Dear Room 13 Families,
What a wonderful and busy week we have had here in Room 13! We began our week with a beautiful Havdalah service, celebrating with all of the Explorer classes. It is truly an amazing way to begin our week at school together! As the children have become interested and excited about mixing colors, we thought to give them, yet another, way to experience this amazing scientific happening. The children had the opportunity to create their very own new multicolored crayons made from old existing crayons. They worked hard, using their fine motor skills, to peal the paper and break the crayons. Each child then picked their own mold and filled it with small crayon pieces. As the children waited, the excitement grew. They learned that the wax, in the oven, turned to a liquid, mixed together and then harden as it cooled. They were thrilled to see their new, very own, new colorful crayon! Since, this year, the holidays of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah are only a week apart; we have been discussing the importance of both holidays. With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, we have continued our conversation (that began last week) about what it means to be thankful and what we are truly thankful for. The children have shared how thankful they are for all of you, for their friends, their toys and for having food in their tummies. We also continued our discussion of what we can give and how we can help others in need. With these values in mind, we took a trip down to Room 7 (a Pre-K class). When visiting their class, together we read, “The Giving Tree,” in both Hebrew and English, side by side. We sat under a giant tree that they had created within their classroom, discussing all that the tree gave to the little boy (her apples, branches, trunk and love) and what the little boy gave to the tree (his time and love). We learned that all of these things are important, whether we can give items, food, tzedakah to those in need or our time, love and energy, they can all make a difference. We then enjoyed playing with the Room 7 friends out on one of their Pre-K yards. On Tuesday, we introduced the holiday of Hanukkah. The children listened intently to the story, hearing all about how a mean King told the Jewish people they could not celebrate their holidays or pray in their Temple and even destroyed it! They shared that they would feel so sad, mad and very angry if this happened to us. We then learned about how a small group of Jews, who called themselves the Maccabees, came together to stand up for what they believed in. The children were so excited to hear that the brave Maccabees, small but mighty, beat King Antiochus and his large, strong army. However, they were upset to hear about how the Temple was destroyed. We learned that the Jewish people worked very hard, day and night, to clean their Temple. When it began to get dark, the Jewish people realized that they only had enough oil for one night, but they needed more! The oil ended up lasting 8 whole nights; enough time for them to clean their whole Temple! After hearing this wonderful story, we discussed the meaning of the word miracle and how our Hanukkah story has 2 amazing miracles in it (the small army defeating the large one and having enough oil). We also talked about how thankful we are for these amazing miracles! After hearing the story of Hanukkah, we learned about and observed many different types of Hanukiyot. We noticed that each one had 8 spaces for candles, plus a special higher or separate one (called the Shamash, the helper candle). After experiencing the clay all last week, the children began creating their very own Hanukiyah out of clay. They squished, molded and smoothed the clay. The clay will be fired in the kiln and then we will continue to work on it. Since Sukkot is long over, last week, we decided it was time to take down our Sukkah. The children helped to take the fabric walls over and move the schach outside. When they entered the room this week, they noticed the Sukkah had taken the place of our Science Center and was covered with dark fabric. With Hanukkah soon upon us, our conversations of light will grow, as the children discover what this new space has to offer! On Thursday, with Rabbi Sari unavailable, the children had the opportunity to meet with Rabbi Woznika instead. After introductions and getting to know each other, the children listened intently as he shared the Torah story of Jacob’s dream. We watched as he pretended to climb down and up and down and up the ladder, just like the angels did in the story. He shared with the children that his best friend is God; knowing that God is always with him, in good times and not and that he hopes one day the children will feel this way as well. We also had the joy of singing and dancing with Andrew during Music class. We had a great time learning new songs for Thanksgiving. We ended our week with a beautiful Shabbat celebration and service together as a class community. 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. *Tuesday, Nov. 20 – Library – 10:00 - Olivia *Tuesday, Nov. 20 – Explorer’s Friendship Feast (children only) *Nov. 21 – 23 – No School – Thanksgiving Break *Nov. 26 – 30 – Book Fair *Monday, Nov. 26 – All School Pajama dress up day *Wednesday, Nov. 28 - Favorite Storybook character dress up day *Wednesday, Nov. 28 – 8:00 – 9:00 – Story/Singing at the book fair *Saturday, Dec. 1 – PJ Party Havdalah *Thursday, Dec. 6 – Room 13 Hanukkah Party – 9:00 (parents invited)
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