Torah Tots learning anger management and calming techniques!

Anger is a normal healthy emotion. What we do with our anger and frustration is an important skill to learn early on in life to create healthy habits.

Dovi and Evan role playing what makes them angry and showing us their angry faces.

What can we do when are angry?

 We used the Stop Light Method.

Stop. Think. Act.

Learning how to stop and think (of how to deal with the frustration) VS immediately reacting is a skill we need for life! 

Hannah telling us what makes her really upset. As a class we thought and came up with our 'green light' solution!

  We used this method throughout the week and it really helped the children work out their own problems.

 Motty creating his own stop light sign and writing the words himself.

Breathe in and out

It is so important to get enough oxygen into our system. A flower (smell-breathing in) and a candle (blowing out the 'fire')  helped our friends practice deep breathing. Throughout the week we encourage the children to BREATHE. This helped especially when they were sad or upset.

Making a take home version to help with deep breathing. Batya smelling the flower and blowing through the tube.

 

Morah Avigail shared with us a great calming technique that showed wonders for some of our friends.

A grid from 1-10 with a sad face becoming sadder as the numbers went higher helped the children      differentiate what is something small that we can move on from or something that requires more problem solving. 

Saige showing another technique of how she drew her sad scenario 10 times on a paper. By the 10th time she was able to talk calmly about what happened and even came up with her own solution!

Calming basket

A basket filled with different sensory input objects. We also placed the flower and candle from circle time for children to practice their deep breathing.

Moshe found magnets in the calming basket.

Ari started off circle time with something bothering him. It was challenging for him to verbalize what he needed. We passed him a balloon filled with flour from the relaxing basket. It was a great way to calm down  and verbalize what he needed.

Cornstarch and water is one of the most calming and therapeutic sensory experience. 

When using fast motions the texture is firm, when using slow motions it dissolves and melts. 

Relaxing Yoga!

Quiet space centers

Centers that require concentration are a great way to re-focus and calm ourselves.

Evan sitting at a beading table that only had one chair to create his own space.

Dovi using many different materials to push through pool noodles. This was a great activity for fine motor skills as well as concentration. 

Dramatic play creates so many opportunities to practice our self- control.

Sweet moment of the week..

Mendel being sweet and helping out Batya!

Parshat Naso- Everything has a purpose!

The children were so excited to come back after receiving the Torah. In this weeks Parsha we learn about the donations of the Nesiim. One of the donations was six wagons that were used for carrying the beams of the Miskan. We learnt that the beams exactly fit on the wagons.

Why didn't the Nesiim just give more wagons? Couldn't they be more generous?
We learnt that everything in the Mishkan had a purpose and nothing was wasted. The same applies to us. Every part of our body and all of our energy has a purpose and should be used to serve Hashem.

We internalized this message in class through a game. Morah Avigayil put out drawing of different parts of the body like hands, legs, mouths etc. She also put out different Mitzvots like Mezuzah, Shabbos Candles, Shofar etc. The children then matched the part of our body to the Mitzvah it fulfills.

Max is working with his mom on connecting the pictures of the Mitzvos to the right port of the body.

Here we are playing another game to learn how to use our time to do Mitzvot. The children walked around the classroom and when the Morah said stop the children stopped and listened to the part of the day that the Morah announced. They then shouted a Mitzvah they can possibly do at that time of the day. For example when the Morah announced "Morning" one of the children shouted "Modeh Ani".

Practicing our sight words.

We used trays filled with salt as a different medium to encourage writing.
The children were so enthusiastic to write the sight words they knew!


Elizabeth is hunting for the sight words Morah Davina hid in the salt. When she found the words she read it out loud.

We played a game to practice combining multiple sounds to create words. Morah Avigayil voiced the sounds while the children were invited to merge them.  They voiced it out while bringing their hands together with a clap.

Play store-- to sharpen our math!

The children took turns working as a cashier ,  adding up the different coins. They learned how much each coin is worth and how to add them. They also practiced subtraction by calculating the right amount of change to give back.













 

Torah Tots learning about emotions and self-control

This week we focused on our emotions and feelings. It is important to know we have many kinds of moods. To be able to verbalize what we are feeling and give validation is a crucial skill to have in life.

We started this off with our 'How are you feeling today" chart. 

After circle time we placed this chart on our back wall for the children to update their feelings! It was fascinating to see how many times the children's moods changed.

Our Many Faces

Circle and markers was a fun way for the children to illustrate different feelings and expressions they have. A mirror helped them see what their face looked like while having a particular feeling.

Bela Riva made a sad face which reminded her about when she was sad while being sick in the car.
This was a great way to remember and communicate the different feelings we have.

Mina "My mad face."

 Rozie (after checking her angry face in the mirror) "My nose looks bumpy when I'm angry." What a great observation! It made some of us want to recheck the mirror to see what our faces do when were upset.

Menachem "I feel shocked sometimes at Arik"

What makes YOU happy?

It is important to recognize the things that put us in a good mood or feel happy. The children were invited to add what made them happy to our easel.

We then took it to the next level by understanding how each person is unique and different in what makes them happy. Mina reviewing the pictures of her friends answers.

It is quite a challenging but important skill to know how someone else feels happy and that might not be the same as you.

During our many circle times this week, when talking about different feelings we had a big mirror for the children to check their own facial expressions and to see how they were feeling.

Batya, after checking herself in the mirror, gave a big skip and let us all know she was excited today!

Moshe using different materials to create his happy face.

Motty had fun building faces.

Rozie and Hannah playing with Mr. potato head as a way to show different feelings.

As the children were 'trying on' different mouth expressions they noticed their eyes changed!

These masks also helped us role play how to help someone who is feeling sad. Ari saying kind words to Shayna who was pretending to feel sad.

 Emotions head band game

Each child had a turn to wear a different emotion picture on their head. Without looking at the picture they had to guess which one they got by looking at their friends facial expressions.

Self control

It is okay to be mad or sad sometimes but what do we do about it? Next week we will focus on how we should respond when we are angry. To prepare for this we did many activities to help with self control.

Why is self-control so important?

Self-control is not a skill most preschool children have mastered. However, many professionals  believe that it is a strong indicator of kindergarten readiness. After all, kids need self-control to be able to sit still, pay attention, follow directions, and control their impulses.

Each color representing a different physical action helped the children practice self- control. 

Hannah holding up yellow which meant tiptoeing. It was challenging at first when some of the children wanted to run up to her and get there first!

Musical instruments during davening circle was a great way to practice self-control. At the end of each song when the Morah holds up a fist that signaled to stop their music. 

Shavuos: With One Heart!

Shavuos: With One Heart

 ויחנו כאיש אחד בלב אחד

On Tuesday we celebrated Rosh Chodesh Sivan. The Torah says that on Rosh Chodesh Sivan the Yidden camped near Har Sinai and they camped there like "one person with one heart."

 Not like a group of millions of people but like one person! 

This is because they were all thinking about one thing, that they were about to get the Torah. The Bnai Yisroel felt tremendous Ahavas Yisroel among themselves. Everyone completed each other like a puzzle. When we put all the pieces together it becomes one. The closer they got to receiving the Torah the more they were prepared. 

Bnei Yisroel were warned not to go too close to Har Sinai because it was very holy. The night before they received the Torah the Bnei Yisroel wanted to be closer to Hashem so they went to sleep and woke up late the next morning. When we go to sleep a part of our Neshama goes back to Shamayim and is close to Hashem. Even though the Bnei Yisroel wanted to be close to Hashem, Hashem wasn't happy that they were sleeping. Hashem wanted us to get ready in this physical world and not in Shamayim (heaven). When we learn Torah and do Mitzvos we make the place we are in holy. This is why we stay up the night of Shavuos and learn Torah to fix the mistake our Neshamos did.

The children were inspired by this and wanted to make sure that every little corner of our school had holiness in it.

Yisroel is saying a Pasuk and making sure that our playground is holy. 

 

Every day during Davening the kindergartners count the Omer.

Every day we get closer and closer to the day we received the Torah on Har Sinai

Yisroel and Menucha worked together to show that 

7 weeks include; 7 Sundays, 7 Mondays, 7 Tuesdays etc.

Yisroel is trapped in Mitzrayim!!

Morah Avigayil taught us that by Har Sinai the Jews were able to break out and free themselves so they can do Torah and Mitzvos. In class the children got to practice breaking free in order to do Mitzvos.

Devorah Leah picks up a mitzvah and reads it out loud to the class!

Math and More!

Elizabeth changes the form of the math problem on her paper!

Even though it looks different, its still 8-7

Practicing early division skills!

Muka discovered how many ways she could make a hexagon by 

using different pieces to make a whole! 

Using blocks to demonstrate different ways of adding. Using physical materials facilitates the learning of visual and tactile learners.

Plus, Max agrees they are very fun!

Reading and Writing

We want to be able to know the sounds like the back of our hand.

By testing our knowledge in different ways such as Sound Bingo, 

we are getting better at recognizing sounds at a glance.

Malka works on coloring in only the vowel sounds.

A E I O U

Writers are able to draw a picture and label what is inside.

Menucha and Elizabeth enjoyed writing books and labeling their drawing.

Menucha even read her book to the class at lunch!

Cheesecake Factory:

Step 1. Read the Ingredients. ✔

 Step 2. Smash the cookies to make a crust. ✔

Step 3. Add the cottage cheese and cream cheese. ✔

Step 4. Add the Greek Yogurt. ✔

Step 5. Cornstarch thickens the mix. ✔

Step 6. Don't forget the Sugar. ✔

Step 7. Do the eggs have blood spots? No. and ✔

Step 8. Mix, mix, mix. ✔

Cheesecakes made with love and Ahavas Yisroel are the best of all!

Happy Shavuos!