April 12-16, 2021

Garinim:

We have been very busy this week! We had a mixture of weather! It started off a very sunny week, and ended with some rain—which was a good thing for our worm hunt (we found quite a few)!

We painted watercolor flowers early on in the week and did insect stamping, as we are still discussing plants and how they grow. We are actively watering our pepper seeds—we hope we see some signs of life soon!

In honor of Yom HaAtzmaut, we painted Israeli flags at the easel, created our very own paper construction flags, and ate falafel on Thursday for lunch!

We learned two new songs, “Kahol ve lavan” and “I’m going to pack up my bags”.

We searched for things that are blue and white in our classroom.
 
Alim:
This week we talked more about birds and the different types in our backyards.  The children were shown a bird picture matching activity with several different backyard birds. Some of the children mentioned that they recognized common ones like Robins, Cardinals and Bluejays. Also,  the children were presented with a beautiful butterfly matching work in which each image was split in half and they had to find the symmetrical half.   We continue to take care of our zinnias each morning.  One child is assigned every morning to water the Zinnias.  We told the kiddos that the plants need sunlight, water and love. Also, that it is nice to give them a greeting every once in a while according to green thumb experts.  We travelled to Asia in our pretend plane and all the kids were stamped at customs.  We discussed a little about the continent of Asia and how it's the biggest continent of all 7 of them.  We talked about special landmarks of Asia and a little about their culture.  Also, the children were shown how to make their own Montessori World map with the pin punch work they have been accumulating over the past few weeks.  
 
This week we focused on Israel. We learned that it’s capital is Jerusalem and that Hebrew and Arabic are spoken. We went on a visual tour with pictures illustrating it’s diverse landscapes. Our tour began at the green valley, through the caves in the desert, beaches, Western Wall, Mt Hermon and stopped at the shuk. We saw various delicious fruits and vegetables for sale. We also “assembled” a falafel sandwich with all the trimmings. The children have been busy creating/painting Israeli flags and making maps using various mediums to illustrate the country’s interesting topography. We celebrated Yom Ha’Atzmut with food, songs (Kachol V'Lavan and the Israel song) and stories. It’s been a fun week!
 
Anafim:
ISRAEL week included Kachol (blue)  V'Lavan (white) the colors of the Israeli flag.  Your child has surely repeated this Hebrew song about the 'degel' (flag) - if not, prompt them with ...'Kachol v'lavan (x2),  ze ha'degel Sheli...' We played 'yam/yabasha' (dry land and water) while jumping into the water (onto the blue rug), read numerous stories about Israel, including a true story about the early Zionists. This prompted discussion about real and fantasy, pictures and photographs, which the children are quite aware of, especially the kindergartners. We could not parade around the school singing Israeli songs while waving our beautiful collage flags, but that did not stop us from parading around our own class, singing along, again and again! 
We sang Happy Birthday and almost everyone tried the falafel lunch prepared for us by Ezra PTO - very much appreciated and enjoyed by all! (Well, at least parts of the lunch, by at least most of the children ;) Oh, and the blue and white patterned bracelets, and ישראל paintings were fun too, not to mention Yom Ha'atzmaut Yoga as Morah Sherri led us through the sights and sounds and tastes of Israel.
 
Israel was not the only birthday celebrated this week... Maya's parents joined us for her 5th birthday celebration, via Zoom, and we were very excited to see her journey, from baby to (almost!) five year old! 
 
Keshet:
We're working on fractions (parts of a whole) with the Montessori fraction boards, ranging from one to ten equal parts. The 8, 9 and 10 circles are rather similar and the children are working out ways to compare and regroup parts of the whole, exchanging pieces from the different circles (one quarter is the same as 2 eighths...) and played the sharing game - candles divided equally between many birthday cakes. 
In English we played games with nouns ('names of things or places') and adjectives ('describing the thing') using the Montessori grammar symbols - black triangles for the nouns and smaller blue triangles representing adjectives. 
We talked more about birds this week.  We painted bird houses and the children really seemed to enjoy this activity. We talked about bird habitats and what they need to survive.  
We started to read the book Mr. Popper's Penguinsby Richard and Florence Atwater.
 
See this week's photos here https://photos.app.goo.gl/nsrjGZ1NFXuhmoZAA

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