Kornmehl

Terry Aizen – Director of Kornmehl

National Recycling Week
“Recovery – A future beyond the bin”

Over the past two weeks we have been revisiting recycling in the Pre-school and drawing awareness to this important commitment and role, we all must take responsibility for, to keep our world safe and free of plastic and waste.

At Kornmehl, recycling practices are embedded into our program. Using recycled materials to make new things out of old, is an everyday practice.

Our aim is:

To create an awareness and understanding of the use of recycled materials.
To create an awareness of important environmental issues amongst Australians.
To create awareness that it is every day that we take care of our environment by recycling, not only in National Recycling Week.
To promote an understanding of the natural world and how we as humans can make a difference.
To promote respect for materials and provoke thinking related to different materials in our world.

Ethan: Recycling is all the trash and things in the rubbish.
Etta: It is called recycling, I watched Peppa Pig before and she has different bins, one for cans, paper and bottles.
Jesse: It is all stuff that you use again.
Daisy: When Etta was watching Peppa Pig she had different colours for the bins, and they turn it into compost.
Levy: Recycling, it is recycling, using it all over again and giving it to other people to use.
Archie: Once my dad recycled his old car and got a new one.
Etta: My friend gave me an old playhouse.
Uriel: I recycled my old car and gave it to someone else.
Arabella: You can use it again.
Rafi: I recycled my old toy tools.
Finn: I once had this box with paper inside and I had the idea to make a book.
Daisy: I recycled an empty box and put one of my toys inside.

We discussed how we could keep a close eye on the paper bin and make sure that only paper and cardboard is placed into the bin.

We read a book about the rainforests in Brazil. The children were concerned and interested in why the trees in the forests are being cut down. As a result of this we have intentionally begun to use all our recycled paper and cardboard to make new paper.

Cleo: Can I bring all my recycled paper from home to use?
Etta: Are we doing a mitzvah?
Ava: Do you mean we are going to use all our old paper and make new paper for the children who are going to be Starfish next year.

The Dolphins embarked on two projects: a collaborative weaving project, using old pieces of material and a large, recycled piece of wood, as well as a lid project. The lid project is a whole Pre-school project in which the children are making holes in the lids by hammering a nail in the middle of the lid and then removing it. The next step is to thread the lids onto a long string to eventually hang them up to make a “lid door.”

We look forward to continuing our journey of Tikkun Olam, repairing our world, as we transform our OLD paper scraps into NEW.

Hanukkah

We have been learning about Hanukkah – the story, symbols, and traditions. We have created beautiful art works of chanukiot and dreidels. We have been singing and learning lots of Hanukkah songs. We learnt the story of Judah, the Maccabee. We used wooden figurines to represent the large Greek army of King Antiochus and the small Jewish army led by Judah Maccabee. The children listened attentively and enjoyed the visual props.

We provoked the children’s thinking by placing beautiful Chanukiot on the table for the children to observe closely and draw. We asked the children what they knew or remembered about Hanukkah.

Arlo: I know it’s a very special tradition. The Eastern Wall, the wall in Israel got knocked down with tanks and cannons. There’s only a little piece left of the big wall. Thanks to G-d for bringing light to the Menorah when there were so little fire things and making it last eight days.
Georgia: Fun!
Oliver: Hanukkah is when you celebrate the years from old to new. Every day when a Jewish person lights the fire to remember people who used to be a mum and a dad but have long passed.
Zach: You eat different things. We sing songs. We say thank you to G-d for bringing us the light of the country.
Alice: To remember the miracle, the miracle to celebrate. I just know there was a miracle.
Sam: You light the candles, one on each night.
Dean: We have the candles to say a blessing.
James: We have candles because there is always a new year.
Hugo: We have candles to make light. We have dreidels because we want to get chocolate money.
Joshua: You play the dreidel because you land on a chocolate.
Ella: We light candles because they are beautiful.

We are working on a collaborative art canvas using recycling lids to represent a Chanukiah. We re-used an old canvas and painted the background black. We are practising making patterns with the lids before transferring our Chanukiah design onto the canvas.

On Wednesday in our Hebrew lesson with Morah Jemma, we focused on the festival of Hanukkah. The children had to find the letters written on the dreidel. They searched through a collection of Hebrew letters to find the ones that corresponded to the ones on the dreidel – Nun, Gimmel, Hay and Pey, to represent the phrase, Nes Gadol Haya Po – a great miracle happened here.

All three groups have been drawing and creating beautiful art works of Chanukiot.

What a joy it is to celebrate this beautiful and fun festival together. We wish all our families a very happy Hanukkah starting on Sunday 28 November 2021.