Dear Families,
It was with great joy that we continued to study Chanukah this week. We continued to reinforce the story of the Maccabees, and the children have enjoyed pretending to be Maccabees by fleeing Antiochus and “defending themselves” with invisible shields. They have also enjoyed pretending to build the ancient temple in Jerusalem in the block corner and trying to defend it from “Antiochus” (also known as Morah Kate). These games are a fun way for the children to deepen their understanding of the story of Chanukah, but we do continue to reinforce classroom rules such as “no pretend fighting” and “no pretend shooting.”
We also explored various elements of the Chanukah story and celebration this week. We recalled that the Maccabees burned oil (not candles) when they re-dedicated the temple and we experimented with oil and water in the water table. The children noticed that the oil floated on top of the water!
We examined Chanukah candles in further detail this week. The children used them to do “relief” paintings with watercolors at the art table. First, they drew a picture on paper using a Chanukah candle. Then, they used watercolors to paint on top of it. They were excited to discover that they could see the picture once they painted on the paper, and we noticed how the water and the wax (from the candle) did not mix. This was a great way to make a connection to our earlier experiment with water and oil in the water table. The children also used candles to draw in trays of salt. Salt trays are a fun sensory experience, but they can also be a great way to practice writing. For some children, the tactile stimulation of touching salt supports the learning of letters more so than papers, pencils, and books. This can be a fun activity to try at home!
In addition, we created a Venn diagram at Morning Meeting on Monday, comparing a Havdalah candle to a Chanukah candle. This was a fun way to learn to use a Venn diagram to build critical thinking skills. We also tried organizing Chanukah, Havdalah, and Shabbat candles into size order, examining both length and thickness. This activity built connections for the children across Jewish celebrations, and also reinforced math skills including size, measurement, and vocabulary words including “longer,” “shorter,” “thinner,” and “thicker.”
Latkes were an important part of our week. On Tuesday, we used paper shreds (recycled from the Temple office) to make paper maché latkes. On Wednesday, we discovered a new favorite book, The Flying Latke, by Arthur Yarkins. This book has funny photos combined with illustrations, and a hilarious storyline about a latke being mistaken for a UFO. It had the children and the teachers on the floor in laughter! Come in and check it out. We enjoyed this book so much that we read it twice in a row! Later Wednesday morning, we made real latkes. The children grated the potatoes, cracked the eggs, and stirred away. They even ate appetizers in the kitchen (while seated in chairs far away from the pan) while Morah Larissa fried the latkes. Later we tasted them with applesauce.
This week we have introduced the children to two strategies to help them when counting and doing mathematical word problems. On Tuesday, the children found a challenging question posed to them on the wipe-off board at Morning Meeting: “How many candles are there in two Chanukiot?” They each made a guess, and then learned to draw a simple picture of two Chanukiot to find the answer. On Thursday, we played dreidel, and learned to use tally marks to count how many times the dreidel landed on each letter.
We have introduced a new positive reinforcement strategy with the children as they work hard to master sharing, turn taking, helping, and other social skills important to them as they become part of a community. We have introduced a “Good Choices Jar.” Each time the children are spotted by a teacher (or by each other) making a good choice, they get to put a small toy in the jar. When they have so many small toys in the jar that it fills up to a tape line created by Morah Larissa, they will get to have a pajama day at school. They are very excited by the prospect of wearing pajamas at school. This behavior management strategy helps the children to focus on the positive and to come together as a team to work towards a common goal. It also helps them to learn more concretely how to make “good choices” in their interactions with each other. We use the phrase “good choices” because it reinforces the notion that children can think about their behaviors. It also places the emphasis on children’s behaviors and away from whether or not they are “good” or “bad” girls and boys.
Next week, we are kicking off a study of “Bread Around the World.” Do you have any family recipes for bread that you might want to share or even demonstrate? We would love to have some parent participation in this unit!
Shabbat Shalom,
-- Morah Larissa and Morah Kate
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