Fall Leaves

Ganon Bet used magnifying glasses to look carefully at some leaves. We discovered that one side of the leaf had bumps called veins. The veins carry food to the leaf to help it stay green. We know our body has veins that carries blood throughout to give us food.

We made beautiful leaf wall hanging by painting the veins of different oak and maple leaves and then pressing them onto a piece of of burlap.

Ganon Aleph Builds a Teivah

The children in Ganon Aleph became familiar with the story of Noach through songs, books, games, and felt board stories. We created our own teivah out of large boxes, and the children brainstormed to figure out how the animals and people would get from one level to another, how to design the roof so the rain would drip off, and how to get the animals onto the teivah. Our teivah, just like Noach's, has three levels. This was a great, hands-on way to enhance our learning about Parashat Noach!

Bereishit Fair

Yesterday, the EC classes initiated our first ever Bereishit Fair! This amazing learning experience was completely developed and implemented by the collaboration of our model team of teachers. Each classroom was set up to represent a different day of Creation, along with hands-on projects and activities. For Day 1, children made shadow puppets and frosted black and white cookies.

On Day 2, a water table was set up for play, and children made clouds with shaving cream.

Children planted seeds on Day 3, and made collages of trees and grass. Day 4's classroom had stars projected on the ceiling, and children created original designs of stars, moon, and sun. For Day 5, real fish were available for observation, and children played a matching game with various types of birds and fish.

On Day 6, the children dressed in animal costumes, and held races and dances.

Back in their own classrooms, children learned about Day 7, our very own Shabbat, which of course we celebrate every week in school.

Farm Animals Visit Yavneh

Early childhood had a visit from some really cute farm animals on Monday! The children had a great time feeding, petting, and interacting with some bunnies, a calf, some goats, a sheep, geese, ducks, and a pig! Ask them to tell you all about it!

What's A Peeling?

Gan Gimmel has been learning about etrogim. The etrog is a citrus fruit. We examined various citrus fruits such as oranges, grapefruits, lemons and limes and compared and sorted them according to size, shape and color.

The children were excited to perform several experiments with oranges, a citrus fruit. We placed an orange in a container of water and it floated. When we peeled the orange and placed it into the container the children were surpised to see it sink. The peel floated when placed in the water. Zaviel deduced that the orange peel contains a lot of air and therefore is lighter than the water. . The fruit of the orange is heavier than the water so it sinks. We then wrapped the peel back around the fruit and when put into the water, the orange floated again.

We loved doing the experiments and can't wait to taste the citrus fruits.

Does an etrog float? Try it at home.

Sukkot of Our Ancestors

Did you ever wonder where the idea of a sukkah comes from? Ask the children in Gan Bet and they will take you on a journey back to our past! The children in Gan Bet pretended to be Bnei Yisrael in the midbar, as they carried lumber, walls for temporary houses, sticks, and even the Torah on a long journey. They followed ananim, large pillars of cloud, just as Bnei Yisrael did, watching the position of the clouds to signal times for rest and travel. They truly understood the need for such temporary houses and understood the hard work that the Jewish people must have had to do each time they set up camp.

Ganon Bet Planted A Garden

The Children of Ganon Bet started planting a garden today. First we put the soil into our garden box. Then we put tulip, crocus, and hyacinth bulbs into the ground to sleep through the winter until the spring. After Sukkot we will plant some winter vegetables.

What has 4 walls, a door and must be 7 tefachim by 7 tefachim?

This was the question that Gan Aleph was presented with this week! It did not take long for the children to realize we were talking about a Sukkah! Yet, the question remained...what is a tefach!? The children learned that a tefach is a unit of measurement that is used in Judaism. This led to our discussion on measurement. We talked about how when you measure something you are putting an amount to it. We brainstormed different ways to measure something (ruler, scale) and different measurement terms (cup, teaspoon, foot,

yaWe used a tape measure to conclude that 7 tefachim is aproximately equal to 2 feet. This

rd etc.). so what is a tefach? A tefach is equal to the size of one's fist.

means a sukkah must be at least 2 feet by 2 feet. We used a tape measure and colored tape to measure this out on our floor. The children then watched some of their peers place their fists down to see if it really took 7 fists to make one side of a minimum sukkah. It did! We came to the conclusion that these measurements are just enough to fit one person inside the sukkah. The children took turns using different items in the classroom (scissors, glue, legos etc.) to explore the size of the sukkah and see how many of their item it would take to fill up the len

gth and the wid

th of the sukkah. We truly had a blast exploring the size of a sukkah and learning about

measurement in the process!

Special Guests Visit Gan Bet

Gan Bet received a special visit from Shabbat Man and Yom Kippu Man this week. As our visitors greeted the giggling children, Gan Bet immediately started to notice some distinct differences in their choice of clothing and accessories. The children observed that Yom Kippur Man was wearing sneakers, an overcoat named a "kittel", and a lot of the color white. As Yom Kippur Man groaned loudly while glancing at Shabbat Man's bag of snacks, the children realized that he must be hungry from all of his fasting. While we noticed all of the similarities and differences between the two visitors, we charted our observations in the form of a venn diagram. What a great way to learn about Yom Kippur!

The Story of Yonah

The children in Ganon Aleph became familiar with the story of Yonah through books, songs, puppets, and felt board figures. They have been re-enacting the story at the water table, with puppets, and even inside a giant box (pretending to be Yonah inside the fish!) They know that once Yonah davened, did teshuvah, and was sorry for not listening to Hashem, the fish spit him out onto dry land. They also learned that you can never run away or hide from Hashem!

Best Kept Secret of Raising Great Kids

Want to know one of the best ways to raise responsible, independent, self-reliant children? Put them to work!! Children thrive on the opportunity to contribute to the well-being of the class or family by performing meaningful chores. Accomplishing these chores successfully brings about a healthy sense of self-esteem (I can do it!) and self-worth (I'm needed!). Chores enable children to take some control over their environment and to build life skills.

Class jobs are assigned weekly in our early childhood classes, to engage children in meaningful work. Our students learn to take responsiblity for their belongings, their actions, class materials and each other. At any given time, children can be seen holding a door open for each other, setting tables, distributing snacks, cleaning up messes, and putting away toys. They learn the value of cooperation and the joys of belonging to a well organized, smoothly functioning classroom.

Give your children the chance to do mitzvot (kibud av v'am), build skills, and grow up healthy. Put them to work!