9/24 Kindergarten Blog

Dear Kindergarten Families,

What a fun week it’s been! The children had their first Art and Science classes and started learning the brachot for t’filah! In our Morning Meetings, we continued getting to know each other by sharing our favorite animals and treats (cotton candy was the most popular by far!). We learned a new song, Deep and Wide, and continued practicing ones we learned last week, including our special Hebrew Sukkot song.

In General Studies we had our first phonics lesson, studying the name of our classroom mascot, Mabel the elephant.  We looked at her name, counting the letters and noticing that no letters repeat and some letters are tall while others are short. We looked at the letter M and listened to the sound it makes. Then we generated a list of other words that start with M.  Ask your child if they can think of any words that start with M.

In Writing we introduced an important Kindergarten saying: “When you are done, you have just begun.  This begins the important work of looking at what you have already drawn and written and thinking about what else you might be able to add.  Or perhaps you are ready to start something new. 

We had our first handwriting lessons this week! Children were given colorful paper lines and curves (the shapes we use to write letters) and saw what they could create with them, including the letters F, E, and D. They then worked hard to write them the Kindergarten way, being sure to start in the upper left corner.

We also had our very first Science class! We learned all about the scientific method and read “Charlotte the Scientist is Squished”. We then conducted our very own science experiment! We first asked the question: How can we build a strong house with blocks? The class created their own hypotheses for how best to build a strong house that we tested by building and experimenting. We then came back together as a group to record our observations, and draw our conclusions.

In Hebrew, the children started to learn their colors. They learned adom (red), kachol (blue), yarok (green), and tsehov (yellow).

In Judaic Studies, we continued learning about Sukkot and preparing for our Sukkah event. We read “Sammy Spider’s First Sukkot”. We also learned Modeh Ani, the first of our t’filah brachot (blessings), and had Kabbalat Shabbat together.

The highlight of the week, of course, was our special parent event in the Sukkah!

Shabbat Shalom,

Atalya, Dawn, and Anat