The sound of the shofar

Last week we learned the 4 names of Rosh Hashana. One of them being "Yom Teruah" - a day we sound the shofar. This week we deep dived into this idea!

First we discovered what animal gives us the shofar, "Ram!" Yossi F said, 

 

and watched a movie of how it is made!

Then, we gave it a go to make our own shofarot from paper-mache!

Some of our friends enjoyed the sensory feeling of the glue, water and flour mixture, and some thought it was too sensory!

Shai, painting his shofar.

One morning in our circle time we heared a recording of a baby crying. Morah Hadar asked the kids what can we do to help the baby? The kids were very engaged and thought about ways to help, "give them milk,  put them to sleep and give them love" were some of the answers our friends gave.

We talked about a parents love to a baby, and how when a baby cries we run to help them and take care of their every need!
Just like a parent is this way, so too it is with our father Hashem! He is our Tatty and He loves us so much! On Rosh Hashana when Hashem hears the sound of our shofar, He will listen and will take care of us.

The kids role played as parents and babies.

Then, we created water color art using baby bottles!

In one of our centers this week we played a fun game of I Spy Rosh Hashana with the sensory box!

The tiny little pomegranates Morah Rachel brought were so much fun to feel!

Later in the week we cut opened one of them and Eli tried to count to 613!

Three different sounds to the shofar. 

Tekia - one long blast, Shevarim - three medium sounds, and Teruah - nine small short sounds.

Using blocks, the children built the lines that represent the three sounds.

Jumping and standing on the right sound was a fun challenge!

All of our mitzvah notes got us to the King! This is something we worked on for couple of weeks.

So we had a party celebrating all the mitzvas we do everyday!

When the kids walk in the class, wearing crowns, we greeted each one by blowing the shofar.

The idea is that on Rosh Hashana, while the shofar is blasting, we are crowning Hashem as our king.

Blowing the shofar all together!

This Shabbat is a special day in Chabad, it is Chai (18th) of Elul! We celebrate the birthday of The Alter Rebbe and the Bal Shem Tov. Two of our Jewish leaders who brought secrets of the Torah into this world. Using fire blow art we showed how their teachings are lighting up this world!

Teamwork!

Pre-k Kria

We introduced a new letter this week, the letter ב (vies), it is the sister of בּ (beis).

The kids made the letter out of modeling clay!

They helped the barvaz - duck, to get to the beitza - egg! (both start with the letter Beis)

K- Kria

Working on our Kamatz this week was so fun! One of the days we used shaving cream to write and sound a Kamatz. Mendy wrote a Kamatz מ (Mem) and sounded "Mah!"

 Kamatz car game!

Academics

Reviewing our colors with a flannel story! 

Eli working on his fine motor skills and letter recognition for the letter “A”! 

Aftercare

Happy 4th birthday Yossi!

Shabbat Shalom!

 

"Beeing sweet"

"Shana Tova U'Metuka" "Happy & SWEET New year" is the greeting we wish each other as we enter the Jewish New Year. But what does SWEET year mean for our Preschoolers?

We began our week with establishing what the first level of SWEET means. At circle time Morah Leah held up a bunch of different foods. The children were invited help sort out which ones were sweet and which were sour. 

Pickles & Lemons were sour! Watermelon and lollypops went on the sweet side- where the HONEY jar was!  

 We each got a little taste of honey to experience the sweetness of Honey!

Next we wanted to help the children understand that sweet doesn't only have to mean food taste! It can also be in our ACTIONS! We can BE SWEET! When we wish each other a SWEET YEAR, its so we can have a year filled with SWEET actions! We used a big honey jar to draw lots of SWEET Mitzvah actions that is sweet for Hashem! Our friends came up to help draw tzedaka coins going into the box, and hearts for friendship, we also drew Kippa's and shabbat candles! These are all SWEET things that make our year sweet!

 

To make it more real, after reading the Mitzvah notes we stuck them onto the honey jar, to help the children make the connection between their Mitzvah actions, and the sweetness of Honey!      

        

We began exploring how honey is made! Morah Keren had a bumble bee puppet that buzzed around the room finding flowers to suck nectar out of, then it buzzed back to our bulletin board bee hive to put the nectar inside the hive and turn it into honey! Each of our friends had turns to be the bumble bee using the puppet, and find flowers around the classroom!  Ayal is sucking the nectar out of the flowers and Yosef is putting in the bee hive to make honey

Apple Sorting & Tasting

We had a fun tasting activity while working in our color and taste recognition! Using our faces to vote, the children were asked to place their face on the color of the apple that they preferred the taste of! The sour green or Sweet Red ! Ask your child what flavor they favor!

Fun fine motor practice using honey comb cereal! 

Apple & Pomegranate Art for our Shana Tova cards

Bubble wrap art to create a beehive impression for our Rosh Hashana placemats, and flower art!

Working with clay to make Honey dishes for Rosh Hashana! Clay is a wonderful tool for the children to work with to develop their fine motor skills.

                                       

Shabbat Shalom!

Making "soup" for Shabbat during our Friday Shabbat Party