Newsletter Week of November 18-22, 2019
Room 8 spent this past week focusing on two main concepts to further our growth. First, through a variety of activities, tasks, and discussions, we emphasized strengthening our gross motor skills. The first few months of school, we put a greater emphasis on developing our fine motor skills. Although the children in Room 8 have an affinity to doing activities that require more fine motor ability, such as building with Legos and table-top puzzles, we want to make sure that we are strengthening every aspect of child development. In order to work on our gross motor skills, the first activity that we introduced was Simon Says. It might seem like a simple game, but it took a few rounds for the children to comprehend the importance of listening very carefully. This game gives the children the opportunity to move their entire bodies. From touching their toes to running to the door to pushing chairs in and out, each child was on the move and had to exercise all of their body parts. Rather than the teachers being “Simon” each time, we gave the opportunity to the children. We loved seeing each child come up with their own creative set of movements. For instance, when Lennon acted as Simon, he used a pattern of movements consisting of stand up and sit down. Daniel and Jacob, on the other hand, loved mixing up the tasks. They both had their friends moving around the entire room using all of their gross motor skills. We are continuing to work on understanding that in order for people to get “out” of the round, whoever is Simon must drop “Simon says” and just say a movement. We notice that they insist on saying “Simon says” throughout the entire round of the game. Another gross motor activity we conducted was a game of over and under. The children lined up in a single file line, and we taught them to stretch their arms out to be “arms-length distance” from each other. Before getting started on over and under, they stretched their arms in front of them and above their head as straight as they could. Then, the first person in line received one large stuffed dice and was instructed to choose whether they wanted to pass it over their head with straight arms or through their legs (under) to the next person. Based on the first person’s choice, the children began a pattern of passing the dice over and under. The gross motor skill that this activity emphasized was the large movement of reaching over and under. In the process, they also learned to differentiate between their right and left side of their body. While one might think that this is a simple activity, it requires enormous skill and is incredible practice for children of this age. In addition to moving our bodies and strengthening large range of movements, this activity gave the children the opportunity to practice and grow their attention span and ability to listen and comprehend multi-step directions. In addition to a week filled with various gross motor activities, we also spent time having a few large group discussions about the upcoming holiday of Thanksgiving. We began this conversation with a question and inquired, “Does anyone know what Thanksgiving holiday is about?” Alexandra volunteered her idea of what Thanksgiving is when she stated, “It is a holiday where we have love.” Wyatt explained that the holiday makes you feel special and good. We went on to explain that there are two words that make up the word Thanksgiving. Ask your child if they can tell what each of those words are. Also ask them to tell you how many syllables are in the word, “Thanksgiving.” We followed up by asking, “When do you tell someone ‘thank you’? We were quite impressed by the answers we heard during this first conversation on the topic. Lilah was the first to contribute when she said, “You have to say, ‘thank you’ when someone gives something to you.” Then, Dylan explained how he thanks someone when they share a toy with him. Rian says she always says thank you when someone shares a snack. As the children demonstrated an understanding for the concept of the word ‘thank you,’ we decided to take this a step further by asking what it means to be thankful. This turned out to be a little more difficult of a concept for the children to understand. Rather than focusing on being thankful for gifts or toys, we want them to be able to think a little deeper and understand how important it is to be appreciative of the things we don’t notice every day. For example, we asked the children, “Who is the person that buys you those toys or the person that is buying and preparing your food?” As we continued to discuss this concept over the course of the week, we noticed that the children were getting a better grasp on the importance of being grateful and saying thank you. During the second conversation on Thanksgiving, we heard creative answers to the question, “What are you thankful for?” Jacob shared that he is thankful for his garden because it gives him fruits and vegetables, and Lorne explained he is thankful for his mommy and daddy because they give him cuddles and kisses and likes when they give him love. Our goal is to teach the children the importance of appreciation and gratitude, and we are thrilled to see that they beginning to develop a true understanding. We are so excited to celebrate Thanksgiving with the entire Pre-K grade level next week, and we are even more excited to prepare our special carrot cake dessert to share with all of our friends. Monday will be a busy day of shredding carrots, mixing ingredients, and baking our cake to make sure it is perfect for Tuesday’s feast. We hope everyone has a great weekend, and we will see you Monday for our short week! Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS:
EC BOOK FAIR SING-ALONG Wednesday, December 4 8 a.m. - Breakfast in Udko 8:30 a.m. - Community Sing-Along/Book Reading with Rabbi Sari in the Sanctuary ***Come dressed in your favorite character from a book!***
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Week of November 11-15, 2019
Room 8 spent the week taking a closer look at root vegetables. After examining the russet potato and sweet potato last week and trying two types of potato chips, we introduced a third type of potato, a purple sweet potato. We began by placing the purple sweet potato in front of the children and asking, “What do you see?” The children passed the potato around to get a good look, feel and smell of the vegetable. Jacob explained that the potato looked dirty because it grows in the ground. Dylan chimed in by adding the fact that it grows in the dirt! Isabella said she could actually see some of the dirt on it. Rian described the feeling of the purple potato as hard, and Wyatt compared the smell to a bbq smell. Even though we have only had a few previous conversations on the topic of details, we noticed that the children demonstrated the ability to use an elevated level of vocabulary. In describing the purple potato, the children used unique words and showed a higher level of thinking rather than simple adjectives like purple and hard. We love seeing how well the children are grasping these critical thinking concepts. As we continue to learn the various pillars associated with the Wise Learning Process, the children will gain the critical thinking skills needed to be successful in any kind of learning. After examining the outside of the purple potato, we cut it open and encouraged the children to identify the traits or details found on the inside. We wanted to take this discussion a step further and introduce a new critical thinking concept, compare and contrast. The children learned that to compare and contrast, we must distinguish two objects from one another. In other words, we must point out and differences. Ask your child if they remember what similarities and differences means. We try to describe it as things that are the same and things that are different. The first compare and contrast exercise we conducted was between the russet potato and the purple potato. Knowing what we learned about the potato so far and taking into consideration the look and feel of each vegetable, we asked, “How are the russet and purple potatoes similar, and how are they different?” Lilah shared her thought that both are potatoes, and Jacob contributed that both grow in the dirt. Chloe pointed out a physical similarity in that both potatoes are bumpy. We quickly jumped into the differences between the two since the children found more of these compared to similarities. Isabella said that the colors were different, and Dylan finished her thought by describing how the purple potato was purple inside and out, and the russet is gray and brown on the outside. Wyatt noticed that the purple potato was rougher than the russet and had more bumps. Rian pointed out an interesting point how the russet had more cracks on it, which is the blemish from where the root was growing. This was an incredible start to compare and contrast conversations. The details that the children pointed out and their advanced vocabulary demonstrated an understanding for deeper learning and the ability to grasp new concepts quickly. Being exposed to any critical thinking concept at a young age sets the children up for great success in the future. We are helping your children learn how to learn so that critical thinking is a part of who they are rather than just a school concept. Later in the week, we tried a cooked sweet potato in the form of French fries. This was a big hit! Next week, we will carry this discussion into the vegetables that are found during the Thanksgiving holiday. We will see whether your children are interested in the vegetables, fruits or maybe another Thanksgiving tradition to see what our next unit will be! We hope everyone has a great long weekend, and we will see you next Tuesday ready to start Thanksgiving! Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS:
Room 8 Newsletter
Room 8 opened up our unit on Root Vegetables beginning with potatoes. We introduced potatoes by showing the children pictures of various types of this vegetable. Potatoes, just like apples, come in many different varietals, but there is a big difference between apples and potatoes and where we get them from. The children learned last month that apples grow on trees. Do potatoes grow on trees, as well? Ask your child if they remember the answer! We read a book called, The Vegetables We Eat, which went on to describe where various vegetables are grown and how. The children were fascinated with this information and could not believe that some grow on vines, some grow in the ground and others grow as flowers like broccoli. Ask your child if they can tell you a few types of potatoes. Some of the types we discussed include Russet potato, purple sweet potato, sweet potato, yam, Yukon Gold, and Fingerling potato. Then, we asked the children, “How do you like to eat your potatoes?” Wyatt explained that he likes his potatoes cut (cut up in pieces), while Nixon said he likes sweet potatoes. Alexandra likes white potatoes smashed and Chloe exclaimed, “I like potatoes when they are attached together (baked).” We learned that potatoes, no matter the type, can be cooked and prepared all different ways. During this initial large group discussion, the children were able to taste two types of potato chips, Ruffles chips and sweet potato chips. Rian was the first to add to the conversation when she said, “I don’t like the Ruffles, I LOVE them!” Lilah compared the two chips and realized the sweet potatoes were much crunchier than the regular potato chips. Dylan was not a fan of the sweet potato chips, but Isabella liked them because they were a little salty. Our second conversation on the topic of potatoes was focused on the Russet potato. We showed the children the potato and passed it around so they could get a closer look, good feel, and scent of this root vegetable. Before passing it around, we cut it open so that the kids could see the inside and outside. Their thoughts and observances were creative and deep. Lilah explained that she thought that the potato looked grumpy because it was so rough. Wyatt described it as wet (the inside). Rian compared it to an apple, and Chloe added that the skin makes it seem like an apple. Alexandra used the adjective “juicy” to explain what she saw on the inside, and Nixon thought it smelled like a potato. Isabella added that the inside was like an apple because it was yellow. The adjectives that the children used were creative and thoughtful. They were able to think on a deeper level and use more complex words than our last conversation. As we continue to dig deeper into root vegetables, the children have the opportunity to expand their vocabulary even more and develop the ability to think critically. Rather than saying something is “good” or describing the color, we strive for the children to be able to look at an object or subject and see so much more than the color of what is right in front of them. Being exposed to critical thinking concepts, such as looking at details and how to compare and contrast, at a young age gives children a head-start at developing the proper skills to be successful in elementary school and in life. The children demonstrated great interest in this conversation by staying focused and by actively participating. They had questions and opinions about the different types of potatoes and their taste. After this discussion, we had many requests to continue the topic! Chloe kept asking when we would get to cook the Russet in different ways. Due to their interest and curiosity in this topic, we will continue the discussion next week. Rather than only having conversations, we will take this concept a step further by doing a hands-on experiment. Stay tuned for next week to find out more! In light of strengthening our fine motor skills, we also worked on enhancing the ability to cut with scissors. We gave every child a roll of colored masking tape and a pair of kid scissors. Each child learned to start the roll of tape, place the stick part on the chair, and pull the circle of tape until they had a piece of their desired length. They learned to hold the scissors with their thumb up and cut the piece of tape from the rest of the roll. This activity took an enormous amount of patience and concentration! The children did a phenomenal job and took their time to cut out many pieces of tape of all different sizes to make an abstract design on their piece of gray paper. The next step of this project will be to create a complete picture using only various colors of tape. Next time you visit our classroom take a look at some of the creations on the wall. It is truly amazing how far their fine motor skills have come since September, and we can’t wait to see their creativity flourish throughout the rest of the year. We wish you all a wonderful and relaxing weekend! Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS:
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Pre-K Room 8Mari Greifer Archives
March 2020
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