Aleph Academy

Anna Makes a Foot Print

Natasha balances while washing her foot in the sink.

We experimented with our feet today during indoor exploration.  The children happily used paint to make a foot flower.  First the students made a footprint with the paint.  Then they utilized paintbrushes and their fine motor skills to add stems and additional petals.  The students really enjoyed the challenge of balancing on one foot while making their footprints.  It made for a really fun gross motor activity.

Carey

Physical Development Standard

2.PK.3 Balance on one foot for at least 5 seconds.

The excitement of the end of the school year and summer is in the air.  The energy in our classroom is ramped up which makes for some silly messy moments and activities.  Today the students had a fabulously fun time while painting.  Much of the student’s recent dramatic play has revolved around monsters which prompted a few children to paint their faces and arms a creepy purple color.  All of the students enjoyed the shenanigans.  The giggles could be heard outside the classroom!  However, from a teacher’s perspective the best part of the activity was the cleanup effort.  All of the students helped wipe down the tables and eagerly got on all fours to clean paint of the floors.  It was truly a spectacular whole class cleanup effort!

Ms. Carey

Social-Emotional Development

2.PK.3b Clean up or put away toys and materials when finished.

The Timeless Treasures hand prints turned out beautiful and are ready to go home.  Originally we were going to hang them in the bathroom until the end of the year.  However, given their fragile nature, we decided to photograph them instead.  The students helped take photos today and I will either print them out individually or create a poster.  Photography is something most students have expressed an interest in and they really enjoyed photographing their artwork.

Carey

Visual Arts Standard

3.PK.1 Recognize various art forms.

We love making sounds and today we made maracas, we used a few different items to fit into our recycled bottle caps and each maraca created makes it’s own unique sound.  The elementary children were very excited to share with our class their puppet show, it was an exciting day for all the children.

Roberta

2.PK.1 Play and identify a variety of musical instruments.

Hello Parents,

I realized that I was posting my blogs under the wrong section, so for last weeks blogs you can look under Pages and the dates May 3 and May 5.  I apologize for the confusion, but so happy to have discovered the misplacement sooner then later.  Enjoy!  Roberta

Our music project has continued to expand deeply into the hearts and imaginations of the children.  A table of recycled materials became a wonderful creative opportunity for the children to invent their own instruments.  They worked dilegently transforming cardboard box’s, plastic bottle, rubber bands, and popsicle sticks into their very own instruments.  Carey and I both were fascinated by the results of their creations.   But, it didn’t end when they finished their instruments. As we discussed their new sounds they began to talk about creating a band, which led to a new facet in the music project.  They worked as a group creating their idea of a band, singing, dancing and playing instruments. It was wonderful observing them working as a group and showing continious interest in their ability to create different sounds from their environment.  This project was carried through nap time and into the afternoon class.

Roberta

1.k.1 Creating and acknowledging the difference in high/low, fast/slow and loud/soft while singing and in music

The students put a lot of effort into the Mother’s Day gifts. I hope you enjoyed them. It was a three step process. First we sponge painted the bags, then we made the flowers and finally, we wrote those heartwarming love notes to Mom!

We also explored what it means to honor one’s mother and father. We sang a song to the tune of “I love you, you love me” (Barney)

I love Mommy/ I love Daddy/ We’re a happy Family/ When they come home from work, I’ll bring slippers and a drink/ Honor Mom and Dad, it’s a great mitzvah

The children surprised me again with their sense of community.  My original plan for today’s art activity was to have the students make clay chimes for their personal wind chimes.  However, when I showed them a photo of a clay wind chime they suggested we make one “whole class” wind chime.  The student’s vote on the matter was unanimous and they even decided the would leave the wind chime in the play yard as a gift to the school and next years students.  We are creating our chimes in small groups so not every student has yet to make a chime.  However, the first group (Ruby, Zoe and Ethan) decided to use natural materials in the atelier to make imprints on the clay.  I can’t wait to see what materials the rest of the class utilizes!

Carey

P.S.  I apologize for the lack of photos.  I seem to have misplaced my camera.

1.PK.3 Use a variety of media, techniques and processes in art activities that are of the child’s creation without a model.

It was a chilly morning for outdoor discovery.  However, it did not stop the students from engaging in dramatic play.  The theme of the morning was a baking.  They love to make cookies and cakes out of sand and sell them to each other.  After approximately 30 minutes of creative play most of the children began to complain of being cold.  That was when Morah Avery stepped up to the plate and engaged the children in various physical fitness exercises.  First they ran laps around the slide area.  Next they practiced their gross motor skills by doing  jumping jacks, wall push-ups, hops and calf raises.  It truly was a spontaneously fun activity and a wonderful way to teach the children how to self regulate their core temperatures.

Carey

Physical Development Standards

2.PK.1 Demonstrate a basic form in walking, running, climbing, jumpting, hopping and walking up and down stairs.

Jumping Jacks

Wall Push-ups

Calf Raises

Everyday seems to be a busy day in the preschool classroom at Aleph Academy, but today was especially busy, and with that much movement I wasn’t able to take a good picture of the children in action.  Between Sheva stacking different shape blocks on a four wheeled object over and over until she proudly stacked them all, to the creative works of Yonatan, Zoe, Everti and Anna manipulating clay to represent cookies, to the graceful dance movements of Marley, Natasha, Ruby, and Quintin, it became difficult to focus on just one activity.

The one activity that shared all the children’s interest and some point in the morning was the dancing in which they used pieces of sheer material to dance with or wrap around themselves as a costume.  The children would move slowly when the instruments played slowly and moved faster as the music sped up and changed it’s tempo.   Almost every child danced as part of this group at some point in the morning and the few children who didn’t dance, Dovid and Ethan, enjoyed being the audience clapping at the end of each performance.   It was a nice energy release for our very windy day.

Roberta

Music and Movement 10.0: Student demonstrate an understanding of movement through skills, techniques, and as a form of communication.