Monthly Archives: September 21, 2018

We hope you had an easy and meaningful fast. Now it’s on to Sukkot.

With toddlers, it’s all about the senses: taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing. What an ideal way to experience Sukkot.

We began on Monday when the children arrived at school and saw the shul Sukkah for the first time. Then they heard Mr. George and Mr. Florian hammering the poles to make sure the sukkah  was safe. We looked up and saw a sukkah doesn’t have a roof like our houses do or carpet on the floor.

During circle time, we explained that during Sukkot we thank Hashem for all of the fruits and vegetables he helped us to grow. One of the ways we thank Hashem is to build a sukkah, a special kind of house. When we look up in a sukkah we can see the sky. A sukkah only has 3 sides. We spend as much time in the sukkah with family and friends as we can.  During Sukkot we wave a lulav and etrog because Hashem is everywhere. We read “The Very Crowded Sukkah” by Leslie Kimmelman and the children especially liked the part where all kinds of animals visited the sukkah when the family went to sleep. We also read “Its Sukkah Time” by Berry Kropf.

Because the sukkah is like our house, we want it to look pretty. Each child “filled” an apple with a photo of themselves and decorated it with stickers. Using stickers is a great way to strengthen fine motor skills and prepare children for writing. Using thin paintbrushes for the first time, they painted the other side. This use of different sized brushes is another way for the children to practice fine […]

In the Sunflowers today we continued to talk about the upcoming holiday of Yom Kippur.   The children remembered how  important it is to be kind to our friends and how we ask for forgiveness   if we accidentally hurt our friends.  The children enjoyed making their YOM KIPPUR SOCKS  (shoes) that they can wear to shul instead of their Shabbat shoes.  The children also enjoyed when their friends from the Gan Tziporim (4 year old class) shared their water bottles, shovels, and bubbles with us when we were outside on the playground.  We used our good  manners  and said “Thank You.”

Below the children enjoyed trying on their Yom Kippur socks.

The children can not wait to come back to school on Thursday and start to build our very own sukkah  for our classroom.  It is going to be so much fun.  Putting the walls up,  the roof (Sachach), and the decorations is going to be a lot of hard work.  We know that the children will be up  for the task.  Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

Wishing everyone a very easy and meaningful fast.

Morah Pam and Morah Aimee

In order to understand the meaning behind the holiday of Yom Kippur, we read the book Sammy Spider’s First Yom Kippur by Sylvia A. Rouss.
The book present the concept of teshuvah, including saying and meaning the words I am sorry. It is presented in an accessible format, with common, easily relatable mistakes that children make such as not listening when mommy or daddy ask to clean up, or playing ball in the house, or accidentally breaking something. The discussion really resonated with the children as you could hear in their play throughout the day.

The children really enjoy giving to each other and especially as we sing our tzedakah song each morning. Through our discussions about kindness towards others, they like to imagine how people would use the tzedakah money. Your children created these lovely Tzedakah Bears to keep at home to collect their own Tzedakah. Kindly help them learn the mitzvah of giving. When our school tzedakah box is full, we will use the money to purchase things people need and give it to them. We are sure your children will enjoy doing this at home with their special Tzedakah Bear. They are so excited to watch it fill up!!

We look forward to our Sukkot preparations!! We will see you all on Thursday!! Gmar Chatima Tova. May we have an easy and meaningful fast.

Morah Yafit and Morah Fran

In the sunflowers this week the children were eager to return to school and share with their friends how their Rosh Hashanah was.  The children enjoyed hearing the shofar being blown in shul; TEKIYAH, SHEVARIM, TERUAH, AND TEKIYAH GEDOLAH.  Dipping the apple in the honey was so yummy.  After hearing how everyone’s holiday went, the children couldn’t resist singing DIP THE APPLE IN THE HONEY… We started to talk about the next holiday of YOM KIPPUR.  We talked about how important it is to be kind to our friends and always say you’re sorry if you hurt someone. We also ask “What can I do to make you feel better?” The compassion the children show to each other is beautiful to observe. WE talked about some of the ways we celebrate this special day. The children said we got o shul and we mentioned that our mommies and daddies stay in shul for a very, very long time. We even talked about some things that we do that are so different than what we normally do like our mommies and daddies don’t eat- they fast. And how silly we thought it was to find out that we don’t wear our Shabbat shoes and instead we wear sneakers or slippers!! We can’t wait to talk more about these things next week!!

Here are some pictures of us being good friends.

We had our first Fire Drill practice this week. First, we talked inside our classroom about safety and ways to be safe. The children were able to give us a whole list of ways they know to stay safe from holding hands while crossing the street to walking safely on the steps. We spoke about how sometimes we […]

We have had so much fun during the first week at school! We loved the playground and the Exploration room.  And especially playing with our friends.

This week we read books about the first day of school and Rosh Hashanah including Apples and Honey by Joan Holub and Mouse’s First Day of School by Lauren Thompson.

Rosh Hashanah is on its way. We talked about that it is the beginning of the year.   We were able to hold, feel and play with real shofars. We used magnifying glasses to look closer and saw why we felt bumps on each one. We noticed that some of the shofars had stripes and some had two colors or more. We wished we had our own shofars so we decided to create them in our classroom.

We also discussed how we eat apples dipped in honey for a sweet New Year.  We heard that one reason why we eat them could be that since they are round it symbolizes how the cycle of the year goes around and around. So many of the children expressed that they love to eat apples, so, we tasted 3 different color apples with honey.  Then we graphed which color apple each child liked best.

We enjoyed celebrating Shabbat with our friends.  We drank grape juice and tasted Challah.  We even got up and danced to the songs.

Thank you again, Morah Kerry! We loved having you with us!!

We wish you a healthy and happy New Year and look forward to seeing the children next week.

Morah Aimee and Morah Pam