Rosh Hashanna Brings Sweet Learning!

Briana and Jake are working on the New Year's cards for their families.  Painting, tracing, cutting, glueing candles, and writing your name were all important steps in the card making process.

Noor has added candles to a birthday cake for the world.

The boys got into the bakery business, too.  As they were playing and pounding away, we asked the children what we might do at a birthday party for the world.  Patrick and Govind were quite sure there would be hot dogs and cool presents.  Alex told us a terrific story about a giant slide that started at the top of mountains.  You slid down and landed right in the ocean.  Whoosh....the story was complete with arm motions and sound effects!

Take a few apples, some interesting stones, a scale and some Curious George children and you have a math lesson.  The children were encouraged to balance the apples with the stones.

Sometimes the children worked together.

And other times they worked alone.  Since the apples were differently sized, as were the stones, each day the children could have a new experience while building on a previous day's learning.

Being able to verbalize an object's attributes is important not only for literacy development  (think main ideas in a story or building a more descriptive vocabulary) but in math and science.  Here Emma is grouping the apples by color.

Now we are trying to get the children to notice another attribute, their size.

We are graphing now.  Amelia is placing her apple according to whether or not it has a sticker.

Suri and Zoey are using pattern blocks to fill in the apple shape.  This is wonderful for developing spatial perception.

Another great game.  This time the children roll the die and put the apple together, much like a puzzle. Cheering on your team is part of the fun.

We looked at pictures of rams with different shaped horns as well as real shofars from Rabbi Allenberg.  The children were given a variety of materials and could choose to make a shofar any way they wanted.  Zoey is rolling foil.



Jake adds tape, pipe cleaners, beads and buttons.  Jake was really intrigued by this activity and worked on his shofar for almost 15 minutes.  Having enough time to look at, experiment with, and reflect upon materials is very important for children. 



Sometimes you need a friend to help you!

Noor and Charlotte wanted to see if the shofars were heavy or light.  Charlotte said, "Shofars are fragile! We have to be careful when we hold them."

After Suri made her shofar, she came to the science table to compare hers to Rabbi Allenberg's. She said, "The shofar is curly  like the curls in my hair." During our focus on shofars,we encouraged the children to use adjectives and similes.

Painting at the easel develops shoulder strength as well as being a relaxing activity in our classroom.  Daniel chose to paint an apple tree.

Alex was inspired by the array of Rosh Hashanah items on our science table.  An apple, a pomegranate, and a honey jar all found their way onto his painting.

Emma was adding grass below her tree and decided to kneel down to get a better angle!

Amelia told us she loves yellow, so of course she painted bright yellow apples on her tree.  If you look closely, you'll see she also added a honey bee for a sweet year. Good thinking, Amelia!

Briana's dad came to share Shabbat with us, but first Briana wanted to explain the pattern on our September calendar.    Learning in our room is even more exciting when we can "show off" to  our parents!