Oct 25-29, 2021

Garinim
Whew, this week has been a bit busy!  We continued talking about autumn this week and moved our focus a bit more towards different things we see in fall.  We talked about pumpkins, squirrels, acorns, and more.  We read many books this week but Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin by Tad Hills was definitely a favorite.  We added some forest animals to the play dough this week, which was a huge hit.  The children enjoyed making different footprints in the dough and building big mountains for the animals to climb up.  It also led to several discussions about deer and who has seen deer around our school.   The children were quite excited about the change in dressing boards this week and enjoyed zipping and unzipping the fabric as well as working on large buttons and trying to get them through the button holes.  The trickiest part is definitely threading the zipper to start it.  This week we also enjoyed lots of paint.  We used our hands to paint brown acorns.  We painted pumpkins at the easel with orange and brown paint while looking at a photograph of a real pumpkin.  
 
On Tuesday we put our rain gear to the test and went out to play.  We had sooo much fun splashing in the puddles.  The children found that if they jumped off the steps it made an even bigger splash.  We also found that we could scoop up the water from the big puddle and use it on the water features on the fence.  
 
On Thursday we enjoyed our first Yoga class.  Morah Sherri came in and did a whole Noah's ark themed class.  We tried out lots of different poses including, boat, snake, lion, cow, cat and more.  We also learned about taking deep calming breaths and with great visuals using our hands to represent our breath.  We will be having Yoga class once a month and are looking forward to more fun.  
 
On Friday we all were so excited to celebrate Shabbat with so many special guests.  We sang some Shabbat songs and enjoyed a story together as well.  We hope they all enjoyed a little peek into our classroom.  
 
Alim
We had a great week at school.  The Kindness Jar was filled and the children were SUPER excited to bring something special in from home.  Each child stood up and discussed what they brought in and why it was special to them.  This is a great way for children to build confidence in themselves in front of others.  It was very sweet to see the kids present to their friends.   The Color of the week was Purple.  This color was placed throughout the classroom.  We did some fun experiments with watercolors.  We mixed red water and blue water onto coffee filters to make the color Purple.  This artwork really came out beautifully and the children enjoyed this activity.  The Sound of the Week was “Ss”.  We read the AlphaTale book Seal’s Silly Sandwich.  The Spindle Box in Math was demonstrated for the children.  Grandparents/ Special Friend day was a nice touch to end the week.  We hope they enjoyed seeing the children in their classroom……. singing songs and having fun.  Have a wonderful weekend.
Judaics -   We learned that our color of the week - Purple is 'Sagole' in Hebrew.  Coincidentally it also is the same as our sound of the week - which is 'S'.
-  We played 'Eye spy' with my little eye and called out 'Sagole' objects in the classroom.
 
Judaica Craft  - We decorated our Tzedakah box cover as a group/ class project.  We talked about the meaning of 'Tzedakah' - and that it is a commandment to share with others.  We introduced the 'sandpaper' Hebrew letters:  Tzadi, Kuf, Daled & Hey and the took turns feeling and tracing the letters with our fingers.
 
Yoga Yeladim -  We enjoyed a 'Shabbat' themed Yoga class and practiced our 'candle' pose - lying on our backs with our legs up in the air and flickering our candles (feet) and our Challah pose- where we twisted our bodies into pretzel pose and 'Eagle' arms and legs.  We stretched to Shabbat tunes and danced to 'This little light of mine- I'm going to let it shine!' - KAY music and activity.  We then acted out a short story about celebrating Shabbat through Yoga.
 
Kabbalat Shabbat -  was enjoyed not only by our students, but also our Grandparents and 'special guests' who joined us on Zoom. We begin every week singing ' Shabbat Shalom' to each of our friends in class, and dance to Shabbat music by Andi Joseph.  We wear our 'Yarmulkes/Kippot' and  invite '2' different helpers each week to say our prayers together over the Shabbat Candles, Kiddush wine and Challah. 
 
Keshet
The students are working in small groups; laying out the 1000 bead chain and counting and placing number cards, sounding out 3 and 4 letter BINGO words, labelling the World puzzle, watering our plants...
We are busy with leaf classification, collecting leaves and then identifying them by shape - matching them to the leaf classification chart. The leaves on the Spider Plant  that the children are growing have ‘linear leaves’. Some students made a little leaf booklet (parts of the leaf), others created wax resist leaf images with white crayon and watercolors. We have been busy with our globe of the world project, and continue as we learn more about each continent.  This week we focussed on Australia and Antarctica. 
Each morning we say the Shema and Modeh/Modah Ani and often include a song of peace, Ohseh Shalom. The children are joining in and are now quite familiar with most of the words to the brachot (prayers). One child stated it was their best part of the day! The morning continues with group discussion, sharing news and then story writing.  Thereafter it's time for Montessori activities of their choice (with some suggestions), mostly math, language and culture, with some art and woodwork. Each day we have group math and literacy, breaking into smaller groups as appropriate, Hebrew class and the Special of the day (Gym, Art, music, Yoga, Shabbat).  
 
See this week's pictures here https://photos.app.goo.gl/agXobmU6vF5PXrkj8
 

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