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K Blog 12/3

Dear Kindergarten Families,

 

What an eventful couple of weeks it’s been! Following Parent-Teacher Conferences, we prepared for our Kesher Day activities and enjoyed showing off our singing and morning meeting routines to the grandparents of Kindergarten. We also worked on our own diaries, and shared one time we were brave for the Hannah Senesh Tekes, honoring our school’s namesake. After that, our focus shifted to preparing for our big Hanukkah event in which we sang for the whole school, and of course, put together and practiced for our much-anticipated Publishing Party. One book that we had fun reading as we worked to make sure that our stories had a beginning, middle, and end was One Day/The End.  Here is  link to listen to it: One Day The End by Rebecca Kai Dotlich (short version)

 

It’s Hanukkah, and we couldn’t be more excited! Every day, we’ve watched (and on Wednesday participated in) our school-wide candle-lighting ceremonies, got gifts and goodies to celebrate the holiday, and in general have an air of holiday spirit.

 

The highlight of the week was our Publishing Party, and the children were so excited to share all of their hard work with all of you, so that you can all see the tremendous steps the children have taken in every subject. We encourage you to look at the photos and videos here below:

In Science this week, we learned all about Smell. In 17 paper bags, all numbered, were different items or spices like lavender, cinnamon, coffee grounds, sage, and tea bags. Among these, were three bags with materials that had no scent. The children’s job was to figure out which three bags had no scent. Then all together, we generated our list of observation words, including “minty, spicy, stinky, and flowery”.

 

In Phonics, we learned all about V, W, X, and Z, and the sounds they make.

 

This week in Hebrew/Judaics was all about Hanukkah. We taught the story of the Maccabees and the three miracles that occurred in the Beit HaMikdash in Israel. Every day this week we lit the candles for Hanukkah, learning and saying the brachot to go along with it. The kids played with dreidels and learned about what the letters stand for (Nes gadol hayah sham: “A big miracle happened there”) We sang Hanukkah songs, and decorated our own dreidels. The vocabulary for this week was: chanukia, suvganya, svivon, kad shemen, nes, levivah, and latkes.

 

In Music class, our Kindergarteners have been learning the song Banu Choshech with movements. They had a blast performing the song at school for Hanukkah Candle Lighting on Wednesday! To honor Native American heritage day/month, they sang and played percussion instruments to the Iroquois lullaby Ho Ho Watanay. Kindergarteners have also started to read music. They have been practicing reading, saying and playing quarter notes, eighth notes and quarter rests.

 

 

Shabbat Shalom,

 

Atalya, Anat, and Dawn