Week of September 30 - October 4, 2019 While it was a short week at school, the children in Room 8 were quite busy! When school resumed on Wednesday, we continued with the theme of Rosh Hashanah. Last week, we discussed the importance of the holiday and the symbols that are associated with it including apples, honey, pomegranate, shofar and the round challah. After our unit on watermelon, we observed that the children in Room 8 seemed to show a great interest in studying another fruit or vegetable. We conducted large group discussions to connect Rosh Hashanah to our unit on details. First, we compared and contrasted a variety of apples. Ask your child if they can remember any of the specific apple names. Some of these included Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Fuji, and Honey Crisp. We spent time discussing the details and using describing words to talk about each apple. For example, Wyatt said that the Red Delicious was a dark red, and Rian explained that the Fuji was more pink-ish and yellow. Lilah explained that the Granny Smith was green, which was different from all the other apples. We also used details to describe other traits of the apples including taste, touch, and smell. Jacob loved the smell of the Red Delicious, and Lorne described the taste of the Granny Smith as very sour. Nixon loved the taste of the Granny Smith and compared it to the taste of Sour Patch Kids! To expand this discussion from only fresh apples, we also tried apples prepared in different ways such as dehydrated apple rings, freeze-dried apples, and air-dried apples. The children described the dehydrated apple rings as chewy, soft and sticky. Wyatt said they tasted like a pear. Then, we experienced the major crunch of the air-dried Honey Crisp apple chips. The kids were not a fan of this version. Compared to the freeze-dried apples that had a nice crunch and then became soft, the air-dried apple chips were crunchy all the way through. Alexandra said that the freeze-dried apples tasted like a cracker, and Lilah compared them to chips, “soft ones.” This large group discussion is beneficial to the children for a variety of reasons. First, learning to sit on the carpet helps teach patience, body self- control and personal space, how to wait for your turn, and strengthens our ability to pay attention for longer periods of time. In addition, we teach the children how to identify basic and specific traits of an item so that they can see the importance of details in learning and in life. Attention to detail is a crucial skill that will help all children thrive in school and in adulthood. Teaching this at a young age will allow the child to think in a different way and enhance their ability to learn and remember. By discussing the specific details of various apples, the children learn to pay close attention to be able to understand their differences. We also love a detail-themed discussion because it allows us to experience new things! The children were able to try new foods with new textures and tastes, which in turn helps to expand their vocabulary. The children were in amazement with the differences between the various types of apples and wanted to do another discussion just like this one! In light of their interests and the upcoming holiday, we conducted another large group conversation about pomegranates. Ask your child if they remember why the pomegranate is symbolic to Rosh Hashanah. They might tell you something about how the 613 seeds of this fruit represent the rules of the Jewish people, or “commandments.” The children were able to experience the taste of pomegranate seeds and pomegranate juice. They were both a hit! We loved the enthusiasm during these conversations. The children demonstrated interest and eagerness as they learned about Rosh Hashanah, apples and pomegranates. We finished up this discussion by asking if they wanted to learn about another fruit or vegetable. We made a list of various fruits and veggies and took a student vote. Stay tuned to find out what the next item is that we will dissect! We want to wish you all a Shanah Tova. We hope your New Year’s celebrations were filled with family, friends , laughter, joy and love. We can’t wait for you to see all the hard work and beautiful fine motor ability your child has put into creating a card to wish their family and friends a ‘Happy New Year.’ Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS: ● EVERY Monday, Wednesday and Thursday Room 8 has enrichment activities at 9:30 a.m.We ask that you drop-off ON TIME every day, but especially on these days! ● 10/8- 1/2 Day- 12 PM Pick-up Erev Yom Kippur ? try to arrive by 11:45am due to parking ● 10/9- No School - Yom Kippur ● 10/14- No School - Sukkot ● 10/21- No School - Simchat Torah
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Pre-K Room 8Mari Greifer Archives
March 2020
Categories |