Pre-Nursery 1 Our Favorite Authors Unit + Donuts with Dads

Shalom Families,

Pre-Nursery 1

Our Favourite Authors Unit + Donuts with Dads

By: Morah Lauren & Morah Galit 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

We were inspired to read this book after having a class discussion about our favorite books and stories. During outside time, the children gathered leaves and twigs and placed them on my knees, I began putting each item into place creating a bug. The children quickly pointed out that it began to look like a "buggy" While reading the very hungry Caterpillar we were able to reference back to this moment making the connection between the different bugs we created and the caterpillar and butterflies.

Chicka chicka Boom Boom!

Oh, the places you'll go!

Becoming Authors,


During this unit, the children had the opportunity to become authors themselves. We read an Oliver Jeffers story which sparked an interest for the children that kids can be authors too, so we collaborated on a class story book. Please enjoy a rough copy of the final story below:


One really cold winter morning a group of children took a class trip to imagination land. The children quickly discovered the colourful word of their imagination, things were alot brighter, and extraordinary here, come take a walk, and you'll see!





                    The end.

Donuts With Dads!!

Chanukah is alive in Pre Nursery 2

In our classroom, we started off the unit by learning the story of Chanukah. We learned that the Beit Hamikdash was taken over and desecrated by Antiochus and his army. The Jewish people hid in the hills and created their own army, the Mighty Maccabees. We marched to the music of the Maccabees and entered our Beit Mikdash.

 Our Drama center looked like the Beit Hamikdash, and we loved to play with the Menorahs and beautiful dishes. We painted our very own menorah using gold paint and we had such a great time. 

We then cleaned up the mess in the Beit Hamikdash and looked everywhere for a small pure jug of oil in our classroom. We searched up and down, left and right and all around till we found it. We then polished our menorah and lit it up!

The children learned through art, music, movement, science, and math.  We counted and sorted candles, we even began to make small patterns with the candles. The children created a huge dreidel using loose parts on the table and they were so excited to see the final product.  One of the exciting morning activities we did was putting candles into soft clay. This helped the children to develop and strengthen their muscles and work on their fine motor skills. 

In our classroom. we worked on various skills throughout the Unit;

• We created our crowns using patterning skills

• We sorted dreidels by colour and size

• We painted our Menorahs with brushes and spray bottles

• We counted to 8 using our candles and our dreidels

• We sang and danced to our Chanukah songs with our Morahs and our music teacher

• We jumped and hopped on our large dreidels on the floor.

• We learned to share and take turns with our friends when we played dreidel.

• We measured and counted ingredients for our Chanukah cookies.

• We used droppers to create our Chanukah Drip mats. 

"From the beginning, children demonstrate that they have a voice, know how to listen and want to be listened to by others" Caralina Rinaldi, Reggio Emilia

  Through this unit, the children really began to understand the story of Chanukah and were able to share some ideas about their experiences.  They engaged in all the activities and at times, shared their excitement with their friends and teachers. In Reggio, the process of learning involves making connections and relationships feelings, ideas, words, and actions.   Through various Chanukah activities, the children were able to understand the story of Chanukah, build connections and learn new words. It was very exciting to watch the children learn and grow through different experiences.

 We loved Music and Movement with Morah Bryna and we enjoyed our Chanukah Yoga with Morah Rachel. We read so many books about Chanukah and especially enjoyed reading our small book of the story of Chanukah. The children sat and read to one another in the book center. They loved to share the story with their friends. It was such an exciting unit and the children had a great time.

Music with Bryna

We hope that you enjoyed the unit as much as we did. As teachers, we also learned so much from playing and observing the children. The experiences we provided were rich and inviting, and the children were engaged in all the activities. 

Best Love,

Morah Batya
Morah Elisheva

Hello Nursery Families,

These past few weeks we been learning all about our favorite authors and about the 100 languages of children!!  

THE 100 LANGUAGES OF CHILDREN

Imagine believing that children have the ability to express themselves in more than one way.  Now times that by 100!  Loris Malaguzzi, founder of the Reggio Approach, describes the "infinite ways that children can express, explore, and connect their thoughts, feelings and imaginings."  

These languages (the Hundred Languages of Children) are symbolic and are open to the endless potentials in children.  They believe in the potential of a child's ability to wonder.  It is the belief that there are "multiple ways of seeing and multiple ways of being."

Artist: Paul Klee

This is what the children though after seeing the painting:

Lily: It’s a person that is going to the farm to see the animals. She has a very colorful dress.

Shirelle: She is saying hooray with her hands up she is very happy.

Jackie: I see the color red. It is a red lion.

Yakira: I see a fish holding a cookie.

Atara: I see a person who is the police and he is driving a car.

Israel Meir: I see rectangle.

Talia: I see a person taking a nap.

Makayla: I see a bear with a green tummy.

Jesse: I see a dog.

Joseph: It’s a dinosaur painting from Shul.

Ofra: I see a blanket.

Adina: I see a robot.

Julian: I see a person with hands and eyes.

Daniel: I see a pizza man.

Rami: I see a person jumping.

Jamie: I see a person raising their hand to say something. 

Wassily Kandinsky

This is what the children though after seeing the painting:

Lily: I am making a semi-circle.

Shirelle: I am going to make a cup with buttons.

Jackie: I see a yellow circle.

Yakira: I see a lot of circles.

Atara: I will make a mountain of circles.

Israel Meir: I see 1-2-3-4-5-6…. circles.

Talia: I see a red circle.

Makayla: I see green circle and a red circle.

Jesse: I see many circles.

Joseph: I see a red circle

Ofra: I see a pink circle.

Adina: I see a lot of circles.

Julian: I see a lot of colors.

Daniel: I see blue.

Rami: I see one green and one orange.

Jamie: I see small and big circles.

Iris Grace 

This is what the children thought after seeing the painting:

Lily: I see all the colors of the rainbow

Shirelle: I see a leaf on water.

Jackie: I see the color green. May be it’s a tree!

Yakira: I see the playground.

Atara: I see a turtle that is green.

Israel Meir: I see water colors.

Talia: I see a green leaf.

Makayla: I see green and green is my favorite color.

Jesse: I see a dinosaur.

Joseph: It’s a wet car.

Ofra: I see green.

Adina: I see a purple.

Julian: I see a green leaf with a caterpillar on it.

Daniel: I see a tree.

Rami: I see light green and dark green.

Jamie: I see a green leaf on a tree.

Creating art expands a child's ability to interact with the world around them, and provides a new set of skills for self-expression and communication. Not only does art help to develop the right side of the brain, it also cultivates important skills that benefit a child's development.

One of the children's favorite book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar which is designed and illustrated, and written by Eric Carle.

Developing early literacy skills makes it easier for children to learn to read. Children who enter school with these skills have an advantage that carries with them throughout their school years. ... Reading is an essential skill for success in school and later in life.

Graphing is an important math tool. ... Indeed, being introduced to graphs at an early age can help children to understand huge mathematical concepts such as sorting, organizing, counting, comparing, and analyzing

Donuts with Dads

when parents are involved, students exhibit more positive attitudes and behavior. to have long-lasting gains for students, parent involvement activities must be well planned, inclusive, and comprehensive.

Why are gross motor skills important? Gross motor skills are important to enable children to perform every day functions, such as walking and running, playground skills (e.g. climbing) and sporting skills (e.g. catching, throwing and hitting a ball with a bat).

I hope you enjoy all the photos of your amazing children!!