Morning meeting begins each day. We added two new songs to our grown repertoire - I Love the Mountains, and Shofar Blast (this one has a corresponding dance which I promise to videotape and post once we've perfected it.) This is a class that loves to sing. We also created a list of meeting rules that each child signed. The list is posted on one of our bulletin boards as a point of reference as we practice raising hands, staying in our spots and trying to pay attention.
Self portraits will be on display when you return from the long weekend. Children used mirrors to help create realistic pictures. On Thursday children created works in black fine line and on Friday they added color. On the last day of school we revisit this project, comparing self portraits from the end of the year to those made at the beginning.
We began our study of Rosh Hashana with a hands- (well, mouths-) on exploration of the shofar (cleaned with rubbing alcohol between efforts.) Some children already were successful, and no one gave up. We'll keep giving the students opportunities to perfect this skill.
The big news is, of course, the chrysalises. Two so far, and another likely on the way, with 2 more caterpillars still chomping away on milkweed. I'm going hunting for more eggs this weekend, but even if I don't find any, I think kids are getting a great sense of the life cycle. On Thursday we read the wonderful book Monarchs and Milkweed (a book that I would love to add to our classroom library - we currently have this one checked out from the public library) to give a poetic but detailed overview of the life cycle. On Friday we reviewed what we had learned and acted out the stages. Natural cycles is a theme throughout the year, but this might well be the most exciting example.
We spend a lot of time talking about kindness and caring for each other's feelings. Kevin Henkes' books Wemberly Worried and Chyrsanthemum have been great conversation starters (and are some of my all time favorite books.)
In other news, we began the daily routines of explorations (when children choose an area in the classroom for, well, exploring) and rest. During rest time we listen to books on cd's while children relax and, if they choose, look at books. Children are expected to stay on mats and not distract one another, and the class earns "beans" (on an incentive chart) when everyone remembers the expectations. So far, so good, but because are mats have accordion folds, fitted crib sheets tend to cause them to collapse. Please see if your child would be comfortable with a flat mattress cover, as set up can take a very long time with crib sheets.
We ended Friday with an all school Kabbalat shabbat, featuring songs, blessings, challah and grape juice. Next week we will begin to celebrate shabbat in the classroom, complete with Gan homemade challah.
I upload Gan photos to a snapfish photo album which you can look at here. If you don't want to set up a snappish account you can login with the username kitahaleph@yahoo.com and the password schechter .
I could go on all day, but our new house is beckoning. I'm grateful for the long weekend so I can rest at home over shabbat and still have time to get work done both at home and in the Gan. Shabbat Shalom!
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