Week of December 17-21, 2018
Room 8 had a great week leading up to our two-week Winter Break. We began by revisiting our coloring sheets. The children practiced quiet time, patience, and concentration by using colored pencils to complete their adult coloring sheet. They enjoyed this activity and continue to ask us to do more! Over the past semester, the children have worked hard to master their ability to recognize, spell and write their first names. We have seen so much progress in only a few months. From barely being able to grip the pencil to proudly writing their names on every piece of work they complete, we are proud of every child for putting their all into perfecting this skill. As the year continues, we will always work on our first names, but we are now going to introduce last names. We began this week by passing out a card with each child’s last name written on it. We are starting with recognition to ensure the children can recognize this important portion of their name. Once they retrieved their last name card, they had to say the name, spell it, and say it. We practiced this every day this week and will continue at the start of the year. In addition, we will begin the practice of writing our last names in January. We want to say thank you to all of our Room 8 families for a great start to the school year. We can’t believe how fast it is flying by and how much fun we are having with all of your children. Thank you for all of your support and willingness to go above and beyond for our class. Whether you are staying in town or traveling about, we wish you all a wonderful Winter Vacation filled with laughter, love, family, food, and more! Happy New Year, and we will see you all in 2019! Shabbat Shalom and Happy New Year! Mari and Aaliyah Reminders:
Shabbat Family Schedule:
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Week of December 10-14, 2018
Two weeks ago on Friday, we received a book on how to make slime. Brayden caught a glimpse of the book, and exclaimed, “How do you make slime?!” A group of the kids thumbed through the pages of our newest book and picked out their favorite slime recipes. Kate was enamored by the glitter recipe, while Cameron wanted to make the glow in the dark slime. At the beginning of last week, we were quite busy with Hanukkah, so we never had a chance to put these recipes to use. Then, on our rainy day, last Thursday, Teacher Mari searched the classroom for any ingredients that would help us conduct this experiment. She found a few items that could work, although they were not the ones listed in the book and had to find a new recipe. After lunch, during free play, she set up shop at one of the tables. She rummaged around the classroom to grab all items necessary, yet none of the children seemed to notice what she was doing. They were ensconced in an intricate Lego set up. We were curious as to how long it would take the kids to notice what she was doing. Mari sat down at one of the tables and began mixing white glue, food color, water, and liquid starch. It was a trial and error kind of experiment to figure out how much starch was needed to make it solid. We were absolutely shocked that 5 minutes into mixing the children had still NOT noticed what we were working on! Finally, Brayden walked by on his way to the garbage, and he inquired about what I was making. He was excited to hear that it was slime and asked to join. About 10 minutes later, Avital and Cameron joined the slime experiment, but none of the other children showed an interest, which was quite surprising. Finally, after making 2 different types of slime, the entire class caught on to what we were doing and were googly eyed over this mysterious substance. As an entire class, we sat down on the floor, and all the children helped mix a fluffy type of slime in purple, green and blue. Ask your child what the secret ingredient was to make the slime extra fluffy. Although it took the children a bit of time to catch on, they did not stop asking about making more slime. Over this weekend, we gathered more supplies to create different versions of slime such as clear glue, corn starch, contact solution and washable paint. On Monday, we set up the slime as a morning center, and the kids flocked to it! We made a monster slime by mixing yellow and blue paint, clear glue, contact solution and baking soda. Once it turned green and ooey and gooey, we added googly eyes to make it a monster. We also made a clear type slime. Instead of adding paint, we added a bit of food color to keep it transparent. Then, we added water beads to the substance. Adding water beads served to intensify the sensory experience, and it also ended up posing interesting questions the next day. Julian, Sasha, Cameron, Evie, and Christopher took a liking to this slime the morning after we made it. They investigated the concoction and realized the water beads did not stick to the slime. “Why did that happen?,” we asked. Sasha explained that they are too mushy to stay in there, and Julian thought it was because they are water. They were both right! Rather than squishing and stretching the slime, the children decided to pick out every single water bead from the slime and sort them into a cup. They also picked out all of the googly eyes from the monster slime. We loved their creativity and thought process. It was interesting that they enjoyed sorting over mushing and squishing. We are excited to continue to create more slime and more science experiments next week. We also practiced our fine motor skills and ability to sustain attention in a large group activity. The children sat at the tables and worked on coloring in an adult coloring page. Each child received a different intricate design. They had to use patience, attention to detail and a strong grip to remain in the lines of each piece of the worksheet. We introduced this activity early in the week and worked on it for about 15-20 minutes three separate days this week. The children enjoyed this quiet time and showed great skill in their ability to remain focused. Grayson especially loved this activity continued to ask us to work on his sheet every day. This type of assignment prepares the children for Kindergarten and provides them with important skills to succeed as an adult. We will continue to work on these sheets until complete and introduce more of these quiet working periods throughout the year. We also want to thank everyone for joining us to celebrate the Room 8 December birthdays this week. We are so appreciative of all of you and had a wonderful time relaxing, chatting and singing Happy Birthday to Evie, Avital and Teacher Aaliyah. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and we will see you next week for our last few days before Winter Break! Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah Reminders:
Shabbat Family Schedule:
Newsletter December 3-7, 2018
Room 8 had a wonderful week celebrating Hanukkah with all of our families. We enjoyed performing the Hanukkah songs for the parents and are so proud of the children for doing such a great job after all that practice! The children loved all of the food including the latkes, bagels, fruit, homemade Hanukkah cookies (Thanks Grayson!), and of course, the gelt. Our favorite part was lighting the many hanukkiyahs as an entire class. What a special moment to see the flickering candles and be singing in unison. It was a beautiful celebration, and we are lucky to have you all as a part of Room 8. 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. Brayden, Avital and Grayson landed on Gimel! Unfortunately, Julian and Sasha 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 had the opportunity to make their own dreidels. We used Plasticine clay and pressed it into a small wooden square with a small stick. They chose a variety of colors and took their time to press and smash the clay around the wooden spin toy. Ask your child to teach you how to play dreidel using their very own new crafty dreidels. Thank you to Kate’s family for joining us for Shabbat this week. We want to thank you for the beautiful plant and a lovely time singing the prayers and eating challah. We wish you all a wonderful weekend, Shabbat Shalom, and last couple nights of Hanukkah! Mari and Aaliyah Reminders:
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March 2020
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