Morah Music on Fridays

On Fridays we love engaging in Rhythmic Play. We pass the ball to a beat and stop when the music stops. We play with scarves and musical instruments. We read Brown Bear Brown Bear and Chicka Chika Boom Boom to notice patterns of words. Morah Rifky is also so teaching us quarter notes. This is the rhyme aspects of notes. This means noticing rhythm. We all love to dance, whether big or small. We sure love Fridays! 

Gathering together.

Holding Hands.

Scarves

Listening carefully.

Choosing colors.

Morah Rifky introducing us to Mr. Quater Note.

Letter A

This week we introduced a new letter to the class. Here is a riddle 3 girls and 1 boy start with this letter. They are Amailia, Abigail, Abbie and Ari. What letter could it be? Letter A of course. We learned that the letter A has two big lines and one small line across. We looked in Morah's surprise bag and saw many different things even Acorns. We learned a new song. The A goes AH, The A goes AH, Every letter make a sound the A goes AH. Lets take a deeper look...

We welcomed a new letter to the class! The letter A. 

In our book "My A Book" by Jane Moncure we heard many different words that started with the letter A. Morah brought a suprise bag and we saw an Alligator, Acorn, apple and pictures of Ari, Amilia, Abbie and Abigail!

Lirom modeling to the class how to form the letter A.

Every friend had a chance to practice!

Geoboard fun

We have learned  about the square and with a little but with a bit of thinking we can turn the square into a rectangle, when we stretch it out. Morah showed us how to use a Geo Board. Everyone got it. Who said learning has to be boarding. Wink, wink :)

Amalia waiting patiently while Cayla has her turn.

Ethan looks like he is working on a long rectangle.

Ari and Sophie working together and modeling team work.

Mimi and Lirom taking turns.

"Morah, We got it!"

Yoni and Abbie

Abbie

Abigail working on her polygon rectangle.

Moshe. 

Morah showing us the bark of a tree

Friends passing around the bark to feel and explore

Passing around more things that come from trees

Look at some of the things that come from trees

Shaina and Morah lighting our shabbat candles

Lirom making kiddush at our shabbat party

As our class learned about Sukkot, we also learned that the season was changing. Morah taught us that there are four seasons. Winter, spring, summer, and fall. They know that we said goodbye to the summer and say hello to the fall. Our newest song we are singing is about all the leaves falling down from the trees. Reading books is a big part of our lessons and we try to incorporate them as much as possible. We have done this while teaching about the fall too. In our books we saw many different types of trees and how the leaves on these trees are not the same shape or even the same color. We know that there are even some trees that grow fruits on them and while others don't. Morah brought in leaves, bark, acorns, pine cones and some other interesting things that come from trees. We got to pass them all around and compare them. The children got to tell if the item was smooth or rough, big or small, the same or different etc. This was a big highlight. They really enjoyed it.

Sukkot time has come and gone but our class learned so much. The different customs we have like shaking the lulav and etrog- we hope you liked the ones we made and sitting in the sukkah- we had so much fun doing this at school. We also heard about stories from he children and other sukkahs they sat in too. Singing our songs about he shaking the lulav and etrog and another one about the sukkah has been heard all around our class. In the block center the children spent ime making all different kinds of sukkahs.
Simchat torah was next. Our class made beautiful flags with pictures of the kids holding the torah. Morah has taught us the importance of the Torah. The children understand that it was given to us as a present from Hashem. They know that there are mitzvot inside the Torah and that it is very special. Please remember to send in Mitzvah notes daily for your child. It gives them a lot of pride as well as a good feeling that they're doing a mitzvah.

Yom Kippur was next. Morah taught us that this is a very serious day. Mommies and Daddies go to the shul to daven to Hashem and ask for it to be a sweet and good new year. Our class knows that adults don't eat or drink on this holiday because they are too busy davening to Hashem. Before Yom Kippur we take time to say 'I'm Sorry' to anyone we may have done something wrong to. Saying sorry can be very difficult for anyone (not just the children). Morah made a chart in our classroom and we were able to earn stickers each time we said sorry to a friend when we needed to. Our class read the book The Hardest Word. In the book it tell us that they hardest thing to say is 'I'm Sorry'. Rabbi Naftoli came into our classroom with a chicken and he explained that we give our sins (not good things we did all year) to the chicken and that it goes to Hashem in a way to say we are sorry. This is called Kapparot.

In nursery we have been very hard at work. The children learned all about Rosh Hashana and all the customs we have. Morah taught us that it is the beginning of a new year.
One of the things we do on Rosh Hashana is to blow the shofar. Mr. Zeke came in and taught us all about the different sounds that the shofar makes and were it comes from. We know the sounds are called Tekiyah, Shevarim, and Teruah. There is also Tekiyah Gedolah. The children learned that the sounds actually sound like different cries and that it tells us that it is time to wake up and do mitzvot to get ready for the new year. We even got to hold and smell- (yuck) the shofar. He brought in a few different kinds and they all looked, felt, and sounded different.
Another thing we do on Rosh Hashana is eat things that are round like challah. Friends even got to make their very own  challah and we put in some raisins to make them extra sweet. We did this because Morah taught us that we want to have a very sweet new year.
Some other things we eat that are sweet on Rosh Hashana is apple dipped in honey. Our friends learned a song dip the apple in the honey... Its so much fun to sing! As our project our class made special apple and honey dishes. The children had fun apple stamping too! Morah explained that there are many different kids of apples. They don't all look the same, taste the same, or even smell the same. We were given a chance to taste three different kinds- green, red, and yellow. Taking time to measure all of our classmates using apples was very silly and helped us count and review our numbers too.

Benjamin holding a lulav and etrog for sukkot

Yoni holding a torah to get ready for simcha torah

our Nursery class eating and in the sukkah at mazel

Yoni and Ari using gross motor skills to ride on the bikes and scooters

Amalia, Sophia, and Ari climbing outside at the playground practicing gross motor skills

Shaina and Ethan using gross motor skills to go down the slide

Abigail using gross motor skills in our gym

Rabbi Naftoli came into our class to do kapparot with us for Yom Kippur

Look how many apples tall Mimi is

How many apples tall is Amalia

We looked at three different colored apples; red, yellow, and green

Ari making his red apple 

Ethan, Abbie, and Benjamin trying the three different apples to see which one they liked the best

Yoni making his honey dish plate

Abigail pretending to blow the shofar 

Benjamin, Mimi, Sophia, and Shaina singing our shofar song and doing the motions to blow the shofar

Mimi, Ari, Moishe, and Abbie taking an extra close look at the seeds we find inside an apple

Our honey pots that we apple stamped

Mr. Zeke came in for a special lesson about the shofar- what fun

Ari and Yoni using their fine motor skills to dot paint and use stickers for a project

Lirom using his fine motor skills to color

Moishe using his fine motor skills to build a tower and count

Amalia using her fine motor skills to practice buttoning

Abigail using her fine motor skills to practice snapping

Benjamin using his fine motor skills by playing with play dough

Shiana using her fine motor skills to color

Mimi using her fins motor skills by using the glue for a project

Sophia using her fine motor skills to paint

Cayla using her fine motor skills to dot pint

Abbie using her fine motor skills gluing

Ethan using his fine motor skills to do a puzzle