Do you know why the leaves change colors?

Discovery fall center

The children were invited to take a closer look at different fall items.

Ari and Shayna enjoyed playing with acorns and finding the right size 'hat'.

 Science experiment 

Why do leaves change colors?

We asked the children why THEY think the leaves change colors.

Menachem: "The wind makes the leaves change colors."
Evan: "When the leaves touch the floor it makes it turn different colors."
Moshe: "Because they fall off."

Moshe showing his friends a leaf that had beautiful fall colors.

A science experiment helped us understand why the leaves change colors. 

Chlorophyll which causes the leaf to be green is so dominant it covers up the other colors in the leaf. During the fall this chlorophyll breaks down and now the other colors are visible!

Rubbing alcohol helped separate the colors inside the leaf.

After placing the glass jar in hot water (energy)  we placed a strip of a coffee filter and saw different colors that had evaporated on it!

Art- Bringing fall inside

The children were invited to gather leaves from their own backyards! We used them to create artistic leaf prints.

Beading branches!

Ari helping us make fall scented play dough! We added some cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice to intrigue their senses.

 Shayna proudly showing her friends the sticks she found outside her house. 

Morah Malka teaching us fall songs!

Enjoying 'painting' with water on the hot days!

Spending time with our bearded dragons.

Lech Lecha: I Can Light Up the Dark

Lech Lecha: I Can Light Up the Dark

In this weeks Torah portion we learned about Avram the first Jewish person. Hashem told Avram to leave his home and travel to the land that Hashem would show him. 

Levi Yitzchak adds sand to artwork depicting Avram's journey.

we experienced this feeling during snack, when Morah Avigayil asked us suddenly to get up and leave the classroom. It was very confusing!
Max commented, "Everywhere Avram went, there were 3 people because Hashem went with him and Sara"

      

Shining like Stars

                                 Hashem promised Avraham that his descendants would be as many as the                                   stars in the sky! We spoke about ways that we can shine just as brightly as Avraham!

Art

 Yisroel and Menucha  paint the sky with glitter paint.

*ask your child if they can count the stars in their painting*

What Happens in Fall?

Using real leaves as inspiration for our Fall bulletin board

Did you know that there are two types of trees?

Kindergarten does!

Evergreen & Deciduous Trees

Menucha proudly displays her chart sorting the trees into two categories

In Fall the deciduous trees take all their energy and bring it into the trunk and branches to keep it alive during the winter. That's why the leaves fall off. 

We used those leaves to make our own trees!

Big Steps in Reading and Writing! 

                   Working very hard on letter recognition and writing. 

 Max and Muka practice their handwriting in the picture above.

Learning Using our Whole Body!

Playing a letter game that gets the heart pumping and head working.

The Highlight of the Week: Shabbat Party

Inviting guests is a very important part of Shabbat. 

Kindergarten invited the Gan class to our Shabbat party.

 Elizabeth shared the responsibilities of Shabbos Ima with Hannah

Special Mention

This week we celebrated Levi Yitzchaks 5th birthday! 

Levi Yitzchak celebrated with all of his friends in the class.

Parshat Noach: Sink and Float

Parshat Noach: Sink and Float

                                                  This was the first week of our "Pasrsha" (weekly Torah Portion) curriculum. We established that there are 5 books of the Torah- which make up all of the "Parshiyot" (Torah portions) that are read each week in the Synagogue on Shabbat.

Noach 

All the people in his generation were very wicked. They made not good choices, all the time, which made Hashem very upset.

Hashem instructed Noach to build a " Teivah" (Very large boat)  and bring his family into it. 

Noach was also instructed to bring seven pairs of each kosher animal and one pair of each non-kosher animal.
When people asked Noach why he was building the Teiva, he told them that Hashem was going to send a big flood to clean away all the bad things in the world. If they want to be saved, they need to start being kind, and doing the right thing. Noone listened to Noach, and once he was finished building the Teiva , it began to rain. The rain turned into a "Mabul" (flood).

Water came pouring down from the heavens and shooting up from the ground. Nobody was able to escape. Only Noach and his teivah were safe and  they floated above the Mabul.

The Rainbow- a promise from Hashem  

After the flood, Noach was afraid to have any more kids, because he didn't want Hashem to destroy them if they did bad things. So Hashem made a promise to Noach that he would never send a flood to destroy the world again. As a symbol of this promise Hashem made the rainbow. Every time we see a rainbow, Hashem is reminding us that even though he may be upset, he will never destroy the world again.

Rainbow Art

Working hard on crafting rainbows. Using small beads and scraps of paper strengthens their fine-motor skills.

Elizabeth proudly displays her hard work

                

    

Levi Yitzchak and Muka use water colors to portray what they thought the flood looked like.

Science: Sink or Float

Each child got a chance to hypothesize whether each item would sink or float. Then we added up the tally marks and got to work.

       The magnatile floated at first, 

but then sank to the bottom  when it was filled with water. 

Menucha explained that it got heavier when water got inside, that's why it sank.

                                                  Max predicted that foil would sink and float. He was right! First it floated on top, but when we pushed it to the bottom of the container it stayed there, none of our other                                                                                objects did that.

Learning with our Bodies

We talked about Rainbows and then practiced making the Yoga pose of  a rainbow with our bodies. It was a little hard, but we were able to do it!

At the end of the day, we shook out our arms and legs by counting to 100.

We also used our imagination and went on a bear hunt. Thank G-d we got home safe! :)

Math: The Buddy System

Did you know that some numbers have buddies? We are starting to learn how to count by twos. And about evens and odds.

* ask your child to show you which numbers are buddies, ask him if __ (insert number 1-10) has a buddy*

Alef Beis

 Yisroel working hard on his aleph bais cards. The children used a pencil to poke holes in the cardboard letters and improve their grip. We also employed this method for the alphabet.

A very wet week!

This week we learned the story of Noach and the flood. 

The people of the world were all being not nice.

Evan "But can't they just say 'I'm sorry'?"

This was a very important observation and question that we needed to address while learning this Torah portion.

We just recently learned about Yom Kippur and how we sometimes make a mistake and we can fix it so what is going on here?!

Through puppet shows and visuals we tried to give over to the children how this was an entire world making wrong choices without feeling bad or saying I'm sorry. It was time for Hashem to wash the world clean.

Discussing circle time by our Noach's Teiva

bulletin board and props to go with it.

What is a flood?

We covered a spray bottle with white cotton to create a cloud filled with rain. As we sprayed the children we talked about the difference between rain falling and a flood.
Menachem " I have boots that help me in the rain". 

Creating their own rain using cups that had holes on the bottom. 

For a fun sensory experience, we also placed rainbow colored water beads!

Rain inspired art

Creating their own 'Teivas' (ark)

Animal art

We talked a lot about animals this week since all the animals (2 of a kind for non-kosher animals, 7 of a kind for kosher animals) Noach brought into the Teiva and took care of them during the flood.

Different kinds of animal were on display along side many choices of materials for the children to create their own.

Motty learned about patterning while creating his zebra.
Hannah learned about negative space while creating the black lines for the zebra she didn't need to draw any white lines!

Dovi counting the horse's legs and creating it on his own picture.

It's amazing to watch the children begin to want to write their own names on their projects.

After the flood, Hashem showed Noach a beautiful rainbow in the sky to reassure him that He will never again send a flood. This was a great opportunity to talk about what we should be doing and all the sweet mitzvahs that make the world a beautiful place.

Great fine motor and color recognition activity while placing the correct color bead and pipe cleaner.

 Faiga working hard on her Noach's Teiva project.

We would like to wish a big Mazel Tov to Motty Bryski and his family on  the birth of a new baby boy!