HALF IS BETTER THAN NONE

We have been counting every day since school began. On our 50th day of school Gan Daled celebrated with half of a party. You might ask, "What is half of a party?" It is the half way mark to the exciting celebration of the 100th day of school.
In honor of this great day we enjoyed half an Oreo cookie, half of a pretzel and half of a licorice stick.

Our snacks

In addition, the children were excited about counting to 50 by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's.

If the 50th day was so good, we cannot wait to celebrate the 100th!

Enjoying our 50th day snack

Are You Counting?

Gan Daled has learned about the significance of counting Sefirat HaOmer. They are excited and looking forward to receiving the Torah on Shavuot and realized that we are counting to a special time. Many children shared that they count things at home that are dear to them. We brainstormed things or events that the children anticipate doing or receiving.

You Can Count On It!

Gan Gimmel learned all about counting Sefirat HaOmer this week. The children learned that we count the days from the Second Seder night all the way until Shavuot. There are 49 days or 7 weeks to count. The children were introduced to the ancient counting device called an abacus. In order to illustrate the concept of counting in a tangible way the children made their own Sefirah counting charts. Using card stock, beads and pipe cleaners each child created an abacus designated especially for counting the Omer. We are having a great time practicing with these in school and can't wait to show them to you at home!

Bear Sets & Subsets in Ganon Bet

 We played a game with different colored bears. We manipulated the bears into different groups based on either their size or color. We then divided ourselves according to the color of our clothes, eyes, and hair color. We were able to establish multiple sets based on these categories. It was so much fun that we have asked to repeat this great learning activity.

Half Is Better Than None

We have been counting every day since school began. On our 50th day of school Gan Daled celebrated with half of a party. What is half of a party you might ask? It is the half way mark to the exciting celebration of the 100th day of school.

Enjoying our 50th day snack

In honor of this great day we enjoyed half of an Oreo cookie and half of a licorice stick. In addition, the children were excited about counting to 50 by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's.

If the 50th day was so good, we cannot wait to celebrate the 100th!

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.

Blasting Off to Outer Space!

As a culmination of our unit on the solar system, the astronauts of Ganon Aleph blasted off into space this week! In our walk around the building we visited the sun, the moon, and several planets. The teacher in Mercury, Mrs. Gans, was kind enough to display the planet on her smartboard so the children could see the hot side, the cold side, and the craters. After counting backwards from ten, we blasted off for our safe return to Earth.

You've Got To Have Heart

March 3rd was our 100th Day of School. After joining the other kindergarten classes in the cafeteria for a special celebration consisting of Bingo, 100 invigorating exercises and working with children from other classes to make something out of 100 objects, we returned to our classroom.

The festivities continued as we enjoyed the delicious chocolate cake made by our own bakers. Then it began - our scavenger hunt for paper hearts. It was decided that we would work collaboratively to find the 100 hidden hearts. For five minutes the class exhibited team work in their search for the hearts. They cooperated with each other as they searched in every nook and cranny in the room. The count began, "97 - 98 - 99". We were one short. The children were happy but a little disappointed. Gan Daled began to clean the room and a minute later Jacob Horn shouted, "I found it!" and waved the 100th heart in the air. The cheering resounded through the Early Childhood hallway. A little heart went a long way in showing Gan Daled how working together pays off.

100th Day of School

We had fun celebrating the 100th day of school. We made special headbands and sashes. All of the gans got together in the cafeteria to celebrate - playing bingo, exercising, and making objects of art using 100 different things. In our classroom, we counted out 10 different kinds of snacks - 10 each. Counting by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's to 100 was the order of the day, including Joey giving Morah Marcia 100 hugs. In addition, the class went on a special treasure hunt - finding 100 pennies that were hidden around the room. We completed the day with the story "Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten." Wouldn't you like to be in Gan Gimmel?

100 Days Celebration

Thursday was a day of celebration. We finally reached the 100th day of school. We started the day by filling bags with 100 snacks. We had five different snacks and the children counted twenty of each snack.

The children eagerly put on their 100 days hats and badges and joined the other kindergartens for the 100 days celebration. We began by walking through a large number 100. We played number bingo, did 100 exercises and also worked with friends from other classes to create something from 100 items.

As we left the cafeteria we placed pennies ona 100 board. The pennies will be used for tzedekah. Back in our room the children helped create a 100 display using the 100 cupcakes that we made. We ended the day eating our cupcakes! What a grand celebration we had.

Gan Aleph celebrates the 100th Day of School!

Ladies and Gentlemen ...It's the moment you have all been waiting for... THE 100th DAY of SCHOOL!!!!
This week, we celebrated the 100th day of school with movement, food, math and a whole lot of fun!
We began the day by filling bags with one hundred snacks! There were 10 plates on the table with a different snack on each. The children counted by tens as they filled their bags with 10 of each snack in order to make 100 snacks!
Next, we put on our hats and necklaces and joined the other kindergartens for a 100 day celebration! We played 100 number bingo, did 100 exercises and worked with our friends from the other classes to create something out of 100 of a certain item (paperclips, cups, pipecleaners etc.).
We ended the celebration by filling a poster with the number 100 on it with pennies we had brought from home. This money will be given to tzedakah!
When we returned to the classroom we played a game in which a group of children sat with a 100 number board. They took turns rolling the dice and added the two numbers together. They crossed out the number combined by the dice on their board and kept doing so until someone reached the number 100! Other children worked on a different type of chart in which they were provided with a board with the numbers 1 through 100 on it. They were also given stickers with different numbers on it. They worked together to match the stickers to the correct number until the whole board was filled!
We ended the day with a cake and are looking forward to the next 100 days of school!

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.

Part 1-Getting Ready For Our Siyum

In anticipation of our Siyum of Beresheit, the first book of the Torah, the children baked a Torah shaped cake.

They used their math skills to count and measure the necessary ingredients. In a cooperative effort they mixed the dough into the proper consistency and poured it into tins. The result; a delicious cake ready for our celebration.

It was rewarding to see the children use their social, fine and gross motor skills as well as their verbal communication to work together and produce a delicious treat in honor of the Torah.

Roll-A-Turkey!

Gan Aleph took turns engaging in a game called "Roll-A-Turkey." The children were provided with one die, a blank sheet of paper, markers and an instruction guide. They each took turns rolling the die and counting the number it landed on.
They then turned their attention to the instructions guide to see which part of the turkey that number represented and drew that turkey part onto their own sheet of paper. The goal was to be the first one to draw an entire turkey! This activity helped promote the children's eye-hand coordination skills and reinforced their counting skills...all the while having a blast!