May you have a sweet New Year!

As many of you might have heard this year the Tot congregants at Temple Emanu-El of Tucson got to share Yom Kippur with Adam Sandler.  This was a pleasant surprise.  Sitting in the Tot service I was surrounded by many young children and their families.  Rabbi Holtz called up two children to open the ark.  I watched as these two children excitingly had a part in the service and parents proudly took videos and pictures on their phones.  I looked over at one proud dad and thought, "that looks like Adam Sandler."  Turns out; it was.
He later went into the Strauss ECE classrooms where he talked with our teachers and played with his children.  Our teachers, who were trying to stay cool were awe strucked; while the children just went on playing.  The truth is, to children teachers are the 'movie stars.'  Sometimes I am fortunate enough to teach one of the classroom while a teacher is out on vacation.  My daughter is so excited and proud that I am a teacher.  She is excited to tell everyone (when I am in the office, it does not count).  What a role model our teachers are for our children.  I am extremely proud of the teachers we have at the Strauss ECE.  Sandler also told the teachers what a hard job they had and was very appreciative of them.  I think that there are times that parents are 'movie stars' too in their child's eye.  Parents are also wonderful examples for their children. 
I wish everyone a sweet and happy new year.  I hope that in a child's eye you are 'movie star' even if it is just a moment.

Rainy day activities

Josie feeding cake to the dinosaur.

This week I got to spend some time in Egooanot; our three year classroom.  I always love when I get to be in the classroom!  First we had circle time, then snack and then they were playing at the different centers.  At the beginning this playing was going great; then I could see the children were starting to get restless.  I then pulled out the floam.  That stuff is magical.  Slowly, one by one the whole class came to the table and was playing with the floam.  Piper, Bella and Eloise were making ice cream, Josie fed a dinosaur cake that Ilana and Jana helped her to make.  Marshall pretended to put cotton balls in a cup for his mother (I had to promise to take a picture to show her when it came time to clean up) and Jack and Sam were driving cars over it the floam like it was a road.  I enjoyed watching the children in their play.  They went and gathered items from all over the room to help with what they were doing.  I think they would have been content playing with the floam for hours.  But, sure enough it was Egooanot's classroom turn to go outside so we cleaned up.

The red cup is the cotton balls for Marshall's mommy.

This activity seemed like a great rainy day activity and with monsoon season still here I thought I might share a few more ideas with you.  

1.  Keep a stash a never seen objects (party favors are great to stash away).  An object that has never been played with can occupy a child for a while.

2.  See how long you can keep a balloon in the air or toss it around depending on the age.

3.  Playdough is another good one.

4.  Have a dance party and dance to music.

5.  Cook something together.