Parshat Beshalach: A Journey of Growth

Parshat Beshalach - Shabbos Shirah

In Parshat Beshalach, we learned about the journey the Jews took when they left Mitzrayim. Hashem protected them and put a special cloud around the entire camp. The cloud  protected them during the day from anything that would harm them, even snakes and scorpions! At night a pillar of fire lit up the way for them.

After the Jewish people left Mitzrayim, Paroh became stubborn again and decided to chase the Jewish people and bring them back to Egypt. He caught up with the Yidden at the Yam Suf (Red Sea).

A Miracle in 3D

The Jewish people were very scared. Moshe Rabeinu cried out to Hashem to help the Yidden. But Hashem said to Moshe "stop Davening, now isn't the time to Daven" We learn from here that when a Yid needs help we must stop even if we are Davening and give ourselves completely to help a Yid. A big miracle happened; Moshe put his staff in the sea and it split, letting the Jews go through. When the Egyptians tried to follow them, the waters closed and they didn't make it.

Max celebrates with his cymbals, just like the Jewish nation!

The Jews had a big celebration afterwards, and sang the song called Az Yashir. This song thanks Hashem for the miracle of Kriyas Yam Suf. This is the reason why this Shabbos is called Shabbos Shira.

Miriam took her tambourine and all of the women danced with their tambourines, singing to Hashem.

Planting and Growing

This week we started to learn about the different parts of a plant. A plant has 6 parts and every part has a responsibility. The 6 parts are:

1. Roots - roots hold the plant in the soil and bring water and nutrients from the soil to the plant. 
2. Stems - stems hold the plant up above ground and carry water and food through the plant. 
3. Leaves - leaves are where plants make most of their food by using air, water and sunlight . 
4. Flowers - flowers can make seeds and fruit. 
5. Fruits - fruits holds the seeds.
6. Seeds - seeds hide inside of the fruit and grow into new plants. 

We made a salad from the 6 different parts of the plants.
Everyone had fun picking their favorite veggies!

The purple carrots were a big hit!
"They are the sweetest carrots ever!"- Levi Yitzchak

Lightening up our community

Last week Menucha and Max visited Inga Malenbaum and gave her shabbat candles which made her very happy :)

Watch Us Grow in Learning!

Menucha demonstrates how to use our adding machine

Now that the kindergartners are getting more comfortable with addition, 

Morah Avigail is challenging them with subtraction.

All of our mathematicians were excited to 

show their mommies their practice papers!

Elizabeth is getting the hang of it!

Practicing our sound recognition is even more fun with chalk!

Yisroel was determined to make the 

Uppercase and Lowercase letters

Muka stayed cool in the shade, while making her "Ss"

Every friday we look forward for Uncle Baruch.

Thank you! 

Torah Tots and Trees!

Tu B'shvat unit- the Birthday for the trees

This week we learned a lot about Hashem's trees. We started from the roots hidden under the ground, all the way up to the leaves on the branches!

Roots

We learned how the roots help trees 'drink up the water' and how water travels through the branches all way till the leaves. 

Menachem drinking from a straw, leaves are just like straws!

We did a science experiment with celery to show case this concept.

We placed celery in colored water and watched what happened as the celery started changing colors. Faiga noticing the blue on the top of the celery stick!

Inspired by a picture of roots, Dovi simulating what he saw with his glue.

Trunk

What better way to learn about the trunk of a tree than heading outdoors. 

Each child was invited to describe a word that comes to mind when touching the trunk.

(Saige "Poky", Motty "Scratchy", Dovi "bumpy"..)

Our classroom tree trunk with nails and yarn was a fun way to create art on the trunk itself!

Branches

Branches and play dough was a great sensory experience.

Shayna describing her branches as she was painting.

Bela Riva concentrating on painting the different parts of the branches.

 Fine motor skills at work as Moshe beads different size branches. It was quite a skill to match the right size bead to the width of the branch.

 Mendel practicing his writing skills using a branch and salt!

Leaves

Leaves and different shape cut outs was a fun way to utilize leaves and create their own art. It was interesting to watch the children figure out what types of leaves were easier than others to create cut out shapes.

Batya looking at the leaf documentation on our window!

The whole Tree!

Placing an easel and paint outdoors invited the children to look at the beautiful trees around us and create their own masterpiece.

Having our bodies traced and painted to create trees for a beautiful Tu B'shvat bulletin board!

Getting our garden ready for next week! - stay tuned to watch our garden blossom!

Parshat Bo: In the Right Direction

Parshat Bo

This week's parsha continued the story of how the Jewish people left Egypt. We learned about the last three plagues. We all had a good laugh when Morah Avigayil described how Pharaoh ran to find Moshe in the middle of the night to beg him to take the Jews out of Mitzrayim. He didn't even take the time to change, and just went in his Pajama's!

In The Right Direction 

This week we leaned all about compasses. A compass helps us know the directions North, South, East and West.   

Levi Yitzchak shows the compass he made. 

All compasses point North.

We worked together on a cool experiment

By rubbing our "needle" (paperclip) on a magnet,

(Elizabeth practices her needle rubbing technique)

it became magnetized for a few minutes and began to point north.

Both needles are pointed in the same direction!

We made a water compass!

While playing with some Lego's, Muka found a piece with a compass on it! she was excited :)

Magnets and More

Using magnets to make a compass was so exciting! We got another chance to explore with magnets in morning centers! 

Yisroel tests the strength of the magnet in water,

using magnetic dust, paperclips and binder rings.

Menucha leads the game of

math Bingo for her friends

The sound we focused on this week was the letter "I"

Kindergarten tried to sound out each word, then drew a picture.

We used our word cards for a silly story game!

Community Outreach!

Preparing bags with Challah and candles. 

We are taking turns visiting home bound seniors and sharing warmth and smiles!

We learned another way of contributing. Giving charity to organizations in our community. We took our Tzdaka box and we counted all the coins. Now we are going to give that money to an organization in the community.

While counting the coins, the children got to learned about the different kinds of coins and how much they are worth. (penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar, silver dollar, golden dollar)

Doctor's Visit

We had the privilege of joining the Gan class for Dr. Kryger's presentation. He discussed healthy habits and other interesting information.

The children were thrilled to watching him put a cast on Elizabeth!

The best lesson's are hands on!

A Surgeon comes to visit!

Doctor Unit

A Doctor's office in our classroom invited the children to role play their past experiences as well as new information we learned this week.  This was also a great way to discuss some of the fears and concerns the children have when visiting the Doctor.

Evan the receptionist, helped Saige sign in for her appointment.

We learned about our bones and how to keep them strong and healthy.

The children first felt a glove filled with water and then we added straws in each of the fingers and felt the difference.

X-ray Art

Pictures of real x-rays inspired the children to create their own x-ray art by adding q-tips as the bones on a black paper.

Shayna feeling her bones in her fingers and counting how many she saw on the photo.

She used white chalk to create "Mommy's hands".

Using a real stethoscope to listen to our friend's heart as well as learning what a blood pressure cuff is. 

Menachem told us how a doctor also listens to your back.
What a great observation and it helped us understand how our heartbeat can be heard from our back as well! 

We learned that at the Doctor's office we find out how much we weigh and how tall we are!

Motty using the tape measure to see how tall his lego tower is.

A dad, a surgeon!

It was such a treat to have Hannah's dad, Dr Kryger come to visit us! Dr Kryger is a plastic surgeon.

He showed us how he helps people who have broken bones.

Hannah got a fiber glass cast and Elizabeth got a plaster cast on her leg. It was interesting to feel the difference.

Teeth care

This week we also talked about 'Healthy habits' when it comes to our teeth!

The children were invited to cut out different picture of food items and place it on the correct tooth.

Dovi painting the sad tooth black.

Math skills being practiced by using black gems and numbers.

Alef Beis Bingo fun!

Happy 5th Birthday Saige!