Yom Ha'atzmaut at Yavneh!!!

The weather was glorious and the fields of Yavneh were covered in a sea of blue and white. What a special day it was today at Yavneh! We celebrated the 63rd birthday of Israel in a very big way. We danced on the fields outside to the music of BaRock Orchestra. The Early Childhood joined together with the rest of the school for a celebration unlike any other this entire year! We watched the seventh grade girls perform a special daglanut and sang "Hatikvah" together with the entire school. We were all treated to a yummy BBQ picnic lunch. After this school wide celebration we returned to our ECD wing where we boarded our "flight" to Israel. And what a memorable trip it was! It began with Rabbi Penn (our pilot) and singing songs on the flight. We saw so many cities on our trip to Israel. We danced in Tel Aviv, wrote notes to put in the Kotel in Yerushalayim and made our own one-of-a-kind jewelry in Tzfat. We ate in a cafe and squeezed juice in the Shuk. We went on a water hike in Ein Gedi and completed the day with refreshing smoothies on the beach in Eilat. A wonderful and memorable time was had by all! Special thanks to all of our parents who helped out at the BBQ! Chag Sameach to all!

ACE OF CAKES

Gan Daled is busy preparing for Yom Ha'atzmaut. We were excited to have Max Zurkovsky's mother, Tamara, come into our class to decorate a cake with us. Mrs Zurkovsky taught us how to make flowers on a cake. With her help, we used our new skill to make our cake look like an Israeli flag.

Otto the Auto

The entire Early Childhood had a visit on Thursday from a small talking car named Otto. Otto came to Yavneh with his good friend officer Jimmy Teehan from the Paramus Police department. Many of the children recognized Officer Jimmy as he is our school wide D.A.R.E. officer in the grades. Otto is a talking remote controlled car supplied by AAA in Bergen County to educate school children about safety on the roads. Otto and Officer Jimmy presented to the children all about being a safe pedestrian and following safety rules when crossing the street. The children were shown a short film clip as well.

Counting Our Way to Har Sinai

Some of the children in Ganon Aleph did some painting with their feet this week! After dipping their feet in their paint color of choice, they walked on long sheets of white paper. They then used their fine motor skills to cut out their footprints. We are using their footprints on our bulletin board to count the days between Pesach and Shavuot. We count the Omer in our classroom every day, and the chazan and chazanit X out the day on large charts in order to keep track of the day we are up to.

SHABBAT FLOWERS

At our Shabbat party this week our table was enhanced by beautiful flowers which were cut from our own garden.

The bulbs that we planted in the fall have produced beautiful flowers - colorful hyacinths and lovely yellow and white daffodils. The children enjoyed the sights and smells that were the result of their hard work along with the helping hand of Hashem.

Protecting Planet Earth

Ganon Bet returned from our Pesach vacation to a surprise! Our garden that we had planted in the fall had blossomed with Hyacinths and Daffodils. This coincides with our study of planet earth. We know that we need to keep the earth clean so that we have clean air to breathe and water to drink. How does your family help keep planet earth clean?

Our Model Seder

The children made the charoset for our model seder which we had on Tuesday morning together with Ganon Bet. They enjoyed using real (plastic) knives to chop the apples themselves!


We went through the entire seder, from Kadesh through Nirtza - singing, dipping, eating, drinking, and crunching the whole way through! We hope your seders at home will be as much fun as ours was at school!!

Gan Aleph's Model Seder!

On Wednesday, the children of Gan Aleph came to school dazzling in their finest clothing for our very own model seder! The table was set with the various items needed for a Pesach seder and the children even had their own place cards by their seats. We began with lighting the candles and singing the order of the seder. The voices of Gan Aleph permeated through the halls as we made kiddush, sang the Ma Nishtana and practiced every step of the Seder. The children were smiling from ear to ear as they shared what they had learned about Pesach and some of the divrei torah that wrote in their haggadot. Gan Aleph even looked for the Afikoman and found it hiding amongst the books int he library! The seder concluded with Nirtzah where we sang "Leshana Haba Beyrushalayim" and danced through the halls of the early childhood. We sang "Who knows one?" and focused on what each number represented. We truly felt like a family and really enjoyed preparing for this holiday wit the children of Gan Aleph. Have a wonderful Pesach!

Ganon Aleph Searches and Burns!

After cleaning our classroom for Pesach, the children searched for chametz using a candle, feather, and spoon. The following morning we went outside to burn the pieces of chametz which we found. This was great practice for helping you out at home!!

MOLD GROWS IN GAN DALED!

Several weeks ago Gan Daled learned about and tasted different types of bread (see blog published on 3/30/2011). We left samples of various kinds of bread on the Discovery Table and the children predicted what would happen to them.

We have been observing the bread and as we saw changes we referred back to our predictions and found that some were correct. Mold, which began as fuzzy and white with blue spots, has become a bluish green color and has overcome most of the breads. The only breads left untouched by mold are the tortilla and matza which are both unleavened and do not contain yeast.

The children learned that mold is not a plant or an animal but rather a fungus and needs moisture to grow. Some mold such as that used in the production of antibiotics can be helpful.