The Alim and Anafim children have adapted to wearing masks and are now wearing masks indoors and out, except when eating or sleeping/quiet time and then they are six feet away from one another. We have a few new 'floor tables' (little wooden lap tables) for children to use at meal times, and without a placemat when doing 'work'. These are the most sought after tables in the room at present!
Garinim:
This week our topic was Yom Kippur. We read “Sammy Spider” and also acted out the story of Jonah and the Whale with our popsicle stick puppets. The children were able to take turns being Jonah, the whale, or the ship! We painted large whales at the easel, made egg carton whales (a painted egg carton-the part that holds the egg, fins, tale, googly eyes and a feather for our spout!), Q-tip whale paintings, and a whale ocean collage.
At group time, we played the Balloon Color Game. We have several laminated pictures of balloons, each a different color. We first went over the names of the colors in English and then Hebrew. The children then had to find objects around the classroom that matched the color of the balloon. This was a very enjoyable activity.
As this week marked the official start of the fall season, we learned a new song;
“The leaves are falling down, the leaves are falling down, green, red, yellow and brown, the leaves are falling down”.
Keeping track of our calendar has been a coveted job in class. The children now keep track of the day of the week, the day of the month and what the weather is. We will be focusing more on learning the months of the year these upcoming weeks.
At group time, we played the Balloon Color Game. We have several laminated pictures of balloons, each a different color. We first went over the names of the colors in English and then Hebrew. The children then had to find objects around the classroom that matched the color of the balloon. This was a very enjoyable activity.
As this week marked the official start of the fall season, we learned a new song;
“The leaves are falling down, the leaves are falling down, green, red, yellow and brown, the leaves are falling down”.
Keeping track of our calendar has been a coveted job in class. The children now keep track of the day of the week, the day of the month and what the weather is. We will be focusing more on learning the months of the year these upcoming weeks.
Alim Classroom- The primary color Yellow was placed throughout the classroom. There were different art mediums with yellow in it on the Art shelf and on the practical life shelf as well. The Sound of the Week was the letter S. We read the Alphatale story: Seal's Silly Sandwich. The children enjoyed hearing about this seal's enormous appetite. We have a peace flower now in our classroom. It symbolizes taking turns to speak without interruption. It's a good skill to foster in children. So far, we have used it in our morning gathering earlier in the week to discuss what we did over the weekend. The kids did a great job taking turns and holding the flower at the same time. It was very sweet to see the children sharing the flower and taking turns talking. It can be hard to do but they all did a nice job.
Alim children learned the meaning of Yom Kippur and how it’s important to say you're sorry when you do something wrong. They were especially enthralled with the book The Hardest Word. They realized that sometimes it is hard to say sorry but it’s important.
We also read the story of Jonah and learned about Teshuva and that’s why we read this story for Yom Kippur.
The children created a Jonah and the whale craft which they thoroughly enjoyed.
We ended the week with a new twist to Baby Shark: it’s shabbat dududu, its shabbat dududu, it’s Shabbat.... ask your children to sing it to you.
Anafim:
The theme this week is Yom Kippur with focus on friendship, being kind, and helpful, helping one another, thinking about all the things we do, and how hard it may be to apologise for something that did not go so well. We all aim to be 'the best we can be'! This included the demonstration of the peace rose and how it works in the classroom. Most of the children wanted a turn with the peace rose - demonstrating how it works. They weren't necessarily interested in the situations I pretended they had gotten into - such as... 'Henry was reading a book and Rebecca really wanted to read the book so she grabbed the book.' The response was often...' I don't like that story (scenario)!' We demonstrated various scenarios, and hope to not have to resort to the peace rose on too many occasions. The story The Hardest Word, by Jacqueline Jules caught their attention - ask your child what the hardest word is. We told the story of Jonah and the Whale and played the parts. Ask your child what part they played in the Jonah story - someone was the stormy weather clouds: thunder and lightning and, amongst all the other parts, the seaweed that pulled Jonah down into the deep water. It's always interesting to see what detail of the story grabs their attention.
This week the color mixing activity with the primary colors was out on the shelf, accompanied by the song
(Red, yellow, blue ) x2
These are the primary colors
They make up all of the others
(Red, yellow, blue ) x2
On Thursday we celebrated Jakob's fourth birthday along with his parents, via Zoom. This included all the usual Montessori traditions (if you're not familiar, ask your child) and culminated in the birthday child selecting friends to lead the singing of Happy Birthday in the language of their choice. Today we sang in six languages; next time we'll include more.
Keshet:
Math:
We introduced 'counting on' through games with number boat cut outs. Each child selected a boat and then counted on from that number, and we recorded it on a number line on the dry erase board. With the Fall equinox this Tuesday, we played with various leaves, counting, comparing and placing them on a bar graph. Following the whole group discussion, the children made their own bar graph story by coloring, cutting and pasting little leaf outlines and adding more leaves (ex. 5 leaves and another 3 leaves make 8 leaves altogether).
The children are practicing collaboration as they work in pairs - this week included deciding exactly how they would color their boat outlines so that the two look the same. Number games on a Thursday encourage tolerance, explanation, patience and opportunities to work with different children each time.
Language:
The Book Charlotte's Web is still being read. When reading ..... we go over certain words for vocabulary. The story line is still developing and the friendship between Charlotte (spider) and Wilber (pig) is getting stronger.
We're practicing letter formation, on various formats and understanding the difference between capital letters and lower case. They take turns identifying capital letters, counting the capital letters on a given page, recognising and understanding punctuation.
We're working with the moveable alphabet and the pink, blue and green Montessori series, individually and in groups according to 'where they're at'.
Science- We learned about parts of the leaf and reviewed different leaves that are common in our environment. We made a 'Parts of the leaf' booklet, which the children will be bringing home. We also did a fun leaf rubbing activity that the children really enjoyed.
Reminders:
There is no school on Monday, September 28 - Yom Kippur
See this week's photo's here photos.app.goo.gl/uPz5mLCQZ8pDfapA8
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