Dear Room 13 Families,
Wow, what an amazing and special week we have had here in Room 13! We began our week, as we do each with, with our beautiful community Havdalah service. After we said goodbye to Shabbat and welcomed in our new week together, we discussed that we had begun the joyous Hebrew month of Adar. In the spirit of the month together we learned a Hebrew song all about this special time. As the children returned from Havdalah they were overjoyed to see a new type of ramp system available for them to explore! This time, instead of needing to hold the ramps for one another or finding a piece of furniture to lean it on, the ramps had their own set up, including a very special holder that can be built, changed and added on to. But for this week, the children began with a small holder and 4 wooden ramps of different sizes. They quickly began to work with one another to see how these new ramps worked. They discussed which would work better/faster; the higher up or lower down they placed the ramps. They theorized and tested if it made any difference whether it was a short ramp or a long one and would it make a difference if they were using a large wooden ball or a smaller one. Like always, we will continue to build on these ideas, as well as add more parts to these new, very special and exciting ramps. As the holiday of Purim approaches, we continued learning the story, reading holiday related books, singing Purim songs and learning/creating traditional holiday items. We told the story again, this time using figurines that represented the same quality of the characters they were meant to portray. We discussed how brave both Esther and Mordechai were and how Vashti stood up for herself. Throughout the story we emphasized these strong characteristics that the characters taught us about. We discussed how Haman was an unkind person that we don’t want to even hear his name. With this thought in mind, we learned all about Groggers/Rashanim/Noise Makers and had the opportunity, using a variety of materials, to create our very own. We also began to discuss the tradition of dressing up on Purim, as well as the switch that happens at the end of the story (where Haman ends up leading Mordechai around on the horse). As we discussed these interesting aspects to our holiday, we introduced the class to the Purim masks that we would be creating. With Miles as our brave volunteer, he helped to show the class how we would be using each one’s own face to create a plaster mask that we would then be decorating. We continued to discuss the idea of costumes, how one feels in a costume, how we feel with a mask on versus off, etc. As we continue to create our masks, our conversations on the connection to this joyous holiday will continue. In preparation for our amazing Mitzvah Project on Generation’s Day, we spent the week looking deeper into the Jewish values of giving tzedakah and helping those in need. We read a wonderful book, Maddi’s Fridge, that discusses child hunger in a developmentally appropriate way. We talked about how when we are all hungry, we can let our teachers and parents know, and often, we are then provided with a snack or meal, yet not all children have this privilege; that there are children in our world, just like us, but they go hungry. We also discussed how, after a day of playing at school, we often go home and clean our bodies. We learned that there are also people in our world that don’t have what they need to do the same and discussed how that might make them feel. We spoke about the importance of and what a wonderful mitzvah (commandment) they were doing by bringing in items to give to those in need. Finally, after a week full of value-based discussions, it was amazing to see it all put into action. With their special guests, the children had a wonderful day preparing challah, decorating and stuffing bags full of toiletries, as well as creating a card, all for those in need (to be delivered to LA Family Housing). We greatly enjoyed celebrating Shabbat with our guests together in the classroom, as well as with our Explorer/Investigator community in the Sanctuary. Thank you all so much for your support of this wonderful new day! Wishing you all a 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. *Tuesday, March 10 – Purim Dress Up Day *Wednesday, March 18 – Early Dismissal – Parent Teacher Conferences *Thursday, March 19 – No School – Parent Teacher Conferences
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