Week of October 14-18, 2019
This week in Room 8 we began to discuss the holiday of Sukkot, the celebration of the harvest. We were excited to introduce this holiday since we knew that the children had already shown an interest in the topic of fruit. We began the conversation by reviewing the various fruits we talked about in the past couple weeks such as watermelon, apples, plums, strawberries and more. Ask your child what kind of fruits we use to decorate the sukkah. In light of the interest in fruit and our emphasis on learning to draw a complete picture, the children had the opportunity to learn to draw the fruit that they would want to put in their sukkah. In small groups, the children sat at the table with a view of a fruit basket consisting of a banana, orange, lemon, peach, pomegranate, Granny Smith apple, Red Delicious apple, and red grapes. This set up gave the children the opportunity to take a closer look at each fruit and notice some of the finer details. Without the distraction of a large group of children, each student was able to spend more time observing, touching, holding, and smelling all of the fruit items in front of them. The children discussed what they saw and felt as they passed the fruit around the table. For example, Wyatt liked the peach because of its’ colors, red, yellow and orange. Lennon loved the look of the pomegranate and said he wanted to draw this fruit because he loves eating it. Then, each child chose the fruit that they wanted to draw. They put the item in front of their paper and began by drawing the shape that they saw. Dylan knew that he had to draw a circle to make the Red Delicious apple, and Jacob knew that he also had to draw a circle to resemble his fruit choice, the orange. Each child took their time drawing realistic images of the various fruits. This activity helped emphasize the importance of details. Not only is it important to recognize details during discussions, but the children also learned that details help them draw a realistic picture. If we didn’t notice that the apple had a stem and did not include it in the picture, someone might think that the drawing is of a peach. Our goal is to introduce the children to this topic at a young age so that it will help change their way of thinking. Being aware of the importance of details and the ability to recognize these elements in all areas of our lives teaches the children how to learn. They will enter Kindergarten with this knowledge instilled in their brains and be able to look at items and stories in a different way. In honor of Sukkot, Room 8 spent time a lot of time in the sukkah this week! First, we had music class with Maestro in the sukkah. Then, we spent time learning about the Etrog and Lulav with Rabbi Josh in the sukkah outside of our classroom. Ask your child if they can tell you which fruit the Etrog resembles. Each child was able to hold both significant Sukkot items. Rabbi Josh explained how we are supposed to shake the Lulav in the front, right, back, left, up and down, to show that G-d is everywhere. Then, all of the children had the chance to shake it! Next week, we will begin to discuss the next holiday, Simchat Torah. We can’t wait to see what area of the holiday will interest the children and where our discussion will go from there! We hope you have a wonderful long weekend, and we will see you on Tuesday! Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS:
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Pre-K Room 8Mari Greifer Archives
March 2020
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