kinderGARDEN Blooms

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

In the Fall

Ivrit in ECD

The children look forward to their daily visits from Morah Debbie for some fun, informal Ivrit lessons.  This week in honor of Yom Haatzmaut, Morah Debbie has been talking about life in Israel, including army life.  Here she is helping them to act out the song "Eretz Yisrael Sheli," using pictures to review the words in the song.  Her visits help to reinforce what the morot are teaching in the classroom.
Anachnu ohavim et Morah Debbie!!

A Day in the Life...

What is a day in the life of a real Israeli? Gan Bet explored this question and made new connections to Eretz Yisrael by conducting many interviews with various members of our Yavneh family.. We asked our Bnot Leumi, Raz and Inbal,  many questions about their homes, their families, and significant places in Eretz Yisrael. It was amazing to locate Raz's and Inbal's hometowns on our class map of Israel. We were so excited to hear about what the Yam HaMelach is really like, and how an experience at the Kotel might feel. The children shrieked with surprise when they learned that Raz is a mountain-climber who has explored many mountains and climbed inside many caves! Raz and Inbal gave us a peek into the Israeli celebration of Yom Ha'Atzmaut by bringing us pictures of  children from different schools and things one might see on this chag, and by telling us stories of their observance of that important day in Eretz Yisrael. It was such a treat to get to know more about them!

 Additionally, we were very lucky to have Daniel Levy's mom visit us and bring with her all kinds of personal items from when she lived and grew up in Eretz Yisrael.   The children were particularly fascinated by Mrs. Levy's photo album of pictures from when she was their age! They delighted in looking at her class pictures and pictures from school field trips. The children also got to see shots of different locations in Eretz Yisrael which we've been learning about. The children had a lot of questions about Mrs. Levy's service in the army, so it was definitely exciting to see her name tags, identity papers, and army release documents. We are thrilled to add these interviews to our many experiences strengthening our identity and connection to Eretz Yisrael!

Earth Day in Ganon Aleph

In honor of Earth Day we talked about ways we can help to protect the Earth.  The children came up with the following:  throwing trash into the garbage, recycling, not wasting water, carpooling so there will be less pollution in the air, and keeping the lakes and oceans clean so the fish won't die.  While we were outside the children put on some rubber gloves and looked for litter on the ground to throw in the garbage cans, and they even hugged some trees!  They decorated "litter bags" to hang in their cars, as well as water bottles to use and reuse in school on hot days.  Hopefully, all of their efforts to protect our environment will pay off!!

Earth Day - Ganon Bet

In Ganon Bet, we discussed how we can help planet Earth by shutting lights when we leave a room, not letting water run in the sink and by recycling paper and plastics. We also learned it's important not to litter. We put our words into action by putting on rubber gloves and cleaning our outdoor playground of litter.

Model Seder

Ganon Bet joined us in our classroom for a very hands-on model seder on Tuesday. We enjoyed the singing, dipping, asking, hiding, finding, crunching, and leaning - all the way from Kadesh through Nirtza! We hope your seders at home will be as much fun as ours was at school!!

Ganon Aleph Searches and Burns

After scrubbing our classroom and getting it ready for Pesach, we performed "bedikat chametz" in our classroom. The children took turns sweeping the pieces of bread into the spoon, after which we took it outside to do "biur chametz".

Matzah Baking in ECD

Rabbi Grossbaum from Lubavitch came to early childhood this week to teach the children all about the matzah baking process. The children separated the kernels from the wheat, helped to grind the seeds into flour, mixed the flour with the water into dough, and rolled out the dough. The result was some pretty delicious matzah!