Look! We have internet! I'm sneaking in a blog post during lunch, because I've been so eager to tell you what we've been up to in the Gan.
Monday we had the opportunity to learn about birthday traditions in the Gan. We celebrated Rachel's birthday - the children made her a birthday book and Rachel got to decorate a special crown (which she wore all day.) Thanks to her family for the delicious Trader Joe's birthday snack.
Having a child's birthday gave us the opportunity to draw connections between our birthdays and Rosh Hashanah, the birthday of the world. We talked about the shofar as a special birthday song, and the greeting Shana Tov as a counterpart to Happy Birthday! Today we make Rosh Hashanah cards, which you'll have an opportunity to send to relatives and loved ones. Next week we'll build on the analogy by talking about the special foods we eat on birthdays and the special foods we eat on Rosh Hashanah (apples and honey.) We've focused on the shofar this week and children are becoming familiar with the names of the different shofar blasts. Thanks to Elijah for sharing two special shofars from home.
In science we've been reviewing the life cycle of the caterpillar as we watch the metamorphosis unfold. We closely observed our four chrysalises and made scientific drawings (as opposed to imaginative.) We also cut and paste the life cycle - this was an assessment for teachers - could children remember the order, and, more importantly, (we are sneaky this way...) do they know how to properly hold scissors? This was a chance for some direct instruction on how we use scissors and glue sticks safely and so they will last a long time.
After all the scissor and glue work we had a chance to do an art activity exploring the medium of torn paper collage. These are on display in the hall.
Hebrew has begun! Ask your child about "Bentzi" (pronounced, BEN-see), the Hebrew speaking turtle. So far we are working on getting comfortable in a Hebrew only environment, while practicing greetings (Shalom and Boker Tov) and our Hebrew names. I'll talk more about this at back to school night.
OK, I'm out of time. Believe me, there's a lot more going on! Here are a few new pictures on our Snapfish site.
Off to bake some challah with our Shabbat helpers. Thanks to the Grossman family for buying challah ingredients, and the Kates family for our own copy of Monarch and Milkweed.
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