Celebrating Lag B'Omer and Shabbat

This week, the children in the Bears’ classroom celebrated the holiday of Lag B’Omer. During this celebration in Israel, there are many picnics and bonfires. Unfortunately, the weather in Massachusetts did not cooperate with us, however, here at the Trust Center we were able to use our imaginations and improvise. On Monday, we put down several sleeping bags on the floor in the gross motor room. The entire class went on a scavenger hunt where we gathered cups, napkins, a pitcher of water, and crackers. The reward at the end was a “picnic” snack on the sleeping bags after we read two stories. On Tuesday, while we were playing out in the playground, the children collected many sticks. After lunch, we gathered on the rug in the classroom and built a bonfire, complete with real marshmallows on a stick. The highlight of this activity was eating the marshmallows once they had been “toasted.” On Wednesday at the art table, the children made pita pockets. This was done by coloring large circles. They were folded in half, stapled, and then stuffed with pretend lettuce, tomato, pickles and falafel.

On Thursday, we switched gears. For the first part of our day, all of the children from the Owls’ class joined us in our classroom while Morah Larissa and Morah Kate held parent conferences. This was a wonderful opportunity for the children to work together. Various groups worked cooperatively playing in the dramatic play area, using the manipulatives and putting together two different floor puzzles. Once the classes separated, all of the Bears helped Morah Jessica make some challah dough. During this activity, the children had a chance to measure and then mix the ingredients. On Friday, we baked fresh challah from this dough. The aroma in the school was wonderful!

Thank you to Ava’s family for being our special Shabbat guests. We loved having you visit. It has been a pleasure to meet with so many of the Bears’ parents to discuss your children’s progress. We look forward to meeting with the rest of you in the next few weeks. If you are going away for the holiday weekend, safe travels! We will see you on Tuesday.

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica

A Creepy-Crawly Week

This week in the Bears’ classroom, the children had the opportunity to learn a bit about insects. We read the books The Very Hungry Caterpillar and From Caterpillar to Butterfly. The children each made a 3-D caterpillar, and followed it up the next day by decorating a very beautiful butterfly. Before long, we will (hopefully) be able to search for real butterflies while playing outside! Next, the children paired up colorful spider webs which they “spun” themselves, with creepy spiders, which each child cut out on their own. It was wonderful to see how much their cutting skills have grown since the beginning of the school year. The children also counted how many legs they glued onto their spiders. We read the book and sang the song The Itsy Bitsy Spider. Throughout the year we have woven the Sammy Spider book series into our curriculum as we celebrate the Jewish holidays, and the children are always happy to share that spiders don’t celebrate holidays, “spiders spin webs!”

We read the book How & Why Insects Visit Flowers and the children heard how various different insects work to help flowers grow. Zev was proud to tell us how they stick their tongues in the flower to suck out the nectar. On Friday, we read the book 10 Little Ladybugs and each child crated their own ladybug.

Despite the gloomy weather, we were still able to go outside almost every day. The children enjoy the fresh air. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the “real” Spring! The children have become experts on helping to place the cover back onto the sandbox during our playground cleanup time. This takes group cooperation and each child is always proud to help.

Next week, we will be celebrating the holiday of Lag B’Omer, which is a holiday to commemorate the victorious Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE. In Israeli tradition, it is a day of parties, picnics and bonfires.

If you have not yet done so, please sign up for an end of the year conference. These conferences will take place on Wednesday, May 25^th and Tuesday, May 31^st.

Have a wonderful weekend. Shabbat Shalom.

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica

Happy Birthday, Israel!

Dear Families,

This week, the class celebrated Yom HaAtzma’ut, which celebrates Israel’s Independence Day and Israel’s 63rd birthday! The week was filled with blue and white, and many verses of Yom Huledet Same'ach (happy birthday to you). The children boarded an El AL flight, buckled their seat belts, had a little snack and were off from Logan Airport to Ben Gurion Airport. After a musical round of Am Yisrael Chai, the passports were stamped and it was off to explore.

On Monday, the children were able to practice their fine motor skills using Hebrew stencils. They liked pointing out the letters they knew, especially the aleph. During Circle Time, the children did a concept webbing around Yom HaAtzma’ut, as the children shared what they knew about Israel. This webbing is posted outside the classroom if you would like to take a look at it. The children listened to a reading of Sammy Spider’s First trip to Israel, which documented a young boy Josh, and his family visiting Israel for the first time. Afterwards, the children saw real photographs of the Kotel, also known as the Western Wall. During project time, the children were asked to draw pictures of their own Western Wall, or they could draw the Western Wall through their eyes. The children were really able to use their imaginations, and it was great seeing how different each child interpreted the Wall. We also had music with Cantor Schloss and had fun singing many Hebrew songs.

Tuesday, the children took the Israeli bus to Jerusalem, the City of Gold. The children built their own Walls from Legos, and began to paint “bricks” for our very own Western Wall (proudly displayed in the hall, accompanied by some notes and hopes from the children). The children were given blue and white paper to cut stripes and triangles to make their own Israeli flags, (degel). Friends were also able to finger-paint with blue and white paint, and listened to the wonderful story, And Shira Imagined, by Giora Carmi.

On Wednesday, the children went on an archeological dig in our very own sand table! They used sifters and paintbrushes to discover shekels and some dinosaurs. At the writing center, the children used Jewish star and flag rubber stamps, and used counting cakes to count out 63 candles. The children painted ziti blue and white, to be strung the next day to compare the age of Israel to the United States (235). The children noticed that United States has a lot more, therefore the US is older than Israel. During Circle Time, the children sang a favorite “Hinei Rakevet” (an Israeli folk song about a train), and the children became a class train and sang to the song. The children were having a blast doing the “chug chugs” and “toot toots!”

Thursday was an exciting day, as our dramatic play corner was turned into an Israeli Shuk! The children used Israeli money to buy goods and jewelry, many of the items came straight from our pen pals in Haifa Israel! Snack was also a treat, as the children did some food taste testing. Two common founds found in Israel are dates and olives. The children were able to try these foods, some did some did not. The children also made their own versions of israeli salad. They were provided with cherry tomatoes and cucumbers that they could eat together. It was a nice day, and the children were ready for the playground to ride bikes and dig in the sand.

After a great week, it was sad to leave Israel. After a quick visit to a kibbutz, the children packed up and boarded the plane to fly back to Boston. We could not resist a little birthday treat for snack as this special week came to an end. We hope you have a great weekend and Shabbat Shalom.

Morah Jessica and Morah Rhona

Welcome new friends!

Dear Families,

This week, the Bears’ class welcomed not one, but two new friends. Victoria (Tori) will be with us every day and Sam will be here on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are joining Ian who became a member of our class just last week, and will also be here each day of the week. That makes three new friends in two weeks!

All of the new children have become adjusted to our routine, and all have begun to join others in play. We spent a lot of time this week reminding the “older” classmates the importance of being a good role model. We have encouraged the children to make good choices and show their new friends the right thing to do.

We spent a large portion of our art time making special decorations to be handed out during Friday’s Family Day Celebration Breakfast. The children enjoyed making the colorful flowers. It is our hope that they have helped to “brighten your day!” They also loved baking the blueberry muffins for our buffet table.

A very happy birthday to our friends Zev and Orli this week!

Next week, we will be doing a unit on the land of Israel in honor of Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. The children will be taking a pretend trip to Israel and learning about various cities and landmarks of that beautiful country. We can’t wait to share some of our experiences in next week’s newsletter.

Although the month of May has just begun, before we know it, it will be June. That being said, we have scheduled our Spring Parent Conferences for Wednesday, May 25 and Tuesday, May 31. A sign-up sheet can be found in the Bears’ room. Please take the time to choose a time slot when you are available to meet with us. If neither of those dates are a possibility for your family, please let us know right away so we can make alternative arrangements.

Please check to see that your child has season and size appropriate clothing in the box which is left at school. It is sometimes hard to realize just how much they have all grown during the school year!

We hope to see you all at Tot Shabbat tonight. Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms and grandmothers. We hope you enjoy your special day. Have a wonderful weekend.

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica