Snowman and Icicle Poems

Welcome to 2011! It was exciting to see all of the children after such a long break from school. They all seem to have gotten taller in just a few short weeks. As we “Kick off” a new year, we also wish our New England Patriots a trip to the Super Bowl!

Just as many of us do each and every year, the Bears spent the week “winterizing” their home! We now have two large Snow People decorating our walls. The children all worked cooperatively to create them, first by painting large pieces of paper, and later by decorating their faces, bodies, hats and scarves. There are also pairs of mittens hanging around the room, and decorative sleds were sent home. Likewise the children enjoyed every minute of our outside play time this week. They discovered that many of the toys had filled with ice. The ice was examined and the different pieces were compared to each other for size and shape. The books we read this week included both The Mitten adn The Hat. Each of those books were written and illustrated by Jan Brett.

The children learned two new winter poems. Here are the words:

Snowman Poem:
The chubby little snowman
Had a carrot nose.
Along came a bunny,
And what do you suppose?
That hungry little bunny
Was looking for his lunch.
He ate that carrot nose-
Nibble, nibble, crunch!

Icicle Poem:
I’m a long, long, long, long icicle,
Hanging from your window sill.
The sun came out to shine one day,
And I began to melt away.
Drip, drip, drip, drip-
SPLAT!

With a newly found interest by some of the children in letters, we have opened a new toy in which the goal is to match the wooden letters to those on picture cards, enabling them to spell the word. The children have enjoyed this activity and some are able to find the letters that are needed to spell their names. This is a pre-reading skill for children. It is important not only to identify various letters, but to be able to match them as well.

In a memo sent out this week by Hebrew College:

“We are thrilled to begin our 2010-2011 Boston-Haifa Ambassador Program with funding from CJP Boston-Haifa Connection and organized through Hebrew College, the Haifa Municipality, and the Israel Ministry of Education. It is exciting to note that there are 20 Boston early childhood educators involved, representing 13 different preschools, and 20 Haifa early childhood educators representing 20 different preschools and special education learning centers. We welcome this opportunity to broaden our personal and professional relationships, to delve deeper into the meaning of our Jewish identity, to explore new teaching techniques, to implement them in a meaningful way and to gain first-hand experience with the challenges of living in the Diaspora and in Israel. It is a great opportunity to learn together - from each other and with each other.”

Morah Rhona is excited to be one of the “Ambassadors”, and the Diane K. Trust Center is one of the thirteen preschools which will be represented in this program. We have been matched with a preschool in Haifa, Israel, and within a few days I will be contacting their teacher. During this partnership we will be exchanging ideas, pictures and materials with our friends in Israel. Our friends in the Owl class will also be invited to join in the communications and activities. It is our hope that our children will form bonds with the children in Israel, and begin to understand that although they live far away, and speak a different language, they are children and they go to school, just like we do here in America.

Thank you for sending your children to school prepared for outside play. We do however request that if your female children choose to wear dresses that you PLEASE send in pants to wear outside, as it is cold out there. We also request, for children who stay at school all day that you send in a second pair of waterproof mittens, as the children go outside both in the morning and the afternoon.

Happy 4th Birthday to Ella and Dylan!

If you are interested in our vacation week programs for February and/or April, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can plan accordingly.

We hope to see you all at Tot Shabbat this week on both Friday night at 5:45 P.M. and Saturday morning at 11:00 A.M.

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica