Days of Creation Stations: Day 4 Moon, Stars & Sun

We're back! And it seems we brought along the northern weather with us. It's cold and rainy here and with the recent time change, it's dark in the afternoons, too! Perfect time to play indoors and to get back to our Days of Creation Play Stations, which brings us to Day 4, the Creation of the moon, stars and sun! Indeed, there are so many great play activities you can do with a space theme. With a little preparation and imagination, you can spend an afternoon in play that will take you out of this world! In the interest of being a bit more present in their play and also a bit more protective of their privacy, I'm including fewer photos of my boys' adorable little faces (biased opinion, I know) and more photos of the activities themselves. Here's a peek at our day of space themed adventure through process art and sensory play:

I always introduce our afternoon Days of Creation Play Stations by going through the 7 days in song along with some of our related play materials and previous art projects S has made. I love including his artwork in this and he feels proud to see it on display.

S made this one last year with our Bereishit unit using washable black marker, a spray bottle of water, stickers, pre-cut paper shapes of the sun and moon and glue.

S's preschool class made this great hanging book of the Days of Creation this year. We use it daily to show what day of the week it is and it is also a great material to add to our play stations.

In advance of our Day 4 Play Stations, I prepared this galaxy sensory bottle. I confess that I have no idea what baby oil is for. I'm on my second baby and to date I have only ever used baby oil for removing stubborn sticky spots left on the skin from bandages and for sensory bottles. That is combined with water, red and blue food coloring to your desired shade of purple and silver glitter to create a sparkly night sky in a bottle. I was, um, quite generous with the silver glitter! I just love watching it adhere to the tiny oil bubbles and the boys both get a kick out of observing it as it is shaken (usually by S) and as it swirls and settles. I added some star stickers to the outside of the bottle and some duct tape to secure the lid, because I love glitter, but not all over my living room rug!

Our newly revamped art center has also been a great venue for inspiring artwork in the theme of the moon, stars, and sun. Y had some fun exploring fingerpaints and color mixing with this mess-free paint-in-a-bag activity. It's a great activity for tummy time. It can also be used sitting either hung from a vertical surface for use with hands or set on the floor to explore with hands and feet! Slip a piece of white paper or cardstock inside a ziplock bag and add a squirt of your desired colors of paint (we used blue and yellow). Seal tightly and if you wish, add a layer of tape to secure. Please supervise your little ones with plastic bags.

After Y was done playing and exploring, I took out the paper from inside the bag and it was quite thickly covered in paint--perfect for making prints! I made a couple of prints on large white paper and left both paintings to dry. His "original" was added to our wall (or door) of fame! And the remaining sheet of prints was upcycled into a "moon" and "sun" for S to glue on to the next page of our Days of Creation Process Art Book:

Our Day 4 page is ready for the next artist in line. Y helped with the "moon" and "sun," and S will get to glue them on along with adding some star stickers and foam shapes.

S was so drawn in to our current art center options. He especially loved "carefully carrying" this frame with a copy of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" to his little table to use as inspiration alongside chalk pastels and a sheet of white paper. He tested out the chalk pastels on their side to create wide smudges and upright for darker lines. He used his fingers to blend colors and got to experience hands-on color mixing right before his eyes! Chalk pastels are a great art material for early budding artists. They produce a result without having to press very hard and are easy to manipulate for small hands. We found ours quite inexpensively at our local Five and Below. 




To include an element of pre-writing, I set up this constellation picture with star stickers and white chalk and crayons for both boys, featuring the first letter of their names. Y needed my help to connect the stars, but will enjoy (with my help and supervision) using chalk on the black paper. S with some modeling and support will be able to connect his own stars and explore the chalk and crayon on black paper.

Lastly, I got out our bag of kinetic play sand and some moon and star cookie cutters and plastic wands--the perfect setup for a "moon sand" sensory bin that S will surely enjoy digging into while I tend to dinner preparations later on. We will be back with more soon and until then...

Happy Playing!

Days of Creation Play Stations: Day 2 The Shamayim

On the Second Day, Hashem created the Shamayim (translated as the Heavens/sky). We happened to reach our afternoon of Day 2 Creation Play Stations right before last Shabbos, when we read Parshas Noach (the story of Noah and the Ark). S is learning more in depth about this parsha in preschool and we did a lot more at home with it last year, which you can read about here. I did not want to entirely skip over it at home, so I rotated in a toy boat, a Fisher Price "Noach" and some plastic animals to our bathtub playtime. To incorporate the idea of the rainbow both to learning about the creation of the Shamayim and to Parshas Noach ,I also prepped some colorful Shabbos treats...

Rainbow salad...

Rainbow fruit salad...

...and a chocolate cake with rainbow icing...definitely not the healthiest of the three options, but certainly the most beloved!

I covered our dining room table in white craft paper so S could decorate our Shabbos table with our favorite rainbow themed art materials and stickers...

Both boys have been enjoying our play stations. I've been preparing sensory bottles for each of the days (mainly with Y in mind, but S still enjoys these as well).

Day 1: water (dyed black with a bit of paint) and vegetable oil for Dark & Light
Day 2: blue dyed dry rice and cotton ball clouds

I especially love the small sized Gatorade bottles for sensory bottles. They are the perfect size for little hands! So when my husband came home with a pack before Yom Kippur, he saw an easier fast and I saw a future play at home project! I always hot glue and/or duct tape the caps to securely seal them. Numeral stickers help identify the day of Creation on each cap.

 On the topic of colorful rainbows and clouds, we've all been a bit under the weather here since the end of the High Holidays. It started with four green noses and progressed to five pink eyes. (Don't even ask... My preschooler is bringing germs home like a first year teacher!) We've kept many of our afternoon play sessions very low key, and that has been quite lovely nonetheless. For Day 2, we did some cloud themed sensory play using shaving cream and blue & green paint inside our water table. There's a great science experiment and story stretcher you could add in if you wish that I posted here.







I had no audible voice for reading a story that day, but S loved using a plastic fork to marble the paint inside the shaving cream and afterward got his hands into it as well! I like to make the most of my activities, so before he really had at it, I took a piece of white cardstock and made a print over top of the shaving cream. I used a squeegee to scrape off the excess back into the sensory table and allowed the beautiful marble-painted paper to dry. It would be perfect for use in our process art Days of Creation Counting Book.

 We've been creating a page with each of the days, along with a title page and this introductory page along to the song below, one of our favorite Bereishit themed songs:

(t.t.t.o. "This Old Man")

Hashem created a world so fine, 
He did it all in six days' time
How did He do it? What did He do?
Each day He made something new...

On Yom Rishon, there was dark and light
Hashem made the day and Hashem made the night,
On Yom Sheini, up very, very high, 
Hashem created the big, blue sky!

On Yom Shlishi, the rivers and the seas,
And from the earth grew flowers and trees,
On Yom R'vee'ee, the sun so bright
The moon and stars just for the night.

On Yom Chamishi, the fish in the sea
And way up high the birds in the breeze
On Yom Shishi, big animals and small,
Adam and Chava, most important of all!

On Yom Shabbat, Hashem worked no more
So we should know what this day is for,
A day of rest is the rule,
We learn Torah and go to shul!

Here's a peek back at our Day 1 page, white (light) chalk and crayons drawn onto black (dark) paper...

For Day 2, I set out "cloud paint brushes" in white paint. Simply pinch a cotton ball between a clothespin for these super simple paint dabbers! They are always a big hit and great fine motor practice for little hands. (Even Y was able to use it with some extra help from me.)

We are gearing up for another day of play here and will surely be back to post about it. In between our organized play sessions, S has really enjoyed this makeshift DIY Days of Creation garland. I printed out the beautiful clipart for free from this website and laminated/cut out the circles for each day. I hung some yarn across our deep freezer with magnets (we use every inch of available space here!) and wrote numerals 1-7 on clothes pins. An envelope placed below is great for holding on to the pieces between play. Both fine motor and math/sequencing skills are called into play with this activity, but your little one will likely be having too much fun playing to even notice he is learning, too!






Happy Playing!

Days of Creation Play Stations: Day 1 Dark & Light

S is early in the stages of understanding how to
play the game of Dominoes, but this family
heirloom set of Bereishis dominoes is a great
starting point! He loves making a "train" of
matching pictures and "reading the directions."

The first parsha read in the Torah each year is, arguably, one of the most important. Parshas Bereishis chronicles the events of Creation, day by day, as well as the stoPry of Adam and Chava. And although this is one of the most significant parshios of the year, it occurs in our annual rotation right on the heels of a huge holiday season. As a teacher in Jewish classrooms, I grappled with whether to teach this parsha "in time" and rush through the opportunities for learning and play so we can make it to the next several and equally significant parshios, or whether to extend the lesson beyond its week in the limelight. There are benefits to both ways. It is nice when children can learn the Torah portion of the week as it comes up. Particularly in homes where children go to synagogue on Shabbos or discuss the parsha at the Shabbos table, even preschool aged children like to feel a part of the action! There are benefits as well to having the time to explore in depth these early parshios, particularly through the lens of hands on exploration and play based learning. The best part of either route you choose is that the cycle repeats itself again and again. In other words--there's always next year, G-d willing!

Revisiting some of our favorite learning materials from last year is a fun way to play and learn together!

This year, S is learning about the first two parshios in school, Parshas Bereishis (the story of Creation), and Parshas Noach (the story of Noah and the ark). We explored these parshios in depth at home last year, as well. You can check out our Bereishis activities and Noach activities from last year if you wish. This year, we are enjoying a more relaxed flow of play-based activities in the afternoons. S has already had a morning of more structured learning and projects, which he loves and a more child-led approach in the afternoons really works for us right now. In addition, Y is able on his own level to join in our play adventures. I decided to extend our time exploring the theme of Parshas Bereishis into seven afternoon play stations to visit each day of Creation through sensory exploration, family field trips, themed snacks, process art and dramatic play.



Here's a peek at our first day of Creation Play Stations: Day 1, Dark & Light

While the boys were napping, I gathered a white pillowcase to attach to our puppet theater, a selection of flashlights/small lights and LED decorative lights, and transformed our play area into an exploration of darkness, light and shadows...

Some lights strung over our play tunnel added a whole new element of wonder to this already beloved gross motor activity!

Y got a kick (or enjoyed kicking) some lights strung above his activity mat. Adult supervision is definitely required when allowing very little ones to play with items that contain batteries and cords!

What's more fun than crawling through a tunnel? Crawling through a tunnel that lights up in a dark room and chasing after a light up ball!

S was both fascinated and bewildered by the shadow puppet station. He kept looking behind the curtain of the puppet theater where the action usually takes place, but was confused as to why the shadows weren't there! We observed together how the shadows are formed in front of the light by the objects placed in front of the white curtain. He brought in a variety of other objects to try besides the animals I had set out. We tried our hands (literally) at some shadow puppets as well. Much of the fun was just in playing with flashlights on their own!

Y LOVED the light up ball! I have found these on and off at our local Dollar Tree and they are always popular!

Adding in some of our translucent magnetiles to the mix gave way to some especially colorful shadows and fantastic buildings. This was a great way to introduce some STEM and building activities into the mix.

S has had little interest at home in doing "art projects." He does amazing art activities at school and at home I try to introduce more opportunities for process art (which he also does in school). Both brothers are participating in our Days of Creation Process Art Book. Day 1 was an invitation to explore white chalk and crayons on black paper. 

S was not interested in this station at all until Y and I sat down. He Loves showing Y how to do things!

We had a surprise themed dessert of "Dark & Light" pudding (chocolate and vanilla pudding). This is a great early cooking activity that toddlers and preschoolers can help with in the kitchen and although I made it in advance because we were short on time, S was so happy that he thanked me repeatedly without being prompted and told me it's his "favorite!" Alternatively you could make/buy black and white cookies, have hot cocoa with marshmallows or even chocolate sandwich cookies with white cream filling...very healthy, I know! Maybe pumpernickel and white bread??

We are having so much fun exploring the days of Creation through play that I am already excited for our second day! We will certainly be back soon and until then, happy playing!

Noah's Ark Theme: Part 2

The Noah's Ark themed fun and learning continues here. As we explore the colors of the rainbow, I am strategically also placing in hands-on learning and experimenting with how primary colors mix into secondary colors. While we began our texture collage yesterday with the red and yellow sections, today we explored what happens when you mix red and yellow to create orange!

Today, I set out two pitchers of water, one dyed red, one dyed yellow.

We poured red water into the bottle until it was about half full and yellow to fill the other half. I sealed it tightly and then (mainly just for the fun of it) it was time to shake it up! Sure enough, we made orange! Adding color to water play activities with tools like measuring cups, empty containers, funnels and droppers is a great way to add some fun to this already wonderful sensory activity and experience color mixing. Since adding all of the colors at once generally results in brown here (an equally important educational experience though it may be), I usually provide two primary colors at a time. To extend this particular activity, I provided a bit of yellow and red paint at his easel for some color mixing process art.

What Goes Where in Noach's Teivah? In Noach's teivah (ark), there were three separate levels. Noach and his wife as well as his three sons and their wives all resided on the top. The animals all lived in the middle. The bottom level was reserved for food/garbage. Activities like this are a great way to introduce the important mathematical skills of sorting/categorizing and can also be a fabulous tool for teaching early spacial language skills--in this case, the concepts of top, middle, and bottom. 

We started by sorting plastic people, animals and food into their designated levels.

We repeated the same activity, now with pictures cut from old magazines of people, animals and food. Older children could participate in cutting out magazine pictures and if you also teach about the concept of garbage being stored on the bottom level, crumpled up pieces of tissue paper or scrap paper/newspaper could be used.

Now we have a wonderful visual reminder of today's activities! It's hanging at child-level for the artists' appreciation. 

My little one is loving this song about colors right now!

Noah's Ark Theme: Part 1

This week's parsha (Torah portion) is Noach, the story of Noah and the ark. This story can be very child-friendly and can expand to include a variety of learning/play themes and concepts including...

• Animals
• the mathematical concepts of pairs as well as practicing sorting and patterns*
• the teivah (ark), boats and water transportation
• rainbows, the order of a rainbow, the science behind a rainbow, prisms
• colors, color-mixing, primary and secondary colors
• Rain, weather, the water cycle

*I will delve a bit deeper into some activities associated with these skills in a later post

Learning and playing about the story of Noach can include reading together, dramatic play, building activities, arts and crafts, science experiments, fun snacks and more! Here's a peek at what we've done so far...

Dramatic play with our Parshas Noach Discovery Basket

There are a lot of children's books and texts to teach about the story of Noach. Some are more conducive to snuggling up on a lap and listening and beyond that--when it comes to introducing more of the detailed aspects of the story I want to give over to my son-- I utilize props he can enjoy and explore. As he played, I talked about some basic points of the story of the righteous Noach being asked by G-d to build a teivah to protect him and his family as well as a selection of animals from the pending mabul (storm/flood). I explained that Noach needed to collect pairs of both "Mommy" animals and "Tatty" (father) animals, and demonstrated this through having two of each kind of animal in our discovery basket. I did go as far as to say that from kosher animals, he took seven pairs of each kind and from non-kosher animals, he took only two. These numerical concepts are a bit advanced for a two year old, but we are already in the process of teaching him about the difference between kosher and non-kosher animals. To demonstrate how long the mabul lasted, I counted all the way to 40 for him. (He was quite impressed and clapped at the end!)

I went through a few other key points of the story--the end of the rain, the return of the dove to announce safety and dry land, the beautiful miracle of the rainbow G-d sent to show His promise to never again send a mabul, and how Noach and his family built a mizbeiach to show their gratitude. I verbally introduced one of the most important morals learned from this story--one that we try as parents to instill even now in our little one--that even when others are acting in a way that is not nice (as the people of Noach's time were), we must always act kindly as Noach did.

As part of learning about the rainbow, we are working over the course of this week on a texture collage. I squeezed a bit of alphabet learning into today's portion of the activity and introduced the letter "R" for rainbow, red...

...and ribbon! With this age group, I provide materials in only one color at a time. I chose to add a thin layer of glue to the designated strip prior to setting out the paper, but you could assist/direct a toddler to paint on a thin layer of glue if you wish. Older children can work with more than one color at a time and even follow a key (I have a dot of each color on the right side of each strip) or a model to complete their rainbow. You could even set out a seven sectioned serving platter like the one pictured below (these are often available at Dollar Tree) with one color in each section and glue with a brush in the middle. In addition to building skills in sorting and teaching the order of the rainbow, this is a great fine motor activity for little hands and the different textures are a wonderful sensory experience.

Our open play time involved some Mega block teivah building and a variety of puzzles, stacking and sorting materials to teach color recognition.

We focused our science lessons this week on precipitation and the water cycle as well as a fun sink/float activity.

We're watching how clouds form and rain falls!