"Beeing sweet"

"Shana Tova U'Metuka" "Happy & SWEET New year" is the greeting we wish each other as we enter the Jewish New Year. But what does SWEET year mean for our Preschoolers?

We began our week with establishing what the first level of SWEET means. At circle time Morah Leah held up a bunch of different foods. The children were invited help sort out which ones were sweet and which were sour. 

Pickles & Lemons were sour! Watermelon and lollypops went on the sweet side- where the HONEY jar was!  

 We each got a little taste of honey to experience the sweetness of Honey!

Next we wanted to help the children understand that sweet doesn't only have to mean food taste! It can also be in our ACTIONS! We can BE SWEET! When we wish each other a SWEET YEAR, its so we can have a year filled with SWEET actions! We used a big honey jar to draw lots of SWEET Mitzvah actions that is sweet for Hashem! Our friends came up to help draw tzedaka coins going into the box, and hearts for friendship, we also drew Kippa's and shabbat candles! These are all SWEET things that make our year sweet!

 

To make it more real, after reading the Mitzvah notes we stuck them onto the honey jar, to help the children make the connection between their Mitzvah actions, and the sweetness of Honey!      

        

We began exploring how honey is made! Morah Keren had a bumble bee puppet that buzzed around the room finding flowers to suck nectar out of, then it buzzed back to our bulletin board bee hive to put the nectar inside the hive and turn it into honey! Each of our friends had turns to be the bumble bee using the puppet, and find flowers around the classroom!  Ayal is sucking the nectar out of the flowers and Yosef is putting in the bee hive to make honey

Apple Sorting & Tasting

We had a fun tasting activity while working in our color and taste recognition! Using our faces to vote, the children were asked to place their face on the color of the apple that they preferred the taste of! The sour green or Sweet Red ! Ask your child what flavor they favor!

Fun fine motor practice using honey comb cereal! 

Apple & Pomegranate Art for our Shana Tova cards

Bubble wrap art to create a beehive impression for our Rosh Hashana placemats, and flower art!

Working with clay to make Honey dishes for Rosh Hashana! Clay is a wonderful tool for the children to work with to develop their fine motor skills.

                                       

Shabbat Shalom!

Making "soup" for Shabbat during our Friday Shabbat Party