This week we welcomed a visitor from Israel.  Her name is Efrat Srebro and she is the Director of the Early Childhood Musical Center in Akko. 

She has created a wonderful program that integrates Music and Math that is called "Music that Counts" and she shared an activity with us.

With her soft spoken manner, Efrat captivated the children while teaching them a Passover song in Hebrew.  The children were motivated to listen carefully to the words and the music and to follow her directions. In no time she had the children paired up with a hula hoop between them.  On the word Aviv (spring) they jumped into the circle, on Pesach (Passover) they jumped out.  At the chorus they picked up their hoop and danced around. 

Later she split the class in half and encouraged the children to keep time to the music with instruments and movement.

The teachers have been communicating with Efrat throughout the year, sharing ideas and activities through a wonderful partnership with the United Jewish Communities Central Area Consortium and the Western Galilee in Israel. 

She is a faithful reader of our class blog and has shared many of our projects with her colleagues in Israel.  We had so much fun and we look forward to furthering our connections with the children and teachers in the partnership.

Toda Morah Efrat!  (Thanks!)
Posted by The Pre-K Team at 9:04 PM