Lincoln Logs

Our letter sound of the week is"L" which is the first letter of the last name of our 16th president;Abraham Lincoln. We learned that he grew up on a farm and lived in a log cabin. He was honest and kind to others. We used Lincoln logs to build our own cabins, and also made log cabin tezdakah boxes. We even made edible log cabins from pretzels and marshmallow fluff.
DeLicious!!

The Fruit Salad Game

As part of our bracha unit, the children learn the Hebrew names for different fruits and vegetables. Here you can see them playing our "Salat Peirot" game, which is a variation on musical chairs.

Grown Ups Learn Through Play!

Our amazing teachers appreciate the importance of keeping pace with their very young students. That means constantly challenging themselves to learn and grow professionally, just as our children are rapidly learning and growing . We know that the sort of active learning we offer our children is really the best way for anyone, of any age to learn.

This week our Judaic Studies teachers participated in a long-awaited workshop given by Aviya Feuer. Aviya is a Yavneh parent and a Medical Clown, with extensive experience in drama and community theater. Her workshop focused on storytelling, just in time for Purim. Our teachers are wonderful sports, having lots of fun while learning important techniques to use in their classrooms.

Nothing Sticks Like a Shadow!

Gan Aleph has been busy exploring shadows! On Monday, we went outside to look for our shadows, but could not seem to find them! Were they hiding? Did they disappear!? The children decided we could not find our shadows because it was very very cloudy. We observed how the shadows of clouds fall on earth and make the day darker.
On Wednesday, the sun was shining so we again tried to find our shadows. The children smiled with joy as we walked outside and immediately saw our shadows on the ground. This helped reinforce the concept that the sun helps to create shadows. A shadow is a dark place behind us where the sun does not shine.
We decided to have fun with our shadows and trace them with sidewalk chalk! The children took turns tracing each other, tracing the morahs and chasing Morah Aviva's shadow! Once all the shadows were "stuck" to the ground (via sidewalk chalk) the children tried to fit themselves inside their friends' shadows! It was interesting to see who was shorter than their friend's shadow, who was taller than their friend's shadow and who was a perfect fit!
What a fun way to conclude our unit on shadows!

Akiva Becomes Cohen Gadol

Parasha came to life in Gan Gimmel as Akiva became a Cohen Gadol! We learned about the 4 special clothes of the Cohen and the 8 special clothes of the Cohen Gadol. We made a choshen mishpat snack and and then made one to take home. We combined math with Torah as we counted out 12 "gems" representing the 12 shvatim. We sang our shvatim song as we did our projects.

"Eggciting experience".

Gan Daled had an "eggciting" experience. Fifth graders came to our class and read a Hebrew book about an egg. Each kindergartner was partnered with a fifth grader to read and color together.

What a wonderful way to meet old friends or make new ones.

Ganon Aleph Learns About the Job of an Architect

To deepen our understanding about the building of the Mishkan Tali's mommy, Susan Berman, came in to talk about her job as an architect. She showed the children some blueprints, and described many things that an architect has to think about when she draws the plans for a building, such as: who will be using the building; how many people it can accommodate; safety considerations; sunlight hours; weather conditions; and special designs. She told the children that in New Jersey, all the houses are have triangular shaped roofs, so that the heavy snow won't sit on top. In California, however, many homes have flat roofs. In the photo above, she uses a yellow pepper to demonstrate the floor plans on the different floors in the house!

Picture Perfect Presidents!

Of the people, by the people, for the people!
This week, Gan Aleph began learning all about our past presidents! We began with Abraham Lincoln, since his birthday is coming up this Saturday. We learned that Lincoln was the 16th president and was one of the greatest presidents of all time. To honor his presidency we engaged in many "Lincoln-related" activities...
After learning that Lincoln's face is on the penny, the children took part in a "Lincoln Penny Toss." They used their probability skills and predicted which side of the penny would win the race...heads or tails. They took turns tossing the penny and filling in their chart accordingly. When one side reached the top, they evaluated their results and looked at how many times each side was landed on.

We learned that Abraham Lincoln was 6 feet 4 inches tall! What exactly does that mean? We used a tape measure and our bathroom door to visualize how tall that actually was. We saw that when Lincoln wore his stove pipe hat, he was even taller than the door! The children wrote their names on index cards and measured their own heights against Lincoln's. Even the Morahs took a turn to see how much taller he was than them!

Last, we looked at some of the clothing our past presidents wore. We discussed how some presidents wore long jackets, white tights and white wigs! The children are using cut outs of their faces to create caricature-type images of themselves as president. They are carefully cutting out all of the clothing they would wear and using stuffing as white wigs! After learning about the role of a president, they each wrote what they would want to do if they were the president, and are attaching their ideas to their presidential portraits!

Our Books Can Talk

The children delight in bringing books to class and sharing what they've read at home. We discuss their favorite pages, the main character and the setting of their stories. What books do you enjoy reading to your child? We'd love it if you would share your favorite author with us!

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.