Newsletter March 25-29, 2019
Room 8 started our week off with the story of Passover. We opened the conversation of the upcoming holiday by reading a story called Sammy Spider’s First Haggadah. We discussed the main events and the characters that makeup the Passover story. Ask your child who the main character of the story is, and then, ask them who the bad guy is. We continue to use the method of repetition to help the children retain and grasp this complicated tale that is an essential piece of the history of the Jewish people. This topic not only helps reinforce the importance of our heritage, but it also helps acts a stepping stone for academic learning. When children are exposed to storytelling, they are strengthening their listening and comprehension skills and enhances their vocabulary. At the same time, storytelling encourages imagination and creativity in the child. Rather than seeing the story in pictures, the children have a chance to imagine the details of the characters and plot in their minds. It promotes free thinking and unique ideas to develop in each child. We continued to go over the story of Passover throughout the week. We also began to add songs to help tell the tale. Ask your child if they remember any of the songs. We will continue to practice over the next couple of weeks and can’t wait to sing them together as a class during our classroom Seder. Next week, we plan to incorporate some art projects into our Passover curriculum to further reinforce the importance of this holiday. Room 8 introduced a new educational STEM toy to the children this week. For those who are unfamiliar with STEM, it is a term used to group together academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This is a phrase that is commonly used in elementary school, and we like to give the children an opportunity to think in this mindset at a young age. While we have many other activities in our class that fall into the category as a STEM toy, we found a new engineering building set that promotes creativity and problem-solving. There are hundreds of different creations the children can come up with such as cars, planes, animals, people and more. We can’t wait to see what the children construct and their story behind it. In addition, this toy strengthens fine motor skills in that it requires a small pinch to secure the pieces together. We truly enjoyed meeting with all of you during conferences and are so proud of all that the children have accomplished thus far. We know that their growth will only continue over the last few months of school, and we thank you all for encouraging and reinforcing the work we do to help your children thrive. Have a wonderful weekend and Shabbat Shalom, Mari & Aaliyah **WISE SCHOOL PLAY -- PETER PAN! April 6th, April 7th, and April 9th performances Link for tickets: https://www.showtix4u.com/events/1290 Reminders: 1. 4/4- PreK video recording day 2. 4/11- Room 8 Class Passover Seder – 9:15am 3. 4/15-4/26- Spring Break- NO school 3. 4/29- School Resumes Shabbat Family Schedule:
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Room 8 spent the week focusing on the holiday of Purim, which is coming up next week. We began the week by reading a few books about the story of Purim and the importance of the holiday. First, we started out by reading Sammy Spider’s First Purim, which explained a brief overview of Purim. The children learned the characters that are part of the story of Purim including Vashti, Esther, Haman, Mordechai, and King Ahashverosh. The children had the opportunity take their time to color a picture of each character. This activity not only helped reinforce their fine motor skills, but it also helped develop their own ideas about each character. We connected the theme of shapes to Purim because of the significance of the shape of Haman’s hat. Ask your child what shape Haman’s hat is. They might also say “BOOOOO” when they hear you say Haman’s name, as he is the bad guy of our story.
Then, we read a book called The Purim Superhero. This inspired the children to design and creat their very own Purim costumes based on a particular character. There was a large variety of what every child chose! Avital made a costume of Queen Esther, while Julian and Cameron made a costume fit for King Ahashverosh. Scarlett and Kate chose to make a costume for Vashti. Haman ended up being very popular with Blake, Grayson, and Brayden creating his costume. We can’t wait to wear our costumes next Thursday for Purim Character Dress Up Day! This project helped reinforce the characters of Purim, as well as introduce a different theme of art. Rather than using all new materials, the children could only choose from recycled items. The base of the costume was a brown paper bag, and each child chose from a variety of different recycled fabrics. From simple colored patches, to patterned samples, to corduroy pieces, the creativity was flowing in Room 8. We can’t wait for you to see them when they wear them next week for Purim Character Dress Up Day on Thursday. After telling the full Purim story a few times, the children had a chance to act it out. They were overjoyed to have this opportunity and followed the story perfectly. We will continue to act it out next week, and each child will get the chance to play a different character. We enjoyed celebrating Shabbat with Jordan’s entire family this week! We look forward to next week’s adventures, and we will see you on time for Monday’s Picture Day! Shabbat Shalom, Mari & Aaliyah Reminders: 1.3/17- Purim Carnival 2.3/18- Pre-K Picture Day 3.3/19- Superhero dress-up day 4.3/20- Wacky Hair Day 5.3/21- Purim Character Dress up day 6.3/22- Purim Celebration in EC- Dress-up day on Shabbat 7.3/27- 12pm pick-up EC Conferences 8.3/28- NO school- EC Conferences 9.4/4- PreK video recording day
Room 8 Newsletter
It seems like this year is flying by, and we cannot believe it is March already! We started our week on Tuesday with fun in Music with Maestro. We are already starting to sing the songs we will sing at celebration, and the kids are having a great time learning them. In our outside time on Tuesday, we noticed the children continue to show an interest in nature. While running around on our patio, Sasha and Grayson asked us if we had magnifying glasses that they could use to look for things out on the yard. This snowballed into the entire class looking for nature items, and of course, some treasures all around the yard. They used binoculars, magnifying glasses, and cups to get a better look at what they found. We loved seeing how the children took one of our lessons and built upon it themselves. This is a true example of emergent curriculum, and we were so happy to see the children thriving in this environment. Room 8 has had a blast the last couple of weeks focusing on different kinds of art projects. We spent time on mixed media working with tape, water colors, and pastels. The children also had the opportunity to learn to draw with details by looking closely at our nature walk findings. Last week, the children were opened up to the world of painting with acrylic paint. In pairs, each group of two learned to paint either an object or background in a step by step process. For example, Cameron and Evie learned to paint a sunflower from start to finish. They began by drawing a circle to make the center of the flower. Then, they were instructed to mix red and yellow to create an orange like color to begin constructing the leaves. They continued to follow the steps shown in the video and produced an amazing first painting. Another small group, including Jordan and Avital, followed the instructions of how to make a sunset painting. They did an incredible job using patience to work step by step to mix each color and create a true sunset scene. They used oranges and purples and yellows to create their sunsets and added shadows and tints to evoke a real-life image. Next time you visit Room 8 take a look at the original painting compared to your child’s. They are pretty spot on! The children showed a true love for this activity and continue to ask us when they get to do it again. We can’t wait to work on our next painting to elevate our skills. We also transitioned into the next holiday that is coming up this month. Teacher Aaliyah opened up the discussion of the holiday, Purim, by reading Sammy Spiders First Purim. The children enjoyed listening to the story of Purim after hearing the book. Ask your child what the special noisemaker is called that we use on Purim when we hear Haman’s name. The children will have the opportunity to make his/her own grogger next week, as well as, hamantaschen. We also look forward to connecting our unit on shapes to this holiday. Stay tuned to see how we will make that connection! The children are excited to act out the story of Purim next week and delve into even more discussions on Purim. We hope everyone has a great weekend and is ready for lots of Purim fun next week! Shabbat Shalom, Mari & Aaliyah Reminders:
Shabbat Family Schedule:
We started off the week by jumping into a lesson on shapes. Last Friday, the children were given the task of going on a scavenger hunt around the room to find items of various shapes. We quickly learned that we needed a bit of help in this department, so the children were given a small homework assignment to bring in a few objects of more complex shapes. On Monday, our circle time consisted of the kids sharing what they found at home. Kate drew lots of shapes! She drew ovals, stars, triangles, hexagons, and hearts. Christopher brought in a star shaped wand and drew a picture of it. Julian brought in a big Stop! sign to represent the shape of an octagon. The children are beginning to form a strong understanding of the rules that come along with naming shapes. We explained that shapes are a set “rule.” They cannot be square-ish or a circle/rectangle. Shapes follow rules. For example, a rectangle has to have 4 sides with two sides measuring the same length and the other two sides much be the same length. The concept of both shapes and rules are the building blocks for many future educational processes. Whether your child is reading, writing, comparing and contrasting, learning to recognize shapes is apparent in all of these concepts. Once children know shapes they can apply this to writing their letters, mathematical concepts and critical thinking tasks.
All of the Pre-K classes gathered for a special presentation on Wednesday. We were very lucky to experience an incredible speaker, Daniel Marks, who discussed where all of our recycled items end up. Ask your child what the process is! Mr. Marks explained how his company makes recycled paper, and they received nickels for the aluminum cans that they brought in to give to Mr. Marks. It was a fascinating topic for the children and an excellent way to be exposed to new ideas to see how the world works. It was another rainy day on Thursday, so the friends in Room 8 had a great time playing musical chairs and freeze dance. Teacher Mari conducted a small group project that focused on painting and following instructions. The small group of 3 children learned to listen carefully to a step by step instruction on how to paint a sunflower. We were impressed by their final outcome and will continue to work on the task of following directions. We enjoyed celebrating Shabbat with Cameron’s entire family this week! We look forward to next week’s adventures, and we will update you as soon as we know when our Picture Day has been rescheduled! Shabbat Shalom, Mari & Aaliyah Reminders:
Shabbat Family Schedule:
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Pre-K Room 8Mari Greifer Archives
March 2020
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