I can be a Maccabee!

The story behind the beautiful Chanuka candles.

King Antiyochus made not nice rules for the Jewish people.

"NO adelle you cant light a shabbos candle on shabbos." "NO Chana Rochel you can't learn your Torah."

" NO Menachem you can't give your baby boy a bris."

What did the smart children come up with? To hide their Torahs when the Greeks came to the cave and quickly take out a dreidel game. We discussed how intimidating it must have felt like and how comforting it is to know Hashem is with us at all times.

The Greeks were so mad they made a huge mess in the Beis Hamikdash.

Our friends turnend into the Maccabees and helped bravely clean it all up!

I can be a Maccabee!
The story of Chanuka is happening now in our classroom by learning from the Maccabees and being brave. What does brave look like? Standing up for what the right thing to do is!

 Shmuel and Sholom both had gloves on and Eitan did not. We watched how they were processing how to be inclusive. "Maybe tomorrow I can bring a different kind of costume for Eitan to wear and we can take turns now." Standing up and speaking out to help a friend is brave!
Shmuel documenting it in his Maccabee project.

Yanky, looking out for Menachem and Eitan when they didn't have tzizis and allowed them to give his tzizis a kiss after the bracha. Each brave moment our friends were invited to document it on our Maccabee board.

The Greeks wanted to make sure we did not view the torah as something holy and a blueprint for our life. We made a big emphasis on how holy the Hebrew letters are in the Torah this week!

Experimenting with water and oil.

Watching the colored oil drip onto water was a hands on way to learn about the properties of water and oil.

We used water based color in the oil so we found even in the oil the color wasn't fully mixing, Arik found it fascinating watching it seperate in his water dropper.

Nothing to Sneeze At!

Nothing to Sneeze At!

With the cold weather recently, a lot of people have been getting sick. Pre -K  has been delving into some of the reasons people might get sick. 

The spread of Germs!

Germs are tiny creatures that we can't see that can spread sickness, through touch or traveling through the air.

Germs live in our eyes, mouths and nose. We conducted an experiment to see how bread would be affected if we touched it with dirty hands.

Then we washed our hands scrubbing with water and  soap,while singing Happy Birthday.

 Watching our bread experiment change over time. 

Morah Davina shows everyone a type of germ that grows on bread called Fungi.

We used glitter to show how germs can travel. Moshe gave everyone a high five and we saw how glitter transferred to everyone. 

But when he washed his hands well, all the glitter came off!

So soap stops germs from spreading.

We made some slime to explore another aspect of having a cold. Sneezing!

Many people call it different things like booger, shmutz, boogie or snot. But it's real name is Mucus. Our body makes it when it is trying to fight germs.

Sometimes a story is the best teacher!

our class loved Sick Simon by Dan Krall.

It taught us about different germs like Protozoa, Viruses and Bacteria.

Each of them cause a different type of sickness, like coughing, sneezing, throwing up or diarrhea.

Sick Simon came to visit us and we told him what we need to do when we sneeze!

(cover with our elbow or a tissue so the germs don't fly.)

Eventually Simon needed to stay home and rest to feel better. We spoke about a special mitzvah in the Torah to visit our friends when they are sick. Then we decided to send a video to our friend Batya who wasn't feeling well!

We used a few different mediums to explore germs.

Drawing dirt and germs on "hands."

We got to see pictures of germs zoomed up by a microscope and try to draw our own.

Swatting when I find the right Aleph-Beis germ.

Finding and counting "germs in sand.

There are many germs hiding in dirt and sand, that's why we need to wash our hands after playing with it. Matching number "germs" to fingers.

Blowing paint to create our own germs. We spoke about how blowing is one way to spread germs from our mouths.

My Head Can Protect My Body

The big lesson we learnt this week is that when our head is protected our whole body gets protected.

How can we protect our head?

Our head is our mind. When our eyes look at something they take a picture and store it in our brain. This is how we can remember things even though we are not close to them or see them.
When we fill up our mind with goodness like looking at good things and learning Torah it can help us think about positive ideas and fill up the brain with goodness. Then our mind is protected from the bad negative things the rest of our body is protected!

We learned this lesson from Yakov Avinu in this week's parsha.

Tamar and Mendel are having fun collecting 12 smooth rocks.

 

Yakov Avinu left his parents and traveled to Charan. On the way he stopped at the holy place; Har Hamoriya, the place were the Bais Hamikdash (holy Temple) will be built. When Yakov arrived, Hashem made the sun go down right away.
Yakov davened Mariv (evening prayer) and then he realized that he can't continue to travel because it was night so he got ready for bedtime. Yakov collected 12 stones to put around his head to protect his head and so that the rest of his body will be protected.
Yakov believed with confidence that Hashem will watch him and nothing would harm him.

While Yakov was sleeping, the 12 stones turned into one stone! This picture shows us that the 12 stones that are under Mendel's head turned into one big stone like the stones around Yakov's head.

That night Yakov had dream. In the dream he saw a ladder with Malachim (angels) on it. The ladder was touching the ground and went all the way up to the heavens. There were Malachim going up the ladder and coming down the ladder too!
We role played this dream, with Faiga going down and Emma M going up!

Hashem promised Yakov that he would be protected and he would get the land of Eretz Yisroel (Israel) and would have as many children as the dust of the earth.

Tefila- prayer!

In the past couple of weeks we've been talking a lot about Tefilla, where it comes from and who started it.
Avraham created the morning Tefilla, Shacharis. Yitzchak created the afternoon Tefilla, Mincha. This week we learned that Yakov created the evening Tefilla- Ma'ariv.

This week we filled up our Tefilla/Davening jar! It's a big deal for our children, they worked really hard on Davening beautifully.
The children were rewarded with a waffle party! Following the recipe, making and eating them was so much fun!

 

We are so lucky this week we had two birthdays in our class!!

Happy birthday Emma M!! 

Happy birthday Morah Sara!!

Home sweet home

Chanuka Unit

One of our favorite times of the year, is Chanuka! The lessons that the children learn during this holiday lasts a lifetime.

before starting where it all began, in the Beis Hamikdash , (Hashem's home) we talked about our own homes something close to their hearts. 

Mina documenting what she loved about her home. "My family and food."

We offered different centers and mediums to invite the children to express in their own way what they love about their home.

Shmuel, loves construction this was his time to shine and we all watched to see what he was building.

Some children were attracted to the sensory experience of creating what was inside their home with playdough.

Esther wanted to draw her family in her house.

Show and tell day was a great way to find out from our friends what they love to play with in their home.

Adelle had a lot to share and was sweet to see our friends wait patiently as she organized her goods.

What makes our home special?

Is it just the house or our toys?

Through a puppet show about a family moving homes we learned its our FAMILY what makes it a home.

later we found Yanky, Eitan and Shmuel using their show and tell items to play with the tape homes!

Hashem's home!

We set up a Beis Hamikdash center for the children to get a taste of what it was like and also what it will, G-d willing, be like when we have the final Beis Hamikdash!

Our friends had fun being part of the process of making the Beis Hamikdash walls.

What was it like to be in the Beis Hamikdash?

This center helped the children learn all about the special jobs the Kohanim did in the Beis hamikdash.

Menachem learning how to wash his hands and feet  at the Kiyor (wash basin) before getting to work.

The highlight of the Beis Hamikdash experience was watching the Kohen Gadol light the golden menorah with pure olive oil.

After the lighting our friends practiced our gratitude by giving 'bikorim' the first fruits which is what the Jewish people would bring with them to give thanks. Eitan picked a delicious fruit for Esther.

 Chana Rochel tasting from the 'lechem hapanim' (12 show breads) that stayed yummy and fresh.

Arik and Chanie holding the 'Aron' the ark that held the luchos (tablets).

After a week of living in the blissfulness of the Beis Hamikdash we will be introducing the Chanuka story next week and really appreciate the miracle that took place.