11/5 Kindergarten Blog

Dear Kindergarten Families,

 

This week, we began with our student jobs! Every day, students have a new responsibility, like Teacher Helper, Sweeper, Blessing Leader, among others. We learned “Pretty Penny” and continued familiarizing ourselves with some of our newer songs like “You Are My Sunshine” and “Dreams of Harmony.”

 

In Phonics we studied the last student name: Olivia.  Vowels are tricky since they make so many different sounds but we were able to generate a good list of words that start with O.  We also practiced reading, writing, spelling, and using two new snap words: like and can.

 

In Writer’s Workshop we practiced meeting with a writing partner to get ideas for our stories.  Partners make suggestions about details that might be added to pictures or words, and it is up to the writer to decide whether she or he wants to use the suggestion.

 

In Reading we continue to read independently and in small groups.  Many children are working on paying close attention to the pictures and the first letter in words to read their books.  Others are working on being sure to read every word on the page and stopping when a word is challenging or does not make sense,

 

In Social Studies we made a graph of all the languages that children speak with their families.  It was no surprise to learn that English and Hebrew were represented the most frequently, with a sprinkling of Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Anat), and Chinese (Atalya). We also added to our list of how to say hello: Jambo (Kenyan), Ciao (Italian) and Woof (dog!).

 

In Math we continue to work on decomposing numbers, this week using unifix cubes and bead bracelets to show the many different combinations for the numbers 7-10.  We also learned two new games: One More and Two More. 

 

We had our first cooking experience! Children made soft pretzels in the shape of the first letter of their names. While some turned out to have a bit too much salt on top, all agreed that the process was fun and we will soon add some more recipes to our repertoire. Another project was making an alphabet rainbow by carefully painting bubble letters with watercolors. 

 

In Science this week, we continued on with sight, and our careful scientific sketches. The students did excellent work studying the different shapes and details they noticed in Lego blocks, and sketching what they observed. They added labels and finally colored them in with colored pencils. 

 

In Handwriting, we shifted gears and began learning how to carefully write numbers the Kindergarten Way! We learned 1, 2, 3, and 4, and realized that when we learned O, our last letter, we unknowingly learned how to write 0.

 

In Hebrew, now that we know all of our colors, we are continuing with our body parts, and started playing games and learning songs to help us remember our new vocabulary. The children are continuing to practice “Yesh li ___” (I have __). We are beginning our unit on opposites, including gadol (big) and katan (small). We learned the song Ani Naki which talks about washing our hands, legs, face, and brushing our teeth to stay clean.

 

In Judaic Studies, we continue with the third day of Creation, reviewing the vocabulary: yam/yabasha (sea/shore), etsim/prachim (trees/flowers), or/choshech (light/dark). We sang Ma Barah Hashem? In Tefilah, we do Modeh Ani, Matovu, and Sh’mah, and the Parshat HaShavuah is Toldot. We finished the week with Kabbalat Shabbat.

 

Shabbat Shalom,

 

Atalya, Dawn, and Anat