Fun Bus Comes to Yavneh

The children in Ganon Aleph had a great time when the Fun Bus came to Yavneh last Friday as a pre-Purim treat.  Daniel and Bernice guided them through some floor exercises, an obstacle course, a swinging tube, and finally out of the bus down a long slide.  What a great way to get some "indoor" exercise when the weather is below freezing!

Ganon Aleph and Ganon Bet Skype With Residents of Jewish Home at Rockleigh

Jakie Herman's mom, a program director at the Jewish Home at  Rockleigh, arranged for the children of Ganon Aleph and Ganon Bet to Skype with some residents of the home.  Shirley, one of the residents who is a retired librarian, read the children a Dr. Seuss book called  "I Wish I Had Duck Feet", after which we sang some Purim songs together.

We hope to repeat this experience several more time during the school year, perhaps to coincide with holidays.  It was a fun and fulfilling experience, both for the children and for the residents!

Moms Help Out in Ganon Aleph

We were so busy getting ready for Purim in Ganon Aleph.  Luckily, the moms are always willing to come in and help out!  Joseph's mom came to help the children decorate their groggers,

Ani's mom assisted the children in creating their beautiful mishloach manot baskets,

 

and Eden's mom helped the children measure, pour, mix, and make delicious hamantashen.

What would we do without all our helpful, creative, handy moms?!

Purim Fun in Ganon Aleph

The children in Ganon Aleph have been so busy

working on their megillot,

creating masks,

dancing to the music of BaRock Orchestra,

and acting out the Purim story in our own Shushan palace!

Savta Susan And The Grogger Production

Savta and Noah

Gan Daled had a special treat when Susan Rosenbaum, the Early Childhood Director at the Forest Hills Jewish Center came to Gan Daled. Most importantly, she is Noah's savta. She graciously helped the children prepare for Purim by making groggers with them.

Jonathan and Carrie holding their groggers

 The class used paper towel rolls and made grogger puppets using different types of decorations which they glued on the rolls.

Sydney J. with her grogger

They cannot wait to use their groggers during the Megillah reading.

Clowning Arouind in Gan Daled

Poppy and Sacha

Seymour Wigod, Sacha's grandfather, visited us just in time school in order to become a clown and "make people happy". Sashi, his clown name, does not work in a circus, but rather, entertains children in Valley, Holy Name, and St Joseph's hospitals.


Applying clown make-up

The famous rope trick

"Poppy" Wigod dressed in his costume and put on his clown make-up for the mesmerized children. He performed several tricks including extracting balloons from Rabbi Penn's ears. There was an enthusiastic response from Gan Daled for an encore of Sashi's rope trick which he graciously performed. What a great way to start the month of Adar!

What's that in Rabbi Penn's ear?



Sashi and Sacha in make-up








Gan Gimmel Welcomes Rosh Chodesh Adar in Style!

Welcome Chodesh Adar!!!

Thank you so much to the Gan Gimmel parent volunteers for an

 

Adorable!

Delightful!

Amazing!

Rocking!

Rosh Chodesh Adar 

class get-together!!! 

Todah rabah to the 

Mershons & Citrons for organizing, the Citrons for hosting and for all of the parents & yeladim for attending!!!

Painting for Purim!

Getting ready to learn about the upcoming holiday of Purim is so much fun! Gan Gimmel set the stage for future role play of the story by creating a huge mural of the city of Shushan. We began to learn the story through the use of visuals, puppets and songs! As we learn about each of the characters we will create them with various art media and add them to our gorgeous backdrop.

Shushan Purim

We had so much fun on Shushan Purim! The children were excited to come to school and see each other and their morot in costumes. We paraded around the school, and enjoyed seeing older siblings and friends in costume as well. Magician Joe Fischer came to perform a magic show, performing lots of funny tricks for the children. What a fun way to end a festive Purim week!

Pre-Purim Fun

Purim festivities are in full swing! Mrs. Cohen came to all the classes on Rosh Chodesh Adar for a very fishy lesson! (Fish are a significant Purim symbol.) She taught the children a fun fingerplay about going fishing, showed them a real fish, and brought a special treat so each child could catch their own fish with a pretzel fishing rod, marshmallow fluff bait, and jelly fish!

Later in the day the Ganon classes had a special visit from Rabbi Srulovitz and a couple of his middle schoolers who performed some special cup tricks for us, and then Inbal (one of Yavneh's Sheirut Leumi girls) came to talk to us about Purim in Israel and sang and danced with the children.

All this week the children had fun acting out the Purim story in our drama corner which has been transformed into a Shushan palace, complete with thrones, crowns, scepters, capes, and jewelry.

The week ended with a lively Purim chagiga in the gym together with the other early childhood classes. What a fun pre-Purim week we had!!

Fun on Shushan Purim

We had loads of fun on Shushan Purim! The children loved seeing each other in costume, as well as all of the morot and the other children in school. We all enjoyed a very entertaining puppet show performed by ventriloquist Jonathan Geffner and his puppet friends Shmendrick, Ezra, Chippy, and Mr. Monster. We then danced in the gym to the festive music of BaRock Orchestra.

Building Shushan, One Block at a Time

Gan Gimmel brought Shushan to life in our block corner today! Working cooperatively is a valuable learning experience and can be challenging at the same time. With many "good ideas", the children constructed Achashverosh's palace, including his bed (with the king who couldn't sleep), a table and chairs for Esther's party for the king and Haman and a throne all made out of Lego.

Show Time!

Every year, Morah Lauren and Morah Aviva's kindergarten classes learn about Purim with an amazing, interactive puppet show. They typically invite other classes just before Purim to join the fun and reinforce all they've learned. This morning, Ganon Bet attended the puppet show, and came away raving about it. They sang and laughed and demonstrated just how well they know the story. Good times, great memories, and a stellar education!

Lights, Camera, Action!!

The actors and actresses of Ganon Bet put on a Purim play. Each child's name was entered in a lottery and parts were given out. Everybody put their costumes on and we transformed the room into Shushan. Through song, action and words the children brought the story of Purim to life. Take a peek for yourself....