Garinim
We had such a wonderful whole week together. On Monday we celebrated Bear's 3rd birthday with a special cookie treat and singing happy birthday to him! We had a lot of fun talking about how old we all are and the children loved trying to guess how old their teachers are. They thought we were all much younger than we are!
This week we talked about fire safety and enjoyed some themed activities in the classroom. We painted with red and yellow paint at the easel, glued tissue paper onto a flame cutout, finger painted to create our own fire truck picture, and used scissors to cut out pictures of real fire fighters. As a group we also talked about how to be safe if there ever is a fire. We learned that fire is very hot and we should stay away from it. We talked about if our house or school has a fire that we should quickly go outside to somewhere safe and stay with an adult. We learned that if there is smoke in the air we should stay low down to the ground and crawl; we set up a blanket on chairs and practiced crawling our way out. On another day we discussed what to do if our clothes ever caught fire and that we should stop, drop and roll. We all enjoyed rolling around on the rug as we tried this out. We also learned that firefighters are helpers and we should always listen to what they say to do.
Towards the end of the week we also introduced the story of Noah's Ark since this is the parsha (section of the bible) that we are reading this weekend. The children loved looking through the different versions of the story and happily pointed out the many animals they saw boarding the ark (or big boat). We enjoyed matching animals together so they could go on board 2 by 2. We finished off the week with Shabbat and were so excited to sing and eat challah together.
We had a great week at school. We discussed the Secondary Color Orange. There were new activities in Practical Life and Art involving the color Orange. We did an experiment with play dough as a group. We mixed red and yellow play dough together and it turned into Orange. The kids loved this. We discussed Fire safety and did a practice Fire drill. The kids did a wonderful job walking in a line to our safety spot outside. The children have been very busy working in the classroom. It’s been fun to see them learning and enjoying the activities.
This week in Alim class, we learned about the Noah's Ark parasha for Shabbat. We created our own Ark on an ocean of waves with popsicle sticks as our Judaica craft and then enjoyed a short story about the story of Noah's ark through Yoga and movement. We practiced our Boat Pose, rowing the boat and imagining that if we were really in a storm on the ocean, we'd have to throw down an Anchor to stabilize our boat. I suggested that sometimes we may have our own 'internal Storm' within our bodies and our minds, from a 'bad' day or being upset about something where we can use an 'Anchor' Breath exercise to help control our emotions and calm us down. We practiced 'Oceanic' breath feeling the waves crashing up against the back of our throat and then had too much fun posing like Bunnies on the Ark 2 by 2 - and learned how to breathe like a Bunny - inhaling and sniffing in through our nose 3 times, and then letting out a long, slow exhale through our mouths to relax. Finding a 'Rainbow' at the end of the storm was comforting and we loved stretching into our Rainbows.
On Friday - we celebrated Kabbalat Shabbat with singing and dancing to the Maccabeats 'It's Shabbat'. ( check this out on Youtube !! :)) and enjoyed taking turns stirring the soup pot, while singing 'Put a Chicken in the Pot, Stir it up for Shabbat, Getting ready for Shabbat, for Shabbat....'
Keshet
On Monday we celebrated Rafi's 5th birthday and now, as accurately noted by the Keshet students, everyone in the class is five years old! It was fun to have Rafi's parents join us on Zoom and the cupcakes were delicious. Fire Safety week included discussion about all sorts of scenarios and what if's, and I did my best to answer as carefully and honestly as possibly while minimizing fear as in...' there will probably never ever be a fire situation at school, but we ALWAYS want to be prepared and know exactly what to do so we are all safe.' We are hoping to have a visit from the Woodbridge fire department, perhaps a fire truck may be included, but it has not been confirmed. (Will keep you posted.) Discussion also included stop, drop and roll; that fires require oxygen and how rolling helps to put the fire out. If anyone was walking by the classroom at that point, they may have seriously wondered why the teacher and students were all on the floor rolling toward the exit door.
We are learning about the geography of the world, the continents, the equator and more specifically this week, North America. Starting with Canada, we'll move on to Mexico and then spend some time in the USA, focusing on a number of states.
Figuring out Tangrams (typically 7 shapes moved around to fit within an outline) has been well received and keeps some Keshet students engaged for quite some time. It's a pleasure to see the students working together, helping one another and figuring things out. We have noticed how the Autumn leaves are more prevalent now, and with oil pastels and blending, the students are exploring maple and oak leaves of the season.
Noah's Ark is the parsha this week, and as the rainbow closes out the story, we decided to paint one of our own to decorate our classroom wall - Keshet is the Hebrew word for rainbow.
See this week's photo's here https://photos.app.goo.gl/TTfnz4H8EnoTeB1X9
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