Week of May 6-10, 2019
Room 8 had a very busy week filled with mommies, grandmas, and Israel’s birthday! We began the week by welcoming our moms and grandmas to our Havdalah service on Monday morning. Then, on Tuesday and Wednesday, we enjoyed spending time with our moms and grandmas in the classroom. We wanted all of the moms and grandmas to experience a typical morning in Room 8. They were able to partake in all of our regular morning activities including signing-in, partaking in building towers with the stacking cups, playing different types of board games, and drawing at the art table. Christopher enjoyed stacking cups on the carpet with his mom, while Brayden and Cameron and their moms played Monopoly. Scarlett and her mom, followed by Sasha and his mom, took on the challenge of playing Connect Four Launchers. Needless to say, we had a fabulous week spending time with our moms and grandmas in the class. On Thursday, the mommies and grandmas joined us for P.E., where they played tennis and volleyball. The children enjoyed a little friendly competition during a heated game of volleyball. We want to thank all of the moms for taking time out of your busy schedules to spend some time in our classroom. Your child are forever grateful, which you will see in their Mother’s Day gifts this weekend. In the midst of our busy Mother’s and Grandmother’s week, we also fit in some time to celebrate Israel’s birthday. Not only did we have a big celebration on Thursday, but we also made our own flags and learned about Haifa. The children had the opportunity to create their own flag of Israel. One side resembled the actual flag characterized by two blue stripes and a blue Star of David. Rather than putting the flag on the back side, the children made a birthday card for Israel. Whether they drew a picture of balloons, flowers or rainbows, all of the kids wrote the words, “Happy Birthday! Israel’s 71st.” This activity highlighted the important pieces of a significant Jewish holiday, as well as, helped us practice our drawing and hand-writing skills. The children even drew their own Jewish star. Ask your child what shapes make up a Star of David. We were very impressed with their penmanship that keeps getting better every day! As we mentioned last week, Room 8 was assigned the city of Haifa as our focus of Yom Ha’atzmaut. We began by discussing the characteristics of the entire country of Israel such as various types of terrain found there, the religions they practice, and the foods that they eat. Then, we transitioned the conversation, when we asked, “What do you want to learn about the city of Haifa?” The children looked at a couple of pictures that emphasize important pieces of Haifa and asked things like how do the boats get the boxes down to people, what language do they speak in Haifa, and how do they make the boats that big. We went on to explain that Haifa has a lot of big boats because it is a port city. Ask your child what else they learned about being a port city and if they learned any other important facts about Haifa. We tried to stay on the topic of Haifa, but it seemed that the children were more interested in the Dead Sea. They were amazed at the rocks of salt found in the sea and how they got there. They continued to ask us how the sea became so salty, so we did some research to find the answer! While we all thought it would be a simple answer, it actually was quite complicated and a little over all of our heads. There were many factors that lead to the high level of salt found in the Dead Sea such as the climate, the makeup of the soil under the sea, and the movement of the tectonic plates. In preparation for Thursday’s celebration, our class was assigned to make hummus for all of our other Pre-K friends. We needed quite a few garbanzo beans to feed 60 kids! 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 draining and rinsing two 6 pound cans of garbanzo beans, the children scooped a small amount into the processor. The hummus began to come together. We added garlic salt to give the Israeli dish extra flavor. 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, many times, to fill an entire large bowl with hummus. For our celebration on Thursday, the children had the opportunity to replicate an Israeli Shuk (market) and take part in Israeli dancing with Teacher Ditza. They absolutely loved visiting each station to purchase snacks such as lemonade, pita and hummus, oranges and olives. They enjoyed 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. We truly had an incredible week honoring Israel in many different ways including conversation, stories, food, dancing and more! We hope you all have a wonderful Mother’s Day and relaxing weekend! Shabbat Shalom! Mari & Aaliyah Reminders:
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Pre-K Room 8Mari Greifer Archives
March 2020
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