This week in Room 8 we dissected an onion! After discussing the potato as a root vegetable a few weeks ago, the children have continued to ask which vegetable we would be learning about next. In line with the topic of root vegetables, we decided to dive into the topic of onions. We began with a purple onion and a yellow onion. We sat in a large group circle and examined these two types of onions. First, we looked at the yellow onion, and the children came up with an enormous amount of details to describe this vegetable. Both the skin and the inside offered new textures and smells. The children determined that the skin had white lines in it and that you could see through it unlike the skin of a potato. They also noticed that the outermost layer of the onion was crunchy like a leaf, and the skin became softer and more plastic like as the layers grew deeper. Then, we cut the onion in half. Rian exclaimed, “It looks like a white rainbow inside because it has the same circles like a rainbow!” We noticed that the onion was much juicier the potato.
We wanted the children to understand that there is a connection between our topic of potatoes and onions with the current holiday. We happened to have latkes for snack on the same day of the onion discussion, so we asked, “Do you know what these are made of?” Lilah and Isabella both shared that latkes are made out of potatoes. We went on to explain that people add onions to these potato pancakes to give them more flavor. The children thoroughly enjoyed their latke snack. Room 8 also focused on incorporating the concept of sorting into our daily activities. Getting adjusted to the process of sorting at an early age is important for numerical concepts, grouping numbers, identifying similarities and differences, and recognizing details. By sorting and categorizing, children are also gaining the ability to recognize rules, which is the concept that creates a pattern. One of the activities that emphasized this skill was grouping animal tiles into various categories. To take this to a higher level of learning, we had the children come up with their own categories, which consisted of animals that walk, animals that fly, animals in water, slithering animals, and snow animals. This proved to be a difficult challenge for many of the friends in our class. Some of the animals were new creatures or a different type of the same animal but in a new context. For instance, all of the children were convinced that the picture of the octopus was a starfish. Also, the tortoise tile was thought to be a sea turtle so many thought it lived in the ocean, rather than on land. This was an incredible activity that touched on so many important skills including expanding our vocabulary, learning similarities and differences, making connections, grouping items, the concept of less than and more than, teamwork, understanding the rules of each category, communication, and paying close attention to detail. We will continue to incorporate sorting and categorizing into our weekly activities, as well as emphasize the importance of understanding what rules are to be successful in this skill. We will begin by using sorting to make our hannukiyot next week! We are also excited to talk more about the Maccabees and see which piece of the conversation will garner the most questions from your children. Lastly, we can’t wait to celebrate Hanukkah with all of the Room 8 families next Thursday. We wish you all a Shabbat Shalom and wonderful weekend! Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS:
Shabbat Family Schedule January 10- Wyatt January 17- Lorne January 31- Bella
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We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We loved hearing about all of the holiday stories and adventures from your children at the beginning of the week.
Room 8 jumped into the week by beginning with various small learning circles on Monday. Each table was set up with a different activity that highlighted a variety of skills. For instance, one of the centers was set up with a Before and After puzzle. The purpose of this puzzle was to put together a set of three pieces that told a story, a before, middle and after. Another center included tiny pattern tiles set out with graph paper, rulers, and crayons. This was an open center to see where the children would go with this activity. Would they stack the cubes and measure, would they place the cubes on paper and color the graph paper squares in, or would they make a pattern? We love setting up this type of open-ended center. It allows the children to be in control and exert their independence. They are able to make their own choices with how they want to manipulate the items and express their creativity. It also supports the children in strengthening their cognitive, language and social skills. Jacob decided to stack the tiny tiles and then place them on the graphing paper to see different heights. Nixon and Isabella made small figures with parts that formed a bend and other parts that were straight. It was interesting to hear the thought process behind the figurines that the children created. We will continue to incorporate more open-ended activities into our weekly routine to enable the children to further develop their likes and dislikes. Over the course of the past few months, we noticed that the children have shown a great interest in building with Legos. Both small and large, Legos are the number one requested activity in our class. We saw an incredible opportunity to inspire further learning through this popular toy. This is a great example of how emergent curriculum is taking place in our class. Their love for Legos inspired us to incorporate this popular material in an academic setting. We chose this specific activity with Legos to reinforce a variety of important developmental skills. In addition to aiding in the growth of these cognitive, social and emotional abilities, taking into account the interests of the children will foster a love of learning. Concepts that might seem extremely challenging to children become more approachable and exciting when curriculum takes into account their interests. Even though we might be working on letter and sound recognition, fine motor skills and problem solving, the children don’t realize they are practicing these skills when working with Legos. Now that you know the why of why we chose to work with Legos, we will explain a little about the multi-step project. The first step of this project began with sorting. As you might know, we have a ginormous box of little Legos in Room 8 comprised of a variety of different shapes and sizes. Before we explained the project to the children, we started by giving them a basic direction to sort out the pieces into different piles. Once we began to pick through the pieces, we decided what types of pieces would be best to form letters. Some of these pieces included flat, long and skinny lines, short and skinny lines, one-piece Legos, one-piece circle Legos, and the pieces that are flat and little wider. Ask your child how many different piles we had! It was hard to sort them out into different categories being that there were so many different types of Lego pieces, but through patience and teamwork, the children did a great job. They found hundreds of pieces to kick-off the start of our project. This concluded the first step of the project. While we did the first portion of the project in a large group, the second step we would do in small groups of 2 or 3 children. First, we had each child write their name in uppercase letters on a white board. Then, while facing all of the piles of Lego pieces, we asked the children to choose the correct pieces of little Legos that would correspond with each letter of their name. Should they use a long line, short line, little curve or big curve? For letters like I, H and T, it was easy to figure out which Lego pieces to use, but what about the letters that have curves and circles like O and P? This posed as a challenge to the children, which they could quickly overcome being that they were so versed in building with Legos. Wyatt quickly noticed that he would not be able to use a diagonal line for the A. Through problem solving and manipulating the Lego pieces around, he was able to create an A by using two straight lines and a straight line at the top and small line in the middle. Alexandra ran into many challenges along the way in her name since many of the letters include diagonals and curves. She tapped into her creativity and solved the issue of the X by using small 1-piece round Legos that she placed individually on the board in the shape of two diagonal lines. This project emphasized so many important developmental skills such as basic math skills, like sorting and shape recognition, problem solving, fine motor abilities, letter recognition, creativity, social interaction and teamwork. The children had to figure out the proper shapes and how many of each to make up one letter. We are still working on this multi-step project and once they are complete, you will be able to see their creations hanging on our wall. We will also introduce the next holiday that is quickly approaching next week! We wish you all a Shabbat Shalom and wonderful weekend! Mari and Aaliyah Important Reminder for THIS MONDAY 12/9: This Monday night, at 7 PM, The Boulder Journey School will be presenting in the Main Temple Building. Alison Maher and Andrea Sisbarro are presenting "The Path to Kindergarten Readiness and Lifelong Learning," a discussion on the topic of Emergent Curriculum. They are here to help educate all of us and help us gain a better understanding of our incredible philosophy. REMINDERS:
Newsletter Week of November 18-22, 2019
Room 8 spent this past week focusing on two main concepts to further our growth. First, through a variety of activities, tasks, and discussions, we emphasized strengthening our gross motor skills. The first few months of school, we put a greater emphasis on developing our fine motor skills. Although the children in Room 8 have an affinity to doing activities that require more fine motor ability, such as building with Legos and table-top puzzles, we want to make sure that we are strengthening every aspect of child development. In order to work on our gross motor skills, the first activity that we introduced was Simon Says. It might seem like a simple game, but it took a few rounds for the children to comprehend the importance of listening very carefully. This game gives the children the opportunity to move their entire bodies. From touching their toes to running to the door to pushing chairs in and out, each child was on the move and had to exercise all of their body parts. Rather than the teachers being “Simon” each time, we gave the opportunity to the children. We loved seeing each child come up with their own creative set of movements. For instance, when Lennon acted as Simon, he used a pattern of movements consisting of stand up and sit down. Daniel and Jacob, on the other hand, loved mixing up the tasks. They both had their friends moving around the entire room using all of their gross motor skills. We are continuing to work on understanding that in order for people to get “out” of the round, whoever is Simon must drop “Simon says” and just say a movement. We notice that they insist on saying “Simon says” throughout the entire round of the game. Another gross motor activity we conducted was a game of over and under. The children lined up in a single file line, and we taught them to stretch their arms out to be “arms-length distance” from each other. Before getting started on over and under, they stretched their arms in front of them and above their head as straight as they could. Then, the first person in line received one large stuffed dice and was instructed to choose whether they wanted to pass it over their head with straight arms or through their legs (under) to the next person. Based on the first person’s choice, the children began a pattern of passing the dice over and under. The gross motor skill that this activity emphasized was the large movement of reaching over and under. In the process, they also learned to differentiate between their right and left side of their body. While one might think that this is a simple activity, it requires enormous skill and is incredible practice for children of this age. In addition to moving our bodies and strengthening large range of movements, this activity gave the children the opportunity to practice and grow their attention span and ability to listen and comprehend multi-step directions. In addition to a week filled with various gross motor activities, we also spent time having a few large group discussions about the upcoming holiday of Thanksgiving. We began this conversation with a question and inquired, “Does anyone know what Thanksgiving holiday is about?” Alexandra volunteered her idea of what Thanksgiving is when she stated, “It is a holiday where we have love.” Wyatt explained that the holiday makes you feel special and good. We went on to explain that there are two words that make up the word Thanksgiving. Ask your child if they can tell what each of those words are. Also ask them to tell you how many syllables are in the word, “Thanksgiving.” We followed up by asking, “When do you tell someone ‘thank you’? We were quite impressed by the answers we heard during this first conversation on the topic. Lilah was the first to contribute when she said, “You have to say, ‘thank you’ when someone gives something to you.” Then, Dylan explained how he thanks someone when they share a toy with him. Rian says she always says thank you when someone shares a snack. As the children demonstrated an understanding for the concept of the word ‘thank you,’ we decided to take this a step further by asking what it means to be thankful. This turned out to be a little more difficult of a concept for the children to understand. Rather than focusing on being thankful for gifts or toys, we want them to be able to think a little deeper and understand how important it is to be appreciative of the things we don’t notice every day. For example, we asked the children, “Who is the person that buys you those toys or the person that is buying and preparing your food?” As we continued to discuss this concept over the course of the week, we noticed that the children were getting a better grasp on the importance of being grateful and saying thank you. During the second conversation on Thanksgiving, we heard creative answers to the question, “What are you thankful for?” Jacob shared that he is thankful for his garden because it gives him fruits and vegetables, and Lorne explained he is thankful for his mommy and daddy because they give him cuddles and kisses and likes when they give him love. Our goal is to teach the children the importance of appreciation and gratitude, and we are thrilled to see that they beginning to develop a true understanding. We are so excited to celebrate Thanksgiving with the entire Pre-K grade level next week, and we are even more excited to prepare our special carrot cake dessert to share with all of our friends. Monday will be a busy day of shredding carrots, mixing ingredients, and baking our cake to make sure it is perfect for Tuesday’s feast. We hope everyone has a great weekend, and we will see you Monday for our short week! Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS:
EC BOOK FAIR SING-ALONG Wednesday, December 4 8 a.m. - Breakfast in Udko 8:30 a.m. - Community Sing-Along/Book Reading with Rabbi Sari in the Sanctuary ***Come dressed in your favorite character from a book!*** Week of November 11-15, 2019
Room 8 spent the week taking a closer look at root vegetables. After examining the russet potato and sweet potato last week and trying two types of potato chips, we introduced a third type of potato, a purple sweet potato. We began by placing the purple sweet potato in front of the children and asking, “What do you see?” The children passed the potato around to get a good look, feel and smell of the vegetable. Jacob explained that the potato looked dirty because it grows in the ground. Dylan chimed in by adding the fact that it grows in the dirt! Isabella said she could actually see some of the dirt on it. Rian described the feeling of the purple potato as hard, and Wyatt compared the smell to a bbq smell. Even though we have only had a few previous conversations on the topic of details, we noticed that the children demonstrated the ability to use an elevated level of vocabulary. In describing the purple potato, the children used unique words and showed a higher level of thinking rather than simple adjectives like purple and hard. We love seeing how well the children are grasping these critical thinking concepts. As we continue to learn the various pillars associated with the Wise Learning Process, the children will gain the critical thinking skills needed to be successful in any kind of learning. After examining the outside of the purple potato, we cut it open and encouraged the children to identify the traits or details found on the inside. We wanted to take this discussion a step further and introduce a new critical thinking concept, compare and contrast. The children learned that to compare and contrast, we must distinguish two objects from one another. In other words, we must point out and differences. Ask your child if they remember what similarities and differences means. We try to describe it as things that are the same and things that are different. The first compare and contrast exercise we conducted was between the russet potato and the purple potato. Knowing what we learned about the potato so far and taking into consideration the look and feel of each vegetable, we asked, “How are the russet and purple potatoes similar, and how are they different?” Lilah shared her thought that both are potatoes, and Jacob contributed that both grow in the dirt. Chloe pointed out a physical similarity in that both potatoes are bumpy. We quickly jumped into the differences between the two since the children found more of these compared to similarities. Isabella said that the colors were different, and Dylan finished her thought by describing how the purple potato was purple inside and out, and the russet is gray and brown on the outside. Wyatt noticed that the purple potato was rougher than the russet and had more bumps. Rian pointed out an interesting point how the russet had more cracks on it, which is the blemish from where the root was growing. This was an incredible start to compare and contrast conversations. The details that the children pointed out and their advanced vocabulary demonstrated an understanding for deeper learning and the ability to grasp new concepts quickly. Being exposed to any critical thinking concept at a young age sets the children up for great success in the future. We are helping your children learn how to learn so that critical thinking is a part of who they are rather than just a school concept. Later in the week, we tried a cooked sweet potato in the form of French fries. This was a big hit! Next week, we will carry this discussion into the vegetables that are found during the Thanksgiving holiday. We will see whether your children are interested in the vegetables, fruits or maybe another Thanksgiving tradition to see what our next unit will be! We hope everyone has a great long weekend, and we will see you next Tuesday ready to start Thanksgiving! Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS:
Room 8 Newsletter
Room 8 opened up our unit on Root Vegetables beginning with potatoes. We introduced potatoes by showing the children pictures of various types of this vegetable. Potatoes, just like apples, come in many different varietals, but there is a big difference between apples and potatoes and where we get them from. The children learned last month that apples grow on trees. Do potatoes grow on trees, as well? Ask your child if they remember the answer! We read a book called, The Vegetables We Eat, which went on to describe where various vegetables are grown and how. The children were fascinated with this information and could not believe that some grow on vines, some grow in the ground and others grow as flowers like broccoli. Ask your child if they can tell you a few types of potatoes. Some of the types we discussed include Russet potato, purple sweet potato, sweet potato, yam, Yukon Gold, and Fingerling potato. Then, we asked the children, “How do you like to eat your potatoes?” Wyatt explained that he likes his potatoes cut (cut up in pieces), while Nixon said he likes sweet potatoes. Alexandra likes white potatoes smashed and Chloe exclaimed, “I like potatoes when they are attached together (baked).” We learned that potatoes, no matter the type, can be cooked and prepared all different ways. During this initial large group discussion, the children were able to taste two types of potato chips, Ruffles chips and sweet potato chips. Rian was the first to add to the conversation when she said, “I don’t like the Ruffles, I LOVE them!” Lilah compared the two chips and realized the sweet potatoes were much crunchier than the regular potato chips. Dylan was not a fan of the sweet potato chips, but Isabella liked them because they were a little salty. Our second conversation on the topic of potatoes was focused on the Russet potato. We showed the children the potato and passed it around so they could get a closer look, good feel, and scent of this root vegetable. Before passing it around, we cut it open so that the kids could see the inside and outside. Their thoughts and observances were creative and deep. Lilah explained that she thought that the potato looked grumpy because it was so rough. Wyatt described it as wet (the inside). Rian compared it to an apple, and Chloe added that the skin makes it seem like an apple. Alexandra used the adjective “juicy” to explain what she saw on the inside, and Nixon thought it smelled like a potato. Isabella added that the inside was like an apple because it was yellow. The adjectives that the children used were creative and thoughtful. They were able to think on a deeper level and use more complex words than our last conversation. As we continue to dig deeper into root vegetables, the children have the opportunity to expand their vocabulary even more and develop the ability to think critically. Rather than saying something is “good” or describing the color, we strive for the children to be able to look at an object or subject and see so much more than the color of what is right in front of them. Being exposed to critical thinking concepts, such as looking at details and how to compare and contrast, at a young age gives children a head-start at developing the proper skills to be successful in elementary school and in life. The children demonstrated great interest in this conversation by staying focused and by actively participating. They had questions and opinions about the different types of potatoes and their taste. After this discussion, we had many requests to continue the topic! Chloe kept asking when we would get to cook the Russet in different ways. Due to their interest and curiosity in this topic, we will continue the discussion next week. Rather than only having conversations, we will take this concept a step further by doing a hands-on experiment. Stay tuned for next week to find out more! In light of strengthening our fine motor skills, we also worked on enhancing the ability to cut with scissors. We gave every child a roll of colored masking tape and a pair of kid scissors. Each child learned to start the roll of tape, place the stick part on the chair, and pull the circle of tape until they had a piece of their desired length. They learned to hold the scissors with their thumb up and cut the piece of tape from the rest of the roll. This activity took an enormous amount of patience and concentration! The children did a phenomenal job and took their time to cut out many pieces of tape of all different sizes to make an abstract design on their piece of gray paper. The next step of this project will be to create a complete picture using only various colors of tape. Next time you visit our classroom take a look at some of the creations on the wall. It is truly amazing how far their fine motor skills have come since September, and we can’t wait to see their creativity flourish throughout the rest of the year. We wish you all a wonderful and relaxing weekend! Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS:
We started off the week with a big all-school celebration for Simchat Torah. We explained to the children that this holiday celebrates the end of the Torah. Over the past year, we have read each section of the Torah weekly, and now, it has come to an end. Lilah asked, “What happens when it ends? Do we start over?” The holiday of Simchat Torah celebrates the end of the Torah, and the start of a new year of reading the Torah from beginning to end. To celebrate this holiday, we take the Torah out of the ark and read the scrolls. After the reading, the custom is to dance around the synagogues and celebrate. The children had a few opportunities to participate in the traditions of the holiday this week. In our all-school Simchat Torah service, we sang songs about the Torah, listened to a story, and ended our service by dancing around the synagogue kissing the Torahs and getting to see the inside of the scrolls. The children were in awe of the scriptures of the Torah and the way the inside looked. Dylan commented that the outside look so much different from the inside.
Later in the week, we continued our Simchat Torah celebrations during Storah Time with Rabbi Josh. Rather than hearing a story in our classroom, we met Rabbi Josh in the Main Sanctuary, where he stood with an unrolled, open Torah. The scrolls were opened on the reading table for the children to see. Two by two, all of the children had the opportunity to stand at the reading table with Rabbi Josh and view the Torah up close. As each child held the yad and pointed to various lines in the Torah, Rabbi Josh explained that part of the story. We loved seeing the children light up when it was their turn to read the Torah. Ask your child why we use a yad when reading the Torah. We talked a lot about this concept in our class. In addition to all of our Simchat Torah celebrations, Room 8 had a special drawing lesson this week. We have conducted a few drawing lessons over the past couple weeks to teach the children how to draw a complete picture. We noticed that they loved this activity and continued to ask us when we would do another one and what would we learn to draw next. In light of Sukkot and in continuance with learning to draw shapes, we decided on a Sukkah as the focus of the drawing lesson. Ask your child if they can tell you the shape of most sukkahs. Lennon showed particular excitement for this activity and when we began the lesson, he stated, “A sukkah is a square, you know…?” We showed the children step-by-step how to arrange the lines on the page to create a sukkah equipped with a background, foreground, and decoration. Rian pointed out that to be a sukkah there has to be branches on top. Some of the friends chose to draw the branches on top, while others wanted to glue a real branch, or more like a small piece of a branch, to emulate the roof of the structure. Next time you are in Room 8 take a look at their incredible works of art. While it has only been two months of school, our entire class has grown immensely in their ability to sustain their attention, follow directions and complete a realistic drawing. We will continue to listen to the interests of the children as we move forward and see how we can further develop the topic of drawing and more broadly, art. Through listening to conversation amongst your children and questions they ask, we are here to help guide and support their interests and learning. We hope you have a great weekend, and we look forward to starting our lesson on potatoes next week! Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS:
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:
Newsletter Week of 10/7-11
The short week flew by in Room 8! We have been busy learning all about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, while also finding time to build intricate structures with our engineering building blocks and paint with the primary colors using Q-Tips. We also introduced a new structure of learning known as small group activities. We want to explain a little bit about this concept and want you to know that we will dive deeper into the importance of this learning in next week’s newsletter. We split the class into 3 groups of 4 children. Each group begins at a different center set up with various activities. Some tables contain student-directed activities, while others have teacher-directed tasks. The children spend about 10-15 minutes at each center and rotate through each activity. This allows an inclusive learning environment and promotes social interaction and cooperation. The children are encouraged to communicate throughout each activity and are able to develop comfortable relationships with their peers and teachers. Small group learning helps children strengthen their self-confidence and willingness to share ideas. There are several more benefits to small group learning, which we will touch on more next week. Room 8’s plans for next week include:
REMINDERS:
Week of September 30 - October 4, 2019 While it was a short week at school, the children in Room 8 were quite busy! When school resumed on Wednesday, we continued with the theme of Rosh Hashanah. Last week, we discussed the importance of the holiday and the symbols that are associated with it including apples, honey, pomegranate, shofar and the round challah. After our unit on watermelon, we observed that the children in Room 8 seemed to show a great interest in studying another fruit or vegetable. We conducted large group discussions to connect Rosh Hashanah to our unit on details. First, we compared and contrasted a variety of apples. Ask your child if they can remember any of the specific apple names. Some of these included Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Fuji, and Honey Crisp. We spent time discussing the details and using describing words to talk about each apple. For example, Wyatt said that the Red Delicious was a dark red, and Rian explained that the Fuji was more pink-ish and yellow. Lilah explained that the Granny Smith was green, which was different from all the other apples. We also used details to describe other traits of the apples including taste, touch, and smell. Jacob loved the smell of the Red Delicious, and Lorne described the taste of the Granny Smith as very sour. Nixon loved the taste of the Granny Smith and compared it to the taste of Sour Patch Kids! To expand this discussion from only fresh apples, we also tried apples prepared in different ways such as dehydrated apple rings, freeze-dried apples, and air-dried apples. The children described the dehydrated apple rings as chewy, soft and sticky. Wyatt said they tasted like a pear. Then, we experienced the major crunch of the air-dried Honey Crisp apple chips. The kids were not a fan of this version. Compared to the freeze-dried apples that had a nice crunch and then became soft, the air-dried apple chips were crunchy all the way through. Alexandra said that the freeze-dried apples tasted like a cracker, and Lilah compared them to chips, “soft ones.” This large group discussion is beneficial to the children for a variety of reasons. First, learning to sit on the carpet helps teach patience, body self- control and personal space, how to wait for your turn, and strengthens our ability to pay attention for longer periods of time. In addition, we teach the children how to identify basic and specific traits of an item so that they can see the importance of details in learning and in life. Attention to detail is a crucial skill that will help all children thrive in school and in adulthood. Teaching this at a young age will allow the child to think in a different way and enhance their ability to learn and remember. By discussing the specific details of various apples, the children learn to pay close attention to be able to understand their differences. We also love a detail-themed discussion because it allows us to experience new things! The children were able to try new foods with new textures and tastes, which in turn helps to expand their vocabulary. The children were in amazement with the differences between the various types of apples and wanted to do another discussion just like this one! In light of their interests and the upcoming holiday, we conducted another large group conversation about pomegranates. Ask your child if they remember why the pomegranate is symbolic to Rosh Hashanah. They might tell you something about how the 613 seeds of this fruit represent the rules of the Jewish people, or “commandments.” The children were able to experience the taste of pomegranate seeds and pomegranate juice. They were both a hit! We loved the enthusiasm during these conversations. The children demonstrated interest and eagerness as they learned about Rosh Hashanah, apples and pomegranates. We finished up this discussion by asking if they wanted to learn about another fruit or vegetable. We made a list of various fruits and veggies and took a student vote. Stay tuned to find out what the next item is that we will dissect! We want to wish you all a Shanah Tova. We hope your New Year’s celebrations were filled with family, friends , laughter, joy and love. We can’t wait for you to see all the hard work and beautiful fine motor ability your child has put into creating a card to wish their family and friends a ‘Happy New Year.’ Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS: ● EVERY Monday, Wednesday and Thursday Room 8 has enrichment activities at 9:30 a.m.We ask that you drop-off ON TIME every day, but especially on these days! ● 10/8- 1/2 Day- 12 PM Pick-up Erev Yom Kippur ? try to arrive by 11:45am due to parking ● 10/9- No School - Yom Kippur ● 10/14- No School - Sukkot ● 10/21- No School - Simchat Torah This week in Room 8, we introduced the holiday of Rosh Hashanah. We began by asking the children if they knew anything about the pictures that are hanging on the walls in our class. Then, we asked, “Does anyone know what ‘Shana Tova’ means?” The children knew that there was a picture of a challah but did not know where it came from. While the children knew what these items were physically, they did not know why they are related to Rosh Hashanah. Their curiosity about the origin of these items led us to our next conversation about the details of a shofar. Ask your child what animal a shofar comes from and how many shofars can be made from that animal.
We ended this discussion by reading Sammy Spider’s First Rosh Hashanah. While reading about the traditions and themes of Rosh Hashanah, one idea resonated with the children. In the book, the Shapiro family received many cards in the mail from their family and friends in the time surrounding the holiday. After hearing this, Wyatt exclaimed, “Just like the cards we made for Rian’s birthday!” This was correct with the only difference being the phrase that we put on the birthday card versus a Rosh Hashanah card. As a class, we decided to make our own “Happy New Year” cards to send to either a family member or friend. This was great timing since we have spent a large part of this past week learning to draw a complete picture. Through small group and large group activities, the children have learned the components and skills it takes to create a complete picture. Ask your child if they can tell you one item found in a complete picture. Learning to draw a complete picture is an important part of child development. It promotes self-expression and allows children to learn how to communicate in another way than just through talking. In addition, learning to draw a complete picture helps to reinforce their knowledge of shapes and enhances fine motor ability. The act of drawing, whether they are holding a pencil, crayon or marker, helps to strengthen their finger muscles and improve their grip. Once children can draw basic shapes, like rectangles, squares, circles and lines, they can draw essentially anything! We have loved seeing the incredible amount of progress in your child’s art within such a short amount of time. Next time you visit our class, please take a look at the wall to see your child’s beautiful complete picture. Next week, we will begin the Rosh Hashanah project to create a picture to mail to a friend or family member. This activity allows the children to apply the values of Rosh Hashanah to real life. By doing an activity that captures the interest of the children, they will better connect with the concept and values of this holiday and future topics. We want to wish you all a Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova. We hope your long weekend is filled with family, friends, love and a sweet start to the New Year! We will see everyone on Wednesday! Mari and Aaliyah |
Pre-K Room 8Mari Greifer Archives
March 2020
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