Shabbat Shalom, Room 7 Families!
The children sat in the sanctuary patiently, in anticipation of what they saw would happen next… that they would be invited by Rabbi Josh up to the bima to read from the Torah! What an honor that would be! And sure enough, after Rabbi Josh addressed our class with an explanation of the holiday, Simchat Torah, the children were invited two by two to walk up to the bima, hold the beautiful silver “yad,” and point to the Hebrew words as Rabbi read to them from the Torah. Rabbi Josh invited them to wear a tallit and a kippah in honor of this special task while they were reading along with him. “What does this say?” one child asked, pointing to the Hebrew words on the first line. Rabbi read to them in Hebrew and then explained in English, “This is about the very first day that God created our world.” He went on to describe that the Torah explains how the world, all of its plants and animals were created and how humans were created to take care of the Earth. He also asked what else might be written in the Torah. “Rules!” one child exclaimed. “Yes,” replied Rabbi Josh, “There are rules on how to live under God’s law written in the Torah.” All of the children seemed to enjoy and appreciate this honor of being invited to read from the sacred scriptures. Back in the classroom, we reflected on the experience. “The Torah was so big and had lots of letters in it,” one child remarked. “It was cool holding that silver pointer,” another shared. The children agreed that it was a special experience, and wondered how long it would take to read the entire Torah. “I think it would take forever!” on child remarked! Well, a year might be forever in a child’s mind, but we reassured them that they will revisit this day every year and as they grow, so too will their memory of this wonderful holiday. Vertical Learning At the literacy center, we placed the children’s names with sheets of paper and pencils and encouraged the children to explore writing their names using both capital and lowercase letters. In the math center, we continued to work on patterning and sorting using colored cubes and pegs, and the children also played Zingo! Number Bingo! 1-2-3. The children continued to practice their cutting skills using letters and pictures in magazines, and we provided them with glue sticks in order to paste them on to paper for a keepsake. We introduced new puzzles for the children to work on either independently or collaboratively to assemble them. We also presented the children with mirrors to gaze at their reflection, and provided loose parts, such as shells, small stones and gems, for them to explore the idea of crafting their faces on paper using these different materials. In the art studio, Teacher Joanne invited the children to practice watercolor painting, focusing on different shades of blue and purple. She also gave them the opportunity to investigate the light table, manipulate clay and bead strings using wooden beads and crystals.
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