The Chai Center Preschool and Camp Dix Hills, NY

Through books, songs, baking and creative projects, the children at The Chai Center Preschool embraced learning all about the history and tradition of the Passover holiday. They made yummy matzah, built Egyptian pyramids in boxes filled with desert sand, painted the Nile River in our art shower, learned to write their names in hieroglyphics, decorated Seder plates, Elijah’s cups and Matzah bags, acted out the story of the Jews leaving Egypt and read books such as Where is ...the Afikoman. While learning about the Ten Plagues, the children studied the lifecycle of a frog and used their math skills in a lily pad/frog matching game. Each child helped prepare for the Passover meal, from food preparation to cleaning, and truly enjoyed sitting together for their classroom Seders. Continuing our author study, the children delighted in seeing their parents virtually read favorite books to their class. See more

BABY & ME STARTS APRIL 13! Join us for a fun-filled outdoor 45-minute class this spring! Five-week spring session: Tuesdays, 10:00-10:45 AM. 12-24 months $18/Class $75/Full 5 Week Session (Save $15!)... Register at https://bit.ly/2OTXJto. The Chai Center’s music-based Baby & Me is a time for parents and caregivers to bond and connect with their child in a safe, warm, nurturing and inclusive place, while enjoying both structured and unstructured playtime together.

We kicked off our author study unit by celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday with a myriad of creative and educational projects. The children used the famous Seuss red and white colors to craft the classic hat, played a color matching game, learned about patterns and took on a red cup stacking challenge (honing those engineering skills). They drew fish as an homage to One Fish Two Fish and made Cat in the Hat figures out of playdough. After reading and discussing the book Pete the ...Cat: I Love My White Shoes, we used our math skills to measure outlines of our feet with cubes and used our science skills to make fizzy footprints with baking soda, vinegar, droppers and food coloring. The children made caterpillars after reading Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar and continued to work on patterns and sorting. As the weather gets nicer, the children have enjoyed the sandbox, mud kitchen, bike path, garden and play fixtures in our certified nature explore playground. See more

Our festive Purim celebration was in full swing at The Chai Center Preschool last week. The children decorated and filled baskets with treats, made groggers out of bottles filled with corn and rice, baked Hamentashen, and participated in a fun-filled costume parade. Rabbi Dovid read the Megillah (Book of Esther) and talked about the story of Purim, which helps children learn about being brave and standing up for what you believe in. Our unit on space and the solar system was ...a tremendous success. Through discussion, books and a myriad of creative and educational hands-on projects, the children learned so much. They made telescopes out of paper towel rolls, exploding planets, moon dust, marble meteoroids, solar diagrams, a shaving cream moon, paper plate suns and rockets out of the letters of their name. We wrapped up our pajama drive and will distribute the donated PJs to the Long Island Chapter of The Pajama Program, which supports a comforting bedtime routine and healthy sleep for children. See more

Continuing to celebrate fall, the children used pumpkins in a myriad of creative ways to learn about counting, measuring, cutting, and hammering and had a great time painting them. Additionally, after slicing them open and digging out all the seeds, Morah Azita used the hollow pumpkin for an exciting science experiment about volcanoes. Over the last few weeks we also focused on learning about shapes through sorting, matching, sensory and art activities. With this beautiful fall weather the children have enjoyed our outdoor playscape’s mud kitchen, sand area, bikes, garden and climbing structures. As always, we celebrated Shabbat with Challah, singing songs and saying the blessings.

We are continuing to celebrate fall with books, outdoor exploration and arts & crafts projects such as painting leaves and pinecones. The children are enjoying decorating our big season tree in the hallway with a mix of outdoor collections and artwork. We got messy and used our fine motor skills to write our names and words on a table top covered in shaving cream, traced shapes, looked at patterns and conducted experiments mixing colors and another looking at which objects si...nk and float. This week we created a fabulous pumpkin patch in our playground garden so the children could pick a pumpkin and paint and decorate it right at preschool. We cleaned the pumpkins and then used them to learn about colors, measuring, counting and for a myriad of sensory activities. We also launched our mobile library program where Morah Paulyne goes to each classroom, reads a book to the children and then allows each child to choose a book from her roaming library cart to bring home for one week. See more

New! Extended Before/After Care Hours: 8AM-5PM at The Chai Center Preschool Enrichment activities such as Yoga, Arts & Crafts and STEM Exploration also available.... The Chai Center Preschool is committed to providing a safe and healthy environment for your children. We are strictly adhering to CDC and all state health guidelines and are incorporating new advanced cleaning procedures, daily temperature checks and reduced class sizes. For more information go to www.TheChaiCenter.com or call 631-351-8672 to arrange a tour. The Chai Center Preschool 501 Vanderbilt Parkway Dix Hills, NY 11746

To celebrate Fire Safety Week The Chai Center Preschool had visits from firefighter Rich Sorrentino of the Dix Hills Fire Department and firefighter Raphael Santos from the FDNY. The children explored the outside of the firetruck and learned about the equipment firefighters use and the importance of fire safety, made their own fire hats out of paper plates and rode their bikes through a flame obstacle course outside in our Playscape. Armed with a magnifying lens, the children... went on a fall scavenger hunt outside and collected twigs, leaves, pinecones, acorns and grass. In celebration of Sukkot, we made edible Sukkahs out of graham crackers, marshmallows and pretzels and enjoyed a visit from Rabbi Saacks, who explained to the children why we shake the Lulav and Etrog on this holiday. We end each week making homemade Challah and celebrating Shabbat with our friends. See more

FREE BABY & ME CLASS STARTING TUESDAYS IN OCTOBER! Join us for fun-filled outdoor 45-minute classes this fall! October 6, 13, 20, 27 and November 10 10:00-10:45 AM 12-24 months... The Chai Center’s music-based Baby & Me is a time for parents and caregivers to bond and connect with their child in a safe, warm, nurturing and inclusive place, while enjoying both structured and unstructured playtime together. This series is free of charge! Registration is required. Go to https://bit.ly/3ktQumu to register today! The Chai Center 501 Vanderbilt Parkway Dix Hills, NY 11746 631-351-8672