Home sweet home

Chanuka Unit

One of our favorite times of the year, is Chanuka! The lessons that the children learn during this holiday lasts a lifetime.

We started where it all began, in the Beis Hamikdash (the holy temple) where the Kohanim (priests) would perform their holy work, which centered a lot around lighting the Menorah! 

We set up a Beis Hamikdash center for the children to get a taste of what it was like and also what it will, G-d willing, be like when we have the final Beis Hamikdash!

What IS the Beis Hamikdash?

Hashem's home, a place where all people can come and be close to Him.

During cirlce time we talked about our own homes. Yanky came up and shared with us what he loves about his home. "My school bus toy"

Kohanim at work

Moshe and Mendel trying to match the picture of the Kohanim with their outfit.

Esther washing her hands by the Kiyor (wash basin) before getting to work.

 Emma pouring the olive oil and placing the laminated flames in each golden cup.

A lesson of thanks

'Bikkurim' was a special mitzvah that the visiting Jews did. They would bring the first fruits from their orchards and gift it to the Kohanim in the Beis Hamikash.

This was a powerful lesson on the importance of saying thank you.

Esther bringing the fruit basket under our tree and gave it to Moshe to say thank you after he lit the menorah.

Shalom tasting from the 'Lechem Hapanim' (the 12 show breads) that the Kohanim would get to enjoy.

Emma and Eli peeking inside the golden 'Aron Kodesh' where the tablets were kept.

We loved spending a lot of time in our Beis Hamikdash throughout the day.

We davened together there and sang songs asking Hashem for the final Beis Hamikdash.

 Thanking Hashem for our food in the Beis Hamikdash center.

How did we bring the big idea home?

After much talk about how the Menorah brought light into the whole Beis Hamikdash it was time to take it a step further and make it practical. What do we have that brings light into the world NOW?

Each of their mitzvahs brings light into this world and builds the 3rd and final Beis Hamikdash!

Throughout this week our Mitzvah notes were golden bricks. Each day we added the children's Mitzvah notes to our Beis Hamikdash center! This was so powerful and the children were eager to add additional Mitzvahs! Throughout the day we heard some say "Can I help build the Beis Hamikdash?"

 Light art experiment

Look what the sunshine's light can do! Hanging CDs reflected the sunshine and created a rainbow on their papers. We placed different colors of paint for the children to create what they saw.

After painting her picture adelle had fun watching the CD swing.

Hello Batya!

Dreidels!

Morah Tally and friends practicing their spinning techniques.

Shalom and Mendel having fun with our giant dreidel!

Yanky using his creativity and using the dreidels as the 'candles'

Parshat Vayeitzei: A Stranger in a Strange Land

In this weeks Parsha we learn that Yakov left his home to look for a wife in Charan. On his way he stopped in a Bais Midrash to learn Torah. Yakov knew that Charan wasn't such a good place and the people weren't so nice. We learned that when we fill our body with goodness there will not be any space for the bad. The pink cup is the Torah Yakov learned and the bowl is Yakovs body. After learning for 14 years Yakovs body was full of strength from the Torah and no bad could break in.     

When we fill up our body with goodness the good will not allow the bad to come in.

Aleph Bais

In our class the children got turns being the ''mini Morah''. Yisroel did a great job at being the ''mini Morah''. He is pointing at the letters and Saige is saying the names of the letters.   

The Love For Learning

Its so special when the children instigate the learning and are excited about it. Dovi and Motty were so excited that they didn't give up until they put all the sounds in order.

Numbers And Math

Matching the numbers 1 through 20. Yisroel and Bela Riva are playing a matching game.

Addition

We all had fun adding numbers and trying to figure out the answer. 

On the board the Morah stuck 2 cups and a basket, each cup can hold a number of cubes. The children were invited to choose how many cubes to put in. Figuring out the answer was a lot of fun.   

   Malka was working so nicely figuring out... How many shells make 10? How many make 5? How many make 9?

Rainbow Roses

Mitzvah Mentchies resident scientists explored how plants drink.

"They suck up water from the bottom!" exclaimed Yisroel

Rozie chose a color to add to the water of the roses.

We used varying amounts of water and the same amount of food coloring to 

see if it made a difference.

Sweet Moments

Friends share a story together in the library.

Budding architects at Work

Our friends Sholom and Sarah model behaviours to our class.

And show the right way we should act.

 Aleph Bais Adventures: ו and a ורד

Working together to compose a story about a ורד(vered-rose)

Each child waited eagerly for their turn to add a sentence.

We incorporated a Vered stem into some ooey gooey slime, for a fun sensory experience.

Evan uses a vered to paint his Vov

F is for Fun

Using our fingers to make some food.

The chefs in our kitchen created pizza, chicken, candy and potatoes.

Faiga uses dot markers to carefully decorate her fish.

Mendel takes a long hard look at his face in the mirror, then drew a self portrait.

Can you believe so many things start with F!

Thanksgiving and our five senses

At Gan we celebrate thanksgiving everyday by thanking Hashem for giving us another day.

This year we focused on thanking Hashem for our five senses. We had so much fun learning about three of them and hope to finish next week!

Thank you Hashem for our five senses!

Smell

Added cinnamon to our paint.  Was humorous to watch the curious little noises balancing between smelling it and trying not to get it on their nose.

 Spices added to our play dough as well as cloves to play with.  Arik made a face out of his cloves.

 Smell test.

Cups containing an assortment of smells. Some smells lead into memories and conversations with each other.

A rose was passed around during circle time to enjoy the beautiful smell.

In our recycling draw we have different spice containers. The children had fun rummaging through it and finding all types of aromas. Cinnamon was the most popular, paprika not so much ;)

Sight

We are so thankful for our eyes. After discussing how important eyes are, Moshe came up to check out his eye color. Some learned the word hazel from Emma.

Self portrait art and trying to draw our eyes. Eli requested a blue marker to match his eyes.

Emma decorating binoculars.

We played a game using our binoculars. After naming a certain color or shape that one of our friends were wearing, Esther and Yanky had to find it using their binoculars.

 Trying to find the matching abc's hidden in the rice. This was a great hand-eye coordinating activity.

During davening circle we hid the Torahs all around the room. Some friend eyes helped each other find a Torah.

 Hearing

Sholom painting with bells attached to his brush.

Painting while listening to music.

Was interesting to watch some learning how to multi-task.

Adelle was so happy while listening to the fast joyous song.

Esther felt relaxed listening to a slow melody.

Moshe tried both, fast paced music and slow on two different papers, was interesting to watch the difference in his paintbrush movements.

Graphing what makes noise?

Sholom letting us know if a feather makes noise.

Some were challenging. We offered Chana Rochel one symbol. As she was about to put it on the no sound tray we gave her the other one! 

Mina held an empty Tzedakah box and then we added coins to it!

 Emma started a great hands on experience about hearing in the sensory table by filling her container to the top and it didn't make any sound!

Happy 4th birthday Moshe!