Garinim 

We have been so busy learning about Passover this week.  We spent time learning the Passover story and enjoyed singing many songs to go along with the story.  Our favorite definitely seemed to be: One morning when Pharaoh awoke in his bed, there were frogs on his head and frogs in his bed, frogs on his nose and frogs on his toes, frogs here, frogs there, frogs were jumping everywhere.  This week we focused a lot on the 10 plagues and created our very own plague boxes to bring home to use at our seders.  We enjoyed using a frog stamp and ink to hop frogs across our paper, stuck wild animal stickers on as well.  We painted a cow and scooped some rice, which required a lot of focus to make sure it ended up in the small container.  We started to sing the 4 questions at circle and we will continue to practice them up until Pesach.  This week we enjoyed rolling out brown playdough with a rolling pin and then poking holes in it with a fork, just like we would do when making matzah.  We also enjoyed squishing brown kinetic sand into an ice cube tray to make bricks and used those bricks to try and make pyramids, just like our ancestors.  Next week we will work on learning the parts of a seder plate and creating our own as we spend more time on the Passover story and prepare for the holiday.  

 

Alim

This week we discussed the Season of Spring.  We read some Spring books and talked about what we will be seeing outside.  We had some new activities in the classroom in language and math.  In the language area, there was uppercase and lowercase letter matching work the children enjoyed. In the math area,  there was new hanging beads work for counting.  The kids have been getting more individualized lessons with me with their language and math concepts.  In the next few weeks,  I will be talking about one continent at a time.  The children will receive a passport and we will be pretending to visit those continents.   They will be able to stamp their passports for every Continent they have visited.  It’s going to be fun.

 

Alim Judaics  - ‘Aviv’ is Springtime in Hebrew.  It begins with the Aleph letter - the 1st letter in the Aleph-bet. We learned many new words in Hebrew that begin with Aleph, such as; Ariyay-Lion, Avaz-Duck, Oren-Pine Tree and Avirone-Airplane.  We traced the Aleph sandpaper block with our fingers and are working on coloring a ditto with a large Aleph letter.  The children loved the 2 mini videos I found on Youtube-  one on the Aleph-bet in general which we all sang and repeated 3 times and then Shalom Sesame’s funny Elmo video highlighting the letter Aleph.  

 

Alim Yoga - This week’s theme was ‘Be still’ / Shema - we were still like rocks.  We stopped and noticed the stillness after ‘shaking it up’.  Our lives are so busy everyday.  Our minds are racing with thoughts constantly.  What it feels like when we STOP & notice the air around us, are there any sounds, smells?  How fast or slow is our heart beating and how calm is our breath now since we’ve slowed down our bodies and minds?  We read a book I highly recommend to all by Diane Alber, A Little Peaceful Spot - a story about mindfulness.  It’s interactive and filled with breathing patterns, tips and tricks to practice together!

 

Alim Shabbat -  Zev and Lia were the Shabbat helpers for this ‘Silly’ April Fools’ Day Shabbat.  We sang, danced and celebrated another peaceful Shabbat.  We danced to ‘There’s a Dinosaur knocking at my Door’ and practiced the hand motions for David Melech Yisrael.  We enjoyed reading the story Dinosaur on Shabbat - not your typical Shabbat guest. Haha.

 

Keshet

Keshet kids are in their groove;  journaling, reading to each other, sewing detailed cross stitch  designs, learning about the planets - Venus and Mars this week, counting and exchanging coins as they play the dice game, practicing Pesach songs, learning to stand up and share news with the group. And we just completed our latest chapter book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl!

 

Keshet Yoga -  This week’s theme is based on the book,  ‘I am the Tree of Life’ - part II - journeying through the 2nd half of this beautiful book while acting out many of the Bible Stories through Yoga - from Pesach with Cobra pose and Miriam’s Dancer pose as she celebrated the parting of the Red Sea waters, Mountain pose for when Moses climbed Mt. Sinai to receive the 10 Commandments, Warrior I for Prophetess Yael’s bravery, and Warrior II for the Strength illustrated in the story of David & Goliath. 

 

See this week’s photos here

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7nKqLf9hGJAinWrK9