Parshat Vayikra: What We Really Want

Parshas Vayikra - What We Really Want

In this weeks Parsha we learn that when a person makes a mistake he needs to give a gift to Hashem and he needs to want to give it. The Torah teaches that if that person doesn't want to give the gift, we need to force him until he says that he wants to give the gift.
But that seems silly if we force the person, ts not what he wants.
The Torah teaches us that everyJew wants to do Hashems Mitzvos, just some times the Yetzer Hara tries to stop us from doing the right thing.When the Yetzer Hara tries to stop us we need to force the Yetzer Hara to get out of our way and remember what we really want.

In class we practice this every day before Davening. We remind the Yetzer Hara to get out of our way.   Punch, Punch, Punch, Punch the Yetzer Hara!!

Pesach Unit

We are so excited to be starting our Pesach unit. This week we focused on the idea of leaving Mitzrayim and what that means to us. 

How can I leave Mitzrayim?
Kindergarten Knows!
"The Yetzer Hara is Pharoah and we need to go out!"
"Need to go do Mitzvos to get to Yetzer Tov"
- Muka
"The Yetzer Tov is Moshe" - Yisroel
"We need to go out of Mitrayim to go to Moshe!" - Menucha


Keeping our Reading and writing skills sharp!
Malka tried to sound out the word and then write it.
Levi Yitzchak and Muka worked together to read their word cards.

New Arrivals

In kindergarten we love making learning fun!

We were so excited to learn with our new Eggspert game!!

Ask your Child how it works!

We also started working with our independent workbooks.

These self motivated workbooks help us learn how to identify 

sight words, beginning and ending sounds in English and much more!

Elizabeth and Morah Avigail show an example to the class

Leaps in Learning

Kindergarten practicing with twistable number

 cubes to add and subtract numbers.

Everyone cracked up when we spotted

 Max's name in the story we were reading!

Outside Play

Soccer is a great way to build sportsmanship!

It is one of Kindergartens favorite games to play, with Tag as a close second!

We can relax and have fun too!!

Check out these Kindergarten Cuties!!

    

"I care"

"Pesach Ba" (Pesach is coming)

To introduce the coming holiday of Pesach ,  we began with a whimsical story /puppet show "Pesach Ba" (Pesach is coming).

The children enjoyed witnessing a Shabbat table transform into a Seder Table as the Challa's danced off the table, and were replaced by 3 crunchy matzah's. The matzah's felt thin and bumpy...compared to the fluffy challa!

An additional bottle of grape juice marched on along with 4 special kiddush cups!

Then a round Seder plate came dancing on!.

Each of them sang the chant "Pesach Ba" (Pesach is coming) reminding the children that another special holiday is on its way.

Connecting the Seder and the Story

Now that the children were introduced to the new holiday that is coming up- it was time to connect "why" the seder plate, matzah, salt water and extra cups of wine!


Our story began in Mitzrayim (Egypt) with a King named pharoah. This king was not the nice type of King that cared for his people. He was mean, and only thought of himself.
In fact he decided one day- that he wanted to build lots and lots of huge buildings to store things in, and he decided that the Jewish people should be the ones to build them.

He didn't even give them a choice. At first the work seemed like fun, but then it got hard because Pharoah didnt let them take breaks for a drink of water, and he didnt let them stop to do anything else they wanted to do.

  

The bricks were so big and so heavy- To help the children understand the intensity of work the Jewish slaves experienced, we had one box that was filled with VERY heavy contents. It was almost impossible for one child to lift it alone, we needed 2 or 3 together to lift it!

To connect the seder plate items and the story- we spoke about the tears that flowed from the Jewish people's eyes, because the work was so hard. We tasted the salt water from the seder table- which reminds us of tears!

"I care" - Learning empathy from the Pesach story.

What would you do if you noticed someone crying??

"I would run and give them a hug" (Hannah said)

"help them" (Faiga)

 "If someone was thirsty , we would get them water."  (Saige)

" I would thelp them" (Dovi)

Moshe was a very Kind Jewish person who noticed how sad the Jewish people were. Hashem sent him to help the Jewish people. 

To help the children develop this important value (like Moshe had)- we created an "I care" jar in our classroom, which we placed beautiful stones inside, every time we notice someone showing how they "care" for other people.

Saige showed how she cared on Monday- when she noticed Bela Riva's water bottle was left behind- she ran to get it for her friend, and carried it all the way outside for her!

Faiga caught on right away- while we were lining up to go outside, one of her friends was swinging her body and taking her space on the line- so faiga decided she would just pick another place to stand.

Throughout the week we spoke about how we can care like Moshe.

Hannah and Bela Riva drawing a picture together of how they care!

Let My People Go! 

Our story continued with Hashem telling Moshe to go and speak to Pharoah- to tell him to "Let my people go." Hashem said to Moshe- "This is not what I created my people to do! They are supposed to be able to choose what they want to do each day, and I want to give them the Torah so they can choose to do Mitzvah's." So Moshe went to speak to Pharoah!

Pharoah was really stubborn, and he said, "No No No, I will not let them go"

So Hashem sent 10 plagues to teach him a lesson!

 First plague of Blood- When Pharo sent his servant to get him a drink, the water turned to blood!

Then there were Frogs , wild animals and other very uncomfortable plagues that Hashem sent on the Mitzriyim (Egyptians).

It took 10 plagues until Pharoah finally agreed to let the Jewish people go! Next week we will continue the story to learn about Matzah and the miracles that took place after the Jewish people left Mitzrayim (Egypt.)

Hagadda's

This is a special book that is used on Pesach, which outlines the 15 steps of the Seder! We began working on different pages to be included in this special book that we will send home before Pesach!

Pyramids- Math, spacial and sensory opportunties

Counting bricks and visualizing the shape of a pyramid. Ensuring the base is bigger than the top.

Digging in the sand...creating bricks

 We are lucky to have tractors and machinery now to help build things, back in Egypt, they only had their hands and feet to move very heavy things!

Salt in a tray, to create pyramid shapes.

Making life size pyramids in our Egypt center

 Using clay to build pyramid shaped fixtures.

Sensory Fun- making footprints for our bulletin board... of the Jewish people "walking" out of Mitzrayim!

 Happy 5th Birthday Bela Riva!

Parshat Vayakhel - Pekudei: The Importance of Shabbat

Parshas Vayakhel Pekudei

 In this weeks parsha Moshe gathered Bnei Yisroel to teach them how to build the Mishkan. The building of the Mishkan was one of the ways Bnei Yisroel did Teshuva (after they made the mistake of doing Avoda Zara). Bnei Yisroel were excited to do Teshuva, because they wanted to be close to Hashem.
 Right before Moshe spoke with Bnei Yisroel about the building of the Mishkan he taught them about Shabbat.  Building the Mishkan involved a lot of different kinds of work. Moshe knew that Bnei Yisroeil would be so happy and excited about the mitzvah of building the Mishkan that they might forget to stop working when Shabbat comes in. Moshe Rabeinu was reminding Bnei Yisroel that Shabbat comes before the building of the Mishkan. Shabbat is more important! 

We made a map of the Mishkan! 

Reading in Hebrew is so much fun!

We finished all the sounds and now we are having a lot of fun practicing reading and fluency with games and learning exercises. Reading words to eachother instead of Morah makes for a fun change, and fosters an independent interest in literacy.

Devorah Leah and Max decided to read under the table. 

Measurements

This week we began our unit on measurement. There are many different ways to measure. 

Yisroel enlists Morah Avigayil to measure his height

Some kindergarteners even decided to write tally marks of their height in inches.

Measuring by Weight: Which one is heavier?

Menucha and Elizabeth take turns measuring sand.

How many cups of sand were there?

100 School day party!!!

We had waited so long for the 100th day of school and it didn't disappoint!

We have come so far in math, since the beginning of the year.

Devorah Leah brought in 100 pieces of popcorn to share! 

                            We counted to 100 and then used 100 cheerios to make a necklace                                

Purim in Gan Camarillo 

Purim was such a fun time for us!

We learned so many details about the story and mitzvos

and had fun making graggers, masks and hamantashen.

Muka leads a Posuk of Torah after davening.
Great Job Muka!

     

Parshat Tetzaveh: To Rise Above

Parshat Tetzaveh: To Rise Above

In this weeks Parsha, Hashem tells Moshe how to make olive oil for the Menorah in the Mishkan (Hashem's house in the desert). The olive oil was made from the best olives and from the first drops of oil.

*Ask your child if they remember how the Menorah was made* 

Oil goes into the Menorah to light up the Mishkan and the whole world.
We learned that oil is special because when you put it in with different liquids it always rises to the top.

Menucha takes a closer look at a bag filled with oil and water.

We can also be like oil! If our friends are doing something not right, we can rise above and decide not to follow.

We learned abut the different clothing that the Kohanim (priests) wore. The Kohanim wore 4 special pieces of clothing and the Kohen Gadol wore 8.

Their special clothing reminded them about how they needed to act.

On Shabbos and Yom Tov we wear special clothing to remind us about Shabbos. 

We also wear special clothing during the week. When a we wear a Kippah, or dress, or Tzitzis it reminds us to listen to Hashem and do Mitzvos.

Landforms

We had so much fun this week finishing up our landform unit!

We proudly displayed all of our beautiful land-form models in the classroom for everyone to see. We had a blast creating each one.

We wanted to make this project last forever so we made a land-form book!!
Thank you Morah Davina for putting the land-form book together!!!

Levi Yitzchak is painting his desert model.

Yisroel decided his volcano would be surrounded by water.

Welcome

Gan Camarillo is so excited to welcome a new student! Devorah Leah Muchnik has come to join our class!

Everyone was so excited to see her!!

Girl Bonding Time

Capit

We are still finding innovative ways to practice our Hebrew writing and spelling.

Devorah Leah uses chalk to write down the sound.

We used Purim words and took dance breaks. It sure made reading fun!

Muka and Max proudly display the word Haman!! BOOO

We will be celebrating 100 days in school with a party!

This coming Wednesday will be the 100th school day. You are welcome to bring 100 TINY objects to school!