Garinim:

We added a few new Practical Life works such as water and sequin pouring. We added the water pouring to celebrate the abundance of blessings and give thanks for plentiful crops we have received with the help of mayim/water providing life/chaim to all.  In addition, new to our shelves is sequin spoon transfer and soaking up a sponge with water transfer. On our Math shelves, we added an acorn counting activity.

This week was all about decorating our Sukkah in our classroom and our playground Sukkah. We glued tissue paper to our Kiddush cups, dot painted gourds, crinkled paper to make a stained glass pomegranate and painted s'chach to cover our outdoor Sukkah!

We read One, Two, Three Sukkot by Naomi Schulman, The Vanishing Gourds by Susan Axe-Bronk, Simchat Torah is Coming by Tracey Newman and Braid the Challah by Belly Paluch.

On Friday, the children enjoyed welcoming in Shabbat in the B'nai Jacob library. We sang Sukkot and Shabbat songs and we danced around the library with the  Torah's. Morah Lana opened a play Torah, so the children could look at the writing in the Torah. Then we marched back to our classrooms carrying the Torah's and yes enjoyed lightning the candles, drinking grape juice and eating yummy challah.

 

Alim:

This week our classroom was filled with the secondary color orange throughout the classroom.  We did a lot of color mixing activities to make the secondary color, orange.  

On Monday, we reviewed all the new activities on the shelf.  We discussed how we make the secondary color, orange.  We did an experiment with playdough mixing yellow and red pieces which turned orange right in front of the children's eyes.  The kids were excited about this and brought it home. We did coloring mixing with paint and chalk as well.  Also,  this was our first day of Gym.  The kids enjoyed it. We decorated the Sakkah with Anafim and placed the beautiful Sukkah projects inside of it.

On Tuesday,  the Sound of the week "Mm" was introduced.  We read an Alphatale book called Monkey's Monday.    There were letter formation sheets and sound sheets available.  Also,  there were small books available for them.

On Wednesday, we walked down to the courtyard and had a big breakfast in the school’s sukkah with our parents.  We sang Sukkot songs which we rehearsed iall week.  We made challah with the children.

On Thursday,  we had a group lesson with geography.  We talked about how the world is round and when you look at a book it turns into a map.  I used a ball of clay and demonstrated the world split into two hemispheres.  Then we practiced our continent songs.  Many of our friends from last year did solos of the Continent song. The children were shown how to do the Continent matching work.  We will practice this song a lot throughout the year.  Morah Dawn had music with our class, we  braided the challah for Shabbat and talked about Simchat Torah and learned Hebrew songs about the holiday.

On Friday, we had Shabbat in the library with all of the Montessori classes (the chapel was occupied with congregants celebrating Sukkot).  We sang songs with Morah Lana and talked about Simchat Torah and then headed back to the classroom and blessed the challah and had grape juice too.

Anafim:

It was so wonderful having a full week together.  We kept quite busy.  The beginning of the week we spent learning a bit more about the holiday of sukkot and then we moved our focus on to the last fall Jewish holiday, Simchat Torah. 

On Monday we looked at the lulav and etrog.  We talked about what the lulav is made up of; palm, willow and myrtle branches.  We also enjoyed learning about the etrog which is a citrus fruit.  We all had a chance to smell its wonderful fragrance and learn about the special “pitom”.  The children also had the opportunity to shake the lulav and etrog together.   Monday we also enjoyed our first official gym class of the year with Coach Oren.  The children enjoyed having the chance to scoot around the gym on little scooters. 

Tuesday we talked about Simchat Torah.  We discussed that this holiday celebrates the end reading the Torah.  We discussed how we finish reading all the stories and then immediately start it all over again.  This “book” takes us all year to read and then as soon as we finish we immediately begin again.  The children were quite intrigued by this.  We also introduced the children to the Shema.  This prayer is from the Torah and is central to Judaism.  It says that there is only one G-d.  Next we introduced the project to children of making our own little mini Torah.  We used water color to paint our paper that had the Shema printed on it and then added two popsicle sticks to each side.  As the week progressed we used felt, glue and sequins to make a torah cover for our mini torah.

Wednesday was so exciting!  We loved welcoming so many of you to the sukkah with us.  We enjoyed starting our day with breakfast in the sukkah with our families.  Thank you to all of you for joining us.  We spent time working on classroom work, especially some language activities.  We also were so excited to make challah again this week.

Thursday we started our morning off celebrating Theo’s 3rd birthday.  We were joined by his mom and dad and participated in the Montessori birthday celebration.  The children enjoyed seeing the pictures of Theo as he grew up.  We also enjoyed some tasty cupcakes to help celebrate.  Thank you so much!  We finished up braiding our challah, played letter sound bingo and then enjoyed music with Morah Dawn.  This week we learned some dance moves to go along with the different note values.  Ask your children to show you all the movements that go along with the eighth note, quarter note, half note and whole note. 

Whew, we made it to Friday.  We energetically entered the classroom and got ready to head to the chapel with the rest of the Montessori classrooms.  Upon arriving at the chapel we realized that B’nai Jacob’s morning service was going a little long so we detoured and found some space in the library for our gathering.  We made a giant circle and all sat down together.  This week Morah Lana brought a kid’s torah that she unrolled for all of us to look at.  She discussed the upcoming holiday of Simchat Torah and many of the teachers demonstrated how we dance around with the Torahs.  It was so exciting.  Next each class was called up to stand under a large tallis (prayer shawl) and said the blessing that you recite when called to the torah.  We wrapped up our time together by marching, singing and dancing with our stuffed torahs all the way back to the preschool wing.  It was so fun!

We hope everyone has a wonderful, fun, restful weekend and we will see you next week for fire safety week!

 

Keshet:

Beautiful weather with sunshine filled our sukkah on Wednesday morning lighting up ALL the faces of everyone who joined us to celebrate! We sang all the way from the playground, around the building and all the way into the sukkah, and then, upon seeing all the adults, stage fright:) They’ll sing for you at home, maybe! And on to the next holiday, Simchat Torah, when we celebrate the conclusion of reading the Torah from start to end. Keshet kids made their own Torah, decorated with the depiction of the first story of Creation. If you’re going to synagogue on Simchat Torah, remember to take your Torah along with you! 

We’re really working on letter sounds and for some students, an exciting week discovering the ability to put sounds together and make words! Others are writing beautifully and very proud of their penmanship! 

Number practice continues and ‘five minute math’ involves pulling a number card from a bag and asking the friend to your right ‘what number  comes after?’  or ‘what number comes just before?’ This game is also fun in Hebrew, providing practice in Hebrew numbers and the words ‘lifnei’ and ‘acharei’. 

We played number bond math, using etrogim cutouts, and recorded answers on number bond papers. 

Friday we celebrated Shabbat, and later in the day, Elliot’s 6th birthday! What a way to end the week, and start the weekend! Happy Days :)

See this week’s pictures here https://photos.app.goo.gl/5dQsW5C4tH3iuxoM9