Having Fun with Friends!

Dear Families,

This week was great in Kindergarten! We see many new friendships and wonderful interactions developing among children in both groups! To encourage these friendships and learning experiences, we set up many engaging activities every morning from 8:15-8:45. It’s the most peaceful and creative time in our class! Also, on Friday, we took another trip to Carroll Park to explore different physical activities and a variety of games with friends.

In Math, we learned about measuring and comparing length and weight using standard and non-standard units. We talked about longer v. shorter, taller v. shorter, and heavier v. lighter. We measured everyone’s height and made a chart in the classroom. We will use the chart to compare how much the children have grown at the end of the year. We also started working on parts of numbers 0-10 (4 is 3 and 1 or 2 and 2 or 4 and 0).

In English Language Arts, we learned the letter Gg and the sound /g/ it makes (as in ‘good’). We practiced forming upper and lowercase letters Gg using our Handwriting Without Tears books, wooden planks, sand, and finding words that start with G and drawing pictures of them. We also created Green and Gold Glittering Galaxies for our letter G experience.

In our Author Study, we have been reading books by Julia Donaldson: “Room on the Broom,” “ The Gruffalo,” “The Gruffalo’s Child,” and “The Snail and the Whale.”

In Writing, we are beginning our unit on informational/teaching books and began writing our “How To…” Books. The children brainstormed many ideas and drafted some steps of something they feel as EXPERTS and ready to teach others. Some of the ideas were “Riding a Bike, Playing Soccer, Making Hot Chocolate, Painting a Picture, Ice Skating, Making a Cookie,” and much more. We will be working on these books for a couple of weeks and will present them to all the parents at our Kindergarten Publishing Party on Friday, December 8th! Please ask your child what topic she/he chose and try to explore it together!

In addition, we learned about writing strategies, such as leaving spaces between words, singing or ‘stretching” our words to figure out how to spell them, and looking for words around the room, on our Word Wall, in a dictionary or asking friends and teachers..

In Science, we finished our unit on Senses with the Sense of Smell. We learned about the importance of smell to help us enjoy our food and how smell alerts us of danger. We experimented with our sense of smell through a smelling test and tried to guess the correct scent. In conclusion of this unit, the children completed their “Five Senses” book and will bring it home today to read to their family.

In Social Studies, we read the book “Yoko” by Rosemary Wells and talked about how every family has their traditions and special food they love to eat. We drew pictures and wrote about our family’s favorite foods.

In Hebrew we continued to learn and review vocabulary related to colors.

(Adom- red, kachol – blue, yarok-green, Katom- orange. Tzahov-yellow, sagol -purple, lavan- white, chum- brown )

We discussed the different colors of different fruit ( peirot- פירות) and vegetables ( Yerakot -ירקות ) for example: “Hatapuach yarok” ( the apple is green) or “haavokado yarok” ( the avocado is green) , “ hatapuz katom” ( the orange is orange).

In addition, we sorted what grows on the trees ( etzim-עצים) and what grows in the land ( adama-אדמה ).” We read the book “Charuzim Teimimim “ by Datya Ben Dor and “Hatzeva hachi Yafe “ by Paul Kor. We sang songs such as Alef Beit, and the color song as well as songs about fall – Beruach hastav and Geshem Geshem.

In Judaics we started learning about the third day of creation in which G-d created the trees, flowers, grass, fruit and vegetables. We also learned about Hannah Senesh’s life and created diaries in her memory.

In Tefillah we continued singing every day songs such as “Modeh Ani”, “Ma tovu’’ “Torah Torah” and “Shema”. We continued learning about the different brachot in Kabbalat Shabbat .

Related vocabulary (new and old):

Colors: Adom- red, kachol – blue, yarok-green, Katom- orange. Tzahov-yellow, sagol -purple, lavan- white, chum- brown.

Weather: geshem- rain, shemesh- sun, ananim- clouds, ruach- wind, ohr- light, choshech-darkness,

sameach-happy, atzuv -sad, koes- mad. Ani poh- I am here , Yeled -boy, Yalda-Girl, tapuach-apple, rimon-pomegranate, shofar, challa , glidah- ice cream, dvash-honey,, as well as abba – father, Ima-mother, saba-grandfather, savta- grandmother. Shalom, boker tov – good morning, Bevakasha- please, Lakum – (to)get up, lashevet – (to)sit.

A few important reminders:

Parent-Teacher Conferences:
- Thursday, November 9th, all day – NO SCHOOL (Babysitting provided during your conference, in the gym)
- Monday, November 13th, 4-6pm.
Friday, December 8, 8:45- 9:30am, Publishing Party for all Kindergarten Families
Tuesday, December 19th, 5:15-7:00 pm, – Lower School Hanukkah Play (all classes present for their families).