What Counts? making math, counting relevantto a preschooler!

The children at Gan have been immersed in all sorts of counting this week! 

Upon our return from the Passover break, it was important for us to bridge the connection from where we left off...to where we are heading (both at Gan and in the Jewish Calendar.) 

(The time between Passover and Shavuot are days that are counted- traditionally called "Sefirat Ha'omer" CLICK here for more info)

We started off by reminding the children of the miracles that took place when Pharoh finally let the Jewish people go from Egyptian Slavery.

(see pic below from when we were learning about the miracle we placed two book shelves together and separated them for the children to walk in. The next picture shows the miracle of when Hashem grew trees with fruit for them to snack on- as they walked through the split sea!)

 

Now what?

We wanted to get the children thinking....  we wanted them to relate to the story, and connect to our history, to take a lesson from it!

So they left Egypt, Then what? 

What did the Jewish people do? Was there a plane waiting for them to go to Eretz Yisroel (Israel)?  

Where did they go?

This was a great opportunity to talk about transportation. 

Now a days vs thousands of years ago in the desert!

Did they go on a train or a car?

 Did they take a boat?

The children created their own boat out of blocks and kept on making it bigger when more children showed up.

it wasn't any of those ideas....they used their FEET!

After taking all our shoes and socks off we talked about what it might have felt like to walk and walk in the desert. What did it feel like?

We put out a bucket of sand and had them walk in place and feel the sand in between their toes. (They are definitely familiar with this feeling playing outside in our sand box every day.) But what would it feel like to be in a desert with sand for a very LONG time?

(next week we will be discussing the miraculous cloud that protected them in the desert)

While traveling, the Jewish people were VERY EXCITED!  They were headed to get a beautiful present-- the Torah from Hashem.  We started counting just like they did!
Counting the OMER!

We began placing footprints, with numbers on them- representing the time it took for the Jewish people to travel from Egypt, towards Har Sinai- to receive the Torah!

We kept the Egypt sign and pictures of the Pyramids to remind the children, 

that this story is a continuation from Passover! 

Art

Getting our Har Sinai center ready by painting a very big box!

"hands are better than a paintbrush"

  

Making the Counting Meaningful to our 2's and 3's 

To help the children understand the concept of counting time, and preparing for a special occasion-- we used the days of the week as a starting point!

With each day, using a different number - we placed either a school picture or a house picture on the correct day of the week. (something near and dear and familiar to our students!)  

Each day we get closer to the 7th day of the week- SHABBOS!

MATH COMING TO LIFE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK !

Creating the correct tower of Lego's corresponding to the number on the paper!

For the younger ones we placed dots for the children to count while seeing the number.

Number recognition/Matching:

Egg cartons with numbers written in each hole the children worked really hard placing the correct number.

Counting & Sorting sea shells!

Manipulating the play dough to create a number

Morning art fun
Q-tip painting

Ilani wanted to make a self profile painting. He asked how can he draw himself while sitting at the table? Rochel overhearing this conversation... and suggested "a mirror!" :) 

So we brought the long mirror from our dramatic play center!

Jacob wanted to draw the image on his sock! His friends watched with fascination as he took his sock off and copied every detail with paint!

Waffles for the letter W, Sinking & Floating, Math

Our Pre-k children are already up to the letter W! To enrich the learning of this letter we used our math and science skills  to cook waffles! We did lots of phonetic sounds reminding us of all sorts of other words that begin with the letter W.

Enjoying the waffles!

Sink & Float:

Math Mania!

Real life Math! Adding pennies, and calculating the totals!

Coffee bean boxes become pyramids!

To truly appreciate what we are celebrating on Passover, it is important for the children to learn the Story, and understand what life was like for the Jewish people when the miracle of Passover took place.

To help the children appreciate the miracle, we created a mini "Egypt" in our block center!

Our scene was created with the children's artwork! Finger painting a BIG sun and brick painting for the pyramids.

The big sun hanging over their little heads was a reminder of how hot the desert was.

The Coffee Bean of Camarillo were gracious enough to provide us with plenty of boxes, so the children could build pyramids, and re-enact the slave work that the Jewish people were commanded to do! 

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We placed slave costumes in the center with pictures of what it might have looked like in Egypt. 

Rochel working really hard building a pyramid with herself in it! 

They were hiding from King Paroh who was not acting so kind.

Next to the pyramid block area we placed trucks and pictures of  what a modern day construction sight might look like. This was for the children to contrast the kind of  back breaking work the Jewish people did (by hand) back then,  as opposed to using machinery and trucks- which is what we have now!

Using Trucks and machinery make the work A LOT easier!

We created 2 life size characters of "Moshe" and "Pharoah" to facilitate role-playing, whereby the children learn the story and the messages contained in it.

Our circle time's took place in Egypt!

King paroh was delivering orders, not being polite or kind. The children really felt the difference of how Moshe was treating them, as opposed to King Pharoh.

One of the children responded  "So King Pharoh doesn't share his bike!"

Chani and Levi "becoming" King paroh and Moshe 

and having a conversation :)

Look who we found one morning in the block pyramid!

Math and Pyramids

Using a model made from 10 blocks, we built a pyramid.  The children were able to count out each row and create their own pyramids.

At first, some of the children made a tower with the blocks and when trying to create a pyramid were a bit frustrated. This was a great opportunity to talk about hard work and not giving up. They wowed us with their results.

It was hard work but they succeeded 

Yitzi brought the sample pyramid closer to him and worked 

really hard counting each row for his pyramid.

Mendel and Rochel while looking at our slaves picture noticed some jews in the back round carrying bricks around their neck with ropes. 

....so the creativity began. 

Creating their own:

Not the greatest shot...but if you look close- you can see they took strings from the beading center and tied a long block onto baskets and other utensils from the kitchen!

Rochel found a cream cheese container to hold the bricks on the other side. 

Clay molding pyramids

As an invitation to build...and work with clay....

We created wooden triangles using popsicle sticks and placed clay with some water available to moisten the clay to work with.

What a great sensory experience...

Some of the children molded small bricks with the clay, piling them up or across.

A 3d pyramid!

Yehudis loved the way a lot water felt on her clay.

Pyramid cutting

Fine Motor Marble Fun!

All it took was an upside down bath mat and some marbles!!!  Using a spoon, it was quite a challenge for the children to place the marbles individually into the suction cups on the bath mat!

Ilani used a lot of focus and concentration lining up all the marbles.

Levi found a little merry go round that fit the marbles perfectly. 

Look at those faces.;)

Yitzi found a slide for the marbles!

Seder Table VS Shabbos Table!

One morning this week we set the table with the white cloth...as an invitation to get the children questioning...  (As it was not a Friday ;)

As we began placing the candles and  silver cups on the table, the children got excited and thought it was a shabbos party!!

We talked and sang about the difference between a shabbos table and a pesach table!

It was important we build on knowledge the children already have, so they can make real connections with the NEW knowledge we are giving them!

Shabbat candles and white tablecloth are familiar sights....

But where is the Challah? 

Why is there 4 cups?