All About Me and My Feelings

Dear Families-

 

This week we are continuing our “All about Me“ unit.

Thank you for sending your child's favorite book to share with our class. Our friends were so happy to see their books and share them with each other.

Leif’s book: Kindness Makes Us Strong by Sophie Beer 

As the Morahs  read the book, we spoke about how nice it is to be kind!

 

Audrey's book: Brown Bear, Brown Bear ,What Do You See? by Mill Martin and Eric Carl 

As we read this book, we asked our friends what sound each animal makes and we repeated colors after Morah.

 

Asher's book: I Love You Through and Through by Bernadette Rossetti Shustak.

We spoke about how, no matter what, we all love each other! 

 

Next week we will continue sharing the rest of our friends' books.

 

Inspired by the book My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss, our friends created portraits of themselves with colors based on how they were feeling. We talked about how we can feel many different feelings at many different times, and they are all okay to have because they are a part of us. 

Morah provide our friends with paint brushes and different colors of paint.

Our friends began painting with paint brushes, then they decided to use there hands to feel the colors.

Morahs even heard some friends saying, "It's cold!"

After that, our friends mixed all the colors, and we saw their work become different shades and colors.

Morah's job is to provide our little ones with the materials they need so that our friends can use their imagination and creativity. It's amazing to observe each of them to see how we all so different.

Shabbat Shalom 

Morah Ora, Morah Rivky, & Morah Chaya

 

All About Me

Dear Parents,

 
We would like to welcome Leeann to our classroom! She is a joy to have with us!

 

All About Me

This week, in the Peach Room, we learned all about ourselves. Each friend had the opportunity to look in to the mirror and look at themselves. We talked about what color everyone's eyes are and we pointed to our nose, ears, and mouth. We counted our fingers and toes. We used paint stamps to stamp our hands and feet on the paper to see the size of our friends' hands and feet.

Self Portrait 

This week our friends made their first self portrait . Mirrors, black and white photos of each child, and paint pallets were set up for everyone to explore.
Audrey  pointed to her eyes and began painting  them first.
Leeann  enjoyed mixing all the colors and had a big smile on her face.
Liran  looked at the self portrait picture and said “It's me!"
Aria enjoyed looking at herself in the mirror.

Kai looked at the mirror and smiled.

Leif pointed to his nose and looked at his morahs with a big smile on his face.

Friendship Tree

We made a Friendship Tree for our classroom! I explained that everyone in our class is best friends, and even when we do things that upset each other or hurt each other’s feelings, we should always remember that we are friends, so we should use kind words and apologize when we do something wrong. Then I told everyone that we would be making a friendship tree to hang in our room and remind each other that no matter what, we were all friends.

Morah started by drawing the outline of the tree on a poster board. I used the brown marker for this, then colored in the trunk with the brown paint  so that the outline would stand out better. Once that was finished, Morah provided each child with yellow, green and red paint. Our friends dipped their hands into the paint and stamped them on the poster board. Each leaf (hand print) looks so different like everyone in our classroom family.

 

Sharing from Home

For the next couple weeks we will be covering "All About Me." If it’s possible, we would love if each friend can bring their favorite book from home to share with the class . Thank you!

Shabbat Shalom

Morah Ora, Morah Rivky, & Morah Chaya.

Simchas Torah & Mitzvot

Dear Parents,

Hashem wants us to be happy so he gave us one more holiday!

This holiday is all about our special Torah. The holiday is called Simchas Torah.

It means Happiness of the Torah. We are so happy we have the Torah.

On this holiday we dance and celebrate together.

Each day, during davening time, we talk about mitzvot and how our Torah is full of mitzvos. Then Morah reads our friends' mitzvah notes, and we celebrate them because we are so proud of them!

On Monday our friends created their own flags, and we took a walk to the big shul to see where we keep our Torahs full of mitzvot.

Our friends were so excited to see the Torahs, and we sang Torah songs, jumped so high and waved our flags .

Shabbat Shalom 

Morah Ora, Morah Rivky, & Morah Chaya

High holidays

Dear Parents,

Over the past two weeks our friends explored two more big holidays! 

For Yom Kippur we learned about the importance of saying please, thank you, and sorry. We practiced our manipulative skills by putting coins in the tzedakah box while learning how to give to others. Our friends each got their own tzedakah box and a pile of coins, and we practiced putting in one coin at a time, making sure to keep the rest of our coins safely on the table. We listened to the coins drop in and noticed how the sound changed based on how full the box was. 

For Sukkos we built and explored our classroom's own sukkah! Each friend had a chance to sit inside, look through the leafy roof and play with friends. We then went outside to a life-size sukkah and experienced what it was like to sit outside and celebrate. 

 

We worked as a team to make a sukkah decoration. Each child got a palm branch and dipped it into paint, which they then dabbed onto a big piece of cloth, creating a unique design. We practiced shaking the lulav in all four directions, symbolizing how Hashem is everywhere.

Shabbat Shalom and happy holidays!

Morh Ora, Morah Rivky, & Morah Chaya.

Shana Tova U’Metuka

Dear Parents.

We are so excited to welcome our new friend, Aria, to our classroom!

This week we continued to explore and learn about Rosh Hashana.  

 

Dramatic Play

 

In our dramatic play area we had a fish tank with Mr. Fishy on the table, and we practiced doing Tashlich!  During Tashlich we throw away any of the not-so-nice things we may have done to the fish and say sorry for any bad things we may have done.

Discovery Table

Our friends learned about bees, flowers, and honey.

We spoke about how the flowers benefit bees by providing them with the food bees need. Bees feed on nectar and pollen of flowers.

Nectar is the sweet liquid that flowers produce. Then we spoke about how bees need flowers to make honey.

 

While our friends were invited to the discover table, Morah explained to our friends that we dip challah in the honey to have sweet new year.

On Rosh Hashana we bake round challah because they do not have a beginning or an end. This symbolizes that the blessings that come from Hashem to us, should be constant and never-ending.  

Rosh Hashana Project

Morahs gave our friends foil pan, baking brush, honey and challah dough rolls. Each of them chose how many rolls they want to have on baking foil and we counted them! . Then our friends dipped their baking brushes in to sticky honey and glazed the challah dough. 

Our friends tried hard not to taste  the dough and lick the honey.

A big thanks to Rabbi Dietsch for coming and blowing the shofar every day. We love to hear the sounds of the shofar, and we cant wait until Rosh Hashana is finally here!

Dear parents, we want to wish you

Shana Tova Umetuka and Shabbat Shalom

 

Morah Ora, Morah Rivky, &  Morah Chaya.

Rosha Hashana Exploration

Dear Parents,

Our friends are getting adjusted very well! We all got to know each other a little better over the week. In the morning our friends are so happy to see each other and ready to play.

Rosh Hashana is almost here...

Discovery Table

This week we began Rosh Hashana exploration through the Rosh Hashana discovery table. Our friends took turns looking through the magnifying glass to build their own experience with the materials we had on the discovery table.  Our friends blew the shofar, and they were so curious about the different sounds each of them could make. 

Art:

This week  our friends also made Shana Tova cards for our loving grandparents.  We had so much fun using our apple stamps that we made from real apples to decorate the cards.

Sensory Exploration:

On Monday and Tuesday  in the sensory table we had apples, oats, and scoops.  Our friends use scoops to scoop the oats and hide apples with the oats .Then we counted how many apples there were in the sensory table in English and Hebrew. 

 On Wednesday and Thursday we enjoyed washing apples and practicing the bracha ha-etz before we eat them.  

The sensory table allows our friends to enrich their vocabulary. By adding new materials and allowing them to explore and discover, we learn new words.

Another sensory experience that we offered the children this week was when we had green and red apples to taste. We tasted to see which ones were sweet and which ones were sour. Then we dipped them in the honey to have sweet new year.

Music & Movement:

The Rosh Hashana songs we've been singing this week are:

To the tune of 'The Wheels on the Bus':

"The Shofar in the Shul goes toot-toot-toot
toot-toot-toot toot-toot-toot
The Shofar in the Shul goes toot-toot-toot
on Rosh Hashana morning."

To the tune of  'Oh my Darling Clementine'

 

Dip the apples in the honey 

Make a bracha loud and clear
L’ashana tova umeasuka 

have a happy, sweet new year!

Looking forward to next week as we explore more about Rosh Hashana by baking Honey Challah!

Shabbat Shalom,

 Morah Ora, Morah Rivky, & Morah Chaya.

Our First Week of School!

 Dear Parents,

This first week of school has been a great opportunity for all the morahs and students to start building a foundation of trust to have a successful school year. Exploring new environments and establishing new routines can be scary and takes some getting used to. Entering this new journey with love and patience for all is the key to success. 

The Routine

 

At the beginning of the day, the morahs greet each friend  at the classroom door with hugs and by saying, "Hello." Then we help each friend  by put their belongings away in their designated spot, wash hands, sign in and get to work. Establishing a routine so that children feel safe and comfortable to explore their own environment is the goal for this week and next week.

Classroom Exploration

Our friends were so excited to explore all of the centers in the classroom: the sensory bin, kitchen, library, slide and much more. 

Liran spent a lot of time in the art area. She drew some art work for our art wall.

Audrey and Leif had fun going up and down the slide .

Kai played with small balls and threw them in a bucket.

Asher loved spending time on the carpet playing and stacking cups.

 Group Project

 

Along with free exploration our friends came together and sat down for a group activity.  We incorporated some literacy with art.  Our friends used different color paint dots and markers to create a background for our English alphabet chart. We will hang up their work in the circle area for our friends to sing with and learn from.

Thank you for trusting us to guide your little ones. 

 
Shabbat Shalom! 
Morah Ora, Morah Rivky, & Morah Chaya.