Gan Camarillo Preschool

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Math Matters- A numbers filled week!

Sefiras Haomer and Math

Our class is getting very excited as we continue to count the days towards when we received the Torah on the Holiday of Shavous!

We took this opportunity to focus on our math skills!

Concept of a WEEK

We count 7 weeks of the Omer - which is the time between Pesach and the holiday of Shavous.
We took this opportunity to discuss what a week is and how many days are in a week.

Shayna placing a picture of our school by Mon-Fri and a home by Sunday and Shabbos!
We were cognizant during this math week of some of the younger ones who are not yet recognizing numbers but can count dots. Mendel helped us add the correct number of dots by the numbers.

Davening circle and math!

The children were invited to roll a die and figure out what number song they would be singing next!

Math and Fine motor skills

Ari and Motty using a lot of concentration while tracing the number with yarn on top of sticky contact paper.

Saige and Evan had fun using hole punchers to create the correct amount of holes!

Bela Riva working on her number project.

Batya placing the correct amount of beads on the pipe cleaner.

Faiga putting the lego numbers in order.

Mina matches the dots to the corresponding numeral, Faiga presses playdough into the shape of number four

Part of the process

We have started implementing the children being part of the process of their learning activities.

A fun math activity was prepared by the children themselves the day before it was used.

They filled the gloves with sand and assisted with the Velcro. This was a great way for the children to see the process and appreciate the activity placed by center time as well as being organized and thinking ahead.

This activity was a great hands on activity for the children to solve math problems.

Rozie counting the drops of water.

"Painting" with water while practicing our number recognition.

Friday, April 13, 2018

Parshat Shemini: The Right Thing to Do

Welcome back from Pesach vacation!
We are so happy to be back in school and back to learning!
This week we added to our Davening the of counting the Omer.
We count the days between Pesach and Shavuos. We are so excited for Shavuos when we will receive the Torah. We spoke about how a person that is expecting a gift or something very special, would usually count the days in excitement for the gift- so too we count the days until Shavuos.

We also need to make sure that our soul is clean and pure to receive the Torah.
How can we clean our soul?
"The soul is like a little diamond that gets dirty, when you do mitzvos it cleans it"- Max.

During this special time between Pesach and Shavuos we are learning about the different inner qualities of the soul. We started with the first inner quality of our soul; Chesed. Chesed means kindness, love and giving.
What does it truly mean to be kind? In class we play out different scenarios of kindness using poppets. The children got to identify the difference between good kindness and misplaced kindness.

Parsha class with Morah Davina - Parshas Shmini.

In this weeks Parsha the Torah teaches us the signs of Kosher animals, fish and birds.

Animals that "chews its cud" chews its food over and over again and "split feet" hooves that are split in half are a kosher animal.

Fish that have fins, "wings" that it uses to swim with and scales, hard circles over parts of the fish to keep it from getting hurt, are Kosher.

Most birds are kosher. We are not allowed to eat birds that eat other birds. The Torah lists all the non-kosher animals.

The kids were able to look at different toy animals and find the signs of a Kosher animal.

The Next Level!

Now that our Kindergarteners can read, we are fine-tuning our Hebrew writing skills as well. Employing several different methods, such as chalkboards and dry erase markers as well as regular pencil and paper helps to keep our writing practice from getting too monotone!

Morah Avigayil tied different colored strings onto our wrists to help us remember the difference between right and left. When we write Hebrew we start on the right and go towards the left.

Muka works diligently on reading the word and then writing it neatly on her worksheet.

English, Fine Motor and Math, Oh My!

In this teacher-assisted activity, Yisroel is learning how to identify sight words, by reading a simple story and sequencing the events that occur.

You can help! When you are reading a story at home to your child, feel free to stop at any small common word such as; I, that, the, are , of ,is... etc.

Even if we haven't learned it yet it's great practice!

Encourage and assist child- directed reading!

Malka (left) uses water color pastels to create a base for her hand-cut Aleph- Bais letters.

For the past couple weeks the children have been using specially-created pin-pencils to hone their fine-motor skills and cut out the lettersof their name.

Elizabeth (right) putting together her masterpiece.

Menucha creates her own math problems using sensory tiles

and a dry erase board during morning centers.

Max practices separating double digit numbers into ten frames.

10+9= 19

Happy 6th Birthday Devorah Leah!

We are so lucky that you are in our class!

Making your cake was so much fun!

Welcome back, Abacus helps us count the Omer!

It's always a heartwarming sight to watch the children catch up with their friends after a long break! We try our best to channel this excitement into opportunities for further learning.

Art & Articulation

On the first day back the children were invited to draw their favorite part of Pesach. The drawings gave the children a chance to express their experiences, and at the same time articulate it for the Morah's to document it alongside the pictures.

Good listeners & Confidence in Public speaking

Thank you to all the parents who sent photos from your family holiday... During circle time each child was invited to show and tell their friends what was happening in the photo that their parent sent in!

This was a powerful moment for both the listeners and the child sharing. Learning more about their friends as well as building confidence to speak in front of a crowd!

Even our youngest classmates went around showing the photo on Morahs cell phone!

Picking up where we left off...

We reminded the children about where we left off at Pesach-- the miracle of the sea splitting and how the jewish people had just left Egypt!

But now what?

What were the Jewish people doing now in the sandy desert?

Using little lego figures we acted out the Jewish people leaving Egypt and walking through the split sea!

One of the children in our role-playing asked

"Mommy, where are we going? and how long will it take til we get there?"

"Moshe" explained that we will now be counting the days until the 49th day- which will be the special day that we receive a great gift from Hashem- we will get the Torah!

Transportation

We used these questions of "what the Jews are doing now" as a springboard for further learning on transportation! The Jewish people did not ride a train or a plane! They walked on their feet for 49 days until they reached Hat Sinai (Mount Sinai) which was the place that they would receive the Torah from Hashem.

The children enjoyed making footprints with water!

we enjoyed playing with all different types of vehicles that can be used to travel with.

Planes, Trains, Boats and cars!

Using cars on paint to create tracks art!

Sefirat Haomer- Counting of Omer

Abacus on the bulletin and mini mountain ones, helps us count the days!

The children worked hard counting 10 beads to place on each pipe cleaner, and 9 on the 5th one, to add up to 49 in all!

The children will be bringing home their own " Omer Abacus" so they can count at home every day, in excitement for Shavuot- when the Jewish people received the Torah! The is a great tool to help the older preschoolers understand numbers, and counting x 10 to reach higher numbers.