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!

Parshas Lech Lecha- Stars and Transportation

Here are a few things we have been doing in connection to Parshas Lech Lecha:

Aside for My First Parshah Reader, we are reading A Little Boy Named Avram by Dina Rosenveld.

We printed some coloring pages from Chinuch.org and Munchkin colored them and stuck on star stickers while we were talking about how Hashem promised Avraham that his children would be as many as the stars in the sky.

Then, using Star cut-outs which I got at Walmart for $1, I cut them up to make little puzzles and stuck a magnet sticker on the back of each piece. We took all the pieces, mixed them up in a basket and the kids used a magnetic cookie pan to put the stars back together again. The nice thing about using the magnets is that the puzzle pieces stay in place once put down.

Here is a math activity using the Montessori beads. Pretty straight forward. You can make your own beads using pipe-cleaners and colored beads.

A great counting activity, stick the correct amount of Star stickers as the number written on each star. My Munchkin (3.5) LOVES stickers, so anything with stickers is an instant winner with her.

Creating a night sky with different types of star stickers, some foam, some glittery and all different sizes. She actually made a pretty awesome sky, overlapping stars, mixing colors. It was very cool:)

Simple beading with star beads.

After working with stars, we moved on to Transportation- "Lech Lecha", Avram and his wife "traveled" to Canaan. So we are learning about all things connected to modes of travel.

Cutting activity with cars using the Kumon Cutting Workbook.

Transportation Sensory Tub, using black rice we picked up from the local Health Food store in bulk. We put in some Lego street signs and Toob Cars. This was SUCH a hit with my 2 year old, he sat there for quite a while burying all the cars then trying to find them.

Then what started as a simple sorting activity, turned into this:

Taking the idea from my little one, we used the sensory box to hide all the cars, planes and boats and the older kids would search for them and once found, place them in the correct section.

Then using big blocks, cars, street signs and little people, they each designed there own roads.

Using chalk, they drew streets on black construction paper and used these transportation stickers to create a whole scene.

This was a kit we got and they made boats, trains, cars and planes.

Here is where you can get some of the products we are working with this week:

A great week to all~

Parshas Noach ~ Noah's Ark (and keeping the little one's busy)

Every Homeschooler has their own set of challenges. One of ours is keeping our little one's busy while working with the big ones. Below are a few tried and true fabulous activities that we do with our very curious, very busy, very cute and very active little 2 year old:

Using 2 containers, place a bunch of rocks (you can collect them together from outside) into one of them. Place the lid on the empty container and cut a small "X" in the lid. I actually cut it from an "X" into more of a small square so he wouldn't pinch his chubby little fingers when squeezing the rocks through:

This is a classic Montessori dressing frame. Very easy to make yourself. The ones with buttons and laces were too advanced for him, but the velcro was a hit. He would open all 5 of them then close each one. He did this over and over again, really enjoyed it:

Okay- now this one is real winner. Get a basket and go around your house and collect about 6 different little bags/containers that open and close in different ways. Place a small rock/pebble/stone in each one. He absolutely LOVED this- kept him busy for a long time, opening and closing each one, trying to put some inside the other...

I'm not sure what it is about opening things and closing, and filling things up and emptying them out, but my little guy sat there for a really nice amount of time with these little tubs. They actually are part of the older kids alphabet tubs which I will post one of these days, but I gave him a few of them to play with. He opened them, emptied them, played with the contents inside, loved seeing what each tub had, stacked the tubs on top of each other, knocked them down, you name it, he is in his own little world having a ball.

Just get a few containers with lids and fill each one up with 2-3 little goodies. Could be anything little. Little hands like holding little things. Instant winner.

And what 2 year old doesn't love making noise? This was quite the hit... gave me a bit of a headache, but to see him sitting there banging away was quite delicious to watch:)

In is defense, he had been sitting at the kitchen table for almost an hour doing his little activities- the attention span was coming to a close, so I figured, lets end this with a bang!

... meanwhile

The older munchkins were busy with their own set of activities-

Since we are learning about Parshas Noach this week (Noah's Ark) we are focusing on Animals, the Ark and Rainbows. So any activities we do are somehow tied into those themes.

These animals are from a lacing set. My kids aren't so into lacing so we tried something a little different. Using thumb tacs on a cork board, they pushed the tacs through each hole.

Voila, a great activity~

A Rainbow Sensory Tub- we used colored rocks (used for fish tanks), colored pom poms, colored feathers, colored springs, a miniature sun, umbrella and rainbow and of course, a magnifying glass. Oh- and a few little miniature people in there as my 4 year old LOVES sensory tubs and always makes a whole story with all the goodies in there so we always include 2-3 little people.

I put the bowls and spoons on the side for them to use with the tubs if they wish.

Picking up miniature animals with tongs and placing them in the "Ark":

Feeding the chickens and ducks corn kernels, using a mustard spoon and transferring them from one dish to another:

Spelling 3 letter words, using the moveable alphabet and a basket of animals (cat, dog, cow, rat):

Building an Ark using shapes, hammer and nails:

Sorting the people, animals and food into the Ark:

And thats pretty much what we have been up to so far- any other goodies and printables I will post when I get a chance~

A great week to all,

Sensory Tubs

Although Sensory Tubs are not exactly Montessori style, my kids absolutely LOVE them-

Just pick a theme and fill the box up with any little tidbits that pertain to that theme. The idea is to let the kids touch and feel and use their imagination to create whatever it is they want to do with it.

At first, I didn't quite understand the concept. Put a box of rice with some toys, a magnifying glass and then what? But after making our first Sensory box, I gave it to my 3 year old daughter and just observed her. She sat there for about 30 minutes, maybe more, just sifting through the sand (it was a beach theme) then she picked out all the shells and lined them up. She took the fish, people and birds and had a whole situation going on. She absolutely loved it. So now, each time I make a new box, she is SO excited to explore whats inside. I think it would be good to switch themes at least every month, keeping things exciting.

Check out our 6 Days of Creation Sensory Tub:

Inside is:

sand for the land

blue glass stones for the water

plastic fish and duck in the 'water'

miniature animals on the 'land'

Wooden sun and moon

Silver stars

Boy and Girl for Adam and Chava

miniature tree

flower beads

Here is a link to the post that contains our Rosh Hashanah Sensory Tub:

http://jewishhomeschool.blogspot.com/2011/08/rosh-hashanah-and-yom-kippur-activities.html

Given our rich Jewish heritage, there are endless ideas of Jewish themed Sensory Tubs- just think of each Jewish Holiday, different Mitzvot (Kosher, Shabbat, 10 Commandments etc.) and find objects around the house that connect to the theme. And its always nice to fill them with different things like glass beads/marbles, rice, lentils, feathers, pebbles, sand- there are lots of blogs out there with some great Sensory tub ideas. Just google "Sensory Tubs".

Set it up in a way that each object is clearly displayed for the kids to see, then let them play with it however they wish. Its okay if they mess it all up and mix it together. They are learning and exploring and having a great time. But I should advise that setting up some ground rules is a must: they can take the bigger objects out of the tub but need to return them when done. They CANNOT pour the sand/rice/lentils/beads etc (whatever you use to fill it with) out of the tub. It might take a few times getting used to, but once they know the drill, its fabulous.

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom!