December 11-15, 2017
We were so excited to be back at school this week after an impromptu four days off, and we are so grateful that everyone stayed safe during the fires. Room 8 jumped right into our Hanukkah activities since we had to make up for lost time! We began by finishing up making unique hanukkiahs so that the children were able to take them for the first night of Hanukkah on Tuesday. Last week, the children chose from a large variety of items to create their hannukiah. The items consisted of colored dominos, traditional dominos, colored letters, colored numbers, small pattern tiles, Legos, sequins, colored rocks, gems, and more! We were so impressed by their creativity and their ability to think independently to put together exceptional hannukiahs. As you saw on Tuesday, we used the children’s hannukiahs as decoration for Room 8’s Hanukkah party. We enjoyed singing Hanukkah songs with all of parents and spending time celebrating Hanukkah with all of you in Room 8. The best part was having Ella’s dad lead us in the Hanukkah prayers! We want to give a big thanks to everyone for making our party so special by preparing food, bringing party items and joining us for the special day. We continued our Hanukkah celebration through the week by playing dreidel with the children and making dreidels. The children reviewed the four dreidel symbols, Gimel, Nun, He, and Shin. They each got the chance to spin a big wooden dreidel. Owen, Carter and Mason landed on Gimel! Unfortunately, Skyler and Ayla were not as lucky as their dreidel landed on Nun both times they spun it. The game of dreidel does not only reflect the holiday of Hanukkah, but it also reinforces the values of patience, teamwork, and sportsmanship. Each must wait patiently for their turn to spin and understand that they might not land on the symbol in which they desire. In addition to playing the game, the children asked the teachers if they could make their own dreidels similar to the ones we made last year. In our Explorers class, the children had the opportunity to spread different colored Plasticine clay over a small wooden square with a small stick. The children enjoyed this project so much that they remembered it and asked if they could do it again! Ask your child to teach you how to play dreidel using their very own new crafty dreidels. We wish you all a wonderful Winter Break filled with family, friends, warmth, love and celebrations. We also want to wish you all a happy and healthy New Year! The past four months have been an incredible growing journey with all of your children. The development and success we have seen from the beginning of our Explorers year until now is indescribable. We are so proud of all they have accomplished so far and cannot wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for Room 8. Thank you to all for being so supportive. We are so grateful for all that you do for the children and our classroom. We can’t wait for more wonderful times beginning in January! Shabbat Shalom, have a great vacation, and Happy New Year! Mari & Aaliyah Shabbat Family Schedule: 1/5- Wynter 1/12- Owen 1/19- Mason 1/26- Kayden Reminders:
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Room 8 Newsletter
Week of 11/27-12/1 Dear Room 8 Parents, Room 8 had a wonderful couple days celebrating Thanksgiving as a class last week. The short week was filled with all Thanksgiving and fall related projects! The children had the opportunity to decorate their own frame. They selected a wooden frame, and then, they were able to choose from a variety of mediums with which to decorate it. We were so impressed by the creativity and uniqueness in each frame. Some painted the frames and decorated the top with feathers, while others created a sequin pattern and used every bit of patience to glue down all of the sequins. We can’t wait for you to see their frames and read the surprise words in the center. The children also took part in baking a carrot cake in light of last week’s discussion on carrots as a root vegetable. Ella, Skyler, Paisley, Wynter, and Kora were involved every step of the way. Skyler and Paisley helped melt the butter in the kitchen. Kora and Wynter measured out the dry ingredients like flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and more. Ella helped crack all 3 eggs. Paisley asked an interesting question, “What is the difference between the baking powder and the baking soda?” The girls noticed that they looked very similar, and Mari explained that even though they look similar, they do completely different things to the cake. Since Teacher Mari did not know the chemical difference these two ingredients created, she explained to the girls that we need to research the answer. In light of Hanukkah approaching rapidly, we began our class conversations on the upcoming holiday. We started by reviewing a couple Hanukkah items, the dreidel and Hanukkiyah. First, the children had the opportunity to make their own dreidels, which will help decorate our classroom. They used small and large popsicle sticks to create the triangle like shape of a dreidel. In order to stick with the theme and class obsession with sorting sequins, the children were able to choose from four colors to decorate the sticks. Before we were able to use the sequins, Ella, Skyler and Paisley were eager to help sort them for all of their peers. They sorted them into four groups by color including light blue, dark blue, gold and silver. Come visit Room 8 next week to see the gorgeous and sparkly dreidels filling the room with celebration and shine. Before discussing the symbolism of the Hanukkiyah, we chose a Share Day theme as a prelude to this conversation. This week’s theme was “something that produces light.” We were amazed by the variety we saw on Wednesday including Owen’s rainbow flicker battery candle, Neda’s picture of a sun, Paisley’s Lego lamp, Benjamin’s light up nail clipper, Kora’s clip-on book light, and Wynter’s Hello Kitty flashlight. Since Ella and Kayden both brought different candles, we decided to compare and contrast the two. The children continue to demonstrate great strength in this area of critical thinking as they came up with many unique similarities and differences between Ella’s birthday candle and Kayden’s Shabbat-like candle. In the area of similarities, Neda noticed that they both have wicks, and Carter pointed out that both had a round, circular shape, Michael pointed out that Ella’s candle was thinner than Kayden’s. Elliot mentioned that Kayden’s candle had a bigger triangle on the top and Ella’s candle’s triangle was much smaller. We are incredibly impressed by the growth the children have made in their abilities to think critically. Past compare and contrast conversations took much more explanation and time, and yesterday’s discussion flowed easily and all of the children were eager to share their ideas. We, Mari and Aaliyah, also participated in this week’s Share Day, but rather than bringing an item that produced light, we conducted a light science experiment! As a prelude to our discussion on light and culminating our Root Vegetable unit, we tried to use a potato to power a light bulb. Ask your children what materials we used for the experiment! We used 1 large potato, 2 pennies, 3 pieces of copper wire, 2 nails, and a very small light bulb. We followed the instructions carefully by wrapping the pennies and nails in the wire and placing them in the potato. Then, we connected 1 penny with 1 nail by copper wire. With the two remaining copper wire pieces hanging off of the other nail and penny, we wrapped them around a small light bulb. We waited patiently for the light bulb to light up, but as we know with science, experiments do not always work! While the light bulb did become warm, it did not ever receive enough power to light up. This was a wonderful learning experience for the children in that they were able to understand that some experiments are not successful and that is why we try many times. We look forward to trying again and using 2 potatoes instead of cutting 1 in half. Thank you to Michael’s family for joining us for a wonderful Shabbat celebration in Room 8 this week! We want to especially thank Sharona for bringing the herb plant that we love so much!! We can’t wait to make more olive oil out using the rosemary and sage. Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend and Shabbat Shalom! Mari and Aaliyah Important Information Regarding Light Up Literacy:
Reminders:
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March 2020
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