Kindergarten Blog 1/28

Dear Kindergarten Families,

This week, we planted parsley seeds, began a new Creation painting, and learned a new way to read and write the date: 1/28/22, in addition to January 28, 2022.  This is in preparation for a few special activities we will do on 2/22/22. We learned some new songs (Rise and Shine and In the Mood) and had fun singing some songs we have not sung for some time. We read Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? all together using the superpowers of Pointer Power and Reread Power.

In Phonics we looked at a new alphabet chart, an Animal Alphabet Chart. We studied the chart and noticed that like the alphabet chart we have been using, each box has an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, and a picture that starts with that sound. A few pictures are the same on each chart, but many are  different. Two of the sounds are different. The G is the g sound in giraffe rather than goat, and the U is the u sound in unicorn rather than umbrella. Many children added the new alphabet chart to their writing folders to help them sound out words. We added other tools (a name chart and a snap word chart) to their writing folders to help with spelling as they continue to work on their Show and Tell writing about favorite places. 

In Math we began studying shapes.  We first looked at circles, triangles, rectangles, and squares.  We talked about triangles having three sides and other words that have tri in them (tricycle, trio, triplets).  We noticed that rectangles and squares both have four sides but that squares have four sides that are all the same length.  We then made some shape collages, using those four shapes. The next day we looked at hexagons, trapezoids, rhombuses and did a puzzle showing all the different ways you can make a hexagon out of trapezoids, rhombuses, and triangles.  

In Science, we checked on our germinated sprouts and then planted parsley seeds in soil! The amaryllis plant we have growing in the classroom is starting to bloom, making our second sketches of the plant really exciting. For our parsley seeds, we decided to conduct an experiment: we germinated seeds for different lengths of time (0hrs, 2hrs, and 12hrs), and are going to monitor which seeds grow fastest/into the strongest sprouts.

We made a connection between baking and planting when we baked up a quick loaf of Italian Bread for snack and learned that like plants, there are certain things that yeast needs to grow (warmth and sweetness). Several students asked for the recipe, so here it is :https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/italian-bread.  If you aren’t familiar with working with yeast, make sure the water is warm but not hot!!

In Hebrew, we learned a new game called Gam Ani (Same As Me), in which the children took turns being “teacher” and made statements about their families, colors they like, and what they are wearing. If the statement is true for anyone else, they have to stand up and say “Gam Ani!”

In Judaic Studies, we are returning to Creation, going over everything we learned previously, and continuing with the sixth day, which is all about wild animals. We also read “The Shabbat Box” and created a list of what we’d like to include in our own Shabbat boxes.

Shabbat Shalom,

Atalya, Dawn, and Anat