Adom אדום (Older Toddlers)
We are loving summer session and our overarching theme of The Great Outdoors! We have a fun new dramatic play area which is our national park. We have a campsite with a tent, firepit, picnic basket, ranger jacket and a super fun BEAR CAVE! The kids can crawl inside the cave and snuggle with our brown bear or put on our bear costume and BE the bear! It’s been a really fun new dramatic play experience which we have never done before.
This week we are focusing on the theme of birds. On Monday I noticed several kids came in singing 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed (after looking at our new door display) so during circle time we switched the song to be 5 Little Birdies Hopping in their Nest. The kids love the birds that they can squeeze and their birdsong will play. Later in the morning we played outside in the lovely weather and then learned about Cardinals. We colored a cardinal and added birdseed to our artwork and also scooped birdseed into a real feeder which is now on our classroom door.
On Tuesday our morning work (morning work is always a table activity which is offered right after drop-off and participation is optional for the kids) was sorting colorful peg people onto popsicle sticks of each color in the rainbow. It was great sorting practice as well as fine motor practice. Our activity time involved learning about robins - they are brown and red, they eat worms, they lay blue eggs, they live in our yards - and then playing in the large sensory bin together. There were nests, birds, worms, tweezers and scoops to scoop up the rice. They played for a very long time. The large sensory table gives children practice being in very close proximity with their peers while sharing community toys. It provides lots of social skills practice.
On Wednesday our morning work was playdoh play. Later in the morning the weather cooperated and we were able to play in the water outside in our swimsuits. There was much excitement and fun. The kids' pure joy in playing in the water makes all the clothing changes worth the effort! For our activity time we took a walk around the pond watching and listening to the birds. We saw a mom and baby ducks, a red winged blackbird, a finch, and heard many others. We found a hatched goose egg on the side of the road. We spent time in the gaga pit playing with our birds, worms, nests, etc. The nice weather makes everything a little extra fun!
On Thursday our morning work was playing in a variety of individual sensory bins: corn, sand, popcorn or noodles. It was a messy but fun experience. Rabbi Crimmings surprised us by leaving a batch of challah dough on my desk. If you haven’t seen the amazing artistic work Rabbi creates with challah each week you should check it out: https://www.braidtheparashah.com/ She bases her creations on the current torah portion for that week. She is heading to Israel this week so had extra dough and knew we would love to make challah with the kids! We read Challah Time and then made snakes out of our individual pieces of challah and then the kids braided them with teacher help, put on an egg wash (we talked about the real bird egg we were using and how it came from a chicken) and added sprinkles. They look great! We hope you enjoy your loaf - your child will likely be proud to share what they made.
On Friday we will have Shabbat with all our school friends and work on creating nests out of playdoh, sticks, bits of shredded paper and other odds and ends. We have a real bird nest to look at with magnifying glasses for inspiration!
It’s been a great week in the Adom Room. We will continue to focus on The Great Outdoors and birds next week.
Shabbat Shalom!!
Fondly, Teachers Katie and Eric