Rabbi Akiva comes to visit

Lag Ba'omer is coming up in our Jewish calendar. 

There are multiple reasons why we celebrate but this week, we focused on a famous sage, Rabbi Akiva who passed away on this day.

He is famous for starting from no Jewish knowledge at all to becoming a Rabbi to 24,000 students and his legacy continues till today.

Our friends helping Rabbi Akiva learn his Alef Beis letters. 

Mendy, showed letter mem for his name.

We took this opportunity to focus on our Hebrew letter recognition.

Our friends worked hard on their own 'Alef Beis placemat'.

Each letter we decorated it with a word that starts with that letter.

Axel decorating the first letter of 'Alef'.

Nechama, working on a 'Hey'.

Our beautiful Alef Beis mat!

א- 'Ariyeh'- Lion

ב-'Beit'- House

ג- 'Gelida'- Ice Cream

ד- 'Dug'- Fish

ה- 'Har Sinai'- Mount Sinai

ו- 'Varod'- Pink 

Elijah being the Alef Beis pointer during davening circle.

Our bulletin board being created throughout the week. 

Avraham and Leah very focused on making their flowers for the Har Sinai mountain out of egg cartons.

Our Shavous bulletin board made by our friends.

Another theme for our Lag Baomer unit is friendship.

Rabbi Akiva's students made a mistake they loved each other but wanted their friend to think like them.  We learned about real friendship is respecting a different opinion and their choices. 

We demonstrated this by each  child tracing a friends hand and drawing what THEY like.

Avraham, wanted Mendy to draw legos for him. Leah said she likes to play with dolls.

Sweet friend moments.

 Team work at the play dough table.

Thank you Morah Chana, for bringing in books for us to read during quite time.

Sneak peek of our 'Muffins for Mom' craft.

The Teacher who made everyone a teacher

Our class has been using a big interactive mountain to count the Sefiras Haomer. 

From the second night of Pesach all the way till the next holiday of Shavout we count a number a day till we receive the Torah again. This is a chance to not only get excited but to work on our  character.

Each day a friend got to 'open' that days flower number and see what we can work on!

During the Sefiras Haomer it is also a sad time. We are remembering the students of Rabbi Akiva who were passing away due to their lack of respect of each other.

Mimi, dressed up as a bride to teach us we don't plan weddings during this time.

Yakov, held a musical instrument since we don't listen to music. 

Menachem F and Menachem H were role playing a  hair cut since we wait for that as well. 

Rabbi Akiva was 40 years old when he discovered Torah! We envisioned our Tatty's coming into school not knowing the aleph beis and we were teaching them! We can be teachers even if we are young! We are very grateful to be learning Torah way before 40 ;) 

Rabbi Akiva, was inspired to learn Torah when he discovered a rock with a hole being made by droplets of water consistently falling on it. This gave Rabbi Akiva hope to learn Torah and become a Torah Scholar because he knew nothing, yet just by learning one thing at a time and work hard he knew it would stick to him.

We made a Lego rock to show the pieces slowly coming off as Chana dripped more water on it.

Painting rocks with wooden sticks to show the idea when you add a lot of dots (drops) it fills the whole rock.

A lesson Rabbi Akiva taught was Ahavas Yisroel. To showcase this we each had a twig and when we cracked it, it was quite simple. As we put together the twigs and continue to crack it significantly got harder. This taught us when we work as a team and learn Torah and do Mitzvos TOGETHER we actually become stronger!

Using water color droplets we created negative space art Aleph Beis

Morah Chani came back this week and shared a few photos of her trip with everyone!

Being in Israel brought up lots of discussions of  what life is like there and how the Tzadikim lived there.

Counting and getting excited

We missed all our friends over the Pesach break! It is always so sweeet to watch our friends catch up and look at their pictures from over the break.

Our friends working hard on documenting their favorite experience while at home. we love displaying it by our outside window to encourage our friends to visit and continue to talk and explore with each other. 

Chana using paint as a medium to draw a big pool she went to with her cousins.

Mimi, missed Ariella and wanted to say hi to her the first thing when she walked in the door.

This week we continued where we left off from before Pesach. What happened to the Jewish people after the splitting of the sea? They had no home, now what?

They followed Hashems cloud (by day) and fire (by night) in the desert leading towards receiving the Torah on Har Sinai!

We took this opportunity to learn about transportation!

Our friends graphing different methods of travel from slowest to fastest. 

Having fun with lego boats. Each of these centers was another hands on way to discuss how the Jewish people did not have any of these they just used their feet!

Airplane counting. 

In the desert the Jewish people were so excited to receive the Torah they used this time to prepare themselves ! We have such a special mitzvah now of counting the Omer each day getting towards the holiday of Shavous and to work on ourselves!

Each day of the counting there was a hidden message in our flower cups on something we can work on. 

This week we learned about the attribute of  'gevurah' when sometimes we need to say no or create a healthy boundary. 

We also learned about the 'mann' the special food Hashem gave us in the desert that tasted like anything we wanted. 

Each child got to pick what they wanted the mann to taste like.

Mimi, documenting what they followed during the day and night to know where to go. 

Chaya Leah learnign the Hebrew letters that spell out 'sefiras haomer' (counting of the omer)

Talking about counting, we had fun touching up our math skills. Jack, punching the right about of numbers it said on his flower. 

Yakov using chalk to write numbers.

 

Traveling back in time

What a treat to see all of our friends after a long Pesach break! 

Thank you parents for sending in pictures of your child over the break. It really helps them talk about their experience and some express through their art and bridges that gap of home and school. 

Yossi Freidman panted about his Matzah he ate on Pesach at his Bubby and Zaidy's house. 

We love when our friends are part of the process of getting ready for a new unit. Changing the bulletin board is one of them.

Painting for the next exciting board in our classroom. 

This week we continued where we left off before Pesach. When the Jewish people left Egypt, where did they go? They had no home or place to call theirs.

They walked in the desert following a cloud by day and a fire by night which Hashem sent to guide them to Har Sinai to receive the Torah. 

It was a great sensory experience feeling the sand between our toes. 

.We used this opportunity to talk about transportatio!

Mordy making a train craft. With each method of travel we brought it back to the Jewish people who did not have all these methods but rather they used their feet!

Elijah and Eli, using paint to show his car tracks. 

Nechama, having fun with shaving cream and glue to make the clouds for her airplane project. 

Some of our favorite moments happen outdoors!