More Parents in Ganon Aleph!

Tamar's mom and dad came in this week to help celebrate her birthday in school.  Her mom read the book "Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet" by Jane O'Connor, and then gave the book to our class as a gift.  Tamar's dad brought his violin and played some tunes for us.

In honor of Dental Health Month, Evie's dad, "Dr. Eddie", came in with his friends BG Roo and Molar Z Monster to teach the children about dental hygiene.  He taught them about the magic number three when it comes to taking care of our teeth:  how many things we use our teeth for (chewing, smiling, talking), how many sides of the teeth we brush, how many things to clean (teeth, gums, tongue), how many things we use to clean our teeth (toothpaste, mouthwash, floss), and how many times per day we should try and brush our teeth.  He reminded the children not to swallow toothpaste or mouthwash, and sent them home with some dental "goody bags!"

More Visits from Parents in Ganon Aleph

Zac N.'s mom came in this week to make ice cream with the children - from scratch!  It was an exciting and scientific process shaking the bag and watching the liquid ingredients turn into solid ice cream.  We have the recipe for anyone who is interested in trying this at home.

We were also happy to welcome Maya's dad who is a urologist, and Maya's mom who is a nurse, who came to talk to the children about our bodies.  Maya's mom showed the children the different instruments she uses to examine patients, and demonstrated on Maya's dad how they are used!  Maya's dad reminded the children how important it is to go to the bathroom when they feel the need, and not to hold it in.

Family members are always welcome in Ganon Aleph!!

Ganon Aleph Parents Come to Visit

As our unit on the human body continues, several parents who happen to be in the medical field came to visit our class and talk about their specialties.

Avital's mom, an ophthamologist, talked to the class about our eyes, and also made "body" cookies with the children.

Zach F.'s dad, an allergist, talked to the children about allergies, and even demonstrated on Zach's mom's arm how to do an allergy test!

Gabi Z.'s mom, a science teacher at Yavneh, did some experiments to teach the children about breathing.

Ezra's dad, a gastroenterologist, talked to the children about digestion and about the job of our intestines.  He also talked about not putting objects in your mouth because you might swallow them, and showed the children some tools he uses to remove these objects when they are swallowed.

Donny's dad, a nephrologist, used a filter and some fake blood to help explain what our kidneys do for us.  He showed the children a model of the kidneys, and gave them their own squeezable kidneys to bring home.  He also gave us an "Asher Yatzar" wall hanging for our classroom, the important bracha we say after we go to the bathroom to thank Hashem that our bodies our working right.

Jakie's mom, who works at the Rockleigh Home, came to talk to the children about working with elderly people.  She explained that music is great therapy for elderly people and showed us a video of elderly people playing instruments.

We love when parents come to our classroom, and we look forward to more visits after vacation!

Havdalah Pajama Party 2014!!

The Ganon classes enjoyed our annual Havdalah Pajama Party this past Motzei Shabbat.  We all joined in the gym where the children worked with their parents on sewing their Hamalach Hagoel Oti pillows.  Donny Perlman and Esti Schreiber's grandfather made Havdalah for us, after which we watched a slideshow with photos of the children celebrating Shabbat party, stomping grapes to make grape juice, and creating their besamim, candles, and pillows for this special evening.  After dancing and snacking on yummy s'mores, the children went home - tired, happy, and ready for a new week.  Shavua Tov to one and all!

Challah Baking in Ganon Aleph with Esti's Mom

The children learned in this week's Parashat Chayei Sarah that when when Sarah Emainu passed away, the candles which always stayed lit from one Shabbat to the next were extinguished, and that the challah dough which always rose stopped rising.  When Yitzchak brought his new wife Rivka to his mother's tent, the candles  burned and the dough rose once again.  To acknowledge this significant part of the parasha, Esti's mom came in to help the children make challah.  She then read them the book, "Way Too Much Challah Dough" by Goldie Shulman.

We love when parents, grandparents, and other family members come to work or play with the children in Ganon Aleph!

Liraz's Aba Comes to Ganon Aleph

Liraz's Aba blows the shofar for his shul, and came to our classroom this week to blow the shofar for the children.  We love when moms and dads come to Ganon Aleph!  Parents, grandparents, and other family members are always welcome to come to our class to bake, read a story, work on a project, or do any other activity they would like to do with the children.

Partnering with Parents

ABC's & 1 2 3's by Morah Shani 

Partnering with Parents 

Alpha-Bits. It’s not just for eatin’

Identify letters and create words using the letters from Alpha-Bits cereal! A yummy & fun way to practice letter recognition, spelling & reading too!

Partnering with Parents

 

ABC's & 1 2 3's by Morah Shani 

Partnering with Parents 

Take a walk. 

Take a pattern walk.

When walking to the park to shul or to a friend, create a pattern with your steps. 

ex: Take 2 large steps and then 3 small steps. 

Repeat the pattern and then make up a new one!

The Main Characters of Gan Bet

Gan Bet worked on a very special project with Ms. Schneck's 6th grade English class. First, we visited the middle school classroom, and were each paired with a 6th grader. The older students interviewed the kindergartners, taking note of such things as family members, favorite foods and activities. The 6th graders integrated these notes into original stories, which they printed in book format online. This week, the children excitedly read their stories together, which have also been emailed home to enjoy with parents. A fantastic literacy project for both grades!

Learning More About Our Bodies in Ganon Aleph

As a culmination to our unit on the human body, Dr. Jacoby, Pacey's mom, came in to talk to us about our bodies. She showed us the different instruments she uses for taking and checking blood, and other tools she uses in her work. Pacey tied a tourniquet on his mom's arm to show the children how it helps a doctor see the veins more easily. The children had a chance to listen to each other's heart with a real stethoscope.

We love when moms and dads come in to share their time with us!

Busy Moms in Ganon Aleph

This week a few moms came to our class to help the children with some baking and cooking for Chanukah. Flora's mom came in to help the children make Chanukah chocolates, Daniella's mom helped the children bake and decorate yummy Chanukah cupcakes, Hannah's mom came to dip pretzels in chocolate and decorate them with the children, Tiferet's mom came to help the children make delicious potato latkes (they peeled and grated the potatoes themselves!), and Eli's mom came to make sufganiyot with the children. What a busy, productive, tasty week we had! Thank you to all the parents who came to help out!

Beautifying a Mitzvah!

Look at the beautiful quilt that our children created to welcome home Gilad Shalit ! Each child in the Early Childhood Department wrote or stenciled his/her Hebrew name and decorated a square. Thank you to Sharon Sebrow for putting the quilt together, along with parent volunteers Holly Weiss and Aviva Edelstein. The quilt will be delivered by El Al Airlines. We are proud to express our great joy at Gilad's release with such a beautiful gift.

Making our Own Ice Cream in Ganon Aleph

Kayla's mom, Keren Nussbaum, came to our class this week to make ice cream with the children. It was truly an experiment because we weren't sure if it would work, but it did! Mmm, mmm, delicious!! Math and science skills were used for measuring, counting, pouring, shaking, and watching a liquid turn into a solid! We are including the recipe in case you want to try this at home: chocolate soy milk, sugar, large zip-loc bag, small zip-loc bag, ice cubes, salt. Pour 1/2 cup chocolate soy milk and 1 tbsp. sugar into small zip-loc bag. Squeeze out air and zip. Add ice cubes to large zip-loc bag. Sprinkle 6 tbsp. salt on ice. Put smaller bag into larger bag. Add more ice and salt. Shake for 8-10 minutes until mixture freezes and thickens. (You can wear gloves to shake if your hands are cold.)

Ganon Aleph Doctors Teach Us About Our Bodies

As part of our study of the human body, Dr. Horowitz (Amira's mom) came to talk to the children about their eyes. She showed us diagrams of the eyes and spoke about how to take care of them. She also reminded the children not to run around with sharp objects! On Thursday, Dr. Borgen (Ezra's dad) came to talk to us about our hearts. He showed us a heart which didn't pump properly because of a blocked artery, and then we saw Ezra's healthy heart in an ultrasound. He then explained to the children how important healthy food and exercise are for keeping our hearts healthy.

Literacy Night

Our first Kindergarten Literacy Night took place in the lunch room last night. The children had great fun greeting their classmates in the night time. They snacked on chocolate milk and popcorn, and began the evening with a life size game of Sight Word Bingo. Several tables were set up with interactive literacy activities for the children to enjoy with their families. To culminate the program, Mrs. Cohen read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, as the children listened for letters and jumped.

This was a great opportunity to display to parents the types of learning activities that their children engage in daily. It was also a wonderful reinforcement of the strong connections we make between school and home.

Next week, we will run the same program for Gan Aleph and Gan Gimmel.

Have You Ever Eaten a Snowman!?

Snow days at home may be fun, but snow days in school are even more fun! Gan Aleph spent a lot of time enjoying the snow and many fun snow-related activities. In addition to sledding, jumping and rolling in the snow, we baked our very own snowman cookies! Sammy's parents joined our class and helped us bake the dough, shape them into 3 different sized circles and assemble a delicious snowman. The children used chocolate chips, candy corn, hershey's kisses and other yummy treats to fill in the eyes, nose, mouth, hat, scarf and buttons of the snowman. When the snowmen were ready, we enjoyed them as our special winter snack of the day!