Dear Parents,

Art + Shabbos

What a wonderful week we had last week culminating in a delightful Shabbat program at CJP! The children created most original Shabbos boards, Kiddush cups and, for the Havdala ceremony at the end of Shabbos, a B’somim ball. The B’somim ball smelled so nice and pushing each clove into the Styrofoam helped strengthen little fingers. The Shabbos board was created in several sessions as the children added layer upon layer to create texture. 

Parsha + Science

In last week’s and this week’s Parsha the Purple Room were so happy to hear that the enslaved Jewish People were finally to be set free. They marveled how HaShem rescued them from the cruelty of the Mitzriyim (Egyptians). The Purple Room explored the 10 Makos (Plagues) that the Mitzriyim were punished with. Based on the first Makah (plague) where the water turned to blood, the Purple Room explored water density. They each offered their own hypothesis as to which is more dense and therefore heavier: cold water or hot water? After this was recorded they watched as two jars were filled with cold (colored blue) and hot water (colored red), placed one on top of the other and observed the results. They observed that the cold water flowed down into the hot and the water turned purple but when the hot was placed on top of the cold water, it did not mix. After recording their observation, they then noted, or drew ,their conclusions: cold water is more dense, heavier, than hot water.

This week, drawing from the eighth plague, Choshech(Darkness), the Purple explored light and dark, and shadows. 

Discussions:

How do we get a shadow?

Chana: The sun goes around your whole body and makes a shadow. 

Jemma: You stand in the sun and it brings your body powers to the sun and on the floor so it can be a shadow.

Roni: When it’s a sunny day it gets a shadow. The sun reflects the darkness onto the ground when you’re walking.

The Purple Room went outside to observe their shadows. They traced their friends shadow with chalk, then colored in and drew in all the details of their own shadow. They found it amusing to see how much bigger than they were their shadows.

In this week’s Parsha the children learned that as the Jewish People were preparing to leave Mitzrayim they received the first mitzvah the Jewish People from Hashem: Rosh Chodesh – determining the first day of the Jewish month by observing a new moon. When a new moon appears, sdvvxcit is the beginning of the new Jewish month. The children each created My Moon Book, a flip book with all the sizes of the moon over a 28 day lapse. They also experimented with the sun (a lamp), the earth (themselves) and the moon (a Styrofoam ball). As the ‘moon’ orbited the ‘earth’ they observed the ‘sun’ illuminating more and more of the ‘moon’.

If you were leaving Mitzrayim (Egypt) what would you ask the Mitzryim (Egyptians) for?

Roni: A golden medal. It would have a picture of a heart.

Chana: Lots of jewels and lots of metal gold.

Mason: Gold and dollars.

Zoe: Gold, some gems and nice clothes with gems on it.

Tzivia: Since we’ll be in the dessert – water.

Hammond: Some nice clay and some glitter in the clay.

Jemma: Glitter and some clay.

Ari: A shirt with gems and glitter and a heart on the shirt.

When you leave Mitzrayim (Egypt) what would you pack?

Chana: Lots and lots of water, all kinds of jewelry with glitter on it.

Zoe: A Torah, some jewelry, some water, and some Matzah.

Tzivia: Water, a Torah, jewelry and gold, Gatorade, whip cream and marshmallows.

Matan: Water, money and gold.

Hammond: Some water, animals - I can’t pack them in a suitcase, dough to make Matzah in the sun, some food, some challah, some Kiddush, a Kiddush cup and a Challah board. And wood so I can make stuff.

Roni: A hundred million gold, food, a picture of your kids, the phone, a bow, dolls, the Torah and the Siddur and the ring and all their makeup.

Jemma: Water, pajamas, underwear, makeup, Torah and a ring. 

Ari: Pyjamas and clothes and also I will take a camel so I can put all my stuff on the camel, a phone, a camera.

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Perline and Morah Chaya

Dear Parents,

Being that Picasso is the artist study for the month of January, the Purple Room children created self portraits utilizing his artistic style with distinctive shapes and bold colors. His abstract art has amused the children as they try to decipher what they can see in his works.

Shabbos

The theme for this week is Shabbos and the Purple Room children have been busy creating stunning napkin rings to enhance the Shabbos tables for the upcoming CJP Shabbos event. They are creating more Shabbos items which are sure to surprise and impress! They hope to see everyone at this exciting event.

Gematria – Numerical Value of Hebrew Letters

Shabbos is the seventh day of the week. The Purple Room children explored the Gematria, numerical value, of the Hebrew letters, Alef being 1, Beis 2 and so on. They found many words that pertain to Shabbos that equal 7. Working out the Gematria of the Hebrew letters for the word wine, yayin, they found that the Hebrew letters equaled 10 + 10 + 50 which totaled to 70. Then, when they added the digits together, 7 + 0, it amounted to 7! The same thing happened with the word Challah. 8 + 30 + 5 = 43. 4 + 3 = 7. Funnily enough, the Hebrew word for ice cream, glida, also added up to 7! 

The Purple Room experienced how wine was made long ago. People stamped on the grapes till all the juice came out. This was exactly the experience of the Purple Room children as they removed their shoes and stamped on the grapes to squeeze out all the juice. 

Parsha

The Purple Room children were shocked to hear how the next King Pharaoh was so mean to the Jewish People. They were glad Hashem had a plan how to free the Jewish People from under the tyranny of such a mean king so they wouldn’t be slaves anymore. They are following the story of Moshe and waiting curiously to see how he will take the Jewish People out of Mitzrayim, Egypt. They see how caring Moshe was of sheep as well as of the Jewish People. 

Song

(Link:   https://www.chabad.org/549140)

B’nei Yisroel suffered bitterly

Moshe was seen killing a Mitzri

From Mitzrayim, Moshe fled

Yisro’s daughter then he wed

As Moshe watched the sheep one day

A baby lamb ran away

He followed the lamb and saw

A bush burning more and more

Moshe heard Hashem tell him

To lead the Jews from Mitzrayim

Moshe and Aharon told Paraoh

To let the Jews go

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Perline and Morah Chaya

Dear Parents,

Getting back into learning fun was easy this week and so exciting to see their friends again. The Purple Room children enjoyed painting in water color about the things they enjoyed doing over the Chanukah and Winter break. Later, they explained their art to their friends. Come take a look at their art on the bulletin board.

PARSHA

The Purple Room children learned in this week’s Parsha about the bracha (blessing) Yaakov gave to his grandsons, Efraim and Menashe. When it was time to receive the bracha Yosef, the father of Efraim and Menashe, put Menashe at his father Yaakov’s right hand and Efraim at his father’s left hand. Even though Menashe was the elder son Yaakov did a funny thing and he crossed over his heads, setting his right hand on Efraim’s head and his left on Menashe’s. This was a good opportunity for the Purple Room to reinforce right and left. They played games reinforcing this concept and made their own ‘bracha hands’ in collaboration with their friends. They learned the Hebrew words for right (y’min) and left (smol).

Song:

This Tefilah from Yaakov, at night is said
By Jewish children before going to bed
To Efraim and Menashe this bracha Yaakov gave

"May the malach (angel) watch over you, for me he did save
In the name of my fathers, Avrohom and Yitzchok, too
May Hashem’s bracha, forever be with you

Hamalach hagoel osi mikol ra
Y’vorech es han’orim, vikorei bahem sh’mee
V’sheim avosai, Avrohom v’Yitzchok
V’yidgu larov b’kerev haaretz

LITERACY

Almost all the children are using the Waseca program in literacy. Sounding out words and then using the moveable alphabet, most children are working on the red set which supports them in spelling CVC words with all the vowels. (CVC = Consonant Vowel Consonant) This is a program individualized for each student. Some students have begun the Orange set which focuses on blends such as s blends like the st blend in step and stop.

The children had fun reviewing their Alef Beis knowledge searching for Alef Beis seashells in shaving cream. Some children who are able to combine the Hebrew letters with the Nekudos (vowels) searched for seashells with Alef Beis and nekudos.

ART

The Purple Room friends have begun learning about a new artist with an interesting style: Pablo Picasso. They saw that Picasso used shapes in his abstract art and they learned what abstract art looks like. They will be thinking about Picasso’s style when they paint their self portraits next week. 

Have a wonderful Shabbos!

Morah Perline and Morah Chaya