In the beginning . . .

From the desk of Meredith S.

Exploring Creation: All of our classes have started exploring the days of Creation. Here is a snapshot look at what they've been doing over the past couple weeks.

The Tzavim & Parparim Toddlers

The Toddler classes started their Beresheit discussion by talking about what Hashem means to them and the concept of thanking Hashem for what they have. One day they thanked Hashem for the sunny sky outside. On another occasion when they were learning about the heavens and the waters they thanked Hashem for the rain that got them wet during their water-table exploration! One class began their week by painting on black paper with white paint. They also painted black glue on white paper and stuck black materials to it in order to create a design. While discussing darkness and light, the classes gathered together to use an overhead projector to look at shadows. They held images in front of the light to create darkness and then turned out the lights and shined flashlights to create light.

The Susim 2’s

The Susim class began experimenting with darkness and light. They wore glow necklaces and went to the darkest places in the shul that they could find; the coat room and the ladies room. When the lights were on in the coat room, they could see the hangers on the racks. And, when the lights were on in the ladies room, they could see the sinks. But with the lights turned out, all that the children saw were each other’s glow necklaces. The class concluded that with the lights turned out both rooms looked the same…DARK!

The Peelim 2’s

The Peelim class started right at the beginning when the world was just ובוהו תוהו (tohu va’vohu) … complete chaos. The children discussed how Hashem had to sort things out to make the world a better place. They worked on sorting all kinds of objects from different sized rubber bands to colored pompoms and buttons. In order to make their own representations of chaos, the class visited the Art Studio and searched out lots of miscellaneous materials to create their own versions of disorder.

The Barvazim 3’s

The Barvazim class has been focusing on a different day of Creation each week. Working in small groups, the Barvazim children investigate a picture of a specific day of Creation. They talk about what they see in the picture and what they think or know about the colors. Then each group visits the Art Studio to explore the materials and select anything they can find to help them “create” their own version of Beresheit.

The Kofim 3’s

This class has been doing lots of investigations as they discuss the story of Beresheit. But first, they learned that creating the world took Hashem 6 days before there was even one day to rest from all the hard work. To see some of Hashem’s creations first hand, the children ventured outside. They looked at the clouds in the sky, the trees in the ground, and the dust and leaves on the earth. They talked about what the ground feels like and what they sky would feel like if they could touch it. They also created sky pictures with crayons and found materials in the color blue.

The Dubonim 4’s

Using flashlights the children learned that some objects like windows or other clear materials let light shine through them. However when light tries to shine through opaque objects it doesn’t go through. The children gathered objects from the room and then predicted whether the light would shine through. They took turns conducting their experiment then sorted the objects into three categories: transparent, translucent or opaque. During another day of investigation, the sky was partly cloudy and, while the children looked at the clouds, they listened to a story in Hebrew about seeing different images in the clouds. Then, they created their own clouds by putting white paint on paper and folding it in half.