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A Sweet Valentine Treat

Posted on February 3, 2009 9:03 am by TheAngelForever

Valentine’s Day is just over a week away. This year the holiday falls on a Saturday, so if kids celebrate at school it will likely be on Friday, February 13 (*gulp*). As room parent in NHL’s kindergarten class, I was asked to have a few things in the room for a snack that afternoon. The kids were also told that they could buy Valentines to hand out to each of their friends.

One day I read about Friendly’s having a deal for Valentines Day. This weekend the boys, Papa and I went to the mall so I decided to check it out. For a $1 donation you receive the following:

Each sheet contains five Valentine cards that are also coupons for kids 12 and under to receive a free kids cone at Friendly’s. In addition to this, there is a $5/25 for your next visit. NHL agreed that it would be fun to give his friends an ice cream cone coupon. Yes, these probably cost a little more money than the boxes of character cards. The big plus is these cards are a donation and the kids will get something beside an item to toss away. The only catch, if you call it that, is that the cards must be redeemed between February 14 and March 15.

We thought it would be nice to bring a smile to the kids in NHL’s class that may not have had a cone in a while.

Categories:
deals holidays nhl school yummy

The trouble with word families

Posted on January 27, 2009 9:12 am by TheAngelForever

All of my years of teaching and being in a classroom have taught me that no child is always an angel. My kids are no exception to the rule. The only real angels here are those made in the snow.

NHL makes a great snow angel, but he still know how to get into plenty of mischief.

So why am I bringing this up?

Yesterday, when I was picking NHL up from school his teacher pulled him aside and told him to wait since she wanted to talk to me. Of course like every parent, my heart immediately went to my toes and I wondered what had happened. After all of the other kids were gone she explained things to me.

The class was working on some more word families. For those of you unfamiliar with this term, word families are group of rhyming words that have a common ending to them. An example: the "at" family: hat, cat, sat, mat. . . and so on.

The word family that the class was working on yesterday was the "it" family. Can you see where this is going?! As soon as she said it, I knew what NHL had done.

Apparently, NHL was excited to rhyme and went ahead of the class. He added words to the family and sure as, well the word in question, he added the sh to the end sound and formed a familiar adult word. NHL’s teachers said he wrote it on the board when he was told not to. He was so excited to share.

You may think, wow why didn’t he stop? The thing is he was not trying to be disrespectful, he really was naive and had no clue about said word. Sure he probably has heard it coming from a mouth or two in the family (not hubby’s), but he has never used it or said anything. Once the teachers talked with him about why the word was not acceptable he stopped. Since they realized he had no clue, they did not give him a warning for his so called actions.

The parent in me laughed and thought it was funny. At the same time, the teacher in me knew that other kids were probably howling and laughing at the word my naive child had created. It immediately made me recall when I was student teaching in first grade and doing short u words with the kids. I was being observed and was using the word "duck" to rhyme. You best believe that I carefully selected kids to answer so I did not get the wrong -uck word! Of course nobody could have prepared me for little Z who came up with his own short u word. He said "butt" and would not stop. He was chanting "butt" and made up a little "butt" song. From that moment on Z was forever known as "butt boy" in my eyes. Ah, the joys of kids and teaching!

This has taught me that I need to cherish these moments. Before I know it, my naive kindergarten kid is going to be gone and he will soon learn more street smart items from his classmates and world.

Categories:
interesting laughs looking back milestone nhl photos school winter

A kindergarten sized thank you

Posted on December 27, 2008 9:44 am by TheAngelForever

As a teacher, I always love to see the creative items that my son’s teachers do with his classes. I have been absolutely amazed with NHL’s kindergarten teacher. Not only has she been a wonderful mentor for my son, but I have learned a lot from the sidelines as well.

The week before winter break, the kindergarten class celebrated three of the major holidays of the month. Wednesday was Chanukah and I went into play dreidel game with them. They also made latkes and had apple sauce with it. Thursday was Christmas where they made candy covered Christmas trees using ice cream cones. Friday they had someone come in to teach them African dances for Kwanzaa.

The day after I went in for Chanukah, I stopped by the classroom. As the room parent, I had been "secretly" collecting money from any parents that wanted to contribute for gift cards. A huge storm was coming in on Friday and I wanted to make sure that the teachers and aids had their gifts for the two weeks off.

When I arrived in the classroom, the kids ran over and gave me a giant thank you note. The teacher told me that they wrote it themselves and if I needed a translation just to let her know. The special envelope was made by one of the adults. Apparently they do special themed envelopes to make letters unique. Here are the two sides of the envelope:

And here is a picture of the really cute note from the kids. NHL told me that they all took turns going up to write parts of it.

This is definitely something that I will be packing away to keep so NHL can see what his classmates made.

Categories:
holidays interesting nhl photos school

Celebrating the holidays in kindergarten

Posted on December 18, 2008 10:20 am by TheAngelForever

Several weeks ago, NHL’s teacher asked me if I would go in this Wednesday to celebrate Chanukah with them. Wednesday they would celebrate Chanukah, Thursday Christmas, and Friday Kwanza. Each day they would do something special to celebrate and have a treat. Friday is also their End of Year celebration.

They left it up to me on what to do. One of the teachers has been teaching kindergarten for quite some time and said she had many Chanukah sheets, crafts and items to use with the kids. I told her that I would go out and get each of the kids their own dreidel to take home. I asked about time to use the dreidels in school. She liked that and said she already had M&Ms to use.

Since it was snowing and nasty in the morning, I sent in some items with NHL just in case I did not make it. The dreidels were already with his teachers, a musical/light-up menorah, and a CD with Chanukah songs (BNL of course).

When JSL and I arrived at school, the kids were all sitting at their group tables working on sheets. Some were cutting and pasting, others coloring, and some using glitter (which is all over my jeans from sitting on the rug). Then I noticed there was a theme with the work. Everything had to do with Chanukah! Check out what came home with NHL, they are so neat.

The one teacher explained that NHL showed his menorah in the morning and they had already talked about dreidels, read at least six books about Chanukah, and had listened to the songs I sent in several times. When the kids were finished and cleaned up, they met me on the rug. I showed them some of our giant stuffed dreidels, talked again about the Hebrew letters on them and what they mean in the game. Then the kids were split up into groups, M&Ms given out and we played dreidel.

I have to say it was interesting watching the kids in my group. Some felt that anything other than gimel was not good enough and tried to hide their spin off to the side and pick it up quick. Of course, they would then proclaim they had gimel. This does not make for a very exciting game if everyone is constantly winning the pot of M&Ms in the middle.

While the kids played, the classroom aid was busy frying up potato latkes. Earlier in the day, the class had made the recipe together. Once the game of dreidel was over, they had a chance to try a latke with apple sauce.

I was so impressed! They honestly did not need me there, but it was sweet to be included. While the kids went to library, JSL stayed to play and I saw the huge rubbermaid container of Chanukah items that NHL’s teacher had collected over the years. It was amazing and possibly had even more than we have at home. Kudos to her for making sure that all of the holidays are represented so well.

P.S. Be sure to enter in my Chanukah Shopping Fun – Game Giveaway. Don’t be fooled, this is great game for non-Jewish participants as well.

Categories:
fun holidays nhl photos school

Our Festival of Lights

Posted on December 13, 2008 11:33 am by TheAngelForever

This week it is time to dig out our menorah, dreidels and get ready for the Festival of Lights.

01 - Chanukah 2007

Yes, Chanukah begins next Sunday at sundown. Chanukah is a holiday about a miracle that happened long ago. JL and I have been working really hard to try to show our boys the meaning of this miracle. We read lots of Chanukah books, sing songs, bake/make traditional goodies, and try to make it less about gifts. It may be hard to believe, but traditionally Chanukah was not a time for gift giving. Over time, it has gotten that way because of the proximity of the holiday with Christmas.

Each night for Chanukah, we light our menorah as a family and sit watching the candles burn bright while eating our dinner. A new tradition that we have started with our boys is to play Chanukah music during this time. Of course we love Adam Sandler’s Chanukah song, but a new favorite is Hanukkah Blessings by Barenaked Ladies. The song sends chills down my spine. It is absolutely beautiful and includes the blessings that we say over the candles each night. The songs have helped NHL, now five, learn the blessings.

How lucky are we that we
Have lights so that we can see
All though the day is done
What a miracle that a spark
Lifts these candles out of the dark
Every evening one by one
Until the end of Hanukkah
Of Hanukkah
With the jingle bells and the toys
And the TV shows and the noise
It’s easy to forget
At the end of the day
Our whole family will say
These words for Hanukkah:
Barukh Atah
ADONAI Elohaynu Melekh h’olom
asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu
l’hadlik nehr shel hannukah
We light the candles for Hanukkah
For Hanukkah

We remember how Maccabees
Fought so all of us could be free
So we celebrate
On this festival of the lights
There’s a joyful time every night
Where we illuminate
The candles of Hanukkah
Of Hanukkah
Barukh atah ADONAI
Elohaynu Melekh ha’olom
She’asah neesim l’avotaynu
bayamim hahem ba’zman hazeh
Hanukkah
Hanukkah

JL and I also love to share our traditions with NHL’s peers. In the past, we have gone in to celebrate with his classes. JL went to NHL’s daycare to play the dreidel game with them. Last year, I went to NHL’s Chanukah party at school.

This year, NHL’s kindergarten teacher asked me to come in next Wednesday to do something with the kids. I believe they are buying the materials to make potato latkes. We already bought each of the children their own dreidel. I plan on playing the game with them and doing some sort of craft.

Last year, we were lucky enough to celebrate part of Chanukah with our extended family. My parents had a Chanukah party during one of the nights. We had a wonderful time. JSL and Cousin S were celebrating their first Festival of Lights. My how the two of them have grown over the last year!

As you can see, we feel that it is very important to show the boys where our Jewish heritage is from and how to carry it on. We have been doing this since December 2003 when NHL celebrated his first Chanukah.

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