3's Class - Miss Lisa & Morah Mimi

Chanukah Fun

The students are really getting into the story of Chanukah with Morah  Mimi and it is absolutely carrying over into their play themes. They are “lighting” our three wooden menorahs, spinning dreidels, being “strong like Macabees” and get this: during their retelling of the Billy Goats Gruff are calling the mean troll Antiochus! I love it. Lots of excited chatter about different decorations coming up in their houses and seeing each other at different community gatherings. 

On Tuesday we had the Westminster fire department visit to talk about fire safety. The students got to go around the whole truck and see all the equipment and we saw how the firefighters will look in all of their gear if they come to our house. He went around speaking through his ventilator & gave the kids high fives. We practiced saying “I’m here! Help me!” As he walked by. I had zero children cry this year! Some wanted to sit by me & two didn’t want to go to the truck but they were all okay with the excitement. 

We also got to see how olive oil was extracted way back in the days of the story of Chanukah. Rabbi Sender gave us a presentation complete with an old kind of crank press (which was a ton of work for a drop of oil) and a modern centrifuge machine that separates the oil from the juice nowadays. We were also very impressed with his collection of dreidels and menorahs. Back in our classroom Mora Mimi brought different olives for the children to sample. 

Miss Bailey and I want to say a big THANK YOU for our thoughtful Chanukah gifts and I wish you a wonderful holiday and break! 

FROM MORAH MIMI 

Chanukah is in the air! We’ve been busy with lots of fun activities to celebrate the holiday. We started by making donuts, mixing the dry and wet ingredients. The kids loved watching how the donuts came together. Then, we decorated bags for our menorahs using crayons and Chanukah stickers, which the kids really enjoyed.

We also made latkes (levivot)! The kids helped grate the potatoes and mix the ingredients, and then we ate the latkes with applesauce—or even ketchup! We baked Chanukah cookies, and the kids rolled out the dough using Chanukah-shaped cookie cutters.

After our davening circle, we sang all of our favorite Chanukah songs, like Antiochus, I Have a Little Dreidel, Where is the Oil?, and Maccabee March. We also acted out the whole Chanukah story with songs and dancing.

One of the most exciting activities was hiding our pretend oil. The kids were so excited to grab their “binoculars” and go on a search to find it! We also had a gelt hunt around our playground. The kids loved exploring and searching for hidden treasures. It was a fun way to enjoy the outdoors and work together!”

It’s been such a fun way to get into the Chanukah spirit. Wishing you all a happy Chanukah full of joy and light!

Have a wonderful Winter break and enjoy some family fun time!

Shabbat Shalom,

Message from Ms. Lisa

Voting

Democracy is alive and well in our classroom lately and it is also building our math skills. I will select two choices for our group activity and assign a colored unifix cube to each one. The students tell me their preference and I give them the corresponding color. Then I collect them and we count the cubes to determine which choice has more and that’s the activity we will do. I also stack up the cubes so they can see that more also means taller. This develops the math skill of conservation of number. This is the understanding that the final number remains the same regardless of how the materials are arranged. The children are already beginning to use estimation skills as I collect the cubes & ask “what do you think is going to be more?” I also show them numeral cards so they can connect that the abstract symbols represent concrete quantities. Plus they get very excited to voice their choice and are much more invested in the activity when they have some say in the matter. 

Stringing

This week the students had the opportunity to help with classroom decor. They strung old school, rubber pencil grips onto pipe cleaners and I tied them onto the tree branch that hangs from our ceiling. The children were so into it that we have been making bracelets with plastic beads. Preschoolers develop key fine motor skills like hand-eye coordination, finger dexterity, and visual perception through stringing beads, which also helps them build concentration, patience, and spatial awareness while practicing different grasps like pincer grip, important for pre-writing skills. They also work on bilateral coordination which is important not only for motor skills but to make sure that both sides of the braking are effectively transferring information. 

Group Time

The class has been absolutely enthralled with the story The Three Billy Goats Gruff. I brought in the book and they loved it so much I got the flannel story, and they loved it so much I got a smaller version that they can retell during choice time…hmmmmm maybe I’m the problem here??? At any rate, now they are finding and building bridges all over the classroom and playground and they will all join in when somebody roars “Who is that trip trapping over my bridge?!” They build bridges with blocks, Legos, tiles, play dough and even kinetic sand. The micro dramatic animals are becoming the characters in the story and I hear them playing it on the bridge on our play structure outside. It’s so cool when literacy really resonates with the kids and they are all so excited about a story. 

Have a great weekend!

From Miss Lisa 

Motor Skills

We did such a good job putting push pins into our pumpkins that we decided to expand on the activity. The students used a hammer to pound real nails into our fruity friend. They donned goggles and used amazing muscle strength and coordination to get the nails in. We have to give them extra points for hammering into a vertical surface because they can’t rely on gravity, just muscles! 

Sensory

We are now exploring corn meal in our sensory boxes. We have sifters, funnels, cups and spoons. Mora Mimi added fabulous pumpkin shaped pasta that can actually hold the cornmeal like a tiny cup. We also added little stone turtles & mushrooms just because we can and they’re super cool. Lately I’ve been throwing in “treasure” as well. These are the little beads and jewels that many of the students love to search for on the playground. Each child has a “treasure cup” with a lid for all of the things that they find and want to keep. They are recognizing their names on the cup and bringing with them to the sensory activity. Some are scooping and sifting the meal out so just the treasures remain, others are shaking the meal out of spice containers and observing that the treasures can’t fit through the holes. My favorite is using the good old fashioned pincer grasp to pick out each tiny piece. Treasures are being classified, counted, traded, and shared. 

Fine Motor Philanthropy 

One day a friend was bouncing one of our micro dramatic animals on the table and then exclaimed that the “tiger got a boo boo and needed a band aid.” Well we promptly brought out the colored masking tape and scissors to help our tiger friend. Animal boo boos became quite contagious and I was fortunate to have 6-7 vets on hand. The dramatic play gave the students incentive to really work hard to get that tape cut and wrapped around their animals. Some friends were just wrapping the tape around the animal and required help with cutting. Just pulling out the tape is great fine motor practice as is taking the “bandage” off when the animal is better. Along with the motor skills the children were engaging in imaginative play and tons of dialogue with friends.

Three’s News

Initiative

Name recognition has exploded in the last week as the students have been moving their VelCro names to the center where they wish to play. We have occupancy limits for the kitchen (4) the science center (2) and the writing center(2). This ensures that there are plenty of materials for each of the students. It also helps with keeping the centers calm and the players focused and engaged. There is a numeral card with the corresponding VelCro dots in each center and now the children are finding their name and putting up in the center and removing it when finished. I am seeing the students choosing these areas simply because they like the empowerment of having their name up and their spot saved. Some are even finding their friend’s name cards for them. Yay literacy!!

THANK YOU to Zachary & family for the donations to our classroom! The children have been enjoying “new to us”manipulatives and a micro dramatic castle set. Zachary was very cute in his benevolence in donating his home toys to the classroom for his friends to play with.

Thanksgiving Performance 

We have been busy painting our gourds and pine cones that we also adorned with feathers that will serve as centerpieces at the feast. We also collaborated on our stage backdrop. We all know our song thoroughly, which is no indication of whether or not we will sing on the stage for our performance. It’s a pretty daunting expectation for a little kiddo! I am telling them to have fun singing to our parents and to be sure and wave to them! Here are the lyrics:

(The tune is dreidel)

I saw a little turkey

Standing by a tree

It wobbled & it gobbled

Then ran away from me

OH! TURKEY, turkey, turkey

Please come out & play

I promise not to eat you

On Thanksgiving day!

(Repeat chorus)

We sing it once at a normal speed, then again really fast, which the children are loving!

I hope to see you all at our performance and feast and wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

From Miss Lisa 

Micro Dramatic Play

Great big THANK YOU to Chaim and family for donating a great big dollhouse to our classroom! It has been quite a hit and led to a lot of associative play. The students have been setting up furniture and acting out little scenarios with the micro dramatic people, animals, and even Hotwheels. 

Fall Fine Motor

We have a fall based science table with a crazy giant green gourd of some kind and all different funky small gourds & squashes to explore. We also have a sorting dish with little mushrooms, acorns, and apples to sort and pick up with tongs. The students are getting quite good at manipulating the tongs. 

For some extra fine motor strengthening,  we pushed our decorative push pins into a large green gourd and a pumpkin. This requires a lot of work for the thumbs to get them in and even more work with the fingertips to get them out. 

The class is still very interested in exploring magnets. They have been using all different kinds on metal trays and going around the classroom with magnet wands to discover what will stick. They learned that they can build outward with the magnetiles on the free standing magnet board and that magnets stick to the underside of the desks for some upside down, gravity defying fun. A lot of trial & error, observation, and divergent thinking in the name of play!

Conferences

I have the schedule for parent teacher conferences on Monday. If I didn’t confirm your time with you please let me know. I am sending home the scored ASQ assessment so we can go over any questions you may have about the results. I look forward to having a chance to talk about your amazing kiddo!

Enjoy your weekend 

We had a busy and fun week! 

We finished learning about Noach and all the animals. The kids really enjoyed playing with “dirt” we made out of oobleck, and they pretended it was life on the Tayva. We also tried out “sink and float” activities to see how the Teiva stayed on top of the water. The kids picked items from the classroom to guess if they’d sink or float, and they were so excited to find out which ones stayed up and which ones went down!

Since fall is here, we also started learning about fall colors—red, yellow, orange, and brown. We read some books about fall, tossed leaves in the air, and sang fall songs, including “Autumn Leaves Are Falling Down” to the tune of London Bridge:

TTO: London Bridge

“Autumn leaves are falling down,

Falling down, falling down,

Autumn leaves are falling down,

Falling down to the ground.”

We pretended to be different fall things like leaves, acorns, and pumpkins, moving around the room. The kids loved watching a felt story with five different colored leaves, and we played a game of “Where’s the Pumpkin?” to see if they could guess which leaf it was hiding behind.

Have a Shabbat shalom,  

FROM MISS LISA 

3’s news

Social/Emotional

We are incorporating the Zones of Regulation in our classroom now. This system assigns colors to different emotions to try and help children identify their feelings and regulate their behavior. We have the four colors posted on the wall each with an explanation of the feelings and a picture from our favorite books of a character showing that feeling. Each student (0r the teacher) can move their name to the zone that their behavior is demonstrating. Our goal is to stay in green zone where we are happy, calm, and being a listener. Blue is sad, sick or tired. Yellow is too loud, fast, silly, or rambunctious for inside. Red is mad, frustrated, screaming or hurting friends (body or feelings.) The purpose is to have something physical that they can see to help them feel empowered to self-regulate. They also feel self-esteem when they move their name back to green & I tell them “You did it! You got yourself back to green and are controlling your body now.” 

Group Time

We have extended on our Little Mouse game. The mouse is hiding behind one house, but now we are adding characters from other stories to hide behind the others. Pete the Cat, Goldie Locks, and the Goonie from Rabbit Foo Foo to name a few. I act shocked & appalled to see the characters that snuck into our game and we get quite a kick out of it. This adds to the complexity of our memory skills. Which character is behind which shape? 

Fine Motor

We have been doing a lot of scissor work with colored tape and rubber bands. This week we had the option to add popsicle sticks onto our papers. Since there were few colored sticks we decided to color the plain ones with markers. This was a great fine motor exercise. Keeping the marker on the tiny space while going back and forth with the marker and holding onto the stick with the other hand really worked those very important pencil holding muscles. 

Have a great weekend

From Morah Mimi 

Three’s News  ([email protected])

Group Time

We definitely have our crowd pleasers in terms of felt board activities for group time. Lately one of the most well received has been Little Mouse. We have eight different colored houses (and now different shapes have been added too!) behind one of which is the sneaky little mouse. The children take turns (and with fourteen classmates that is a LOT of waiting!) naming the shape of the house they want to check for the ever elusive mouse. Along with practicing patience we are working on the process of elimination and recall skills as well as task persistence and attention span. Other favorites include any Pete the Cat stories and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

Name Game

We now have a board with the student’s photos on our wall and during group time I hold up their names and they come and VelCro it next to their picture. We do it as a group so the children will begin to recognize other names besides their own. Recognizing their name is the first step in reading because children are egocentric and letters are very abstract. Right now it’s all about the first letter and they are starting to point it out when they see it in the classroom. They also seek it out in any alphabet materials that they are using. They are grasping the concept that these funny little squiggles represent their names which represent themselves. Big kid stuff!

Have a great weekend

FROM MORAH MIMI

Dear Parents,

We talked about how we heard the shofar blow and dipped the apple in the honey. They were so excited to tell me that they did it. 

This week we talked about our next holiday coming up, Yom Kippur. We are learning how to be nice to one another. We know that sharing is a mitzvah but is very hard to do and will take time. When we want a toy we ask our friend “can I have it when you're done”. We might have to wait, which is hard to do as well. We are working on this and it is not easy. Yom kippur is all about Teshuva, repentance and saying sorry. We are learning that we should do mitzvos and be gentle.  We ask our friends if they are ok if we do an oopsy. If we,  by mistake, pushed a friend, we could ask the friend: “How can I make you feel better?” If they aren’t ready to tell us,  we will wait until they are ready. We also talked about the things that we can do to be a good friend. 

We also learned about  the  Torah portion that is read on Yom Kippur about Yonah and the big fish. 

Hashem told Yonah to go on a trip to the city of Nineveh. Hashem wanted Yonah to help those people to stop making mistakes, and to say “I’m sorry.” Instead, he went on a boat to a different place. He thought Hashem wouldn’t find him there. But could we hide from Hashem?? Noo! Hashem is everywhere! Yonah was on the boat in the ocean, when all of a sudden a BIG storm came. Yonah was thrown off the boat and into the water. Then, a big fish came and swallowed Yonah!! Yonah davened to Hashem from the belly of the fish. He told Hashem he was so sorry, and that he would not try to hide from Him anymore. Then, Hashem told the fish to spit Yonah out on the land. Now he was safe! Yonah went straight to Nineveh like Hashem told him. They stopped making mistakes, and Hashem forgave them. I asked the children can we run away from Hashem? They said no because Hashem is everywhere and we sang our favorite song. Hashem is here , Hashem is there , Hashem is truly everywhere. 

Yonah song: TTO ( Mary had a little lamb)

There was a man named Yonah. He got swallowed by a whale. 

He did Teshuva for three days, and he lived to tell the tale.

Oh, Yona, Yona Yona  got swallowed by a whale

oh Yona Yona Yona he lived to tell the tale. 

We enjoyed making honey cake.  It was fun pouring, measuring  and mixing in the bowl. Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur it is customary to ask for honey cake so that it will be the only thing you should ask for in the coming year.  

Please keep the mitzvah notes coming. They love hearing about the mitzvot they do. 

Have an easy fast and Shabbat shalom!

Sincerely,

Mora Mimi

From Morah Mimi 

Dear Parents, 

This week, we had a lot of fun with activities related to Rosh Hashanah and the fall season. The children played in sensory bins, using scoops and tongs with apples in one bin and make believe bumblebees and flowers in another. They also worked on a take-home Rosh Hashanah project, decorating it with apple stamps and stickers.

During circle time, we pretended to go to Tashlich, where we threw in our “oopsies” and talked about making good choices, like keeping our hands to ourselves and not hurting our friends. We learned how to say, “How can I make you feel better?” or “Sorry” when a friend is hurt.

The kids also used party blowers to practice blowing their own shofars! They added apples to a sticky apple tree and sang "Five Red Apples on the Tree." We tasted honey and talked about how sweet and yummy it is, thanking the bumblebees for the treat.

It’s been a great week, and we wish you all a sweet and happy Rosh Hashanah! 

Warmly,

Morah Mimi 

From Morah Mimi,

We have been learning so much about the holiday of Rosh Hashanah.  In our Science Center we have pictures of items for the holiday:

• There’s a picture of a ram displaying its horns so the children can see the shape and how it looks like the shofar we use for Rosh Hashana.
• We have a honeybee hive so the children can see where the bees live. 
• There’s a photo showing how the bees pollinate flowers.
• We have a real honeycomb in a jar so the children can see where the bees store the honey and see how slow the honey moves.
•  We have apples in the center because we learned that we will dip the apples in honey the first night of Rosh Hashana.
• Displayed in the center are red and green apples for sorting colors.
• We also have a wooden puzzle showing the life cycle of bumblebees.

While singing the shofar song, we  used party blowers to mimic the sound the shofar makes. This is a skill we are trying to practice. We are learning to keep trying and trying. We  made pretend shofars with paper plates and painted them brown. Sorry parents if the blowing gets loud (hahahah).

 We  also  got creative with bumblebee sticker collages.  Apple stamping with real apples brought an extra layer of fun to our Rosh Hashanah activities! 

Exploring  the different parts of the apple along the way  added to our Rosh Hashanah fun!

Don’t forget parents to send those Mitzvah Notes! The children get so excited when they hear their names, and the mitzvahs  that they do! 

Have a wonderful Shabbos and a great weekend!

From Miss Lisa

Shapes

We have been bringing our awareness to all of the different shapes in our environment. From our manipulatives to our stories and even into our snacks. At group time we have been playing Guess What Shape is Missing where I present the shapes, cover them and remove one. We do a lot of this kind of game during group times because they are great brain boosters. They help develop problem solving and reasoning skills, work on attention span and memory skills, as well as reinforce the names of the shapes that we see. 

An art opportunity this week was decorating papers with different shape stickers and coloring with crayons. I try to hold off on using markers for as long as I can because crayons are so much better for working the fine motor muscles due to the fact that much more pressure is required for the desired outcome. 

Science

The class has really been into magnets. They have been a reoccurring table activity because we have so many magnetic, geometric shapes. We have had magnetites (both large and small), magnetic cubes, letters, bees, and weird little “humanoids.” We also used a magnetic fishing game that requires a bit of eye/hand coordination. 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Greetings families,

Thoughts on Goodbyes

I know we have several friends that are having a difficult time saying goodbye at drop off. Some were fine and all of a sudden it’s an issue while others have never been a fan of the whole “ you leaving” for any reason ever. Here are some suggestions on how to move through this tough transition as smoothly as possible. First understand that the anticipation of the goodbye is usually far worse than the actual departure. They know what you are doing and the order that you do it in when you leave. Trying to engage them in something in the room is seldom effective. No activity in the room is as enticing as you NOT going. We want to get them through the sadness and onto the fun as quickly as possible. If they need a “hand off” Miss Bailey and I are happy to provide a lap and a cuddle. Some friends want nothing to do with us and they are downright ticked off at being left so they prefer the book area. We have colorful lights and cozy pillows and they can just feel their feelings without an audience. When they are ready they let us know. Please don’t leave and come back or play “one last hug” as this causes the anxiety to go up and is emotionally confusing. Let us know when you’re ready to go, hand your child to us rather than having us pull them off of you. The message with that is you trust this person so much you are giving your child to them, instead of here comes someone to pry you away from mommy. I’ve noticed it makes a difference.

Also, everything I said last week about all the steps in putting away their stuff themselves goes out the window when the child is in distress. Just set their backpack on the floor inside the door, tell them you love them and will see them soon. You are always welcome to call Chanie to see how long until they stopped crying. I’m here to tell you that it is WAY harder on you than them and that it will get better!

 Wow, that was way too long! Until next week and I promise I will share some of the amazing activities your child has been doing five minutes after you leave them crying.

We have delved into Rosh Hashanah. All our friends are really enjoying all the fun we are having. Here are some of the things we are doing:

• Singing Rosh Hashonah songs.

• We talked about how honey is sweet.  We will be having a tasting of apples and honey so the children can have a 4D experience of this special holiday. 

• We pretend to be bumblebees with our bumblebee headbands.  We go  from  flower to flower and use our “straws” to suck up the nectar. We bring it back to our beehives and throw up the nectar to make the honey.

• We have been using fake apples to sort  the colors using tongs. We are using a mystery bag to show the children Rosh Hashanah items. 

• We say thank you to the bumblebee for making us honey. We use bumblebee finger puppets to sing Rosh Hashanah and Bumble bee songs.

Some of our Rosh Hashanah Songs:

Devorah song: TTO: I’m a little teapot

I am a little Devorah see me fly

Straight from my flour to my hive

I can make you honey oh so sweet

For Rosh Hashanah what a treat!

Dip the  Apple in the honey TTO: oh my darling Clementine

Dip the apple in the honey

Make a break loud and clear

L’shanah tova u’metukah 

Have a happy Sweet new year!

Thank you to Morah Raizel who did a fabulous Shabbat party! Singing shabbat  songs and using her puppets! 

Shabbat shalom!

See you all next week! Morah Mimi 

Hello Families 

As you have noticed when dropping off your child, we are really working on the children doing their “job” independently. This does take patience and time but they will get there. We teachers get so used to the ritual that we often need to stop and break down the expectation and most importantly remember their age and experience. We are asking them to:

• Say goodbye to loved ones (and that is sometimes REALLY hard)
• Remove their lunch and snacks from their backpack and place it in their upper cubby 
• Put their backpack in their Lower cubby
• Put their water bottle in the container by the door
• Wash their hands and make a room choice

And we are expecting them to focus on these tedious tasks when friends are SO excited to talk and play with them and there are SO many inviting activities and shiny distractions along the way! Oh yeah and they’re THREE YEAR OLDS! I try to hold that in my mind when determining expectations for the students. They have been on the planet for three years. Their bodies and minds are developing faster than they ever will, they're being immersed in information and stimuli constantly, and they are attempting to cope with REALLY BIG FEELINGS. Wow, that’s a lot huh? But with patience and support they will get there. 

We also work on autonomy with changing clothes and putting on shoes and socks. They are so proud and confident when they do it. I assure you that we notice when things are inside out and backwards and we did try to get them to fix it, but they worked SO hard to do it themselves and are SO proud and anxious to get back to playing that they typically refuse to fix it. 

With the hot days and water play we will get plenty of practice.

My email is unfortunately still not working so if you need to email me you will have to go through Chanie for a while.

Have a great weekend!

Thank you Rabbi Popack for blowing the shofar for us!  We sang a shofar song to the tune of The Wheels of the Bus.  It goes like this:  The shofar in the Shul goes tu tu tu, tu tu tu, tu tu tu.  The shofar in the Shul goes tu tu tu on Rosh Hashanah! The apple in the honey goes dip, dip, dip, dip , dip, dip on Rosh Hashanah. The people in the shul go daven daven daven , daven , daven , daven on Rosh Hashanah. The bumblebees in the hive go buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz on Rosh Hashanah.

We are thanking the bumblebees for giving us honey. They give us honey so we can dip our apples in it. We will be tasting different kinds of apples before Rosh Hashanah and deciding which one we like better. 

Every Friday, we enjoy a Shabbat party.  Morah Raizel plays her guitar while we sing Shabbat tunes.  We love her special puppets!

Reminder:  please send a mitzvah note with your child daily.  Near the sign-in sheet by the front door are papers you can use for this purpose.  Your children look forward to hearing these readings each day.      

Shabbat Shalom!  Have a wonderful and joyous weekend! 

Morah Mimi

Hello families,

We got right off and running despite it being a short week. The majority of the class has been together for at least one year so they were already happy to see their “besties.” New friends have quickly become right at home and happily embraced by the group.

I am happy to announce that this year I will have Miss Bailey as my aide this year. She was in the two year old class during the summer and had already made connections with the students. She is also a guinea pig enthusiast (or fanatic if you prefer) and she will often bring her furry friends to visit our classroom.

Mora Mimi will be our Judaic teacher and spends a couple of hours with the class daily. She will do the Davening, read Mitzvah notes, and do the holiday themes and projects. 

Reminders

Make sure that your child has extra clothes in their cubby daily & if they come home in different clothing please remember to supplement the next day. We will be doing water play next week and I want everyone to participate.

Please remember to send a water cup daily

We do not nap on Fridays because with the two o'clock dismissal there isn’t time to put them down and get them back up. Typically we will send home bedding on Thursday, but due to the short week we will send them home next Thursday 

A Note from Morah Mimi

Dear Parents,

We’ve had a great start to the year! It’s been wonderful seeing familiar faces and meeting new friends. The children are getting used to the routine, and we’re enjoying getting to know each of them.

Each day, we start with davening and giving tzedakah. We also talk about mitzvah notes, which are a special part of our day.. Please keep sending mitzvah notes with your child. I read them every day, and the children are always so happy to hear their mitzvot shared.  

Every Friday, we make challah to take home, which the children really enjoy. 

We can’t wait for what’s to come in our class as the year continues!

Have a wonderful Shabbat shalom and long weekend!

Morah Mimi  

Welcome families,

      My name is Lisa Haley and I am excited to be your child’s teacher this year. This will be my fourteenth year here at the Hebrew Academy and my twenty eighth in early childhood education.  

Philosophy

      I support the “Whole child” approach to early childhood education. This includes: cognitive, physical, and social/emotional. Young children are “Active learners” meaning that they learn by doing. They gain information through their five senses and from concrete experiences that they obtain in their environment and with one another. Academics are an intrinsic component in everything that we do throughout our day. We read, count, observe, discuss, explore, negotiate, problem solve, and use critical thinking skills all day long. The broad term for all of this learning is “play”. A child’s “work” is actively engaging in play with their peers. As young children tend to throw themselves into their work, this can get quite messy so please dress your child for success and make sure that they have a complete change of clothes in their cubby daily.

Snacks

In addition to lunch please send two snack items if your child is half day and four if your child is full day. At the end of the day the children can also finish their lunches. Also please send a labeled water bottle or drinking cup everyday.

Communication

      I have found that a strong and consistent connection between home and school plays a pivotal role in scholastic success; particularly at the preschool level. For many children this is their first time away from family for extended periods of time. Please contact me if you wish to discuss any questions, concerns, or comments regarding your child or our program. I am looking forward to getting to know you and your child and to a wonderful school year. 

Dear parents,

We are very excited to have your children in our class this year!  We hope to infuse them with a love for Judaism by approaching all learning with creativity and enthusiasm.  They will be learning the Hebrew alphabet and Hebrew words.  The Jewish holidays will come alive as they participate in hands-on experiences.  The children will be encouraged to perform good deeds(Midot Tovot) as we collect and share mitzvah notes daily.  The Judaism program includes sensory activities, music and movement, yoga, felt stories and puppet play!

Morah Mimi