The Main Characters of Gan Bet

Gan Bet worked on a very special project with Ms. Schneck's 6th grade English class. First, we visited the middle school classroom, and were each paired with a 6th grader. The older students interviewed the kindergartners, taking note of such things as family members, favorite foods and activities. The 6th graders integrated these notes into original stories, which they printed in book format online. This week, the children excitedly read their stories together, which have also been emailed home to enjoy with parents. A fantastic literacy project for both grades!

Learning More About Our Bodies in Ganon Aleph

As a culmination to our unit on the human body, Dr. Jacoby, Pacey's mom, came in to talk to us about our bodies. She showed us the different instruments she uses for taking and checking blood, and other tools she uses in her work. Pacey tied a tourniquet on his mom's arm to show the children how it helps a doctor see the veins more easily. The children had a chance to listen to each other's heart with a real stethoscope.

We love when moms and dads come in to share their time with us!

We Love To Read

In Ganon Bet, reading is a big part of our daily activities. Children delight in sharing their love of books. The best part is that they do not really have to be able to read. Some children may enjoy looking at the cover and pictures, while others will pretend to "read" the book page by page. When they "read" a book in their own words, children are practicing important pre-reading skills such as using illustrations to make meaning out of text and new vocabulary to verbalize the story. We hope that with these skills the children will become life long readers !

Making Bricks in Ganon Aleph

We learn in this week's Parashat Shemot that Pharoah forced the Jewish slaves to work so hard and to make bricks. We tried to make our own bricks out of dirt, grass, and water in milk carton molds. You can see the results above. The children enjoyed this messy, tactile experience!

What Do Animals Do in the Winter?

As a follow-up to our unit on how different animals adapt in the winter time, Mrs. Rose from Pat's Pals came with an assortment of animals to present a program to the children. They got to see and pet a hare whose fur changes to white in the winter, a parrot and a wallaby who migrate to warmer places, and a snake and hedgehog who hibernate. Mrs. Rose was very impressed with how much the children already knew, as well as with the children's good behavior! Kol hakavod to your children!!

I Wish I Were a Polar Bear! Gan Aleph's Hibernation Day!

Can you imagine what it wouldbelike to be a polar bear in the winter!? Well, Gan Aleph did just that! The children were bursting with excitement todayas they brought in their favorite "sleeping" items from home(stuffed animals, pillows etc.). We began our class hibernationby 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. As the classical music calmed our bodies, 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!

What Is Black and White and Smiling All Over?

What's black, white and smiling all over? Gan Gimmel on Penguin Day! On Tuesday the children dressed in black and white and acted like penguins waddling on ice. They pretended to be emperor penguins carrying babies on their feet. Gan Gimmel particularly enjoyed playing in our class igloo and making snow with insta-snow, an amazing powder that erupts into a fluffy white snow when water is added. The children also enthusiastically prepared and ate special penguin treats made of Oreos, raisins, mini marshmallows and sour sticks.

Adult penguins come in different sizes ranging from 16 to 45 inches. We compared the heights of the penguins with the heights of our children by mounting the face of an Emperor penguin at 45 inches, an Adelie penguin at 30 inches and a Little Blue penguin at 16 inches. Each child was invited to see eye to eye with a penguin.

It was a very special day for all!

Choref

Brrrrrrr…. It’s cold outside. We need special clothing to play outside in the choref. We learned that a Meil is a winter coat, Kfaffot are gloves, Saif is scarf, Magafayim are boots, & Kovah is hat.To help reinforce our Hebrew vocabulary for our winter outerwear, we have created our very own paper dolls. The children cut, colored and velcroed the pieces on their yeled or yalda. We have been having fun playing with them!

Tampering with Temperature in Gan Aleph!

If you ask Gan Aleph what happens to an animal when they hibernate, they will tell you that their body temperature drops very low and this slows down their heart rate and their breathing. What does the word "temperature" mean? We spent time exploring this concept and discovered that temperature is the measure of how hot or cold something is. If something is hot it has a higher temperature than our bodies and if something is cold it has a lower temperature then our bodies. We looked at our class thermometer and saw the mercury inside. We talked about how the outdoor temperature is measured versus our bodies. The children were surprised to hear that you can also measure the temperature of foods and liquids with a special food thermometer! During center time, we put these ideas to the test. The children were presented with a chart of 5 liquids on it (cold water, hot water, apple juice, oil and milk). We took turns sticking the thermometer in the liquids and writing down the temperature. The children thought it was so interesting how the arrow in the thermometer quickly moved all the way up the numbers when we stuck it in the boiling water. We observed which liquid had the highest temperature and which the lowest. Gan Aleph tampered with temperature and enjoyed every minute of it!

Family Trees

The children learned that Yaakov's family numbered 70 when they came down to live in Mitzrayim, and in this week's Parashat Shemot B'nai Yisrael's numbers continue to grow even while they are slaves to Pharoah. We created a family tree to illustrate the generations, beginning with Avraham and Sarah. The children then took turns coming to the dry erase board to draw their own individual family trees, using the Hebrew vocabulary for the different family members.

Our Beating Hearts

Our unit on the human body continued this week when we talked about the heart, veins, and arteries. The children felt their hearts beating rapidly after they ran in place and put their hands on their hearts. They got to listen to their hearts through a real stethoscope. We used a latex glove filled with red water to demonstrate how the heart works. The children took turns pumping the "heart" and watching the "blood" flow out. They learned that the blood flows throughout the body through our veins and arteries. Ask them to show you their veins!

Polar Bears in Gan Aleph!

True or False: Polar Bears eat chicken soup with matzoh balls. The children of Gan Aleph know that this is definitely false! We began our polar bear unit with a fun true or false game. Each child received a T card or an F card to represent the words true and false. They sat in pairs and were presented with a whole bunch of true or false statements about a polar bear. The children quickly raised their T card when Morah Aviva said "Polar Bears are white," and knew to hold up their F card when she said "Polar bears wear bathing suits to keep them warm." We learned that polar bears have fur and blubber to keep them warm and definitely do not wear bathing suits! Sometimes, the children had a "machloket" as to whether the statement was true or false such as "Polar bears spend more time on land than in the water (which is true!). " The last statement was "Polar bears camouflage themselves in the snow." We discussed what it means to "camouflage" and went outside to conduct our own experiment using this concept. Morah Aviva spread different colored paper clips all across the grass field. The children ran around the field trying to find all of the paper clips! When they were finished we discussed how the green paper clips will a little harder to find because they were camouflaged in the grass. When we took a closer look we saw that some of the green paper clips were not even found! The children are excited to continue our polar bear unit throughout the week. Stay tuned for our Gan Aleph Hibernation coming up this Thursday!

Havdala Pajama Party

The children were so excited to come to school in their pajamas this past Saturday night for our Havdala Pajama Party. They brought their favorite stuffed animals and pillow pets, and settled down to complete their b'samim holders and work on some Havdala projects. Rabbi Knapp made Havdala for us, Binyamin from BaRock Orchestra accompanied our singing on his keyboard, and Mrs. Cohen read "Hanna's Sabbath Dress" with the illustrations displayed on a large screen. What a fun way to say goodbye to Shabbat and hello to a new week!!

Chazak Chazak

Ganon Bet was so excited to celebrate with all of the Early Childhood at our Chazak Kiddush. We ate, drank, and performed our two songs about Bereshit and Noach.

Take a look:

Exploring Winter in Ganon Bet

Ganon Bet continued our topic of winter and hibernation by doing a science experiment. We used a tray of ice. First we felt the tray with just our bare hands and we realized how cold it must feel to the animals that don't migrate south. We then placed some Crisco(fat) into a plastic glove and again felt the ice. We then understood why animals that stay in the north during the winter eat so much before the winter to devel0p a layer of fat from extra food. Ask your child how the ice felt through the Crisco compared to feeling it with bare hands.

Gan Bet Stars

Gan Bet was so excited to participate in today's Chazak Kiddush. The children had worked together to prepare a yummy Israeli salad, as well as Rice Krispie snowball treats. They were a big hit! In addition, we practiced some songs related to our assigned parshiot: Lech Lecha, Vayera, and Chaye Sarah. Our friends in the other early childhood classes listened and clapped as we sang "Hachnasat Orchim", "I Have a Little Pitcher", and "When Rivka married Yitzchak". We were proud of our contributions to this wonderful event, and truly felt like stars!

Sefer Bereishit Celebration

The children came to school this morning all "decked out" in their Shabbat clothes to celebrate the completion of Sefer Bereishit along with the rest of the early childhood classes. Each class made something to contribute to a lavish kiddush, including cholent, potato kugel, Israeli salad, Rice Krispie treats, and a giant Torah-shaped cake. Every class took turns to sing songs and act out all of the parashiyot in Sefer Bereishit. (Please view below part of our performance.)

What a festive celebration it was! Chazak chazak v'nitchazeik!!!

Chazak Chazak!

To celebrate our culmination of Sefer Bereishit, the Early Childhood classes held a Chazak Kiddush. Dressed in our shabbat best, we chatted with friends and tasted the pot luck delicacies: pareve cholent, potato kugel, Israeli salad, Rice Krispy snowballs, and a huge torah cake! Then we sat down and enjoyed riveting performances by each class, depicting something they had learned from a few chosen parshiot. The children sang, danced, and role played each parsha in Sefer Bereishit. To capture the event, a group of boys from class 4D came to take photos for us. They will work on assembling them into a slide show, which we hope to share with you soon.

The program ended with the song Chazak Chazak. There was so much excitement. We can't wait to continue learning torah!