Read For The Record!!

Wow! With all of the holidays, our last two weeks have certainly flown by! But even with only six days of school, all of the children at the Friedberg JCC Early Childhood Center had two wonderful weeks full of fun and learning.

Everyone was very busy with holiday celebrations. Even though the weather has been turning cooler, we all put on our sweaters and jackets and enjoyed eating outside in our sukkahs! Seeing the leaves turn colors around us and enjoying fall coming in with a cool breeze made Sukkot extra special.

Enjoying the Fall weather in Long Beach! 

We also celebrated Simchat Torah this week. Everyone was very excited to celebrate the reading of our Torah from the beginning.  In Oceanside, we were so happy that we marched through the halls waving Israeli flags. Everyone sang and cheered throughout the entire building, and many of our JCC members had a chance to see our parade and celebrate with us!

One of the most exciting things to happen in these past two weeks was everyone participating in Read for the Record! Every year, Jumpstart holds a wonderful early literacy campaign with the goal of having children from across the globe hear the same story on the same day, regardless of their ethnicity or economic background.  This year’s record to beat was two million readers!!

Reading for the Record in Oceanside!

Everyone was thrilled to participate in reading this year’s selected book; Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad by Jacky Davis and David Somon. As a designated site, children, parents and community leaders come together to lend their voices in reading for this great cause. Not only did we enjoy hearing the story from many volunteers, but we also made fun art extension projects and had wonderful discussions about friendship, feelings, and imagination.

Ladybug projects in Merrick/Bellmore!

As you can see, we all certainly took full advantage of the little time we had together these past two weeks. Everybody is excited to see what the rest of Fall has in store for us.  Want a great idea for a fun Fall project? Check out this great list of “Crafts with Fall Leaves” 

Don’t forget to head to our Facebook page for more photos of our week, and if you’re looking for new ideas to try out, look us up on Pinterest!

Welcome Back and Happy New Year!

Wow! What a great start we’re all having to this new year of school, and to the Jewish New Year! Rosh Hashanah came nice and early this year, providing a wonderful opportunity for everyone to truly begin anew this September.

A great new start to the year in Long Beach!

All of our children found a great start to the year by working on their “All About Me” units. We talked about our families, our pets, our friends, and anything else we wanted to share so our classmates and teachers could learn about us. The walls of our classrooms are full of photos of each of us and our families. It is such a nice way to make our classrooms feel like home as we settle in to a new year.

Another wonderful part of the new school year is welcoming the start of Autumn. Fall is such a beautiful season and we are all noticing the leaves changing color and the days getting cooler. Some of our Merrick/Bellmore children collected leaves outside to make beautiful leaf projects, while our Long Beach kids went on an exciting nature walk and spotted squirrels, mums, and even a pumpkin on a nearby front porch!

Of course, one of the staples of Fall is apples, and with Rosh Hashanah happening at the same time, it is the perfect opportunity to discover this sweet, crunchy, delicious fruit! In Oceanside, our children had a wonderful snack for the holiday of apples dipped in maple syrup! It was so sweet and juicy! We used all different types of apples so we could see and taste the differences they all had.

In Merrick/Bellmore, we made homemade applesauce and then used the leftover apples to make apple prints for our projects. We also had a lot of fun "measuring ourselves in apples!" The Long Beach kids decided that learning about apples was the perfect opportunity to talk about the color red. We remembered that there are many things that are red aside from apples, including fire trucks, stop signs, and even mommy’s lipstick!

Measuring ourselves in Apples in Merrick/Bellmore!

In continuing to learn about Rosh Hashanah, both Rabbi Greenspan from Oceanside Jewish Center and some of our Merrick/Bellmore parents came in to blow the Shofar for us! It was so interesting to learn about the significance of the Shofar, and how it was meant to call people far and wide to tell them that the holiday was here; plus it made such a funny sound!

Finally, everyone had a wonderful Shabbat celebration! We all came together to say the Shabbat blessings, sing beautiful songs, and (of course) eat lots of yummy Challah!! What a wonderful first week!

Shabbat Shalom from Oceanside!

Don’t forget to check out more photos from the week on our Facebook page!

L’Shana Tovah everyone! A happy, healthy, and a sweet New Year to all, and may everyone have an easy and meaningful fast!

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!