Newsletter Room 8
From the start of the year, as a part of the routine, the children in Room 8 know to grab a book after snack, take a seat on the carpet, and spend time quietly flipping through the pages of their chosen book. They choose from a large variety of books found in our class library. The books range from Mo Willem’s stories, to National Geographic Encyclopedias, to Jewish holiday themed books, and even a few with interactive components. Over the course of the year, the children have shown a real affinity towards this 20-minute section of the day. They appreciate the quiet time and the opportunity to view, study and learn a new book each day. Recently, we started a new component as a follow-up activity to quiet reading time. After the 10-15 minutes of quiet reading, each child stood in front of their peers, introduced themselves, and explained, in their own words, one page of the book they had chosen that day. This activity reinforced the concept of details, which has been an ongoing topic of discussion throughout the year. In addition, it was an extension of an activity that the children loved. It is important to create curriculum that builds on the interests of the children. It increases excitement in the specific activity, confidence in the child and their ability, and promotes a love for learning. This new piece of the quiet reading time was a hit in Room 8. At first, the children demonstrated a little bit of fear when standing in front of the class to present their ideas. It can be very nerve wracking! We heard a few quiet voices, and some of our friends needed to be prompted a couple of times, but after doing this for a few days in a row, they are now pros! We love hearing their imaginations run wild as they explain what they see happening on their chosen page. One of Rian’s favorite books, she explained, is How the Crayons Saved the Rainbow. Her story behind the last page of the book was about how the cat was looking up at the sky because the cat thought that the cloud was very interesting. She shared that throughout the book the sun and the cloud got mad at each other, but they made up in the end and made a beautiful rainbow. Lilah chose a very different type of book than Rian! Her pick was Discovery Channel: The BIG Book of SHARKS, and she explained what she saw happening on page 29. She described that the large shark had his mouth wide open with huge teeth all over and red coloring inside his mouth. There was also white on the side of the shark’s mouth, which kind of looked like there was a starfish on it. The children learned new details, facts and stories from their own reading and from listening to their friends present their ideas, all while building up their own self-confidence. After about two weeks of doing this activity, there came a day that we did not have time to present our findings after quiet reading time. Towards the end of the day, Dylan and Alexandra both noticed that we did not do this activity and asked why. By the end of last week, each day after the children ate snack and picked out a book, at least one, if not more, inquired if we were going to do the story activity. We realized that this simple task became a huge hit in our classroom! In light of this newly found love of literacy, we wanted to build on their interests of reading and story-telling. We found the perfect book to take this concept a step further. Rather than reading their own books at quiet reading time on Monday, we read a new story to them today called A Cheese and Tomato Spider by Nick Sharratt. Have any of you heard of this book?! Silly, funny and colorful are three words that the children came up with to describe this story. This interactive book sparks creativity and makes one think outside of the box. The pages are divided into two parts so that each page features one bold picture cut in half of a spider, grandma, ice cream cone, etc. The children have the opportunity to mix and match the pages creating silly combinations such as a strawberry flavored volcano or a birthday lemon. The combinations are endless! We encouraged the children to interact with the pages and create their own story. The story was enticing to every child in the class and kept each child on their toes. After reading the book, we continued down this creative path and asked each child to create their own crazy combination of anything they desired. For example, Chloe made a sun on top of a blue snowman with flower hands and feet. Lennon made a chair sitting on top of a tree and a tree circle on top of a race car, and Nixon designed a house with arms, hands, legs and feet with a tree growing out of the top of the house. The children turned their imaginations into colorful illustrations. Next time you are in Room 8 ask to see their amazing creations. We will see where this love of literacy takes us next! We will also dive into the holiday of Purim next week as it is quickly approaching. We hope everyone has a great weekend. Shabbat Shalom! Mari & Aaliyah REMINDERS:
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Even though it was a very short week, Room 8 had a very busy 3 days. In light of our recent discussions on Tu B’Shevat and nature, we decided to jump into the week with a critical thinking exercise. We sat in a large circle and we all looked up at the new poster hanging on the wall at the front of our rug. We asked the children, “What do you see?” Rather than telling us details or information, we challenged them to ask questions to find out the facts. The Wise Learning Process calls this concept Puzzlement. Throughout the school year, we have continued to instill the idea of questions versus statements in many of our large group discussions. For example, when we conducted discussions on carrots and potatoes, we made sure to point out whether a child was asking a question to learn something new or giving us information. We do not only highlight this concept in circle time, but we also point out if a child says, “I have a question,” but they really give us a statement. Through asking questions, the children develop and enhance their critical thinking skills. In addition, this activity promotes the importance of looking at the fine details and asking questions to gather information. By teaching the children this skill at a young age, the children begin to understand that one must ask questions to learn. The first question that we heard was, “Why is there a picture of a body on the wall?” Wyatt asked, “How do parents come alive and then kids?” Lilah inquired, “Why is there a picture of feet on the poster?” Dylan and Alexandra wanted to know why the little girl has sunglasses and a bathing suit. Rian asked, “Why does she have skin?” Then, a few friends asked why the little girl in the poster had certain things inside of her body like blood and bones. We were impressed by the complicated and creative questions that the children came up with. After learning about what trees need to survive through our Tu B’Shevat studies, we asked the children, “What do humans need to survive?” Similar to trees, we discovered that people need many of the same necessities that trees require. Rian shared that trees need tree food, and people also need food. Nixon pointed out that both trees and people need water to survive. Lastly, we pointed out that another similarity in survival is sunlight. The children pointed out some really important similarities between trees and people. During this discussion, especially while talking about trees and their needs, Nixon asked, “Where does water come from?” This was an extremely interesting query and provoked a whole new set of questions that the children began to ask. We were blown away by their ability to think outside the box and their desire to gain more knowledge about complicated topics. Since the children demonstrated an interest in learning more about nature and where it comes from, we plan to further develop these topics next week. In choosing projects that are unique to the child or group of children, we are constantly creating emergent curriculum in our classroom. We, as teachers, observe and listen carefully to their interests, and by creating curriculum that is catered to their interests, the children are known to be more engaged and have a more meaningful experience. They learn a wide range of information that taps into all areas of learning including math, literacy, science, history and more. It also allows the children to explore a larger variety of materials rather than just working with typical preschool tools like alphabet puzzles, counting cubes, or making play dough. We can’t wait to see where we go with this one question of where water comes from! Stay tuned next week for the journey. We want to remind everyone that we have PICTURE DAY next week! This Tuesday, February 25th, we will meet in the Main Sanctuary at 9:00am SHARP. Please drop your child off here and one time, as we will start our day with individual and Room 8 class picture. If you have any questions, please let us know. We are looking forward to celebrating our first ever Generation’s Day with one member of each of your families. We want to remind you to please bring in the toiletry items mentioned on the flier that was sent home with your child this week no later than Tuesday 2/25. We have a special activity planned for Friday, and we need as many items as we can get. Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS:
Newsletter Week of 2/10-14
We had a very busy week in Room 8! We began the week with a small and meaningful Tu B’Shevat celebration in our class. Our past Tu B’Shevat discussions focused on the items found on the seder plate, fruits around the world, and various things we find in nature. In light of these topics of interest, the children had the opportunity to taste many of the actual items found on Tu B’Shevat seder plate and other fruits popular in Israel. The foods that the children enjoyed during snack time included fresh apples, dried apple rings, green olives, green grapes, and banana chips. The class’s interest in tasting food prompted us to take the topic a step further. We came up with the idea making our own trail mix. During this activity, three bowls were set out at each table. Each bowl contained a different dried fruit that is found on the Tu B’Shevat seder plate. Some of these snacks included dates, figs, raisins, golden raisins, cranberries, dried mango, banana chips and more. Each child was given a bag with a few crackers to represent the wheat on the seder plate. Then, they walked around to each table and filled their baggy with the dried fruits. We encouraged the children to add a good amount to their baggy so that they could share with their family at home. This activity allowed them to understand basic mathematical skills such as quantity, greater than or less than, and heavy vs. light. It also gave them the opportunity to expand their palettes in the area of taste and texture and try new things. We encourage each child to take one bite of everything and if they do not like it, they do not have to eat anymore. It creates a positive and exciting attitude towards food, while also promoting openness to trying and experiencing new things. If a child gains this confidence to try new things at a young age, they will be more open and have more courage to gain new experiences in the future. This was a special experience for the children in that they were able to see, feel, and do what others do in Israel on this holiday. This hands-on experience provided the children with a deeper connection to the importance of why we need trees and the meaning of this holiday. We were overjoyed to see how excited each child was to try all the new foods set out at each table and loved hearing how much they loved it and ate it all the next day. We continued on the theme of Tu B’Shevat by taking another nature walk. This time the children were encouraged to gather various items they found all over the campus. From the back of the temple to behind the parking lot, we scoured the campus looking for leaves of all different colors, a variety of seed pods, pinecones, and anything else we could find! After the walk, we sat in a large group on the carpet and put our sorting skills to work as we grouped the items that were similar to one another in looks. All of the Eucalyptus leaves formed one pile, then, the pinecones another, the reddish-brown leaves in another, and so on. Ask your child which items they contributed to this activity and which pile it fell into! After sorting, each child was able to choose one item. They took this item to the table, and we asked them to look closely at the item, otherwise known was the “details.” We encouraged them to feel it and look at each color and rough edge of their chosen item. Then, they were given a pencil and piece of paper so that they could draw a detailed picture. For example, Chloe chose a dried olive that she had found behind the temple. She had to look closely to see that it resembled an oval shape. It also had a circle and dot from where the stem was on one side of the olive. Another example is that of Nixon and Lilah. They both chose a small flowering plant that had three little shoots of stringy magenta flower. You will have to look at their incredibly detailed drawings next time you visit our class to get a real visual of each item. We were so impressed by how much detail and concentration they put into their work of art. They used crayons to color it in and many of the children mixed multiple colors of crayons to get the exact color of the leaf, flower or spikey-ball. Isabella added white crayon on top of her brown because her item was a lighter brown than the color of the brown crayon. For the reddish-brown leaf, Lennon used brown, red, white, yellow and orange to create the perfect mix. This activity helped strengthen our fine motor skills, while also tapping into creativity and the ability to actually see things we don’t normally look at. When we look at something with the intent of drawing it, we tend to look more carefully than usual. We see, truly see, the shapes, the patterns, the perspective, the colors, the shadows, the contours, and how all of the details interact. Through noticing the details of a certain object, the children deepen their understanding and even more questions and thoughts are provoked. We will continue observational drawing and art next week and try another activity with a new spin on it. We want to remind everyone that there is no school Monday and Tuesday next week. We hope you all have a wonderful extra-long weekend! Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS:
Room 8 started the week off with a wonderful all-school Havdalah service to celebrate the end of Shabbat and to welcome the week ahead. Our director, Jen, lead us in song and prayer in Plotkin Chapel with all of the other preschool classes. We love attending Havdalah the first Monday of each month. It sets a positive tone for the month and reminds us of the importance of our community.
We continue to celebrate and learn about the Birthday of the Trees, otherwise known as Tu B’Shevat. This week we read three books related to the holiday. First, we read Netta and Her Plant, which highlighted the life of a little girl who plants a tree. The children understood that trees, like people, grow with age. The tree starts as a seed and slowly grows taller, just like humans. The children compared a tree to a human and found that there are more similarities than we thought. This might sound like a funny comparison, but ask your child to tell you the similarities because there are lot more than you think! We also read the books Is it Tu’ B’Shevat Yet? And A Tree is Nice and Dear Tree. These two books highlighted the importance of trees in our lives. The children learned that there are many different kinds of trees. There are similarities in what each tree gives to us, but there are also many differences between the trees. For instance, Alexandra explained how one tree gives us apples, while Rian shared that other trees can provide us with olives. Nixon understood that all trees give us paper and oxygen, and Wyatt said, “Trees make houses for bees.” The children showed a strong understanding of the importance of trees and how we cannot live without them for many reasons. Before venturing out into nature to take a closer look at our surroundings, we asked the children what they think they might come across during a nature walk. We received quite the variety of answers from Nixon’s hopes of seeing a rain deer to Lilah saying she will see a bench to Wyatt insisting we would see a frog or tarantula. We finished up the week by exploring the entire campus. Ask your child if they came across any of the things that they thought they might see while roaming the Wise School campus. Thankfully, we did not see any tarantulas, but we did come across a large variety of trees. Next week, we will explore the similarities and differences between the leaves we saw. The children raved about the nature walk, so we are thinking of taking another one to explore new areas of campus next week! The children also reviewed the Tu B’Shevat seder items, each of which symbolizes the beginning of the agricultural year in Israel. Ask your child if they can name one of these and where it comes from. This holiday helps us connect with Israel to celebrate the time in which fruit begins to form after surviving the hardest part of winter. Next week, we will get to experience a true Tu B’Shevat celebration by trying the first 12 fruits that begin to blossom in Israel. These include figs, grapes, olives, dates, and pomegranates. We are excited for the children to have the opportunity to try an abundance of fruits next week at our Pre-K Tu B’Shevat celebration. Room 8 has also shown a great interest in Tic Tac Toe, after being introduced by Coach Danny. Rather than playing the same, more active, version that we played in P.E., we showed the children the table-top way. Two by two, the children learned the rules and skill behind the simple game. They used small wooden Tic Tac Toe board games and tallied their rounds on a blank piece of paper. This game might seem simple and always result in a tie, but for young children, it promotes a high level of strategic thinking. It boosts creativity and the ability to develop the skills needed to complete puzzles. We noticed that the children, especially at this age, must pay very close attention in order to think of their next move. It promotes thinking logically and the important skill of attention to detail. All of these skills help the children naturally develop their logical thinking, and in turn, prepare them to easily understand mathematical and engineering concepts as they get older. In addition, Tic Tac Toe promotes social skills and interpersonal understanding. As the children sit directly across from another child, they strengthen their vocabulary and ability to conversate, which both help the children learn to negotiate in a smarter and more efficient manner. This game was a huge success in our class, and we will continue to play and watch the children master the strategies to win every time! We want to remind Room 8 that on February 13th, in honor of President’s Day, please have your child dress in red, white, and blue. We also look forward to celebrating Tu B’Shevat with your children on Monday! We wish everyone a wonderful weekend and Shabbat Shalom!! Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS:
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Pre-K Room 8Mari Greifer Archives
March 2020
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