January 2015: Welcome Back to the Gan! 

Kitah Gimmel (4-5 year olds)

We prepared for Hanukkah by reviewing the story of the holiday and putting out special blocks and figures so the children could tell the story themselves, if they wished. We made special Hanukkah decorations and cards, as well as a different Hanukkah treat. We used whole wheat flour tortillas, cut out Magen David shapes with cookie cutters, fried them in oil, and at them warm, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. The next week, we made latkes in the classroom and played Hanukkah games, such as dreidel. 

When we returned to school from winter break, we started our building and construction projects. We are exploring different building materials with recycled materials and understanding different methods of construction; the children are figuring out that they need to work collaboratively on the larger structures. We supplemented our projects with a book about famous architects, Christy Hale’s Dreaming Up a Celebration of Building, and transformed our dramatic play area into an architect’s office, complete with a drafting table, rulers, blueprint drawings of homes, and a work table where models of buildings can be worked on.

Kitah Bet (3-4 year olds)

We explored the holiday of Hanukkah through art, song, and cooking to allow all the senses to be engaged in the learning process. Latkes were on the menu, as eating oily foods is essential to the holiday! We also connected the story of the miracle of the oil through olive tasting and traced the transformation of olives from fruit to candle fuel. Celebrating Hanukkah also gave us the opportunity to relate to our ongoing geography/diversity project. We learned where Israel is in relation to our continent, country, homes, and school. Israel has great significance in our Jewish identity and will anchor our exploration of the world’s geography as it anchors our learning of Jewish identity and history.

At a recent Gan faculty meeting, one of the Kitah Gimmel teachers shared some fascinating insight she gained after hearing Stuart Brown, MD, the founder of The National Institute for Play, speak at a symposium at The Bing Nursery School at Stanford University. Dr. Brown has spent years cataloguing profiles of people and has demonstrated that there is an “active presence of play in the accomplishments of the very successful.” Hearing about his research only reinforced to us that play is a necessary and integral part of early childhood education. As a play based preschool, we believe that play is a child’s work.

Picture this play scenario: A group of several children are happily building with Duplo blocks on the rug. One child has an idea to build a spaceship, another would like to make a bat mobile. A third friend joins in and says, “But I want to play and I want to build the spaceship myself!” One child then responds, “Well, we were here first and it was our idea to build a spaceship!” Oy!

As teachers, we see this typical exchange as more complex than simply “play” or play with some discord. Through their play, the children are developing skills such as listening, concentration, negotiation, conflict resolution, and decision-making. While building together they are learning how to be respectful of each other’s feelings. As they create with the blocks, they develop fine motor skills and an understanding of mathematical concepts such as space, sequencing, weight, height, and volume. As teachers encourage the children to verbalize what they are doing and feeling, they are expanding language skills, acquiring new ways to express themselves and are learning how to label and name—skills necessary for the eventual mastery of reading. Free play also allows for children to build confidence in their own abilities.

Kitah Alef (2-3 year olds) 

For Chanukah, we told the story of Hanukkah—a complicated story of violence and mature themes that we distilled into a developmentally appropriate story. We brought in many different kinds of chanukiot and candles for the children to experiment with, and made a Hanukkah collage all together, stained glass frames, and Hanukkah cards. We also made latkes in the classroom.

Kitah Alef children during group time

Kitah Alef children painting