The Kids Love Lima Beans!

Dear Families,

Despite the short week and the smaller classes, there could not have been more enthusiasm in the Bear’s classroom each day.

The children have begun to request specific books to be read at circle time. One of the recent favorites is called A Bad Case of Stripes, by David Shannon. In this story, Camilla Cream breaks out in stripes from head to toe. After trying many remedies, the stripes disappear only when Camilla eats her favorite food, lima beans, despite the fact that all of her friends tease her for that choice. Because the children have shown such an interest in this story, we based our day around the book. After each child made a picture with stripes (complemented by dried beans) and worked cooperatively with everyone else to create a large colorful collage of stripes and beans, they got to devour a special snack of, you guessed it, lima beans! Every child tried them, and all but one loved them! We have reinforced to the children that it is important to do what they think is right, even if their friends do not agree. We also encouraged many of them to try a new food, and every child did.

Tuesday’s highlight was of course playing in the snow. Because the children love this activity so much, we do request that each child comes to school properly prepared for the playground. This includes not only hats and mittens, but boots and snow pants as well. For children who stay at school for the afternoon, we are also requesting that you send in a second pair of gloves or mittens in case the first pair is wet when the children go outside for a second time.

On Wednesday, by request, the children had a chance to play with shaving cream. They remembered that the last time we did this we sprinkled dry JELLO on the top. This not only colored the cream, but made it smell like strawberry. Once again, strawberry JELLO was sprinkled, but this time we also sprinkled the mixture with cinnamon. The room smelled delicious! Playing with the foam gave the children a wonderful sensory experience. They felt the soft mixture between their fingers, which is very soothing. It also gave them a chance to experiment with “writing” the letters in their names, or drawing shapes on the table. These can be easily erased, and new designs can be made. When the children were finished they had just as much fun cleaning the table as they did playing with the foam.

To those who will be going away next week, we wish you safe travels. To Ella and Dylan, we wish you a Happy 4th birthday.

Have a wonderful week off, and we will see you in 2011!

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica

Leah's Family is Here for Shabbat this Week

After several weeks of hustle and bustle preparing for and celebrating the holidays of Thanksgiving and Chanukah, the Bears had a very relaxing, quiet, but fun week. Our Art center was home to various painting activities, including car painting, roller painting, and using watercolors over designs made with oil pastels.
The Owls have been kind enough to share some of their materials with our class. The children have enjoyed using the different shaped stampers while using modeling sand. The magna tiles have been used to construct all types of buildings, including garages for our car collection. Our classroom has been fortunate to have been given a set of wooden blocks. The children have certainly enjoyed building with them, both individually, and in small groups. The many friendships formed throughout the year were evident all week, as children played cooperatively in groups at each center.

During a lesson on Shabbat, the children were asked “What do you like about Shabbat?” Here were the responses:

Bailey- challah Cover
Orli- synagogue
Zev- candles
Ben- juice
Emily- singing and the flowers

Thank you to Leah and her family for being our special Shabbat Family this week. It is wonderful to have you visit our school and share this special time with us. We look forward to having every family share this honor.

It was a pleasure touching base with each of you on the phone. It is always great to share information about our program and your children. For those of you who have not yet had the opportunity to participate in Tot Shabbat, mark your calendars for Friday, January 7th and Saturday, January 8th.

Please remember that the TCEE will be open regular school hours Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week. We will close at 1:00PM on Thursday for winter break. The center will reopen on Monday, January 3, 2011.
If in fact it does snow over the weekend, please send your children to school with hats, mittens, boots, and snow pants. We will continue to daily outside play. Thanks in advance!

To all who will be going away in the next few weeks, safe travels! We wish you a wonderful weekend.

Shabbat Shalom

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica

New Toys and Materials in the Classroom

This week in the Bear’s classroom we continued with our celebration of Chanukah. The children used Chanukah candles to paint colorful pictures. They also made potato latke plates, dreidle collages, and colorful Chanukiot (Chanukah menorahs). The Chanukiot were made by gluing different colored craft sticks to construction paper and placing tiny pom -poms on top to represent the flames of the candles. In honor of the holiday, we treated the children to some new classroom materials. Our class now has a hammer and nail toy, colorful linking building shapes, and moon sand! The children have all been able to wait for longer periods of time until it will be their turn to use these new toys.

Despite the cold weather, it is our attempt to take the children outside each day, even for a short time. Because of this, we ask you to please dress your children with many layers. Hats and mittens or gloves are a must. For the girls who love to wear dresses to school, we recommend that you PLEASE send in long pants as well since their legs get cold if they are only wearing tights. We will be happy to assist them in putting on the pants before we go outside.

Please remember that the TCEE will be open for regular hours through Wednesday, December 22nd. On Thursday, December 23rd, the center will close at 1:00PM. We will be CLOSED from December 24th, until January 2nd. We will reopen Monday, January 3rd, with regular hours.

On January 3rd, we will begin our next session of afternoon enrichment classes. We invite all children to join in the afternoon fun!

Have a wonderful weekend. Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica

Chanukah is finally here!

The focus in the Bear’s classroom this week was all about Chanukah. The children were extremely busy preparing for their celebrations both here at the Trust Center and in their own homes. The children worked extremely hard to create decorations for our school including a large Chanukah menorah (Chanukiah) and a huge dreidel hanging from each of the classroom walls. We hope that you enjoy the special gifts which were decorated for each of you, as well as the homemade wrapping paper!

Music was a big part of the curriculum this week. We worked hard to learn new songs for the family Chanukah celebration. In our sensory table the children had a chance to compare the different sizes and shapes of candles used during various Jewish observances (Shabbat candles, Chanukah candles, and Havdallah candles). Math was tied into the curriculum as we compared the sizes of many different dreidels, counted how many nights we celebrate the holiday, and counted the bolts which were glued onto your new Chanukiot to hold the candles. Language and literature were incorporated this week with many different books and holiday poems.

Being that part of the Chanukah story is about light, the children had the opportunity to experiment with flashlights. We brought scientific observation into the classroom by observing the difference between using flashlights with the lights on versus the lights were off. Our Chanukah holiday curriculum will continue throughout next week with our focus on oil, potato latkes, menorahs and much more!
In our Thursday afternoon enrichment, the children worked cooperatively to create a beautiful dreidel mobile. The children decorated small dreidels and then used yarn and colored ziti to create beautiful strings on which to hang them. The beautiful dreidel mobile is being displayed in our new multi purpose room.

We wish each of our families a wonderful Chanukah.

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica.

What are we thankful for?

As we inch closer to Thanksgiving, the children have become busier with their preparations. This week they have made a large fish and handprint turkey as a whole group. Individually they have decorated cornucopias and filled them with fruits and vegetables, food collages, paper bag turkeys and Pilgrim hats. In our science center, the children observed whole cranberries in the water table. Ask them if cranberries sink or float. They also saw how ALL of the pumpkin seeds that were planted have begun to grow! Our class also had the opportunity to bake cranberry bread.

Although we only have a few school days left before the big day, we still have many projects to complete, and more cooking to do. We will be feasting with our friends from the Owl class next Wednesday morning. Before the holiday break, we will be sending home all of the craft projects, along with the words to many of our favorite holiday songs and poems.

When asked what each child is thankful for, here were the responses:

Charlie- my brother
Zev- my mom and daddy
Aidan- for challah bread
Ben- leaf
Orli- Groucho and Maxie (her cats)
Bailey- my mommy and daddy and Sam and Jake
Emily- Halloween
Ella- our dad
Dylan- our nanny
Leah - nailpolish
Teo- toys

During this session, I will be teaching the Thursday afternoon enrichment class which is called The Big Picture. In this class all of the activities will be group based, rather than individually based. This week we began by reading the book Old Bear’s Surprise Painting, which is a story where a group of friends create a painting by working cooperatively. As a craft, the children painted empty paper towel and toilet paper tubes, which will be put together to decorate our school for the next holiday, Chanukah.

Thank you to Bailey and her family for being our special Shabbat guests this week. We love having visitors, and look forward to having each of you come for your turn to be our guests. Thank you to those who have sent coins for our Tzedakah box, and thank you to Charlie and his family for donating the books Knuffle Bunny, and Harold and the Purple Crayon.

Please send a non perishable food item prior to Thanksgiving, to be donated to the Brookline Food Pantry.

I hope to complete my phone calls to each of you prior to next week’s holiday break.

*** TCEE will be closing at 1:00PM on Wednesday, November 24th. The center will reopen on Monday, November 29th.

Save the Date: Friday, December 3rd for our second annual Family Chanukah celebration.

On Monday of this week the Bears had a special treat, when Morah Shari let us take a ride in the new elevator!

Have a wonderful week.

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica

Thanksgiving Fun

Although it was a short week at school, it was certainly a busy one. We have begun our unit on Thanksgiving and the children heard the story of how the Pilgrims left England on a ship named The Mayflower, arriving in Massachusetts. The Native Americans, who were already here, helped to teach them many things, including how to plant corn and other vegetables. Thanksgiving is often compared to the holiday of Sukkot, as each is reflective of the harvest. Following an excellent first harvest in America, the Pilgrims and Native Americans joined together for a big feast. We have read several Thanksgiving books and have begun to learn many songs and poems. We will be having our own “feast” with our friends from the Owl class in observance of Thanksgiving. During the next few weeks there will be a lot of cooking and making of decorations to help us prepare for this celebration! We have talked about what it means to be thankful. As a way to combine being thankful and performing a mitzvah, or good deed, we ask that each child bring a non perishable food item to school between now and Thanksgiving. We will package these items together and donate them to a local food pantry. Allowing your child to help select the item that he or she will donate helps to make this a meaningful experience.

We have begun our weekly collection of Tzedakah. We ask that you please send some coins to school with your children for them to drop into our Tzedakah box each week as part of our Shabbat celebration. If you would like to send in several coins in a small zip lock bag, we can hold them and give a few to your child each week. We will tell you when your supply is getting low so that you can send in some more. Thank you to Charlie’s family for being our first Shabbat family. We look forward to each of you having this special honor. Please remember that you are welcome to join us for Shabbat on ANY Friday at 12:00 noon.

During the next week I will be making calls to each of you to touch base. If there is a specific time that is or is not good for phone calls, (such as when is “too late”), please tell me, or drop me an e mail at rmaple@ohabei.org. I will try my best to call when it will be convenient for you.

Special reminders:

This Saturday, November 13th, TOS will host it’s first Shabbat morning Tot Shabbat. We hope to see you there.

Mark your calendar. On Friday, December 3rd at 11:30AM we will host our second annual Chanukah Family Celebration. More details will be sent home as the events for the day are confirmed. It is our hope that each family will be able to participate. If you will not be able to attend, please feel free to extend the invitation to a friend, grandparent, nanny, etc.

We hope that you will take advantage of our trial enrichment class. Coupons were distributed to each child. Please note that 24 hours notice is necessary so that the teachers can prepare properly for the correct number of children.

Have a wonderful week,

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica

Rabbi Lipoff Joined us for Shabbat!

Dear Families,

As our unit on Fall begins to wind down, the children were able to do a few more pumpkin activities. We cut real pumpkins and everyone helped to scoop out the seeds. After drying for several days, each child planted some seeds into real soil. We cannot wait to see if any of them begin to grow! They painted pumpkin cut outs using yarn and the dried yarn looked like the pulp of a pumpkin. Naturally we completed the creations by glueing on real pumpkin seeds.

Each of us, in our day to day lives, depends upon various math skills. We have not only continued to increase our math materials, but have explained much of what we are doing and why. An example of this would be learning about time. Rather than saying that in so many minutes it will be time for a different friend to have a turn, we have introduced the children to hourglass egg timers. Our class has four of these, with time spans of 1,3,5, and 10 minutes. Each one is a different color. The children enjoy comparing which number takes more or less time for the sand to flow from top to bottom. The children are learning how to check if it is their time to move to a new activity.

Last Friday during our weekly Shabbat celebration, we introduced the children to the concept of giving Tzedakah. We stressed the importance of helping those who are not as fortunate as we are. We read the book The Very Best Place For A Penny. Last week and this, each child was given a few coins to put into our very own school Tzedakah box. If you or your children would like to bring in money from home to add to the Tzedakah box each week, we will keep it in a safe place until it is time to do so. Tzedakah of course can be given at any time, not just on Shabbat. During this week’s Shabbat celebration, we were so excited to welcome Rabbi Emily Lipof as a special guest. The children were a wonderful audience to her terrific puppet show!. The smiles on the faces of the children expressed just how much they enjoyed it.

When you mix ooey gooey with loving literature, you come up with this week’s Monday afternoon enrichment! We read the book On Top Of Spaghetti, by Paul Brett Johnson. The children created their own version of this deliscious treat. They glued cooked spaghetti into plastic bowls. Using modeling clay, they formed balls to represent the meatballs. Red paint was used to represent the sauce. Before you knew it, rather than using paintbrushes to mix the ingredients, the children began using their hands. If the saying that the messier it is, the more fun it was is true, then judging by the color of their hands, and the faces of the children, then this was an awesom activity! Like many good Italian dishes, the creations were topped with “shredded” paper cheese!

Everyone at the TCEE worked extremely hard to help make last night’s Gala honoring Diane and Martin Trust a success. The children helped to create a very special piece of artwork which was presnted to the Trusts as a Thank You. The love and dedication of the entire Trust family is truly appreciated.
Random Reminders for the week:

Saturday- Remember to turn your clocks BACK one hour.

Tuesday, 7-9PM, Open House for prospective families.

Thursday, NO SCHOOL in observance or Veteran’s Day

Have a great weekend,

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica

More Fall Celebration!

Dear Families of The Bears,

Despite the balmy temperatures outside, fall was still very much in the air all week in our classroom. There were leaves, fall colors and pumpkins everywhere. Although we do not celebrate Halloween in our school, pumpkins are a symbol of fall, especially here in New England. The children each helped to stuff a brown paper bag with newspaper prior to painting it orange. When the paint had dried, each bag was bound together with green tape,becoming a unique “pumpkin” for our very own pumpkin patch! Although we have not yet sampled it, the children helped to bake homemade pumpkin bread on Thursday morning. Each child had multiple opportunities to measure the ingredients and mix the batter before it was put into the oven. The aroma was just wonderful. We will let you know how it tastes! On Tuesday each child practiced their cutting skills, as they cut tree trunks. They were then decorated with fall colors to represent the beautiful leaves. Aidan brought in the biggest real leaf that we have ever seen!

In Monday’s enrichment class we examined the world of Eric Carle. We read three of his stories, Today is Monday, The Mixed Up Camelion, and Little Cloud. Our craft project was based on the book Little Cloud. The children were given white paint, large corks, and cotton balls. They created their own “clouds”. I asked each child what they were imagining, and what their cloud represented. Their responses were:

Ashley- Butterfly
Julia- Monkey
Orli- Garden
Emily- Micah
Zev- Dinosaur
Ben- Dinosaur
Teo- Just a Cloud

As we prepare to turn the page of the calendar to November, the children have all truly settled into our daily routine. Our circle times have been extended as their patience has grown. Each day when we review what our schedule will be for the day, the children are able to tell us “what comes next”! The next time that you visit the classroom, ask your child to “read” you the schedule of activities for the day. During circle time the children have a new favorite song. It is requested almost daily. The words are:

Down around the corner at the bakery shop,
There were lots and lots of cookies,(cupcakes, donuts, or bagels)
With sugar (frosting, sprinkles, or raisins) on the top.
Along came (we name a child),
With money to pay.
He took his cookie, (cupcake, donut, bagel)
And he ran away!

Thank you those who have signed up to be our Shabbat visitors. For those who have not yet signed up, please check your calendars and pick a day to join us. We look forward to having each family visit. Please remember that it does not have to be Shabbat for you to visit the classroom. If you would like to join us to read to the class, or work on a special project, please let us know and we will schedule a convenient time for you to come in.

Our school e-mail system is now up and running. Please feel free to contact us via e-mail at:
Rhona- rmaple@ohabei.org
Jessica- jostroff@ohabei.org

We can also be contacted at any time by phone, and if we cannot take your call, we will get back to you just as soon as we can.

Have a wonderful week.

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica

10/22/10

This week has found the Bear’s class continuing on their adventure through Fall. On Monday we discussed what an experiment was. The children heard that experiments occur when you work with different materials, try new things and make observations about them before, during and after use. We then gave the children red and orange paint, corks and paper. While using these paints to create colorful designs on white paper, Charlie declared, “Look Morah Rhona, I am making orange!” On Tuesday the children worked on fine motor skills by tearing fall colored paper into small pieces and then glued them on large paper making colorful collages. Our painting adventures this week included painting with both acorns and pumpkins.

We sang our new favorite song and even taught it to the Owl class. When singing this song, you point to what is being mentioned, (pointing to your head when it says “nut”). Here are the words:

Toe- knee –chest- nut nose-eye love you.
(repeat twice, singing 3 times)
That’s what Toe- knee nose!

The spirit of Shabbat was present throughout the entire week. The children “read” the story A Holiday For Noah, as a flannel board story. We painted Jewish star pictures, using cookie cutters. The initial concept of performing a mitzvah and giving Tzedakah, was introduced to the children. We talked about the importance of helping others. We read the story The Very Best Place For A Penny. During lunch on Thursday, we were discussing the upcoming program which will honor a specific child each week during our school Shabbat program. The question was asked, “What do you like about Shabbat?” The responses were:

Bailey- Challah
Emily- Singing songs
Orli- Candles
Aidan- The thing you wear on your head (a Kippah)
Zev- Candles
Charlie- Saying the Blessings
Ben- Candles

Monday afternoon’s enrichment, Loving Literature, was fun filled from beginning to end. Our book of the week was The Rainbow Fish. We talked about the job of both the author, the person who writes the words to the story, and the illustrator, the person who draws the pictures. After reading the book, the children created their own rainbow fish, complete with shiny silver scales. There was a giant puzzle of the rainbow fish to be put together, and the class ended with a snack of rainbow colored Goldfish!

With so many fun and exciting activities going on, it is difficult to decide what was the favorite. That being said, the highlight of the week had to be music with Moreh Micah! The children sang and danced for well over 30 minutes. Unfortunately, once the morning session had ended, the music session did as well. But we know that Micah will reappear with his guitar before we know it!

Just a few other tidbits:

There is now a signup sheet posted for our Shabbat Child Program. We hope that each of you will be able to participate in this wonderful program.
We look forward to seeing you this Sunday morning for the annual Temple Ohabei Shalom Mitzvah Day.

Happy 4th Birthday to Aidan.

Have a wonderful week. Shabbat Shalom.

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica

Fall Fun with The Bears 10-15-10

Fall fun continued all week in the Bear’s classroom. The children enjoyed discovering about squirrels, pinecones and acorns. We painted several times, but paintbrushes were nowhere to be found! The children experimented by painting with Q-tips, pinecones, and then by mixing fall colors with their own fingers! We learned a new squirrel song. Here are the words:

Gray Squirrel
Gray squirrel, gray squirrel
Shake your bushy tail.
Gray squirrel, gray squirrel
Shake your bushy tail.
Wrinkle up your funny nose.
Put a nut between your toes.
Gray squirrel, gray squirrel
Shake your bushy tail!

The children began the process of self discovery and self identity. We read the book We Are All Alike, We Are All Different. We discussed how we are all people, but we look different; that we all live somewhere but some live in cities while some live in the country; some live in apartments but some live in houses or trailers; we all live with somebody, but some live with their moms, some live with their dads, and some live with their moms and their dads. We also discussed the fact that we all must eat but like different foods, and that we all play but have a wide variety of interests. This allows children to feel good about who they are, and what they have. We will continue to foster the importance of being your own person, and taking care of yourself.

We were able to enjoy the beautiful autumn weather for most of the week! Have a wonderful weekend. Shabbat Shalom.
Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica

A Message from "The Bears" 10-8-10

This week found the Bears Class beginning a unit on Fall.  Leaves were the focus of our art and story times.  Our projects included using Bingo markers to make colorful leaves, tearing brown paper to make “trees” and using sponges to paint on the leaves, using crayons and stencils to make leaf rubbings, and decorating leaves while using eyedroppers to drip colored water on diffusion paper.  This helps to strengthen the small muscles in the hand, which is important for pre-writing skills.  Our book selection included Leaf Jumpers, We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt, The Busy Little Squirrel,  Fall, and When the Leaf Blew In. The children also learned a poem, which goes like this:

Red and orange, green and brown,

Leaves are falling to the ground.

We pile them up, Oh so high.

Then we jump in, my friend and I!    

Next week we will continue to learn about fall.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate so that we can collect leaves and acorns from outside!

The children continue to build their independence skills which are developmentally appropriate for three year olds by tending to their own bathroom needs, opening their own lunches, pouring their own water at snack from a child size pitcher and putting on their jackets.  We will continue to help those who are unable to perform any of these tasks.

We would like to remind you that there will be no preschool program on Monday, October 11th, in honor of Columbus Day.  Have a wonderful weekend.

Shabbat Shalom.

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica