Week of 4/16-20
Wow, have we had a busy week in Room 8!! The children have been engaged in our class topic of Israel in honor of Israel’s 70th birthday. While we celebrated Israel’s actual birthday on Thursday, our week was filled with activities, projects, and conversations all relating to different aspects of Israel. Last week, we began our discussion on the country of Israel by relating it to the Passover story. We asked, “Where did the Jewish go after leaving Egypt and Pharaoh?” All of the children quickly exclaimed, “Israel!”, which they followed up by saying how Israel is in Asia. After discussing the colors of Israel and the Israeli flag, we took time this week to take a closer look at a city in Israel, rather than only looking at the country as a whole. Haifa, the third largest city in Israel, was our city of choice. Room 8 spent the week learning details about this city and understanding how it might connect to the city we live in, Los Angeles. First, we showed the children the Israeli flag and the Haifa flag and asked, “Are they the same or different?” Paisley exclaimed, “They are completely different!” Ayla said, “The Haifa flag has red with the blue and the white. That is not like the Israel flag.” The children were fascinated that the city had their very own flag! Instead of making Israeli flags for Yom Ha’atzmaut, we decided to make the flag of Haifa. Since this flag is slightly more complicated than the flag of Israel, the children collaborated to create one large Haifa flag. Each child contributed to the process and drew a part of the design, colored it, or exercised their cutting and gluing skills. Michael wrote the word ‘Haifa’ for the flag. Paisley outlined the blue mountain, and Mason and Owen used a blue pastel to color it in. Elliot drew both red light houses, and Kayden drew the whole white boat. Ask your child which piece they contributed to the flag! The children were so proud of their creation and enjoyed showing it off to their friends during the birthday celebration on Thursday. In addition, we conducted a circle discussion early in the week to teach the children various important facts about Haifa. While this topic was not a crowd favorite at first, they became increasingly more interested as they gained more information about the city. Ayla loved the fact that both Haifa and Los Angeles have beaches. Skyler gravitated toward the idea that Haifa conducts many imports and exports. Ask your child the meaning of these new vocabulary words! Sklyer commented, “Boats go in and out and import toys. Then, they drop them off somewhere else.” Check out our Connections Chart next time you visit Room 8 to see the details, in both pictures and words, that the children came up with about Haifa and Los Angeles. On Wednesday, Room 8 volunteered to make hummus to bring to the grade level celebration of Israel’s birthday. Since we made hummus last year as a class in Explorers, we thought it would be nice to try it again! Instead of only making it for one class, we had the daunting task of making enough hummus for over 60 children! That is a lot of garbanzo beans! Teacher Mari worked with a small group of children to make over a half a gallon of hummus. First, each child squeezed a half a lemon into a bowl to prepare the lemon juice, which was the first ingredient to go into the food processor. Then, we added 4 tablespoons of olive oil and turned the processor on for about 30 seconds. After cracking open 4 cans of garbanzo beans, Kayden, Ella, Mason, and Paisley drained the liquid into the sink, poured the beans into a bowl and rinsed them. The hummus began to come together as we slowly added the beans into the food processor. Wynter and Ayla were in charge of scooping the beans into a cup and adding them into the food processor through the larger opening as the machine continued to mix the ingredients together. We added a pinch or two of salt to give some flavor to the Israeli dish. With a few more additions of olive oil, water, and garlic salt and a couple more stirs, the hummus was perfect! After the first batch, we did it all over again with another 4 cans to fill a 2.5 quart bowl to the brim with hummus. The children absolutely loved eating the tasty snack with their peers from other classes during the celebration. They beamed with pride and confidence when they told other friends that they made the hummus themselves. Paisley made a point to tell her teachers that the celebration was, “so much more than cute, it was splendid!” They also enjoyed other delicious food items popular in Israel and took part in Israeli dancing. We truly had an incredible week honoring Israel in many different ways including conversation, stories, food, dancing and more! Thank you to Wynter’s family for joining us for Shabbat this week. We loved singing songs, saying Shabbat prayers, and parading around the Temple for Israel’s birthday during Shabbat services. Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend and Shabbat Shalom! Mari and Aaliyah Shabbat Family Schedule: 4/27- Mason 5/4- Paisley 5/11- Benjamin Reminders:
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Pre-K Room 8Mari Greifer Archives
March 2020
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