Learning About Skin Care in Ganon Aleph

Dr. Fogelman, Tamar's dad, who is a dermatologist, came to teach the children in Ganon Aleph about taking good care of their skin.  He talked about the following important rules:
          Use SPF 30 sunscreen when you are outside, even on cloudy days.
          Wear a hat and sunglasses.
          Sit in the shade.
          Cover up your body, like wearing a swim shirt.
          Avoid the sun between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
He also told the children a funny joke:  "Knock, knock.  Who's there?  Anita.  Anita who?  Anita another bottle of sunscreen!"  Dr. Fogelman sent the children home with special skin care goodie bags.  Now that summer is upon us, this was a very timely and important topic to discuss with the children.

Nothing Sticks Like a Shadow!

Gan Aleph has been busy exploring shadows! On Monday, we went outside to look for our shadows, but could not seem to find them! Were they hiding? Did they disappear!? The children decided we could not find our shadows because it was very very cloudy. We observed how the shadows of clouds fall on earth and make the day darker.
On Wednesday, the sun was shining so we again tried to find our shadows. The children smiled with joy as we walked outside and immediately saw our shadows on the ground. This helped reinforce the concept that the sun helps to create shadows. A shadow is a dark place behind us where the sun does not shine.
We decided to have fun with our shadows and trace them with sidewalk chalk! The children took turns tracing each other, tracing the morahs and chasing Morah Aviva's shadow! Once all the shadows were "stuck" to the ground (via sidewalk chalk) the children tried to fit themselves inside their friends' shadows! It was interesting to see who was shorter than their friend's shadow, who was taller than their friend's shadow and who was a perfect fit!
What a fun way to conclude our unit on shadows!

Planting in Ganon Bet

We made terrariums with soda bottles and planted Marigold seeds.The water within the soil rises because of the heat(from the sun) in the enclosed bottle. the water then rains down (like a cloud) to water the seeds. In addition to reinforcing our understanding of how plants grow this experience gave us first hand knowledge of how the "water cycle" works.

Ganon Bet Explores Fall

Ganon Bet Explores Fall

We know that the season changed to fall. We noticed that some of us are wearing long sleeved clothes, sweaters and jackets to school. We discussed how the world around us is changing: animals are storing food, leaves are beginning to turn different colors, and geese are beginning to migrate south.

We went on a nature walk and discovered the beautiful colors of nature. The children saw deciduous trees and evergreen trees, ask your child what that means. We brought different objects inside and made a color graph of things we discovered.

We know we live on the planet earth. We had a child demonstration of how the earth revolves around the sun. We also learned the reason for the changing seasons in relationship to where the sun and earth are at different times of the year.