March Comes In Like A Lion

March is a great time to learn about the wind. Ganon Bet discovered that we can't see the wind ,but we can feel its breeze on our bodies. We observed the wind move the clouds, leaves, and tree branches. We experimented in our classroom, pretending to be the wind blowing on crayons and feathers. We even tried keeping a balloon in the air by blowing on it. We learned about air currents by floating scarfs and paper air planes in the air.

Nothing Sticks Like a Shadow!

Gan Aleph has been busy exploring shadows! On Monday, we went outside to look for our shadows, but could not seem to find them! Were they hiding? Did they disappear!? The children decided we could not find our shadows because it was very very cloudy. We observed how the shadows of clouds fall on earth and make the day darker.
On Wednesday, the sun was shining so we again tried to find our shadows. The children smiled with joy as we walked outside and immediately saw our shadows on the ground. This helped reinforce the concept that the sun helps to create shadows. A shadow is a dark place behind us where the sun does not shine.
We decided to have fun with our shadows and trace them with sidewalk chalk! The children took turns tracing each other, tracing the morahs and chasing Morah Aviva's shadow! Once all the shadows were "stuck" to the ground (via sidewalk chalk) the children tried to fit themselves inside their friends' shadows! It was interesting to see who was shorter than their friend's shadow, who was taller than their friend's shadow and who was a perfect fit!
What a fun way to conclude our unit on shadows!

Planting in Ganon Bet

We made terrariums with soda bottles and planted Marigold seeds.The water within the soil rises because of the heat(from the sun) in the enclosed bottle. the water then rains down (like a cloud) to water the seeds. In addition to reinforcing our understanding of how plants grow this experience gave us first hand knowledge of how the "water cycle" works.