Garinim:

This week has been an extremely busy week for us, beginning with picture day and ending with grandparents/special persons day.

The theme for this week centered around trucks and other types of vehicles. The children rolled a large truck tire into brown/chom paint to add to the large truck. We couldn’t forget the wheels so the children glued the wheels on too.Our color of this week we focused on yellow/tzahove. The children used paint brushes to create their masterpieces! We also painted paper plate school buses (with tzahvove/yellow) and of course we sang The Wheels on the Bus!

On Wednesday we didn't bake challah, we made BANANA MUFFINS! All the children helped with measuring, scooping, cracking eggs and stirring.

For snack this week we tried some crunchy raw turnips! Some of the children were fans of the turnips and some were not as adventurous. On Thursday we had a yummy cantaloupe which ripened and the children will finish it on Friday/Yom Shishi. 

In the Practical Life area we added a pompom transfer with tongs and we are still working on our water pouring activity.

The sensory table was filled with cars, trucks, boats and wheels to mimic a tiny race track.

On Friday some of the children participated in flower arranging for our Shabbat celebration. We welcomed in Shabbat with a mini dance party with our special person/grandparents day. The children danced to their favorite Shabbat tunes dancing and wiggling their scarves! Then it was down to the Chapel to sing songs for Shabbat with our special person/grandparents and the entire Montessori Pre K! Morah Lana shared with us the Parsha of the week which is Lech Lecha, which means Go Forth.This is the first time Hashem/G-d speaks to Abraham and tells Abraham that he and his family will be a great nation. We hope that everyone had a terrific time having a quick visit to our classroom, singing in the Chapel, eating challah and having lunch all together/b'yachad. The children had a great time!

Alim:

The classroom transformed into all the colors of the rainbow.  The art easel had primary colors and the children explored, making Secondary colors, which was fun.  The Art and Practical Life shelves were transformed with all new work.

On Monday we discussed the Sound of the Week "Dd" and read an alphatale booklet called The Disappearing Donuts.  There were new worksheets that corresponded with it. Also, small little books that went home. We had gym class with coach Oren as well.

On Tuesday,  we did a Geography lesson and talked about the continents of the World.  There were new Continent booklets that were shown for the children and they practice the names of the continents.

On Wednesday,  we made challah in the classroom and had a nice long work time.  Lessons were being given and the kiddos were very busy doing their Montessori work in the classroom.

On Thursday,  we talked about the concept of Land / Air/ Water briefly.  Next week we will continue the discussion and there will be a paper extension for this work.

On Friday, it was Grandparents Day and the children enjoyed their special time with their loved ones.  It was a fantastic time with Morah Lana in the chapel.  Then we came back to our classroom and  blessed our challah and had grape juice.  After Shabbat snack went down to the social hall for a special luncheon with everyone, creating wonderful memories for everyone.  Have a wonderful weekend.  The Shabbat box went home with Lily and her family.  We are looking forward to all the adventures with Shual and Lily together over the weekend.

Alim Judaics:

We had such a busy week! We brushed up on our Hebrew alphabet, singing new songs and practiced our memory recognizing the letters. The children are taking turns making their own book of numbers - MISPARIM. Soon we all will be able to count until 10 perfectly and move on to higher numbers.

 On Wednesday and Thursday we prepared our Challah dough and braided them. We all have so much fun taking turns baking. 

 We read a book about making Challah and tried to guess what was about to happen after every page.

Today we had our Grandparents come to visit and have Kiddush with us. It is wonderful to be able to share beautiful memories with family and loved ones.

Anafim:

Monday was busy!  We started our morning playing outside before quickly coming in and getting ready to go down to have our pictures taken.  The children waited so patiently for their turn in the spotlight and took their pictures.  Back in the classroom we came together for a quick circle time where we did our date, season and weather.  We had a brief work period before heading out to the gym for class with Coach Oren.   We once again completed a relay race collecting bean bags.  They excitedly raced down to the crate and chose a sand bag before racing back and depositing it in their team’s crate.

Tuesday we made a set of containers with land (potting soil) water (with a drop of food coloring) and air (ask your child to show you how we put air in our container).  The children really enjoyed this presentation.  We then each chose a vehicle from our basket and sorted them out with our three containers.  Everyone did wonderfully with this activity.  We are going to be building more on this in the next couple of weeks- stay tuned. 

What to do with a bunch of apples?  That is the question we asked ourselves on Wednesday.  Thanks to so many of you we ended up with an abundance of apples for snack.  We definitely didn’t want them to go to waste so we decided to cook with them.  We enjoyed a lesson on how to use vegetable peelers and then got to work.  We grabbed some peelers, and worked hard to peel the skin off a dozen apples.  This was very rewarding work and the children really stayed focused on this task.  Once peeled, we used an apple slicer to take the core out and cut the apples down some before using a knife to cut the slices into chunks.  We added cinnamon, a little nutmeg, lemon juice and water into the crockpot with the apple chunks.  This cooked down for the rest of the morning (and boy did our classroom smell delicious!) and then we used a masher to break down the bigger chunks.  Once the applesauce was cooking away we started on our challah dough.  The children were so excited about all the cooking!

Everyone entered joyfully on Thursday excited about eating our homemade applesauce (or as several children pointed out- schoolmade applesauce).  The snack area was quite popular as the children enjoyed trying our creation along with some banana muffins baked and gifted to us from the Garinim class.   We learned a new letter sound “c”.  We looked in our sound pouch and found a slice of cake, a candle, a car, a clown, and a carrot.  We tried to come up with other words that start with ‘c’.  This was a little tricky because it makes the same sound as ‘k’ but we did come up with some like cantaloupe, coconut, cat, and crib.  We then enjoyed a couple of rounds of the what’s missing game.  The weather was absolutely beautiful so we took advantage and got outside a little early. 

There was excitement in the air on Friday.  We entered the room with excitement about who was going to come to school later to visit us.  We enjoyed some quiet work time in the classroom and some outdoor recess before we were joined by grandparents and other special friends.  It was so lovely to have all of them with us!  We enjoyed our walk down to the chapel as a huge group and sang some of our favorite Shabbat songs.  We then enjoyed the retelling of the story of Sara and Abram and how the people around them were not so good and how they had to leave.  We learned that they left on camels and followed a cloud or guiding star to lead their way to a better place.  Once finished in the chapel we came back to our classroom to say the brachot (blessings) over the candles, grape juice and challah, of course sharing with all our special guests.  The children then had the opportunity to have lunch with their special people before returning to the room for nap.  Whew it was busy, but so incredibly wonderful to be surrounded by so much love.  Next week we will be focusing on pumpkins! Shabbat Shalom!

Keshet:

Keshet kids are loving their morning routine of tefillah and starting next week we will begin with Hatikva. Right now we recite Hatikvah, Modeh Ani, the Shema, Ma Tovu, (in rounds, requesting ‘od pa’am’ (again!), Oseh Shalom, and a version of Veahavta Lereacha Kamocha. 

We’re talking about leaves (continuing with parts of the leaf through the next week) and our Montessori Leaf Cabinet, which identifies 18 leaf shapes, has been very popular as the children trace around and pin-prick (perforate) the leaf shapes.  Someone suggested making a leaf booklet and they’re on a roll! 

Leaf math continued with a 10-bar, dice game - throwing the dice and placing the corresponding number of (real) leaves on the 10-bar, then rolling the dice again and adding the two numbers (quantity of leaves) together and recording on a number bingo card. Group Bingo games work wonders and keep everyone excited and engaged. 

Also in math this week, we worked on two’s, with beanbag jumping games, counting in two’s as we waited for friends to join us in line, cutting and pasting in two’s from 2-20. 

Now we have ten in our class, which is wonderful all around! 

Shalev joined us this week and almost seamlessly, it feels to us, fit right in. 

With Grandparents and Special Guests visiting with us today, we thought we’d share some of our current exploration of countries around the world. We are continuing with  countries in Europe and rounded out the week with Italy, including the flag, gondola taxis in Venice, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Colosseum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and, probably most exciting, the building of a Roman Arch. This new activity was introduced at group today and both students and grandparents / special visitors were amazed! We expect it will be as exciting as the Trinomial Cube, another class favorite.  

With the excitement of our guests during Shabbat in the Chapel, lunch in the social hall and running around at recess, everyone is ready for a restful Shabbat and a lovely family weekend! 

See this week’s pictures here https://photos.app.goo.gl/uRsfLgFtNQKYUoFi7