Reflecting on a whole year in one week!

As the year is coming to an end, we wanted to reflect and review some of the 'big ideas' we learned throughout the year. 

Rosh Hashanah

"Have a SWEET new year" What does that mean? How can you be sweet? 

To help the children learn this concept while learning about Rosh Hashanah, we let the children taste a bit of honey after doing something sweet to a friend.

This help them learn the concept of why we eat honey on Rosh Hashanah.

They remembered this concept right away, as soon as they saw the honey by circle time. 

We have been using the words "Be sweet" all year.

Dovi helped his friends by the sink and got to taste some honey!

It has been a very sweet year!

 Faiga told us how she can be sweet to her friends at school.

Batya helped her friend by putting back her Torah.

Yom Kippur

What happens when we make a mistake? How can we fix it? Hannah, Rozie and Saige making each other feel better when  feelings were getting hurt.

They started to sing one of our Yom Kippur songs they remembered :
🎵"Oops I'm sorry, oops I'm sorry, what did I do? I didn't mean to hurt you, I want to make it better. I made a mistake I'll fix my mistake!"🎵

 Twins Yakov and Esav

 It is fascinating to see how well their visual memory is.

During circle time we took out the Esav puppet and immediately they remembered when we learned about the twins in the Torah. Yakov made good choices and loved Hashem and the Torah. His twin Esav we learn what not to do from his not good choices.

 Tu B'shvat

Our Mitzvahs are like fruits from a tree, so sweet for Hashem.

Moshe placing his mitzvah note on our tree that we brought to circle time.

 Chanuka

"What is a Menorah doing out?" "Is it Chanukah?" 

We placed different chanuka centers one morning to remind us what we learned during Chanuka.

Our main big idea was how to be a 'Macabee'. How we can be brave by standing up for what's right.

We also overheard conversations about Hashem's home, the Beis Hamikdash. 

Mina and Evan playing with the felt Chanuka story.

 Pesach

One of the big ideas from Pesach we learned from the Jewish people's leader, Moshe. He cared so much about the Jewish people and we role modeled this in our classroom as well. 

Rozie cared so much about her friend when she gave up her seat she really wanted!

Art and science

We placed tin foil on our table and invited the children to paint. After having some fun we let the children try to mix different things inside the paint to see what would happen.

Dovi mixing shaving cream in his paint. "The red paint is becoming pink!"

Batya mixing the different colors together with the shaving cream.

 Motty tried the baby oil.  "This smells like my baby and wipes!"

Bela Riva experimenting mixing shampoo in her paint. It was very watery, and she figured out by adding shaving cream it would thicken.

 Using creativity 

It is so much fun watching the children discover their own creative ideas.

Shayna could not find a cup to mix her paint, so she used the shaving cream cover to improvise.

Mendel was quite excited to discover he can draw a picture in his paint.

 

Elizabeth from Kindergarten making a show for our friends with pot drums.

Magnet fun with a magnet wand, paper clips and pipe cleaners.

Motty creatively figured out how to easily clean up the mess!

Mazel Tov Mendel Paller on his Arienfernisht!

(Formal introduction to Jewish education marking Torah and the Alef Beis sweet)

We are getting really excited for next weeks end of year celebration! 

Practicing our songs three children at a time was a great way to make sure they all felt heard and knew the songs!

Working hard on their mini memory books.