May 1st 2011, 00:00

My name is Lyn Block and I teach the Nosim (3-4 year old) class here at ECLC. I am married to Michael Block going on 13 years and we have three boys: Avi (9), David (6), and Joshua (3). Avi and David are both past alumni of ECLC and Joshua is currently in the B’resheet class. I am very blessed to work at the same place my children have/are attending. We have been members of Temple Beth Tikvah since 2004 and I started at ECLC working as a parent volunteer since June 2006. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Social Behavior from UC Irvine, and a Master’s Degree in Social Work from USC. This past June I completed my early childhood education units to become a full-fledged teacher here at ECLC.

When I began teaching the Nosim class, my inspiration came from my class of mostly boys who are in love with the matchbox cars in my classroom. We started with the first type of transportation … our feet, and all the ways we can use them (walk, run, jump and skip, hop, etc.). Then we followed with animals we use for transportation. Next was construction. What are the vehicles used to help build cities and roads? Thanks to the construction of the new building here at TBT, I had real life models! Our train table was converted to a construction site with trucks and sand.

As we moved into winter, we focused on transportation on ice and snow. The class had a blast as we converted our circle time rug into an ice rink using white contact paper and “skated” in our socks. The children fell in love with the story “Katy and the Big Snow” about a snow plow that rescues a city snowed in by a big storm. Our train table was converted into a snow table, and the children pretended to save the town with toy Katys. To end the snow theme we made snowflakes out of hot water and Borax.

The month of March was all about wind and air transportation. We made wind socks and kept track of the number of windy days in the month. We learned all about hot air balloons, blimps, airplanes, and helicopters. I have some very knowledgeable children who were able to differentiate the different types of airplanes. We even turned a section of the room into an airport with a pretend airplane.

For April, inspiration for the classroom has come from our own playground. My class is obsessed with the insects found on the play yard. So our focus is on the pill bug, pincher bug (earwigs), Mourning Cloak butterfly and ladybug. Each day they find pill bugs and pincher bugs and are eager to tell me. We are having a creepy crawly time!