Shabbat Shabbat!

Dear Parents,

This week we started focusing on Shabbos concepts.  What does Shabbos mean to you? What are some things we do on Shabbos? We kept these questions in mind as we set up our centers.  At the end of our Shabbat Unit our friends will take home their very own "Shabbat box"  with some essential pieces they can use each Shabbat, hopefully for years to come.  Our class will be making challah covers, candle stick holders, and Kiddush cups.

Parsha Va'eira

Morah Kayla explains this week's Parsha Using props such as puppets, people, and animals.  This really helps the story come to life making it more age appropriate and meaningful to our friends.  Morah Kayla picks up where she left off last week.  Moshe and Aaron went to King Pharaoh demanding to let the Jewish people go.  King Pharaoh refuses so Moshe warns Pharaoh and the Egyptian people that there will be consequences for their actions.  Consequences are things that happen after the choices we make.  They can be good or sometimes not so good.  For example if we chose to be hurtful to a friend, a consequence would be that friend decides to play with someone or something else.  Pharaoh's consequences for not letting the Jewish people go are G-d sending the 10 plagues.  In this Parsha we want to focus on how G-d was there to save the Jewish people from hardship and bring them home to the promise land, and this was the beginning of that.  He hears us when we ask him for help. We believe he is always with us. 

Dramatic Play

This week our friends worked together to set up for shabbat.  After they were done we all took turns pretending to pour grape juice in cups.  We also took turns "cutting" challah and serving to our friends.  On Shabbat we eat with our friends and family as we enjoy each others company.

  Here Yochai and Jemma start to set the table for the Shabbos dinner they made, and invited some of the Dinosaurs in the classroom as the guests of honor.  Then Yochai makes Kiddush.  Jemma shouts with excitement, "We're having Shabbat, Morah!"

Group Projects

This week our friends worked on their Kiddush cups.  We started with gluing tissue paper and gems to our cups.  We discovered that some of our stones were too heavy causing them to slide out of place.  When they dried we took Mod Podge and mixed liquid water color to add some color.  Our friends painted the cup creating stained glass effect.

Table Top

Shin for Shabbos what else starts with shin?
Our friends us gems to trace the letter shin.  All of our friends really enjoyed this activity especially Mina who repeated this activity throughout the week.

  

We also worked on building our candle stick holders and we incorporated some math skills.  Our friends were asked how high could they stack their tiles so we counted them after we were done.  As Saya was building her holder it fell down.  Morah asked "How can you fix it?"  Saya got her glue squeezed some on her tile and re-stacked the tiles.  Great problem solving, Saya.

Thanks for an awesome week.
Shabbat Shalom.
Morah Felicia and Morah Kayla