More summer fun and some preps for the school year...

 Giant bubble fun... 

Mix 12 cups water, 1 cup dish soap, 1 cup corn starch and 2 Tbsp baking powder.

Let it sit for at least an hour. The longer you let it sit, the better the bubbles. Give it a good mix, get some fun bubble wands, sit back, relax, and let the kids have a ball:) 

Take a bunch of crayons, line them up on a piece of paper, tape them down. Get a hair dryer and blow close to crayons and watch it melt. Kids thought this was AWESOME. 

Now as a very proud New Yorker, and growing up in the city, my knowledge of gardening was very limited. A good friend of ours helped us plant a garden and the kids have been LOVING it. 

I love the fact that they can actually SEE where it comes from, hence when making a bracha, it makes sense. They see the tomatoes growing from the ground, hence, "ha-adama". It's a very cool, hands on approach to teach kids the correct blessings on foods as opposed to just coloring pictures of foods with the same bracha.

Here is our tomato plant. This tomato was picked and eaten by my daughter just seconds after I took this photo. 

 Our strawberry bush- this strawberry still needs a few more days, but these are the most amazing, sweetest strawberries you have ever tasted.

Our pineapple. Now you can understand why we say "ha-adama" on pineapple:)

Beets..

Now back in this post I began working on our continent boxes. It's a good thing mom and dad were world travelers before we met and got married and between my hubby and me we have a some great photos of ourselves from all over the world. 

I went through these photos and took out a bunch and put them in each continent box. The only continents we both didn't get to were Australia and Antarctica. The kids love seeing photos of us in these places, it makes it very real to them. 

Here is what we have so far, as I find things, I add them to the boxes:

~Israel~

(okay, Israel is not a continent, but it's our land so it deserves it's own box:)

* a map

* Take Me to the Holy Land (you can get it here)

* Personal photos of mom and dad in Israel

* Photos and pictures of various places and events that happened

*Israeli flag

* Miniature Menorah and Shekel and Silver Jerusalem

* Israeli Soldiers

* A police pin

* A Tanya printed in Israel

~Antarctica~

 * A book on Antarctica which I got here

* 2 books on Penguins

* A book I made with images I tore out of an issue of the National Geographic

* Photos of Jewish scientist David Wakil lighting the Menorah in Antarctica

*Some cute miniatures: scarf, hat, snow flake, iglue, sled. sweater. snowman and polar bears. I know we have some penguins somewhere, just have to find them:)

~Asia~

* Russian money

* Photos of my husband in Russia

* Photos of famous Rabbi's from Russia as well as Yeshiva boys learning in Yeshiva's in Russia

* Book on Asia

* Photos of Thailand and China

* A Tanya printed in Jordan

* Miniatures of 2 Asian people and a fan

(my husband spent time in India, we are trying to dig up those photos:)

~Europe~

* Book on Europe

* Photos of mom and dad in various countries in Europe

* Photos of Menorah lightings around Europe

* Tanya printed in Italy and France

* A Picture Book of Anne Frank which you can get here, with photos of mom at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam

* Book on Raoul Wallenberg, he helped the Jews in WW2

I have Australia, Africa, North and South America and will post photos when I get a chance.

The nice thing is that you can just keep adding things as you find them.

The kids LOVE the continent boxes. They can take one and sit down and go through the photos, play with the miniatures, read the books, and all the while learning so much. I hope to make some more boxes like these but in other subjects. 

And on one last note, some wise words from my dear father-in-law...

Wishing you a good week and an easy fast,

Always, 

Purim Preps, Storing Books & Tzedakah Boxes from Matzah Balls!

Purim is a pretty busy time around here and although its still 2 1/2 weeks away, we have started doing some activities connected to it.

Princess Puzzle

I made a little Princess puzzle for my 4 year old Princess to do, in preparation for Purim.

I cut out Princesses from the cover of an old coloring book and hot glue gunned Popsicle sticks to the back of it. The cover was pretty thick cardboard but if you are using a paper you printed, I recommend either laminating it or printing it on card stock.

I then used a knife and cut along the sides of the Popsicle sticks to separate them and turn them into puzzle pieces.

The Kings Treasures Sensory Bin

Oooooh, my daughter LOVES this- so easy... I just filled up a plastic tub with sand and pebbles and these funky looking plastic Jewels that we had. She then used the sifter to go "digging" for treasures and placed them in the glass dish. Instant winner.

Brachos Sorting Tray

I got this from the Jewish Montessori company that manufacture Jewish Montessori products, and honestly, this is something you can really do yourself. Just get 6 bowls, put the name of the bracha in each and get a basket of plastic play foods to sort into each bracha.

We did this in connection to sending Shaloch Manos and how we need 2/3 different brachos in each one.

Purim Puppets

I actually have a very cool Purim Puppet review coming up, but I wanted to give you the chance to check out the website before I posted it so should you decide to purchase the Purim Puppet Kit, you will have enough time to get it in time for Purim-

Here is the link- check it out, its adorable!

For those also doing early Purim preps, here is a fun Purim Activity Pack I made for the munchkins.

Book Storage

Okay, I am officially in love with Pinterest. I am sure many of you are as well and feel free to follow me (Mommzy). I found this AWESOME idea that someone used to store their magazines and tweaked it to store our books we use in our classroom. I am on SUCH a roll over here, I have Transportation, Weather, Animals and Parshah all in the works- and this is just the beginning.!

Here is the tutorial on how to make them.

For the Ocean Life/Fish box I used some fun fishy paper we had. For the Human Body, I covered the box with red paper and stuck a picture of a body that we cut out from a box of something we bought. Then for Space, I covered it in black and stuck on some foam glitter planets.

The kids LOVE them and it makes it so easy and inviting to just go over to the shelf and pull out a box of books on a specific theme that they are interested in.

Matzah Ball Tzedakah Boxes

And last but not least, using a Matzah Meal carton, we covered it with some fun Jewish craft paper that we had, made a slit in the lid, and voila- our very own Tzedakah box~

There is an awesome Purim giveaway coming up just around the corner... so stay tuned~

Wishing you all a fabulous Shabbos!

Some Purim Fun and more

Hamantash Lacing: I just cut out triangles from Manila hanging folders, stuck in a red center and used a hole puncher to make holes. Took string and tied it to one of the holes and voila, the kids loved it- will definitely do more sewing from now on!

This is just a cute little something I found in the flour before making schnitzel for Shabbos:)
We made jello using Kojel, put it on a baking pan and let it set. Then used Alef Bet cookie cutters and Purim Cookie cutters to make shapes. The kids got such a kick out of handling the jello, they loved it:)

Just a fun Eric Carle Alphabet game, really educational and lots of fun...
Painting food we made out of clay, then baked it so it got rock hard and then painted it. Can use it for brachos sorting or food grouping or just plain old pretend play, another hit!

Here's to a great week!

Jewish Preschool Activity Worksheets

While I truly believe that Preschoolers learn the best through play, there are some preschoolers out there who take the more academic route (my Little Einstein:) and actually LOVE doing worksheets- not all the time, but there are so many activity books out there for preschoolers but I couldn't find any Jewish Preschool Activity books so decided to make a few worksheets of my own- which worked out GREAT-and i based them all on the activities from the regular activity books, just used Alef Bet, Jewish concepts and Jewish pictures...

I printed them and put them in a binder and my Little Einstein loves his own little Jewish Activity Book!

So here they are, hope they are helpful to you-

Alef Bet WorkSheets

Balloon Match

Match the Picture to the Hebrew Letter

2 pages- match the Hebrew Letter to the Picture

Similar Letters- Match the letters to each other

Space Themed Alef Bet Worksheets (a a few others, custom made for my Little Einstein who loves anything Rockets, Astronauts etc!):

Match the Hebrew letter to the correct one in the Rocket

Match the Hebrew letter to the correct one in the Rocket Page 2

Match the Alef Bet stars to each other

Match the Alef Bet stars to each other Page 2

A Jewish Boys Uniform

Rocket Maze

More Advanced Alef Bet Worksheets- Circle the word that begins with:

Alef-Hey

Vav-Yud

Kaf- Samech

Ayin-Reish

Shin-Final Mem

Brachot worksheets:

Bracha: Hamotzi

Bracha: Mezonot

Bracha: HaEitz

Bracha: Adama

Circle the Kosher Animals

Circle the Kosher Animals #2

Cut out and stick all the KOSHER animals in the barn

Meat and Milk: Take a blue piece of paper and red piece of paper- cut out the meat products and stick them on the red paper, cut out the dairy products and stick them on the blue

Preschool Math with Jewish Pictures Worksheets:

Cut out the pictures and put them in size order - laminate the little cards to make them last longer!

Some more size order pictures

Number recognition: match the number to the correct amount of objects #1-6

Number recognition: match the number to the correct amount of objects #7-12

Circle the number of objects in each picture

Draw an X on the largest object, Circle the SAME objects

Draw an X on the largest object, Circle the SAME objects Page 2

I hope this is helpful to any Jewish Homeschooling Mama's out there for their preschoolers!

Some Summer Jewish Activities

Since we concentrate on the Jewish Holidays and Parshah during the school year, we will be doing some fun activities, with a Jewish and meaningful twist~~~

We read about the Parshah every week, simply because Little Einstein loves loves loves it- and will throw in a Parshah project here and there, but here are some all round fun Jewish ideas:

My 5 Senses do Mitzvos!

• make a book of the 5 senses, one sense per page and make or find pictures of different mitzvos you do with each of the senses
• make a cutout person out of large construction paper and attach a mitzvah to each part of the body that that part performs
• using a mirror, help your cutie make a self portrait and discuss each part of the face and how each part does different mitzvos
• using glue and beans, have your cutie write their name on paper with the glue then glue the beans to make "braille" explaining what braille is and how it helps blind people see

Tzedakah!

• Using half water, half white vinegar, and YOUR supervision! clean pennies- your cutie will be amazed at how shiny and clean the copper gets
• Use an empty container (coffee, chocolate powder, matzah meal- any container with a lid) and decorate it with paint, tissue paper, markers etc. to make their own tzedakah box. Fill it through out the summer and at the end of the summer, go with your cutie to give the money to a place that needs it so they can see that all the money they collected is actually going to help someone

Mezuzah!

• show the cuties a real mezuzah and whats written on the parchment
• get feathers and paint and let cuties write with feathers on paper just like a sofer writes mezuzos
• out of clay, make a mezuzah case then paint it

Kosher!

• Collect old wrappers from kosher products and make a collage with all the different kosher signs
• cut out pictures of dairy and meat products from magazines and stick them in 2 different sections (one red, one blue)
• "Magnet Fishing" make fishing rods out of a stick, yarn and a magnet at the end. Make kosher fish with fins and scales and unkosher fish (octopus, eel, crab etc) and attach paper clips to them. Let the cuties go "fishing" and divide whatever they catch into kosher and unkosher piles

Brachot!

• Make copies from The Very Hungry Caterpillar (by Eric Carle) of all the foods he ate. Then make a book or chart with the different brachot and cut and paste each food into the various columns or pages

I hope to post some photos as we do each project~ Happy summer to all!