Ganon Bet Welcomes Spring!

How lucky our children are to have teachers who enjoy playing with them! Morah Alana and her students took advantage of the beautiful weather, playing with brand new balls. More and more children came to join the fun, and were happily welcomed.

Purim is Coming!

Gan Aleph is ready for Purim! Ahava and Chanani help to roll up their friends' completed megillot. Sammy stays in the Purim spirit by wearing a costume as he builds in the block center. And Jordy and Vicky show us true simcha dancing!

Ganon Bet Blasts Off

It's amazing how large boxes can be transformed into a rocket ship, space station and space capsules! The children of Ganon Bet put on their space helmets and air packs and blasted off to explore our solar system. They used their fine motor skills to create their own models of the sun and planets. We had a rocking and rolling good time!!!

Purim Creativity in Ganon Aleph

We were so busy this week completing our Purim projects. Julie's mom, Arlene Shiner, came in to help the children decorate their mishloach manot baskets. The children designed their own individual megillot and then dictated the story in their own words to the morot. Each child created a gragger in the form of the Purim character of his or her choice. The children can't wait to take all of their Purim projects home on Friday.

We wish all of you a Chag Purim Samayach!!

Linking The Generations

Ganon Bet had some special visitors today; Emma's Bubbie Leah who is a Music teacher at HAFTR and her Great Grandfather Pappa Sol and Emma's Mom. Emma's Bubbie came with her keyboard , various instruments, and hoola hoops. We sang purim songs, danced to the music, and moved our bodies. A great time was had by all!

Mr. Siegel Comes To Gan Daled

We had a guest in Gan Daled this week. Nurit's grandfather, Marshall Siegel, visited us to show his family megillah. It is housed in a beautiful olive wood case. Mr. Siegel told us about megillot and how they are made. He pointed out that some letters have crowns on them. Nurit's grandfather read to us from his megillah. Although his megillah is very beautiful, Mr. Siegel thought that the megillot that the children are making are even nicer.

The Room Is Alive With The Sound Of Music

Did you ever wonder how sounds are made? Can you identify sounds made by different objects without looking? Well, Gan Daled did and we are excited to tell you the results.

We found that without looking, we could identify many sounds such as a bell ringing and sweeping with a broom. We read Sounds All Around by Wendy Pfeffer and learned that in order to have sound, something must vibrate. We were able to see vibrations when we had the chance to pluck extended rubber bands.

At our Discovery Table we have the opportunity to match sounds by shaking film canisters. One of our favorite experiments is talking on a phone made out of two cups and string. We can actually hear the other person speaking.

Included in our topic of sound, we learned about the sections of the orchestra - woodwind, brass, strings and percussion. Gan Daled used musical instruments to demonstrate that striking, plucking, rubbing or blowing objects make them vibrate and produce sound. Haleli Hen brought her guitar and Paige Schwartz brought her harmonica to show us a string and wind instrument. We all had fun having these instruments accompany us when we sang Purim sounds.

We had such a good time with Dr. Seuss's rhymes!

Gan Aleph spent a lot of time,
Reading books with silly rhymes.
Cats in Hats and teeth that are loose,
It was not hard to guess that the author was Dr. Seuss!

One Fish, Two Fish, Rabbi Knapp came to read.
Gan Aleph loved his cat friend- that we all agreed!



Mrs. Cohen helped us learn about reading different ways,
With I Can Read with my Eyes Shut, the children were amazed!

Rabbi Penn tied his tongue when he read Fox in Socks,
And he only encountered one or two roadblocks!

The Tooth Book was the way we ended our week,
Dr. Feit helped us learn we need our teeth to help us speak!

All in all when Gan Aleph was done,
Celebrating Dr. Seuss's birhthday was certainly fun!

Yummy Hamantashen for Purim

Jordana's mom, Yael Rudolph, came in to make some gourmet hamantashen with the children this week. It was a very unique and delicious recipe using sprinkle dough and chocolate cream filling - YUM!! If you're interested in the recipe, you can respond to this blog!

Topsy Turvy Day

Mi Shenichnas Adar Marbim Bsimcha! What better way to kick off this fun filled month of Adar than to come to school dressed mismatched, inside out, wacky, and backward. Not only were our clothing Topsy Turvy, our schedule was all mixed up. We arrived at school and sat by calendar instead of davening and we sang shalom instead of Modeh Ani. Stay tuned for the remainder of our Wild and Wacky week!