Week of September 16-20, 2019
We started our week with our first discussion on the concept of details. In order to introduce this new idea, we thought it would be fun to learn more about each other in the process! We conducted “All About Me” interviews to learn some basic information, but we took this a step further this week. Ask your child if they can remember what the word, “details,” means. We explained that details are very important in every step of learning. In order to truly understand and grasp a concept or idea, we need as many details as possible. Details can also be explained as describing words or adjectives. We asked all of our Room 8 friends, “How do we get details about a person or how do we learn more about someone?” We came to an agreement that you must ask questions to do this! In light of this concept, we played a new game called Hot Seat. This is when one child or teacher sits in the deemed “Hot Seat” (blue chair). Then, we go around the class and each child asks the person in the hot seat a question. In order to do this, the children had to understand the difference between a question and a statement. The idea of question vs. statement is a common theme that will come up through each of our lessons throughout the year. This concept falls under the pillar of “Details,” which is a key piece the Wise Learning Process. We teach the children to understand that questions are used to find out more information or details, and statements are the answers. Learning to ask questions is essential to future learning and success. The ability to ask questions not only allows children to gather information and expand their knowledge, but it also helps boost their sense of curiosity and interest in learning. Instead of asking your children questions, encourage them to ask you questions! Have your child pick a topic and come up with questions about all the things they want to learn about said subject. We introduced the idea of details early in the school year because it appears in all areas of learning. Last week, we talked about the differences between fruits and vegetables and why one falls into its particular category. Then, the children had the opportunity to identify a variety of fruits and a variety of vegetables. We decided to focus on one fruit in particular this week to gather many details on the subject. After asking the children to vote on their favorite fruit, we narrowed the pool down to one fruit, watermelon. By using a topic that was chosen by the class, it gives the children a greater sense of ownership in the project. Having the students generate their own topic allowed the children to sustain interest for a longer period of time. When we asked what their favorite part of the week was, the majority of our class chose the watermelon project. Ask your child about the project! They will give you tons of details about a watermelon such as color, shape, taste, and texture. We also tried other watermelon products including watermelon juice and watermelon jerky. While the juice was not a big hit, the jerky was a fan favorite! Nixon thought the juice tasted stale, and Jacob thought the jerky was super sticky. After conquering the watermelon, we moved on to discuss questions and details of another fruit, which also happens to be a big symbol in the upcoming holiday of Rosh Hashanah. We began the apple discussion on Thursday, where we looked at four different types of apples including Fuji, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, and Honey Crisp. The purpose of this activity was to gather details about apples ranging from anything we see, touch, taste, and smell. We held the apple, smelled it, looked at it from every angle, and even tasted all four types. Ask your child to tell you one detail they learned about an apple. An interesting piece of information we found out was that there was a star inside the apple if we cut it horizontally. The children were enamored by this! Dylan thought it looked a little more like a snowflake, and Rian pointed out that her star-shaped earrings match the shape that’s in the apple! The deep conversations we had this week during circle time discussions set a fabulous tone for the year. We noticed that the topic of vegetables and fruits resonated with many of the children in Room 8. At lunch, they couldn’t stop talking about which vegetables and fruits they had in their lunch box. We saw an enormous amount of curiosity and love for learning, and we can’t wait to explore many more topics throughout the year starting with Rosh Hashanah next week. Have a great weekend, and we will see you on Monday! Shabbat Shalom, Mari + Aaliyah REMINDERS:
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September 9-13, 2019
We had a very busy second week in Room 8. Whether we were bonding with our peers, meeting our new Art teacher, or working on our hand-eye coordination during P.E., we did not have a minute to spare. Starting Monday morning, the classroom was set up with a variety of new activities. Each task is set out to focus on a different area of development. While the purpose of many of these activities will overlap, we like to give each child the opportunity to see the importance of developing and strengthening each skill at each task. For example, the children had the chance to visit a few different centers throughout the week including name sign-in, Zingo!, coloring-in shapes, pattern tiles, and rubber-band boards. First, when the children arrive, they learned that the first part of our morning routine is signing or writing their name upon arrival. The purpose of this activity is to help establish a morning routine, as well as, enhance our fine motor skills. We are not as focused on the product of the name, but instead, the commitment to following the expectations of the morning. This creates routine, which is extremely beneficial to child development. It allows the child to understand the process of order, enhances the ability to follow directions, while also helping the child to feel safe and establish important habits. In addition, signing-in each morning allows each child to recognize their name with ease and over time, strengthen their fine motor skills. This week we also set out two activities with a main focus of strengthening our fine motor skills. One of the tasks was rubber band boards, which are small square wood boards with lines of small nails covering the surface. The children used any of the hundreds of rubber bands sitting on the table to cover the wooden boards. Some stretched the larger bands across the whole board, while others made various shapes with the smaller rubber bands. This is such a great activity for the children in that it not only helps with shape recognition, but it also allows the children to strengthen the muscles they will use in all fine motor tasks. The process of stretching out the rubber band to place it on the nails takes power, and the ability to manipulate the rubber band into a shape takes even more strength. We were impressed by each child’s ability to complete this task. They took pride in their designs and creations. Another activity that was set out this week was at the Art Center. The children were given the choice between two tasks that both focused on strengthening their fine motor grip. They could either draw their own shapes and color them in or color in premade shapes. The purpose of this activity was to learn to “pinch” the small piece of crayon and use patience to fill the entire shape with one color. The children took a special liking to this task and almost every child visited this station! Chloe chose to draw her own shapes by tracing the shape stencils, while Wyatt colored in four shapes so carefully that he was able to keep the crayon inside the lines. While this task helps reinforce their ability to follow directions, it truly focuses on strengthening our fine motor skills, which is an essential ability for the rest of our lives. Room 8’s favorite activity set out each morning this week was the game of Zingo! The children flocked to this game each morning and waited for more friends to arrive so that they could get started with a full game immediately. Zingo! touches on a huge variety of important skills that help each child further develop. The children learn the importance of following directions, team work, communication and patience. After learning to play the game, the children understood that if they did not play by the rules, then, the game would not work. For instance, if someone was the “Zinger” and had a card, the children quickly learned that this would not be a fair match. The skill of following directions builds over a long period of time through child development. At age 4 and 5, children can follow multi-step directions. In addition, the game of Zingo! greatly improves self-confidence. It forces each child to practice their communication skills. Whether they are acting as the “Zinger” or playing with a card, each child must interact with their peers for the game to function. As the games progressed through the week, each game became louder! By the end of the week, we would hear Isabella and Jacob shouting “CAT!” or “I have a GHOST!” The children do not even realize they are improving their ability to communicate each time they play the game. We will continue to play many more board games throughout the year. Each will help strengthen our communication skills. On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to visit the Atelier (Studio) and meet our new art teacher, Joanne. Each Wednesday, one small group from our class will spend an hour with Joanne. We will alternate the group each week so that each child will go every other week. She introduced a few activities during our first session including painting, beading, looking at various items in a light projector, and drawing a landscape. Joanne will provide an incredible experience for the children filled with wonder and invention. As the atelierista, Joanne will provide an inviting space with new materials for the children to master all kinds of artistic techniques. We can’t wait to visit again next week and see the new materials we will be able to research. This newsletter is provided to give you a small glimpse of the “what” and “why” of the work we do in Room 8. We love getting to know each of your children and can’t wait to see them develop into little young ladies and gentlemen! We want to wish you all a Shabbat Shalom and wonderful weekend. We will see you on Monday for another full week of new experiences here in Room 8. Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah REMINDERS:
We can't believe we are coming to the end of our Room 8 Pre-K journey! We are so incredibly proud of your children and how much they have accomplished this year. We have watched your children grow into mature, hard-working, independent young ladies and gentlemen. We can successfully say that every child in our class will thrive next year in Kindergarten.
We also want to thank those that were able to attend our closing circle last Friday. Each child will get a copy of the special poem that we read in their final Pre-K journals. We are so excited for Pre-K celebration next week. The children have been working so hard at all of our rehearsals. We know that their performance is going to blow you away. We feel so proud and grateful to have had your children in our class and truly love and appreciate each and every child. We hope you all have a great weekend and Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah Reminder: Thursday June 6-Pre-K celebration - (CHILDREN NEED TO BE DROPPED OFF AT 9AM AT PLOTKIN CHAPEL FOR A 9:30AM START). Reminders:
We had quite a busy week in Room 8 as we begin to wrap up the year. The beginning of the week was spent learning about and celebrating Lag B’Omer. This is a joyous and celebratory holiday as we are remembering the end of the plague in Israel and an important Rabbi, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. To celebrate in Israel, we enjoy picnics, bonfires, singing and dancing. In honor of this holiday, we enjoyed a celebration with the entire Pre-K on the Room 7, 8, 9 Patio. Rabbi Josh helped explain the story behind Lag B’Omer, and Cantor Emma lead us in celebration songs. We shared beach towels with our friends from the other classes and enjoyed watermelon, oranges and baked potatoes! Ask your child if they sat with a new friend during snack or if they liked the baked potato! The friends in Room 8 also learned a new board game this week called Monza. This is a car race game that contains 6 wooden race cars and a board that resembles a colorful track. While most might assume that a race car game is all about speed, this board game requires using your head just as much as using the gas pedal. To play, you start by placing the car on the starting position by color and then, roll the 6 six-sided dice. The 6 sides of each dice is marked by color, rather than number. These colors match the colored spaces on the board. It is the player’s goal to use as many of the colors as possible to advance their car forward. This is done by matching the colors on the dice with the colors on the board on a 1:1 basis. However, the “rules of the road” don’t make this task as easy as it sounds. Ask your child how you advance out of the gates to begin with. Everyone had a chance to play this tricky game that kept each child on their toes. We continued to prepare for Pre-K Celebration by singing the song set every day. The kids are doing a fabulous job and working very hard to memorize the lyrics. We can see their excitement in learning these new tunes as they will breakout in song while playing Legos on the rug or drawing at the Art Center during free play. While we do not want this year to end, we cannot WAIT for all of you to see their performance. We hope you all have a great long weekend, and we will see you all next week for the final countdown of Pre-K! Shabbat Shalom! Mari & Aaliyah Reminders:
We jumped into the week with our very first Pre-K Celebration rehearsal. We practiced each song we will be performing with Maestro, and we learned where we will be standing on the bleachers. The entire Pre-K did an incredible job especially for our first rehearsal! We were so impressed by their cohesiveness and ability to focus for the entirety of the rehearsal. We have a few more weeks to practice, and we are certain you will all be blown away by their performance.
Room 8 continued with the conversation of travel after celebrating Israel’s birthday last week. Since last week was so busy, we did not have enough time to discuss the items that you need to travel to Israel. We focused on one very important piece needed to travel outside of the country, if not the most important item, the passport. We showed the children a faux paper passport booklet that resembles a real one. Each passport has a picture, name, date of birth, and an area for stamps. The children were excited to receive their very own passport, and some even thought it was the real deal and they had to bring it to the airport with them. After enjoying the globe piece of our Israel discussion, we wanted to incorporate it back into another lesson. Each child had the opportunity to take a closer look at the globe. Then, they pointed to one country, learned the name, and received a stamp for their place of choice. Ask your child where they want to visit! Their passport will go into their end-of-the-year journal. The children also learned a new skill this week in Room 8. We introduced the concept of mazes, another type of puzzle. The ability to complete a maze, whether it is on paper or a physical walking maze, helps children develop a huge variety of traits that help in all areas of life including social/emotional, physical, and mental. First, solving mazes helps learn patience, persistence, and teamwork. Each child had to sit with printable maze and take their time to find their way out the other side. In the end, finishing the maze gives them a sense of confidence and boosts their self-esteem. That feeling of “I did it!” proves that they can be successful. In addition, it improves their physical abilities like fine motor control and hand-eye coordination. To successfully maneuver through a maze on paper, we must use small movements with our pencil to make sure we draw a straight line through the narrow walls of the maze. Each time we do a maze the children are able to run into the black lines less and less. This skill, in turn, helps to perfect our penmanship and ability to write clearly and legibly. Lastly, solving mazes is just another activity to boost our problem-solving skills. They learn to plan, brainstorm, and visualize how they can find a route out of the maze. These skills help to improve a child’s cognitive thought process. We work to improve our cognitive abilities every day because it sets us up for independence and success in the future. Unfortunately, due to ERB testing, we were not able to have P.E. with Coach Danny this week. But instead of missing out on the fun, we conducted our own version of P.E. in our classroom. From crab-walk competitions to jumping jacks to push-ups, the children got in a great workout. They even got to play musical chairs, which is their absolute favorite! We cannot believe this year is coming to an end so soon, but we plan on savoring every moment of the next 3 weeks! We will start by celebrating Lag BaOmer next Tuesday. Please send your child with a beach towel for Tuesdays celebration. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Shabbat Shalom! Mari & Aaliyah Reminders:
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:
Week of April 29- May 3, 2019
Welcome back to all of our friends in Room 8! We hope everyone had a wonderful Spring Break and Passover filled with family and friends. On Monday, we loved hearing about everyone’s Spring Break adventures. From Grayson’s trip to New Jersey and Miami, to Cameron’s vacation to Cabo, to Kate’s journey to Circus Circus in Las Vegas, each child was bursting with excitement to share their experiences with their friends. We have a very busy month ahead, so we jumped right into our next unit on the holiday of Yom Ha’atzmaut, also known as Israel’s birthday. We began the conversation by asking, “Did you know that people are not the only ones that celebrate a birthday?” The children looked perplexed at this question and one even asked, “Does Disneyland have a birthday?” We explained that anything that has a start also has a birthday. Similar to the country we live in, America celebrates its birthday on July 4th. Ask your child how old Israel is turning this year. Our first activity to prepare for Israel’s birthday included making a card/flag. Since our penmanship is so spectacular, each child used their skills to write “Happy 71st Birthday, Israel!” on their card. Then, they each drew a unique picture with objects representing Israel or things that help celebrate a birthday like cakes, balloons, and presents. In addition, we discussed the shapes that make up the Jewish star so that the children can learn to draw their own on the back of their flag. We will use these as flags during our Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration with the entire Preschool next week. In light of this holiday, we took this opportunity to teach the children more information about the country of Israel. After opening up the Yom Ha’atzmaut conversation with a class discussion, we followed up by reading a book titled My Trip to Israel. We noticed that the children showed a particular interest in the information pertaining to the geography of Israel including where the country is located compared to America, the various cities and regions, the climate, and mostly, about the Dead Sea. They were amazed at the picture of rocks of salt that can be seen at the shore of the Dead Sea and asked why our beaches don’t look like this. We plan to research this topic to gain a deeper understanding of the science and history behind the salty dead sea. We also decided to conduct a small research project on one particular city of Israel. Haifa, a northern port city, is our chosen subject for Room 8. We briefly introduced this idea to the children, and they immediately asked if we could learn about the food that they eat in Haifa, or rather Israel as a whole! Since they loved tasting the foods associated with Passover, they showed a great interest in doing the same for this holiday. Through this mini research project, the children will gain more knowledge about a new topic, build their vocabulary and learn ways in which to find more specific information and details about an unknown subject. We are excited to begin our unit on Haifa next week. Shabbat Shalom! Mari & Aaliyah Reminders:
Week of April 8-12, 2019
Room 8 continued to learn and prepare for Passover all week long! We wanted the children to obtain a strong grasp on the story of Passover just like they did with Purim. In order to do this, we tried to include a theme of the upcoming holiday in most activities throughout the week. First, the art center focused on creating Elijah and Miriam cups. We continued to connect our classroom art projects and made the Passover project an extension of what we have been learning. The last art project focused on the use of acrylic paint so we incorporated this technique into decorating our cups. We also integrated the use of tape, which is another past medium we worked with. We can’t wait for you all to see their final creations. Each cup is unique in its design, techniques, and mediums, as well as, beautiful and functional artwork for each of your family Seders. After listening to Teacher Aaliyah retell the Passover story a couple of times, the children had the opportunity to portray the characters and put on their own performance. We noticed that all of the children expressed great excitement for this activity, especially after acting out the story of Purim. We cast each child in a role and provided them with props and a set to take them back to old Egypt. The story began with Jordan as Baby Moses, Kate as Miriam (Moses’ sister), and Evie as Yocheved (Pharaoh’s daughter). Ask your children how the plot unfolds. Brayden took on the role of Pharaoh and ordered his slaves, Luca, to dig with their hammers and build those pyramids. Blake, grown-up Moses, paraded around with his ruler staff trying to save the Jewish people. Since Pharaoh chose to not listen, plagues came upon the Egyptians. Grayson portrayed the first plague of bloody water, and then came Cameron, who hopped around to show how the frogs attacked as he threw rubber frogs around the palace. Each child used their imagination to fully embrace their part in the story, which allowed them to give a stellar performance. Playing a character provides numerous benefits to young children. It allows them to develop a strong sense of self-esteem. Through encouraging each child to project their voice and fully embody the nature of whichever role they are playing, the children can develop a strong sense of self-confidence. Role playing helps to expand their imagination and vocabulary, as well as, their physical movement. There is nothing better than seeing the children take pride in their own performances and in the work of their peers. In light of emergent curriculum and the joy we see in all of the friends in Room 8, we will continue to incorporate role playing and theatrical performances in future topics through the rest of this year. We have noticed that the friends in Room 8 continue to show a love of coloring. In keeping with the theme of Passover, we incorporated their interest in drawing in another activity. After acting out the story of Passover, the children chose one of the 10 plagues to illustrate on a blank index card. While some of the plagues are more straightforward, like lice or frogs, others were more complicated. We encouraged the children to draw a picture of their chosen plague in whichever way they imagined it to take place. Giving the child free reign to draw their own interpretation helps to reinforce their individuality and creativity. Avital chose to draw a frog, and Kate illustrated her idea of the bloody water. Luca, on the other hand, drew many small little bugs to represent the lice. We want to tell you all how thankful we are for taking part in our Room 8 class Seder. Thank you for providing the delicious food, participating in the reading and the singing of the Haggadah, and spending time in our classroom. We are forever grateful of all the support you give to our class! We hope you all have a wonderful, fun and restful Spring Break, and we can’t wait to begin our last month of school when we return. Shabbat Shalom! Mari & Aaliyah Reminders:
Week of 4/1-5/2019
Room 8 spent the week immersed in theme of Passover. We started off by reading a book called Sarah’s Passover. This story touched on every aspect of the story and traditions associated with Passover. From the items on the Seder plate, to the significance of reclining, to afikomen game, the children were able to hear a well-rounded explanation of how this holiday is celebrated. We asked the children to take note of how they will celebrate the holiday with their families. After break, we will discuss the similarities and differences between all of our various celebrations. The children showed a great interest in the concept of the afikomen. Many shared that they took part in the search for the matzah during last year’s Seders. In light of their excitement, we decided to hide the afikomen in our class every day, which gives each child the chance to find it! Brayden was the first friend to find the afikomen this week. We will continue to hide it each day leading up to Passover and can’t wait to see who finds it. In addition to the story of Passover, the Pre-K as a grade level decided to focus on two specific aspects of the story. Each class has the opportunity to create either Elijah’s cup or Miriam’s cup as this year’s Passover project. In order to conduct this project, we needed to explain the concept of each of these cups. The Pre-K team chose to focus on this particular concept for two reasons. The first being that we wanted to demonstrate that smaller details of a story are just as important as the main plot. Elijah and Miriam might not be the main characters of the Passover story, but they add important symbolism that makes our Seders meaningful. This leads me to the second reason for concentrating on Elijah and Miriam. The symbolism tied to these two characters connects to the overall theme of the school year, kindness. First, we explained the significance of Miriam. Ask your child who Miriam is in the story. She is Moses’ sister and was sent to watch over Moses as he floated down the river. During the Seder, we set out a cup filled with water to represent Miriam’s well, which served as a source of water as the Israelites wandered the desert. This piece of the Seder allows us to remember the kindness Miriam showed to her brother and include this important figure in our celebration. In addition, while many of us have heard of Elijah and his significance, we wanted to highlight this to the children. We explained that Elijah is a prophet, like a spirit, that comes to everyone’s Seder. He comes in through a cracked door and takes a sip of wine, which symbolizes a blessing over your Seder and for the rest of the year. We emphasized that Elijah is known to come back in various forms to ensure that everyone is being treated with kindness. In light of the emphasis we have put on kindness this school year, the children had the opportunity to make one of the two cups mentioned above as a symbol of kindness at their own Seder. The difference between the two cups is that Miriam’s cup must be clear so that we can see the water in it, while Elijah’s cup can be decorated throughout. We gave the children an opportunity to make their own decision regarding the kindness character they chose to represent at their Seder. We can’t wait for you to see their incredible creations on plastic wine/water glasses. Using acrylic paint, the children came up with various designs to decorate each cup differently. Some of the techniques included using tape to block off certain sections, dotting the cup with the tip of a paint brush, and painting the base and stem in various colors. They will be a lovely and meaningful addition to everyone’s family Seder. Room 8 also discussed the items found on the Passover Seder plate, as well as, what each represents. We incorporated an activity involving taste into our Seder plate lesson. Exposing children to new foods helps children learn to expand their palate and identify different textures and tastes. In addition to expanding our sense of taste and learning more about what we like or don’t like, this sense allows the children to develop a deeper understanding of the importance of each Seder plate item. A child or adult is much more likely to remember a certain memory if it is associated with more than one of their senses. For example, we are more likely to remember a certain topic if we use our sense of hearing and taste, rather than just listening to a lecture. We wanted to give the kids in Room 8 a deeper experience when learning about parsley and bitter herbs to better ensure that they will grasp and retain this information. In our tasting, the children described each item differently. Scarlett said that she felt like she was chewing on broccoli, while Jordan said it tasted like cauliflower. Julian explained that it felt smooth on his tongue. Evie, Cameron, Christopher and Julian were the only children who actually enjoyed the parsley. While radishes are used as another form of the karpas during a Seder, we had the children taste this vegetable as our bitter herb because horseradish is too spic y. Radish and horseradish come from the same plant family, so we decided to keep the name similar to make it easily understandable for the children. Christopher compared it to an onion in that the radish had a red outside and a white inside and tasted spicy. Avital said it was very crunchy! Brayden was the only child in the class who liked the radish. He liked it so much he asked for seconds. The children had a blast getting to try these new foods. We will continue trying more Passover items next week. We continue to practice for our class Seder next Thursday, and we can’t wait to sing the Passover songs with our families. We hope you have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom! Mari & Aaliyah Reminders: 2. 4/11- Room 8 Class Passover Seder – 9:15am 3. 4/15-4/26- Spring Break- NO school 3. 4/29- School Resumes Shabbat Family Schedule:
Newsletter March 25-29, 2019
Room 8 started our week off with the story of Passover. We opened the conversation of the upcoming holiday by reading a story called Sammy Spider’s First Haggadah. We discussed the main events and the characters that makeup the Passover story. Ask your child who the main character of the story is, and then, ask them who the bad guy is. We continue to use the method of repetition to help the children retain and grasp this complicated tale that is an essential piece of the history of the Jewish people. This topic not only helps reinforce the importance of our heritage, but it also helps acts a stepping stone for academic learning. When children are exposed to storytelling, they are strengthening their listening and comprehension skills and enhances their vocabulary. At the same time, storytelling encourages imagination and creativity in the child. Rather than seeing the story in pictures, the children have a chance to imagine the details of the characters and plot in their minds. It promotes free thinking and unique ideas to develop in each child. We continued to go over the story of Passover throughout the week. We also began to add songs to help tell the tale. Ask your child if they remember any of the songs. We will continue to practice over the next couple of weeks and can’t wait to sing them together as a class during our classroom Seder. Next week, we plan to incorporate some art projects into our Passover curriculum to further reinforce the importance of this holiday. Room 8 introduced a new educational STEM toy to the children this week. For those who are unfamiliar with STEM, it is a term used to group together academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This is a phrase that is commonly used in elementary school, and we like to give the children an opportunity to think in this mindset at a young age. While we have many other activities in our class that fall into the category as a STEM toy, we found a new engineering building set that promotes creativity and problem-solving. There are hundreds of different creations the children can come up with such as cars, planes, animals, people and more. We can’t wait to see what the children construct and their story behind it. In addition, this toy strengthens fine motor skills in that it requires a small pinch to secure the pieces together. We truly enjoyed meeting with all of you during conferences and are so proud of all that the children have accomplished thus far. We know that their growth will only continue over the last few months of school, and we thank you all for encouraging and reinforcing the work we do to help your children thrive. Have a wonderful weekend and Shabbat Shalom, Mari & Aaliyah **WISE SCHOOL PLAY -- PETER PAN! April 6th, April 7th, and April 9th performances Link for tickets: https://www.showtix4u.com/events/1290 Reminders: 1. 4/4- PreK video recording day 2. 4/11- Room 8 Class Passover Seder – 9:15am 3. 4/15-4/26- Spring Break- NO school 3. 4/29- School Resumes Shabbat Family Schedule:
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Pre-K Room 8Mari Greifer Archives
March 2020
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