No "Lashon Hara!"

In this week's double parasha of Tazria and Metzora, we learn, among other things, about the prohibition against speaking "lashon hara."  After discussing the importance of this mitzvah, the children in Ganon Aleph went on to create self-portraits with moveable hands to cover their mouths as a reminder never to say things that might hurt someone's feelings.

Pablo's People

Ally creating her Picasso

Gan Daled has been learning about the great artist and sculptor, Pablo Picasso. The class was excited to hear about his Blue Period and his Rose period.

Carrie making her self-portrait

Picasso originated Cubism. When he created a Cubist portrait he tried to show all sides of the face at once. This made the eyes and noses of his portraits appear to be in the wrong place.

The children used their fine motor skills to create portraits in Picasso's style.
We all enjoyed the results.

Sydney, Jonathan and Danielle displaying their masterpieces

No "Lashon Hara!"

From this week's Parashat Metzora, the children learned about the mitzvah of not speaking "lashon hara." We talked about how hurtful words can be, and that it is important to try not to hurt our friends' feelings with our words. Speech is a special gift from Hashem, and we must use it the right way! Each child looked in a mirror and created a self-portrait. They then traced and cut out their hands to cover their mouths as a reminder never to speak lashon hara!

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

Picture Perfect Presidents!

Of the people, by the people, for the people!
This week, Gan Aleph began learning all about our past presidents! We began with Abraham Lincoln, since his birthday is coming up this Saturday. We learned that Lincoln was the 16th president and was one of the greatest presidents of all time. To honor his presidency we engaged in many "Lincoln-related" activities...
After learning that Lincoln's face is on the penny, the children took part in a "Lincoln Penny Toss." They used their probability skills and predicted which side of the penny would win the race...heads or tails. They took turns tossing the penny and filling in their chart accordingly. When one side reached the top, they evaluated their results and looked at how many times each side was landed on.

We learned that Abraham Lincoln was 6 feet 4 inches tall! What exactly does that mean? We used a tape measure and our bathroom door to visualize how tall that actually was. We saw that when Lincoln wore his stove pipe hat, he was even taller than the door! The children wrote their names on index cards and measured their own heights against Lincoln's. Even the Morahs took a turn to see how much taller he was than them!

Last, we looked at some of the clothing our past presidents wore. We discussed how some presidents wore long jackets, white tights and white wigs! The children are using cut outs of their faces to create caricature-type images of themselves as president. They are carefully cutting out all of the clothing they would wear and using stuffing as white wigs! After learning about the role of a president, they each wrote what they would want to do if they were the president, and are attaching their ideas to their presidential portraits!

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/