Mitzah Street at Mini Gan Izzy

Zooming into summer camp fun, we are so excited to be in our camp spirit road this summer! Our theme for this month is Mitzvah Street! Every week we focus on another theme Hashem has created and the mitzvos we do with it. This week was "Hashems Animal Avenue!" With our special "camp bus" on our bulletin board, every day we drive a little more down the Mitzvah Street moving towards our next destination. Being that it is a Mitzvah Street we add on all the mitzvah notes our friends come to camp with. 

During circle time we enjoyed learning about what makes an animal kosher. With split hooves and chewing its cud. We looked at many different kinds of animals and compared their feet and how they looked different. We used our listening ears by hearing the sounds of different animals and having to guess what it was!

Looking at the kosher animal,  Esther is painting a picture of a cow! 

Animal arts n crafts

Jellyfish bead making

Giraffe coloring!                           Turtle painting!

Animal Cookies: We made a cookie recipe together and then we shaped them into animals!

Animal playdough shaping

Animal Match it

Mask making!

Free play in classroom 

Our seasoned Gan students helping out new friends learn the ropes of Preschool.

we enjoyed making our own Challah dough with Morah Keren!

Tambourine circle and learning our camp song!

Outside water play! 

Yedidya and Yakov enjoyed separating the animals that live on land and on ocean!

We did an animal hunt around the classroom! 

Petting Zoo! One of the highlights of the week was definitely being able to be up close and pet the most fluffiest bunnies, chickens, ducks and goats!

 

Milking cows and making cheesecake

We have been feeling the excitement of Shavous approaching in our classroom!

Har Sinai was made so beautiful by gorgeous colorful flowers.

Our friends invited to paint a flower arrangement. 

Creating our own vases for Shavous. 

Arik swirling nail polish and than dipping the vase in to create a neat marble look.

Some of our friends created beautiful flower art and also using a hammer to create a flower press.

This week we learned why we eat dairy on Shavous. The Jewish people just received the Torah and didn't know all the details of keeping kosher yet. 

We did a meat and milk hunt and voted on our favorite food items.

We had some fun learning where milk comes from this week. With pictures and videos of a cow being milked it was fun trying to milk some 'udders' hanging from our ceiling. 

It took quite awhile to fill up our milk carton.

Making our very own mini cheese cakes. It was a fun sensory experience mixing the cheese batter inside a bag.

Some said squeezing the mixture out was like an udder.

Sometimes towards the end of the year, routines can get overlooked with all the excitement in the air. 

Our friends remembering how to wait for our friends patiently on line while washing our hands.

Our friends have been really feeling accomplished with learning all the nikudos and knowing how to read. We have been doing fun games for review. Chanie finding the hiding words in the classroom and recording herself on a ipad. We also played a fun and high stake jeopardy game using our reading skills.

 

Living with the Miracles of Matan Torah

 Shavous being this coming week we had a lot of exciting activities in store! We started with a mountain puppet show in circle time that helped with our own experiences in school.  Menachem had a really good question when we began the story, "Why did Hashem make the Mountains talk?" 

We shared the reason, that Hashem must have wanted to teach us a VERY important lesson.

Most of the mountains were boasting to each other that they are bigger, better, taller and more beautiful. Har Sinai did not copy them or argue back. He just smiled and remembered that he can be happy the way Hashem made him.

This is an important lesson for us people. We should always remember that we are just the way Hashem wants us to be, and to be happy and proud of that! We don't need to look at others and compare.

In the end Hashem made flowers grow on Har Sinai when it was time for the Torah to be given. 

To help our friends learn from this story, and remember how to act in certain situations at school, we did role play with the mountains. Har Sinai teaches us how we are perfect the way Hashem created us! 

We made fun sensory thank you cards for Hashem, expressing we are so lucky to get the Torah!

Kinetic sand Har Sinai play

We learned another interesting part of the story of Shavuos. When the Torah was given , even the animals were quiet! Usually thousands of animals all around would make a lot of noice. But Hashem made a miracle that it became silent when the Ten Commandments (Torah) was given. 

We played a game in connection to this part of the story. Each child held an animal puppet, and made lots of noises. When the luchos (2 tablets) came out everyone FROZE and became silent. This is a great game that helps the children develop self regulation! 

We painted vases and created beautiful fake flowers to decorate our Shavuos tables! 

Another interesting thing that happened right before the Torah was given was Hashem made lots of lightning in the sky! We had fun making lighting art!

We spoke about another big miracle Hashem made by Matan Torah  (giving of the Torah)! We were able to see the thunder and hear the lightning! 

We were all figuring out what the Lightning sound would be?

One of the ways we celebrate Shavuos is by eating dairy foods! We had fun making our own mini cheesecake sandwiches!

Over the last few weeks we have been watching our classroom caterpillars grow, and then wrap themselves up into a cocoon (or chrysalis). We waited and watched patiently and were thrilled to discover that the butterflies came out on Wednesday! 

It was exciting to let them go and fly away where they can find lots of flowers and nectar to suck on!

We had a fun time reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", watching them grow big, 

 and doing doing lots of butterfly yoga poses!

Teamwork building

Our friends puppet shows!

Circle play moment