Welcome to Nursery 2!

NURSERY 2  

NEW **Children must be two years old by September 1st**

At this age, children typically make their initial separation from their parent or caregiver.  A loving and nurturing staff helps your child take this big first step. Communication skills, fine motor and gross motor development are enhanced.  Learning is implemented through a hands-on, play oriented approach.  This is time for extensive developmental growth! Socialization skills are particularly emphasized. Your child is supported and encouraged as he or she begins to change play patterns from parallel to cooperative play and learns to smoothly transition between activities.  Through songs, stories, art and experiential activities, your children are introduced to the world around them; a world that includes the love of mitzvot, Tefillah, Shabbat and holiday celebrations.

We're so excited about our UPCOMING OPEN HOUSE! We'll have breakfast, and a tour with Tu B'shevat activities in each classroom!

Bring your friends, children are welcome!!

Chanukah - in the classroom

Early Childhood Shabbaton at Butzel Conference Center - outstanding success!

Families with children in the Early Childhood Center at Akiva enjoyed a weekend "chalk-full" of activities for adults and children.

Beginning with Oneg Shabbat, the warm atmosphere of the Chalet and Guest houses brought families together for tefillot, games and active play. As the snowflakes fell shabbat morning, we enjoyed Tefillah services, especially Mussaf, sung by the very talented Dr. Daniel Mizrahi. Children davened at their own pace and enjoyed "tot shabbat" led by Helayne Shaw, the Tamarack camp family educator. After lunch and kiddush, families could enjoy Menucha or play games in the main house. After a fantastic Havdalah service, led by Daniel Greenbaum, the Early Childhood Families had a group Chanukah Menorah candlelighting followed by smores by the campfire. Sunday morning, we traveled to Pioneer Village at Camp Tamarack for candle making, donut making and the creation of a family picture frame. Our Family Camp/Shabbaton was made possible by a generous grant from the Berman Family Foundation. We are grateful to the Mandell L. & Madeleine H. Berman Foundation for their continued generous support in Jewish Family Education.


You may have noticed that the chanukah menorot that were sent home in our classes can not be lit. The most important reason is that we chose to make menorot that were the safest for families. Unfortunately, we have heard of situations when other schools have sent home menorot, only to start a fire, or chas v'shalom someone was burned. Even though they couldn't be lit, all of the menorot were created to be interactive. In Morah Sarah's class, the children's fine motor co-ordination skills were honed as the children squeezed clothespins each night of chanukah. In Morah Helene's class, children used corks to count each night of Chanukah. In Morah Pia's class, the children used colorful crayons to make repetitive patterns or self-choice.
On Friday, the children entertained the crowd of parents, grandparents uncles, aunts and friends with their repetoire of Chanukah songs, and we were entertained by Eileen DeLorenzo a storyteller who shared wonderful stories, and encouraged audience participation! Thank you to the Fischman family for generously sponsoring this year's Chanukah entertainment!
Happy Chanukah!

This week has been exciting as the children in our hallway have been preparing for Chanukah. We have been singing songs, baking cookies, making crafts, melting candles, and so much more! Hands-on activities and student centered interactions leave plenty of room for creativity and inquiry. In addition to the goal of having students try to direct the activities, based on their interest, is also the seamless integration of Judaic and General studies activities. This can really be seen through the following animated discussion that occurred in kindergarten. Grace Kleinfeldt and Naomi Doppelt proudly told the class that they had won second place in this year's Jewish News Chanukah concert - Mazel tov! As winners, they received a monetary award of $18 each. Mrs. Nachlas asked them if they knew why $18 was a significant number, they didn't. Thus began an activity that blended math, kriyah and gimatria. Mrs. Goldman quickly jumped in with her trusty popsicle sticks and counting by 10's and ones, and matching each letter to its number correspondence, the children learned about how Chai = 18! What a great lesson!

You will see that many of the classes created beautiful and imaginative menorahs. Please note that for safety reasons, we have made a conscientious decision to create menorahs that don't actually light, but ones that your children can add a flame to each night of Chanukah.

May the Chanukah holiday bring light to your families! Chag Urim Samayach!

Shabbat Shalom!

Welcome to December!!

What an exciting week! We are enjoying the colder weather and being outside bundled in our hats, gloves and mittens. For those parents who have asked, we try to go outside at least once per day, if the combination of the temperature and wind chill is higher than 20 degrees.

We have enjoyed many of the parent-families joining our Early Childhood Classes for our ArtSmarts program. We explored feelings, by Picasso in morah Pia's classroom. Thank you to all our parent-volunteers for coming! If you would like to volunteer for this wonderful program, please contact Nancy Kleinfeldt or Sue Barash.

Chanukah is coming and we're so happy! Our classes are alight with activities ranging from menorahs to dreidels and latkes in between. You are cordially invited to join us on December 14th @ 9:30am in the "big shul" for our Early Childhood Sing-a-long. This year, we present a StoryTeller, Eileen DeLorenzo, and her interactive story telling as part of our Chanukah Program. We would like to thank Ari & Monica Fischman and family for generously sponsoring this year's Chanukah activity.

Next week, families of our Early Childhood Center will be going to Butzel Center for a Shabbaton and Retreat. We'll take pictures and tell you all about the our exciting weekend!

Mazel tov Rivkah & Yitzchak

Mazel tov Rivkah & Yitzchak!

Click on the ABOVE link to see how the Parasha of the week comes to life in our ECC!