Room 8 started the week off with a wonderful all-school Havdalah service to celebrate the end of Shabbat and to welcome the week ahead. Our director, Jen, lead us in song and prayer in Plotkin Chapel with all of the other preschool classes. We love attending Havdalah the first Monday of each month. It sets a positive tone for the month and reminds us of the importance of our community.
We continue to celebrate and learn about the Birthday of the Trees, otherwise known as Tu B’Shevat. This week we read three books related to the holiday. First, we read Netta and Her Plant, which highlighted the life of a little girl who plants a tree. The children understood that trees, like people, grow with age. The tree starts as a seed and slowly grows taller, just like humans. The children compared a tree to a human and found that there are more similarities than we thought. This might sound like a funny comparison, but ask your child to tell you the similarities because there are lot more than you think! We also read the books Is it Tu’ B’Shevat Yet? And A Tree is Nice and Dear Tree. These two books highlighted the importance of trees in our lives. The children learned that there are many different kinds of trees. There are similarities in what each tree gives to us, but there are also many differences between the trees. For instance, Alexandra explained how one tree gives us apples, while Rian shared that other trees can provide us with olives. Nixon understood that all trees give us paper and oxygen, and Wyatt said, “Trees make houses for bees.” The children showed a strong understanding of the importance of trees and how we cannot live without them for many reasons. Before venturing out into nature to take a closer look at our surroundings, we asked the children what they think they might come across during a nature walk. We received quite the variety of answers from Nixon’s hopes of seeing a rain deer to Lilah saying she will see a bench to Wyatt insisting we would see a frog or tarantula. We finished up the week by exploring the entire campus. Ask your child if they came across any of the things that they thought they might see while roaming the Wise School campus. Thankfully, we did not see any tarantulas, but we did come across a large variety of trees. Next week, we will explore the similarities and differences between the leaves we saw. The children raved about the nature walk, so we are thinking of taking another one to explore new areas of campus next week! The children also reviewed the Tu B’Shevat seder items, each of which symbolizes the beginning of the agricultural year in Israel. Ask your child if they can name one of these and where it comes from. This holiday helps us connect with Israel to celebrate the time in which fruit begins to form after surviving the hardest part of winter. Next week, we will get to experience a true Tu B’Shevat celebration by trying the first 12 fruits that begin to blossom in Israel. These include figs, grapes, olives, dates, and pomegranates. We are excited for the children to have the opportunity to try an abundance of fruits next week at our Pre-K Tu B’Shevat celebration. Room 8 has also shown a great interest in Tic Tac Toe, after being introduced by Coach Danny. Rather than playing the same, more active, version that we played in P.E., we showed the children the table-top way. Two by two, the children learned the rules and skill behind the simple game. They used small wooden Tic Tac Toe board games and tallied their rounds on a blank piece of paper. This game might seem simple and always result in a tie, but for young children, it promotes a high level of strategic thinking. It boosts creativity and the ability to develop the skills needed to complete puzzles. We noticed that the children, especially at this age, must pay very close attention in order to think of their next move. It promotes thinking logically and the important skill of attention to detail. All of these skills help the children naturally develop their logical thinking, and in turn, prepare them to easily understand mathematical and engineering concepts as they get older. In addition, Tic Tac Toe promotes social skills and interpersonal understanding. As the children sit directly across from another child, they strengthen their vocabulary and ability to conversate, which both help the children learn to negotiate in a smarter and more efficient manner. This game was a huge success in our class, and we will continue to play and watch the children master the strategies to win every time! We want to remind Room 8 that on February 13th, in honor of President’s Day, please have your child dress in red, white, and blue. We also look forward to celebrating Tu B’Shevat with your children on Monday! We wish everyone a wonderful weekend and Shabbat Shalom!! Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS:
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Pre-K Room 8Mari Greifer Archives
March 2020
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