Winter Explorers

Looking for Signs of Winter

While discussing winter during circle time children shared their knowledge:

• winter is cold

• it snows in the winter

• we can make snowmen

• we can go sledding in the snow

• we have to wear warm clothes

We learned that in the winter it is cold and cold can change things. It changes the way we dress, the way the trees look, the way animals behave and the way we play outside. To see it for ourselves, we went outside to look for signs of winter…

Winter sure has changed the way the trees look.

Children: “Look morah, there’s no leaves on the trees.” “I see bare trees everywhere.” “They look like giant sticks.” “It’s cold out here.”

Child: “I found ice!” “I want to touch it.” “Why is the ice here?”
Morah: “Remember we talked about how cold can change things. Well this was water before but the cold changed the water and now it is ice. Cold can freeze things and change them into ice.”

 

Children: “Look everybody, I found more ice.” “It’s cold.” “It’s hard.” “My hand is cold now.” “My hand is cold too.” “And wet.” “Let’s look for more ice!”

Child:  “I found ice in the blue car.”

Child:  “There’s more ice here in the red car.”

 Children: “I found more ice!” “There’s ice everywhere!”

Child: “Look, there is a leaf on the ice.”

Morah: “Can you pick it up?”

Child: “I can’t get it, it’s stuck.”

Morah: “Oh, it’s stuck? Remember how cold can freeze things?

That is why the leaf is stuck; it is frozen to the ice.”

 

 Children: “There is ice in this hat.” “I want to see!”

Morah: “Can you pour it out?”

                                    

 Children: “No, it’s not coming out.” “It’s freeze.”

Morah: “That’s right; it’s frozen inside the helmet.”

Later in class during goodbye circle we reviewed what we found and learned during our outdoor experience. We talked about how cold can change water into ice and the differences between

water and ice.

We also experimented with a cup of water.

Can you mix it? YES

Can you pour it? YES

How does it feel? WET

What do you think would happen to the water if we left the cup outside?

• IT WILL SPILL

• IT WILL FREEZE

• IT WILL ICE

• A SQUIRREL WILL DRINK IT

Should we put it outside and find out? YES

 

The next morning we saw that the water changed into ice and we experienced with it.

Can you mix it? NO

Can you pour it? NO

How does it feel? COLD, HARD

What do you think will happen to the ice if we left the cup in our classroom?

• IT WILL FREEZE

• IT WILL SPILL

• SOMEONE WILL EAT THE ICE

After about an hour we checked on the cup and saw that there was no ice in there.

Children: “Now there is water!” “What happened to the ice?”

Morah: “Remember how cold can freeze water and change it into ice. Well in our classroom it is warm and warm can melt frozen things and change ice back into water.”



Happy Chanukah

Chanukah is such fun and special time of year. 

We love to experience the joy and the practices of holidays in our class.

We began the unit by first remembering all the Jewish holidays we’ve already experienced and celebrated this year. We looked through our Jewish Holiday Book and recalled what we did during Rosh Hashana, Sukkot and Simchat Torah. During each holiday we did special things, ate special foods and celebrated.

So what is Chanukah all about?  What do we do on Chanukah?  How do we celebrate Chanukah?

Chanukah is an 8 day celebration during which we light the menorah, play dreidel, eat foods made in oil and have fun while we watch the candles shine. All the things we do on Chanukah help us remember a story that happened a long time ago…

The Story Retold with puppets:

This story happened a long time ago in a beautiful place called Israel. Israel is a place where all the Jewish people lived. There were stores in Israel and parks and libraries and the Jewish people were really happy living there. Everyday they would wake up in the morning get dressed, eat breakfast, go to school and learn the Torah and about Hashem. What was extra special about Israel is that it is the place where there was the special, beautiful Holy Temple. 

When you hear the word Holy Temple, what do you think it looks like? 

This was a big, beautiful synagogue, a shul that was decorated and made with shiny gold. Everyday people would travel and come to the Holy Temple so they could do mitzvoth and feel close to Hashem. Each day one man would go into the Temple and light a magnificent menorah.

  
The menorah is a special candelabra that holds lots of candles.

 The menorah in the Holy Temple was SO tall that the man would have to use stairs to climb to the top so he can reach the menorah to light it. Everyday he would fill the menorah with oil and light it so everyone could see the light. Each time he would light the menorah he would make a special blessing thanking Hashem for giving us the special mitzvah of lighting the candles. All the Jewish people were grateful and happy for living in the land of Israel, this is where they celebrated all the holidays like Rosh Hashana, Sukkot, Shabbat and they were happy because everyday they would light the menorah in the big, beautiful Temple.

    There was a king in Israel and he was not a very caring king. His name was King Antiochus and he did not nice things and he wanted all the people to do not nice things just like him. He did not want the Jewish people to do mitzvot anymore. He said, “I don’t want you to do good things like light the menorah or make Challah for Shabbat or celebrate the holidays." The Jewish people were very sad and upset at what King Antiochus said. They loved the Torah and the holidays and they loved doing the right things.
    The Jewish people knew they had to do the right thing and stop King Antiyochus. So they all joined together and said, "We need to be brave and do the right thing." Together the people chased King Antiyochus away from Israel. They were so excited, they danced and they cheered. Now they were able to do all the mitzboth, and celebrate the holidays and light the menorah.
They quickly went to the Holy Temple to get ready to light the menorah again but they couldn't find any oil.

 They looked everywhere and finally found just a little bit of oil. The little bit of oil was not enough to make the menorah shine for a long time but Hashem helped them and made the oil last a long time and made the menorah shine for 8 whole days. Everyone was so happy and celebrated together.

    Every year we tell the story about the Holy Temple and we get our menorahs and light them. We put the menorah in a special place so everyone can see the beautiful light. We gather our family and together we make the blessing and light the menorah. For every night of Chanukah we light a candle on the menorah. While we watch the mehorah shine we eat yummy holiday food like latkes and donuts and play spin the Chanukah dreidel.


While celebrating and learning about Chanukah children patiently placed and counted candles on the menorah. "Morah, why is the middle candle sticking up high?" We learned about Shamash the 'helper candle' which is the ninth candle on the menorah and sits in the middle a little bit higher than the rest of the candles.  Children loves pretending to light the candles using the 'helper candle'.

Children worked together to paint a big class menorah.                       Morah: "Where should we put the menorah when it's all done?"        Kids:  "By the window." "By the door."  "Outside."  "In the hallway."

We also made candles for our big class menorah. 

This may look like JUST painting but we are actually developing many important skills. 

Social - Interacting with peers and developing relationships while sharing space, a craft and art supplies.
Problem Solving - "Morah, I'm holding the candle so it doesn't move when I'm painting."

Cause and Effect - "It's not moving anymore because I am holding it like this."

Attention Maintenance - You can just see the level of concentration on those little faces.

Fine Motor & Pencil grip- Look at those little fingers and hands at work.

It's never to early to practice our pencil grip.

Look at how gently and loosely those little fingers are gripping the paint brush.

Dramatic Play - Imitation and Symbolic Play - "I'm making latkes, this is the oil."

 

Matching - Letter Recognition - Pre-reading Skills

"I can match the letters." "I see my letter." "What letter is this?" "What does this say?"

Counting Dreidels - One to one correspondence - Number Recognition

Watching dreidels spin is so much fun but it's not easy making them spin! Dreidel games provided a great and fun opportunity for children to work on fine motor skills, determination and patience.

We also practiced all those important Social, Problem Solving , Cause and Effect , Attention Maintenance, Fine Motor and Pencil grip skills while making our take home menorahs.