Sharing Reading With The Fifth Graders

The fifth graders came to buddy read Hebrew story to each kindergartner. The story was about an egg that dressed in costumes. After listening to the story, we worked together to create our own eggs, dressed in a costumes. The finished products are proudly displayed in the hallway.

Let's Make A Bracha...

Ganon Bet has begun a unit on Brachot to help understand why we make a bracha and which brachot to make on foods. Children learn best by doing, so to introduce the bracha of mezonot, the children baked a cake together. But how do we make a cake? The children concluded that we need a recipe to tell us the ingredients . The first child said that a cake needs sugar. Another child wanted to add vanilla. Eggs were added next, followed by Crisco, water, and baking powder. As each ingredient was added, the children had to decide if the cake would bake in its current stage. They all agreed that it was not ready to go in the oven until one final ingredient was added. The mystery ingredient was flour. Once the flour was added and mixed the children were ready to put the cake in the oven. The children learned that without flour the cake would not bake. Mezonot is recited because flour is one of the main ingredients in cake. As we snack on other foods, we check the ingredients. If the food contains flour, we know that it is mezonot.

Shelly Is a T. . .

What looks like a turtle but never goes in the water? A tortoise. This was one of the differentiating characteristics we found upon researching our class pet Shelly. We knew that she is female and a reptile. The class enjoyed learning other interesting facts that make a tortoise and a turtle different from each other. We observed that Shelly's back is not flat and she has paws rather than flippers.

Gan Daled extended its interest into our literacy program when we learned the classic poem The Little Turtle " by Vachel Lindsay. We used our artistic talents to make turtles with movable heads.

You can find more interesting facts about tortoises at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortoise

Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice

In honor of Tu B'Shvat, the children in Gan Gimmel brought in their favorite fruits to share with the class. We enjoyed eating the fruit for snack and of course, we learned that we say borei pri haeytz on those that grow on trees. We even learned that we say haeytz on grapes, which grow on a vine.

While enjoying the oranges, curious kindergartners noticed that they were very "juicy". "Look, orange juice," as one squeezed his orange into his cup. What a great scientific discovery!! This made us all want to make orange juice so we got some juicers and started squeezing. We loved drinking our orange juice and of course, changed our bracha to shehakol neeye bdvaro.

Where Are the Shadows?

Where are the shadows? The children have been searching for shadows. In our classroom, we used flashlights to find and identify shadows. We continued the investigation outside, again looking for shadows and taking pictures of them. The next day, we tried to identify whose shadow it was and where the picture was taken.

The children also tried chasing their shadows, but were unable to catch them. They tried to lose their shadows and found out that our shadows are always with us.

A Tree Grows in Ganon Aleph

As a follow-up to Tu B'Shevat, the children in Ganon Aleph did some planting! They collected seeds from different fruits and vegetables that they had eaten at home. We planted these seeds this week, along with seeds from flowers, grass, pumpkins, and beans. Our plants are on our windowsill, and we are patiently waiting to see what will come up first!

Bringing Relevance to the Parasha in Ganon Aleph

In this week's Parashat Teruma, the children learned about all the special objects that B'nai Yisrael built for the Mishkan. We took a walk to the Beit Midrash to see some of these same objects which every shul has, among them: the Aron Kodesh, the parochet, the menorah, the shulchan, and the ner tamid. Some of the children even drew up their own plans for different structures, like the Mishkan, and attempted to build them in our block corner.

Planting in Ganon Bet

We made terrariums with soda bottles and planted Marigold seeds.The water within the soil rises because of the heat(from the sun) in the enclosed bottle. the water then rains down (like a cloud) to water the seeds. In addition to reinforcing our understanding of how plants grow this experience gave us first hand knowledge of how the "water cycle" works.

Warmth From The South

When we returned from our winter vacation we were greeted with Southern warmth, a letter from our pen pals in Florida. We are corresponding with a kindergarten class in Yeshivah Elementary School (Y.E.S.) in Miami, Florida. The children excitedly answered their friends' letter. As a result of this experience, the children better understand that climates are different in different locations during the various seasons. They also have learned to appreciate the fact that although they may live far apart, Jewish children have much in common.

Growing and Growing in Gan Aleph

Gan Aleph was so excited to come back to school after a week long break. We began the week by continuing our unit on Brachot. In order to fully understand the concept of "Boreh Pri Ha'adamah" Gan Aleph planted our own indoor garden. The children examined the different types seeds that we had on hand- tomato, cucumber and parsley. The children planted the seeds and watered the soil. The children will be caring for these plants by making sure that they have enough water and adequate sunlight. Have any good indoor gardening tips? We'd love to hear from you!