During the month of March we turned our attention to Passover. All of our classes sang Passover songs: “Dayenu”, “Building Cities” and “One Morning”. We made seder plate representations with paper plates, afikomen bags, wine glasses and wine, in addition tobeautiful hand decorated paper tablecloths.
One of the highlights of the Passover season was the Hummingbirds class, the four-year-olds, visit to the Jewish Children’s Museum on March 22 nd. The trip was the Hummingbirds’ first school bus trip, which in itself was very exciting. The kids took part in a Passover workshop. They got to crack wheat stalks to extract the seeds. They talked about how matzo must be baked in 18 minutes. The kids then rolled out dough with rolling pins and used forks or a special tool to prick holes in the matzo. After the matzo was baked they all received a piece of matzo to take home with them.
In addition to the Passover workshop, the class was given a special private tour by a museum educator named Shira. They saw an interactive display on the days of creation. They also saw a Tu’B’Shivat tree and visited a Purim exhibit complete with costumes for dressing up. The classes’ favorite exhibit was the Kosher supermarket. The supermarket had a cash register with scanners, and shopping carts to use for shopping in the supermarket. Shira pointed out the symbols for kosher food.
-Susan Sporer, Director
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The Union Temple Preschool is a three year, morning program for two, three, and four year olds. Extended days are available four afternoons a week for three and four year olds. Our goal is to lead children comfortably through the separation process, teach them to function in a group, and leave the school ready for kindergarten. Our dedicated, nurturing staff provides a secure, stimulating, child-centered environment that enhances self-image and fosters social growth. The curriculum has a Jewish perspective - celebrating the Jewish holidays, family and lifecycle events - but is open to all children in the community. There is a substantial discount for Templemembers.
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Every morning after all of our four year olds arrive at school, they all come together for their morning meeting.They greet each other, count the boys and girls who are present, and talk about what they will be doing at school that day.They also keep track of how many days of school we've hadfar.They have been counting the days since the first day of school way back in September.All of this leads up to the celebration of the 100th day of school. This year the 100th day of school will be celebrated on Friday, March 9th . At the beginning of the year it seemed as though 100 days was unimaginably far in the future, but day by day as they count they graduallyenvision the arrival of this most momentous occasion.
This week in preparation for their 100 day party, each student brought in 100 objects to use to decorate a paper hat.Kids brought in pom poms, chocolate kisses, cocoa puffs, cheerios, lentils and noodles. At today's morning meeting the class made a list of activities for their party on Friday.They will be building with 100 legos, making a chain with 100 links, jumping 100 times, counting 100 things, searching for 100 pom poms, wearing their hats which they decorated with 100 items, and eating 100 bites of pizza. At day 90 as they continued to count up to 100 they also started to count down the 10 remaining days, by removing one link each day from a 10 link paper chain.Other 100 related activities leading up to the party include singing a "tweeked"version of "We're Having A Party", and reading One Hundred Hungry Ants, Counting to 100 With The NBA, 100th Day of Worries, and The 100th Day.
Day by day the excitement builds as we approach the 100th day.As they eagerly anticipate Friday's celebration, the children are also being exopsed to lots of rich conceptual information.They get a sense of the progression of time, as they experience how long it takes for 100 days to pass. They get a sense of relative sizes,they compare the space 100 lentils fill as compared to 100 candy kisses.Some of the children understand that if 50 days havesince the start of school than 50 days remain until the 100th day.Many of the children are thrilled with their ability to count all the way to 100, which they could not do on day 1.For those of us who have been here through many 100 day celebrations, it also marks the movement through another cycle and hopefully the not to distant arrival of spring.
-Susan Sporer, Preschool Director
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