We are creating a bounty of fruits and vegetables this week.

Morah Katie: What are some fruits that grow on trees?

Daniel: Apple

Kian: Avocado

Levi: Pears

Morah Katie: What are some fruits that do not grow on trees?

Daniel: Strawberries

Levi: Watermelon

Morah Katie: What makes these foods fruits?

Levi: They have seeds.

Morah Katie: How are vegetables different from fruit?

Levi: Fruit have seeds.

Morah Katie: Vegetables are parts of the plant that we eat. We can eat the stems of celery, does it have seeds?

Dena: No

Morah Katie: Is it a fruit of vegetable?

Levi: Vegatable

Morah Katie: Spinach is a leaf, does it have seeds?

Noah: No

Morah Katie: Is it a fruit or vegetable?

Levi: Vegatable

Morah Katie: Why is it not a fruit?

Kian: It doesn't have seeds.

Morah Katie: A carrot is the root of the plant, is it a fruit or vegetable?

Tori: Vegetable

Morah Katie: How do you know?

Levi: It doesn't have seeds.

Ask your child to choose 3 things that can be harvested from the ground, and to share the farmer song with you.

We felt we may have neglected the letter "G", to be sure it does not get overlooked we had a taste test of grapes vs. grapefruit.

Morah Katie: We will be having a special "G" day today. We will begin with a taste test, grapes vs. grapefruit. First lets taste the grapefruit.

(lots of sour faces)

Noah: I don't like sour.

Kian: I do.

Morah Katie: Let's taste the grapes.

Levi: The grape is better.

Daniel: I like both, may I have more grapefruit.

We finished off the bunch of grapes, but surprisingly only ate about 3/4 of the grapefruit.

In honor of our "G" day, the classroom was filled with music created from guitars.

We did begin to talk about the letter "J", and will continue discussing it into next week.

The mitzvah pear tree has an abundance of fruits. As the pear tree "blooms"with mitzvahs, more kind acts occur in the classroom.

Children are sharing tzedakah with friends so everyone has something to contribute.

Multiple children are setting the tables for snack.

Children are offering to help friends if they see them struggling:

Daniel: Kian I can open your straw.

Kian: Thank you.

This is just a sampling of the kindness occurring in the classroom. These simple things all go into creating a positive environment where each child feels respected and has a sense of belonging. Once these helpful, kind deeds begin to take place, and are supported and encouraged, a snowball effect of respect, kindness and cooperation begins.

As any of my friends can tell you, the weather helper rarely gets to report on snow, Wednesday was different, it was a SNOW DAY!

It began to melt before dismissal, but it definitely created a lot of joy!

"Carrots and cucumbers and pumpkins grow,

carrots and cucumbers and pumpkins grow.

Do you or I or anyone know how carrots and cucumbers and pumpkins grow?"

This question is the beginning of a circle time song, ask your child what the farmer does first.

Seeds were the topic of the week.

Morah Katie: What comes from seeds?

Dena: Trees

Levi: Plants

We began the week with an experiment, planting mystery seeds.

Morah Katie: These seeds are small, what do you think will grow from them?

Daniel: Flowers

Tori: Flowers

Kian: Fruit

Levi: Maybe a tree.

We set some seeds in dirt,

Morah Katie: Now that we have put the seeds in the soil, what else will we need to do to help them grow?

Levi: Water them

Dena: Sun

We will be keeping careful watch on these seeds, and when they have sprouted we will transplant them to planters. We will be planting another group of mystery seeds next week.

While we wait for our real seeds to sprout, we have begun to create a paper garden.

We "planted" seeds, and "watered' them.

Morah Katie: Now that the seed has been planted and watered, what will happen next?

Noah: The Roots!

The seeds have split and roots have taken hold.

Morah Katie: When we are looking at plants do we see the roots?

Tori: No

Morah Katie: What part of the plant do we see stretching up to the sun?

Dena: The stem

Stems have grown and have bloomed with leaves and blossoms.

(collage flowers inspired by Lois Ehlert's book, Planting a Rainbow)

At snack we had apples. We took the opportunity to look inside the cut apple and saw:

Morah Katie: What are these small black things in the apple?

Kids: SEEDS

Morah Katie: What would grow from these seeds if we planted them?

Kids: An apple tree!

Here at The Gan we are cultivating the development of our children by surrounding them in a loving and safe environment.

An emotionally safe and secure environment has many elements. One of these elements is creating a classroom atmosphere which is respectful and encouraging of the child.

Often times children can get "lost" in their emotions and have a challenging time finding their way back.

When we consider what the child may be thinking and feeling, we can help the child make positive choices.

We can help guide them by acknowledging what they may be feeling, "You threw the block, it looks to me like you're angry."

We can offer suggestions, "You can ask your friend to share, you can find a different friend to play with, you can take a break. What would you like to do?"

When we help the child create the solution and support the child in their choice, we demonstrate to them they are capable, and their feelings and opinions are important.

By modeling respect for their feelings and ideas, we in turn help them develop respect for others.

Our Week in Pictures

Watermelons and Waves

Sorting sounds

Creating

"Find a _____"

It has been a delightful week.

We have over 60 pears on our Mitzvah tree! Please keep sending in notes of all the kind and helpful acts your child/ren does at home.

Next week we will begin to think about spring as we learn about seeds and what surprises they hold inside, flowers or food?

Our letter of the week is "O". We have had an "accidental" number of the week, "8".

We discovered that an Octagon has 8 sides and Octopuses have 8 legs! Connections are everywhere!

At group time we said a chant about olives in an olive tree:

"Way up high in the olive tree I saw 5 fives smiling at me,

so I shook that tree as hard as I could!

Down came an olive! mm mmm good!"

We begin the chant at 5 and chant our way down to 0, I always ask the children,

"Where did the olives (or apples or cherries....) go?" and they respond "We ate them!"

We had olives for snack and they were a HUGE hit. As we ate our way through the container of olives, it was not lost on the children that we began with a lot and ended up with zero,

Morah Katie: Where did all the olives go?

The Children: We ate them!

For a child to refine his/her small motor control, they need to have a quiet and calm body.

Large, full body movements can assist this process.

This is one reason why movement is encouraged in the classroom, from balancing on a string of yarn to sweeping up scraps of paper.

Large, involved movement allows the child the opportunity to refine his/her gross motor and fine motor skills, as well as test and expand his/her capabilities.

Kian took out all the red and blue rods and created a maze.

The big movements of walking through the classroom with the rods reinforce his gross motor control. Walking slowly through the maze reinforces his balance and concentration

Levi and Daniel are exploring what happens when you add the red and blue rods together.

They collect and gather to add.

They record their answers.

The movement involved allows their active minds to stay engaged and challenged.

I would like to begin a sharing circle on thursdays. This provides the children a chance to share something unique and special to them. Each child will be given the opportunity to explain why the object is special; their friends will have an opportunity to ask questions.

Thank you for continuing to make a not e of the mitzvahs your child is doing at home, combined with the ones written about at school, our tree is delightfully pear heavy!

Have a pleasant weekend.