Shabbat Shalom, Room 7 Families!
The children gathered around their friends, eager to listen to a presentation of the Purim story. Rabbi Josh led the story and asked for participants to play the characters. “Why would Esther do something that she is afraid to do?” asked Rabbi Josh. The children offered their ideas. “Because Esther is brave!” suggested one child. As the story unfolded, different children came up to the front of the room to play their parts. At the end of the story, a round of applause was given to the actors of the play. The children also enjoyed another rendition of the Purim story in Room 9 where we were invited to listen to teachers Linda and Pnina as they shared an engaging, theatrical presentation using puppets. This method of storytelling engages the children and deepens their understanding of the Jewish values conveyed. During the week, with the help of parent volunteers, Hoda and Carolina (Lilly and Vito’s mothers), the children made delicious Hamantashen. They shared in every step of the process, from mixing and kneading the dough, and filling the various dough circles with strawberry and apricot jam and chocolate, to pinching the corners of the dough to make the shape of the Hamantashen, reminiscent of Haman’s hat. At the end of the day, we sent the children home with one of each flavor. The next day, we asked the children which was their favorite. After tallying up the votes, we came to the conclusion that the apricot was the winner! Before making groggers this week, the children explored sounds using different materials, like stones, gems, tissues, straws, beads and seed pods. They observed that some materials made louder sounds, while others made softer sounds. After this exploration at our morning centers, we brought the discussion to our morning meeting, to collectively observe the differences between the materials and the sounds that they made. After this exploration, we invited Rebecca, Ariel’s mom, to make festive groggers for Purim, which the children thoroughly enjoyed. Vertical Learning At the art center, the children investigated sounds using different materials and putting them in plastic bottles with small necks and in jars with wider mouths. They closed the jars and bottles and shook them to create the sounds, experimenting with each material. Once completed, they spread out the materials on the table and then sorted them back into their original containers. At the literacy center, the children worked with kinetic sand and gems to create letters. At the math center, our addition exploration continued. We introduced the children to white boards and felt squares with operation symbols for them to add colored blocks and fish to represent the numbers. We continued with the familiar materials such as dice and loose parts to use as counting tools. At the back table we presented the children with Judaic symbol Dominoes to match symbols and make patterns.
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