, and kneading the dough!

Yitzchak and Rivka's Wedding

Mazal Tov! We celebrated Yitzchak and Rivka's wedding in Gan Daled. The brides wore beautiful gowns, and the grooms looked very handsome in their kafias (headdresses). The musicians played their handcrafted instruments and added spirit and joy to the occasion. The Rabbi looked distinguished in his black hat, and the chefs outdid themselves in making a delicious wedding cake. The flowers, created by Gan Daled's florists, added color and beauty to the festive tables. Bridemaids, dancers, and guests celebrated together. A great time was had by all.

Green Meadows Was The Place To Be

The foliage was glorious and the weather was great when Gan Daled visited Green Meadows Farm. Our day began with a tractor drawn hayride traveling through woods. The children observed leaves of different shapes and colors. Gan Daled had the opportunity to learn about farm animals and have first hand experiences by touching the animals. Some of the animals were cows, horses, turkeys, goats, chickens and sheep. Those who were brave, chose to milk a cow. After a pleasant picnic lunch each child picked a pumpkin to take home. The trip will be remembered by all.

Ganon Aleph Checks the Pipes Around Yavneh

In this week's Parashat Chayei Sarah, Ganon Aleph learned that Rivka had to get water from a well in order to give the camels water to drink. We compared this to the way we get water today. After learning that the rain water collects in a reservoir, then goes to the water treatment plant, and then comes through pipes to our homes, schools, and shuls, Ganon Aleph went to inspect the pipes around Yavneh!

Our trip to The Zoo

Before going on our trip to Turtle Back Zoo, the children explored the differences between wild animals and domestic animals. We learned that wild animals take care of themselves. They find their own water, food and places to live. Domestic animals are taken care of by people. They don’t have need to look for food, water or homes. We made lists of animals that are wild and those that are domestic. We discovered that some animals can be both, such as: horses, turtles, snakes, fish, hermit crabs and birds. We then took our plastic animals out of the bin and grouped them using a Venn diagram (wild, domestic, & some animals who can be both).

Having Fun at the Turtleback Zoo

We had a beautiful day for our visit to the Turtleback Zoo this week. The children got to see domestic animals, farm animals, and some wild animals too! This trip tied in nicely with our parasha discussion of taking care of animals the way Rivka took care of the camels and made sure they had enough to drink.

Gan Gimmel Goes to the Farm!

Gan Gimmel hovered over the farm animals at Green Meadows Farm. "We were petting the goat and it didn't run or anything. It felt soft and I liked his hair," says Eric Roher, third from left in photo. We saw many animals and especially enjoyed hand feeding the goats, milking the cow and going on a bumpy hayride.

Fall Leaves

The Yavneh playground is resplendent with the colors of fall, and the children are delighting in the beautiful foliage. They use their whole bodies and all of their senses to learn about the changing season. Fall leaves are collected, compared, examined, sorted, piled up high and tossed in the air. Watching the children, one is taken by the joy and beauty in Hashem's world.

Gan Daled Welcomes Shabbat

This past Friday we were excited to put into practice the mitzvah of Hachnosit Orchim Gan Daled invited Gan Gimmel to be guests at our Shabbat party. We enjoyed sharing our food and friendship. It was a most enjoyable morning.

Gan Daled Sees "Red"

Not even the rain could dampen our spirits. We "fired up" our class this week with an informative visit from some friendly fire fighters. They showed the children how a fire fighter is dressed when he is fighting a fire. The children learned about important fire safety tips which were reinforced in our classroom. Gan Daled was very excited to have their pictures taken with Sparky.

Home Sweet Home

After learning how Avraham lived in a tent, the children were interested in other types of dwellings. They had already seen pictures of many different sukkot. The children read several books about houses, but their favorite was This Is My House by Arthur Dorros, a book about different houses around the world. Gan Daled was excited to use a variety of materials to construct different types of buildings. Using their math and fine motor skills, they produced architectural masterpieces.

Avraham's Tent

This week Gan Daled learned about the mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim from Parsha Lech Lecha. After we spoke of how Avraham welcomed his guests we had a chance to visit his tent. This interactive, hands on Parsha experience truly brought to life our forefather's love for this mitzvah. The children enjoyed dramatizing the story of Avraham and the three angels. As expected, Avraham and Sarah treated the Gan Daled visitors to a delicious snack.

We really got our hands wet as we continued re-enacting scenes from the Parsha. The children helped make a well and filled it with water. Just as Avraham used well water to wash his guests' feet, Gan Daled is using the well water to wash their hands for Hamotzei.

Geometry in Gan Gimmel

The children used their creativity and skills to build their individual homes. After deciding on appropriate materials, such as; blocks, legos, straws and connectors, etc., they discussed the length, width, and height of their structure. They used assorted objects for measurement. Through trial and error each group created a masterpiece! What great architects.

Boating in Gan Bet

The children have completed their boat building project With great anticipation and excitement they took their boats outside to our special wading pool. Each group had the opportunity to try and float their boats. The children were great boat builders, all of their boats were able to float.

Some of the boats took on water and the children decided that the boats should have been sealed. They became great designers and builders.

Avraham & Sara's Tent

On Tuesday, the children put on their jackets, grabbed a carpet square and were off to a surprise destination. When they got outside the building they noticed a tent. Immediately, they asked if Avraham was inside the tent. Upon entering the tent and finding it was empty,we decided to use our imaginations and pretend that we were in Avraham and Sara’s tent in Eretz Canaan. We reviewed the Parsha, read stories and ate snack in the tent. We noticed that this tent had 4 openings just like Avraham's tent. The reason it was open on all 4 sides was so they could welcome many guests from every direction; east, west, north and south and do the mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim.

An Interactive Map In Ganon Bet

We “mapped out” a terrific learning environment for Ganon Bet! After discussing maps, and looking at various samples, the children worked together with their morot to compose huge, interactive map of their hometowns, Fair Lawn, Teaneck, New Milford and Bergenfield.

Each child designed his/her own house, selecting shapes of various sizes. The houses are placed on the appropriate street on the map, and the children use toy cars to navigate and visit each other! They have used many skills to engage in this project, including math (spatial relationships, shapes, numbers): literacy (street names); and social studies (communities). In addition, knowing their address is an important safety skill for young children. To reinforce this knowledge, the morot call them to line up by addresses instead of their names. So much learning embedded in fun and games!

Sciencing

Science is a verb in the early childhood department, because it takes place when the children are actively engaged, observing, exploring, experimenting, and discovering. Jude is investigating the properties of sand, and using a variety of materials to test ways of moving it around (physics). But if you ask him, he'll tell you that he's playing, and having fun. Which he is!

Ganon Aleph in Avraham's Tent

In this week's Parashat Vayera the children learned that Avraham's favorite mitzvah was inviting guests to his desert home. They enjoyed dramatizing the story in our classroom tent, as well as in the outdoor tent.

Journal Writing

Every morning, the kindergarten children use their own journals to express themselves through writing and drawing. Early reading skills develop as they connect letters to sounds and write inventively. Journals also help the teachers to learn about the children's interests; an important step in planning curriculum.

Ganon Aleph's Neighborhood Map

After learning about Hashem telling Avraham to move with his family to a new place in this week's Parashat Lech Lecha, we began talking about where we live. The children designed their houses out of milk cartons, and placed these on a large floor map which we made to include all of our neighborhoods. The children have been locating their streets on our map, and driving cars around familiar landmarks and streets.

Fun and Fitness

Remember how much fun it was to play with balloons when you were a child? Watch how Coach Bill uses balloons to bring fun and fitness to our kindergartners!
Georgia Cohen

Sink Or Float?

This past week we learned about two sailors (Noach and Christopher Columbus). The class was interested in how Noach's Ark and Christopher Columbus' ships were able to float on the water. We performed experiments to see which objects would float on top of liquid and which would sink. At the Science Center Gan Daled predicted and recorded which items will sink and which will float. The children enjoyed pushing a cork below the water and watching it pop back up to the surface. We read the book Floating and Sinking by Fred Biddulph. The children are excited about continuing to experiment at home.
For more information about displacement please go to:
http://www.brainpopjr.com/science/forces/sinkorfloat/grownups.weml

Ganon Bet goes to Eretz Canaan

Ganon Bet just returned from a long journey to Eretz Canaan. We packed our bags, grabbed our suitcases and were on our way. We followed the sun and tried to go east but we couldn't find our way, we stopped a few people and asked for directions but we were still lost! Finally, we found a map which showed us the way. When we arrived at Eretz Canaan, it was soo hot, we were in the middle of the desert, and there was sand everywhere!

Please enjoy our journey into the desert!!!

Get on the Chart

As part of our unit on transportation and directions, Gan Aleph participated in an individual travel questionnaire. They were each given a chart with pictures of a boat, camel, plane, car and bus on the top. The names of the children in Gan Aleph were written down the side of this chart. The children took turns walking around the room with their clipboards and asking the other children if they had ever been on these modes of transportation. They put a check in the box if the child answered yes and an X if the child answered no. We are looking forward to putting our math skills to use by tallying up the results.

Gan Aleph on the Map!

In conjunction with Parshat Lech Lecha, we began the week discussing all of the various ways to find directions should we get lost. The children discussed the functionality of a GPS, compass, map and even how important it is to ask for help when we need it. This week, we focused on maps and how and why they are so important. We read the book Me on the Map, by Joann Sweeney.
We followed up this book with an interactive geography activity. The children were presented with stacking blocks that had pictures of the universe, the earth, United States, New Jersey, names of our towns etc. We discussed that the biggest place out of all of these is the Universe since it is all inclusive of the rest of the blocks. We then stacked the earth on top of the Universe and North America on top of the earth. Each block got smaller and smaller until we ended with a big tower and a funny picture of Morah Aviva up on top. This activity allowed the children to really conceptualize and visualize our place on the map. We are a part of a family in a house which is a part of a street, which is a part of a town etc. The tower was left on the science table for the children to manipulate and play with on their own.

Where In The World Is Gan Daled?

In conjunction with this week's Parsha of Lech Lecha where we learn of Avraham's travels, Gan Daled honed their map skills. The children enjoyed locating places on maps. They were introduced to directions: north, south, east and west. The class learned how the key helps us in using maps. We made a map of our room and the children were very excited to become cartographers. We all enjoyed the trip!

Color Week

It is very bright and colorful in room 204 this week. Our week of celebrating colors has begun as a continuation of Parshat Noach. Monday was red day- Yom Adom, we began the day by manipulating red playdough and eating red apples for snack. Tueday was Orange day- Yom Katom, many of us made orange crowns and enjoyed eating oranges for snack. Wednesday was yellow day- Yom Sahov we collaged yellow paper and ate yellow potato sticks for snack. Each day we have been adding a color to our rainbow which we will hang outside our classroom.Many of us finger painted this week and discovered that if you mix two colors together it creates a third color, such as red and yellow make orange! Ms. Judy conducted a few science experiments where we got to see a rainbow created out of various ingredients such as milk and dish detergent. Stay tuned for our newsletter to follow the rest of our exciting colorful week.

Going on a Trip Like Avraham

After learning about Hashem telling Avraham to pack up and move to a new place in this week's Parashat Lech Lecha, the children in Ganon Aleph designed their own suitcases and "packed" them full of items they would take with them on a trip! They used their fine motor skills when they used scissors and cut out their suitcases and different items from magazines and circulars.

Ganon Bet Explores Fall

Ganon Bet Explores Fall

We know that the season changed to fall. We noticed that some of us are wearing long sleeved clothes, sweaters and jackets to school. We discussed how the world around us is changing: animals are storing food, leaves are beginning to turn different colors, and geese are beginning to migrate south.

We went on a nature walk and discovered the beautiful colors of nature. The children saw deciduous trees and evergreen trees, ask your child what that means. We brought different objects inside and made a color graph of things we discovered.

We know we live on the planet earth. We had a child demonstration of how the earth revolves around the sun. We also learned the reason for the changing seasons in relationship to where the sun and earth are at different times of the year.

Writing Like a Sofer in Gan Aleph

Gan Aleph learned that a man who is a Sofer has a very special job. He writes all of the letters inside a Torah scroll. The Sofer also writes the klaf inside of a mezuzah as well as tefillin. He does not use a crayon, a marker or a pencil for this. Gan Aleph learned that a Sofer uses a very special feather pen called a "quill". The children tried their hands at writing like a Sofer. They traced the word "Beraishit" in Hebrew using a feather quill and "ink" (black paint). The children all agreed that writing with a quill was hard work and that writing a real Sefer Torah must take a long time. Gan Aleph learned that "Beraishit" is not only the name of the first book of the Torah, it is also the name of the first parsha as well as the first word in the entire Torah.

Designers and Builders in Gan Bet

We have continued our study of Parshat Noach. The children were fascinated by the tevah. They had several questions including "How did the tevah stay afloat and Why didn't the tevah sink if it was so heavy?" We had a class discussion and the decision was that Hashem helped Noach, his family and the animals. The children decided that they would like to try and build their own boats.

With the material available they began, working in small groups, to design their boats. When they were satisfied with the design they began constructing their boats. When all of the children have completed their boats we will be taking the boats outside to test if they will sink or float.

Gan Gimmel children become architects

The children learned about Christopher Columbus and how he accidently discovered America. Each child used his/her creative thinking skills to plan, design and build a boat that they might use to explore the open seas.

Gan Daled Adopts Woody

This week Gan Daled learned about Parshat Bereshit. In recognition of Hashem creating vegetation on the third day, Gan Daled adopted a tree. The children were very excited and chose a tree near the playground. We could not wait to name our tree. The class used their creativity to suggest names such as Barky, Blossom and Woody. Gan Daled voted and Woody was the winner. We took a leaf from our tree and compared it with the leaves in the book Autumn Leaves. The class learned that Woody is a maple tree. We hope to watch Woody as he changes through the seasons.

Gan Bet Explores

The children met "Auntie Apple" our latest alphabet puppet. They heard the story of Andy and his sister Ann and their adventures in the forest. They met Auntie Apple, who lives in an A shaped cave and has Magic Apples. We created Auntie Apple puppets for our Puppet World.
We have been tasting Fall fruits. this week the children tasdted apricots, plums, pears and pomegranites. They discoved that some fruits have seeds and others have a stone. The best part of the exploration was tasting the fruits.
The children continue to explore the art process. They were very busy painting a large tevah for the class. Their painting was very detailed. they loved painting on the floor on a very large canvas.

Ganon Aleph Builds a Teivah

Parashat Noach kept us very busy this week in Ganon Aleph. We performed experiments with water and rainbows. We built Noach's teivah with blocks in our block corner, at the art table where the children created individual teivot to bring home, and with large cardboard boxes where the children brainstormed to figure out how to construct the roof and how Noach and his family would get from one level to another. Shown here are some of our budding architects!

Gan Aleph's Animal Planet!

In relation to Parshat Noach, Gan Aleph graphed a box of animal crackers. The children had a blast putting the different animal shapes in the correct column and counting how many of each were in the box. We looked at which animal shape had the least amount in the box and which had the most. Of course, our favorite part of this activity was when we got to eat the crackers! YUM YUM!