Counting the days

It was so exciting to see all our friends again after a fun Pesach Break. 

Thank you to all the Mommy's for sending in photo's to share some of the experiences your children enjoyed over the break.

We all enjoyed seeing and hearing about them!

We jumped right back into learning by stamping our feet in ink, to create 49 footprints that we will use for our classroom "Sefira Counter."

Footprints to help us visualize the way the Jewish people travelled in the desert, and numbers on them to count the days between Pesach and Shavuos.

As a class, each day we are adding one more footprint , until we reach 49, when it will be the Holiday of Shavuos, when we receive the Torah on Har Sinai. The footprints are going straight from the splitting of the sea Pesach bulletin, and will travel until we reach "Har Sinai."

We learned a fun song to help us remember what "Sefiras Haomer" is. (Mitzvah to count the days between Pesach & Shavuos)

We count the sefira everyday 

which number do we count today?

Count it high, Count it low,

till 49 we go .

We're going to get the Torah,

on Shavuos we stood by Har Sinai 

I will do all of the mitzvos and learn the Torah,

cuz Hashem is by our side.

We've been doing lots of math activities focusing on number recognition and understanding number value in quantity of objects, as we focus on counting during this time.

 

Spaceship Puzzle with numbers from 1-10

 

 making numbers out of playdough

To bring the learning home, the children created their own "Sefiras Haomer" counter, that they will be able to "fold" the number each day, leading up to receiving the Torah on Shavuos.

We also had a discussion about transportation, to compare the many modes we have now, compared to what the Jewish people had back when they left Egypt. We looked at pictures of airplanes, trains, busses, trucks, motorcycles, horses and wagons and ofcourse using our 2 feet! The Jewish people likely had Camels and donkeys to help them!  Definitely not as fast as an airplane or train!

Airplane Math

Counting and working on ourselves

It was so exciting seeing all of our friends after Pesach break.

Documenting what our friends highlight was. 

It's always special to hear the conversations amongst our friends as they share the different experiences they had.

What happened after the Jewish people left Mitzrayim? We learned about the Mann and Chana Rochel acting out what she would want it to taste like.

we also learned about Miriam's well and the war with Amelek.

Graphing different transportation from slow to fast. 

Walking in the desert was quickly put at the slowest. There was a debate whether a motorcycle or an airplane goes faster. We had to do some hands-on research for them to figure out the answer to this one!

Our class worked really hard on our big Sefiras Haomer chart. 

It has been a week filled with math lessons while learning how many days in a week and how many weeks till Shavous!

We have started feeling the excitement of counting till we receive Hashem's gift by counting everyday.

Creating our own charts

Esther, being responsible and cleaning after her mess.

Counting out seven beads for each row.

Practicing our number writing.

 Batya wanted to try the more challenging one of filling in the circles herself.

Sholom working on his fine motor and math skills by punching the correct amount of holes on the flower.

During our family meeting, we will be focusing on preparing ourselves for Shavous by working on different Sefiros.

This week we started on Chesed- kindness and what that looks and sounds like. 

Chanie, helped us add the correct nikudos to make the word.

We will be documenting and color coordinating each sefira that we are working on and seeing our friends do.

Our friends are reading their own Hebrew books now! 

We want to wish a big Mazel Tov to Shmuel on his 6th birthday!

We learned Chassidus on the sixth morning Bracha in honor of Shmuel. 

'Hanosen layaeif koach- Hashem gives me strength. We all thought this was such Hashgacha protis since so many of our friends added in Shmuel's birthday book how strong he is! He helped demonstrate how a push up is done!;)

 

Pesach in Preschool

With this being our last full week until Pesach break, we learned a lot more in detail about Pesach! We are working on our Haggadah every day so its all ready for the Seder! 

We continued focusing on the big idea of having a "Moshe" inside of us and listening to it. We also learned how every day we have the opportunity to leave Mitzrayim in our own lives! When we do a great mitzvah or do something we never thought we can; we split our own "Yam Suf!"

Our Bulletin board reflecting all of our friends walking through the split see! So we can visualize "leaving Mitzrayim (Egypt)" every day!

Sensory water/paint pouch and looking inside an ocean lamp to get an idea of what it might have been like while walking through the split sea.

Painting our own oceans!

Arts and crafts for our Haggadah's!

We separated foods that were Chametz and Kosher for Pesach

 to show us what we can and can't eat on Pesach. 

We did a science experiment to show us what yeast does to bread and that's what makes it rise. We used a balloon to cover 2 water bottles. One bottle had yeast in it and one did not. The one with yeast in it became inflated after a little while! This is the difference between Matzah and Challah and why it becomes Chametz.

We had a fun way to learn one of the items from the Seder plate We suspended  balloons in the air that we invited the children to paint white! This was to represent the egg on the seder plate!

Cutting apples for Charoset! 

We collected some flowers outside to remind us that Pesach comes out in the spring when flowers are blooming!

We had some fun puppet shows in class by friends and baby Ariella :)

Uncle Baruch brought in his Moshe costume so we can all pretend to be Moshe for a little bit!

Happy Birthday Yedidya!

The Seder coming to life

This week we focused on the steps of the Seder.

We used a light table to trace the items for our seder plate. Esther working hard on finishing up her plate.

Making charoses and learning why we eat it on Pesach. 

Karpas. Esther told us its her favorite part of the seder.

When we cry our tears taste salty. We feed each other different food items and our friends had to guess if it was salty, sweet and what food it was.

Most of our friends can't wait to taste the Matzah. 

We learned a lot about the process of making matzah and why there are three Matzahs on the table.

Each day we have been working really hard on our Haggadah's. Sholom drawing him and his friends walking through the sea.

Shmuel creating the 10 maccos puppets.

Getting excited at the end of our Hagaddah. Chanie working on a Kotel scene for Nirtzah.

Taking our stories outside in the sandbox. 

Making our Matzah bags and it was so exciting to see our friends know how to write Matzah on their own and what vowels belong under what letters.

When we learned about the song 'Dayeinu' we made a list of the things in our own life we are grateful for. 

Some said their siblings, six flags, the Rebbe and friends etc.

This week we learned about the second Shva vowel, the Shva Nah. When there is a Shva in the beginning of the word it makes a stronger vowel sound. We had fun making frosting shvas to our hebrew words.

Esther, turning the chirik into a Shva. 

Practicing at the play dough table making different vowels.

Shmuel, figured out how to start the word Pesach.

We want to wish a big Mazel Tov to Yanky and Sholom on their 6th birthdays!