Garinim

The children were so happy to be back at school and back to their routine! They all sang and participated with our first morning gathering and were very excited to see their friends!

In the sensory bin there are mini blue stones, along with spoons for scooping and adding to metal frying pans. There are sivivon/dreidels that the children can try to spin, gold and silver coins/gelt/kesef in the bin as well. They enjoyed this activity and we will keep it throughout the chag/holiday of Chanukah.

In the Judaica center of the classroom there is a Chanukiah/Menorah "work" where  the children can practice placing the candles in the chanukiah, lighting the candles, saying the brachot/blessings (that we have been singing) and then taking it apart and returning it back to the shelf for the next friend! 

There are new pouring activities (ask your child what new objects were in the water activities and what color was added). There are some blue crystals submerged in water which the children must carefully remove with a mini strainer, a dry rice pouring work, and a glitter pouring from one small pitcher to another and sivivon tonging!

We have been busily sculpting Chanukiot out of clay to bring home for the first night of Chanukah! Added to our Art center is dreidel decorating, gluing shapes to recreate  an abstract sivivon and lots of cutting strips of light and blue paper.

Wednesday was challah making day which was a lot of fun and very messy!

Morah Dawn came to our classroom on Thursday to practice the Chanukah song we will be singing for the Chanukah Production on Tuesday night. The children were terrific!

We finished off quite a busy week with a visit to the Chapel to welcome in Shabbat! The entire Garinim classroom were the "Challot in the  Baker's Shop"! The children loved standing up front on the Bimah, each having their turn being ‘purchased’, and being led safely back to their seats! Morah Lana continued the Parsha this week about Jacob meeting his brother, Esau, after not seeing him for thirty four years! Razi's parents Abby and Tani joined us for singing in the Chapel and back in the classroom for some yummy challah.

Shabbat Shalom

Alim

This week the classroom was transformed in blue and white to be festive for Hanukkah.  

On Monday we reviewed the Sound of the Week "Pp".  We read the Alphatale Pig's Picnic. There were corresponding sound sheets and letter formation sheets to go along with this sound. There were several new Practical Life and Art activities shown to the children.  We practice placing candles in the Menorah.  There were new art activities for Hanukkah too.  We had a good time at the Gym with coach Oren.  We played a tag game. 

On Tuesday, we started our Holiday gifts involving lots of paint. YAY!  We also started making an additional craft of paper dreidels.  We painted them and added some sequins to make the sparkle.

On Wednesday, we continued to work on our Channukiot (menorahs) and had a nice work day.

On Thursday,  Morah Dawn came in with her keyboard and we practiced our special song that we are going to perform the night of the play. 

On Friday we had Ella's mom come in to join us for Shabbat.  We enjoyed the parsha with Morah Lana in the chapel.  Then we blessed the Challah in the classroom.  The Shabbat box went home with Ellie and her family.  Shabbat Shalom. :)

Alim Judaics  We are getting ready for Ezra’s Hanukkah production. Our props are almost done and we have been practicing our song every day along with our days of the week song. 

We are also learning new Hanukkah songs by request and this week Levi requested Sivivon Sov Sov Sov. 

Morah Sandy and I are so impressed with our little performers. I am sure everyone will enjoy our song, and the whole performance as much as we do.

Anafim

Everyone came back with such excitement on Monday.  All the children eagerly talking about their time off and what they had been up to during the Thanksgiving break.  Upon entering the classroom the children were very excited to see the Channukah theme in much of our work.  Monday we read a book with the story of Channukah.  This led us to a discussion about where they got oil from in the old days.  The children were quite surprised that previous generations could not just go to the store (or even order some to be delivered) to buy more.  We discussed the process of how they had to squeeze olives and separate out the juice and oil.  The children were quite enamored with this process.  After a bit of work time we went down to the gym for class with Coach Oren.  This week we started by trying to play sharks and minnows.  The children were struggling a bit to understand who was a shark and who did the chasing.  We quickly switched gears and decided to try out regular tag.  We also added the “it” person would have a plastic fire hat and when they tagged someone they passed off the hat.  This version worked out much better and the children enjoyed running around trying to tag each other. 

Just after we came inside on Tuesday we lined up and went down to the social hall for our class picture.  We lined up and were given our spots for the picture.  We are all excited to see how it comes out.  We enjoyed a nice long work period after our photo.  Some inspiration cards have been added to our sensorial shelves and the children have enjoyed trying to recreate different buildings with the brown stair, pink tower, and red rods.  The children have also been working their fingers by spinning dreidels all over the tables and floor!

Wednesday we talked about the channukiyah.  We counted how many candles there are spots for and looked at a couple of different ones.  We then learned about how we are going to make our own this year.  A couple of children even had a chance to start theirs.  All the rest had their chance on Thursday and Friday.  This week was also our turn to make challah so we made sure to leave time to whip up the dough.  The children are really mastering measuring, mixing and kneading. 

Thursday we rolled and braided the challah, more of the children worked on their channukiyah, and just enjoyed some work in the classroom.  When it was time for Morah Dawn to come we worked on our song for the Channukah production.  It was so exciting to practice with the piano accompaniment.  We are starting to get very excited about performing!!  We can’t wait for the production.

Friday we were joined by Liora’s parents for Shabbat in the chapel.  We enjoyed a lovely walk down to the chapel with all of the other Montessori classes.  This week Morah Lana continued on with the story of Jacob and Esau.  We learned that after Jacob tricked Isaac, Esau was very upset with his brother and they did not see each other or talk to one another for 34 years.  This made them both upset and finally Jacob decided he wanted to see his brother again.  He brought lots of gifts (jewels, jewelry, animals, etc.) and went to see Esau and asked for his forgiveness.  The story of course ended in a cliffhanger and we will continue on next week.  Back in the classroom we welcomed Shabbat in and enjoyed the challah that we baked this week. Next week we will continue talking about Channukah and practicing for the production!

Keshet

We’re getting closer to Channukah and with that it’s the telling of the Channukah historical story, informally relating it to the strength and resilience of the Jewish people today. Ask your child the name of the Syrian king who wanted all the Jewish people to pray to his gods. Ask them what happened when the Jewish people ran into the hills. Ask for the name of the leader of the Jewish people, and what his name meant? Ask about the size of the Syrian army, and their weapons, compared to the much smaller group of Maccabees. Ask what happened when the Syrian army ran away and the Maccabees returned to Jerusalem. Most importantly, ask what the miracles of Channukah are - there are two main ones (hint… the physical strength and mental strength of faith and determination of a small group of people, and the miracle of the little drop of oil lasting for eight days until more oil could be sourced to ensure the eternal light of the menorah shines day and night.)

We are practicing the prayers for lighting the channukiah (the 9 branched menorah, specific to this holiday) and more traditional songs.  We are also practicing for the famous (!) Ezra Channukah production taking place on December 12th. (Directed by none other than our very own Keshet teacher…Verred!)  

In Math we are doing work with teens - in multiple ways, including latke Bingo, and tens-and-units, some cutting and pasting to practice those skills too. 

In English we’re moving along at various levels; word boxes, readers, and the Montessori green series of phonograms, we started this week with ‘ee’  words. 

Shabbat in the Chapel was fun with parents from each class celebrating with us - a full house!  Sophie’s parents were our class guests, and Pearl was the lucky one to take Kof and the Shabbat Box home today.  Shabbat Shalom!

See this week's photos here https://photos.app.goo.gl/AUuWfBUYEKPY6kjA8