This week in Kindergarten we started learning all about pianos and keyboards. Here’s a video of us testing out how the piano works while watching what happens on the inside!
It’s definitely not Mozart, but it’s a start!
Class of 2022 (2nd grade)
Celebrating Fairy Tales with our Buddies
During the month of January, Kindergarten took some time to learn all about the exciting world of fairy tales. Throughout the month, we read numerous fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs and many more. We enjoyed noticing the characters, setting and plot of each story and even incorporating STEAM activities into our learning. The students had a wonderful time building houses for the three little pigs out of different materials and seeing if the “wolf” could blow them down.
We also got together with our amazing 4th grade buddies to complete some silly fairy tale Mad Libs and, most importantly, make some awesome puppets! The buddies worked together to make their own fairy tale puppets for our class theater and, hopefully, they can perform shows for us soon. Stay tuned to see what exciting activities our buddies work on next!
The Glueless Forest
Children have completed their 3-d design unit and have created a variety of structures and figures. To earn the privilege of using glue and tape, kids first had to show they could build things using different attachment strategies. Even after glue and tape were given to them, students continued to build small creatures and plants using their newly learned attachment strategies. I decided to put all of their creations together in a display that we call “The Glueless Forest.” The results are impressive and speak for themselves.
Kindergarten Rabbis’ Commentary on Creation
We are learning about the creation story in the Torah. During our conversations, we discovered that HaShem (God) created our world so that it could take care of itself. In turn, we as human beings are also responsible for making sure that we treat HaShem’s creations with respect and kindness.
We took this opportunity to interpret this story through art and to enrich our Hebrew vocabulary.
After we learned that there was nothing in the world before creation, I asked my rabbis:
What do you think was the first thing that Hashem created ?
Jake: Hashem needed light to see what can be done.
So from nothing HaShem created or (light) and choshech (darkness) in the first day.
Then what ?
Sasha: God thought about spreading the light again in the sky so God could see all the work God needed to do.
Asher: Hashem separated the mayim (water) from the adamah (earth)and shamayim (sky).
What do you think Hashem created in the third day ?
Joseph: I think animals and people.
Maya: Maybe worms.
Sidney: No. If you put people and animals before trees they would die. They need trees for oxygen.
So Hashem created everything that grows on the earth like: etzim (trees), prachim (flowers), and deshe (grass).
Maya: Hashem gave the trees roots to take care of themselves.
What Do you think next?
Sophie: Animals and fish.
Ruben: People.
Eli: No. The fish will die out because if there is no gravity they will fly and die out.
Sidney: They will go to space.
Eli: They can’t go to space because of the atmosphere, they can’t break the atmosphere.
Sidney: Woodpeckers can break trees so they can break the atmosphere.
Jake: No, they can’t the atmosphere is harder.
Asher: They will die before they get to the atmosphere because when you go up the air it is thin and you can’t breathe.
Then HaShem created the lights in the sky: shemesh (sun), yare’ach (moon), and kochavim (stars).
What happened in the fifth day?
Sasha: I think animals now.
Joseph: And people and school.
Jake: Animals before people because if God created people before animals they will cut down trees and plants and they will not leave room for animals. And if Hashem will create animals before people the animals will just make habitat to live.
Eli: If it is animals, it needs to be only plant-eaters. If you put people before animals they can die out because people didn’t know about predators.
The next was all the life in the water and in the air: dagim (fish), parparim (butterflies), and tziporim (birds).
Finally, the world was ready for human beings and animals: yeled (boy), yalda (girl), and chayot (animals).
And on the last day, HaShem rested and it was Shabbat.
As we prepared our Bereshit book, we noticed how, in each page, the world becomes more complete and more beautiful. We learned to appreciate the wonders and miracles of our creation and our world through this story in the Torah.
Resh and Gimmel
The main goal of our Hebrew classes for the last two weeks was to introduce the letters resh and gimmel: how they look and sound.
Students are able to recognize the letter resh in the words Rakevet (train), Rosh (head), Rimon (pomegranate), Ru-ah (wind) and Regel-Raglayim (foot-feet), and the letter gimel in the words Gamal (camel), Gadol (big), Gezer (carrot), and G’vina (cheese).
For our listening activity for the letter resh we read the story The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss in Hebrew (translated by Datya Dor). Students had a great time making the letter resh with their own raglayim (feet), as you can see.
For the letter gimmel we heard the story Eliezer Vehagezer (Eliezer and the Carrot). After we listened to the story, we spread g’vina (cheese) on Graham crackers and then we wrote the letter gimmel with gezer (a carrot). It was then fun to eat the letter gimmel.
For the letter resh the students created a Rakevet (train) in the shape of resh and filled it only with words that start with the letter resh.
When we discussed the shape of the letter gimmel, students discovered that when they put two gimmels together, they can make a Gamal (a camel).
And with our wonderful imaginations we figure out how to make Giraffa (a giraffe) out of the letter gimmel. The children drew the most amazing animals!
How wonderful it is to hear the children using the verb rotse/rotsa (want) in their sentences (such as ani rotse mayim I want water, ani rotse challah I want challah).
We conclude our study about resh with the rakevet song.
We are always so impressed by our student’s concentration, artistry and passion for learning!
Welcoming Fall in Kindergarten
As the weather gets colder and the leaves begin to change, Kindergarten students have been having a great time exploring and learning all about leaves and pumpkins. We spent a day digging through pumpkins and completing some amazing “Pumpkin Math.” Students drew the life cycle of a pumpkin and made predictions about whether their pumpkin would sink or float in water. They also measured circumference and height. When we were done, we collected and dried the seeds and roasted them to make a tasty treat with cinnamon and sugar. 
We also had an adventure taking a walk around the JCDS neighborhood to collect some autumn leaves. The class had a wonderful time finding all kinds of leaves in many shapes and colors. When we got back to the classroom, they sorted and graphed their leaves by shape, size and color.
We look forward to starting our science kit soon and begin exploring trees!
What Can I Do Better Next Year
After learning about the story of Jonah and the big fish, we had a discussion about Jonah’s experience and the importance of trying to do the right thing and the beauty of forgiveness when we make mistakes.
How do you show chesed (kindness) to your friends/family?
Asher: I’ll try new things. I’ll help my mom wash the dishes.
Eli: On Shabbat my mom always tries to make everything neat. Sometimes guests come. This shabbat I will help her clean up the mess.
Joseph: I’ll help my mom clean the table after supper.
Jake: I’ll feed the cats, even though it’s a little bit hard. I have to put the cat’s food in the basement.
What do we want to do better next year?
Maya: I will not pinch my daddy when I think he is not looking at me. I’ll use my words.
Sidney: I’m not going to be mean to my sister.
Sasha: Sometimes I don’t let Yasha play with my toys. I’ll fix my mistake and I’ll tell him that he can play with my toys.
Ruben: I’m not going to bang things hard like I broke the cash register in our classroom.
Sophie: Sometimes I’m not listening to Jonah. I’ll try to listen to him more.
Jake: I will not overflow the bathtub.
Joseph: Sometimes when my mom tells me to take a shower I do not listen. I’ll listen more to my mom.
Eli: When I’m in the bath, I keep forgetting not to splash the water on my brother. I know he hates it. I am not going to do that anymore. I’ll remember to stop. I will also not run in the hallway or slam the door when I go to the bathroom during the night.
Asher: I will not trick Ronan with the magic cards.
New Year’s Food Customs Around the World
Food is a universal language. Communities around the world of all traditions and religions eat special symbolic foods at their New Year’s celebrations.
Do you need ideas for Rosh Hashanah? Here are few to share with your family:
We in Kindergarten had a very special Rosh Hashanah Seder.
We blew the shofar to remind us that the New Year is coming.
The Japanese eat buckwheat noodles that symbolize long life. We tried to swallow at least one noodle whole for good luck.
For a lucky, fruitful year, Latin Americans eat twelve grapes at midnight on New Year’s Eve. We counted and ate them this morning.
The Chinese enjoy oranges that symbolize sweetness and good fortune. Yes, we ate oranges too.
Green is the color of money, so we ate green beans for prosperity.
Here’s where Jews from all over the world meet. We all dip apples in honey for a sweet year.
Pomegranate is one of the seven species of Israel. It symbolizes beauty and fertility in the Bible, literature and art. It’s delicious too!
We all celebrate the New Year in different ways and at different times, but we all wish each other “A Happy New Year.”
SHANA TOVA UMETUKA TO YOU ALL!
Welcome to Design Lab
Shalom,
I am Rotem and I am so excited to teach Design Lab to JCDSRI students from PreK to 3rd grade (and learn with them!). We just ended our fourth week in Design Lab and I would like to share with you some highlights of our time together.
We began by asking: What do we do in Design Lab? How can we think like designers?
The students had great ideas: we build things, we create, we take something and make it into something different. Everyone loves to create and to explore the materials in the room, to build with Lego, K’nex, Lincoln logs, cardboard and more.
In Design Lab, we are learning about the process of Design Thinking. Design Thinking is used to solve problems and create change in our world. The first step in this process is to look for problems. While not an easy task, the students were still able to share some great problems they are interested in solving:
- Keeping our hands to ourselves
- How to keep our stuff inside our cubbies
- Food spilling in lunch box / water leaking in backpack
- During quiet time it is hard to stay quiet
- Caring for the guinea pigs in 3rd grade
- Losing things
- The way people judge your work
- Playing ‘Monkey at the Bat’ during recess
- Being distracted while working in class
We also started practicing paying attention to details. In Hebrew the expression for being empathetic is Lasim Lev — “putting your heart,” meaning we make sure to look with our soul and not only with our eyes. We played different games in which the students had to pay close attention to small details.
For example, I asked students to change one thing (the way you hold your hands, tuck your shirt in, untie your shoelaces, etc.) and can your partner notice the change?
Another was a visual memory game – who is missing from the class? What color is their shirt?
A long journey is ahead of us and it will be an interesting one.
Lehitraot (see you again)
Rotem
Kindergarten Presents…4th Grade Buddies!
Last week the Kindergarten class got to have their first meeting with our awesome 4th grade buddies from Ms. Silva’s class! The buddies will now be joining us every Monday after lunch and spend our “rest time” with us. This is a wonderful opportunity for the buddies to read, write and relax together. Kindergarten is very excited that we just started reading the “Magic Tree House” series and will be starting a project to fill our own “tree house” (the loft) with magical books that we will write with the help of our amazing buddies. We hope to continue making wonderful memories with our buddies and inviting them to participate in some fun Autumn science experiments as the month progresses.
