Parshat Toldos: The Voices In My Head

In this week's Parsha Yitzchak received the Bracha that Hashem promised Avraham. Yitzchak and Rivka were blessed with twins, Yakov and Eisav. 

Eisav was the older twin. We learnt that Eisav and Yakov did not look alike and didn't behave alike. 

Whenever Eisav had an option to do something right, he listened to his Yetzer Hara and made the wrong choice. When ever Yakov had the option of doing something good, he listened to his Yetzer Tov and made the right choice. 

In class we had a puppet show were we acted out daily scenarios and the children got to hear the different types of Yetzer Tov (Yakov) and Yetzer Hara (Eisav) voices.  

   

We also made Yakov and Eisav hand bands to remind us about the two voices in ourselves. Which voice are you going to listen to?

 Motty is working so nicely on the Yakov and Eisav bands.

  

After they grew up, Yakov realizes that Eisav might be the one to get the Brachos Hashem promised Avraham from Yizchak.

One day Yakov was making lentil soup for his father and Eisav walked into the house after a long day, very tired and hungry. There was no food around and Eisav had no patience so he asked Yakov to feed him from food he made. Yakov thought to himself it might be a good time to ask Eisav for his birthright and to receive the Beaches from his father.

Yakov told Eisav that he is willing to give him the soup and in exchange Eisav will give him the right to receive the Brachos from Yitzchak. 

Eisav agreed and Yakov fed him the soup.

In class we made a lentil soup and ate it as a snack. Rozie is helping with cutting the celery. Yisroel was telling us ''This actual soup makes you strong for real life''.

Aleph Beis

This week we focused on learning the names of the Hebrew letters.

 Learning can be fun, here we are playing bingo. 

Sight Words

Our kindergartners can read sight words like: can, I, see, like, go, my, a, the...

We had a lot of fun playing "I spy" for the sight words.  

Aleph Beis Adventures : הר starts with ה

Building a הר (har, mountain) together in the sand. 

Even the younger Torah Tots wanted to come and help!

After hunting for rocks outside, we worked together to build a הר on the letter ה.

Menachem uses glue and sand to create his letter ה.

Evan is making a Har with his body.

Eggciting E

After we peeled eggs, we got to make our own individual egg salad!

Evan had an innovative idea to smush his with a brick.

Eggspirements!

 Everyone thought that we were much stronger than eggs,

 but when we tried walking on them.

They didn't break!

(We did have a few casualties, may they rest in peace)

Wet, Dry, Try!

Practicing our fine motor skills, 

by using paintbrushes and water to paint over the letter E.

Happy Birthday Morah Leah!!

Torah Tots hearing voices

This week we brought the Torah portion to life by talking about the twins named Yakov and Esav. The life skill we focused on this week takes a life time of work, but can begin at the most tender age of our preschoolers. 

Hearing voices?

Yakov was a sweet boy who involved himself in learning the Torah and doing good deeds. Esav on the other hand, was not like this and made bad choices.

We learn from these twins, and the pregnancy that their mother had- is that inside each of us we have two voices. A 'Yakov voice' and an 'Esav voice'. We need to try our best to listen to our 'Yakov voice' and IF we make a mistake, we can always fix it!

(It was important for the children not to be labeled 'bad' like Esav but rather we all have these voices inside of us and if we make a mistake and listen to that voice, we can always fix it.)

Esther and Emma acting out a scenario with puppets, role playing how Yakov and Esav would respond.

Mendel looking at pictures of twins. This started a whole conversation about his twin siblings, Shua and Chanie.

Mina found two little people that looked alike and wanted to show her friends the twins.

 Esav was born with red hair all over his body. We placed contact paper to invite the children to place all sorts of red objects.

Printing out different scenarios of good choices and not good choices.

Was fascinating to watch how they processed what was happening in the picture and work out what box it belonged to. Some were tricky and required critical thinking. Each time we saw a 'Esav voice' picture we talked about what would a 'yakov voice' say to fix the situation?

 Catching 'Yakov moments'.

Chanie found Mina's bracelet and returned it to her.
Arik wanted the Morah to put away his lunch box and we watched him light up when we spoke about the Yakov voice that's telling him he's such a big boy and can do it himself!

Batya took the Yakov puppet and put a coin in the Tzedakah box.

We heard beautiful singing from Moshe using the Yakov puppet to daven to Hashem.

 Yakov puppet reading our mitzvah notes. Adelle got a kick out of the puppet being proud of her for using her 'Yakov voice'.

 Continuing our fall theme.

Adelle and Esther counting sticks.

Mina counting the apples on her tree.

Eli making leaf prints.

Fun fine motor skills taking turns pulling colorful scarfs out of a ball with holes.

Parshat Chayei Sara: Well, Well, Well

In the beginning of this week's Parsha we learnt that Sara passed away. She passed at 127 years old.

There were 3 miracles that Sara enjoyed:

1. She had Bracha (blessings) in her dough. Her Challah was always enough for all the people who ate from it.

2. Her Shabbos candles remained lit the whole week. 

3. The clouds of Hashem were on her tent. Sara was always close to Hashem. 

After Sara passed away, the miracles stopped. 

Evan is building Sara's tent and making sure to put the 3 miracles in it. Bela Riva is showing us the 3 miracles Sara had in her tent. 

Avraham sent his servant Eliezer to look for a wife for his son Yitzchak.

When Eliezer arrived in Charan there was a well at the entrance of the city. He asked Hashem to help him find a wife for Yitzchak. Eliezer thought that he will ask a girl to give him water from the well to drink and if the girl offers to also give water to the camels, then that would be a sign from Hashem that she is the right girl for Yitzchak. 

Yisroel is showing his friends how to fill a bucket from the well.

In class we got to learn how they dug wells in ancient times. All the kids were excited to see the pictures of the process. We also got to make our own little well. 

Saige is working so nicely on her well. 

When Eliezer noticed Rivka coming towards the well he saw the water come up to her, instead of her reaching to the water. Eliezer asked Rivka if she can give him a sip. Rivka was so happy to give water to Eliezer and she offered water to Eliezer's 10 camels.

Eliezer knew that this was a sign from Hashem that Rivka is the right wife for Yitzchak. 

Eliezer gave Rivka some jewelry. Rivka asked her family if she can go back with Eliezer and marry Yitzchak. 

Rivka's family gave her permission to go with Eliezer to marry Yitzchak. 

The children were invited to make jewelry just like Rivka received jewelry. 

When your mommy lights the Shabbat Candles she says a special Bracha. Motty is decorating a card with the Bracha of the Shabbas candles. 

Kindergarten

The two new sounds we learned this week: 

The over head sound says ''OY'', when the ball is over your head say ''OY, OY, OY''.

The egg sound says ''Eh, Eh, Eh'' (like Egg)

 

Dovi and Rozie are matching the toys that represent the sound to the cards.

Learning the sounds with toys and playing games. 

Math

Counting, Playing with numbers and Adding.

Rozie and Motty are looking for the right number to fit the order. Dovi and Yisroel are counting the beads they got to 100. 

Bela Riva is matching the number to the card. 

Science Exploration

Mitzvah Mentchies made a graph to measure the leaf colors of fall.

We established that most of the leaves we had were brown.

Aleph Bais Adventures: Daled, Dvash and More

Tk had a lot of fun learning the letter ד this week. 

We learned that ד is the first letter of the word דבש (Devash/honey).

Menachem used honey to paint his ד, then couldn't resist taking a taste.

Duck, Duck Daled.

a fun letter recognition game!

Making דבש paint with honey and water colors.

Faiga realized that tilting her Daled would allow the דבש paint to spread 

and create a cool mix of colors.

Sticking like דבש in a tricky twister-like game.

D is for Duck

Mendel counted the amount of feathers needed for his duck.

Practicing number recognition and our gluing skills.

Our mantra is "Just a dot, not a lot."

Evan determinedly practices writing a D with chalk.

Putting a fun twist on counting with "5 little ducks" and some fine motor skill clipping practice. 

Working together to build a duck house... Nest

Imaginations are at full blast in TK!

Inspired by real ducks, 

we colored our own duck puppets.

Everyone can agree that the sensory table with letters and ducks was the big hit this week.

Sensory experiences are so crucial for young imaginative minds.

Shaving Cream Lakes for ducks to float on.