Ganon Bet, Ganon Bet What Do You See?

Did you know that we have a three sided easel in Ganon Bet? Do you know what happens when you put an object in the middle of the easel? We can see it through the plexiglass, how cool! Chanukah is going to be here before we know it and we decided to paint our own version of chanukiot, which are proudly displayed in our classroom! Using our fine motor skills and our spatial skills we had to think of how we wanted to create our chanukiot and use our paintbrush to bring it to life!  Come take a look for yourselves!

Shulchan Shabbat - What Makes Shabbat Special to YOU?

At this week's Shulchan Shabbat, we first spoke about the different words relating to Shabbat that we know in ivrit! Then, the yeladim illustrated pictures using oil pastels to create images of their favorite parts of Shabbat. All of the responses were wonderfully creative and completed independently. Below you can view some of the wonderful illustrations and creations that stemmed from our sentence starter, "My favorite thing about Shabbat is..."

The yeladim from each of the Ganon and Gan classes all had the opportunity to use our iPads to take a picture of their own illustration. I simply can not wait for the "voice-over" activity of having the children tell their part of their class story about what makes Shabbat special to them!

Ganon Bet's World of Colors

Parshat Noach was a great segue to do a vast exploration of primary and secondary colors. The children were given yellow finger paint, followed by red. They discovered that when they mixed the two it created orange! Then the children discovered that when they mixed yellow and blue they made green and then red and blue made purple. We then followed up with a science experiment with empty water bottles, water and food coloring. Ask us what happened?!

Can You Find the Pattern?

The ability to identify, extend, and create patterns is an important math skill in kindergarten. In Gan Bet, the children used many hands-on materials to help them learn more about patterns. Some of these included beads and basic school supplies. The children worked in pairs to begin and extend various patterns. They challenged each other to continue
the pattern, enjoying their shared work and ideas.

Who Am I?

Gan Daled was excited to learn about the great artist and sculptor, Pablo Picasso. They especially enjoyed hearing about his Blue Period and his Rose Period.

Picasso invented Cubism.When he created a Cubist portrait he tried to show all sides of the face at once. This made the eyes and noses look like they were in the wrong places. The children used their fine motor skills to create their self-portraits in Picasso's style

Flexing Our Muscles

This week, the morot in Ganon Bet filled the sand table with rice and beans. They added cups and clothespins, challenging the children to pick up the beans with the clothespins. This fun and effective exercise prepared those small muscles for writing!

The children are also learning about differing abilities. Rebecca and Shalom are further challenged to pick out beans without the use of one hand (Rebecca) or vision (Shalom). It was a great way to learn about the wonderful body that Hashem has given each of us, and the many ways that we can use it to help us get along in the world.

Me And My Shadow

Gan Daled learned about the great artist, Rembrandt, who lived in Holland. He is known for his use of light and shadows. Rembrandt painted many self portraits. The children used charcoal to make their own self portraits which resembled Rembrandt's etchings. Even though charcoal is difficult to work with, the children used their fine motor skills to produce beautiful self portraits in Rembrandt's style.

Gan Daled became print makers and discovered that it is possible to make many copies from a single master. They engraved pictures onto a piece of foam to make a plate and covered it with paint. The children put a piece of paper on the plate and pressed down carefully. They observed that the picture that was printed was reversed.

Gan Daled was excited to imitate one of the greatest artists of all time. Have you ever seen a Rembrandt painting?

To learn more about Rembrandt visit :http://www.rembrandtpainting.net/

Basket Weaving in Ganon Bet

One of the objectives of our Pre-K curriculum is to build the children's fine motor skills. Lots of practice with scissors and crayons will strengthen the muscles needed for handwriting, which begins in Kindergarten. Everyday the teachers look for opportunities to bring fun manipulatives into the classroom for this purpose.

This week's parsha study presents a great opportunity to work on fine motor skills. The children are weaving baskets for baby Moshe, using dried grasses and berry baskets. It's actually quite challenging!

Gan Gimmel Flips Their Latkes In The Air Sometimes....

During Chanukah, Yair's mom, Mrs. Sedek, came to Gan Gimmel, prepared to make latkes with us. We supplied the usual ingredients and Mrs. Sedek brought carrots to add to our recipe. A recipe from her childhood? Maybe. A recipe that she created? Perhaps. But we do know that it is a recipe that the children loved making and eating too! We did all the hard work which included peeling the potatoes and carrots, grating them and mixing in the egg and onion. The latkes were definitely one of our favorite Chanukah foods. What is your favorite Chanukah food?