We came back to school after Thanksgiving eager to share our experiences with our friends. We are all trying to be really conscious to wait our turns when speaking and to listen respectfully to our friends. This was a fluid segue into reflecting on our last month events and working on children’s binders. Children spoke about fall and our Thanksgiving feast.

There were also many pictures to choose from of children engaging in activities with friends, like building a “big fire station”, working on an alphabet puzzle with help from a friend (“this is team work”), extending their understanding on patterns (“it’s a hard pattern, but I did it all by myself”), and so on. When we work on binders it reminds children how they are important because it is where we “save our work”, “so we don’t forget” the things we learned about.   

In the meanwhile we continued observing the outdoor environment, how the weather changes and children acknowledged how when playing outside we find ice more and more often. At our second meeting we discuss the calendar and children explore the changes: “freezing”, we need to wear “very warm wool clothes”, “mittens keep our hands warm”, “no more birds, only a few” and other similar comments. When a child found a worm while playing outside, he acknowledged “I must dig a big hole so I can put it there, because it’s too cold outside”, helping the worm to hide deep in the ground.

We also continued to bring up situations when we are being cooperative it makes a difference. This came up especially at clean up time, as the more children helped in a certain area, the faster and better the work was done.



Skills

At center time we set up activities that encourage children to challenge themselves engaging in tasks that involve number, letter, pattern and shape recognition. Morah Chaya and I support children individually or in small groups, by asking open ended questions or extending the game to a more sophisticated levle.

Please take a look at the photos on the wall where you will see the children playing with Unifix cubes. There are a number of books, representing different levels. We are sitting one-on-one with the children encouraging them to challenge themselves further.

Some children are using the ‘alphabet Unifix cubes’ and putting together complex words. One child took a pre-reader book from our shelves and put together the word “jellybeans”. Other children are putting the cubes into alphabetical order. Some are using tracers to write letters; others are free writing. The goal, as always, is to help each child grow from the level s/he is presently at. 

Our story reading sessions are opportunities when children recognize parts of a book: front cover, back cover, spine, title, author, illustrator and that we read from top left to right. Story reading seems to be one favorite part of the day, as everyone quickly joins the circle needing very little encouragement. Usually stories relate to our unit, but sometimes when a child shows a lot of interest in a certain book, we certainly make time to read it. The book Thomas brought for his birthday is one that children show a lot of interest in at the moment, the pictures are very attractive and the story interestingly describes how animals are getting ready for winter. Thank you, Thomas.



Torah

Each week, we learn a story from the Torah. The children began making "their Torahs" in the beginning in the year, in preparation for our "Bringing the Torah Home Event." The children explored then how the Hebrew words in the Torah teach us stories with lessons and the Mitzvot that guide in how to lead lives of goodness and responsible actions.

Then, once we began the cycle of Torah reading with the last of the High Holidays, "Simchat Torah," we began learning these stories that teach us lessons. We began with the very first story in the Torah, the story of how Hashem created the world. Rather than quickly moving to each new weekly Torah portion, we will be moving slowly through the first book of the Torah, "Bereishit" that comprises 13 Torah portions, learning each story that has a lesson for us.

With each story we discuss meaningful concepts that children can relate to today; the value of rest and "down time," the meaning of a mistake and resulting consequence, ththe reflection that takes place each week on Shabbat so that we can make better choices in the coming week, and the optimism that we carry over after Shabbat, knowing that we have the ability to do so. The children have the opportunity to illustrate some aspect of the story to be included in their own little Torahs that will be taken home at the end of the year.

This past week we learned about the very first "Havdallah" marking the end of Shabbat. Adam and Chava were sad to leave the Garden of Eden (their consequence for their mistake) but they were hopeful that they would make better choices and not continue to make mistakes. In the darkness, they rubbed two stones together, sparking the first fire. At the end of Shabbat, we too light a fire to remember Adam and Chava's first fire, along with a cup of wine and spices that comfort us in the coming week — we can make better choices this week, and soon it will be Shabbat again, when we can once again reflect on the past week and celebrate our achievements.

Our new unit

A special holiday is around the corner, Chanukah. Even though we start our unit of Chanukah this week, children brought up this topic a few times already. We will surely have very enjoyable couple of weeks. It is a time to celebrate and we are ready to do so. It will also be an opportunity to support children extend their knowledge of the story of this holiday. Most special event will be Build it with Dad, and there will also be other exciting Chanukah related activities, such as crafts, making doughnuts and latkes.

We would appreciate any story books or games that might be supportive for this unit.



Reminder

We sometimes have incidents when children get a little bit too dirty or even wet while playing outside, which is why a change of clothes would be very useful: socks, long sleeved shirts, pants. We are also wondering if a second pair of shoes that would be left at school would make it easier, as when we return from outside, Morahs and children are constantly sweeping the mud we leave everywhere. Children enjoy playing on the floor, they are also resting on their mats on the floor, so we were thinking that a second pair of inside shoes would eliminate this issue.

We will have more updates soon,

Morah Delia and Morah Chaya.