Another week at our new school and a celebration of a new year!

Making challah last week:

A look at this week:

We have been enjoying a great week of school. We started on Monday with talking about apples and honey and how that represents a sweet new year! We also made "Shana Tova" cards that are being mailed to the Grandparents. On Tuesday we added our apple growth chart to the wall. Now we know how many apples tall each child is as well as their height in inches. On Wednesday we celebrated Jayden's 4th birthday, we went to an apple farm and tasted apples, pears and tomatoes and we heard the Rabbi blow the shofar and then everyone had a chance to try to blow the shofar! It was really a full day. On Thursday we were able to see an actual beekeepers outfit as we talked about how we get honey to eat with our apples. We also took a walk to the mailbox to mail our cards. And on Friday we will be having our first Shabbat celebration with music!

In the writing area this week we worked on our cards. In the math area we talked about our growth chart and also did apple math puzzles. We had our first sensory bucket activity for science, where we were able to play with water and water toys as we thought about tashlich. In the block area we built beehives and in the home living area we pretended to cook with apples.

Morah Amanda as a beekeeper

Mussie as a beekeeper with a bee!

A beehive built in the block area

Mailing the cards

Conversations from the week:

When we sat down for snack on Monday, we had a discussion about apples and honey. Here are a few of the conversations.

Morah: What do apples taste like?

Lizzy: Red, I like green apples.

Avery: I like orange apples.

Morah: What color are apples?

Miriam: I have seen purple apples.

Morah: Red, green.
Levi: I've seen blue apples.

Morah: Have you ever seen apples on a tree?
Mussie: I have.

Avery: I don't like honey.

Morah: You don't? What other fruits are sweet?

Pears, apples... What other foods are sweet?

What other foods are sweet? Are pickles sweet?

Everyone: Yeah!
Morah: Are candies sweet?
Everyone (very excited): Yeah!

After tasting the apple:

Lizzy: It's sour
Miriam: It's sweet

Morah: What does it taste like? Apples dipped in honey?

Lizzy: Sour.

Morah: What else tastes sour?

Miriam: Candy. At first it tastes sour.

Another conversation that was recorded was during our birthday celebration for Jayden. The children were asked what is special about Jayden. Here are their answers.

Lizzy: We like him and he's a good boy.
Mussie: He listens to the Morah.

Lizzy: He shares with us.

Miriam: I play with Jayden and he wants to play with me.

Josh: My big brother is Jayden.

A look at next week:

Next week we will be focusing on our next holiday, Yom Kippur. Our theme of Yom Kippur is going to be partnered with a look at friendship. We will be talking about our friends and what it means to be friends.

Week Two

Our trip to the apple farm

Week Two

Our trip to the Apple Farm

Week Two

We have new fish in our classroom! We saw how the fish never close their eyes... we tried not to blink for a while, but we couldn't do it like the fish.

Week Two

Preparing Rosh Hashana New Year cards that we are sending to our Grandparents.

Week 2

Test tasting Apples dipped in honey in preparation for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New year.

Welcome to Preschool at The Gan

A look at this week:

This first week of school was a short week, but a perfect week to have the children concentrate on the idea of coming to school. The children were given the opportunity to explore the classroom and spend time interacting with all their new friends. We talked about classroom rules, daily jobs, and how we treat our friends at school. We had an opportunity to build our own schools in the block area and pretend to prepare for school in the home living area. For math this week we have tried to focus on demonstrating our knowledge of numbers and in writing we have worked on our letter and sound knowledge. In the art area we have started the construction of our paper mailboxes that will make their appearance in the cubbies soon! The children will be able to use these mailboxes to send their school friends special pictures and notes. If a parent ever wants to add a note to their child’s mailbox they can do that as well. We will find a special time near the end of the week to go through our “mail.”

During our morning meeting time we started a discussion about mitzvahs. We are going to be sending home different templates for parents to use to send in mitzvah notes. The first template will be apples. These mitzvah notes will be shared with the class and then placed on our special mitzvah note display! We also have had the chance to read some stories about going to school, sing some songs, and learn about giving tzedakah. These activities will continue on a daily basis.

The children really enjoyed having a snack time and a lunch time with their friends! They also had lots of fun playing on the structure and riding the bikes and scooters during gross motor time.

Sticker art during exploration time.

Morning Meeting time.

Playing with letters.

Building a block school.

Gross Motor time on the playground!

Conversations from this week:
Just one this week since it was such a short week, but what a wonderful thing to hear from a child on the first day of school!

Miriam: I’m so happy to be in preschool. I am bored at home but at school I have friends.

Looking at next week:
Next week we will be focusing on Rosh Hashana. We will be using apples in a lot of our activities, even making applesauce one day!