Raining in California?!

This week is the Torah portion of Noach. Noach, was a great man in his generation but the rest of the world was not. The world needed to be cleaned by Hashem and get a restart.

We started off the week inviting our friends to the sensory table which was filled with different items to wash. We talked about bath time and getting wet. Being in California, most of our little friends do not remember what rain is! So we started off with something familiar as bath time.

Through a puppet show we learned how Noach and his wife Naama were told to build a big boat (Teiva) for their family and all the animals. Noach, came around to each friend saying hi to their animal and inviting them in. Some were shy and we took this opportunity to talk about how we feel when there is a change. Hashem is with us and comforting us with whatever we are going through.

Role playing the story during free play.

Boats at sea. Menucha, spotted a shark with her telescope! Yakov, brought animals into his.

We noticed Chana in our recycling draw, and she found her own boats to play with!

Creating our own boat scene.

Learning about WET and DRY. Our friends had to guess with touch and with out.

What do we use when it rains? Chana, role modeling how to use an umbrella. Could Noach use that when it rained ? No! was too much!

Headed outdoors to feel what it's like to be under the umbrella in wet rain weather.

Science experiment using shaving cream as the clouds and watching the 'rain' drops fall through.

Learning about negative space. Ben, first colored with white crayon on his paper. Painting on top of the wax medium created a neat scene of raining.

Menachem and Chana creating their own cows for their boat while observing what a real cow looks like.

Let's light up the world!

When Noach and his family came out, Hashem showed them a beautiful rainbow. This symbolizes He will never again send a world flood and now its time to fill the world with beautiful mitzvahs!

Menachem matching his colored mitzvah note to our bulletin board rainbow!

Experimenting with milk and colors watching them move on the plate with dish soap on our Qtips.

We also had fun colors in a bag to mix and watch what happens.

The Secret Recipe

 We began the week reviewing what Hashem created during the 6 days of creation.

Batya got up close and personal with some wet sand created on Day Number 3.

But what did Hashem create all these things for?

To help the children understand this big idea, each child found a photograph that was of his/her own house! Everyone was so excited to find and hold a picture that was THEIRS!

We noticed that everyone's houses looked different.

Different friends told us things they have that are different in their house. 

Like a swing set or a chandelier.

Everyone liked their house the best, and feels the most comfortable in their own home.

Using this understanding of their feelings of love towards their own homes, and the comfort and safety they experience in their own homes, we went to the next step, to bridge the understanding to what Hashem's home might need to look like!

When Hashem created the world, he gave us the job of making it into a comfortable home for Him.

To understand how we do that, we decided to make some playdough.

We had all the right ingredients and friends took turns adding them to the pot.

We didn't use a recipe, we just added the amount we wanted to.

It didn't work! It turned into flour and salt soup!

Meir told us "we didn't put the right amounts"

Next we decided that we should use a recipe, lo and behold it turned into playdough!

By following the recipe, it turned into a really nice textured, fun to play with playdough!

Hashem gave us a recipe to make the world into a comfortable home for him.

Hashem gave us the Torah, and by using His creations to learn Torah and do Mitzvos, we are making a comfortable home for Hashem. 

Color mixing science, we made mini worlds!

Creating the different days using popsicle sticks!

practicing our fine motor skills and the letters of our names!

Reflecting on our favorite moments of Tishrei!

Packing our suitcases!

What a packed month we just completed filled with so many beautiful Holidays. We have learned many 'Big Ideas'. These lessons are not just for the Holiday! These life lessons are for us to take with us, and apply all year long!  This week we talked about how we need to pack it in our 'suitcase' so we can always tap into these beautiful lessons. It is so important to reflect on these ideas throughout the year, to allow our children to access these life lessons, allowing them to apply it to their day, each day of the year.

We started off our week playing with suitcases. There were many planned trips by our friends.

At circle time, Sara the puppet talked about her suitcase and what she was bringing with her.

 Sara pulled out a Shofar! Our friends were so excited to share what they remember about Rosh Hashana. Some friends started making crying noises as a reminder the Shofar sounds like a cry to Hashem.

Sara found Mitzvah notes in the suitcase too! We learned that being sweet like honey, means doing a lot of Mitzvahs! We asked our friends, "are we just doing Mitzvahs on Rosh Hashana?" The answer was No! We get to do Mitzvah's all year!  The children were invited to put it in our suitcase and remember to always be sweet!

Doing sweet mitzvahs all the time!

Sara came to circle time putting on a slipper! This jogged some memories of our Yom Kippur shul we had in our class and we discussed what we do when we make a mistake.

The most recent holiday was Sukkos. Sara started shaking the Lulav and Esrog and we sang the songs we learned. Hashem was giving us a hug in the Sukkah! "Do we just get love from Hashem on Sukkos?" Of course not! This was a fundamental lesson we need to take with us where ever we go that Hashem ALWAYS loves us and accepts us.

We Created suitcase projects for our friends to take home a little flap 'book' to remember each big idea from all the Holidays.

Having some sensory fun painting on tin foil. It was fascinating to watch who preferred to use their hands and who wanted a paint brush.

Welcome our new friend Ben who joined our Torah Tots family this week!

 We want to wish a big Mazel Tov to our friend Shua on his 3rd Birthday!