zimmerToddler

Before change happens we prepare the children to help them know what they can expect.

By taking the child's emotions into consideration we can create a safe

environment where the child knows what s/he can expect and is not met with surprises. This helps the child transition easier and smoother from the norm to the change and creates some sense to this world they are trying to figure out.

The change that was about to happen was that our friend Shalom was about to turn three years old and will therefore be receiving his first haircut. Shalom knows this since his family has been preparing him for this special time in his life. Yet, we his friends that see and play with him each day, our needs must also be met.

To us, our friend Shalom has long flowy, curly hair.

Projecting into the future if we did not take the children into consideration the children might be wondering, what suddenly happened? We might be surprised, confused and possibly not recognize our friend. Is this boy the same boy that we know and play with? Something about him makes him looks so different than just yesterday.

Shalom and the whole class was going to experience change. We therefore need to discuss this with the children. Malkie, Shalom’s mother, brought pictures of Shalom’s older siblings when they were this age of three right before and after their first haircut. We saw a young boy with long hair, just like Shalom, and then the boy with a short boy haircut. It was not until the next day that we saw our friend Shalom that we saw the difference.

Malkie relayed to me that when she was cutting Sholom's hair, as he was watching himself - he says, "I look like David!" I ask him how, and he says, "cuz I have cheeks!"

The children were definetly surprised and even excited for their friend when the saw him. However, their reactions came from an excited place for their friend as apposed to a confused or unsure sense of ‘what happened, this is strange’ sense.

We take real life expereinces and turn them into teachable moments that can enhance our social skills and help us create good social habits.

As young children we are learning social skills and how to be empethetic to others. We learn that there are others and they too have feelings and needs. We learn how to care for others and that we can demonstrate this through our actions and words. Our friend Jasmin has been sick and away from school for over a week. We first took notice of this and wondered where she was. After phone caller her house and messages from Morah Linda we soon found out that she was not feeling well and was resting and recouperating at home. We thought of times that we too were sick and how it made us feel and tried to sympathize with her situation. We then thought of what we could do for our friend when they are not feeling well and are not able to have fun and be in school with thier friends. The children decided to bring something from our class that Jasmin can do and play with to help her feel a little happier. We thought of what would make Jasmin happy? What does she enjoy doing? What would she like to do? After we thought we filled up a bag of goodies for Jasmin.

Here are some of the things that were found in the bag.

"Here are two books to help you feel better, you could read these books in your house. Jasmin these books you like to read in the classroom, so you can now have them at home. I made a picture of a circle and square for you.” Shalom

I want to tell you that I like you and I made you a picture because I am thinking about you. I made you a picture that has grass and a big sun. I hope that you feel better.” Carly

Jasmin I want to make you feel so happy. I want you to come back so I can play with you. I want to give you something special. It is a picture I made for you. Jasmin I want to give you this puppet to play with because I think you like it. You can put your hand inside and use the puppet. You can make it move around and talk.” Elisheva

Jasmin mother responded to the class with a note and pictures from Jasmin. The students were thrilled to know that Jasmin enjoyed thier gifts and were able to see Jasmin interacting with the gifts they gave her. Jasmin mother said that she will be back in school soon.

Preparing for the upcoming Shabbat Preschool Family Dinner

When the children are involved in the process they become connected with the information and it becomes personal to them. Therefore the children are involved in many steps along the way in preparing for this event. The children are engaged in the learning of the Shabbat unit with songs, stories, dramatic play and games. Soon we will be making decorative Shabbat candle holders that we could each use in our homes for Shabbat. Each class will aslo be preparing food for the Shabbat dinner and so far on the menu we will be making the chicken soup and challah.

In planning for Shabbat Dinner we posed the question: How are we going to let everyone know?

When we want to invite others to come somewhere there are different ways we could let the person know. We tho

ught of different ways we could transmit the message. We could talk to the person when we see them. However, if we do not see the person then we could call them on the telephone and speak to them. We also discussed a third option, we could invite the person with an invitation, an invitation lets the person know all the necessary information and what we are inviting them to. So that is what we did, we made invitations to let you know about the Shabbat Preschool Family Dinner that will be taking place on Friday, February 12, at 5 pm.

We hope everyone can make it. Please RSVP to Linda either by email or phone.

To decorate the invitation and to practice different skills, the children cut, glued and grouped shabbat images together.

• We are gaining more control over scissors and learning what scissors do and how to cut through a complete peice of paper.
  
• We learn what side of the decoation we put the glue on when we want it to stick to our paper.
  
• We are becoming more spatialy aware when we set the table with the shabbat images and group like images together; two challahs go next to each other, the cup and grape juice go next to each other and the two candles go next to each other with a candle placed on the top.
  
• We are putting into practice vocabulary words such as beside, next to, under, on top.

If you would like to join your son or daughter and the class to help us prepare for the Shabbat Dinner please speak to me so we can make a plan.






We have been playing letter recognition games and learning the first letter of our names and our friends names. You can play along with us and point out different alphabet letters you see around.

Shabbat Shalom.
Morah Batsheva