Planning our last weeks of Kindergarten!

Dear Kindergarten Families,

We had a fun week in Kindergarten! We could not go to the new park on Thursday because of the rain, but we promised our children that we will go there next week. We are also very excited for our field trip to the Prospect Park Zoo on Tuesday!

For the next two weeks, our kindergartners will plan their own schedule (led by their teachers, of course). They brainstormed a variety of activities, lessons and events that they would like to do, learn and explore while closing their kindergarten experience. We will organize these ideas into a logical schedule and share it with all of you this Sunday.

In Math, we began our unit on Weight and Capacity. We enjoyed comparing the weights of different objects and determining which was heavier or lighter. We also explored the weight of different objects using standard and non-standard units. We introduced the terms “pound, gram and ton” and tried to figure out which things would be measured in each of those units. Please continue to review subtraction with your children (5-3=2).

In English Language Arts, we continued our Author Study of Robert Munsch. The children are eager to read as many of these exciting, funny and unpredictable books as possible. In addition, we have been reading our leveled books, practicing writing words with short and long vowels (hop vs. hope), and doing our spelling sorts (short sounds /0/ and /i/ and digraphs /th/ and /wh/ as in ‘thunder’ and ‘whip.’

In Social Studies, we concluded our City Block Unit. We read the book “Me On the Map” by Joan Sweeney. We talked about where we live in our country, state, city, street, and house and created our own books about our special places on the map.

In Science, we finished our unit Exploring Plants and Animals. We learned what happens if a plant does not get all the elements that it needs to grow (soil, water, sunlight). We discussed why it is so important to take care of our plants to help them grow and recorded our observations using words and pictures.

Hebrew and Judaic

This week we reviewed many Hebrew words we learned so far through games, songs and acting. We sang the Alef Bet song and played hangman and letter games in which the children had to say words that begin with any Hebrew letter that was picked randomly. For example, for the letter Gimmel children offered the words “geshem – rain, glida- ice cream, gezer – carrot, gadol- big”; for the letter Bet the words were “ bayit- house, barvaz- duck”, for the letter Chet the words were Challa, chatul- cat, chatif-snack, chalav-milk, cheshbon- math, Chana senesh …etc. Many children pointed to the corresponding letter while singing the Alef bet and could solve many word games that required recognizing letters. We read books such as “Eifo Hakivsa Hayeruka” and “Sammy Spider’s Trip to Israel”

We continued discussing about Matan Torah (the Giving of the Torah) and the ten commandments. This week we focused on the commandment of honoring your father and mother. Children suggested different ways to honor their parents. They all agreed that listening to our parents, going to sleep on time and doing great in school can make them very happy. Finally we sang the song “Haleluya” which is a great song of gratitude and giving thanks for all what we have,

On Friday, June 8th, the Student Council is organizing a Spirit day for Middle School. They are wearing orange and white in honor of the day. The lower school kids (and staff) are also invited to wear orange and white on that day.

Have a great weekend!

Shabbat Shalom,

Irit, Rachel, Regina, and Ilana

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Saying goodbye to our butterflies and ladybugs! 🙁

And… saying goodbye to Alona who is moving with her family to San Francisco!

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One of the best developmental games for children of all ages is building with blocks and construction materials and, in our class, everyone loves building and creating amazing inventions!