1. Torah – TORAH
It is a tree of life to those who hold fast to it. Its ways are delight,
and all its paths are peace. – Proverbs 3:17-18
Yom
Rosh
Ha-
Hashanah
Atzmaut
Shavuot Yom Kippur
Pesach
Sukkot
(Passover)
Simchat
Purim
Torah
Tu
Hanukah
B’Shevat
JEWISH LIFE
Holidays: Marking Sacred Time and Space

2. Language Every Day
Incorporating spoken and written Hebrew along with English each
day helps develop the language centers of the brain. Expressing
different language sounds help develop flexibility in the tongue
and lips during vocalization.
Boker Tov! Boker Ore!
(Good Morning)
Mah Tovu
(A blessing we sing to begin each day)
Echad, Steim, Shalosh
(counting during free play, meetings, facilitated projects,
transitions)
Yallah!
(Let’s Go!, actually an Arabic slang phrase used daily in Israel)
HaMotzi

3. September
Rosh Hashanah
The Jewish New Year
Beginning the school semester with the “head of the
(Jewish) year” is grounding for the children as they begin
to discuss time and become familiar with a new
classroom environment.
Provocations such as this poster may
provide creative inspiration, provoke
curiosity, or serve as informational
resources.

4. The Jewish New Year provided an opportunity for
the children to build pre-literacy skills and
broaden their language horizons as they explored
English and Hebrew letters and spoken phrases.
Aidan Moses
Marina Ashton
Creating “Shanah Tova!” (Happy New Year)
Cards

5. Jonah Cohen chose to decorate the front
of his card and write on the back:
“To Grandma. Jonah”
Frequent opportunities for expression of
self and creativity are important for child
development.

6. The Shofar calls “Wake Up!”
Hands-on activities help the
children directly connect to
the holiday experience,
creating lasting memories
and meaning.
While on a fieldtrip, Mia picked up a large
stick. “Look! It’s a shofar!”.
Drawing connections between prior
knowledge and the current outside world
demonstrates a child’s comprehension,
application, analysis, and synthesis
development.

7. Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur offers a
unique opportunity to
“reset” one’s personal
choices. A book called,
“The Hardest Word”
served as a
provocation for
investigation into
important questions.
September

8. Discussing Yom Kippur
Do we ever make mistakes?
Noah: “Everybody makes mistakes.”
What should we do when we make a mistake?
Zach: “If you do something to your friends you have to say sorry
and talk to them so it doesn’t hurt their feelings.”
Aidan: “You need to be nice to all the people. Not 1, or 2, not
only to your family, not only to your teachers…”
Is it enough to just say, “I’m sorry?”
Marina: "No. We have to do something to make them feel
better. The Ziz gave vegetables to the children to say sorry."

9. The children also wrote or drew
Yom Kippur journal entries.
Marina Ashton practiced writing:
“I’m sorry.” & “I forgive you.”
Mia Pisacane drew:
“This is me on a roller coaster at Temple.”
&
“Somebody saying sorry.”

10. Sukkot
The agriculturally based harvest
Festival of Booths (temporary
shelters) inspired a building
project which continued over
several months.
As the first project of the year it
offered many challenges and
learning opportunities:
- Basic problem solving
- Hand-eye coordination
- Sensory experiences
- Fine motor skills
- Complex physics explorations
- Overcoming frustration and
building persistence
- Expressing personal creativity
Brooks: “It smells like lemon.”

11. The children expressed immediate interest in building
their own small Sukkah.
Through research and
investigation the children
discovered many different ways
people can build a sukkah.
We visited the wooden
sukkah on the roof and
the cloth sukkah in the
atrium.

12. The Process of Trial, Error, and Resolution
Brooks
chose to
try
decorating
his sukkah
prior to
building
the
structure.
Timothy
chose to
connect
blocks of
wood with
tape as a
floor.

13. As building continued the children began to
evaluate their work process.
A Few Thoughts on
Structural Engineering
• Brooks: "How do I put holes
to see stars?“
• Timothy: "Maybe we could
saw it?“
• Marina: "Maybe we could
stick a nail in it?“
• Noah: "It's like a puzzle and
you have to find the one
that goes in the hole."
(about using a screwdriver.) October

14. There were frequent opportunities for shared social-
emotional development.
Noah: “Patrick, do you want some help? Regular glue doesn’t
work, you have to use hot glue and nails.”

15. Brooks Wagonfeld
Patrick Williams

16. Simchat Torah
The children
chose to make
their own
small Torah,
yad (pointer to
read the
Torah), flag,
or apple on a
stick (inspired
by a Sammy
Spider book)
to carry in the
celebratory
parade, as we
marked the
“birthday” of
the Torah,
when reading
of the Torah
begins all over Brooks: “Do you want to see me read
again at the my Torah with my yad?”
very

17. Challenges while creating This project offered ample opportunity to
promote problem solving skill build fine motor skills through cutting,
development. writing, and gluing.
Timothy: “How do I make it stick Patrick: “I want to glue the
together?” letters on.”
Creating Our Own Torahs

18. Hanukkah
Playing dreidle games provide
counting and sorting practice.
Hanukkah Decorations by:
Grant Moses
Jonah Cohen
Brooks Wagonfeld

19. Shabbat
Shabbat each Friday establishes a routine, delineates
between the everyday and the sacred, and is an important
social occasion facilitating connections between children
and the surrounding community.
Timothy and Patrick help knead We all gather around the
the challah for that day’s challah and say the HaMotzi.
Shabbat.

20. Looking at Daily Activities Through The
Lens:
JEWISH VALUES
“ Jewish values reflect our preschool identity, create
meaning in our daily life and provide a framework for the
kind of relationships we strive to create.”
– Claude and Louise Rosenberg ECE Curriculum

21. Tikkun Ha-olam– REPAIR OF THE WORLD
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve
the world.
– Anne Frank
The children noticed garbage on our playground and
carried it together to the recycling bin.

22. Taking care of living things in our spaces happens
naturally.
Jonah and Tae noticed David
The daily classroom “shamash”
watering plants on the roof and asked
(helper), cares for everyone and
to help. This experience created a
everything.
connection between David and the
GK teachers, inspiring a currently
October unfolding learning experience!

23. The children regularly turn to recycled materials to use in
their projects.
Everyday mindfulness at an early
age creates a lifetime of positive
habits.
Providing children with
possibilities instead of answers
helps build critical thinking and
logical reasoning skills.
Planning and writing lists (and
then following them!), exercises
the children’s mental flexibility
and builds persistence and self-
motivation.
Aidan: “Guys, I see the wood.”

24. Re-ut – FRIENDSHIP
Each of us bears the imprint of a friend met along the way, in each the trace of each.
-Primo Levi
A spontaneous moment in which Aidan chose to
share a written self-reflection with his friends.

25. Aidan Moses:
I am strong
I am creative
I am learning
to share
I am practicing
building November:
Each child
wrote a
personal
reflection to
display on the
back of their
portfolio.

26. Ha h nasat Or h im – WELCOMING STRANGERS
Let your house be open wide.
– Pirkei Avot 1:5
The children practiced physical and mental flexibility
as they worked to give Marina’s mom, Jackie,
attention and respect while gaining new perspectives
on exercise and mindfulness through yoga.
November

27. Tzedek – JUSTICE
Until we are all free, we are none of us free.
– Emma Lazarus
Favorite games such as chess, memory, and Uno
create opportunities for the children to practice
fairness toward one another, follow established
rules, and begin to look outside of their own needs,
becoming aware of those of their community.

28. K’lal Yisrael – JEWISH INCLUSIVENESS
I make this covenant with all who are here this day and also with all who are not here.
– Deuteronomy 29:13-14
The children created ‘Thank You’ notes for Darrell, a
member of our larger JCC staff community who went out
of his way to create a child-friendly solution for our
paper-towel needs.
November

29. The children continued to design and write thank you
messages and cards for approximately two weeks,
reaching out to Darrell on a regular basis.
Noah Goldman
Timothy Haas
November

30. Rua h – SPIRIT
Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit. – Zechariah 4:6
Learning when and how it is appropriate to
express oneself physically is an important
part of physical and mental development.
The children practice finding their inner
strength, and expressing their needs and
desires verbally.

31. Jewish Inclusiveness
JCCSF’s Spirit
Sheva Torah
Welcoming Strangers
Middot: Justice
Seven Core Repair of the world
Friendship
Jewish
Values
Increase Individual… Provide a Vehicle for…
Increase Communal…
Sense of Self-Worth Creative Expression
↓
Sense of Responsibility
↓ +
Self-Confidence Academic Learning
↓
Ownership of
Independence Choices and Actions +
↓
↓ Continued Growth as
Leadership Skills Individuals
Self-Motivation ↓
↓ and as a
Individual and Communal
Realization of self as part Community
Fulfillment
of a larger community

32. Shel Silverstein, “Where the Sidewalk Ends”

33. BOOK MAKING
Inception:
Children noticed there
were many different
types of books on our
classroom bookshelf.
This sparked a
discussion that led to
reading the chapter book
“Stuart Little”, a little bit
each day, in preparation
for kindergarten reading.
One day, Marina shared
a book called,
“PandaMan” that she had
Marina sharing “PandaMan”, while her
made at home.
friends listen and ask questions.
The children were so
inspired that they
decided they would like
to create their own books

34. Exploration
After “Stuart Little”, we began
reading “Trumpet of the
Swan”.
Looking for books in the
school library promotes critical
analysis and recognition of
During each reading session, the
personal preferences.
children recall prior events in the
story, formulate hypotheses about
future adventures, and wrestle with
the bigger picture and finding
meaning. November

35. Research The children investigated alphabet books,
picture books, comic books, chapter books,
and more!
Special thanks to you families for
Mia is particularly intrigued by donating such amazing books during
Shel Silverstein’s poetry book. the book drive!
These books have been an important
resource during this exploration.

36. Process When first discussing how we might
create our own books, the children
pointed out that we would first need
to know how to write.
This inspired them to practice their
handwriting and letter recognition
skills. They would choose a
particular letter, words, or the entire
alphabet on which to focus for a pre-
established period of time.
Project learning promotes children’s
self-motivation, allowing the
Brooks chose to acquisition of academic skills to
practice the letter “B”. happen easily and naturally.

37. Noah chose to practice
writing the alphabet in his
journal.
Zach chose to practice writing
“Zach”.

38. Marina Ashton
Writing
Practice
November

39. Creating Links
The children’s explorations of one subject often intersect with
other on-going explorations.
One day during facilitated learning
time, Aidan chose to practice
writing by copying words from a
special train song that the children
sing daily. Aidan Moses

40. Connecting past learning to immediate experiences
demonstrates a child’s cognitive capacities coming to
life.
Brooks: “I want to make
a chapter book with
pictures of Lego trains.”
Brooks’ initial Book Making intention was to draw a book about Lego trains.
First, he constructed a Lego train and station, then copied it onto paper with colored
pencils.

41. Picture Books
Marina decided to add another book to her “PandaMan” adventure
series.
“Pandaman is going across
the Golden Gate Bridge.”
“This is Pandman. He is
traveling to San Francisco.”
Marina Ashton
December

42. Reflection, Evaluation, Revision,
Product
Noah Goldman
“A Comic Book”
Noah initially approached creating a book through imitation. After reflecting on
his work, he decided to create a new comic book about vampires.

43. Pictures First or Words First?
Noah Goldman: “This is going to be a book about
vampires. It’s for my sister. She loves vampires.”
One of our Book Making discussion topics has been, “How do we
begin to make a book?”. The children discovered that the
creative process varies for each person.

44. Noah Goldman
January
Noah ultimately chose to scrap his initial two book
making attempts and begin again by writing his story
first.

45. Grant first began a book about December
ninjas. Upon reflection, he
noticed that each picture was Grant Moses
similar to the last. “There were the Bad Guys...”
Grant began his next book, “The
Bad Guys”, at home, adding
additional pages and writing
down the words to his story at
school.

46. Mia Pisacane
December

48. “How To Make a Chanukiah”
Jonah Cohen
Timothy Haas
Inspired by our pending trip to Brandeis, the children wanted
to write instructions for their buddies on how to make a
chanukiah.

49. Patrick Williams “Z Page”
December
Alphabet Books
“The zebra is going to run
around in circles.”
Patrick chose to make an Alphabet book modeled after Graeme
Base’s “Animalia”.

50. Community Building
Juliette from GK2 came over to begin making her own book. Mia
carefully explained a few important aspects of the book making
process.
Juliette’s Story:
“One upon a time there
was a princess with no
name. She lived at the
end of San Francisco by
herself in a rainbow
painted house. She
travels all around San
Francisco, sometimes,
even to Canada to see
her family. She goes
hiking to Tennessee
Valley Beach once a
week, every Monday.
When she’s there, she
likes running in the

51. Future Plans
• Continue to evaluate and revise work
• Add illustrations/words if desired
• Explore binding options
• Share books with our friends!
• Continue project with friends from other
classes

53. TRAINS
Inception: The children first demonstrated interest in trains while
exploring the different environments of GK 1 & 2 in the Fall.

54. Exploration
Provided with provocations, the children
investigated numerous types of trains from all
over the world. They became interested in
discussing, drawing, painting, building, reading,
and writing about trains.

55. The children worked together
with the train set, discussing how
to make the train tracks connect,
and what signs and buildings
might be needed near the tracks.
The exploration provides many
opportunities for leadership roles
to emerge, as well as for
challenges such as team-work,
collaboration, and compromise.

56. Noah Goldman
“Train Tracks.”
October 2012

57. Marina Ashton
“This is the caboose, and
there’s lots of people, so
there’s another one.”
October 2012
Projects such as this provide ample opportunity for children to practice
skills such as comparing, measuring, classifying, quantifying, qualifying,
categorizing, discriminating and deducing.

58. Zachary Goodman
“A Train”
November 2012

59. Research
The children investigated many aspects of trains, including different types of
trains, local and far away trains, trains that hold people and those that don’t,
and more!
Mia Pisacane
“This is the train and all the
lightening bolts for the train are for
the electric.”
November 2012
Jonah Cohen
“The N Train”
November 2012
San Francisco Trains

60. Grant Moses
“These are the seats.”
November 2012

61. Noah Goldman
“One train is right there, another is right there, and that train crashed.”
November 2012
Spatial relationships and cause and effect factors arise frequently. The
children have many opportunities to pose hypotheses and draw conclusions
while exploring trains.

62. Bullet Trains are of particular interest to
the children.
Brooks Wagonfeld
“This is a freight train, and this is a
Bullet Train. These trains don’t
actually run on tracks.”
November 2012
Patrick Williams
January 2013

63. A Conversation about Bullet Trains:
One day, while looking at a photograph of a bullet train...
Patrick Williams: “Hey, this is a bullet train!”
BenNoah: “I’ve been on 200 Bullet Trains. This isn’t a bullet
train, I know.”
Patrick Williams: “It is! I’ve been on all the bullet trains in
the world!”
BenNoah: “Whichever one has the bigger engine goes
faster.”
Brooks: “I saw this bullet train on TV, that’s how I know it’s
a bullet train.”

64. Frequent individual and communal reflection on project
work inspires the children and promotes both academic
and social-emotional growth.

65. A picture book called, “The Daylight Limited”, inspired
the children to design and build their own model trains.

66. Process
• The process
started with the
drawing of
blueprints.
• Next, they made
lists of items they
might need.
• With list in hand,
we collected
materials.

67. Patrick Williams
Model Train Blueprint
October 2012

68. Brooks Wagonfeld
Model Train Blueprint
October 2012

69. Process & Product
Timothy’s first model train (out
of paper, tape and caps)
December 2012
Zach used his blueprint
as a reference when
beginning to explore the
materials he chose.
December 2012

70. Patrick perused a train
book to get ideas for
designing the outside of his
train.
Timothy cut paper to
cover and decorate the
tea box he chose to use
for his second model train
body.

71. Timothy Haas
(Second) Model Train
“The car has a sleeping bag in it.”
(tea box, caps, paper, wood)
January 2013

72. Brooks Wagonfeld
Model train and Tracks
January 2013

73. Patrick Williams
A Bullet Train and a Tree
January 2013

74. Where Creativity and Reality Converge:
At the Train Station
Zach: “Brooks, what is that?”
Brooks: “It’s my train
station.”
Marina: “How do the people
get in and out?”
Brooks: “Well, they go in
there and out there.” Brooks
(pointing) Wagonfeld
“It’s a map.
Zach: “So are you going to That’s where
the train is on
put a door there?”
the map.”
January 2013

75. Also inspired by the book, some children demonstrated
particular interest in dining cars.
Zachary Goodman
Dining Car Blueprint
January 2013

76. Paint has been a popular exploration
medium.

77. Marina
Ashton
Food
Freight
Train
“A
picture of
a picture
of a
train.”
January
2013

78. Aidan Moses
The Inside of a Food Hauling Freight Train
January 2013

79. Future Plans
We are currently
discussing creating a
“Train Day”! We plan to
turn the classroom into
a train, dining car and
all!
Some children are
creating stations and
people to go along with
their trains.

80. Blueprints for Turning the Classroom
into a Train
Noah Goodman
Classroom Dining Car
Blueprint
January 2013
Grant Moses
Classroom Dining Car
Blueprint
January 2013

81. Shared Interests
At independent free play time in GK2, children created a
train and tickets, and invited friends to “come aboard!”
Marina and Grant enjoy
the dining car while Yan, Tickets to ride the train all
Riley and Isaac are the around the world.
conductors.

82. Morningtown Ride:
The Phenomenon
This song/story was just one of many provocations offered to the children
when first exploring trains. Each day the children requested to hear it or
sing it, until it morphed into a ritual that closes our day together.

83. What Have We Learned?
• The blueprints encourage children to describe
their details, label them, create a list of
materials, and follow through with their plan.
• Children stayed on particular “tracks” when
gathering materials and when actually building
their trains.
• Children remained with the same project for a
longer period of time each day and over
numerous days, giving them the chance to test
their focus, reflection, and evaluation skills as
they become increasingly self-motivated.

84. SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL AND
ACADEMIC GROWTH IN
GAN KATAN
In every single aspect of the children’s
daily activities, from free play, to
facilitated projects, to putting on our
jackets and backpacks, critical
development and learning occurs.
Zach: “I can count to 100!”
Jonah: “Timothy, can you help me tie
a knot?”

85. November
A Conversation While Building :
Aidan: “I started it, then Noah joined, then Grant, so Noah: “Everyone can take turns.”
I’m first.”
Zach: “How ‘bout if everyone’s in charge...
Timothy: “I was here first.” And no one’s in charge..?”
Zach: “Guys, how ‘bout it goes in a circle?... Nobody’s Aidan: “But it won’t make sense! How will
in charge, it goes Noah, Timothy, me, Aidan, then we know which direction to go?”
Grant. How ‘bout nobody’s in charge?”
Grant: “This is my house.”
Brooks: “I agree with Grant and Aidan.”
Aidan: “Well, I’m in charge. Somebody has to be in
charge, and it’s me.”
Zach: “No, nobody’s the president, nobody’s in charge.
It’s not fair to anybody.”
Grant: “Every day we can keep switching the order.”
Relationships between the
Timothy: “I’m getting a headache. You have to do children, teachers, and
everyone’s ideas or it’s not fair, and they won’t want to
play with you.” families are central to the
learning process.

86. Gan Katan 3
Parent
Teacher
Exchange
February
2013
Carlie Seelig
&
Special thanks to Hugh Molesworth for being an invaluable reference and resource! Nikki Lazarus