Wake Up Bunnies!

In connection to our hibernation unit, Morah Roberta, our music teacher, sang a fun song about a bunny who was sleeping. The children loved dramatizing the song! Watch the video and see Gan Gimmel being bunnies!!

Fun and Run in the Snow

What a fun time we had in the snow. Everybody put on their snow clothes and we went to the giant hill outside. The children built a snowman and tried to build an igloo but decided it was more fun to climb the giant hill! Everyone waited their turn and went sledding. At the end of our snow adventure we returned to the class and had a special treat-- hot cocoa! It was yummy and it warmed our tummies!

Sheleg Sheleg Sheleg

Ganon Bet has fun in the snow inside our snow table! Enjoy our winter song:
Sheleg, Sheleg Sheleg,
Sheleg Mi Shamayim.
Choref Ba Vkar Ba Chutz Kar Li Bayadayim.
Kar Li Bayadayim,
Kar Li Baraglayim,
Kar Ba'af Ubapsanter,
Kar Li Baoznayim!

Fun in the Snow

We were happy to have a snow day on Monday, but even happier to return to school so that we could go sledding on the hills of Yavneh and play in the snow with our friends in Ganon Aleph! We also brought some snow into our classroom to keep in our sand table, which the children renamed the snow box! We will continue to have fun in the snow, outside and inside, until it

melts away!

Making Bricks Like the Slaves in Mitzrayim

The children learned that King Pharoah forced the Jewish slaves to make bricks. We tried to make our own bricks in Ganon Aleph by mixing dirt, grass, and water. The children then put the mixture into small milk carton molds and dried them on the heater. We opened the molds and, voila, we had bricks! The children then had fun building with their home-made bricks.

I Wish I Were A Polar Bear!

Can you imagine what it would be like to be a polar bear in the winter!? Well, Gan Aleph did just that! The children were bursting with excitement on Thursday as they brought in their favorite "sleeping" items from home (stuffed animals, pillows etc.). We began our class hibernation by searching around the room for cups of food that were hidden. As each child found their food, they ate and ate and ate until they felt full. We then snuggled up with our favorite nighttime belongings and pretended that our body temperatures dropped and our heart rate slowed. We "slept" and slept and slept...until spring came! The children yawned, stretched and awakened when they heard it was spring time. This activity put the children in the place of a polar bear and helped them imagine what it would be like to be a polar bear in winter. Above all, it was just plain FUN!

Let's Do Lunch

We had very special guests in Gan Daled, Emma Shore's great grandmother, Mickey Bernstein and her friend Rose Weinblatt, both residents of Daughters of Miriam, came to our class. Emma's father, Jonathan, and her brother, Ben, came as well. After joining us during music where they enthusiastically sang, clapped and played on rhythm sticks and tambourines, they watched the children dance. The ladies shared lunch with us. Mickey and Rose admired the tablecloth designed by the children and asked to keep the floral centerpieces made by the class. As Jonathan had to return to work, as well as drive Mickey and Rose home, the two friends took the delicious cake
baked by the children with them.

It was a wonderful and moving experience to see three generations in our classroom. We are so glad that we were afforded the opportunity to observe the mitzvah of Hachnasot Orchim in such a meaningful way.

Basket Weaving in Ganon Bet

One of the objectives of our Pre-K curriculum is to build the children's fine motor skills. Lots of practice with scissors and crayons will strengthen the muscles needed for handwriting, which begins in Kindergarten. Everyday the teachers look for opportunities to bring fun manipulatives into the classroom for this purpose.

This week's parsha study presents a great opportunity to work on fine motor skills. The children are weaving baskets for baby Moshe, using dried grasses and berry baskets. It's actually quite challenging!

Waffle Wednesday

Every Wednesday, the children of Gan Bet prepare a pancake or waffle batter that Morah Carol cooks up for them. What goes on while she flips them in the pan? Here, Rosalie and Jonathan are playing Hebrew games that Morah Shira created: Rosalie is matching aleph bet blocks to a printed page; Jonathan is using a picture cube to dress a paper doll in winter clothing, using the Hebrew vocabulary for each piece (Morah Yael is standing behind him, lending support as needed). Jo-Jo is working on his individualized computer reading program; and Hannah S. enjoys the first batch of chocolate chip pancakes!

Because cooking is an activity that is associated with home, regular classroom cooking promotes a warm, secure environment. In this setting, children comfortably test their independence, making their own choices of learning activities, friends to join, and materials to use. These children are particularly lucky to have teachers who have manipulated the environment to make sure that every choice is full of meaningful, constructive learning.

Ganon Aleph Makes Family Trees

In conjunction with this week's Parasha, Shemot, we talked about how Yaakov's family continued to grow in Mitzrayim even during slavery. We created a large family tree beginning with Avraham and Sarah to illustrate the generations. The children then took turns coming to the white board to create their own individual family trees, using the Hebrew vocabulary for different family members. This is also a great introduction to the upcoming holiday of Tu B'Shevat when the children will be creating family trees to bring home!

What Time is it in Gan Aleph?

Tick tock, tick tock! Can you hear the clock ticking in Gan Aleph? We explored the concept of time by making a human clock! The children were assigned a number necklace and formed a clock using their bodies. We then took turns rolling dice and adding the two numbers together. The "dice thrower" yelled out the number formed by the dice and the "arrow holder" quickly formed that time in the middle of our circle. Zecharia yelled out "6" as Vicky quickly pointed the big arrow at the 12 and the small arrow at the 6. We took turns switching off the different "clock jobs."The children are having fun using manipulative clocks to explore the concept of time!

Ganon Bet Continues to Explore the Body

What better way to promote our lessons than by playing doctor! We learned that our brain is like a computer that sends messages throughout our body. Our heart is a muscle that's always working, pumping blood through our arteries and veins.

Math Fun in Ganon Bet

Math in Pre-K is all about fun and games! To learn about sets and subsets, we drew three different colored circles and placed different colored bears in each circle. We sorted the bears into groups based on size and color. We then grouped ourselves according to the color of our clothes, eyes and hair color. We were able to establish multiple sets based on these categories. It was so much fun!

The children in Ganon Bet rolled the die and matched up the numbers on the die with the numbers on the snowmen. They were very excited to see who would fill in all the snowmen first and win the game.

Max Makes Music

At our Shabbat party this week, we enjoyed the musical selection "Mississippi Hot Dog" performed on the violin by our classmate Max Zurkovsky. He was amazing! Gan Daled enjoyed the book Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss which Tamara Zurkovsky, Max's mother, read to us.
We examined other string instruments in order to extend our knowledge of musical instruments.

Tampering with Temperature in Gan Aleph

If you ask a child in Gan Aleph what happens to an animal during hibernation season, they will tell you that its body temperature drops to below 30 degrees! After discussing the meaning of body temperature, we looked at different thermometers and tested them on our window (for outdoor temp), our bodies (for body temp) and food! The children put their knowledge of thermometers to test and conducted a science experiment using different liquids. They were each provided with a chart labeled "liquid" and "temperature". After predicting which liquid they thought would be the hottest/coldest, they took turns in small groups measuring the temperatures of cold water, apple juice, hot water, milk from the refrigerator and oil. They read the number displayed on the thermometer and wrote it on their chart. We determined which liquid had the highest temperature and was therefore the hottest and which one had the lowest temperature.

Chazak Chazak V'Nitchazek! Gan Aleph Baked a Chocolate Cake!!

Did you hear the giggles of glee and shouts of joy coming from Room 207 today? Gan Aleph celebrated the culmination of learning Sefer Beraishit. The children were so excited to proclaim "Chazak Chazak V'Nitchazek!" when we completed learning about Parashat Vayechi. As a class, we made a list in Hebrew of the names of the important people we learned about. The children were divided into small groups to decorate life size characters from each of the parshiot. They traced each other to create a form on which to make these giant puppets. We sequenced the characters into a timeline for a character study of Sefer Beraishit. The children are collaborating on writing short anecdotes that explore what they learned from each. This is a great way to highlight the mitzvot and reinforce the good middot that we learned.

We baked a giant cake in the shape of a torah that we decorated with a Beraishit theme. We celebrated at an afternoon party where we sang the songs that we learned about each parsha story and danced to the song "Chazak Chazak V'Nitchazek" by Avraham Fried. The children felt so accomplished that they have learned so much Torah. They are already asking what will happen in Sefer Shemot!

Part 2 - The Siyum

Gan Daled celebrated the siyum (completion) of Beresheit the first book of the Torah, with much joyful singing and dancing. A kiddush was enjoyed by all of us. The children baked a cake, which they decorated to look like a Torah. The cries of Chazak, Chazak V'Nitchazek rang loud and clear.

In celebration of the siyum, Gan Daled compiled D'vrei Torah for each Parsha and illustrated them to make a book. Gan Daled also played a special Beresheit Parsha quiz game. The children showed their knowledge when answering Torah questions. Everyone was a winner!

Chazak, Chazak, Vinitchazek!!

After 12 weeks of learning all of the parshiot in Sefer Beraisheet, Gan Gimmel celebrated with a beautiful siyum! The children decorated the room with life-sized paintings of the people in sefer Beraisheet. We then worked in pairs to illustrate each parasha. The children presented their parshiot at the siyum and sang our parsha song. We danced and celebrated together and enjoyed a delicious cake that was decorated with lots of goodies that connected to the parshiot.

Ganon Bet Learns About Their Bodies

In our discussion of the human body this week, we learned that our body is made up of cells. Our bodies are covered by skin, epidermis. Our skin can be light or dark. Inside our bodies we have a skeleton which is made up of many large and small bones. Our skeleton gives our body shape. Without our skeleton we would collapse like a rag doll. We also learned that our muscles are like rubber bands. They stretch and pull our bones up and down.We experimented with rubber bands to demonstrate the concept of how our muscles actually work.

Part 1-Getting Ready For Our Siyum

In anticipation of our Siyum of Beresheit, the first book of the Torah, the children baked a Torah shaped cake.

They used their math skills to count and measure the necessary ingredients. In a cooperative effort they mixed the dough into the proper consistency and poured it into tins. The result; a delicious cake ready for our celebration.

It was rewarding to see the children use their social, fine and gross motor skills as well as their verbal communication to work together and produce a delicious treat in honor of the Torah.