Literacy & Lentil Soup

Literacy

This week we learned the letters Aleph and Beis along with A and B.  We made baskets and discussed the letter B.  During snack time on Friday, Morah D pointed out that Nechama had Bissli in her lunch and that starts with the letter Beis.  Then, Morah Shoshana asked the class "who else has food in their lunch that starts with a Beis?"  Shira said, "I have a brownie!"  Then Vella held up her banana chips and said "Beis for banana!"  Then Morah D asked everyone what they call the thing they drink their water from and Nechama said "bottle....beis for bottle!"  After about five minutes of quietly eating our snack Ben shouted out "b-b-bagel!!!!!!"   Everyone laughed and said, "yes and Beis for Ben!"  Then Ben said, "no...I'm not a food".  Everyone giggled.

Basket making

Bunny Observations

Making predictions and observations develops literacy skills and rational thinking.  Vella observed that "the bunny is eating his hay".  Shira held the bedding and said "it's soft."  Nosson and Shira had a conversation about his teeth.  Shira said that the bunny has two teeth and she has 100 teeth.  Nosson said that the bunny only has front teeth and that he has front and back teeth.  Everyone agreed that the bunny was soft.  Tamar said "he's black".  Shimmy laughed and said, "he pooped!"

Dramatic & Outdoor Play

Dramatic play is so important for developing multiple skills such as creativity, imagination, sharing, spacial awareness, and emotional regulation.  Outside on Wednesday, Nosson and Shira were playing Tatty and Ima and the sisters were Vella and Nechama.  Shira asked Nosson to go with her to California.  He said, "no I can't, I have to go to New York".  He then pointed out that the grassy area outside was New York.  How creative!

Ben and Shimmy riding bikes

Shimmy figured out that two triangles make a square.  He went up to Morah Shoshana and said, "look I made a square".  Awesome math skills Shimmy!

The Green Room in dance class.

Parsha

This week the parsha is Toldos.  We made lentil soup in honor of the parsha and everyone enjoyed cutting, seasoning, stirring, and finally devouring the delicious soup.  We even shared soup with the other morahs.  During our soup cooking we had a discussion about the parsha.  Please ask the following questions to your child at the shabbos table this week:

1. What did Yaakov cook? (lentil soup)

2. Who did Yaakov make the soup for? (Yitzchok or "his Tatty")

3. Who gobbled up the soup instead? (Esav)

4.  Yaakov and Esav are twins.  Who else do we know that are twins? (Ben and Shimmy)

5.  What did Rivka put on Yaakovs arm? (fur)

6.  What did Yaakov get from his aba/Yitzchok? (a bracha)

7. Does your aba give you a bracha on Shabbat?

8.  When Yaakov and Esav were born, what was Yaakov holding onto? (Esav's heel/foot)

Shira making lentil soup out of playdoh.

We would like to give a very special shout-out to Ben and Vella.  With zero prompt from their teachers, these two friends worked together to create a new organizational system in our arts & crafts area.  They matched the crayons to the colored paper and thanks to them, this is the new system we will be using for the rest of the year.  Way to go Ben and Vella, we are very proud and grateful for their idea.

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah D and Morah Shoshana