Dear Parents,
    This week we continued learning about Rosh Hashana and started discussing a little bit about Yom Kippur.

  Exploring foods of Rosh Hashana

This week our friends had the opportunity to make our very own challah dough for Rosh Hashana.  They all took turns measuring out the ingredients and pouring them into the bowl. After everything was mixed we set our dough aside to rise then Morah Felicia and Morah Briele explained that throughout the year, the challah we eat is usually braided or another shape, but on Rosh Hashanah, we have special sweet and round challah.   We showed them two different pictures one of braided challah and one round challah.  On Rosh Hashana, the challah we eat is round some families even make it sweeter by adding honey and raisins.

Our friends also explored an unique fruit, pomegranate.  Before we davened we took some time to explore.  We asked our friends questions like what does the fruit feel like?  What does it look like?  We discovered it was round and red like an apple as well as hard. We asked, "I wonder what it looks like inside, is it the same as an apple?  We cut it open to find out they were so many seeds!  We invited our friends to taste the seeds, most of them enjoyed picking the seeds out and tasting them to discover the sweetness.  Morah Briele explained for the new year we want to do as many mitzvos as there are seeds inside the pomegranate.  Later on in the week our friends were invited to tweeze the seeds out in a table top provocation.

Still life painting

This week an apple still life scene was set up for the children. Apples along with some water color paint was set out for inspiration and we encouraged our friends to paint what they saw.  Still life drawings are valuable because the children use something that is real and meaningful as a guide for their own creative expression.  The activity challenges our friends ability to look at the finer details in the everyday objects that are familiar to them.

 This week a shofar counting game was set out for our friends to practice counting numbers 1-5. We also enjoyed playing with loose parts this week.   Thanks to all the parents for coming Tuesday night we hope you enjoyed the presentation.  Wishing you a peaceful Shabbos.

Shana Tova, 

Morah Felicia and Morah Briele

Rosh Hashana (part 2)

Dear Parents,
    This week we continued our Rosh Hashana unit.

Here are some highlights.  Please check our Facebook Group for many more pictures of our week.

Group Projects

This week our friends worked on creating their own keepsake honey jar!  Ronan's mommy went to a special place called a Mikvah, to have our jars dipped so they would be kosher for the holiday, thanks Miss Adina!   First our friends painted the bottom of their jars different shades of red, and then painted the lids different shades of green creating an apple as their honey jar. Each child will be sent home with one next Friday.

                                                                     
                                                                      Gross Motor
  This week our friends also went apple bowling.  Pins were set up at the bottom of the slide and some apples were on top of the slide.  We invited our friends to take turns rolling their apple down slide to see how many pins they could knock down. Rivkale, Hailey and Maddie really enjoyed this activity.  They giggled each time they knocked pins down and if there were any pins left standing they had fun kicking the rest down!

                                                                       Sensory
Our friends painted with bubble wrap to create hexagon shaped honey combs.  Some friends like Yehonathan still really enjoy painting our body!

Morah Ora has moved with Zelda and Chumi to the Peach Room, but we are so excited to have Morah Brielle joining us full time in the Blue Room!  We will miss Morah Ora but are lucky we will still see her during the day when we do projects together and play outside.

Thanks for another great week!

Morah Felicia and Morah Brielle

Rosh Hashana is near

Rosh Hashana

With Rosh Hashana around the corner, this week we introduced some concepts about the Holiday through our centers and morning circle times.   In morning circles we discussed how Rosh Hashana is the new year, a new beginning.  Just like we had a first day of school we have a first day of a new year. We ask Hashem for help to become our best self and for a sweet new year. We do this by blowing the shofar, eating sweet foods like apples dipped in honey, or sending cards to our family and friends, saying Shana Tova to wish them a sweet a new year too.  The Morahs explained the shofar comes from a Ram and when we blow the shofar we can think of a mitzvah that we can do to be a better friend and more helpful.  Rabbi T has made visits to our classroom to blow the shofar.  All of our friends giggled at the sound it makes.  They all agreed it sounds funny.   Our friends investigated the shofar in our classroom.  Some friends take turns trying so hard to blow and others feel the rough bumpy texture. 

Discovery table

We set up a discovery table with all things Rosh Hashana related such as apples, honey, shofars, and a variety of pictures.  Our friends were invited to explore the materials. The discovery table is one of the first things the children see when they come in in the morning.  Through exploring and investigating these authentic objects, our friends begin to build their own experiences with them.

Shana Tova Cards

 We started off by painting with honey on apple shaped cardstock.  We encouraged our friends to dip their paintbrushes into honey and then use it to paint the paper. The Morahs pointed out how the paintbrush and honey stuck to the paper.  We discovered the honey was so thick and not so easy to work with but very yummy to lick! Another group project this week was apple stamping.  Our friends created apple prints while following a two step direction and using eye/hand coordination.  Moving their hand from the paint plate onto their paper requires focus and coordinating their hand movement with their eye movement.  Lastly, this activity teaches cause and effect.  Demonstrating to our friends the plain apple and what happens after dipping it into paint to create a print on their paper.  The end product will be Shana Tova cards for our family and friends.  We are learning to say Shana Tova which is wishing someone a sweet new year in Hebrew.

Playdoh Provocations

This week our friends were invited to make their own apple creations out of honey scented playdoh and some natural loose parts such as sticks, leaves and wood pins.  The children enjoyed sticking as many pins as they could into the playdoh.

We also enjoyed some fine motor activities with transferring "nectar" from bowls to ice cube trays. We played in our apples and oats sensory table scooping and pouring.  The children really thought it was fun to pour the oats on the floor then get the little broom and dustpan to sweep up all the oats and put them in trash.  We also enjoyed doing shape and size it puzzles. They did puzzles matching the correct shape to the correct size.  When our friends were done the morah pointed out the smallest shape and the biggest shape. Our friends are learning to discern the similarities and differences in colors and shapes, they use those same skills to recognize the difference between letters and numbers.  In addition, early recognition of shapes is correlated with our friend's ability to recognize letters.

 Next week we will continue our Rosh Hashana unit.  Thank you for a great week.  We're wishing you a peaceful Shabbos.  Morah Felicia and Morah Ora

All About Me (part 2)

Dear Parents,
   We continued with our All About Me unit this week. Our friends enjoyed many activities.
Here are some highlights:

Family Activity

Our friends shared with us the the names of their siblings and who is in their family.  With paper people and sentence strips we graphed each member of their family and collectively we made a family class chart and discussed the simalarities and differences of our families. Graphing is a math skill, which can be incorporated by tallying up the members in each family.

Circle time discussion 

Our friends brought in their favorite books to share over the two weeks.  3 of our friends brought in books by the same author, Eric Carle, and we discovered 2 friends hade the same favorite book, Pout Pout Fish.  Baby clothes were also brought to share. We discussed how they wore such tiny clothes when they were babies they even tried to wear them now! We talked about how much they have grown in such a short amount of time.  Our friends begin to understand the concept of growth through the visual of the baby clothes.  The clothes don't fit them anymore and so they see how their physical body has grown.  We also highlighted how they are walking and talking instead of crawling!

We also explored our 5 senses through a variety of activities that you can see on our facebook group.  Next week we start a Rosh Hashana unit. As always wishing you a peaceful shabbos. Morah Felicia and Morah Ora