Garinim 

Despite having Monday off this week, we sure were busy.  We spent the week preparing for Shavuot (which begins at sunset on Saturday).  We have been talking a lot about how Moses (Moshe in Hebrew) climbed up Mount Sinai (Har Sinai) and received the 10 Commandments or rules from G-d.  There were lots of discussions about the 10 commandments and how they are all rules everyone should follow.  We enjoyed reading Sadie and the Big Mountain and Ten Good Rules.   We enjoyed using sponges and paint, stickers and glue to create our own Mount Sinai pictures.  We piled kinetic sand high into a mountain and used flower petals to decorate it to be our beautiful Mount Sinai.  

 

We enjoyed working more with our sound cylinders this week and really worked on refining our sense of hearing.  Water transfers, playdough, and blocks have all remained quite popular this week as well as spending time outside in the gorgeous weather.  On Wednesday the whole school had a practice lockdown, and our whole class did awesome.  They did such a great job of staying quiet and listening to directions! We were so proud of everyone. 

 

Friday we enjoyed our challah and grape juice together for the start of Shabbat.  We sang songs and danced a little Horah (circle dance) as well.  Only one more Shabbat to celebrate together.

 

Our bean and pea plants have really grown and we will plant them outside in the garden next week.  We will also move into talking about the Ocean! 

 

Alim

We started our Sea Life Unit this week. This unit is super fun, colorful and involves a lot of water work.  There is a beautiful sea life mural in the classroom and the children have decorated it with fish and other sea creatures they have painted or colored.  We read several books about fish and talked about what it’s like to be a fish.  We talked about how fish can breathe underwater.  We talked about the difference between a fish as a pet vs a fish in the wild.  The Practical Life area and Art area has been transformed into Sea Life activities and the children have enjoyed working with these new activities. Also, the kids have enjoyed the fun June Countdown activities. 

Alim Judaics  -   We celebrated Shavuot all week by counting the final 7th week of the Omer.  Shavuot begins Saturday, June 4th.  The children have enjoyed painting the Ten Commandment Tablets with water colors.  We have read a few Shavuot stories.Spider’s First Shavuot was a big hit - learning how to make yummy cheese Blintzes for the holiday as we eat dairy on Shavuot.  Another craft the children enjoyed was creating their own Floral headbands to wear to celebrate the holiday.  We are singing some fun new Shavuot songs about Moses receiving the 10 Commandments from Hashem on the top of Mt. Sinai.

Keshet

We have beautiful flower arrangements in our classroom; carefully selected trio- bouquets in bud vases on each table. Flower arranging is a fun favorite. In keeping with Shavuot (the holiday that begins at sundown on Saturday) and the receiving of the Ten Commandments, we cut out ‘tablets’ and wrote the first ten letters in Hebrew. Ask your child to sing ‘My name is Moshe Moshe and I climbed up Har Sinai…’  In keeping with tradition ( a Thank You for rain and sunshine, and thereby sustenance) the first fruits and vegetables of the season were brought to the Temple years ago. In class we continued the tradition by painting still life fruit and flower paintings. 

As Rhododendrons were part of the flowers in the classroom, the students learned first hand about individual and compound flowers, and dissected one of the clusters and labeled the ‘parts of the flower’. 

 

We are also learning about birds, did you know there are over 10,000 varieties of birds in the world! We learned about the smallest birds (hummingbirds) and the largest (ostriches), about their nests and behavior. Lots of bird facts to read and explore, paired with a North American Bird Bingo game. The students paid close attention and were identifying birds outside during lunchtime beneath the trees. 

Math revision included addition and subtraction, and the concept of multiplication and division using various modes, including crosswords (number facts), color coding according to quotient, and money - counting in fives and tens, and exchanging (ex. five nickels for a quarter).  The ‘store’ game included interesting tiny objects on sale, a store keeper (checking amounts and providing change) and the buyer figuring out which combinations of coins to use, making the experience real and fun. 

See this week’s photos here https://photos.app.goo.gl/RowN8VkNwqmnZBz56