A whole year in one week!

Is it really the last week of school? My time does fly, we've had a packed year of learning growing and a lot of love together. This week we had some more fine motor skills activities as well as visiting a lot of the big ideas throughout the year!

Esther creating little balls of play dough to fit into the small suction cup circles. Chanie, worked hard on getting paper clips on the lines. We talked about how important it is to strengthen our fingers for writing skills we will get next year!

Chana Rochel using all her might to hole punch paper and Menachem cutting spaghetti.

Chana concentrating piling up her beads on a stick.

This was a fun hand-eye coordination activity. Our friends were invited to use ladles to remove the balls from the basket without taking off the tape. 

 Come join us as we take a trip through the year!

Rosh Hashanah- 'Being sweet'!

Shmuel noticed Arik needed some magnets and without hesitating he shared them. There are a lot of sweet moments we get to witness in our class each time we reminded them how sweet they are just like honey.

Yom Kippur - "We can always fix our mistakes!"

Through some rough play a toy got broken. Our friends expressed how sorry they were through drawing. We are sweet and even when we make a mistake we can always fix it!

Sukkos -" A hug from Hashem!"

We love getting and giving hugs. Hashem is giving us a hug in a Sukkah and he is always near us.

We learned a special song this week about how Hashem is always with us. With all that's going on in this world it is a good reminder that we trust in Hashem and is always giving us a 'hug'. Listening to our friends sing this song was so sweet and pure.

We believe in Hashem, we trust in Hashem
There never is a moment when,
when I am alone and I'm on my own
I believe and I trust in Hashem.
Because I understand that He's holding my hand
and every step is perfectly planned.
He's holding me tight so I'll be alright.
I believe and I trust in Hashem!

Chanuka- "I am brave like a Maccabee"

We asked our friends "Who remembered the Beis Hamikdash in our class?" The responses we heard and all their memories were amazing. We talked about what it was like to be a brave Maccabee. We can be brave too. Esther and Chana Rochel wanted to be brave and sing a song in  front of all their friends.

Tu B'shvat- "Our mitzvahs are like fruit from a tree"

Hashem loves when we do Mitzvah's! Adelle put her fruit mitzvah note on our tree!

Purim- "I am like Mordechai and Esther!"

At davening circle we revisited our Jewish Heroes from Purim time, Mordechai and Esther. WE do mitzvah's just like them!

Pesach- "We care like Moshe"

During Pesach we focused on the Jewish leader Moshe and how much he cared about the Jewish slaves. Yakov wanted to help Adelle put her lunch box up, this was a great time to talk about how important it is to care! Esther at snack time, showed everyone her water bottle and was so excited to talk about how Pharaoh had blood in his water not like her!

A great way to remember all we learned is through pictures! Our friends are so excited to have a picture memory book. Esther came up to show her friends her favorite memory. Adelle was thrilled to see her and her friends!

 Mazel Tov to our dear friend Yanky on the birth of his new baby brother ! He was so excited to show his friends a picture of the little cutie!

We will miss you Torah Tots, you are always in our hearts!

Together Again

Our Mitzvah Menchies were so excited to see each other again!

We began the week separated into two groups, but thankfully were able to join together after that!

We had so much fun this week being with each other!

Summer is coming! 

Pre-K painted with sunscreen and then watched what happened to the paper after a few hours. (paper faded, but with sunscreen it didn't)

Recreating a Zoom experiment we did in person

watching the pepper germs run away from the soap was so cool!

Art and Sensory exploration was a big part of our week.

Using the primary colors on ice to see what will happen.

Painting Rocks. Lots of excitement to add to their "collections"

Kindergarten raced to buzz in the correct answer in this fast-paced math game!

Pre-K zoomed around the classroom to find a color-match in our color hunt. Looking around the classroom for a word that starts with  P

 Outdoor play on the hot summer days!

Back in our happy place!

There are no words to describe the joy of seeing our friends again at Gan. This whole week was filled with pure joy and a lot of catch up.

These last two weeks our 'big idea' is being together :) 

Adelle, was so excited to show her friends what was in her lunch box.

Catching up while playing together.

 O boy did we miss davening together. What a beautiful sight to see the children's happiness while doing Mitzvahs. 

Bubble fun!

 Was so sweet to notice the different skills they acquired during the break. Yanky showed us how he can write his name two different ways.

Reflection is an important process in our development. At circle time, we graphed what it was like to learn from home vs school.

We heard a lot of highlights that they shared with us. Arik told us about his blow up Jacuzzi and how he gently held his baby brother Avraham. 

Shmuel told us he missed the sand box at school. 

 Decorating 'cakes' with shaving cream frosting and shape sprinkles.

 Rubber band painting was such a fun process and beautiful outcome.

 Using our fine motor skills trying to help our animals get freed from the rubber bands.

Happy 4th birthday to Chana Rochel.

Washing our hands for 20 seconds, singing our washing song. We are so proud of our friends for helping us keep our classroom clean and making sure to keep washing our bad germs away.

Follow the Leader

This week in conjunction with Purim, Pre-K talked about what it means to be a leader.

Mordechai and Esther are great examples of leaders we want to be like.

A leader is someone who shows other people what to do in a kind loving way.

Leaders always try their best and will work together as part of a team.

Moshe told us that sometimes C-TEEN has  leaders too!

To really understand and internalize this concept, everyone worked very hard to create their own Shabbos Party Box, for them to lead a Shabbos party with their family at home!

From start to finish! Creating the box that would hold our party supplies was a lot of fun!

Because no Shabbos party is complete without a story!

Each child beaded a story chain to help us remember the story we will tell.

(copy of the story included in box so parents can remind)

Spencer designs her matching game for the box.

Preparing our food art activity!

We are going to show our family how to do it!

Knowing how to work with a team is important for a leader.

This STEM activity needed everyone to pull on their strings to stretch the rubber band to lift and lower each cup into the stack.

A good leader knows how to encourage their teammates!

In this game, we needed to get the hula hoop around the circle without letting go.

Everyone encouraged Mendel when it was a little tricky!

Covering with Kindness!

This week we learned the story of Purim, as its told in the Megilla that we will read on Purim!
Through costumes, puppets and conversation we got to know our Hero's Mordechai and Esther!

The name Esther means hidden! We looked at the way Esther acted throughout the story of Purim. She was humble. Esther was happy the way she was. She didn't brag, or show off how great she was.

King Achashverosh saw how special she was INSIDE. She didn't need makeup or fancy dresses to show her beauty.

Acting out the story!

A Song we learned to remind us of the 4 Mitzva's of Purim:

Send shalach manos to your friend

Give tzedaka to a poor person

Hear the Megilla read in shul

and eat the Purim feast until your full!

Four Mitzvah's of Purim

1. Hear the Megilla- 

We made our own Megilla with pictures and art. Decorated special cases to hold it in, using very fine motor skills to adhere tiny sequins to the glue!

2. Give Tzedaka to 2 people: Covering with Kindness!

We doubled up 2 Purim practices, and gave over a very important lesson to the children! One of the things we do when we listen to the megilla, is make noise (use a gragger) when we hear Haman's name! TO drown out any memory of the evil he did. 

We decided to make our gragger (tool to drown out Haman's name) into a Tzedaka Box! 

The important lesson, is that the best way to get rid of something bad, to block it out of our lives, is to ADD IN MITZVAH's! 

The children worked hard taping decorations onto a Tzedaka Box Gragger! They look forward to doing a mitzvah at the same time as shaking their Gragger!

3. Give Shalach Manos-

It is a Mitzvah to give a gift of food to a friend on Purim day! The children decorated pretty boxes which we will use for our classroom Shalach Manos exchange!

4. The Purim Feast-

Eat a yummy meal and celebrate the holiday with friends and family!

Purim inspired Challa today! Some friends turned their Challah into a Hamentash!