I am a star!

Parshas Lech Lecha

Avram and Sarai were the first Jewish couple. They taught so many people about Hashem. 

Hashem tested Avram by telling him to pick up and GO- Lech.

He did not ask questions and just left. We played a blind fold game to practice our trust. Shmuel, listening to his friends voice saying Lech Lecha to find them.

When they got to Eretz Canaan (Israel) there was no food. Again, they did not ask questions and went to Mitzrayim to get food.

Mina, acting out Sarai who had to be hidden in a box so the guards wouldn't bring her to King Paroh since she was so beautiful. 

Even when they found her and brought her, Sarai, davened to Hashem and King Paroh got struck with plagues and a malach hitting him. King Paroh wanted them out so he gave them riches and they were now famous which helped them teach even more people about Hashem.

Avram and his family traveled in the desert. Sholom practicing his letters in sand.

We created a desert scene.

Hashem, promised Avram your children will be as many as the sand and the stars!

We are one of those stars!

Star experiment with baking soda and vinegar. Silver glitter in the baking soda was a fun way to make the stars sparkle.

Black glitter playdough.

We touched on transportation this week. Learning how Avraham and Sarai did not have all the vehicles we have today. Batya using a magnet to get her train across the tape path.

We learned samach this week. A Samach is like a sukkah that is a protective hug from Hashem. 

Shmuel and Sholom created a race car building that resembled a samach.

The Letter Ayin, taught us our eyes are like a camera and keeps that picture in our brain. We learned how important it is to see good things.

Arik, brought in his camera and showed us all the features.

Working in our Alef beis books.

'Lech Lecha footsteps and reviewing our Alef Beis on our way outside.

Keeping our Helpful/ Safe documentation process going. 

Esther and Chana Rochel cleaning up a spill that happened.

Mina, being so kind by making Arik's day when she saw a boy who also had a sling in one of our books.

Sholom and Yanky found a sharp piece outside, they quickly brought it to a Morah and were responsible themselves to put it away. The Morahs are NOT the only safe keepers! 

Breaking down the expectations on how to use the ipads for CapIt!

It is so tempting to go onto the educational games we have on the iPad. By understanding the appropriate time for it in a neutral setting helps our friends remember.

Building our muscles doing pushups!

Raining and Rainbows

Parshas Noach

The Torah portion came to life in our classroom this week.

Thank you Hashem for starting off this week with some thunder, lightning and rain so our Californian friends have a foundation to start the topic of what happened to Noach.

Yanky, creating his own rain scene and Esther experimenting how rain works coming from the cloud.

Arik and Yanky practicing their number recognition matching the correct number  clothespin on the raindrop numbers.

We learned a lot about how the "Mabul" flood took place. Noach's family were the only honest people in the whole world. Hashem wanted Noach to create a Teiva which took him 120 years! 

Shmuel and Chanie creating the three different levels in the Teiva.

After we learned the whole story we talked about Hashem's sign of the rainbow, a promise that the flood would never happen again and our job to fill the world with light.

We turned our bulletin board into our 'Uvichein' (the practical lesson of the parsha)  of this message.

The children have been hearing a lot about how we keep our classroom safe, we do this by being HELPFUL. 

We will be documenting how they have been demonstrating these helpful actions in our class and how we are practically lighting up this world by being safe and helpful.

Yanky and Sholom wanted to be helpful and wash the dishes we used during center time. 

The people in the world by Noach's time, even when they made mistakes they did NOT want to ever fix them. We learned that we make mistakes but the difference is we have a chance to fix it!

When some of our family pictures got broken, our entire class helped in the process of making sure they were fixed and back up.

Arik has a broken shoulder and we wanted to make sure we could all be a friend and help keep him safe while it is recovering. He showed us pictures from his x-ray it was quite fascinating learning about our bones.

While we did our safe keeper ritual, we had Arik hold the box and we all committed to making sure he had space and was comfortable.

Fun rainbow activities.

Continuing our Alef Beis work.

What a perfect week to learn about mem which is mayim-water. Just like we can not survive without water, the Jewish people cant survive without Torah.

It has been so exciting to finally use the big screen in our classroom. While learning about final mem and how it is like a well with hidden water (the hidden Torah will be taught when moshiach comes!)

 we watched how a real well works.

Practicing our balloon breathing. We took a deep breath into our nose while Shmuel was blowing up a balloon.

We also learned a new breathing technique called draining breathing in lifting our hands. Then tightening our fists and breathing out while 'opening' the faucet and letting the water out.

Teiva (ark) means boat but also WORD. 

We learned that Hashem wants us to go into the 'word'- davening. There could be a flood (when not good things happen) but we can always turn to Hashem and daven to Him. 

We took this opportunity to learn the first of the morning brachas. Knowing the difference between light-good choices and dark-bad choices.

Cleaning the world, Noach & the Teiva!

What do we do when we need to clean our bodies?

We take a bath!

What does Hashem do when He needs to clean the world? Sends a Flood! 

Using a dirty baby doll, we asked the children how we can clean it? Giving it a bath was a great idea! We used this as a point of understanding for the children to be able to understand what Hashem was doing in the story of Noach and the Teiva (Ark.)

Our Noach puppet roleplayed what took place when Hashem commanded him to build a Teiva. The people that lived at the time of Noach were not very kind. They would take each others things, and did not care to fix their mistakes. Hashem told Noach to build a Teiva, and bring his wife, children and all the animals into it.

He said if the other people want to fix their mistakes, then they can come inside the Teiva! The other people didn't believe Noach, and they ignored him.

After the Teiva was built, Noach took 2 of each of the non-kosher animals, and 7 of each of the Kosher animals. He went inside the Teiva with his family and the rain began coming down!

Noach was safe and protected inside the Teiva!

 

After the rain stopped, Noach came  out of the Teiva and saw a beautiful rainbow!

 

It was a sign from Hashem that He loves us, and will never do anything like the flood again. We all had fun trying on the rainbow hat!

Art

We created a beautiful bulletin board to display the big raindrops, Noach and his family, the Teiva, the animals and of course the beautiful Rainbow.

 

Color Sorting Rainbow

The children were invited to find a colored feather, and then glue it onto the correct matching color on the rainbow.

 

  

 

Science, Sink & Float

While talking about the miracle of the Teiva surviving the flood, we used this as an opportunity to understand that some things sink and some things float in water.

Each child was invited to choose and object and predict if it would sink or float! It was fun to experiment together!

Animal Memory Match

It was fun to learn a new game. Using our memory and learning how to take turns. It is also soooo tempting to peek at the other side of the card, but we are learning how to follow the rules of games!

Menachem matched a pair of Toucan's!

Alef Beis Enrichment

 

We introduced the letter Gimmel, sticking on Gooey things! When looking at the letter, we noticed it has 2 legs! Our legs help us RUN to do mitzvos! We practiced running like a gimmel! We learn from Gimmel to run to do good things! 

 

 

Menachem and Ben discover they can use their hands to build together!