The School is Abuzz for Rosh Hashanah
From the desk of Meredith S.
Its amazing to see what's happening here in the ECC as the teachers are gearing up towards Rosh Hashanah. The activities have taken a very beautiful and emergent tone and I'm so overjoyed with the results, that I wanted to share it with all of you.
The 4's class: Holding hands, the children went outside and formed the shape of a hexagon to create a human honeycomb. Then, one at a time, each "worker bee" searched for cups of "nectar" and used an eye dropper to suck up the nectar and deliver it to the comb. Once it was delivered, the "worker bees" shook their tushies to complete the honey bee dance. Back in their classroom, they continued filling up their hives (plastic egg cartons) with nectar (yellow water) that was collected from outside (the teachers planted cups of yellow water around the school grounds). Some children took to sketching shofarot while others worked on making their own honey bee with fuzzy fabric, yarn and more.
The 3's classes: Today, one of the classes worked on sketching apples. They investigated the apples with magnifying glasses and then sketched what they saw. One child found an apple on the floor and, after looking closely and thinking about why that apple was different, the child determined that the apple had cracked from falling. The other class watch several videos of bees collecting nectar and working in the honey comb. They even saw the Queen bee amongst all the thousands on the screen. It amazed them to see how many bees it takes to make just a little honey! They watched the honey being "spun" out of the combs in a special factory and followed up the video lessons by tasting honey.
The 2's classes: Once again, one of our classes experimented with apples. They had red, green, yellow and multi-colored apples at their table. They discussed the different apple colors in English and Hebrew. Then, each child was given a slice of each apple to taste. Some spit out the skin and others puckered their lips from the sour taste. It was a yummy experiment that concluded with planting the apple seeds in dirt.
The other 2's class visited the Art Studio today. After deciding whether to bite the apple open or use a knife, the children investigated the inside of the apple and looked for the seeds and star in the middle. Then they went to the easels to paint apples. Using brown, red and green paints, the children created masterpieces of apple art. Some of the children used blocks they found in the Studio to build a honey comb while the others searched through the found materials looking for items that could be used to build another honey comb.
The Toddler classes: These delicious little ones have been singing the song "Way Up High in the Apple Tree" and discussing the color of apples. They cut apples in half; painted with them; and looked inside for the seeds. The Toddlers are also talking about Shofarot. The children have learned to use their fingers to blow the "finger" shofar. Several of them especially love that its not as loud as the real shofar! Using the end of paper towel tubes, some children used red paint to make designs on paper apples.
Its been a wonderful couple days of exploration and learning! To see more of these amazing pictures, please be sure to visit the class Shutterfly sites at the end of the week.
