Chazak Chazak V'Nitchazaik!

On Friday, Gan Gimmel commemorated the reading of the last Parsha in Sefer Bereshit together with the other Gan and Gannon classes. We sang songs and listened to stories to guide us through all of the parshiot. When it came time for Gan Gimmel to teach the other classes about Parshat Chayei Sarah and Parshat Toldot, we acted out the stories using props!

Then, it was time for our kiddush. We drank grape juice, ate potato kugel that we made in our class, ate cupcakes that were part of our forefather's "family tree," and sang "Chazak, chazak, v'nitchazaik!"

ECD Bereishit Fair

The children learned all about the seven days of creation through songs, books, felt board stories, pictures, and midrashim.  As a culminating activity they enjoyed our Bereishit Fair in which all of the early childhood classes participated.  Each ECD classroom became a different day of creation which the children visited to work on different projects relating to that day.  These included shadow puppet play for Day One, sensory activities with water and shaving cream for Day Two, planting seeds for Day Three, creating edible sun, moon and stars for Day Four, decorating birds and fish for Day Five, doing animal exercises and creating self-portraits for Day Six, and making challah for Day Seven.  What a wonderful, hands-on way to learn about the creation of the world!

Gan Gimmel goes to the Bereishit Fair

On Friday we had the opportunity to learn first hand all about Briat Haolam aka creation. We visited all of the Early Childhood classrooms and participated in a multitude of sensory and hands on activities to help us gain a better understanding of what Hashem created that day.

Please enjoy this video of our fun filled morning!

The Bereishit Fair Animoto

Gan Gimmel's Bereishit exploration

Gan Gimmel has been learning all about how Hashem created the world. What better way to learn about creation than to go outside and look around. After observing our surroundings, we each drew a picture of what we see in the world and then wrote the word.

We then discovered a sensory box of items that relate to Bereishit in our classroom:
Each item represents a different day we are having a blast exploring!

 To represent day number 1 there was a black and white circle.

 To represent day number 2 there were blue marbles and a cotton ball
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To represent day number 3 there were foam flowers and a green foam tree and sand

To represent day number 4 there were a sun, stars, and a moon sticker

To represent day number 5 there were fish and birds

To represent day number 6 there were plastic animals and 2 wooden people as Adam and Chava

We are also busy creating a bereishit matching game as well:

ECD Siyum

To celebrate completing Sefer Bereishit all of the early childhood classes had a siyum on Friday.  Each class made something to contribute to a department-wide kiddush including cholent, potato kugel, Israeli salad, fruit kabobs, and cinnamon roll.  Here you can see Rabbi Knapp standing next to the very large Torah-shaped cake which we made in Ganon Aleph.  Each class also sang a song or acted out a parasha from Sefer Bereishit so that all twelve parashiyot were reviewed in a very entertaining way.  Chazak chazak v'nitchazeik!!

ECD Bereishit Fair

As a culminating activity for our Bereishit unit we enjoyed a department-wide Bereishit fair.  Each classroom became a different day of creation.  Here you can see the children from Ganon Aleph

involved in shadow play for Day One,

enjoying water play for Day Two,

decorating planters for Day Three,

fishing for gummy worms for Day Five,

and making challah for Yom Shabbat.

 Other activities were creating constellations for Day Four and animal dramatics for Day Six. What a fun, hands-on, interactive experience this was for the children!