The first week for Kindergarten in the Purple Room at CPJ was exciting. The children are happy and excited and collaborate together in learning and play.

Taking advantage of the cooler weather in the morning for Water Play, the children naturally gravitated to the muddiest area and gleefully sat in the mud, reveling in the cool, smooth feel of the wet soil. At first, Jonah didn’t want to sit in the mud and get ‘dirty’ but he was so brave and tried it anyway. He sat in it, swished his legs in the mud and explored the feeling. Jonah shows courage in trying new things. The children have been excavating and digging in the soil as the water trickles down the hill into their area. Their construction area has turned into an ocean, according to Nosson, or a summer rain area, according to Ben, depending on who you ask. Vella dished out the mud into a tray while Jonah brought her fresh water from up the hill. “It’s from the sprinkler,” he said. Shimmy dug a very deep hole using his excavation tool, a spade. It is wonderful to see the children embracing this fantastic sensory experience.

Kindergarten explored the Parsha of the week, Shoftim (Judges), which teaches about the responsibility of the Jewish People to create courts of law, have a Jewish King and not wasting things. The children learned about the different levels of courts: one with 3 judges, the higher court with 23 judges and the highest court, Sanhedrin, with 70 judges and one Nasi (president). Each court has an odd number of judges in case they need to make a ‘majority’ vote. The children learned what this means by experimenting with different scenarios and voting to see what the ‘majority’ voted on. Counting the votes, they determined which option had more and which votes had less.

The Kindergarten Friends created their own crowns and know that a Jewish King always carried a Sefer Torah with him wherever he went. (Not a smartphone! ☺) He also kept a second Torah in his treasury. Some children decided to cut triangles and some chose to cut semicircles for the crown. They decided how to decorate their crowns and later sized them for their friends.

Reviewing their knowledge of Alef Beis, the Kindergarten Whizzes tested their memory through touch while blindfolded. It was a fun experience to ‘see’ the Alef through touch as well as seeing it later when the blindfold was off.

The Kindergarten, being the highest grade in the land, nay, the Preschool, made dough so that all the classes could make challah for Shabbos. Thank you, Kindergarten!

Being responsible is a serious business in the Purple Room and the children happily fulfill their tasks eagerly. This week Ben was the Bus Boy, Jonah the Custodian, Nosson the Room Inspector, Shimmy was the Light Switch Helper and Vella the Door Holder. Each child had an additional job as well and they carried them out very responsibly. What ‘Mentchen’!

Please see the private CJP Family Facebook Group for more pictures of our week!

Have a wonderful Shabbos!
Morah (Shternie) Perline