Dear Room 13 Families,
We find it incredibly important to create rituals here in school, for the same reason you do at home. A ritual provides children with a connection, a sense of identity, and it tells them, “This is who we are and what we do.” By now, you know that we begin each week with a Havdalah service that we share with our entire Explorer community. What a wonderful way for your children to feel connected and whole as they come back to school each week. This week, as we tied our Havdalah service to the upcoming holiday of Hanukkah, we layered in for the children that same sense of connection. Before we lit our new Havdalah candle, we noticed that the candle is made up of many wicks, yet comes together as one giant flame, just like the Jewish people did in the time of the Hanukkah story, coming together to stand up for what they believed in. After we extinguished our candle and wished one another a Shavuah tov, we stayed together to hear anther telling of the Hanukkah story. The Room 13 friends helped to tell the story, showing how familiar and excited they were about the new information they had gained over the previous week. Over the week, our building of meaning around the holiday of Hanukkah continued. The children enjoyed hearing numerous silly Hanukkah stories, singing Hanukkah songs, exploring our light room and participating in Hanukkah games and centers. We continued to revisit the story of Hanukkah, emphasizing the miracles and values that we hear throughout our story (being brave and standing up for ourselves and others). We also continued our exploration into a variety of Hanukkiyot. We continued to study the similarities and differences between the ones we have in our classroom, as well as photos of other Hanukkiyot. After working with clay in the Art Studio and within our classroom last week, we let the children know that this is the material that we would be using to create their very own Hanukkiyot. The children became very excited to hear that they would have their very own Hanukkiah to have at home for Hanukkah! Throughout our week, they created a plan and carried it out, all while working with intention and purpose. They sculpted and molded the clay and finished it off by adding small mosaic tiles. We breathed deeply with Cheryl in the Yoga Studio, as we continued to practice the art of mindfulness. We learned poses for a number of important body parts, our heart, lungs and brain and relaxed our body all the way from the top of our heads to the tips of our toes. This week, during Music time, we had the joy of gathering together with our friends in Room 12 and enjoying music with both Marcos and Ditza. We sang Hanukkah songs in English and Hebrew, danced together and of course spun like dreidels. We ended our week with a beautiful Shabbat service and celebration. We had the pleasure of celebrating with Noah, his family and the rest of our Room 13 community. Shabbat Shalom, Hannah and Chen Reminders: *Please remember to sign your child in and out, with a legible signature, EVERY day, as well as the time. 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. *Wednesday, Dec. 18 – Room 13 Hanukkah Party, Parents invited – 9:15 – 10:15 *Friday, Dec. 20 – Early Dismissal – 11:45 *Dec. 23 – Jan. 3 – No School – Winter Break *Monday, Jan. 6 – School resumes
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