Dear Room 13 Families,
Welcome back! It was so wonderful seeing all of your children so excited to be back together again after vacation! We began our week, like we do each week with a beautiful Explorer’s Havdalah service. It was so wonderful being all together again. When we arrived back in the classroom, the children had the opportunity to create pictures of a favorite activity or event that occurred over the Winter Break. Then those children shared and explained their pictures to their friends during circle time. It was a great way to share their experiences. On Tuesday we had the wonderful opportunity to go to the School Library. We want to thank Dorit and Eve for reading to us during this special time. The children enjoyed their time being read to and then having time to pick their own books, find a cozy spot and enjoy their books together. After Library, during snack, we greatly enjoyed celebrating Eve’s 4th birthday all together! Throughout our week, we began to learn about the, very special, holiday of Tu B’Shevat. We began by comparing our recent New Year celebrations, Eve’s birthday celebration and how the trees could have a New Year/Birthday. What would that look like? How can we celebrate? The children immediately said we can give the tree water and cake to celebrate. We discussed why we have this holiday and what makes it special. We learned that Tu B’Shevat is a holiday created by the Rabbis, but based the importance of trees in the Torah. We discussed that it is a holiday where we celebrate the importance of trees to us and to our world. We began discussing all the amazing things that trees give us; fruit, shade, our wooden blocks, paper; and learned that even the air we breathe is from trees. On the flip side, we discussed what we can do for the trees; water it, hug it, take care of it; and learned that when we breathe out, we are creating the gas for the trees to breathe in. We discussed what means that we need the trees and the trees need us. Our discussions on this wonderful holiday will continue over the next few weeks. On Monday, we read an amazing book titled, “Discovering Nature’s Alphabet;” a beautiful book filled with photographs of letters in nature. The children became so excited to find their letters within the book. The following day, we built our very own letters out of sticks and leaves. On Wednesday, we read the book, “Leaf Man;” a story describing the journey of a boy floating with the wind, over hills, rivers and praires. In this beautiful book, all of the characters are created out of leaves and other natural objects. This sparked a wonderful discussion to see if we could create our own Leaf people. But first, we needed to collect the materials. So, we headed out on a wonderful nature walk around campus. The children observed a number of different species of trees growing all around us, all dropping different types of leaves and seed pods. Remembering the letter book, they also began finding their letters within the trunks of trees and lines on the grown. They were excited and eager to collect as much of it as they could! During our walk, arriving in Geldin chapel, we took a moment to sit down, listen to the sounds of nature and, once again, discuss the importance of Tu B’Shevat and the trees and environment around us. The following day, the children entered class, eager to begin creating their very own Leaf people. If you have not yet seen these amazing creations, they will be up in our room next week. Throughout the rest of our week we enjoyed building our very own obstacle course within our classroom (on Monday when it was raining) and spending time singing, dancing and parachuting with Andrew, our music teacher. We also had a number of wonderful discussions about how we can help within our families, especially when there is a new baby at home! We want to give a huge Mazel Tov to Madison and her family on the birth of her new baby sister Chloe. Everyone is doing well. We ended our week by celebrating a beautiful Shabbat together as a Room 13 community. The children baked challah and relished in the wonderful smell of Shabbat that it created in our room. We celebrated together with a classroom celebration as well as an Explorer Shabbat service in the Sanctuary. It was a beautiful way to end such a great first week to our new year! Shabbat Shalom, Hannah and Chen Reminders: *Please remember to sign your child in and out, with a legible signature, EVERY day. If you have a high-lighted section, it means we need your signature or time in that space, as well as your normal spot for the day. *Saturday, Jan. 12 – 10:00 – Tot Shabbat
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