Parshat Shemini: The Right Thing to Do

Parshat Shemini: The Right Thing to Do

Welcome back from Pesach vacation!
We are so happy to be back in school and back to learning!
This week we added to our Davening the of counting the Omer.
We count the days between Pesach and Shavuos. We are so excited for Shavuos when we will receive the Torah. We spoke about how a person that is expecting a gift or something very special, would usually count the days in excitement for the gift- so too we count the days until Shavuos.

We also need to make sure that our soul is clean and pure to receive the Torah.
How can we clean our soul?
"The soul is like a little diamond that gets dirty, when you do mitzvos it cleans it"- Max.

During this special time between Pesach and Shavuos we are learning about the different inner qualities of the soul. We started with the first inner quality of our soul; Chesed. Chesed means kindness, love and giving.
What does it truly mean to be kind? In class we play out different scenarios of kindness using poppets. The children got to identify the difference between good kindness and misplaced kindness.

Parsha class with Morah Davina - Parshas Shmini.

In this weeks Parsha the Torah teaches us the signs of Kosher animals, fish and birds. 

Animals that "chews its cud" chews its food over and over again and "split feet" hooves that are split in half are a kosher animal.

Fish that have fins, "wings" that it uses to swim with and scales, hard circles over parts of the fish to keep it from getting hurt, are Kosher.

Most birds are kosher. We are not allowed to eat birds that eat other birds. The Torah lists all the non-kosher animals.

The kids were able to look at different toy animals and find the signs of a Kosher animal.

The Next Level!

Now that our Kindergarteners can read, we are fine-tuning our Hebrew writing skills as well. Employing several different methods, such as chalkboards and dry erase markers as well as regular pencil and paper helps to keep our writing practice from getting too monotone!

                    Morah Avigayil tied different colored strings onto our wrists to help us remember the difference between right and left. When we write Hebrew we start on the right and go towards the left.

Muka works diligently on reading the word and then writing it neatly on her worksheet.

  English, Fine Motor and Math, Oh My!

In this teacher-assisted activity, Yisroel is learning how to identify sight words, by reading a simple story and sequencing the events that occur.

You can help! When you are reading a story at home to your child, feel free to stop at any small common word such as; I, that, the, are , of ,is... etc.

Even if we haven't learned it yet it's great practice!

Encourage and assist child- directed reading!

Malka (left) uses water color pastels to create a base for her hand-cut Aleph- Bais letters. 

For the past couple weeks the children have been using specially-created pin-pencils to hone their fine-motor skills and cut out the lettersof their name.

Elizabeth (right) putting together her masterpiece.

Menucha creates her own math problems using sensory tiles 

and a dry erase board during morning centers.

Max practices separating double digit numbers into ten frames. 

10+9= 19

Happy 6th Birthday Devorah Leah!

We are so lucky that you are in our class!

Making your cake was so much fun!

Welcome back, Abacus helps us count the Omer!

It's always a heartwarming sight to watch the children catch up with their friends after a long break! We try our best to channel this excitement into opportunities for further learning.

Art & Articulation

On the first day back the children were invited to draw their favorite part of Pesach. The drawings gave the children a chance to express their experiences, and at the same time articulate it for the Morah's to document it alongside the pictures.

Good listeners & Confidence in Public speaking

Thank you to all the parents who sent photos from your family holiday... During circle time each child was invited to show and tell their friends what was happening in the photo that their parent sent in!

This was a powerful moment for both the listeners and the child sharing. Learning more about their friends as well as building confidence to speak in front of a crowd!

Even our youngest classmates went around showing the photo on Morahs cell phone!

Picking up where we left off...

We reminded the children about where we left off at Pesach--  the miracle of the sea splitting and how the jewish people had just left Egypt!

But now what?

What were the Jewish people doing now in the sandy desert? 

Using little lego figures we acted out the Jewish people leaving Egypt and walking through the split sea!

One of the children in our role-playing asked 

"Mommy, where are we going? and how long will it take til we get there?"

"Moshe" explained that we will now be counting the days until the 49th day- which will be the special day that we receive a great gift from Hashem- we will get the Torah!

Transportation

We used these questions of "what the Jews are doing now" as a springboard for further learning on transportation! The Jewish people did not ride a train or a plane! They walked on their feet for 49 days until they reached Hat Sinai (Mount Sinai) which was the place that they would receive the Torah from Hashem.

 

The children enjoyed making footprints with water!

we enjoyed playing with all different types of vehicles that can be used to travel with. 

Planes, Trains, Boats and cars!

Using cars on paint to create tracks art!

Sefirat Haomer- Counting of Omer

Abacus on the bulletin and mini mountain ones, helps us count the days!

The children worked hard counting 10 beads to place on each pipe cleaner, and 9 on the 5th one, to add up to 49 in all!

The children will be bringing home their own " Omer Abacus" so they can count at home every day, in excitement for Shavuot- when the Jewish people received the Torah! The is a great tool to help the older preschoolers understand numbers, and counting x 10 to reach higher numbers.

Happy Birthday Evan!

This week we enjoyed preparing and celebrating Evan's 4th birthday!

All around sensory fun throughout our week...

working together, making sandcakes!

Time to reflect...relax...

Pesach: Humble Like Matzah

Pesach Preparation

Before Pesach starts we make sure our house is clean and all the Chametz is gone. In our class we spoke about how to clean the "Chametz" inside of our hearts. We do this by getting rid of all our bad Midos (character traits).

Chamets is any food that is made of grain and water that has been allowed to ferment and rise for more then 18 min.

Matzah is hard like a cracker. Its made from flour and water which has not been allowed to rise. We eat Matzah to remember how quickly we left Egypt and put our faith in Hashem that He would save us.

Matzah is flat and simple, therefore we can learn from it to be humble. 

The children had a discussion about being humble: 

"I can be proud of my hard work but I don't need to shout it out load" 

"I shouldn't show off my pizza because it might make my friends jealous"

"Instead of saying I am better than you, I can say I can help you"

Learning about the seder plate.

Lifting heavy bricks like the Yidden in Miztrayim. It was hard work!

The ten plagues show (ask your child to put on the show at the seder)

The children getting creative with their personal Seder Plate

Yisroel makes a page for his Haggadah

 Max working hard on the hagaddah

In the spirit of Krias Yam Suf we played instruments while going over the sounds of the letters.

Strengthening fine motor skills and hebrew name recognition.

Devorah Leah uses a pencil pin to practice using her pincher fingers.

Morning  Centers

Levi Yitzchak was so proud that he followed the design.

Yisroel and Menucha tried to put together the map of the United States

Mazal tov Menucha for your baby brother!

Preschoolers Preparing for Pesach and The Seder!

There are many traditions that Jewish families do in preparation for Pesach! Cleaning our homes are one of them! The chassidic explanation for this is that we must "clean our souls"- meaning to get rid of the "Pharo" in us, and break through the "slavery" that our minds are sometimes "stuck in."

 

cleaning in our classroom!

'Bedikat Chometz" "Cleaning for Chometz"

We taught the children about the ritual that is done the night before Pesach- where each household hides 10 pieces of bread. We walk around with a candle, spoon and feather searching for each of the 10 pieces of bread, and then save them in a bag- which will be burned the next morning! 

Each of the children had a chance to find a piece of the hidden breads in our classroom! 

To help with their number recognition, we numbered each of the pieces with dots. After finding a piece, the child was invited to find the corresponding number to the dots that was on the paper the Morah held! It also helped us keep track of how many pieces were still hidden!

Sweeping into a pile

We created some boxes on the floor using tape as a guide, for the children to learn how to sweep into "piles." Some of our older students really caught on, and learned to create a pile, vs sweeping in many directions!

The Seder Plate- 

The children had an opportunity to peel and cut the apples for Charoset- the traditional food that is on the seder plate, that reminds us of the cement that was used to build bricks in Egypt.

They also crushed nuts using bricks! (sorry, didnt capture any pics of that!)

We Enjoyed going through the 15 steps of the seder, using the beautiful Haggadot that the children made with their Morah's help! The children are very prepared for the real thing!

Breaking the Matzah!

Tasting the bitter Marror!

Seder plate math!

The children enjoyed a fun Roll the seder plate game! This self correcting game allowed the children to work on their number recognition and counting skills while learning the items of the seder plate!

Setting the table

The children were invited to make places for each of their friends at our "seder table" for the "Shulchan Aruch" part of the seder. They carefully placed plates, cutlery, cups to ensure each setting had what they needed.

All round smiles ;)