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!

A Journey of Self-Reflection

As we begin the year 5770 our kindergarten children began a journey of self-reflection. Throughout the days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the children took time to think about how a new year can be a time for new beginnings. We discussed that in the New Year it can be a time, to start over, try harder, and thus, our journey of becoming our “best self” had begun. But, we recognized that sometimes it is easy to forget our good intentions, and we need a way to help us remember our goals. With this in mind, the children decorated beautiful mirrors, and studied their reflection to ponder just how they would try harder in the coming year. Realizing the struggle we will sometimes feel, we hung up our mirrors in order to remind us of our journey this year to be our best self! As the year progresses, the children and I will continue to dialogue about their individual journeys. We will add documentation as the children continue their self-reflection to becoming their best selves!

Birthdays are cause for celebration, and in kindergarten our celebrations are both fun and meaningful. As a classmate’s birthday drew close during the time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we had an opportunity to discuss how our own birthday is our own individual beginning…our own “new year.” Together, we came to understand that each of us has our own special purpose, and we can all affect the world in a positive way by bringing goodness to the world. We shared our ideas, and will be creating individual books in honor of our birthdays, about how we bring goodness to the world! Our birthday celebrations include a “baked from scratch, healthy cake”. The children have an opportunity to use math skills measuring both the dry and wet ingredients. This special cake, called a Wishing Cake, was super yummy and very special, as each child made a wish for our birthday girl, as they dropped in chocolate chips to our batter! After sharing the cake, the children enjoyed dancing to their favorite songs, and reading the books our birthday girl bought as a gift to our classroom.

Math a mystery? It was in kindergarten! With the help of our “Mystery Math Box” the children enjoyed a multisensory experience as they worked on their counting and one-to-one correspondence skills. The children reached inside the Mystery Math Box and described how the objects inside felt. Then, they tried to count the objects while they were still inside the box! Finally, we opened up the box, and checked their guesses! After being introduced to the class, The Mystery Math Box was placed in the manipulative center and the children have delighted in continuing to use it with their friends. Patterns were explored with the help of our pattern blocks. We learned the proper names for all the blocks, and they then created their own unique patterns with them. The pattern blocks continue to be a classroom favorite!

We are learning our color words in our shared reading book, Birthdays. In our journals, we wrote a sentence about our favorite color and then made an illustration of something that color. We also went on a color hunt! Each child received a card with a color name on it, and we went on a color hunt in our classroom to search for objects in that color!

As September draws to a close, and the cool fall weather arrives, our class is growing as a community of learners and friends. Our daily routines have become established, and the children are growing in confidence and maturity. I am so proud of all of them!

Kindergarten had an exciting and busy first week of school. We were delighted to reunite with old friends, meet new friends and discover our class pet, a garter snake! The children came up with some different names for our snake, voted and choose, “Roger Michael” and nicknamed him “Snakey”. We learned that Snakey is diurnal, because he is very active during the day!

As our days together progress, we are becoming comfortable with our

daily routines and good habits. Each morning we write and draw in our journals in response to our daily question! These questions give the children “food for thought” to help them transition into the school day. They draw pictures, use invented spelling and dictate their thoughts. Our most popular question so far this year was, “what is your favorite sweet treat?” as we prepared for Rosh Hashanah! Our morning meeting has quickly become a favorite and special time as we share personal stories or objects with our friends. During this time, we feel respected for our uniqueness as well as a sense of belonging to our classroom community.

The scent of Rosh Hashanah fills our classroom and the message fills our hearts. We tasted sweet, yummy apples and created a bar graph based upon our preferences. We baked healthy honey cake and soon we will enjoy apples and honey and challah with raisins at our upcoming Rosh Hashanah celebration! The children have explored ideas about how they can be their “best self” in the New Year and we walked to the river and practiced Tashlich, thinking about our “best self”. We learned that a shofar is blown to remind us to stop and think about our “best self”. Rabbi Mendy and Rabby Yitzchok blew the shofar for us. We tried too, and several friends were able to elicit a delightful sound!

During our shared reading we have explored concepts of print and parts of a book. We learned our first sight word, “I”, and we are beginning to blend sounds we know. The children use invented spelling in their daily journal writing. Our centers our stocked with literacy and writing materials and the children often write signs during their play!

We explore math concepts with daily routines using the calendar through graphing, ten frames, place value cups, counting, predicting and estimating. The children used colorful strips to compare lengths as we examined measurement. Of course, on Friday, we use measurement tools to prepare challah, a class favorite!

It wouldn’t be kindergarten without play! Our most frequently visited centers so far have been the block, sand and writing centers. In play, the children “try on” various roles, such as, Ice Cream Shop Owner, Architect, or Writer. They experiment with language, problem solve and use writing to make signs. Outside time is shared with friends daily, where we can run, climb, dig, ride, draw and enjoy nature. Through play, the children continue to grow together as a class community!

Shanah Tovah!

Morah Melissa

Welcome to Kindergarten

My name is MELISSA YARGER and I am the kindergarten teacher at Zimmer. I received my teaching certification in Early Childhood Education from William Paterson University, where I continue to serve as recording secretary on the board of Kappa Delta Pi, the International Education Honor Society, at the William Paterson University Chapter. I am a member of NAEYC, (National Association for the Education of Young Children) and believe strongly in honing my skills through collaboration, workshops and seminars.

As an early childhood educator, I have the privilege and responsibility to promote the development of young children. I enjoy working together with families, as I assume the unique opportunity of educating children through the fostering of their imagination, curiosity, socialization and self-esteem. My classroom provides an inviting and safe environment that encourages children to explore and develop new interests and learning experiences, as they share ideas in an atmosphere of mutual respect and fun.

I have been married for 16 years to my husband Bill and we have a teenage daughter, Becca. We share our home with 5 cats, a frog and many fish. I love to read and working with children to help them develop their reading skills each year brings me great joy and pride.