A is for Arms!

This week has been filled with exciting alphabet lessons.  We learned a brand new song to help learn the alphabet.  The first line is "A is for arms, I am strong!"  You can see if your child can sing the rest to you.  We also worked very hard on the alphabet train puzzle.  Each friend had a different letter and when we got to that letter they had to say if they had it in their hand, they then placed in in it's spot in the puzzle.  We hung the puzzle in the room so we can practice with it every day.  We also continued with our Shabbos lesson and began making our Shabbos boxes.  We decorated candlesticks with nail polish and began painting our boxes.

The friends put together the alphabet puzzle promoting literacy and teamwork.

The friends painting their Shabbos boxes.

To promote the development of fine motor skills and problem solving we played the game Jenga. The friends loved being so careful pushing and pulling the blocks and making sure the tower didn't fall.  Of course when it fell everyone laughed and cheered.  They were able to grasp that if a block is loose it will come out easily and if it is tight it will be harder to take out and could cause the tower to fall down.  All the friends got better and better at the game each round.  The game also taught turn-taking.

Nechama balancing a Jenga block on top of the tower.

The friends loved playing doctor outside and the Rainbow Room loaned us their doctor and nurse costumes.  Each friend took turns being the doctor and giving each other check-ups.  The turn-taking and sharing of costumes taught self-regulation and it was so fun having the whole class play together.  Morah D and Morah Shoshana were both given check-ups too.

Ben about to give Morah Shoshana a shot and his nurse Shira is helping facilitate.

Morah Shoshana crying because her shot by Dr. Vella hurt!

We had a new music and movement class this week with Mr. Sam.  We learned new songs and also sang some songs we already knew.  It was so fun and we can't wait until next week when he comes back again.

We are so happy to have our friend Tamar back from Israel.  We missed her so much.  We also wished Vella a safe trip to Memphis and we will miss her until she is back next week!  The friends decided to give Vella a silly farewell by lifting her on a chair and singing Simon Tov U'Mazal Tov!

Tamar making her Shabbos candlestick on her first day back in school!

Celebrating Vella's simcha!

Parsha

This week's parsha is Vayechi.  Yaakov passes away in Egypt and he instructs Yosef to bury him in Eretz Yisroel.   Yaakov also blesses his sons before he passes away.  Yosef dies at the age of 110 and he is buried in Egypt but he asks that his bones be taken to Eretz Yisroel which will eventually happen during the exodus from Egypt.

Tire race!

Ben and Shimmy being creative with Magnatiles.

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah D and Morah Shoshana