Parshat Bechukosai: We are Mitzvah Kids

In this week's Parsha we learned that if we follow the Torah and keep the Mitzvos, Hashem will give us a lot of Brachos - blessings.

What are the Mitzvos we know?

Our kindergarteners were invited to act out Mitzvos using Playmobil people. 

Rozie showed us the mitzvah of helping a mommy after birth. 

Saige and Bella Riva are showing us the Mitzvah of Ahavas Yisroel, being kind to our friends. 

 

Faiga and Motty show the  the mitzvah of returning something that they found back to the owner. 

  

Yisroel is showing us the mitzvah of visiting someone that is not feeling well.

Malka is showing us a Mitzvah of giving cookies to the firefighters.

Preparing for Shavuos!!

                              This week we learned the 4 names of the holiday of Shavuos. 

1) Shavuos – Weeks; We count 7 weeks between Pesach and Shavuos. 

2) Matan Torah - Giving of our Torah; on this holiday we were given the Torah.

3) Chag Hakatzir - Festival of Harvest; Shavuos falls at the time of the year when it's Harvest.

4) Chag Habikurim - Day of the First-Fruits; at the time of the Bais Hamikdash all the Jewish farmers would bring the first fruit to the kohanim that were working in the Beis Hamikdash.

 

Happy Birthday Menachem!

We love you,

keep learning and growing!

Small mountain BIG lesson!

Shavous Unit

This week we began preparing for the upcoming holiday of Shavous.

Hashem chose a mountain to present us our gift of the Torah.

Hashem chose a small mountain to teach us we should be proud to be a Jew and at the same time be humble.

We acted out the different mountains boasting and were not chosen to be the mountain for the Torah.

Har Sinai being proud of how Hashem made him.

What a big lesson from a small mountain.

Taking turns wearing Har Sinai and telling our friends what they are proud of while saying it without bragging.

Arik, "My Yarmulka." Batya, "I am proud that I shared my balloon with my friends."

 Hashem made beautiful flowers grow on Har Sinai in preparation for the giving of the Torah.

Adelle and Mendel decorating their play dough mountains.

 Moshe using his own creativity.

Working hard on our Har Sinai projects.

 We are so thankful for our precious Torah.

 Mountain explorations. 

We placed mountain pictures to inspire our friends to learn about  the different kinds of mountains Hashem created. Eli creating a rocky mountain. Esther worked hard on a beautiful flower mountain.

Chana rochel cutting her own grass for her mountain.

Playing house with friends.

Celebrating Shmuel at his Erienfernisht. Yarmulka cookies as treats.

Batya making sure her doll says the Shema too.

Learning how to clean up after ourselves.

Har Sinai in our sandbox!

Lag Ba'Omer: We Carob'out Each Other

This week was Lag BaOmer!!

Two special things happened on Lag BaOmer. 

The first was the decree on the students of Rabbi Akiva stopped. All but 5 of Rabbi Akiva’s students passed away. Rabbi Akiva didn't give up and continued to learn and teach Torah.

The second was that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, one of the five students of Rabbi Akiva, years later passed away. 

Before Rabbi Shimon passed away, he called his students and shared with them all the secrets of the Torah that he learned. He asked his students to be happy and celebrate the light of the Torah on Lag BaOmer. 

This is why we light up big bonfires, sing and dance. 

In our class we made ''blowup'' bonfires. 

This week we learnt how to tell the story of Rabbi Akiva. We made a necklace to help us remember all the details. Each bead on the necklace added another detail to the story of Rabbi Akiva. 

When we were creating our necklaces, some of our friends remembered the lesson of Ahavas Yisroel from the story and even practiced it. 

When Mendel was done making his necklace, he saw that Menachem needed some help with his necklace. Mendel did the Mitzvah of Ahavas Yisroel and helped his friend Menachem.

Another example was with Saige and Yisroel. Saige had a blue heart bead and she really wanted a green heart bead just like the one Yisroel had, this made her sad. When Yisroel saw that Saige was upset, he right away gave her his green heart bead.

Yisroel did a Mitzvah of Ahavas Yisroel he helped his friend feel better.

This week's Parsha is Behar.

We learned that in Eretz Yisroel the farmers don't work the land on the 7th year. The farmers take a break and the land takes a break. The same way we take a break and rest on shabbat the 7th day of the week.

For many years Rabbi Shimon learned Torah in a cave. Next to the cave, there was a carob tree, and that was what Rabbi Shimon and his son ate while he was in the cave. 

We were able to make some yummy carob drinks and shakes in school this week!

Saige loved it! She said it was her favorite.

Miss Alicia brought a fun beanbag game to share with our class!

Reading a story in our library.

Happy Birthday Faiga!

We love you! 

Keep Learning and Growing

Using tweezers and small objects to strengthen the muscles in our hands,

Even if it's hard, we are strengthening our muscles!

Alphabet Bingo exposes us to letter recognition and practice.

On our way to the Lag Ba'omer Concert in LA

Friends sweetly coloring together!

We were sitting so nicely and safely on the bus!! 

The MOST important Mitzvah in the Torah!

Lag B'omer unit continues this week as we talked about the great Rabbi Akiva. He taught us that the most important Mitzvah from all the 613 Mitzvahs in the Torah, is to LOVE our fellow just like ourselves.

This week became a very sweet FRIENDSHIP WEEK!

Respect

One of the highlights this week is talking and practicing respect. We role played with our friends listening to each other with out interrupting and appreciating and acknowledging our differences.

Esther was talking to Sholom about her mommy and sholom listened the whole time.

Moshe told mendel how he was his friend and why. 

Emma and Batya hugged it out after listening to each other.

One morning our friends worked hard on heart key chains. It is very age appropriate to get very attached to what they create, however, we experimented by taking the key chains to circle time one morning. We asked each of them to come up and ask a friend what color THEY wanted and give it to them. 

Was amazing to watch the joy in giving!

So thankful. This was a life lesson how we are truly happy when we give to others.

Group painting naturally creates friendship moments. We intentionally did not provide chairs at this center this helped our friends work out space for each other when it got crowded through communication. 

Friendship projects and acknowledging our friends work.

Working on our cutting skills.

 Experimenting with baking soda and vinegar in hearts. Watching the reaction!

Friends paring up to experience it together.

 Shmuel was so excited to tell us he was sharing with Esther.

 During these first years of school we have so many opportunities to use conflict resolution skills. Shmuel and Arik both love a certain truck we have in our class. It was so beautiful to watch them work out how many minutes each would have. After a couple minutes Arik wanted to work with Shmuel and asked him if he can wash his truck.

 We overheard Batya asking Esther "Is it okay if I follow you?"

We highlighted how respectful that was. 

 Solving the worlds problems ;)

Moshe helped Mina move a big tree stump to their hot lava game.

 Yanky and Shmuel instead of taking turns decided to share one truck in the sandbox.

 Outside time is such a great opportunity to see our Kindergarten friends 

Treasured friendships!

Enjoying Lag B'omer day in the park

 Happy 4th birthday to Mina!

Happy Birthday Morah Tally