Just like Noach

Diving into this week's Torah portion of Noach was really exciting! We learned many relevant life lessons. 

Hashem instructed Noach to build a "Teivah" (Ark/ Very large boat)  and bring his family into it. 

Noach was also instructed to bring seven pairs of each kosher animal and one pair of each non-kosher animal. When people asked Noach why he was building the Teiva, he told them that Hashem was going to send a big flood to clean away all the bad things in the world. If they want to be saved, they need to start being kind, and doing the right thing. No one listened to Noach, and once he was finished building the Teiva , it began to rain. The rain turned into a "Mabul" (flood).

Water came pouring down from the heavens and shooting up from the ground. Nobody was able to escape. Only Noach and his Teivah were safe and they floated above the Mabul. 

Just like Noach had a special job, each person in our class is gaining a lot of responsibility skills with their very own job for the week.

Noach had the job of feeding the animals EVERY single day! It was a lot of work. One day Noach was late to feed the lion! The lion got very angry and hurt Noach. From then on Noach walked with a limp from the attack.

In Hebrew the word Teiva has 2 meanings: a Teiva is a boat like the boat Noach built to protect him and his family. A Teiva in hebrew also means a "word", when we use kind and sweet words it's like building a Teiva to protect our sensitive soul and when we use not nice words it can hurt our soul.

Story from Hayom Yom

 2 students were learning in place called Mezibush, They got into an argument and one student shouted at the other he wanted to rip him up like a fish! The Baal Shem Tov came over to them and told them to close their eyes. They saw in Shamayim the student actually being ripped like a fish! This teaches how careful we should be with our choice of words.  Because they have a big impact! Imagine what we create with saying kind words.

Puppet show:

Our Mitzva notes are now displayed as creating the rainbow. In the theme of our kind words and actions protect us, Hashem sent the rainbow as a sign He will forever protect us and not make another Mabul.

Painting the ocean for our bulletin board!

There were 3 levels on the "Teivah".

The top floor was Noach and his family,

The middle floor were the animals,

The bottom floor was for all the stinky garbage and storage.

We created our own garbage for our "Teivahs"

Working on our personal Teivahs

Rainbow making!

Outside Teivah building!

Letter "Gimmel"

This week we learned the letter "Gimmel"

We followed the shape with our bodies to understand how the the bottom of the letter are like feet of a person. The letter "Gimmel" teaches us about "Gemillas Chassadim" ie giving those in need. Not only with walking feet but running feet!

 Noach was a big giver and helped everyone on the Teivah with all their needs.

Happy Birthday Shua!

Be a Rainbow!

Parshas Noach

Our friends helped us set the scene by creating a beautiful bulletin board.

Before we learned the story of Noach, we first talked about cleaning with water. 

Giving our babies a bath and Nechama telling us about how she gets clean. 

Rain is another way that helps clean this world. 

Creating a rain scene using Q-tips and pom poms.

Learning about clouds through dropping water into the shaving cream cloud and watching how it absorbs and than comes down.

Fun at the end creating pictures in the shaving cream.

Now it was time to learn the powerful lesson from Noach and the Teiva (ark)

We learned how Hashem needed to wash the world with a flood and asked Noach to bring in all the animals. Yossi, helping us and discussing how there were 7 of the Kosher animals and 2 of the non- kosher animals. 

Mordy, matching up the picture and the animal before putting them in the Teiva. 

Axel, creating his own Teiva. 

Our main lesson this week was what Hashem told Noach after the flood by showing him a beautiful rainbow.

Hashem will never again send a flood and now our job is to light up the world through our mitzvahs.

We had fun creating rainbows using markers stuck together!

We placed our very own mitzvah notes on our rainbow.

 

Using our fine motor skills to make rainbow beads on pipe cleaners.

Feeling very proud of our Mitzvah rainbow hat!

We do so many Mitzvahs every single day!

Owning our Oopsy

 

Yom Kippur Unit

With Yom Kippur approaching and only a few days of school we focused on the idea of "I made an oops, and I can fix it." Recognizing the mistakes we make and owning up to ourselves is what Yom Kippur is all about. Its a good thing we work on this everyday in our Gan family ;) We are human and we are not meant to be perfect, Hashem loves us no matter how small or big our oopsies are!  It is up to us to do something about it. In our class we witnessed a lot of growing moments with our friends fixing their oops. When we stand up for ourselves and make the safe choices with our friends we become leaders and sometimes its hard, Hashem gives us the strength to become even stronger than we were before. 

Working on our Yom Kippur book by tracing the dotted Aleph Beis letters.

On Yom Kippur we learned that our fathers and Mothers fast as well as don't wear leather shoes. We also wear white. This is because we try to be like angels on Yom Kippur! We want Hashem to see the pure neshama inside each of us, so by dressing in white and not eating- we appear more like the pure neshama that we are.

Open ended white chalk coloring

We enjoyed some puppet shows conveying the mentchies making oopsies and how to fix the oops. 

 

Decorating chickens for "kaparot"

Practicing "kaparot" on Mr. potato head!

Oops! Now what?

Yom Kippur Unit

After saying goodbye to Rosh Hashanah, our friends were greeted with a mini version of a Shul. 

They had so much fun davening (praying) and pretending to read the Torah. 

On Yom Kippur we are connecting to Hashem and fixing our mistakes.

Our Big Idea for Yom Kippur is that its okay to make mistakes we are always loved and we can try our best to fix them!

On Yom Kippur there is a custom to wear white to represent angels on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. 

White paint art contrasting on the black paper.

Cleaning up and splitting up the responsibilities have been a big hit in our classroom. 

With Shul pictures it inspired some of our friends to draw what they see in a Shul.

"Oops I'm sorry."

What happens when we make a mistake? 

Our first 'Big idea' is that Hashem ALWAYS loves us. We should never feel we are bad because of a wrong choice.

We all make mistakes we just need to learn what to do next!

Our puppets helped us a lot this week role playing during neutral moments how we can best respond to a 'oops moment'.

Cleaning up after our selves.

Tracing alef beis letters that we find in a Yom Kippur Machzor. (special book for the holiday)

Thank you Morah Malka for coming and sharing your music with us, it's a highlight of our every week!