Thursday, July 25, 2019

The BEST day of the week, all week!


This week we learned about the most special day of the week- SHABBOS
A day Hashem 'rested', a day sanctified and a chance to reconnect to Him and spend time with our family. We focused on three special Mitzvahs we do on Shabbos.

Shabbos Candles
Through a puppet show we learned about the very first Jewish mother, Sara. She lite the Shabbos candles every Friday night and hers miraculously stayed lit from week to week.

 Learning how to light the Shabbos candles and make the bracha (blessing). What a gift to girls and women to bring this special light into this world.



We loved watching and hearing our dramatic play area turn into a Shabbos haven.


Experimenting with heat. We melted crayons on our big Shabbos candle poster using a blow dryer.


Making our own candles using wax sheets.


Kiddush

A special Mitzvah for men is to make the Kiddush on a special drink like wine or grape juice.

After tasting some grape juice we brought in some grapes from our grape vine in our very own garden outside. It was a great hands on way to learn where grape juice comes from, and they were yummy.


Filling up the grape juice bottle.


L'chaim!

Challah

A special Mitzvah we do on Shabbos is eat two delicious challahs at the Shabbos meal. 
We asked our friends why two challahs?

We acted out the Jews traveling in the sandy desert and miraculously got feed by the heavenly manna from Hashem. 
On Friday He gave us two one for Friday and one for Shabbos since Shabbos is a day of rest.

Ari asked a great question; "The Jews should have brought food in bags with them so Hashem wouldn't have to give them food from the sky"
This led into a discussion of how long the Jews were in the desert. Way too long to bring food for them for the entire trip. We learn so much from the curiosity of our friends!




A stuffed stocking challah invited the children to practice the three braid technique before trying it on their play dough.


 Another sense at work by adding cinnamon to our play dough table 
 We love watching their creative minds at work when they come up with different ideas with their dough. Esther wanted to make a whole store of little challahs.

 Mina mastering a three braid challah.


One of the highlights of the week, is making our own Challah dough. Spencer making sure the eggs are kosher by checking to see if there are any blood spots before putting it in the mixture.


Learning through play, fine motor skills at work. 
Mendel and Shayna making shapes out of rubber bands. Takes a lot of concentration and hand eye coordination to keep the rubber band from not snapping off the little pegs.


 Ari matching up the nuts and bolts.


Working hard on creating shapes and pictures.
 Shayna, proudly showed her friends the pattern she made. Mina made a truck following a picture on the card.




Thursday, July 18, 2019

Animals come visit!!


We continued learning about the beautiful world Hashem created for all of us to enjoy.
Day 5- Birds and fish

Mathew, helped us graph the difference between fish and birds. Which fly and which swim.
He got a tricky one with a flying fish ;)


Feather sorting.
 
Using our fine motor skills finding the 'worms' in our sensory bin and feeding the birds.

Batya and Sholom creating their ocean scene for their creation book.
Watching the blue and green paint blending to see what color it would make.

 

Jelly fish math.

Counting the beads going on the jelly fish as well as creating a challenge for our friends to place the right numbers of beads on the correct number.

 Shayna and Esther both chose to make their fish pink and shiny.

 Fish at our davening circle. Arik choosing a fish/davening song and feed it to the bird.


Day 6: People and Animals.

Animal show and tell.
It was beautiful to watch the children's patience while waiting their turn and listening to their friends. As well as confidence blooming as they sat in front of their friends and shared what they brought.


 Shayna and Menachem making zoo's at the playdough table.


 Animal inspired art. 

Analise working on a tiger.

 Spencer making black and white lines to make her zebra. 

 Enjoying animal books outdoors.


Morah Rachel brought in her cat!


 Moshe and Yanky thrilled their mommy packed animal crackers on animal day!

 It is so heartwarming to see when new campers joined us this week our friends made sure they felt safe and happy. Mina and Madeline holding spencer and Elia's hand during circle time.


 We're also pretty sweet to our dolls ;)


Thank you Heather Quintana, for bringing in animals for us to experience hands on.
Spencer got to feed her apple to the tortoise.



Creating self-portraits! Thank you Hashem for making ME!