Tu B'Shvat is the new year of trees, so it is fitting that Giving Tree celebrates Tu B'Shvat with the families! The teachers in each room planned Tu B'Shvat themed activities in their spaces. They set up invitations using tree materials, flowers, recycled materials, pink and green manipulatives, and loose parts. Families were invited to explore different invitations in the hallway and in the classroom to celebrate Tu B'Shvat. The interactive Tu B'Shvat experience was a little different this year than in previous years. Teachers set up age appropriate activities in their classrooms and worked together with their neighboring classroom to set up an invitation in the hallway. This change allowed families to visit all of the classrooms and experience Tu B'Shvat from the toddler rooms to the preschool and prek rooms. The idea behind this change was to provide families with the opportunity to view different classrooms, visit with family members where children are comfortable, and to highlight ideas for age appropriate activities. Our Giving Tree students and families had a wonderful time!
0 Comments
At Giving Tree Early Learning we believe it is important for children to have quality experiences together. We often have classes combine for special occassions and experiences. Doing this allows for children to see their siblings or cousins, observe each others behavior and abilities, help one another based on developmental needs, and learn from each other. A very special occassion that we gather for monthly is our Shabbat Assembly. The Shabbat Assembly is a time where all of the classes get together in the cafeteria to listen to Rabbi Birnhack sing songs. Multiage experiences like the Shabbat Assembly are a great way to join together and feel a sense of community at our school The Apple Market, held by the Oak class, is a fun way for children from all classes to interact and engage with one another. The Oak class goes to each class before the market to hand out money they have made. The classes bring their money and use it to purchase apples at the Apple Market. Giving Tree students occassionally have opportunities to interact with HHAI students. These experiences are very special and often happen during Middle School Buddies. Middle School Buddies is an experience that happens in one of the middle school electives. The middle schoolers spend time doing different activities with the Oak class. They read books, play on the playground, and engage in loose parts play. Multiage experiences are beneficial for the development of social skills, language development, and foster collective learning. Experiences like these support the idea that children learn from one another, watching each other, communicating with one another, and exchanging thoughts and ideas about the world around them.
The Giving Tree Art Gallery is a recent tradition started at the end of the year event for the 2022-2023 school year-Celebration in the Air. During our Celebration in the Air event, we collected artwork done by children in each class and displayed the pieces in the hallway along with an artist portrait of the child. This year for our annual Friends and Family event, we decided it would be a wonderful idea for families to see their children's artwork displayed in the hallway as the Giving Tree Art Gallery. Teachers began collecting different artwork in the beginning of the year. Some classes explored making masks out of paper mache and paint while others experimented with paint sticks and aluminum foil. There were several self portraits and family portraits in addition to collaborative murals. All artwork displayed was process art, the method of art exploration we implement at Giving Tree Early Learning. Process art means that children are able to create with freedom from ideas of what their artwork should look like. This means that the artwork created was determined by the child and not dictated by the teacher. The teachers put out supports and tools for children to explore and create art with. Supports are materials used to make marks on like paper, cardboard, aluminum foil, and wood. Tools are considered anything that makes marks on supports like paintbrushes, sticks, crayons, markers, and paintsticks.
The Giving Tree Art Gallery is the perfect way of celebrating children's artwork. It is a celebration for their abilities, their learning, and their hard work. Documentation in this form gives children a sense of pride. It allows families, visitors, staff, and other children to see a glimse of the Hundred Languages of children. In the Reggio philosophy, one principle shines above the rest; children learning from each other. Malaguzzi believed in theorist Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of cognitive development. Vygotsky theorized that children learn from each other, in collaboration and communication with each other. Malaguzzi believed that "social learning took place before cognitive development," (Gandini 2012). With this theory of social learning, we emphasize community and collaboration among children. At Giving Tree Early Learning, children are given opportunities to learn from each other throughout the day. They engage in invitations together, large group and small group activities, and classes visit each other during multiage experiences. The Oak class explored drawing people as an invitation to be used for a mural. They were instructed to draw a friend that wasn't in there class. From there, the school mural grew! Another important aspect of the Reggio philosophy is the documentation of the children's learning. Documentation plays a vital role in the Reggio approach. Not only does documentation celebrate children's learning, but it captures where a child is in his/her development at that particular moment. The Oak children did their own versions of their friends, siblings, cousins, middle school buddies, and the HHAI students. During Friends and Family Day, families we able to stop by and find their child and children looked for themselves and their friends! Mrs. Georgia is a classroom support teacher at Giving Tree Early Learning, but she wears many hats in the program. Mrs. Georgia bakes challah with each class twice a month. She also does special baking projects around the Jewish holidays. Recently, Mrs. Georgia has been working with the Oak class on sewing! She used a large plastic needle and thread to sew buttons on burlap. Mrs. Georgia in conjunction with Mrs. Mahern, plan next steps to help children develop the fine motor skills to help sew projects together. The Oak children continued practicing their sewing skills with more focused projects. They created keepsakes for Rosh Hashanah. Mrs. Georgia gave them more opportunities to work on their stitching skills. Students work on several skills while sewing including hand eye coordination, fine motor skills, receptive and expressive communication, and creative arts. Mrs. Georgia continued working on sewing skills by introducing children to sewing machines. She started small, by using the sewing machine to stitch the side of fabric and moved on to thinner fabric. I wonder what they will make next! The holiday of Rosh Hashanah is one of our favorites! So many fun and exciting events and activities take place at Giving Tree. First, teachers set out invitations and provocations based on symbols of Rosh Hashanah like honey and apples for a sweet new year! The light studio and classrooms were full of Rosh Hashanah Reggio inspired experiences. Children talked about bees, honey, and apples. They explored their classrooms and creative play spaces and made beautiful keepsake to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. Children had the opportunity to bake honey cakes with Mrs. Georgia! They learned about recipes, and ingredients while measuring and mixing everything together. We had our annual Ram visit where children had the opportunity to pet the ram and learn about his horns. Rabbi Schusterman came and blew the shofar for us as well! We ended our week with the Oak Apple Market. The Oak children were proud to hand out apples at their apple market. They made money for all of the Giving Tree classrooms, decorated bags for their customers, and made all of the signs for the apple market. Not only did they have a blast serving their customers apples, they worked on essential skills like writing, literacy, math, social emotional skills, and creative arts. Teachers were back at Giving Tree Early Learning to set up their classrooms the first week of August. Not only did they get their rooms ready, they also participated in professional development. Back to school night was a wonderful opportunity for children to meet their teachers, see their classrooms, and make new friends! Families were invited to the playground dedication to celebrate the new HHAI playground made possible by HHAI Alumni. The first week of school is focused around relationships and routines. Children need time to form meaningful and secure relationships with their teachers and classmates. This is an important time to establish routines for the rest of the school year. Simple routines like putting backpacks away and washing hands in the morning provide safety and predictability so that children can adjust to school easily. Giving Tree children were able to engage with their environments through invitations set up in their classrooms. The teachers focused on getting to know children with activies about how tall they are, what they like to do, and who is in their family. We ended the week with Rabbi Schusterman blowing the shofar Friday morning for Rosh Hashanah.
The students at Giving Tree Early Learning experienced the Story of Passover in so many wonderfully creative ways. First they participated in a Matzah Factory with Rabbi Schusterman. He handed out bakers hats and explained why we make matzah for Passover. Each child made their own matzah and Rabbi Schusterman baked it and returned it to the children. The children continued their learning about Passover through another food project with our resident chef, Mrs. Georgia. Mrs. Georgia prepared all of the ingredients to make charoset, an element of the Passover Seder. The charoset reminds us of the mortar/paste that the Jews were forced to use when they were building for the Egyptians. Mrs. Georgia visited each classroom and every student was able to participate in making charoset. Not only are cooking experiences fun, they target several developmental and learning areas including fine motor skills, language and communication, math, science, and social skills. The Light Studio was transformed into a Matzah Factory where children could dress as bakers and make pretend matzah. Invitations were set up that were Passover themed involving the 10 Plagues, pyramid building, and matzah. The Oak students learned about all of the steps in the Seder during Passover. They drew pictures, created seder plates, and had a small seder "meal" in their classroom. Each teacher set up invitations and provocations that involved Passover. There were Passover themed sensory tables and provocation tables. Passover themed art activities and crafts were made. Children were able to freely explore art materials, loose parts, and books while learning about Passover. Purim is an exciting holiday that involves dressing up and celebrating the story of Queen Esther and how she saved the Jewish people from being hurt by Haman. The week leading up to Purim meant several provocations set up in each classroom that were Purim themed. Children enjoyed building with different materials and hearing the Story of Queen Esther, dressing up in bright colors with beads and crowns, and exploring and creating Groggers, noise makers to shake when the name of Haman was heard. On Purim, teachers created engaging and exciting activities in each of our creative play spaces. The light studio featured three different kinds of castle building, along with puppets dipicting each character in the Story of Queen Esther, and light play. The library had puppets, felt stories, dress up clothes, and books about Purim. The Big Muscle Room had a sensory table set up along with different obstacle courses and pool noodle horses! Our atelier had several activites available for children to explore including castle decorating, mask making, bead making, and groggers in the sensory table. The week before Purim, Mrs. Georgia, our resident baker, went to each classroom and made Hamantaschen with the children. The children practiced skills like math when measuring ingredients, receptive and expressive communication when following directions to make Hamantaschen, science when mixing together the ingredients, and sensory input when rolling and manipulating the dough. Purim was a big success and all of the children enjoyed themselves as well as the teachers!
Celebrating Tu B'Shvat, also known as the New Year for Trees, was an engaging experience at Giving Tree Early Learning. Each classroom was tasked with setting up and arranging Tu B'Shvat inspired provocations and invitiations in the cafeteria. There were a variety of activities set up to engage children of all ages. Light tables were set up in the far corner and sensory tables in the center of the cafeteria. Each light table and sensory table filled with intriguing and natural materials. Pink and green elements were seen to celebrate Tu B'Shvat and emphasize the importance of trees in Israel. Both families and children spent time immursed in play at these areas. Teachers created activities that were geared towards specific skills like sorting, counting, dramatic play, fine motor skills, and creative expression that incorportated the seven species of Israel. These activities were set up throughout the cafeteria for families to move freely, visiting each provocation. To tie the event together, families were invited to paint branches, decorate our Giving Tree with beads, and write their names on ribbons and tie them to the tree. This allowed our program to put emphasis on Tu B'Shvat and show the significance of trees in Israel while incorporating how much we value our families in our school community.
|
AuthorMrs. Alethia Minlaff, Director: you can reach her by emailing aminzlaff@hhai.org Archives
January 2024
Categories
All
|