The Last Week of Chanukah Fun !

Susan   had lots of Chanukah shaped cookie cutters which the children used with a stamp pad. 

Then they used colored pencils....

or markers to fill in the shapes.



Zoey and Suri added a good deal of detail!



In Torah we learned about Joseph and his coat of many colors.  Then the children made a Joseph puppet.  You can see Jake is having fun creating a very colorful coat.  Back in the room, we extended this lesson by looking at our own coats.  Pockets, snaps, zippers, velcro, hoods and collars were new vocabulary words for many of the children.  We also talked about the "magic hook" which is used to hang up one's coat.....a much better option than tossing it into your cubby and watching it fall out onto the floor!

We know that Chanukah candles give off light, but what else gives us light?  Each child drew a picture, and with a little help, used phonemic skills to sound out the word.

There are always interesting things going on in the room.Noor propped up the mirror so she could see the reflection of her geoboard design.  Stretching the rubber bands requires both hands to work together.

Blocks, animals, cars and boys....a terrific combination and a cool structure.

It is interesting to see certain toys "rediscovered" by the children.  The gears have become very popular lately.  In the Chanukah spirit, the children even realized individual gears could spin on the floor! 

Chanukah confetti and playdough .  Emma is rolling out a cookie.

Briana is picking all the pieces of confetti out of the playdough....great for fine motor development.

The Curious George bakery is once again in full swing with lots of cookies and cupcakes.



What else besides a dreidel can spin?  Here you see a top and a jack. 



They all love watching the item spin on top of the mirror.  Zoey is very intrigued!

We had a big box of multi sized wooden sticks and challenged the children to create a dreidel shape.

Emma couldn't quite fit the handle on the paper, but did not want to use a smaller stick....you can see she came up with a unique solution!

Patrick loved the design he made in his dreidel.

Getting the triangle to point down was difficult for most of the children.  Alex fiddled with those 3 sticks for a full 5 minutes and would not give up.  Nor would he listen to any "hints".   You can see how happy he was when he finally got it right....we love to see the kids persist in an activity.

Last month's color was orange and we finally got around to making our orange collage....a good review of the song,

and good teamwork to cut all the paper and tape.

We've also been doing lots of candle activities.  This one was definitely a "wow".  Using a warm griddle, the children were able to color the paper.  What they did not expect to see was how very bright the colors would be.... 

or how easily the crayon would slide across the paper.  Most children discovered that the point of the crayon soon became very flat.

Scientist Saul wondered if the now flattened point of the crayon would enable it to stand up.  He is testing out his hypothesis!

Different techniques....Noor moved her crayon very quickly across the paper

....while Briana worked very slowly.  She noticed that you could make a puddle of color if you kept the crayon in the same spot.

Look at the full documentation on the bulletin board outside our room.

Our First Birthday !

It is always a treat to celebrate your birthday with your classmates.  The girls decided to make Zoey a delicious playdough cake. 

The next thing we knew, Zoey was going to the beauty salon.  All the acorns and seed pods in the science center wound up as accessories.  Jake was a very helpful assistant until Noor tried to  put a seed pod in his hair......you can just imagine the look of horror on his face!!

Later in the day we had a birthday cake circle with the birthday girl in the middle.

Everyone walks around the birthday child singing.

Then we melt down as Zoey blows out all the candles on her cake and makes a wish!

The last part of the circle is when the birthday child chooses 5 hugs or 5 "potches" (yiddish for a little lovetap on the tush!)  Zoey is getting 5 hugs and a big one to grow on.
Thanks to Zoey's parents for our delicious yogurt and strawberry parfaits!

Chanukah fun, part 2

Have you looked at the bulletin board outside our room?  It was inspired by the tradition of placing chanukiot in the window of your house......Charlotte traced and cut her window and drew a chanukiah.

Jake is drawing his chanukiah.  This takes both number and spatial awareness since the children have to make sure there is enough room for all eight candles plus the shamash.

Using a variety of materials and cool paper from the collage box, the children created a house.

Add some detail to your  picture....trees, clouds, flowers, sidewalk...it is all part of a child's growing awareness of their world.

Everyone had their own design ideas. 

And the  pictures are  fabulous!  We have received so many compliments from other teachers and parents and also from the many visitors to our school last week.  If you haven't seen them, be sure and take a look.

When we added candles to the play dough center, it wasn't long before the kids had created all types of chanukiot.

They quickly learned just how much pressure to use to push the candles in...too much and the candle breaks in two pieces!

A new puzzle...thanks to Zoey's dad for showing us how to put it together!



Now the kids really have the idea.



Who says you must put candles in the chanukiah.  The girls think beads look just as nice.  Either way, it's great for fine motor since those tiny beads are very hard to control.

Another   fine motor workout......spinning dreidels.



We are playing "Pass the Present".  Everyone has a clothespin.  The trick is to grab hold of one side of the picture of the present while the other child releases the card.  Much much trickier than the class thought it would be!  Just figuring out how to open the clothespin was an accomplishment for some of the children!



You can see their concentration!

What are we making in culinary arts?

Must be latkes! Apple latkes. The children chopped the apples ,mixed the dry ingredients, and added honey.   Cheryl gave everyone a small bowl of the ingredients and the children rolled and then made the latkes flat, flat, flat.Cheryl cooked all the latkes in oil, and we had a yummy snack!

We talk a lot about the miracle of Chanukah and the oil, but most of the children really don't understand why oil was so important.  We used an oil lamp to show the class how the fire (light) for the Eternal Light can come from oil.

Everyone decided it was better to live when  electricity had been discovered......it took us a long time to get the lamp to light!

In Gan, Heidi was on that same topic.

Where did the oil actually come from?

The children squeezed olives and tasted the oil oil they produced.

We hope everyone is having a happy and delicious Chanukah!