• Chag Sameach!!
  
  Wow! What fun we had this week preparing for Purim. The kids were really into the spirit of celebrating, and it was such fun to turn this into writing and math activities. We did things like graphing our Purim favorites to writing about spring changes we saw.

• We actually took a spring walk to note the signs of spring then turned that into art work as well as explanation of their work. We walked through campus with our journals and really looked, listened and smelled the signs of spring. I told the kids to use all of their senses to note changes they saw that showed them spring was on the way. They loved this activity. We were all over writing about the new green grass, the new purple flowers on the trees and even how the wind sounded. It was great to see the kids stopping right where they were, sit and write their thoughts. It made the writing such a creative process. They then turned it into art and put their writing with it!
• The kids also wrote their favorite things about Purim then they drew on a small card to make into a graph. We graphed them on our bulletin board in the room, of course, Hamentashen won by 4!! We talked about the “difference” in the numbers and the kids really understood what was being asked. They don’t know they are learning all about adding and subtracting, but by using language like “what is the difference in the two numbers” they are really understanding it on a deeper level. I think by presenting them with this language it helps them for later when they are asked to use higher level thinking skills to problem solve. We'll continue this process and use numbers in the equations so they can transfer the learning from concrete examples to using numbers in sentences.
  
• Our “Ester’s Banquet” was so wonderful. We decorated the room to look like a palace and the kids throught it was so cool to sit under "tents" and eat with their hands. The kids loved the food and kept coming back for more, even the veggies and fruit! Lots of them said that the rice was their favorite. We kept it authentic and didn’t give them utensils, they actually ate it with their fingers. It was such a treat to see them enjoy a leisurely lunch while sitting on pillows with friends.
• A special thank you to Leah for making it so special, from doing most of the preparation and cooking to decorating to make it so much more fun!!
  
• Leah came up with some great ideas this week, she created a scene with two children and the kids got to paint them. She cut the faces out and the kids loved posing behind the scenes to have their pictures taken. She also created a bean bag toss with a picture of Haman’s face! The kids tossed the bean bags into his mouth and had a great time. She turned the Purim story into a play and the kids got to choose the character they wanted to be and we acted it out, they had a blast and really got into their parts.
  

The Purim festivities were great! The kids sat and listened to the Megillah and had lots of fun when Rabbi Silver said “Haman”. We got to have games with the 4th grade and everyone had a great time!

Enjoy the weekend and beautiful weather!!