1/13/23 Kindergarten Blog

Dear Kindergarten Families,

It was another busy week in Kindergarten.  We are back into full swing after our Winter Break and full of energy and curiosity!

In Social Studies we continued our study of Martin Luther King Jr. We learned about Rosa Parks and the bus boycott. We talked about the sit-ins at lunch counters and how they were another form of peaceful protest.  We listened to a portion of the I Have a Dream Speech, focusing on the power and strength of King’s voice. We worked hard to learn the words to the song The Dream of Martin Luther King to sing at this morning’s Tekes.  It was nice to see some of you there, and we heard from some of your children that you were online! We hope you enjoyed their singing.   

In Writing we are working to finish up a story so that we can begin a new unit, Show and Tell Writing, next week.  Children will be asked to bring in an item from home that is important to them.  We will work on labeling the different parts of the items, describing them in good detail, and writing about how we like to use them.  Children can begin bringing items in on Tuesday.

In Reading some children continued to review letter sounds, revisiting some of the letters that we studied earlier in the year. Others began to study the short a sound and the many different words that end in -at.  We reviewed our snap words (I, a, the, like, and, it) and continued reading the books in our book baggies. 

In Math, Kindergartners learned about the difference between length and height. Children explored the room and found things shorter than and taller than they are. They then had the opportunity to measure the heights of different objects around the classroom using snap cubes, a measuring tape, and a yard stick.

In Science, we are continuing to learn about forces in motion. Last week, we experimented sending cars down ramps of varying steepnesses and learned about gravity. This week we returned to the cars and ramps and experimented sending cars down ramps onto the rug, the tile floor, and our red lounge chairs. We learned that friction is when two things rub together and the more friction, the quicker the car stops. 

In Hebrew, drawing from how on the fifth day of Creation, G-d created birds, we started learning Hebrew words that help us describe and talk about birds. We learned to say ציפור tzipor bird, כנפיים knafayim wings, מקור makor beak, נוצה notzah feather, and קן ken nest. We also started learning about the five senses in Hebrew:  חוש הריח chosh hareach sense of sight, חוש השמיעה chosh hashmiyah sense of hearing, חוש הראיה chosh hareyah sense of sight, חוש הטעם chosh hata’am sense of taste, and חוש המישוש chosh hameeshoosh sense of touch. We explored how we experience these senses in a hands-on way.

In Judaic studies, we continued learning about Creation and are now learning about the 6th day – particularly the land animals that are mentioned, like lions, giraffes, bears and tigers. We also read the book “How Dalia Put a Big Yellow Comforter Inside a Tiny Blue Box: And Other Wonders of Tzedakah”.  The Kindergartners shared their own experiences of collecting צדקה Tzedakah at home, and had wonderful ideas of how we can help others. 

We ended the week with the MLK Tekes, a K/1 sing, and Kabbalat Shabbat.

Shabbat Shalom, 

The K team