3's - Miss Lisa

Shapes and Fine Motor

This week, we’re exploring shapes through playful, hands-on activities. During group time, we played “Guess Which Shape Is Missing?” The students study a group of shapes, I cover them and remove one and they figure out which one has disappeared. This fun guessing game encourages careful observation, visual memory, and shape recognition.

At the manipulative table, children were invited to sort and match shapes by their attributes, noticing differences in their sides, corners, and overall appearance. With tangrams, they’ll pick up, rotate, and fit geometric pieces together to recreate designs and discover how smaller shapes can be combined to make larger ones. These activities encourage children to experiment, think creatively, and work through challenges.

On geoboards, the students were able to stretch rubber bands around pegs to outline shapes, connect points, and create their own designs. As they pinch, pull, and position the bands, they’re strengthening their fingers, developing hand-eye coordination, and refining fine motor control. These experiences bring early geometry to life while giving children plenty of opportunities to explore, create, and discover.

Please turn in your ASQ ASAP

Have a great weekend

 FROM MISS LISA

Loose parts play invites children to explore, create, and imagine using open-ended materials in a variety of ways. Unlike toys with a single purpose, loose parts can be moved, combined, sorted, built with, and transformed into anything a child can imagine. Through this kind of play, children develop creativity, problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and spatial awareness while experimenting with their own ideas. Loose parts also encourage collaboration, language development, and the confidence to explore possibilities independently. Some of our choices include:

• Small wooden blocks
• Tiles & stones
• Mini tree stumps
• Micro dramatic animals/figures

We are beginning to explore scissors in the classroom. To help make this new skill manageable and set the children up for success, we are using strips of cardstock that are easier to hold and cut. At this early stage, our focus is on exploration and comfort rather than correcting their grip. We want the children to become familiar with how scissors work, develop confidence using them, and discover what their hands can do through practice and experimentation.

It has been wonderful to see how popular the activity is. Many students are choosing to stay for extended periods, eagerly requesting more and more strips to cut. This persistence is an important part of learning: as children repeat an activity by choice, they build hand strength, coordination, concentration, and confidence in their abilities. Each snip is an opportunity to experience success, develop independence, and discover the satisfaction of mastering a new skill. 

Have a wonderful weekend

This week was all about Noach and the Taivah.  Here are the words to the Noach song:

Noach was a good man, good man, good man,

Noach was a tzaddik in his days.

The people all around him were wicked, wicked.

The people were so wicked, I’m sorry to say.

Hashem said Noach build a teivah, a teivah, a teivah,

Noach build a teivah for everyone to see.

And who do you think lived there, lived there, lived there,

All the animals lived there and Noach’s family.

Then the rain came pouring, pouring, pouring, pouring.

The rain came pouring down for forty nights and days

And the people who were wicked, wicked 

were punished for their wicked, wicked ways.  

We also learned that the Taivah had 3 floors.  The top for Noach's family

the middle for the animals and the bottom for the garbage. They did not throw the trash out the window.

Shabbat Shalom! 

 From Miss Lisa

Children develop their physical skills from the center of the body outward, meaning that strength and coordination in the shoulders, arms, and hands develop before they have full mastery of the smaller muscles in their fingers. Fine-motor control is one of the later skills to emerge, which is why preschoolers benefit so much from playful opportunities to strengthen their hands, wrists, and fingers while developing coordination.

This fall, we are building these skills through hands-on activities throughout our classroom. In our science center, children use scoop tongs to pick up and sort fall items, strengthening their hand muscles while working on hand-eye coordination and precision. We are also practicing bilateral coordination—using both hands together—by stringing fall-themed wooden beads onto our tree branch. These activities help prepare our hands for important tasks such as using scissors, drawing, buttoning, and eventually writing.

Our sensory experiences provide another wonderful way to build strength, coordination, and confidence. Children are exploring tubs of cornmeal filled with fall treasures, using tongs, cups, and scoops to dig, transfer, pour, and discover. We are also enjoying the opportunity to touch, observe, and investigate gourds, tiny pumpkins, Indian corn, and squash. Sensory play engages the whole body and gives children opportunities to explore textures, practice problem-solving, strengthen their hands, and experience the joy of learning through their senses.

Please remember to sign your child in/out daily 

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

From Morah Chanie 

The Joy of Repetition

One of the things young children delight in most is repetition. Hearing the same story, singing the same song, and knowing what comes next may seem simple to adults, but for young children, repetition is an important part of learning and cognitive development. It helps strengthen memory, build language skills, develop attention, and give children opportunities to make connections and understand what they are experiencing.

This is also why repetition can be so comforting. When children know what is coming next, they feel a sense of security, confidence, and mastery. They can participate more independently because they already know the words, movements, or outcome—and there is something very satisfying about being able to predict what happens next!

We have been enjoying this in our classroom with our Pete the Cat felt board story, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, and our “Way Up High in the Apple Tree” song. The children are beginning to anticipate familiar parts, join in with words and actions, and proudly show us that they know what comes next.

And, of course, repetition isn’t all about learning—it is about joy! The children love the familiarity of these activities and the opportunity to be silly together. Whether we are making funny sounds, acting out parts of a story, or enthusiastically singing a familiar song, these repeated experiences give the children a chance to laugh, participate, and feel successful.

Sometimes doing something again and again is exactly what young children need. Through repetition, they are building their brains, their confidence, and a wonderful sense of belonging within our classroom community.

Have a wonderful weekend

We have been getting used to our new “Davening Circle” and learning about mitzvot. We would love for you to continue sending in Mitzvah Notes each day so we can share and celebrate the mitzvot your children are doing at home.

On Thursday we did "Tashlich".  We went to our Koi pond at the entrance of the school and threw away our mistakes.  We noticed our shadows as we were walking and we counted 5 fish.  

This week, we also learned the story of Yonah and the big fish! Yonah tried to hide from Hashem, but as we learned, you can’t hide from Hashem! It was a wonderful way to teach the children that Hashem is always with us, wherever we are.