Delet P’tucha, Winter Olympics and more!

Dear Kindergarten Families,

We had a wonderful week in Kindergarten! It was fun welcoming you into our classrooms for Delet P’tucha and sharing our learning with you.

In Math, we have been learning about counting and comparing numbers and sets of objects up to 100. We practiced deciding whether an item could be counted or not (grains of sand vs marbles) and counting them to compare whether there are less or more. We also introduced the Winter Olympic Games in our Math class and did many fun activities related to math and winter sports (patterns, graphs, counting, and much more!).

In English Language Arts, we learned the letter Tt and the sound /t/ it makes (as in ‘tin’). We practiced forming upper and lowercase Tt letters using our Handwriting Without Tears books, wooden planks, word searches, and finding words that start with T and drawing pictures of them.

In Writing, we are almost finishedwith our Narrative Writing – Fairy Tales unit. We are writing titles of our stories and illustrating our front covers! We also learned how to use our “Power of Words” in sounding out short vowels and using Word Walls (and sight words).

In Social Studies, we continued learning about American Presidents in preparation for President’s Day. We read the book “If I were the President” by Thomas Kingsley Troupe and talked about what we would do if we were president. We thought about how we would help people in our country and around the world and the environment. We brainstormed many excellent ideas and then wrote them on our own papers. You can read all of our ideas on the bulletin board outside of our classroom.

In Science, we continued our unit Exploring Plants and Animals. We talked about the differences between plants and animals. We learned about Venn Diagrams and filled ours in comparing plants and animals. We also cut and pasted pictures to put in our own categories of plants and animals.

Hebrew and Judaics

This week we started learning and conversing about our morning routines. We sang “Ani Kam baboker, pokeach enayim, rochez panim, metzachtzeach shinayim….” We discussed brushing teeth and most of the children agreed that brushing teeth twice a day, is an excellent choice to protect our teeth. The children said the sentences “Ani matzachtzeach shinayim paamayin” or “paam”- ( I brush my teeth twice or once).

We practiced describing our schedule of the day such as mifgash boker- morning meeting, tefila- prayer, hit’aamloot- physical education, omanut- art, musica- music, Chatif- snack, hafsaka- recess, aruchat tzohorayim- lunch, anglit- english, cheshbon- math, Habayta- going home.

We played games such as Hangman and Alef Bet puzzle. We sang the song “Ani Rochetz Yadayim” And “Ani metzachtzeach shinayim.” as well as “Af santer ulechayayim”.

We continued discussing Midat hachesed (the value of kindness) and the importance of being kind to each other by sharing, taking turns and using kind words such as “please- bevakash, sorry- slicha and thank you – toda and by complimenting each other. We discussed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the choice they made. To connect to the theme of the creation of human beings, we read books about the human body We talked about “What are we made of?” and the importance of being kind to ourselves by taking care of our bodies and our health by doing acts such as brushing our teeth and washing our hands. This week we also started learning about the next upcoming holiday – Purim, by telling the beginning of the story of Megilat Ester. We introduced the characters: Hamalka vashti – queen Vashti, melech Achashverosh- king Achashverosh, Haman, Mordechi and Ester.

Next week events:

During the month of Adar, the month of Purim, it is a tradition to do things that make us happy. To get ourselves into the Purim spirit, all teachers, staff, and students should come to school in pajamas on Thursday, February 15th (Rosh Chodesh Adar – or the first day of the month of Adar)! Please note, that the date on the physical school calendar says Friday, February 16th, but there has been a change of date. Students must wear shoes or slippers. The children are welcome to come to school in Pajamas with their stuffed animals (if they wish). They need warm clothes for recess!
Friday, February 16 – Celebration of the Lunar New Year in our class. We will learn about many various traditions of celebrating the Lunar New Year in Korea and China, and taste some traditional food that symbolizes happiness, prosperity, and a long life.
February 19-23 – Mid-Winter Break!