Yom Kippur Sounds

 Today we began our unit on Yom Kippur! Everyone really enjoys the sound of the shofar.  We enjoyed introducing other musical instruments to the classroom. The "boom sticks" are a big hit.  Each one makes a different note when it hits the floor.

We enjoyed painting in a new way today! Musical painting with bells attached to our brushes made interesting songs while we used our easel. 

We played loud and soft games with our kitchen dishes!

Today was our day in the outdoor classroom. We tended to our class garden bed: picking tomatoes, pulling weeds and smelling our parsley!

Indiana Early Learning Foundations 

M3.1:Identify attributes of objects with adult support, APL1.1:Begin to show curiosity/interest in new objects, experiences, and people, APL2.1:Use objects for real or imagined purposes, SC1.2:Use tools to explore the physical environment, SC1.2:Imitate the actions of others as they explore objects, SC3.1:Identify living organisms by name, SC5.1:Demonstrate curiosity, SS1.1:Begin to demonstrate a sense of belonging to a group by engaging in parallel play, SS2.1:Adapt to changes in routine and/or schedule, CA3.1:Use simple art materials, PHG2.1:Try a new action with a familiar object, PHg2.2:Use simple movement skills to participate in active physical play,

Rosh Hashanah fun and some helpful links!

 Friday was another fun day as we finished up our exploration of Rosh Hashanah! We got to bake round challah and celebrated Shabbat in the classroom. At morning snack time, we read our current class favorite book It's a...It's a...It's a Mitzvah. We also did more outside exploration on the playground since we had such wonderful weather. When we come back after the holiday, we are going to do a short sound exploration for Yom Kippur before beginning our exploration of Sukkot!

The children greatly enjoyed adding raisins to the challah dough of our round challahs.

On Fridays, we do a small Shabbat celebration where we sing the blessings over the candles, Kiddush, and challah. We learned from our book that celebrating Shabbat with our family and friends is a mitzvah!

Food Notes:

Our children in Katon are doing a great job with self feeding. They do really well with anything they can just pick up with their fingers and eat. They are starting to use utensils. They do really well with any of the pouches; yogurt, applesauce, combination foods. We do ask that any food you send that needs to be peeled (other than bananas) is sent to school already peeled.

As the children are transitioning from bottles to sippy cups, we have found that these particular cups help make that transition easier:

Sippy Cup Suggestion

360 cups

Shanah Tovah!

Apple Picking

It has been such a big week for our Katon class! Today we got to pick apples at Mrs. Rosenfeld's house. It was a big adventure to ride in the wagons to the apple orchard and to see all the fun trees. Not only did we get to pick apples, we got to see grapes growing and the pear trees. We also got to read a book and explore in the outdoor classroom as well as work on some fun Rosh Hashanah projects to take home.

 

Each child was able to pick their own apple with the help of a teacher. We also got to do some exploring around the orchard and see some other fruits growing.

We read a book about a trip to the apple orchard and did some comparison of the trip in the book and our trip this morning. We found out that the children in the book rode tractors to the apple orchard while we rode in wagons. The children in the book filled baskets with apples and we put our apples in bags. Then, we worked on scooping and pouring in the sandbox. Just like all our classroom areas, the children are becoming more comfortable exploring their environment in the outdoor classroom. Today, they discovered our flowers that spin!

We are looking forward to more Rosh Hashanah fun tomorrow with challah baking and finishing our special projects for the holiday!

IN Early Learning Foundations: ELA2.4:With adult support, respond to simple questions about a story, SE2.1:Demonstrate the beginnings of impulse control with adult support, SE3.1:Experiment with trial and error approaches to solve simple problems and conflicts, SE4.1:Use social referencing when encountering new experiences, APL1.2:Explore and manipulate familiar objects in the environment, APL3.1:Jointly attend to books for several minutes, SC1.1:Notice and react to cause and effect within the physical environment, SC1.2:Imitate the actions of others as they explore objects, SC2.1:Explore the natural environment, SC5.1:Solve problems using trial and error, SS2.1:Adapt to changes in routine and/or schedule, SS3.3:Show interest in various aspects of the environment, PHG2.1:Try a new action with a familiar object, 

Shofars and Pomegranates

Today was full of new experiences for our Katon class! We got to hear Rabbi Schusterman sound the shofar and learned what it takes to make a shofar. We learned that shofars are often made from the horns of rams like the ram we met yesterday. After nap, we got to taste pomegranate juice as we talked about and looked at pictures of this sweet fruit. Tomorrow is our trip to the apple orchard! We are so excited!

Shofar Video

Shofar Video 2

The children were mesmerized as soon as they heard the shofar. It was loud but not loud enough to be scary. Watching Rabbi Schusterman make a shofar was so interesting. The children were very curious about the tools he was using and the sound of the drill. We've also attached links to some videos of what we heard today.

Mrs. Ashley showed us pictures of pomegranates and the inside of a pomegranate. Then we tried pomegranate juice. Some of the children really liked the juice. Some had other opinions. 

Indiana Early Learning Foundations: SE1.2:Communicate feelings and emotions, SE4.1:Use social referencing when encountering new experiences, APL1.2:Begin to show curiosity and interest in new objects, experiences, and people, SC1.1:Notice and react to cause and effect within the physical environment, SS1.1:Participate in celebrations and other cultural events if observed, SS3.3:Show interest in various aspects of the environment, PHG1.3:Try new foods,