The children at Gan have been immersed in all sorts of counting this week!
Upon our return from the Passover break, it was important for us to bridge the connection from where we left off...to where we are heading (both at Gan and in the Jewish Calendar.)
(The time between Passover and Shavuot are days that are counted- traditionally called "Sefirat Ha'omer" CLICK here for more info)
We started off by reminding the children of the miracles that took place when Pharoh finally let the Jewish people go from Egyptian Slavery.
(see pic below from when we were learning about the miracle we placed two book shelves together and separated them for the children to walk in. The next picture shows the miracle of when Hashem grew trees with fruit for them to snack on- as they walked through the split sea!)
Now what?
We wanted to get the children thinking.... we wanted them to relate to the story, and connect to our history, to take a lesson from it!
So they left Egypt, Then what?
What did the Jewish people do? Was there a plane waiting for them to go to Eretz Yisroel (Israel)?
Where did they go?
This was a great opportunity to talk about transportation.
Now a days vs thousands of years ago in the desert!
Did they go on a train or a car?
Did they take a boat?
The children created their own boat out of blocks and kept on making it bigger when more children showed up.
it wasn't any of those ideas....they used their FEET!
After taking all our shoes and socks off we talked about what it might have felt like to walk and walk in the desert. What did it feel like?
We put out a bucket of sand and had them walk in place and feel the sand in between their toes. (They are definitely familiar with this feeling playing outside in our sand box every day.) But what would it feel like to be in a desert with sand for a very LONG time?
(next week we will be discussing the miraculous cloud that protected them in the desert)
While traveling, the Jewish people were VERY EXCITED! They were headed to get a beautiful present-- the Torah from Hashem. We started counting just like they did!
Counting the OMER!
We began placing footprints, with numbers on them- representing the time it took for the Jewish people to travel from Egypt, towards Har Sinai- to receive the Torah!
that this story is a continuation from Passover!
Art
Getting our Har Sinai center ready by painting a very big box!
"hands are better than a paintbrush"
Making the Counting Meaningful to our 2's and 3's
To help the children understand the concept of counting time, and preparing for a special occasion-- we used the days of the week as a starting point!
With each day, using a different number - we placed either a school picture or a house picture on the correct day of the week. (something near and dear and familiar to our students!)
Each day we get closer to the 7th day of the week- SHABBOS!
MATH COMING TO LIFE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK !
Creating the correct tower of Lego's corresponding to the number on the paper!
For the younger ones we placed dots for the children to count while seeing the number.
Number recognition/Matching:
Egg cartons with numbers written in each hole the children worked really hard placing the correct number.
Counting & Sorting sea shells!
Manipulating the play dough to create a number
Morning art fun
Q-tip painting
Ilani wanted to make a self profile painting. He asked how can he draw himself while sitting at the table? Rochel overhearing this conversation... and suggested "a mirror!" :)
So we brought the long mirror from our dramatic play center!
Jacob wanted to draw the image on his sock! His friends watched with fascination as he took his sock off and copied every detail with paint!
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