Counting the Omer in Ganon Aleph

Some of the children in Ganon Aleph  had fun dipping their feet in paint and creating footprints which we are using to keep track of the days between Pesach and Shavuot.  They are learning that each Hebrew letter has a numerical value, and are becoming quite proficient at counting in Hebrew! 

Ganon Bet Blasts Off

 Ganon Bet blasted off into our solar system yesterday. We created space capsules and astronaut gear for our journey. We even had rocket boosters, and air tanks attached to our space suits. Our trip took us from Mercury through the Asteroid Belt all the way to the dwarf planet Pluto. Ask us about the planets you'd be surprised what we know.

Ganon Bet Gardens

 The children of Ganon Bet were amazed how much their radish seeds have grown since Pesach. We hope to eat them soon.
This week we added to our garden our class pumpkin plant that we planted from seeds at Thanksgiving time.
We then added our potato plants that we planted at Chanukah time in our classroom.
When we came to Ganon Bet we enjoyed tomatoes from last years Ganon Class. Thus, lastly we planted tomato plants for next years Ganon class to enjoy.

Where can we find seeds?

Before planting, we wanted to know where seeds came from. 

The children were interested to see which fruits and vegetables had edible seeds and which did not. 

   

We cut up tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, strawberries, and apples to find and inspect their seeds. We also looked at some seeds from packets like carrot and broccoli seeds which are not seeds we normally see when eating the respective vegetables. 

We then took to the garden to get rid of some of the pesky weeds that have sprouted. The children were enthusiastic to remove the weeds that take water and space to grow away from flowers and other plants!

Ganon Classes Work in the ECD Garden

Now that it finally feels like Spring, it's a perfect time for working in the ECD garden.  Each class has a plot of land for planting flowers or vegetables.  This week the children and morot from Ganon Aleph and Ganon Bet were busy weeding and preparing the soil, after which we planted some radish seeds.  We also have some bulbs which should be growing into beautiful flowers very soon.  Come by in a few weeks to take a look!

Getting Ready for Pesach in Ganon Aleph

What a busy week we had in Ganon Aleph getting ready for Pesach!  We made matzah with Rabbi Grossbaum from Lubavitch, and we finished all of our Pesach projects.

We enjoyed many leftover snacks at our chametz party, after which we scrubbed our classroom to get it ready for Pesach.  We then did a thorough search for chametz with a feather, spoon, and candle, and then went outside to burn it.  We enjoyed our model seder in our classroom together with Ganon Bet.  After our seder, we skyped with some residents of the Jewish Home at Rockleigh.  One of the residents read a Pesach story to the children, and we all sang some Pesach songs for them.
We were so well-prepared for Pesach!  We hope you enjoyed spending it with your families.

P is for Pesach and Parents in Ganon Bet





                                     We love when parents come visit with Ganon Bet. 
Thank you for coming in and helping us work on some of the projects in conjunction with our Pesach preparation and understanding the  difference between Chametz and matzah.





Willa's mom helped the children wrap the pillowcases with rubber bands in preparation for the tie dyeing.









Grace's mom helped us tie dye our pillowcases.



Gabby's mom baked challah with us. 

We watched the yeast rise!

Thank you all for coming in!



We Work, Work, Work.... in Ganon Bet

The children are taking a hands-on approach as they work hard preparing 

some of the foods for the seder plate.  

They grated 

the maror.

First it was a big horseradish root. Then it was grated into  little
pieces. 

Apples were grated

for the charoset. 

The charoset has a red color to

 remind us of the bricks in Mitzrayim. 

The brave children were excited to try the  maror and charoset.

They couldn't wait to

taste the real  thing of ...

shmura matzah!!

 

The children built pyramids in our sandbox!