This week in Room 8, we introduced the holiday of Rosh Hashanah. We began by asking the children if they knew anything about the pictures that are hanging on the walls in our class. Then, we asked, “Does anyone know what ‘Shana Tova’ means?” The children knew that there was a picture of a challah but did not know where it came from. While the children knew what these items were physically, they did not know why they are related to Rosh Hashanah. Their curiosity about the origin of these items led us to our next conversation about the details of a shofar. Ask your child what animal a shofar comes from and how many shofars can be made from that animal.
We ended this discussion by reading Sammy Spider’s First Rosh Hashanah. While reading about the traditions and themes of Rosh Hashanah, one idea resonated with the children. In the book, the Shapiro family received many cards in the mail from their family and friends in the time surrounding the holiday. After hearing this, Wyatt exclaimed, “Just like the cards we made for Rian’s birthday!” This was correct with the only difference being the phrase that we put on the birthday card versus a Rosh Hashanah card. As a class, we decided to make our own “Happy New Year” cards to send to either a family member or friend. This was great timing since we have spent a large part of this past week learning to draw a complete picture. Through small group and large group activities, the children have learned the components and skills it takes to create a complete picture. Ask your child if they can tell you one item found in a complete picture. Learning to draw a complete picture is an important part of child development. It promotes self-expression and allows children to learn how to communicate in another way than just through talking. In addition, learning to draw a complete picture helps to reinforce their knowledge of shapes and enhances fine motor ability. The act of drawing, whether they are holding a pencil, crayon or marker, helps to strengthen their finger muscles and improve their grip. Once children can draw basic shapes, like rectangles, squares, circles and lines, they can draw essentially anything! We have loved seeing the incredible amount of progress in your child’s art within such a short amount of time. Next time you visit our class, please take a look at the wall to see your child’s beautiful complete picture. Next week, we will begin the Rosh Hashanah project to create a picture to mail to a friend or family member. This activity allows the children to apply the values of Rosh Hashanah to real life. By doing an activity that captures the interest of the children, they will better connect with the concept and values of this holiday and future topics. We want to wish you all a Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova. We hope your long weekend is filled with family, friends, love and a sweet start to the New Year! We will see everyone on Wednesday! Mari and Aaliyah
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Week of September 16-20, 2019
We started our week with our first discussion on the concept of details. In order to introduce this new idea, we thought it would be fun to learn more about each other in the process! We conducted “All About Me” interviews to learn some basic information, but we took this a step further this week. Ask your child if they can remember what the word, “details,” means. We explained that details are very important in every step of learning. In order to truly understand and grasp a concept or idea, we need as many details as possible. Details can also be explained as describing words or adjectives. We asked all of our Room 8 friends, “How do we get details about a person or how do we learn more about someone?” We came to an agreement that you must ask questions to do this! In light of this concept, we played a new game called Hot Seat. This is when one child or teacher sits in the deemed “Hot Seat” (blue chair). Then, we go around the class and each child asks the person in the hot seat a question. In order to do this, the children had to understand the difference between a question and a statement. The idea of question vs. statement is a common theme that will come up through each of our lessons throughout the year. This concept falls under the pillar of “Details,” which is a key piece the Wise Learning Process. We teach the children to understand that questions are used to find out more information or details, and statements are the answers. Learning to ask questions is essential to future learning and success. The ability to ask questions not only allows children to gather information and expand their knowledge, but it also helps boost their sense of curiosity and interest in learning. Instead of asking your children questions, encourage them to ask you questions! Have your child pick a topic and come up with questions about all the things they want to learn about said subject. We introduced the idea of details early in the school year because it appears in all areas of learning. Last week, we talked about the differences between fruits and vegetables and why one falls into its particular category. Then, the children had the opportunity to identify a variety of fruits and a variety of vegetables. We decided to focus on one fruit in particular this week to gather many details on the subject. After asking the children to vote on their favorite fruit, we narrowed the pool down to one fruit, watermelon. By using a topic that was chosen by the class, it gives the children a greater sense of ownership in the project. Having the students generate their own topic allowed the children to sustain interest for a longer period of time. When we asked what their favorite part of the week was, the majority of our class chose the watermelon project. Ask your child about the project! They will give you tons of details about a watermelon such as color, shape, taste, and texture. We also tried other watermelon products including watermelon juice and watermelon jerky. While the juice was not a big hit, the jerky was a fan favorite! Nixon thought the juice tasted stale, and Jacob thought the jerky was super sticky. After conquering the watermelon, we moved on to discuss questions and details of another fruit, which also happens to be a big symbol in the upcoming holiday of Rosh Hashanah. We began the apple discussion on Thursday, where we looked at four different types of apples including Fuji, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, and Honey Crisp. The purpose of this activity was to gather details about apples ranging from anything we see, touch, taste, and smell. We held the apple, smelled it, looked at it from every angle, and even tasted all four types. Ask your child to tell you one detail they learned about an apple. An interesting piece of information we found out was that there was a star inside the apple if we cut it horizontally. The children were enamored by this! Dylan thought it looked a little more like a snowflake, and Rian pointed out that her star-shaped earrings match the shape that’s in the apple! The deep conversations we had this week during circle time discussions set a fabulous tone for the year. We noticed that the topic of vegetables and fruits resonated with many of the children in Room 8. At lunch, they couldn’t stop talking about which vegetables and fruits they had in their lunch box. We saw an enormous amount of curiosity and love for learning, and we can’t wait to explore many more topics throughout the year starting with Rosh Hashanah next week. Have a great weekend, and we will see you on Monday! Shabbat Shalom, Mari + Aaliyah REMINDERS:
September 9-13, 2019
We had a very busy second week in Room 8. Whether we were bonding with our peers, meeting our new Art teacher, or working on our hand-eye coordination during P.E., we did not have a minute to spare. Starting Monday morning, the classroom was set up with a variety of new activities. Each task is set out to focus on a different area of development. While the purpose of many of these activities will overlap, we like to give each child the opportunity to see the importance of developing and strengthening each skill at each task. For example, the children had the chance to visit a few different centers throughout the week including name sign-in, Zingo!, coloring-in shapes, pattern tiles, and rubber-band boards. First, when the children arrive, they learned that the first part of our morning routine is signing or writing their name upon arrival. The purpose of this activity is to help establish a morning routine, as well as, enhance our fine motor skills. We are not as focused on the product of the name, but instead, the commitment to following the expectations of the morning. This creates routine, which is extremely beneficial to child development. It allows the child to understand the process of order, enhances the ability to follow directions, while also helping the child to feel safe and establish important habits. In addition, signing-in each morning allows each child to recognize their name with ease and over time, strengthen their fine motor skills. This week we also set out two activities with a main focus of strengthening our fine motor skills. One of the tasks was rubber band boards, which are small square wood boards with lines of small nails covering the surface. The children used any of the hundreds of rubber bands sitting on the table to cover the wooden boards. Some stretched the larger bands across the whole board, while others made various shapes with the smaller rubber bands. This is such a great activity for the children in that it not only helps with shape recognition, but it also allows the children to strengthen the muscles they will use in all fine motor tasks. The process of stretching out the rubber band to place it on the nails takes power, and the ability to manipulate the rubber band into a shape takes even more strength. We were impressed by each child’s ability to complete this task. They took pride in their designs and creations. Another activity that was set out this week was at the Art Center. The children were given the choice between two tasks that both focused on strengthening their fine motor grip. They could either draw their own shapes and color them in or color in premade shapes. The purpose of this activity was to learn to “pinch” the small piece of crayon and use patience to fill the entire shape with one color. The children took a special liking to this task and almost every child visited this station! Chloe chose to draw her own shapes by tracing the shape stencils, while Wyatt colored in four shapes so carefully that he was able to keep the crayon inside the lines. While this task helps reinforce their ability to follow directions, it truly focuses on strengthening our fine motor skills, which is an essential ability for the rest of our lives. Room 8’s favorite activity set out each morning this week was the game of Zingo! The children flocked to this game each morning and waited for more friends to arrive so that they could get started with a full game immediately. Zingo! touches on a huge variety of important skills that help each child further develop. The children learn the importance of following directions, team work, communication and patience. After learning to play the game, the children understood that if they did not play by the rules, then, the game would not work. For instance, if someone was the “Zinger” and had a card, the children quickly learned that this would not be a fair match. The skill of following directions builds over a long period of time through child development. At age 4 and 5, children can follow multi-step directions. In addition, the game of Zingo! greatly improves self-confidence. It forces each child to practice their communication skills. Whether they are acting as the “Zinger” or playing with a card, each child must interact with their peers for the game to function. As the games progressed through the week, each game became louder! By the end of the week, we would hear Isabella and Jacob shouting “CAT!” or “I have a GHOST!” The children do not even realize they are improving their ability to communicate each time they play the game. We will continue to play many more board games throughout the year. Each will help strengthen our communication skills. On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to visit the Atelier (Studio) and meet our new art teacher, Joanne. Each Wednesday, one small group from our class will spend an hour with Joanne. We will alternate the group each week so that each child will go every other week. She introduced a few activities during our first session including painting, beading, looking at various items in a light projector, and drawing a landscape. Joanne will provide an incredible experience for the children filled with wonder and invention. As the atelierista, Joanne will provide an inviting space with new materials for the children to master all kinds of artistic techniques. We can’t wait to visit again next week and see the new materials we will be able to research. This newsletter is provided to give you a small glimpse of the “what” and “why” of the work we do in Room 8. We love getting to know each of your children and can’t wait to see them develop into little young ladies and gentlemen! We want to wish you all a Shabbat Shalom and wonderful weekend. We will see you on Monday for another full week of new experiences here in Room 8. Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS:
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Pre-K Room 8Mari Greifer Archives
March 2020
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