Chanuka Festivities brighten our week!

The joy of Chanukah brightened our week! Games full of learning and fun!

 Sorting out candles by color.

Clothespin Menorah!

Painting clothespins...and then using them as candles to clip on and off the base! Lots of fine motor skill development throughout this activity!

 

 

Latke Kitchen Center!

 Ping pong balls make great mess free eggs!

 Cooking up a storm! Using all sorts of real utensils- frying pans, spatulas and more!

 

  Super Sized Latke Pan: matching numbers!

 

Menorah Target Ping Pong Game:

Roll the balls into the candle holders! Aim for the shamash to win!

 Chanukah Storytime at the Camarillo Library:

We enjoyed a fun trip to our beautiful children's library! We joined lots of other children for a felt board story of Chanukah along with some singing and crafts!

 

Retelling the story of Chanukah using felt board puppets!

 

Recycled cans make a fun Math Menorah activity!

Latke Dancing!

 When the music stops....jump in a pan!

 Real Dreidle game:

Lots of counting, rule following and turn taking!

Happy Birthday Noach!

Creating a birthday book full of wishes and blessings for the birthday boy!

 With true Israeli Spirit we raised Noach on a chair 6times! 

5 for his age and one for next year!

Family Chanukah Celebration - Parents as Partners!

The purpose of our Preschool Family get-togethers is to strengthen the important connection between the children, the parents and the school. 

We believe that this partnership is crucial to a successful early childhood education!

With this in mind- the highlight of our Family Chanukah Celebration was a Maccabee Treasure Hunt, in which each child needed a parent to partner with them- to complete his/her mission!

 

Parents were given the first clue to read to their child, along with a set of stickers!

 

Children received a Maccabee shield necklace with 6 open stars- that needed to be filled with stickers! 

For each clue the child solved- the parent gave the child a sticker to fill their shield with!

Clues were posted all over the Gan Camarillo grounds.

With all 6 complete--- the children presented their shields to Morah Lisa--to receive a special Chanukah treat!

 

 

After the hunt we enjoyed a beautiful Chanukah song from our little Maccabees!

 

 Enjoying our Chanuka Kitchen complete with Latkes and all the supplies for the children to cook up a storm!

Following the presentation we enjoyed a delicious Potluck Latke Lunch! Thank you to everyone for contributing and to Iris & Shula for Setting up the food!

Can a 4 year old have courage & be brave?

Life Lessons: From the Maccabee's!

The Holiday stories are not just stories we tell, they contain practical and real life lessons for all of us. As educators- we think about where our students are at, and how the story can be relevant to them in their own day to day life. 

This week- we focused on one particular part of the story- to highlight what TRUE BRAVERY and TRUE STRENGTH is!

During circle time we spoke about the fact that the Jewish people did not like what King Antiyochus was doing to them, and instead of just being sad about it, some brave people- led by Yehuda HaMaccabee stood up and said, "We don't like this!" "We want to learn Torah!"

Using puppets, and a hypothetical situation with some children acting not very nice-- I asked the children- WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

Should you just watch? Should you join in? or should you be BRAVE and SAY SOMETHING?

The children all together shouted, "That's not OK!"

We talked about all sorts of ways we can have a lot of courage and stand up for what is right!

 Rachel & Noach are very proud of their Maccabbe Shields!

 

After role-playing with puppets- I introduced a special "Maccabee Shield."  Whenever someone is caught being brave or standing up for what is right, they will receive a Maccabbee shield (sticker)!

 

 Jacob & Ilan are feeling brave and strong!

Music & Movement:

The children learned a special Macabee song, and have been practicing all week!

Marching to the Macabee song!

Brave Macabees

Chanukah is in the air!

After spending two weeks (setting the stage) immersed in "Life in Israel with the Beit Hamikdash" it was now time to introduce the STORY OF CHANUKAH!
After a couple days of circle time in our 'cave' (table) it was getting squishy... and we had to do something about it!
By the second circle time some of the children didn't even want to join-- it wasn't comfortable and they wanted to head back to the Beit Hamikdash, we didn't blame them ;)

That's when Yehuda Hamacabee was introduced.
He role played what they have been feeling, under a chair he was whispering the Torah song. He didn't want to daven in hiding.

It was time for a CHANGE.
The MACABEES believed that it wasn't ok to just observe the Torah in hiding. It was more important to be BRAVE, and STAND PROUD of who they are. Therefore, they would stand up to King Antiyochus and the yevanim.

 

We discussed and heard from the children how the King Antiyochus had been treating them lately. It didn't feel nice and they were ready to go with Yehuda Hamacabee and have a talk with the King!
Some of the children decided to put the King on the quiet chair!

"What would you like to tell the king?" we asked the children.

We were amazed with the words the children were using to talk to the king.  "We don't like your rules! ..", "Please stop", "You need to relax", "It's not nice" :)

During free play we found the children bringing the King to the Morah's room.

The next days circle time look who DID JOIN us:

Yehuda Hamacabee!!

They were so kind to him making him feel right at home.

Levi and Aron made sure he had a perfect size Torah to hold.

After standing up for themselves and using their words to say what they feel.... it was time to head back to the BEIT HAMIKDASH--

 It was A MESS!

(before the children arrived we made the Beit Hamkidash a mess so they could experience what the Jews felt like when they got back into Hashem's house, to light the Menorah!)

 

There were different reactions:

Some children were upset and quickly started cleaning up and some wanted to know what happened!?

The atmosphere in Beit Hamikdash  changed dramatically! A lot of confused, worried little faces!

Mendel did an "uh oh" dance.

 

Jacob went to the quiet chair and took the King puppet and reenacted the desecration of the Beit Hamikdash. 

 Chani did not let the mess stop her from being the Kohen! 

Through the mess she found each piece of the Kohen costume.

 

Rochel and Mendel fixing the Menorah.

"We got to fix this!" 

Yitzi picked up the Yehuda Maccabee puppet and a discussion started between the King and the maccabee puppets! 

This was a great way to practice the lesson we want the children to learn- Stand up for whats right! Be brave and proud of who you are! 

We practiced this throughout the day. For example if a child was being bothered by another child instead of just crying we practiced to stand up and use their words to say 'That's not nice.' or " Please stop!"

Rochel found the pig! The Yevanim put a pig in the Beit Hamikdash since they knew that would desecrate the Temple.

We all played the Macabee's role and instead of just being upset, we worked hard and cleaned up the whole center! It was a lot of work but felt so good when we saw the Beit Hamikdash back in order.

After the clean up, Yehuda Hamacabee said it was time to light the MENORAH!

We quickly came to the realization that all the oil was broken or missing !!

 

Ellah helped us look under the table in the Beit Hamikdash. "No there's none under here" she announced to her friends.

 

FINALLY Yitzi found one!!

Yay! We pretended to light the Menorah and spoke about the miracle that even though it was so little it lasted for EIGHT DAYS!

After feeling like brave Macabees we all made shiny Macabee shields! A lot of times children associate shields as 'bad men.' It was important for the children to realize the Macabees needed shields to PROTECT the Beit Hamikdash, it was a very important, brave job!