Spring Continues. . .

Kitah Gimmel 

Just after Pesach break, we had some visitors: baby chicks that one Kitah Gimmel student and her family shared with the class. The student demonstrated how to hold a chick, and anyone who wanted was given a turn. Two by two they sat on the floor with a lap towel and she handed over a chick. Having pets come and visit is a great way for children to gain a better understanding of what “taking care” of a pet means.

We have some other visitors as well: monarch caterpillar larvae. We’ll be following and charting the change from day to day until they turn into butterflies. The children witnessed this metamorphosis last year in Kitah Bet. This is truly a miraculous event to see, no matter how many times you have seen it before. We will encourage the children to become scientists and make observations and hypotheses about the changes they see. Each day, a child will draw a small picture recording what they see. We will keep a time line to track how long it takes our larvae to grow larger and the metamorphosis into butterflies. We will encourage the children to ask questions about what they observe. They may have “homework” to help them find out the answers. We will also make some caterpillars of our own. When the metamorphosis is complete and we have (hopefully) some butterflies, we’ll have a release ceremony for the butterflies and the children who helped raise them.

Kitah Bet 

With Passover done we geared up for Yom Ha’atzmaut or Israel’s birthday. The curriculum around Yom Ha’atzmaut fits perfectly into our class’s world/diversity focus. We made an artistic rendition of the Israeli flag, as we have done with other countries we visited. There is also a wealth Israeli cuisine easily made by little hands: humus, falafel and Israeli salad are favorites. On the actual day of Yom Ha’atzmaut, we prepared and ate these Israeli foods for snack. The special thing about Israel’s birthday is that Israel is a place that has already been interwoven into the children's preschool experience. It is more familiar to the children than some other countries we have explored, yet also with a myriad of facets left to be discovered.

We also took a plane ride to Israel. After we “landed” in Israel, the children went through “customs” and stamped their passports. We continue to explore and discover the beauty of Israel, the diversity of the people, the Jewish history and the land. As we discussed the people of Israel, we discovered that, just like us, the people there are many different colors.

To continue building knowledge regarding diversity, we embarked on another project involving our skin tones. A few months ago, the children made outlines of their hands. Using skin tone colored crayons, they colored the inside of the hand with the color(s) that they felt best matched their skin. All the while, we engaged in discussions regarding our similarities and differences. This week, we had the children mix paint colors (white, yellow, brown, black and red) to find their skin tone and then made footprints with that color. The children have had some wonderful conversations as they tried to figure out the right mix of colors to match their own. One comment from a child, “Isn’t that funny, we all got the same colors in us!” And therein is the beauty of this project! We have a spectrum of colors and ethnicities in our community but we all do share many similarities as well.

The Kitah Bet children on the plane to Israel!

Stamping the passport upon arrival.

Mixing paint to find just the right skin color.

Kitah Alef 

The children have started telling jokes recently. This may sound like a small milestone of development, but there are so many nuances that go into humor that this is no small feat. When you first hear a joke, you need to understand what is being said and why it is funny. In order to tell a joke, you need to either remember one that you have already heard (and hopefully get the sequence correct) or improvise, sometimes working within the framework of an existing joke (i.e. knock, knock jokes).

Since the beginning of the school year, the children's language skills have improved tremendously. They are speaking in longer sentences, their speech clarity has improved, and their comprehension has grown by leaps and bounds. A college professor once told his linguistics class that you have to master a language first in order to then be able to flout the rules. Kitah Alef children are flouting the rules of joke telling left and right with varying degrees of success, but always to their own delight. Earlier this week, we started telling “jokes” at lunch one Tuesday. Here are a few:

“My joke is owls.” 

“I've got a joke about dinosaurs. Rawr!” 

“Why didn't the dolphin fly over the ocean? Because then it would be a bagel.” 

“Knock, knock. (Who's there?) Mr. Nobody!” 

“Knock, knock. (Who's there?) Banana. (Banana who?) Banana I didn't day orange!” 

These are not copyrighted, so feel free to borrow one or more to liven up your next cocktail party or board meeting.

On another note, the Kitah Alef children have been reaping the benefits of warmer weather by playing with water in the yard. Though it may look like the children are simply getting messy, they are in fact growing in every aspect of development. On particularly warm days, we fill up the barrel in the yard with water.  Once it is full, the children grab buckets, measuring cups and other containers and go get water themselves.  Walking with a bucket full of water not only increases physical development but also improves balance.  Eye-hand coordination, fine motor skills and hand grasp-skills needed for future writing are also facilitated by sand or water play. During water play, children investigate (“What happens when I put sand in water?”), observe (“I made mud!”), and problem solve (“Now I’m soaking wet. Better stand in the sun until I dry”).  They also explore cause and effect, understand measurement properties and use their imagination to create exciting new things. We have seen many mud cakes, mud cups of coffee, and mud ice cream. 

Throughout the year we have been talking about the benefits of water to our planet.  When the new trees were planted in the yard, we discussed how water helps them to grow.  At snack and lunch, we talk about how water helps our bodies to grow.  We have had many conversations about how we need to be careful with our water, especially in the middle of a severe drought, and that it is important not waste it.  

Passover 2015

The beautifully prepared Seder table in Kitah Gimmel. 

Kitah Gimmel 

As Kitah Gimmel prepared for Passover, one thing that stood out is how much the children—4- and 5-year-olds—are now capable of doing. They can follow multistep directions, focus for extended periods of time, and initiate their own activities. Such growth and maturity became evident in their various holiday-related activities, from painting Seder plates with thought and intention to designing and sewing their own pillows and engaging in our model Seder. One new activity we did this year was to act out the story of the Exodus. We introduced props, made costumes, and then acted out the story to the younger children in the Kitah Bet and Kitah Alef classes. Putting on a play was a real challenge, because it involved recalling the story, putting it into one’s own words, using one’s body to act it out, and interacting with the other players. Some children felt comfortable with speaking parts; others enjoyed presenting the action (including frogs jumping everywhere!). 

Kitah Bet

We introduced the holiday of Passover by asking, “What do you know about Passover?” Although it’s been a year since they were last exposed to the holiday and have since then learned about other holidays, the children remembered a lot about the story. 

In preparation for Passover, we learned new songs, new character names, and the story of Passover told in various ways. To bring part of the story to life, we painted pyramids, made some symbols of the ten plagues, and created a mural depicting the parting of the Red Sea. We munched on matzah and made charoset. We talked about hametz (bread or anything leavened) and cleaned our classroom in preparation for our model seder. The children also became more familiar with the Haggadah we use during our model seder (My Very Own Haggadah, which can be found at Berkeley’s Afikomen) and with the significance of the foods found on the seder plate. Each child also made a beautiful matzah cover.

Kitah Alef 

The class seder is such a wonderful tradition that we have here at Gan Avraham. It fosters a deep and meaningful connection to the holiday and enriches the children’s understanding of Jewish traditions. We set out a long table with place settings for each child and a chair(s) behind for their family members, as well as multiple seder plates and a plate with some samplings of food in front of each child. 

In preparation for the holiday, we focused on the vast traditions, rituals, and symbols of Passover. After some hands on learning experiences, like making frogs and matzah covers and practicing with the Haggadah, the children really started to grasp the major themes of the story.  

A Kitah Alef child setting up a play Seder plate. 

Some Goings-on in March... 

Kitah Bet: “The Color of Us” 

Although the Gan is a single faith-based preschool, we are aware of and pride ourselves on being a community that is home to children and parents of many different identities, backgrounds, and even faiths. At this age, children are curious about their own and others’ physical characteristics. As they gain a sense of themselves, they also begin to construct a sense of multiple social identities: racial, ethnic/cultural, gender and religious identities. It is also possible for children to develop pre-prejudice as they absorb negative attitudes, misinformation, and stereotypes about various aspects of human diversity. Our job is to help the children understand and appreciate differences and to help them develop the skills to navigate and thrive in our complex, diverse world.

We recently read Karen Katz’s The Color of Us, a book that delightfully explores skin tones. We invited the children to examine their skin tone by outlining their hand and asking them to pick a shade from skin tone color crayons and to color the inside of the hand. What ensued were some wonderful and illuminating discussions and a colorful mural of our hands (teachers included, of course!). “We are all shades of brown.” “I think you have a little of my shade in your shade.” “Nobody has paper color skin.” “My skin is toast.” “I’m peachy.” “I’m almond.” We then explored ways in which we are the same and different. During group time, we divided into groups according to certain characteristics, such as gender, hair color, and eye color. We are learning so much about these issues together! 

Kitah Alef: “Process versus Product” in Art

When we plan art activities, we try to expose the children to a wide variety of materials, including paint, crayons, chalk, glue, tape, stickers, and stamps. In explaining our approach to art, we use a phrase with which many of you may not be familiar (at least not in the early childhood setting). We talk about focusing on “process vs. product.” When each child in the class does an art project and they are all displayed on the bulletin board, do they all look the same? Were they given the freedom to express themselves creatively, or were they told/showed what to do and what the finished product should look like?

This definition of “process” is from an ECE website: "Process" means allowing children to explore art materials with freedom without the pressure to copy a model or stay in the lines. Process is experimenting with paints, mixing colors, and feeling the textures. Process is gluing various sizes, shapes, and colors of paper together to create a collage. Process is freedom to experiment and enjoy the feeling of creating without being concerned with the outcome or the product. 

At Gan Avraham, we focus on the process rather than on the finished product. If a child wants to fingerpaint for so long that she tears through the soggy paper and has nothing to take home, we view that as a success rather than a failure. Although the child may not have a finished product to send to Grandma, she got to use the materials as she chose and spend as long as she wanted at the project table. One child may glue one popsicle stick to the paper and then walk away, while another will stay at the project table all morning glueing on every material available and another will choose not to do project that day. All are valid. The teacher's role is to facilitate confidence and decision making, and to provide reassurance, not to model how it should turn out. The children spend much time during their school day following directions, and art experiences should not be one of these times.

Although Kitah Alef children have not yet begun to create (recognizable) representational art, art still provides a chance for them to express themselves creatively. Howard Gardiner, a well-known education theorist, writes that "artistic learning grows from children doing things: not just imitating but actually creating.”

Purim 2015!

Gan Avraham children celebrated Purim during a school-wide celebration on March 4. Teachers acted out the story of Purim, and each class had a party afterwards. 

To prepare for the holiday, the children explored its rituals through art, cooking, and dramatic play, supported by stories and songs. The children made groggers, masks, and even megillahs, and the older classrooms engaged in play in a Shushan area. The classes also participated in the mitzvah of Mishloah Manot, the giving of treats to friends. 

Many Gan children also attended that evening's reading of the Megillah--a rock' n' roll version! Here is a short sample of Rabbi Bloom as Memimen singing "Lose Yourself." 

Tu B’Shevat, the Birthday of the Trees!

Kitah Gimmel (4-5 year olds)

We celebrated Tu B'Shevat on Wednesday, February 4, which gave us an opportunity to tie in our exploration of building and experimenting with real wood to the importance of trees to people and animals. We discussed two important Tu B’Shevat mitzvot: Bal Tashchet means do not destroy, which we discussed in the context of trees, other living things, and also belongings and materials. Tikkun Olam, or “repairing the world,” reminds us of our responsibility to try to make things in our world better. We talked about recycling, reusing, and taking care of the world around us. Of course, it wouldn't be a Jewish celebration without something to eat. We baked muffins using tree fruits, as well as tasted a selection of dried fruits that are eaten in Israel, including figs, dates, apricots, olives, carob, and almonds. The children also constructed a treehouse from large cardboard boxes and tree branches, which creates a cozy corner in the classroom. 

Kitah Bet (3-4 year olds)

Our Tu B’Shevat activities included creating tree representations using various materials and painting with twigs and branches. Our science table hosted both evergreen branches and deciduous branches, so that the children were able to explore the different ways in which trees flourish. We also discussed concepts of Tikkun Olam, or “repairing the world.” We tied together the concept of caring for our earth and the world with the importance of recycling, reusing, and composting; we also discussed the importance of trees and all they provide for us. In keeping with the custom of planting (in Israel, children traditionally plant trees to make the holiday), we planted parsley. If all goes well, we will have plenty for Passover! 

For the past month, Kitah Bet children have also been traveling around the world; our most recent destination was Mexico. We constructed a Mexican market with items to “purchase” as well as learned some Spanish songs, cooked quesadillas, and took a plane ride to Mexico, with passports and all.

Passports to Learning

By Becca Posamentier 

  “My youngest child is four years old and has already started a trip around the world. I rarely get away from work to come to the mini Shabbat service in the classroom on Fridays at 12:40.  A couple of weeks ago, however, my schedule freed up and my little guy stood up his Shabbat buddy (the preschool director) and sat on my lap, squished on his rug square between the shelf full of Mo Willems Elephant and Piggie books and Tu B'Shevat picture books, wiggling with excitement, telling me all about the challah he had helped make that morning.

After saying the blessings, lighting candles, drinking grape juice from the tiniest paper cup, and eating some of that amazing homemade challah, we sang some songs and it was time for announcements. One of the teachers called our attention to the Mexican Market that was set up in one corner of the room. There were red, green, and white banners and a Mexican flag, a piñata, and colorful table decorations. The lyrics to “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” were written in Spanish on the board. Once the announcements were over, my son eagerly pulled me over to another wall to show me his passport.  Each child had decorated their own passport booklet and this class of 3-4 year olds was embarking on a trip around the world to explore different cultures. 

Being a Jewish preschool, there are multiple maps of Israel around the class and the children learn Hebrew words and all about Jewish holidays and the land of Israel.  But I was thrilled to see that here in Oakland my little guy was given the tools and then the chance to use his imagination to explore the world beyond the playground.  Hopefully some day we’ll do lots of exciting traveling with his real passport. In the meantime, just going to preschool can be a true adventure! 

Kitah Alef (2-3 year olds)

“Let's go plant today, it's a holiday. Let's go plant a tree and sing so merrily: Today is Tu Tu Tu B'Shevat, Tu Tu Tu B'Shevat. Let's go plant today and sing a happy song.”

Even though it is winter here, spring is beginning in Israel. (This difference is much more powerful when you live somewhere where there is still a foot of snow outside your door.) Tu B’Shevat is an agricultural holiday and has become the holiday of planting and relating to nature in more recent times. In observance of the holiday, we talked a lot about the importance of trees to people, animals, and the environment. Our music specialist came and sang some Tu B'Shevat songs with us (including the song quoted above). We also baked lemon muffins for snack. 

Holiday aside, we added art binders in the classroom. When the children make art, they can choose to take it home or to put it into their binders. These binders will travel with them to Kitah Bet and on to Kitah Gimmel to be taken home at graduation. This is not only a way to show pride in one's work, by giving it a place of honor in the binder, but also it will be a way to chronicle artistic (and fine motor) development. The art in the binder will start with scribble pictures, maybe with a few words of dictation, and eventually progress to shapes, symbolic pictures, possibly with elaborate dictated stories to accompany them, and even letters.

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 

         

November 2014 Happenings at the Gan

Kitah Alef (2-year-old class): The Morning Routine 

We wanted to try to give you a glimpse into what is going on during a typical day in the life of Kitah Alef. During morning free play in the classroom, children have a wide range of activities available to them. There are always books on the bookshelf, puzzles in the puzzle rack, art at the easel, blocks for building, cars and trains to drive, play food, plates, cups and Shabbat and Havdallah ritual objects in the dramatic play area along with dolls and blankets, and usually a morning activity at the table. 

Kitah Bet (3-year-old class): Marble Painting 

Our bulletin boards are adorned with marble/ball paintings. What may seem like a simple and quite beautiful art activity is really a science exploration. Using various paint colors, the children explored motion while watching the marbles and golf balls roll on the paper inside a cardboard box. There is much more to this activity than meets the eye.

Primarily, this activity serves to help children understand the cause and effect relationship between moving a box in various directions and moving the balls. The children develop the language in observing the process, i.e., prediction, fast/slow, here/there, forward/backward, wide/narrow, etc. They are also engaging in cooperative play, as two friends move the box together. We moved the activity outside, used a very large sheet of paper and invited small groups of children to participate at a time. Hopefully, we have enhanced curiosity, motor strength and problem solving skills.  

Kitah Gimmel (4-year-old class): Children as Designers 

Teachers of young children have long recognized that recycled or “found” materials have a great value for children’s creative expression. When children have access to a variety of recycled materials such as paper tubes, fabric scraps, ribbons, string, gift-wrap, envelopes, as well as tools such as scissors, glue, tape, hole punches, they become design thinkers and makers of all sorts of gadgets. 

Exploring with materials in an open-ended way has many benefits to children’s overall development. They gain knowledge about tools and materials as they learn techniques and practice skills like joining, adhering, cutting taping and gluing. Language development is encouraged when children have the opportunity to articulate and describe what they have made. They also engage socially as they share ideas and techniques and model the use of tools and materials as they collaborate with one another. Additionally, teachers and children discuss the importance of recycling and raise environmental awareness in the children who will be the stewards of the earth.