Festival Of The Spring!

Did you know that one of the names for Passover is האביב‎ חג  (Chag Ha-Aviv) – “Festival of the Spring”? Take a look at your Seder Plate.  See the Karpas (typically parsley)? One of the lesser-known meanings of Karpas is that it is a representation of Spring on our Passover table.  Here at the Friedberg JCC Early Childhood Centers we love this merging of two of our favorite times; Passover, the rebirth of the Jewish People and Spring, the rebirth of the Earth!  This week, as we prepare for our Passover celebrations, we are also learning all about Spring and the exciting things it brings with it!

Let’s begin with Passover…

As the Jewish people fled from Egypt, they had no time to let their bread rise, and so they strapped their dough to their backs and let it bake in the sun. We commemorate this every year by making and eating Matzah during the days of Passover. To learn about this, our Jewish Culture Specialist, Miss Yochi, continued to visit each of our three branches to make our very own Matzah Bakery! She didn’t just read a Hagadah though, she taught us about the story of Passover through song, dance and hands on activities. Check out this great video of our Long Beach branch singing “Avadim Hayinu” – “We Were Slaves” with Miss Yochi!

 

Merrick/Bellmore at the Matzah Bakery!

We’re also very busy preparing for our Seders next week. We are creating art extension projects to put on our tables, making chocolate covered Matzah, and rehearsing our roles for these exciting gatherings. Check back next week to read all about them and see more fantastic photos and videos!

And now onto Spring…

Our Long Beach branch continued to enhance our Author Studies with books about Springtime and exploring outdoors! Our Two-Year-Olds welcomed Spring with The Sparkly Garden by Caroline Davis, went on a nature walk and pointed out daffodils and crocuses growing in our neighborhood.  Our Pre-K also studied flowers by reading Spring Snowman by Jill Barne.  This is about a field of daisies that takes on the shape of a snowman! We also listened to Wake Up It’s Spring by Lisa Campbell Ernst which celebrates the awakening of life in the Springtime!

The Long Beach Three’s took a different approach and talked about how windy the month of March can be as Spring begins. We continued our author study of Chris L. DeMarest with his book, My Blue Boat by making our own boats with foam bottoms, twig masts, and paper sails. We held a sailboat race in our class sensory table and pretended to be the wind as we blew our boats from one end to the other!

Sail Boat Races in Long Beach! 

Over at our Merrick/Bellmore branch, Miss Helen’s Pre-K class learned all about the life cycle of a frog! We have our very own tadpole, Jacob, who we each keep track of every day by writing in our very own “My Frog Log” to observe his daily changes. When completed, our logs will have 5 pages about Jacob’s becoming a frog:

My Frog Log

1)   Mommy Frog drops eggs

2)   Tadpoles have long tails

3)   Tadpoles grow back legs

4)   Tadpoles grow front legs

5)   Now they are Frogs!

Check out our Facebook page next week for some great pictures of Jacob!

Springtime fun continued over in Oceanside! Our toddlers had so much fun welcoming in the new season with a great finger-painting art extension project. We chose colors that reminded us of Spring: pink for flowers, yellow for the sun, and green for the grass. We then had a wonderful time letting our imaginations run wild as we painted abstract pieces of art on paper (and our own bodies!) with bright Springtime colors!

Springtime Abstract Paintings in Oceanside! 

Spring is definitely in full bloom at the Friedberg JCC Early Childhood Center! We can’t wait to have so much fun out in the warm weather this season. Don’t forget to check in again next week when we tell you all about our Seders!

If you’re looking for more Springtime fun at home (and a way to clear out your chametz before Passover), check out this great idea for PB & J Blossom Sandwiches from Disney Family Fun! And check out our Facebook page for more wonderful photos! 

National Reading Month!

If you read our post on Dr. Seuss’s Birthday, you’ll remember that March is National Reading Month! Here at the Friedberg JCC Early Childhood Centers, we have been so busy filling our days with books from some of our favorite authors.  

Some of our classrooms have been spending time on Author Studies. For and author study, we pick an author we love or are want to learn more about  and then select a number of books.   We read, review and re-read the books and then participate in fun learning activities and art extension projects.

Over at our Merrick/Bellmore branch, some of our favorite authors were Don Freeman- Corduroy Lost and Found, Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark- Franklin, Eric Carle- The Tiny Seed, and Gail Gibbons- The Planets. We had so much fun studying them! It was great learning about our solar system and making our own solar system pictures to go along with it. We also  learned how a seed becomes a plant!

One of the coolest art extension projects we did was to make our own Corduroy! We painted his brown body and overalls green with sponges of all different shapes and sizes. Afterwards, we made sure to place eyes on his face, and painted his buttons onto his overalls!

The Author Studies continued over at our Long Beach branch. Our Twos read Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and took part in shadow play that taught us about day and night. We also made some great caterpillar and feather art extension projects after reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and Feathers for Lunch by Lois Ehlert.

Long Beach Threes also read great books by Margaret Wise Brown! First, we read Baby Animals and learned how different animals sleep with an acting activity. We also became bedroom architects after reading Brown’s Robin’s Room! After reading The Wind Blew and We’re Going On A Picnic by Pat Hutchins, we were so thankful for the beautiful weather as we took our lessons outside! We enjoyed our morning snack picnic style, and learned about the wind by making a parachute and kites!

Our Long Beach Pre-K program took inspiration this week and learned all about team building from David McPhail and his books The Great Race and Jack And Rick. First, we had a great deal of fun recognizing our individual abilities by participating in an animal relay race, and then learned about working together by running a three-legged race! Check out this great video of our animal races:

In Oceanside our reading focused on Passover preparation…

One of our favorite activities leading up to Passover is making Matzah.  Miss Yochi (Jewish Culture Specialist) visited the Nursery and Pre-K classes teaching them about Passover with stories and songs, and highlighting the experience by making homemade Matzah with the children. Miss Yochi took the learning a step further, when she and the children made their own fresh butter to put on their matzoh. What fun everyone had!!  We also read books and stories about Passover which led to a unit on Frogs. Miss Caryn's Pre-K has Frogs here there and everywhere!

This week definitely proved how much fun you can have learning through reading! We hope you are all reading at home with your families and friends. Want to dedicate yourself to learning through reading? Try taking the Reader’s Oath from the National Education Association (NEA). We love it!

Happy Reading Everyone!

Learning Through Play At The J!

Here at the Friedberg JCC Early Childhood Center, our favorite way to learn new things is through play! Children learn through play and “exploration” of their environment. Here’s what we did:

Learning Lots of Letters!

Both our Oceanside 3’s and our Merrick/Bellmore Pre-K found out that learning letters can be so much fun! In Oceanside, our 3’s studied the letter “Q” this week.  We created some awesome art extension projects such as  “Q”-Tip painting and “Q”uarter rubbings. We also read books that highlighted the letter “Q”; Giggle, Giggle, Quack by Doreen Cronin, Mr. Quiet by Roger Hargedues, and The Quilt Story by Tony Johnston.

The Merrick/Bellmore Pre-K celebrated the letter “T” this week! Our coolest art extension project was painting on “T”oast with milk and food coloring. Everyone got to watch as the colors “popped” when we toasted the bread! We also made “T”elephones and ate “T” snacks.

Do you have a favorite activity that helps you learn your letters? Here’s a fun idea from KraftCanada.com 

Science is Fun!

Over in Long Beach, Ms. Fran’s class has fun learning science! “Fun learning science?” you may ask. “How is that possible?” Well, here at the JCC we can make everything fun! Ms. Fran helped learn how to churn our own butter! We got to watch as it changed from cream into a yummy, thick spread that we can now eat on our Challah for Shabbat!

Shaking the cream to make butter!

Want to try this at home? Check out these simple instructions from scienceprojectideasforkids.com 

We had such a great week learning through play (and exploration) at the JCC! Stay tuned next week to see what we’re doing to celebrate National Reading Month! We can’t wait to share all of our Author Studies and other reading projects with you!

Want to see more photos of our week? Check out our Facebook page!

Chag Purim Sameach!

This week we celebrated one of the happiest holidays on the Jewish calendar, Purim; a wonderful story of courage and standing up for what you believe in. This is the same message we strive to teach children at our Early  Childhood Center,  We are taught to commemorate this wonderful holiday by giving מנות‎ משלוח (Mishloach Manot) - gifts of food and drink, and through lot’s of celebration!

At all three of our branches, our little ones were quite busy all week with their preparations! Throughout the week we created several Purim themed art extension projects, including masks representing our favorite Purim characters – Mordechai, Queen Esther, and King Ahasuerus, as well as Groggers to make lots of noise should anyone mention the name of Haman! Some of us even made our own Mishloach Manot baskets to fill with lots of goodies to give to our family and friends!

Getting ready with fun art extension projects!

While learning and singing Purim songs, we all made our favorite Purim treat: Hamantaschen! These three-pointed cookies with jam (and sometimes chocolate) in the middle are so yummy, we gobbled them all right up! So with our projects made, our songs sung, and our bellies full there was only one thing left to do: Celebrate!

And celebrate we did!

One of our favorite parts of Purim is getting to dress up in fun costumes! Many came dressed as the famous characters of the Purim story, but we also saw super heroes, crayons, princesses, and even Mario and Luigi! We held Purim Parades and walked from classroom to classroom showing off our costumes so everyone could see how adorable we looked!

Check out our awesome costumes!

We look adorable, don't we?!

And of course it wouldn’t be Purim without a Carnival! Our Oceanside branch kicked off the week last Sunday by holding their carnival in conjunction with Oceanside Jewish Center and Temple Avodah.   On Thursday, Long Beach held their carnival, and Merrick/Bellmore wrapped up the celebrations with their carnival earlier today! All three sites had lots of games, food, a big bouncy castle, and lots of fun prizes!

As you can see, it was a wonderful Purim had by all!

Chag Purim Sameach Everyone!!

P.S. If your tummy is still craving more of these wonderful cookies, check out this great recipe from allrecipes.com!  


And don't forget to check out our Facebook page for more photos and updates!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”

― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

Here at the Friedberg JCC Early Childhood Centers we are so happy that March has arrived! Yes, we’re eager for warm(er) weather to be here soon, but mostly we’re excited because it is National Reading Month!  What better way to kick it off than celebrating the birthday of one of our favorite authors - Theodor Seuss Geisel, or as you probably know him, Dr. Seuss!!

As we all learned this week, the man who was perhaps the most beloved author of our time would have turned 108 today, March 2.  Dr. Seuss published 46 children’s books, including some of our favorites: The Cat In The Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, and one we can all learn from today, The Lorax.  He is beloved all over the world, and his books have been published in over 15 languages, including Hebrew (in Israel you can purchase a copy גרבים עם בא “Ba Im Garbayim”- Fox In Sox)!

 Over at our Long Beach branch we couldn’t wait to celebrate! 

Our Two’s made their own red and white striped hats  (like everyone’s favorite Dr. Seuss character, The Cat In The Hat) and wore them while playing a Green Eggs and Ham  (Kosher of course!) matching game! Our Three’s had so much fun wiggling their toes in paint to make their own Foot Books!  Long Beach Pre-K dressed in red (their favorite Seuss color), and completed the party with a yummy slice of birthday cake!

Our party didn’t stop there!

At our Merrick/Bellmore branch our classes made so many fun art projects to celebrate this wonderful birthday! Some of us made Cat in the Hat hats with dip dots to wear on our heads! One of our classes found inspiration in One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and created beautiful fish art projects! We used a strawberry and banana pattern to make our snacks for the day, and everyone had a great time marching around in tall, tall hats! And of course we all finished off the day by singing a great, big round of Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss!

The festivities continued in Oceanside with an intergenerational celebration! 

Miss Diane’s class met with the JASA Azors group for adults with Alzheimer’s. Together, they shared in the joy of Dr. Seuss by reading one of his books and creating  pretend birthday cakes! It was a heart-warming experience for all, and only further proved that no one is ever too old or too young to, as the Doctor said, “Think and wonder, wonder and think.”

As you can see, it was a great birthday celebration enjoyed by all! But don’t be jealous, you can celebrate too! There’s nothing like a Dr. Seuss book to bring families together.  So, go grab your favorite and spend some time reading together this weekend. Looking for a fun project to do with your family and friends? We love this fun Circus McGurkus project from the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose. Or, check out Seussville for more fun and games.

We had so much fun today and we’re so happy to share our experiences as we learn and grow. Don’t forget to keep checking back to see all of the great stuff we’re doing. After all, as Dr. Seuss once said,

“Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”

Long Beach made their own Foot Books!

Merrick/Bellmore and their One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish projects!

Oceanside shared a special story with JASA Azors group!

            Want to see more pictures? Check us out on Facebook! If you’d like to get updates about all of the fun learning we’re doing, make sure to Like us and tell your friends to also!