Winter

Winter is a wonder to children and adults alike and during this season kindergarten took the time to notice the QUIET winter brings. We recalled the sights and sounds we see and hear in the fall season, remembering that fall is a season of color and busy animal activity preparing for rest! By contrast, winter is a time of rest – the world becomes dormant. To fully appreciate QUIET, we took a walk in the woods to the river. We all sat – SILENTLY – and listened. When we came back inside we recalled all we had heard and seen – and…WHY we heard and saw what we did! This is what we discovered:

We Saw: Animal footprints (we think they were from a deer) The Children Thought: "They want the berries!" "They want a drink of water!" We Saw: Ice by the water's sides The Children Thought: "The water does not move as fast there." "The land warms the sides of the water!" We Saw: The water in the river was moving fast and there was MORE water than in the fall The Children Thought: "All the snow melted into the river!" We Saw: Brown leaves underneath the snow The Children Thought: "The leaves fell off the tree and no one raked them" We Saw: A lot of broken branches The Children Thought: "The wind broke them" "The snow is heavy" We Heard: The wind The Children Thought: "Outside has no roof, so you hear the trees move" We Heard: The river The Children Thought: "The wind blowing made it move We Heard: Cracking Noises The Children Thought: "The ice breaks when you step on it We Heard: Nothing, quiet The Children Thought: "Many animals are sleeping, they hibernate" Maybe some animals are looking somewhere else for food!"

The children had a chance to fully appreciate how “quiet” can enhance their experiences. While playing on the playground on a cold winter’s day, several children noticed a “peck, peck, pecking” sound. They encouraged each other to stop, and LISTEN, QUIETLY! All of the children gathered together and stood wordlessly, listening and looking up into the tree where they heard the sound. “It must be a woodpecker!” “It’s a hairy woodpecker, I just know it”, the children proclaimed! With great pleasure they noticed three perfectly round holes in one of the trees. “That’s where the woodpecker lives!” Our feathered friend did not disappoint us, and out he came from the bottom hole, peck, peck, pecking away. Later, we spoke about how listening and being aware of nature can afford us these very special interactions with our natural world.

In the classroom we experienced quiet through meditation and breathing exercises. Sitting together on the carpet with crisscrossed legs, our hands on our knees and our fingers touching, we closed our eyes, and took a deep breath in from our nose. We filled our lungs with air, and slowly, pushed the air out. We tried very hard to sit up straight, and while we breathed, we concentrated on becoming our best self. We noticed how calm and peaceful we felt. This special time we spent with our own thoughts helped us to prepare to daven and begin our day feeling calm and peaceful.

The kindergarten loves all kinds of books and we have been focusing on the different genres of literature. We discussed fiction and non-fiction books. After reading the story, Bear Snores On, the children agreed that this was a work of fiction. Then, I asked, “What do you think a non fiction book about a bear might look like?” They responded, “There would be a real bear on the cover” “Different kinds of bears, like pandas and polar bears could be on the book.” So, we looked through our library to find and sort, fiction vs. non-fiction books!

We have begun to use story mapping as a way of helping us to understand how stories are written. We mapped the story, Let’s Swim, noting the characters, setting, beginning, middle and end. Next, we decided to “rewrite” the story using a winter sport as our theme. The children decided the setting would be an ice skating pond, and named the story, Let’s Have An Ice Skate! Next, they created the characters for the story, and wrote the beginning, middle and end. Finally, each child illustrated the story! As we continue to gain an understanding of the structure of books, the children will soon be writing their own unique stories.

Math games are always a fun way to learn! The children have enjoyed using dice to help us create addition sentences. As a class, we rolled the dice and recorded our sentences on the white board, using the numbers we rolled on the dice. We figured out our sum, by counting up the dots on the dice! Working individually, children had an opportunity to play on their own, and then graph their “sums” on a number bar graph!

As we work with 2-digit numbers, the children enjoy playing, “what comes next” and “find the missing numbers”. Our daily calendar routines reinforce number recognition, number sequence, number patterns, and place value. We always take the time to notice how we use numbers in our daily lives! This gives numbers real meaning to the children!

Chanukah

As Chanukah drew near, the kindergarten children worked excitedly with the Pre-K class to complete their replica of the Beit Hamikadash. Working from the plans the children devised based on what they learned and their vision, they successfully completed this beautiful project. The children’s final task was to make steps leading to the beautiful golden menorah inside the Beit Hamikdash! They finished just in time for Chanukah and our beautiful Temple remains displayed in the hallway between the Pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms.

As we learned about Chanukah, the children explored the importance of having a strong moral character and doing the right thing…even when it is not easy! During the day, we would make sure to notice and acknowledge those times when our friends “did the right thing”. The children even choose to focus on certain behaviors that would help them to do the right thing! Here were some of their ideas: “listen to the Morah even if someone doesn’t”, “don’t say, ha, ha, ha when someone is sad”, “not to tattle”, “not to hurt people with my hands when I am mad”, not to fight over toys” and “try my best!” The children were so excited about “doing the right thing”, that we decided to roll play various scenarios to help them make the right choice when a difficult situation arises. One situation was when a friend would say, “don’t be friends with him/her!” The children acted out different ways to handle this situation. They used their words to say, “Let’s all be friends together!” and actions, by giving each friend a hug!

Our classroom has been filled with Chanukah fun and the scent of yummy Chanukah foods! Morah Natasha and Robert Stein joined our class to help us each make a beautiful Chanukah Menorah using colorful Sculpey clay. Each child made a unique menorah that they were able to use at home during Chanukah. Some of us even made dreidels! We sure enjoyed playing the dreidel game with our homemade dreidels. Mrs. Ellen Arian helped us to make the perfect Chanukah celebration in our classroom! Together with her, the children made homemade applesauce and delicious potato latkes! The children set the table, and enjoyed the wonderful treats they prepared!

Perhaps our favorite Chanukah story was Jeremy’s Dreidel by Ellie Gelman and Judith Friedman. In the story, Jeremy makes a dreidel using Braille for the letters because his dad is blind. After reading the story, we talked about other ways people communicate and we discussed sign language. So, as we reviewed letters and the sounds they make, I signed each letter. The children were thrilled to later discover a puzzle that matched the sign to each letter!

We continue to work daily on our handwriting, sight words and developing our reading skills. The children look forward to reading the daily message each morning. The message includes sight words we have learned, familiar words, and words that the children can blend the sounds to read. They eagerly write their response in their journal each day. As they are becoming more independent readers and writers, the children will look for clues in the classroom to help them write their responses!

A new math game was introduced: Dreidel Addition! Each child rolled a die and found the matching number on one set of dreidel cards. Then, rolling a second time, they found the matching number on the other set of dreidel cards. Each time they recorded the number, and finally, they added them together to find the sum! What a fun way to add!

Avery special morning was spent with our dads, “Build it with Daddy!” A Zimmer parent lovingly made a large wooden menorah. Our children then worked with his/her own parent to create a piece of art together that was added to the menorah. The entire Zimmer Community enjoyed helping to create this stunning menorah! Each day of Chanukah, all the Zimmer children joined together to light our beautiful menorah, chant the blessings and sing Chanukah songs. I hope you shared a wonderful Chanukah with your family!

 

December in Kindergarten

As the temperature cools outside, a warm glow of excitement is shinning in our kindergarten class. The children are filled with anticipation as the story of Chanukah unfolds in our classroom. We began our study imagining what life was like when all the Jewish people lived together in Israel. We learned that the Beit Hamikdash was the beautiful Holy Temple, and the center for Jewish ritual and life. As the children closed theirs eyes, they tried to envision what the Beit Hamikdash looked like as I described the appearance of the beautiful structure to them. We tried to feel the happiness and pride the Jewish people felt as they lived their lives together in their homeland so many years ago.

We learned that inside the Beit Hamikdash was a truly beautiful gold menorah. This menorah had 7 branches and was lit by the High Priest each day. The glow illuminated the beautiful Temple. The children were intrigued that only the purest of olive oil was used to light the menorah. I asked the children, “Where do you think the High Priest got the olive oil?” The children responded, “olives!” “Yes, I said, but where did they get the olives?” “From the olive trees”, they said. Finally, I asked, “How did they get to where the olive trees grow?” It was through this dialogue, that the children began to understand how precious olive oil was all those years ago. Certainly, they did not go to the local supermarket to buy it! Rather, they deduced, they had to walk or ride a camel to the olive trees, pick the olives, and travel back with them. Only then could the olive oil making process begin! And, after all that, only the very first drop of oil from each olive could be used to light the magnificent menorah.

Keeping all these ideas in mind, the Kindergarten met with the Pre-K class, and together we wrote up a plan to recreate the Beit Hamikdash based on how we imagined it looked! Many ideas were given, and the children got busy designing and creating walls, a floor, a ceiling and a golden menorah! As our Holy Temple began to take shape, we met again and discussed our progress and the jobs that still needed to be done. This planning session, the children decided to start making a beautiful door worthy of the Beit Hamikdash. The children’s enthusiasm and imagination has fueled this beautiful project. We can’t wait to showcase our finished project at the start of Chanukah!

Our new shared reading book, Duck and Hen, has prompted us to think about what it means to be a friend. What do you do if a friend does not want to play what you are playing? What can you say or do so both friends are happy? The children brainstormed ways they can handle this situation! They offered these ideas: “first play what you want, then play what your friend wants”, “one day play what you want and the next day play what your friend does” and “find something to play that you both like!” By thinking and planning ahead about these situations, we are better able to handle them when they arise! We also learned two new sight words from the story: “Do” and “Went”. We all enjoyed playing sight word bingo together with all the words we know!

A fun new math game was introduced using two dice. The children roll the dice and “add” the two numbers together. Then, they record their responses on their individual bar graphs. Finally, they compare their results to those of their partners! We also used dominoes to help us practice adding and recognizing different ways to add numbers to get the same sum! The concept of lighter and heavier was also explored using a pan balance scale. The children have really enjoyed using the scale in their play as well!

As Chanukah approaches we will be exploring the many values the Chanukah story teaches, as well as engaging in many wonderful projects, which I will share with you in the next blog!


Be sure not to miss these fun Chanukah family events: Build it with Daddy, Monday the 14th at 8:30am and The Chanukah Bubble Party next Wednesday, the 16th at 4:30!

The Values We Learn from Thanksgiving

The beginning point for any study of a holiday for us at Zimmer, is what are the values we want our children to understand? Examining the Thanksgiving holiday from this perspective allowed our kindergarten children to engage in meaningful dialogue and gain a thoughtful understanding about Thanksgiving, one that became relevant to their own lives.

Specifically, kindergarten examined the values of communication, gratitude and perseverance from the Thanksgiving holiday. As we explored the idea of communication, we talked about how the Pilgrims had to find ways to communicate with the Native Americans when they first came to America. We spoke about the idea of "non-verbal" communication and how we often use non-verbal ways to communicate. We role-played together various scenarios when we can use our bodies to express how we are feeling or to communicate an idea. We used facial expressions, body movements, hand motions...etc. This process lead us to talking about our "attitude", and that our "attitude" makes up all of these non-verbal and verbal messages we put out in to the world. Our friends and people who come in contact with us "read" our attitude and it affects the way they act towards us. This really helped the children understand why their friends react to them in certain ways. Throughout the weeks preceding Thanksgiving, we could often be heard asking in kindergarten, "what is your attitude saying now?"

Naturally, our study of Thanksgiving involved reading stories. Over the course of a week, we read the chapter book, The Pilgrims at Plymouth, by Lucille Recht. As we learned more about the Thanksgiving story, the children came to understand that the Pilgrims had a strong desire to leave England and start a new life, and so they were willing to work really hard to overcome the hardships they found in America. They persevered despite the difficult journey and the barren land they came to call home. In fact, the children discovered many ways that they thought the Pilgrims were grateful even with all the hardships they endured!

"The pilgrims got help from the Native Americans...they helped them grow crops and catch fresh fish!" "That they did not sink!” "That they had food on the boat." "The Native Americans did not hurt them" "Just for getting to land" "That the Mayflower held a lot of people" "For freedom" "They could pray as they wanted in America" "They could learn new things" "That they could leave England" "In England, you could go to jail or be killed if you got caught praying the 'wrong way', so they were grateful to be alive" "That the Mayflower did not catch on fire!"

We then discussed that the Pilgrims were grateful for the very basics of life...because they were happy to be alive, safe and free. Their attitude was one of gratefulness...and so they shared their harvest meal with the Native Americans who helped them. So, we said, we have so many wonderful blessings in our lives, (parents, family, health, etc.) and so many material things too. (toys, clothes, homes, etc.) It would be so nice, if like the Pilgrims, we could express an "Attitude of Gratitude!” Each child spoke about something that made them feel grateful (we specifically tried to think of the Pilgrims being so happy for very basic things...) and we then illustrated our idea. We put them all together in a wall hanging, to demonstrate our "class' collective ideas of demonstrating an attitude of gratitude!

The children really enjoyed our discussions about communication and the importance of communicating effectively. Next, we explored the Native American symbols and how they use them to communicate. During centers the children really enjoyed copying them, and talking about their meanings. We made rainmakers to use at our special music program, and after painting them, the children added the Native American Symbols they liked best!

Our yearlong mission of becoming "our best self" has often been a topic during our study of Thanksgiving. As we learn to communicate effectively, and think about our attitude, this helps us become "our best self". As we come to appreciate our blessings, this too, helps us become our "best self". When we become frustrated we sometimes need to reevaluate our emotions, take a deep breath, and keep trying...All of these things help us work towards becoming our best self!

Hands on Learning!

The kindergarten has enjoyed many opportunities to learn through hands on experiences! After reading a book together called The Eggshell Garden, the children eagerly expressed their desire to make their own “Eggshell Garden”! So, after preparing our challah dough, we washed out the eggshells, and set about planting the seeds we had. As apples are readily in season, many of us have one for snack, and we saved the seeds. We also were lucky enough to have a cotton plant on hand, that a classmate had brought to school for “share” (our “grown up” version of show and tell). After the children planted the seeds, they decided to create signs for their plants in order to know which were apples and which were cotton! Every day the children check to see if they sprouted! We discussed what we would do when the plants start to grow, and we decided that we would plant them outside since the eggshells will not provide a lot of growing room!

As we work with numbers, the children have discovered that playing number games is loads of fun! Our class favorite is Number Go Fish. The game was introduced during math centers. The children had such a great time playing the game, they frequently choose to play during their “free choice” center time! We also enjoyed several other fun number games. One game required the player to add connecting cubes to create a “snake” and then compare the length of their snake to that of the other players! Another game used a spinner with numbers to 10, and a board that required the players to help the squirrel get to his peanuts! These fun games reinforce number recognition, one to one

                                                                                    correspondence, counting and measurement.

The children also had a chance to see and interact with a very special animal. Two special visitors (Morah’s daughter Becca and her friend Sarah) came to school with Sarah’s pet African Pygmy Hedgehog, named George! We learned that he is nocturnal, active and awake at night) unlike our pet snake, Roger Michael, who is diurnal (active and awake during the day). At home, George enjoys a meal of high protein kibble cat food and mealworms. In the wild, they primarily eat insects. George hides his head in his quills and makes a noise when he is scared! (we got to see and hear both!) We even got to see him enjoy some mealworms! After spending some time with us and the PreK class, the girls brought George to visit the rest of the classrooms! We then enjoyed the popular book by Jan Brett, Hedgies Surprise.

We have begun our study of Torah stories, and we began with Parsha Lech Licha. This story about Abraham and Sarah reminded us that Hashem wants us to fill the world with goodness and holiness, just like Abraham and Sarah did. We dialogued together about our individual journeys toward becoming our best selves. We discussed that in our quest to be our best self, we are each filling the world with goodness and holiness. The children offered these ideas: “to not say bad words”, “not laugh when we are meeting”, “not to tattle on people”, “not to be mean”. Working towards improving on these, the children felt they were developing their personal best self, and also bringing goodness into our world! Each child then retold the parsha story in their own words and made beautiful illustrations of the story!

Kindergarten enjoyed a special visitor, Dr. Kovtun! Dr. Kovtun taught us all about the tools a doctor uses. We got to look inside our ears with an otoscope, and hear our heart beat with a stethoscope! We learned about vibration and Dr. Kovtun checked our reflexes. One child remarked, “a reflex makes your knee move when you are not really moving it!” We learned that we could keep healthy, by washing our hands frequently and not putting our hands on our face! After the doctor left, we read a story about going to the doctor, and the children shared their stories about going to their own doctors! Many of them shared about how brave they were when they had to get a shot!

As we explore the fall season together, the children have been dialoguing about how nature sustains us and we sustain nature. The children discussed how we need water, air and food to live and that nature provides all of these. We also focused on how we need to take care of nature so we will have it forever! Nature depends on us to make responsible choices to respect, preserve and nurture it. Likewise, as one element of all that Hashem created, we must also respect and take care of ourselves. We talked about all the ways we can take care of our bodies: eat healthy, exercise and rest.

Our dialogue about trees led us to discuss all the uses for trees. We spoke about how we use trees for paper, books and houses. The children pointed out that we should not use all the trees, because they give us such important things like oxygen, air and shade! They suggested we could save trees by sharing books, instead of buying new ones and bringing in their unused paper products from home to reuse at school!

The children have been enjoying noticing the leaves on the trees change colors. We read the book, Why Do Leaves Change Colors? and then we took a walk outside and observed the different kinds of trees and their leaves. The children pointed out the evergreen trees and that they have needles, not leaves! They identified a maple tree by the shape of its leaf and a weeping willow by the shape of its branches and leaves! We found one tree that we could see from our classroom window and once inside, the children then drew a picture of this tree! We will continue to observe the same tree throughout the seasons and record our observations in their pictures!

During Literacy centers, the children enjoy using different materials to form words! Using letter cubes, letter tiles, and even play doh, the children form sight words, color words and their names. During math centers, we went on a number hunt throughout the building! The children wrote down the numbers they saw and we discovered many important ways we use number! The children had a blast, and we learned how important numbers are in our daily lives!

This past week we took some time to reflect on our past accomplishments, fun times and learning in kindergarten so far this year. As the children and I look back we are also discussing and planning ideas for future learning and fun. It is an important life skill to learn to take time to reflect on the past, evaluate our accomplishments and areas we would like to work on, in order to best plan for our future! The children enjoyed the process and we will set time aside throughout the year for these reflections!

Our exploration of Sukkot in kindergarten gave us a wonderful opportunity to also study nature. The children dramatized how they would feel walking, sleeping and eating in the desert .We used our senses to help us describe what it must have been like to wander in the desert for 40 years! Our discussions of Sukkot led us to decide to create our classroom sukkah with natural materials we could find in our own backyard! Together with some class parents, the children and I delighted in exploring our own terrain, and collected branches, leaves, acorns, pinecones, nuts and other natural materials. Our parents helped us to create one of the walls of our classroom sukkah using the larger branches we retrieved on our walk. The children then used more natural materials, as well as recycled materials to add beauty and their own personalities to our sukkah. We even enjoyed our snack inside! Naturally, we needed to create decorations for the beautiful sukkah here at Chabad, and the children worked well together to create a huge paper chain!

As Simchat Torah approached, the children spoke about how special the Torah is, because Hashem gave the Torah to us. The children knew the Torah contained stories, and we spoke about how stories are often used to teach us lessons. We recalled some Torah stories they knew (Noah was naturally a popular favorite!) In discussing the story of Noah, the children recalled that Hashem told Noah to build an ark even though it was not raining. I asked the children why did Hashem ask Noah to do such a thing? They responded; "because the people were not being "good", and Noah was the only one following the rules. Noah and the animals were safe on the ark when the rain came." This then led to a discussion about rules, and why we need to have rules. The children gave us examples of the rules they had at home. "Don't run on the stairs", "don't leave the house without telling someone", and "brush your teeth" were some of their ideas. "Why do mommies and daddies give us rules?" I asked. "Because they want us to be safe", "they want to take care of us", they responded. I asked the children if they had ever not followed the rules at home and what happend and they responed that their mommies and daddies were "worried", or that they had gotten hurt. Through this discussion, it was easy for them to conclude that mommies and daddies give us rules because they love us very much....just like Hashem.

Through stories in the Torah, Hashem teaches us many lessons. We decided to create our own story that would teach a lesson. Together we brainstormed different ideas about lessons that are important for us all to know, and then individually, each child “wrote” and illustrated their own story! We are creating a special classroom book containing their wonderful stories. We will begin to study Torah Stories this week, and in preparation, we closely examined our Torah and each child used the Torah as a model to create the front cover for our Torah Stories Book. After voting, the children elected to call the book: Torah Book. Each week we will add a Torah Story to our book.

Through our shared and guided reading experiences, the children are learning more new sight words, and becoming more confident in letter/sound recognition and blending sounds. Each morning our message contains sight words we have learned, and our daily journal writing reinforces their new reading and writing skills. At our morning meeting, we enjoy playing rhyming, letter/sound and guess the word games! As the children continue to develop writing and reading skills our “office center” in the classroom is gaining popularity! Writing and reading opportunities are always present in all our other centers as well!

In math, we explored the concept of “more”, “fewer”, and “the same”. We read the book Just Enough Carrots, by Stuart J. Murphy and the children enjoyed it so much, we read it again. Then the children broke into 2 groups. Each group was given small objects to sort by color. One group sorted into containers of the same size. The other group sorted into containers of different sizes. When we came together, we decided that it was easier to “see” which container held “more” “fewer” or “the same” when the containers were the same. Then we brainstormed ways to check which had more/fewer/the same, and the children said: count the objects, weigh them, or measure them! So we put the objects in a measuring cup! This led us to a discussion about volume. Then we decided to use different containers to compare how much water each held. First we filled different size containers with water, and guessed which held more. Then we used the measuring cups to check our answer! Math is so much fun!