Kindergarten Blog 2/4

Dear Kindergarten Families,

We began the week by dividing into our new groups, The Pretty Planets and the Marvelous Toys (based on two of our favorite songs). Each child then made a family Venn Diagram with a child who had not been in their group in the first half of the year as a way of getting to know them. We celebrated the Lunar New Year by greeting each other with “Gung Hey Fat Choy” and making origami tiger faces in honor of the Year of the Tiger. We began to learn a new song about different types of families, Love Makes a Family.  Here is the link to the song, which includes some lovely family photos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv1-arw9TYc.  We started making family collages out of the shapes we have been studying in math.

In Math we continued playing addition games (Racing Dice, Five in a Row, and Addition Cross Out). We did more work with Pattern Blocks, studying and continuing patterns created by the blocks. We also practiced counting by tens and continued making observations about the 100’s chart during Morning Meeting.

In Reading we learned about a new super power: Snap Word Power.  We reviewed all the snap words we have been learning and then went on a snap word hunt in the books in our book baggies and found SO MANY of them! We also studied a new alphabet chart, My Yummy ABC’s and saw that the letter I can make the I sound heard in ice cream as well as igloo and iguana!

For Science this week, we tracked the progress of our blooming amaryllis plant, and sketched its growth a little bit every day. We learned about the different parts of a plant: root, stem, leaf, bud, flower, pollen, and seed. 

In Hebrew, we switched up our routine, and began greeting each other in pairs at the start of every class. Students say “Boker tov/zo’arayim tovim, ___. Ma nishma?” (Good morning/afternoon, ___. How are you?” and respond with “Ani beseder.” (I’m good.) We also started to break down the word “שלום” (shalom), focusing on “ש” and “ל” for this week. The children learned to write these letters and recognize what sounds they make.

In Judaic Studies, we made a big list of everything we know about Shabbat, and then separated our list into “different traditions” and “always the same” and found that families can have widely varying Shabbat traditions, but Shabbat is always on the 7th day, and always starts/ends at sunset. We then watercolor painted sunsets!

We concluded with Kabbalat Shabbat and learned a new silly Shabbat song: There’s a Dinosaur Knocking at my Door.

Shabbat Shalom,

Atalya and Dawn