Thursday, May 26, 2022

Mountain Moments

 With the Holiday of Shavous approaching, we fully immersed ourselves in the lesson of Har Sinai. There must be a reason why Hashem chose a "har" a mountain to give the Torah on. The big lesson that we took is how to talk with humility and to know that all of our talents are from Hashem!

 Throughout the week we focused on doing good with Mountain Moments! The Morahs' were always looking for friends doing kind things and they would write their special moment on a Har Sinai! 


This whole week we worked on a special Har Sinai project to bring home.
The first step was to color and paint the mountain!


During circle time each friend had a mountain to hold and said a special thing about them that they like. We acknowledged together that all of our gifts come from Hashem! 



With a fluffy painting experience, we painted clouds. This reminded us how Hashem kept the Jewish people safe in the day while they were walking in the desert to receive the Torah. We spoke about keeping our friends safe, the same way Hashem kept the Jewish people safe while they travelled to Har Sinai.


Glueing Aleph Beis to our own Luchos!


Mountain making outside play!


Thank you Adam for being our dj for freeze dance :)

We took class pictures this week!











Small mountain BIG lesson

Shavous unit
This week we started learning about what happened at Har Sinai.
The Jewish people were finally ready to receive the Torah and it was quite a dramatic event.
We learned a lot about the miracles that took place at Har Sinai.

Just coming from learning about the sefira of Hod, our friends knew exactly why Hashem chose a mountain but not the tallest or widest. 
We need to be proud but still humble and know where we come from.


We did a lot of mountain exploration this week.
Each friend chose a picture of a mountain they wanted to create.
It was a full week process starting off by building the inside of their structure.
Esther wanted to make a very tall ice mountain and needed some friends help for balance.


Chanie chose tin foil to be her base.


Boy was paper mache a fun sensory experience. 


After it dried each child was invited to look at the picture they picked for inspiration and color.


Adding textures, Esther added snow to hers. She shared that her Tatty (Rabbi Lang) was currently in snow to bring back for the new Mikvah being built in Camarillo!
Sholom wanted to add green sand to make the grass.


With all the mountain talk we had to take some time to learn about volcanos!


Watching one erupt . It was also fun seeing Morah Davina's videos she sent us of volcanos she saw on her travels.


At Har Sinai, the Jewish people recieved two crowns for saying 'Naasah Vinishma'. We will DO and then we will LISTEN.  What a powerful lesson to learn how to first have Kabalas ol - to trust in Hashem that He knows exactly what Mitzvah's we should be doing.

Menachem made a double crown!


This week we also learned the meaning of a new Bracha!  Hameichin mitzadei gaver- Hashem directs our steps.
This perfectly tied into our lesson of learning how everyone's body parts were working before receiving the Torah and how fortunate we are to haveing working legs, feet and joints.
We also learned a deeper lesson that Hashem directs our steps - no matter where we find ourselves that's exactly where Hashem wants us to be.


We noticed our friends have been loving to dig in the dirt. Thank you Morah Rachel for bringing a mud pit and creating a space to get creative.


Whenever something is fun and new we like to create the expectations we have so its clear and and it can remain fun and safe.
During our morning meeting, our friends came up with and acted out all the ways to use a mud pit appropriately and not.

Acting out different scenes for our visual board. Shmuel pretending to throw mud at Yanky.


Our visual reminder made by our class!






 

Friday, May 20, 2022

Laughing and Loving on Lag Ba'omer

With Lag Ba'omer this week we learned more about Rabbi Akiva. When he was 40 years old, he bagan to learn the Aleph Bet! One of the lessons we learn from Rabbi Akiva is consistency. Just like when he saw the holes in the rock being created from soft water making a lot of drips, this has a big impact! So too, when we continue working on something consistently we succeed! 

We needed 4 friends to show us how old Rabbi Akiva was with their fingers!


Bonfire art!

The boys discovered an experiment how when you balance the rocks to match the holes to each other the water goes through it!



Fire number tracing


Free play in the mud!


creating our own bonfire!


We learned how to shoot a bow and arrow in honor of Lag Ba'omer


On Lag Ba'omer we are allowed to get haircuts, so we gave our silly pretend friends a haircut!



A special Lag Ba'omer activity in the foam!

 Thank you Rabbi Lang for a fun Lag Ba'omer rally 

 
We concluded our Lag Ba'omer day with a little kumzits (gathering to sing songs)
 around a pretend bonfire we created. Roasting Marshmallows was a hit! 




















Spreading the joy in Camarillo


What a fun filled Lag Ba'omer unit we have had!
We learned during Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai's life there was never a rainbow in the sky. This represented how holy of a Tzaddik he was. Our friends, reading the word keshes themselves discovered it also means a bow and arrow.
It took a lot of hand eye coordination. It was heartwarming to see the patience they had while waiting for their friends to master the skill.



Finishing up all our bonfire projects.


After watching a Lag Ba'omer parade with the Rebbe many years ago, we decided to make our very own parade here in Camarillo.
Each of our friends picked out a Mitzvah they want to show case.


Our friends have been working so hard on learning about the "sefiros" and making it very practical. We documented each scenario we noticed connected to a sefira lesson we learned! We finished just intime for our Lag Ba'omer trip!



Sticks have been a big hit during our outside time. 
We have been seeing how well they have been following the safety precautions. 

It was now time to elevate these precious sticks, by using them in our parade!
There was so much pride each time a car past!


Enjoying some time at the park.



Thank you Rabbi Lang for meeting us with a fun rally! 



Our friends have been really proud of themselves realizing how much they can read. 
They are getting ready to receive their very own siddur at the graduation.
During davening time, we laminated some of the davening we sing and watched how well they were able to read and follow along.


Reviewing all the nikudos we know!