Ganon Aleph's Guests from Arizona

Donny's grandmother and aunt came all the way from Arizona to visit us in Ganon Aleph!  They spoke to the children about how life in a desert climate differs from that of New Jersey.  Donny's aunt showed us pictures on her I-pad of the different animals that live there, and his grandmother read a book to the children called "There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea" by Jennifer Ward.  They gave the book to our class as a gift.  We are so grateful for their visit and for the great book!
We love when family members come to visit us in Ganon Aleph!!

Gan Gimmel Welcomes Rosh Chodesh Adar in Style!

Welcome Chodesh Adar!!!

Thank you so much to the Gan Gimmel parent volunteers for an

 

Adorable!

Delightful!

Amazing!

Rocking!

Rosh Chodesh Adar 

class get-together!!! 

Todah rabah to the 

Mershons & Citrons for organizing, the Citrons for hosting and for all of the parents & yeladim for attending!!!

Tu B'Shevat in Here! (Well almost here)

 Gan Gimmel is eagerly anticipating Rosh Chodesh Shevat!

The children learned that over winter vacation we will celebrate Tu B'Shevat.  In honor of this special holiday that celebrates the trees, Gan Gimmel began working on a special family tree project.  The children learned about the different parts of a tree- the roots, the trunk and the branches.

 

Then, they painted beautiful trees onto cardboard (a way to recycle and save the trees!) Finally,  the children collected all of the Hebrew names for their grandparents, parents and siblings.  They copied the names using Hebrew block print. Copying is a wonderful way for children to practice forming letters.

 They cannot wait to bring home the finished masterpieces!

Partnering with Parents

ABC's & 1 2 3's by Morah Shani 

Partnering with Parents 

Alpha-Bits. It’s not just for eatin’

Identify letters and create words using the letters from Alpha-Bits cereal! A yummy & fun way to practice letter recognition, spelling & reading too!

Partnering with Parents

 

ABC's & 1 2 3's by Morah Shani 

Partnering with Parents 

Take a walk. 

Take a pattern walk.

When walking to the park to shul or to a friend, create a pattern with your steps. 

ex: Take 2 large steps and then 3 small steps. 

Repeat the pattern and then make up a new one!

The Main Characters of Gan Bet

Gan Bet worked on a very special project with Ms. Schneck's 6th grade English class. First, we visited the middle school classroom, and were each paired with a 6th grader. The older students interviewed the kindergartners, taking note of such things as family members, favorite foods and activities. The 6th graders integrated these notes into original stories, which they printed in book format online. This week, the children excitedly read their stories together, which have also been emailed home to enjoy with parents. A fantastic literacy project for both grades!

Family Trees

The children learned that Yaakov's family numbered 70 when they came down to live in Mitzrayim, and in this week's Parashat Shemot B'nai Yisrael's numbers continue to grow even while they are slaves to Pharoah. We created a family tree to illustrate the generations, beginning with Avraham and Sarah. The children then took turns coming to the dry erase board to draw their own individual family trees, using the Hebrew vocabulary for the different family members.

Literacy Night

Our first Kindergarten Literacy Night took place in the lunch room last night. The children had great fun greeting their classmates in the night time. They snacked on chocolate milk and popcorn, and began the evening with a life size game of Sight Word Bingo. Several tables were set up with interactive literacy activities for the children to enjoy with their families. To culminate the program, Mrs. Cohen read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, as the children listened for letters and jumped.

This was a great opportunity to display to parents the types of learning activities that their children engage in daily. It was also a wonderful reinforcement of the strong connections we make between school and home.

Next week, we will run the same program for Gan Aleph and Gan Gimmel.

Let's Do Lunch

We had very special guests in Gan Daled, Emma Shore's great grandmother, Mickey Bernstein and her friend Rose Weinblatt, both residents of Daughters of Miriam, came to our class. Emma's father, Jonathan, and her brother, Ben, came as well. After joining us during music where they enthusiastically sang, clapped and played on rhythm sticks and tambourines, they watched the children dance. The ladies shared lunch with us. Mickey and Rose admired the tablecloth designed by the children and asked to keep the floral centerpieces made by the class. As Jonathan had to return to work, as well as drive Mickey and Rose home, the two friends took the delicious cake
baked by the children with them.

It was a wonderful and moving experience to see three generations in our classroom. We are so glad that we were afforded the opportunity to observe the mitzvah of Hachnasot Orchim in such a meaningful way.

Ganon Aleph Makes Family Trees

In conjunction with this week's Parasha, Shemot, we talked about how Yaakov's family continued to grow in Mitzrayim even during slavery. We created a large family tree beginning with Avraham and Sarah to illustrate the generations. The children then took turns coming to the white board to create their own individual family trees, using the Hebrew vocabulary for different family members. This is also a great introduction to the upcoming holiday of Tu B'Shevat when the children will be creating family trees to bring home!