Dear Room 13 Families, After all the joy and thankfulness of Thanksgiving it was wonderful to come back Monday morning and join the whole school for a beautiful Havdalah service. After singing the blessings and watching as the Havdalah candle burned and was then extinguished, it made for a wonderful transition back into our classroom as the children noticed something different and very special. . . .With Sukkot long over, we decided it was finally time to take down our Sukkah. When we entered our room this week, the children quickly noticed the Sukkah had taken the place of our Block Center and was covered with a dark fabric. As they cautiously and curiously entered the space, they noticed a light table with new and exciting building materials waiting for them. With Hanukkah soon upon us, our conversations of light will grow, as the children continue to discover what this new space has to offer! 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! The children 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 and replenish their oil! 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 the oil lasting 8 days). We talked about how thankful we are for these amazing miracles! Throughout the week, as we revisited the story of Hanukkah, we tied our story into our school theme of Kulanu K’echad, All of Us as One. We discussed how it took the Maccabees coming together to stand up for themselves and their Jewish community and beliefs to defeat the King. As we taught the children the popular Hanukkah song, Banu Choshech, we discussed the idea that on our own we only create a small light, however by coming together we are able to create one giant light. After our discussion, we moved together as a class to the Art Center. The children individually created one small piece of our Hanukiyah and then helped assemble it to create one large beautiful work of art; seeing in front of them their work move from being a small piece of art to becoming a part of a larger Hanukkah masterpiece! 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). We also compared this to the Menorah, a 7 branch candelabra that we learned about during our story of Hanukkah. After experiencing the clay in the Art Studio, we then brought it into our classroom for the children to squish, mold and smooth. We will continue to experience the clay over the next two weeks as the children begin to create their very own Hanukiyah. Throughout the rest of our week, the children greatly enjoyed Hanukkah activities within each aspect of our classroom; Hanukkah bingo, Hanukkah puzzles, Hanukkah sewing cards, Hanukkah art work and even Hanukkah latkes to fry in the Dramatic Play center. Rabbi Sari joined us on Wednesday to continue her story of Joseph. We discussed how the brothers treated one another and how important it is to be kind, caring and thoughtful to each other. Our time with Marcos was filled with Hanukkah joy, singing and dancing to a number of wonderful Hanukkah songs. We ended our week with a beautiful Shabbat service and celebration. We had the pleasure of celebrating with Jordy, 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. *Saturday, Dec 7 – 4:00 – PJ Havdalah *Monday, Dec. 9 – 7:00 – 8:30 – Speaker - Emergent Curriculum; The Path to Kindergarten Readiness and Lifelong Learning, Alison Maher and Andrea Sisbarro of the Boulder Journey School *Wednesday, Dec. 18 – Room 13 Hanukkah Party, Parents invited – 9:15 – 10:15
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