How Time Flies

 This week Mitzvah Mentchies got a chance to look back and see how much we have accomplished this year. Each child took a turn to look at the pictures of themselves from the whole year and reminisce about everything we learned and how much they've grown!

We looked at the book we made the first week of school and

we took the time to draw a self-portrait now.

We tracked the academic skills we gained, as well as the emotional skills.

Chana sorts Aleph- Beis, Shmuel works on his fine motor skills.

Chana Rochel shares her water with Sholom.

We have also been having fun with a countdown to the beginning of summer.

Having a chance to let our creative juices flow on Art Day.

Enjoying a highly anticipated Water Day!

And learning how to make airplanes on Paper Airplane Day!

Preparing for Gimel Tammuz, we spoke about what the Rebbe wants from us,

 and what Moshiach will be like. 

Mendel Paller shared with us that when Moshiach comes 

we won't have a Yetzer Hara, Esther shared that we will see Hashem! 

Pretending to fly on clouds to Eretz Yisroel together!

Outside Fun!

Do you remember?

With the end of the year approaching we took the opportunity to reflect on some of our big ideas through out this past year.   

We printed a picture from the beginning of the year and placed it alongside a current one to inspire our friends to draw how big they feel now.

Rosh Hashanah

Just bringing out the bee costume and apples with honey, our friends new right away what holiday we were thinking about. Some of our friends started singing 'dip the apple in the honey'. At circle time we talked about how it's not really Rosh Hashanah now but what do we remember about it? 

We are still using the words "that was sweet," when a friend does a kind act so they remembered what it really means to have a sweet new year and we definitely had a sweet year!

Menachem, really enjoyed tasting the apple dipped in honey.

Yom Kippur 

This year, we learned about Yom Kippur through a lot of puppet shows and role playing. 

Seemed natural to discuss what was remembered about the holiday through puppets. 

Yakov, helping to act out how we can fix our mistakes by wiping our puppets dirty face after we acted out how hurtful words sounds like.

Tu B'shvat

The birthday of the trees was a fun memory to bring up. 

Nature sensory and tree art was a great segue to talk all about Hashem's trees.

Creating a tree scene. Menachem, wanted to make a big trunk and was showing his technique to his friends.

Davening outdoors seemed only natural and fun while talking about Tu b'shvat. 

The boys found a mini tree for them to say the bracha on tzitzis.

Leah, brought in a stick to point to the Alef Beis.

Chanuka

The Beis Hamikdash center was a highlight this year. A foundation to our Chanukah unit and learning about Hashem's home and where the beautiful Menorah was lit. Ben, creating his home.

Menorahs and dreidels fun.

We also had fun practicing our fine motor skills and talked about how much we have grown.

 We will continue reflecting on our last week of school.

A Rush to Brush!

Continuing our Health Unit, Mitzvah Menchies delved into Dental Health this week. 

We focused on good Oral Hygiene. 

We practiced brushing away the plaque from our teeth.

Practicing brushing our teeth was so fun!, We tried to brush for the 2 full minutes which was a challenge.
When we brush we push away the tiny little pieces of food and plaque that stick to our teeth .

The top layer of our teeth is called enamel, It's white and very hard, but it can get stained and ruined. 

We conducted an experiment to see what different foods can do to our teeth.

We used eggs, because their shells are very similar to our teeth.

One day later, we could not believe what happened!

Ask your child how the different eggs looked and felt.

The egg in grape juice turned black and was covered in little bumps.

The egg in soda turned brown

The vinegar broke down the shell and it became soft and squishy.

The egg in water stayed the same.

Now we know why we need to brush our teeth! 

We don't want these things to stay on our teeth overnight.

We sorted between foods that could help teeth grow strong and between foods that would cause cavities. We strengthened our phonemic awareness by thinking of foods that start with a particular letter.

Then we got to make a set of strong healthy teeth!

Practicing our writing skills

Scientists at work, creating a chemical reaction called Elephant Toothpaste.

It really looked like toothpaste! 

Practicing flossing to get the little pieces of food and plaque out.

Morning Centers put our dentists to work

On Friday we were thrilled to meet a real dentist who taught us how to brush her teeth!