Community Helpers - FireFighters

We had a great time at the Firestation. It was a fun and educational trip for us. The firefighters were so friendly and showed us all their gear . We each had a turn to go into a firetruck! 

Nathanel sitting in the front seat of the firetruck!

Simona and Jacob in the side door exploring all the fire fighter gear.
We saw helmets, ropes, flashlights, air tanks etc

Reena in the front of the firetruck

Edward in the firetruck!

All our friends with the Firefighters and their flashing lights...

In school, we discussed how Firefighters help us. They have the same phone number as Police officers - 911. 
We sang our song: 
Tune : 3 blind mice 
911 911 help is on the way. Help is on the way.
If I need help I know what to do
I can call the Police and the Fireman too
911 911.

We brought a firetruck into our classroom. Firetrucks have big ladders so Firefighters can climb into high places. If there's a fire we need to call the firemen to come. They wear special clothes to keep them safe from the fire. They wear special hats to protect their heads. They have hoses that they use to put out the fire.

We sang a new song about Firemen.
Tune: Pop goes the weasel..
Down the street the firetruck goes
The fireman sees the fire
Up the ladder with his hose
Pshshsh (squirt with hands like hose)
Out goes the fire.....

We painted firefighter puppets with red and yellow paint.

 We all had turns wearing our Firefighter costume.

 We did experiments to see how water puts out fire.

TU BISHVAT

Shabbos was Tu Bishvat (the 15th day of the Jewish month of Shevat). Just as we have a "Rosh Hashana" a day on which G-d decides our future for the upcoming year, trees also have a Rosh Hashana: one day a year when G-d decides how tall each tree will grow, if and how much fruit they will bear, etc. We use the term "The birthday of the trees" as a rough explanation to describe the beginning of the new year for trees when talking to children.
We  celebrate by eating fruit and specifically "the seven species" of fruits which the land of Israel was blessed with. These include wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates.

To celebrate we had a special "fruit party" on Friday.

When we came into the shule we saw a table set with  all the seven species/fruits of Israel

Tree birthday cake

We made special tu bishvat hats to wear at the party

Morah Chanie showed us a short clip from a video which was taken in Israel 

Reena enjoying POMEGRANATE seeds

Ariana  loving the GRAPES

Jacob trying an OLIVE

Simona exploring  a DATE

Ethan enjoying the BARLEY

Nathanel biting into a FIG

Edward enjoying pretzels - a WHEAT product

It is also customary to make a blessing on a 'new' fruit one which we haven't eaten this season.

another new and interesting fruit

Reena eating birthday cake:)

police officers continued...

We reviewed our police officer song and the number we need to call (911) by having some of our friends use a phone to dial 911 and other friends dress up as police officers running to help!

Trip To The Pizza Store

As part of our unit on "our Community", we went to the pizza store today!

We went on a big yellow school bus.

We got a piece of dough that we shaped into a big circle.

We then used a spoon to smear sauce on the dough

Next, we sprinkled cheese on top of the sauce

We carried our pizzas on a tray to the "pizza man" who would help us by baking our pizzas.

We watched the "pizza man"  put our pizzas in the oven to bake.

While we waited for our pizzas to bake, we read a book about the process of making pizza

Yum!! what a delicious lunch. We ate our pizza with french fries and vegetables:)

Community Helpers - police officers

We spoke about police officers. We learned that they are our friends and help keep us safe. We also learned that the phone number for police officers is 911. If we get lost or need help we call 911.

We sang : ( tune: three blind mice)
911 911 
help is on the way
help is on the way
If I need help I know what to do
I will call the policeman
And he'll help me too,
911 911

We read a special book about the different jobs of a police officer and another book about police cars.

We were so excited to see the Police Officers who came to visit us. They showed us their radio on which they receive their 911 calls. We all had a turn sitting in the police car and pressing the button that makes the siren go off:)

Community Helpers...Doctor

Our classroom community helpers:)

A Doctor is a community helper that we go to when we're sick. We even sometimes go to the Dr when we're healthy to make sure that we stay healthy. 
  We have a special Dr's bag that has Dr's "tools" for us to play with. We played with a stethoscope and an otoscope. A stethoscope is used to check our lungs and an otoscope to check our ears.

We used dot markers to decorate a picture of a stethoscope and otoscope that we put into our own Dr's bags that we decorated.

 Aside for the stethoscope and otoscope we also put a bandaid, q-tip, plastic glove, and popsicle stick (to check our throat) into our Dr's bag.