Coffee bean boxes become pyramids!

To truly appreciate what we are celebrating on Passover, it is important for the children to learn the Story, and understand what life was like for the Jewish people when the miracle of Passover took place.

To help the children appreciate the miracle, we created a mini "Egypt" in our block center!

Our scene was created with the children's artwork! Finger painting a BIG sun and brick painting for the pyramids.

The big sun hanging over their little heads was a reminder of how hot the desert was.

The Coffee Bean of Camarillo were gracious enough to provide us with plenty of boxes, so the children could build pyramids, and re-enact the slave work that the Jewish people were commanded to do! 

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We placed slave costumes in the center with pictures of what it might have looked like in Egypt. 

Rochel working really hard building a pyramid with herself in it! 

They were hiding from King Paroh who was not acting so kind.

Next to the pyramid block area we placed trucks and pictures of  what a modern day construction sight might look like. This was for the children to contrast the kind of  back breaking work the Jewish people did (by hand) back then,  as opposed to using machinery and trucks- which is what we have now!

Using Trucks and machinery make the work A LOT easier!

We created 2 life size characters of "Moshe" and "Pharoah" to facilitate role-playing, whereby the children learn the story and the messages contained in it.

Our circle time's took place in Egypt!

King paroh was delivering orders, not being polite or kind. The children really felt the difference of how Moshe was treating them, as opposed to King Pharoh.

One of the children responded  "So King Pharoh doesn't share his bike!"

Chani and Levi "becoming" King paroh and Moshe 

and having a conversation :)

Look who we found one morning in the block pyramid!

Math and Pyramids

Using a model made from 10 blocks, we built a pyramid.  The children were able to count out each row and create their own pyramids.

At first, some of the children made a tower with the blocks and when trying to create a pyramid were a bit frustrated. This was a great opportunity to talk about hard work and not giving up. They wowed us with their results.

It was hard work but they succeeded 

Yitzi brought the sample pyramid closer to him and worked 

really hard counting each row for his pyramid.

Mendel and Rochel while looking at our slaves picture noticed some jews in the back round carrying bricks around their neck with ropes. 

....so the creativity began. 

Creating their own:

Not the greatest shot...but if you look close- you can see they took strings from the beading center and tied a long block onto baskets and other utensils from the kitchen!

Rochel found a cream cheese container to hold the bricks on the other side. 

Clay molding pyramids

As an invitation to build...and work with clay....

We created wooden triangles using popsicle sticks and placed clay with some water available to moisten the clay to work with.

What a great sensory experience...

Some of the children molded small bricks with the clay, piling them up or across.

A 3d pyramid!

Yehudis loved the way a lot water felt on her clay.

Pyramid cutting

Fine Motor Marble Fun!

All it took was an upside down bath mat and some marbles!!!  Using a spoon, it was quite a challenge for the children to place the marbles individually into the suction cups on the bath mat!

Ilani used a lot of focus and concentration lining up all the marbles.

Levi found a little merry go round that fit the marbles perfectly. 

Look at those faces.;)

Yitzi found a slide for the marbles!

Seder Table VS Shabbos Table!

One morning this week we set the table with the white cloth...as an invitation to get the children questioning...  (As it was not a Friday ;)

As we began placing the candles and  silver cups on the table, the children got excited and thought it was a shabbos party!!

We talked and sang about the difference between a shabbos table and a pesach table!

It was important we build on knowledge the children already have, so they can make real connections with the NEW knowledge we are giving them!

Shabbat candles and white tablecloth are familiar sights....

But where is the Challah? 

Why is there 4 cups?

Team work using three C's!

Communication, Collaboration, Cooperation.

 

As we were closing up the holiday of Purim, we repeatedly noticed the children gravitating to the puppet theater! 

Each day we were amazed all over again,  at the team work the children displayed, taking turns 'putting on the show'!

:) It was also a wonderful opportunity for us to see the children's interpretation on the story...which "Big Ideas" stuck out in their minds etc...

It takes quite a bit of coordination to decide who will be performing, 

and who will be part of the audience....

The finale! Rochel took out all the puppets for the end of the show to take a bow!

This sight got us thinking.... this is just the beginning!

What beautiful team work! 

The children inspired us to spend a WEEK focusing on

TEAM WORK (Before we dive into Pesach Curriculum)

using the three C's :

Communication, Collaboration, and Cooperation.

In the preschool classroom,  life is all about learning how to work with others and this is an especially challenging proposition for young children. 

 (It doesn't change too much beyond school and in the real world! Successful people are those who can succeed in working with others!)

To promote teamwork or the three C’s in a fun and inviting way, we came up with creative games or art activities that our students can do together… where the TEAMWORK is a key to the success of the project!

Circle Songs and Games

Part of our daily morning circle includes a segment where the children get into a circle and sing our Torah song. In the beginning of year it was very political as to who's hand they were holding etc...

Doing this dance every single day as a routine helped the children learn to  take turns holding each others hand.

One day this week they were very proud to do it on their own with out any assistance from Morah!

We created a zigzag of colored tape on the floor going in different directions, alongside a bucket of blocks.

The children figured out to line it up on the line as a team! It was long and hard work but slowly most of the class got to work on it!

Celebrating their efforts by balancing on the long line they made!

This also facilitated communication and cooperation, as some of the children were fast at it --which required them to wait for their friend in front to continue, before they could proceed.

Spontaneous team work, following the children's interest:

Morah Leah noticed a spider next to the blocks. What if we use the blocks to build a home for the spider to protect it? 

Will it climb over the blocks (walls? )

The LOVE that friends have is heart melting!

Ice painting

Using one big paper and a water table, each child found space and worked together to create a beautiful painting.

Parachute Play

Parachute play is all about teamwork. Lifting the parachute up and down all together so that we can make the balls fly high off the chute requires us to count together, lift together, and not let go of our part of the parachute in the process…

Obstacle course:

We created an obstical course game that needed each child in our class.

With a full bucket of bean bags at the beginning of the obstacle course the challenge was each child had to hold a bean bag and do the whole course with out dropping it to fill the empty bucket at the end of it!

Shua weaving in and out of the cones.

(while his friends were cheering for him ;)

Levi very proud of himself!

 

Large Group Murals:

Working together to color, paint, or in some way create something together also gives us the opportunity to promote the three C’s. While the children were coloring in a picture of a tree, they had to communicate with each other about any spaces that still needed colored in, work together to color side by side, and make decisions on the direction or style of coloring they chose to do along the way. 

 

 I noticed that by coloring together, the children also modeled for each other different coloring techniques or preferences… 

We pass the ball around....

One of the activities we did as a GROUP to build team work was playing "we pass the ball around." 

After playing the game (being directed by us Morah's), we noticed the children on their own, partnering up to "play together."

It was absolutely adorable how they connected feet and played a very close range passing game ;)

Building as a team...

Clean up time is always team work! (Definitely one area where the children FEEL the success and value of WORKING TOGETHER!)