The Gan @ LGA: From Rosh Hashanah to Toilet Paper Rolls

There is so much going on in the Gan this week, and it runs the spectrum from the sacred to the profane. Let's start with the profane - I added a few new materials to the art area, and the Gan churned out all sorts of creations, some of which have been making their way home.

We've been continuing to play cooperative games to help us develop community and build our communication skills. Here's a game where children had a to pass a hula hoop around without letting go of hands. It required quite a bit of teamwork.

In language arts, we've continued to focus on listening and recognizing each other's printed names. We'll begin a unit on alphabet books next week, and in preparation we are beginning to practice reciting our alphabet linking chart.

We're also reading a lot of great stories, and beginning to tell our own. Telling stories is at the heart of our writing workshop, when we'll be writing and illustrating our own books.

About half our chrysalises have hatched, and we are starting to wind down our monarch unit. Today we watched part of a Nova episode about the migration to Mexico and identified some of the limiting factors the butterflies face. Tomorrow we will play a game with the third grade in which we pretend to be migrating butterflies, and see how many of us make it all the way to our destination each year. We'll then focus on some of the things we can do to support monarch populations, whose numbers have been dwindling in recent years.

Our ongoing study of Torah continues as we closely observe parchment and the scroll. Have a look!

We've delved into the study of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which I've framed as the birthday of the world. We're looking at parallels between our birthdays and the holiday. Just like we sing each other a special birthday song, there is a special birthday song for the world - the shofar blast. Many kids are really enjoying having a chance to try out the shofar, and they are having quite a bit of success. In fact, it gets pretty loud during explorations time.

We send birthday cards, and of course, many people also send Rosh Hashanah cards, so we made some. The symbol of the shofar inspired our Rosh Hashanah cards, which kids designed in collage format. I'll be copying them into card size to come home on Friday so you and your child can choose whom you might want to send cards to.