A new sound in our class!

You could feel the excitement in the air this week with a new Nikuda - vowel being introduced!

Esther, came in her Shabbos dress for the occasion. It has been so special to watch how the children naturally feel the holiness each letter and vowel contain. 

To help our friends remember the sound we introduce it with a show and a hands on experience.

The vowel tzerei with dots look like the wheels of a bike. Each friend got to wear a letter on the tzerei bike and make the sound!

At our introduction party our friends made any letter they wanted with a tzerie.

Practicing at our center time.

Reviewing some letters we get mixed up with.

This weeks parsha is Vayechi we learned about the end of Yakov's life and how he blessed his grandsons Menashe and Ephrayim. Menashe being older, Yosef put under Yakov's right hand. However, Yakov as a Tzaddik can see the future and saw Epharyim will have a very special descendent, Yehoshua who will take the Jewish people into Eretz Yisroel so he switched his hands!

We took this oppotunity to learn more about our right and left directions.

Crossing our midline and crossing our arms is actually vital to a child's development . It promotes the coordination and communication of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. It also encourages bilateral coordination, the process of developing a dominant hand and development of fine motors kills.

With the Parsha talking about crossing our arms and the pretzel breathing we have been doing a lot of brain exercises!

Life skills and being responsible. 

We noticed a lot of our markers being dried up. Our main goal this year, is to take the time to break down expectations and learning the skills we need for everyday life. 

As a class we went through the markers and came up with helpful tips how to keep them in working condition.

To help us remember we placed pictures of these expectations on our marker box.

The creativity flowing ;) And Mina tasting the rain!

Esther collecting Tzedakah and leading our rally for her Bubby and Zaidy Simons Yartzeit.

Learning from Books!

After seeing how much the children enjoyed our focus on books last week, we chose to extend the focus on learning from books for another week!

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital – Goldilocks Effect ▪

A research team at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital placed children aged 4 into an MRI machine and presented them with stories under one of three conditions: 

-          Listening to a story as audio – was ‘too cold’

-           Watching a story as video – was ‘too hot’

-           Reading a story in picture book – was ‘just right’

We used a few favorites to read each day, and enjoyed pausing at different stages of each book, to allow the children to absorb the words, consider what was being said, and expand their knowledge.

 "I can be Mevater" By Sara Blau

"Mevater" is a hebrew word which is a little tricky to translate. It might mean "forgive, or give in." But not in the sense that we feel bad.  When there is an argument or disagreement, we can choose to be Mevater, and become the real winner!  Because we made Hashem, and the other person happy! 

The book explored several examples of scenarios that come up in our classroom daily. For example choosing a seat at snack or circle time. Sometimes 2 people want the same seat! The one who is "mevater" chooses to allow his friend to have the seat they both want, and he becomes the real winner!

Glad to be Me! By Sara Blau

Using this book, the children had fun bouncing like a ball, swaying like a tree, dripped their fingers like rain, and flapped like a bird! We spoke about each of the levels of creation that Hashem made! Using their bodies and minds...we ended the book being reminded we are Happy to be just the way Hashem made us! People who can do Mitzvos! 

Morning Centers:

We worked on lots of hand eye coordination creating sensory balls for the children to squish! Spooning rice into a balloon attached to a funnel!

Using tweezers the children were invited to sort the shapes from a tray, onto a corresponding shape cutout! 

Stringing beads onto pipecleaners! 

 

Alef Beis Enrichment

Using rubber bands, the children had to match the letters from one side of the peg board to the other! It took lots of finger coordination and focus to get the band in the correct position!

 

 

Parshas Vayechi

We have our very own Yakov in our classroom, who came up to model for us what took place in this weeks Parsha with Yakov Avinu.

Menachem and Menachem came up to be Menashe and Efrayim (Joseph’s 2 sons), and as he put his hands out to bless them, he switched his hands, placing his right hand on Efrayim and his left hand on Menashe! While we learned about this we did lots of criss cross breathing, while we switched our hands over from one side to the other!

 

Books!

Books are an exciting way for children to learn about the world and their place in it.

With the Chassidic holyday of "Hei Teves" this week, we decided it was a good time to focus on books! CLICK HERE for more on Hei Teves!

One morning we spoke about how we should handle books, with love and care. We even found some books in our library that needed some fixing, and taped them up so that they would not get ripped more!

Each day we added a little more to a book that each child will bring home, "All about Me!" 

We pointed out to the children what an author is, and what an illustrator is!   

                                              

Some of our students were able to copy the number of their age, for the page that tells how old the child is! We included handprints, family portraits, our favorite food and what we want to be when we grow up!

  

Why the celebration of books?

We told the story of what happened many years ago when the Frierdiker Rebbe (Previous Chabad Rebbe ) was leaving Russia. He said he would not leave unless he had these holy books (manuscripts from the Bal Shem Tov) with him. They were so important to him! The books were placed in a library in 770 where he moved to in New York. 

One day about 35 years ago someone noticed that some of those precious books were missing. They found out who it was. The person who was taking them felt that the books belonged to him! He was a relative of the Rebbe and there was a court case to decide who the books belonged to. On Hey Teves it was decided that the books belonged to the Chassidim, and the relative who was taking the books had to return them to 770. It was a day of celebration!  The Rebbe shared that this is a very special day, and on this day, each year we should celebrate Jewish Books! We should study them, and also add in purchasing new books, so our houses should be full of Jewish Books!

Hey Teves Book Share!

We invited all of our friends to choose their favorite Jewish book from their house to share with the class. We had fun hearing a bunch of new stories, and learning lots of new lessons!

  

Alef Beis Enrichment

In addition to recognizing letters of the Alef Beis, we practiced taking turns, and following rules!

                                                           

Sensory Learning!

  

Next week we will choose some more favorite books to explore and learn more from!

Harps and Books!

We started off our week reminiscing about Chanuka and sharing our favorite memories!

Arik, told us about his bike parade when he had a Menorah attached to his very own bike!

We have been working really hard on our Kamatz and Patach vowel. 

Using different skills like hearing the sound and having to write what the combination of letter and vowel is.

Playing 'Kria headband' game. Guessing by listening to the sound our friends were making.

Including letters and vowels at different morning centers. Yanky creating a word combination and Chanie writing and reading the words on the white board.

This weeks Parsha is Vayigash. We talked about how Yakov learned Yosef was alive by listening to his granddaughter Serach playing it on a harp so it would be too shocking!

While listening to harp music Chanie having fun flicking the rubber bands on her harp picture.

Shmuel, creating his own harp using a hanger and rubber bands.

Making davening meaningful.

We are up to our third morning Bracha. 'Matir Asurim' , we learned first simply its being able to move our body when we wake up after a night of not being in control of our body like being bound up. 

We took this deeper by understanding sometimes we have bad habits that seem like it's binding us and we have no control. 

We shared some of the bad habits we can sometimes have. While we say this morning bracha we will include the english words to remember the lesson.

Hey Teves 

(the 5th day of the Hebrew month of Teves) 

 is a special day in the Chassidic calendar. 

The holy books of the Rebbes were stolen from a relative and being sold. 

On this day the judge ruled the Holy books belong to all the Rebbe's Chassidim! We can all learn them!

This is an auspicious day of buying new Jewish books and reading the ones that we have.

Each friend brought in their favorite Jewish book from their home and we created a 

Hey Teves visiting library!

Arik brought in a book his own Zaidy wrote and illustrated. 

Watching a special Rebbe video and learning how on this day we can write a letter to the Rebbe and request anything we need.

Enjoying an edible book with chocolate Alef Beis.