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.