Ganon Aleph Celebrates Lag B'Omer

We had beautiful weather for our Lag B'Omer celebration on Monday.  All of the early childhood classes participated in some friendly competitive relay races organized by Heela and Atara, Yavneh's B'not Sherut Leumi.  We then had an outdoor picnic lunch, after which we played on the giant moon bouncers which were set up on the lawn.  We returned to our classroom where we invited Ganon Bet to join us for storytelling, songs, and s'mores around our "bonfire."  What a fun and busy day we had!!

Getting Ready for Pesach in Ganon Aleph

What a busy week we had in Ganon Aleph getting ready for Pesach!  We made matzah with Rabbi Grossbaum from Lubavitch, and we finished all of our Pesach projects.

We enjoyed many leftover snacks at our chametz party, after which we scrubbed our classroom to get it ready for Pesach.  We then did a thorough search for chametz with a feather, spoon, and candle, and then went outside to burn it.  We enjoyed our model seder in our classroom together with Ganon Bet.  After our seder, we skyped with some residents of the Jewish Home at Rockleigh.  One of the residents read a Pesach story to the children, and we all sang some Pesach songs for them.
We were so well-prepared for Pesach!  We hope you enjoyed spending it with your families.

Shabbos is coming, we're so happy!

We had a wonderful time at the Erev Shabbat assembly with Rabbi Penn today! Gan Gimmel sang songs and clapped along to the music of keyboard player Binyomin. Rabbi Penn even had an extra special helper take the microphone around to the children to sing. Another highlight was watching our friend Jakey receive his medal from the Yavneh 1 mile fun run. Jakey was in the top three for fastest boys in ECD! Congratulations to all the winners! And Shabbat Shalom to everyone!

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!

Life Long Learners

The early childhood teachers attended an amazing conference this past Tuesday on "Hands-On Jewish Early Childhood Garden Education". Outreach educators from Kayam Farm, an organic, kosher farm in Reistertown, MD, guided us in connecting the values of gardening, the goals of early childhood education, and torah. Three stations were set up for us to reflect, explore, and experience. We learned about creating terrariums to teach Parashat Bereishit; making compost in the classroom with worms and food scraps; and putting "kavanah" into our plantings. We also learned a great song, which we plan to teach for Thanksgiving. We came back to school excited and inspired to expand our nature education. To learn more about Kayam Farm, visit their website: http://www.kayamfarm.org/. And check out the song:

Akiva Becomes Cohen Gadol

Parasha came to life in Gan Gimmel as Akiva became a Cohen Gadol! We learned about the 4 special clothes of the Cohen and the 8 special clothes of the Cohen Gadol. We made a choshen mishpat snack and and then made one to take home. We combined math with Torah as we counted out 12 "gems" representing the 12 shvatim. We sang our shvatim song as we did our projects.

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!