Happy Birthday to the Trees!
This week we celebrated Tu B'shvat, the Jewish New Year for Trees.
At Gan Camarillo we always dig beneath the surface to make the lessons relevant and meaningful to our students.
The Torah states- "Ki Adam Eitz Hasadeh" "For man is compared to a tree of the field"- this verse instructs us to take many lessons from the make-up of a tree, to adapt into our own lives as humans.
Here's how we gave these ideas over to the children:
We Introduced this concept by talking about babies!
With two students in our class who just welcomed new born siblings into their home, it was a very relevant topic-- and easy for them to understand the difference in the care a newborn baby needs!
Eva was very concerned when our 'baby' started 'crying'. Which is the natural response, we want to take care of the delicate and fragile baby.
We then connected the newborn baby to a seed: how much care it needs in order for it to grow into a proper plant or tree.
What kind of care?
After some very humorous answers, we placed our little seeds in the soil and added water.
As a class we found the best, sunniest spot for our seeds!
During outdoor play we had many children running over to see if they started to grow yet..
This was a valuable lesson how much patience and care a seedling needs as well the time it takes for a baby to grow.
Manipulating our bodies into tiny seeds..
starting to grow...
and grow!!
During circle time by our Torah song, we gathered all the children under our classroom tree along with pictures of plants for another lesson on Trees!
"A person is like a tree"
A tree needs WATER to survive
As a Jew our water is the TORAH.!
When we learn Torah it gives our special soul (neshama) 'water' to drink.
Devorah Leah making her hat for the Tu B'shvat party!
:)
Levi creating a tree on contact paper.
Tu B'shvat sensory:
We placed green play-dough, sticks and leaves as an invitation for some creativity from the children.
Aron: "I'm making green apples for my tree"
"My big apple"
Playing with seeds,
placing them in small containers...
Levi placing seeds biggest to smallest in the different size compartments
Levi getting the seeds to fit in the holes.
Let the party begin!
On Tu B'shvat (Tuesday) we started by wearing our tree hats and singing our davening songs.
Happiness
Favorite part: "Oh lets be friends ' song.
Tasting the sheva minim - 7 special fruits of Israel.
Was great to see children trying new fruits that they usually don't get to eat!
Discussions on which have seeds...!
Dancing around a tree...
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