Dear Purple Room Families,

This week we formally ended our insect unit and began our Chanukah unit. To celebrate our learning, we invited the Yellow Room to an Insect Party! We sang insect songs and made caterpillars and ants on a log with grapes and different types of raisins. We said brachot together and enjoyed the treats! By having a party to celebrate a topic, we recognize the students’ accomplishment and create a joyful atmosphere for learning.

There was a lot of math discussion about patterning during the party. Can you find an ABAB, AABB, ABC, or AAB pattern in these pictures?

Jewish Learning

We have started learning about the holiday of Chanukah. We are singing the brachot each morning, so everyone will be ready for the holiday! We are telling and retelling the Chanukah story, and incorporating Chanukah into our math and literacy learning. The Purple Room is really enjoying playing dreidel. When we play dreidel there are so many things we can learn! Retelling the Chanukah story (“ness gadol haya sham, a great miracle happened there”), Hebrew letter recognition of nun, gimel, hay, shin, counting in Hebrew, math concepts of adding and taking away, the fine motor skill of spinning the dreidel, social-emotional learning of how to take turns, celebrate for a friend who rolls a gimel, and gracefully accept that you rolled a nun or shin. So much learning from an ancient, simple game!

Literacy Learning

This week we continued our exploration of short vowel sounds and letter recognition. The children particularly enjoyed using natural materials to create their short vowels outdoors. By using found materials, children can build familiarity with the curves and straight lines that make up the letter shapes. 

We also started reading aloud a new chapter book, The Lighthouse Family: The Storm. This gentle story has some picture support, but many passages that are simply text. We pause frequently during the story to talk about the pictures we make in our heads as we read, and how those images change as we learn more. The ability to visualize a story and follow a longer plot is vital for later reading success. 

Social Emotional Learning

Throughout the day, we are working on self-regulation. This means being aware of and managing your emotions, thoughts, energy, and behaviors in positive and socially acceptable ways. A tall order for any person, especially a preschooler! This is why play is so vital for children. A child who “behaves” in a rigidly structured environment has simply learned to follow directions to please others. A child who exhibits socially positive behavior in an environment where he or she can make choices has learned empathy, self-advocacy, and self-awareness. We work on naming our feelings, calming strategies, and how to say what you need in a strong voice. Here are some quotes we have documented showing self-regulation in the Purple Room:

“We didn’t want to be too silly during lunch, so we moved ourselves to different tables. We can play later!” -Harvey

“I found a leaf to play with while you read to us. I’m going to play with it but I’m not making noise.” -Carmel

“I didn’t like it when you took my sand! Give me that back and I’ll show you how to dig it yourself.” -Yehonathan

“My friend said he wants to be by himself so I did something else.” -Ella

“I want to sit here too. Can you move over?” -Rylan

“Hey are you okay? You fell down! Need help up?” -Jonny

“You said five minutes to clean up but I’m not done! Can we do seven minutes? Then I can finish and clean up.” -Daniel

“He really wanted to be cashier and I felt done! So I gave him the cash register even though it was still my turn.” -Natan

“The tower fell down when you put that block on, but you can do it this way! I’ll show you.” -Shepherd

Through play, children can learn to cooperate, negotiate, and experiment with emotions and reactions. Think of all the interpersonal skills the Purple Room used one afternoon this week, spending almost an hour on the playground designing and setting up an airplane to fly to Israel, deciding the airplane will include a pet dinosaur, looking for food for the dinosaur, and then baking a cake for the dinosaur to eat!

If you want to learn more about helping your child to self-regulate, please join the awesome CJP Parenting Book Club! 

We hope you have a restful Shabbat,

Morah Shoshi and Morah Shaina

 

Dear Purple Room Families,

    There is so much learning happening in our classroom! It is hard to decide what to write about; here are just some snapshots of learning that occurred this week. It is a privilege to teach such inquisitive, creative thinkers, and to create an environment that allows each one of them to thrive.

Jewish Learning

We daven every day, and it is a musical, energetic part of our day. The children have been expressing interest in each having their own siddur to daven from. This week, we began the project by illustrating pages that will become the siddurim. We talked together about what sorts of pictures we will draw for the siddurim. What are we grateful for? What does it mean to be grateful? What makes us happy? This led to many thought-provoking conversations. If Batman makes you happy, should you draw a Batmobile in your siddur? One child said no, Batman doesn’t belong in a siddur, while another child said that since Batman tries to make good choices and fight bad guys it reminds us to make good choices. The simple act of illustrating pages with crayons allowed the class to delve deeply into the complex ideas of gratitude, making choices, and what inspires us. During these types of conversations, the morahs work to model for the children what it sounds like and feels like to have a respectful disagreement. We can have different opinions, and it is interesting to talk it through and learn what another person is thinking.

Math Learning

This week we have been working with the idea of “five and some more,” giving students a base from which to subitize the numbers 6, 7, 8, and 9. When a person sees a group of up to five objects, they can use perceptual subitizing to “just see” the quantity. Once quantities get larger than 5, we use conceptual subitizing to swiftly understand the number. This means using a concept you know, such as doubling or addition facts, to quickly subdivide and understand what you are looking at. For example, you could see two groups of 4 and instantly know they are 8. We are teaching the children to subitize 6, 7, 8, and 9 as “five and ___ more” because 5 is such an important quantity in our base-ten number system. 

We played a lot of games with the idea of “five and some more,” and we incorporated the concept into our dramatic play area. Building on the children’s interest in grocery shopping, we made a store with price tags and shopping baskets. Using coins, the morahs showed the children how to count out and pay for their items, and how nickels and pennies could be used to pay for items that cost “five and some more.” Some children chose to count only with pennies, some challenged themselves to pay for more than one item at once (addition!), and some asked to learn what “change” means (subtraction!). This type of play allows children to build their understanding and wrestle with a new concept authentically.

Literacy Learning

This week we have been learning short vowel sounds in myriad multi-sensory ways. We sing a song with hand motions that encourages children to think about the way their mouths move when shaping the vowels (a round motion for a short o, for example.) We’ve also been playing a lot of Knock-A-Vowel! In this game, the children say a short vowel sound and throw a bean bag to knock over a card with the vowel. This vowel sound practice is essential both for children who can already read and those who are just starting to identify letters. For those who are reading, phonetic awareness builds knowledge for future success in spelling and writing. For those just learning their letters, we are creating a solid foundation for future reading and writing!

In our Hebrew learning, we are focusing on our Hebrew names right now. The children are learning to identify the letters in their names. We sign in using our Hebrew names and  play games to identify our names. (If your child is reversing letters in either Hebrew or English when they write, don’t worry! It’s completely normal, even for children not learning two alphabets that go opposite directions. It’s part of learning to make meaning from letters.)

We hope you have a peaceful Shabbat, and get to enjoy this beautiful weather! 

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Shoshi and Morah Shaina

PS-- We are in need of some more nickels to keep our store going- the number of children who want to shop exceeds the amount of coins we have! If you are able to send in some nickels for our dramatic play area, we would greatly appreciate it.

 

 

Dear Purple Room Families,

This week we want to give you a virtual tour of our learning space. In the Reggio Emilia philosophy, the learning environment is considered the “third teacher.” Loris Malaguzzi, one of the founders of the Reggio Emilia approach, describes the school “as a living organism, a place of shared relationships among the children, the teachers, and the parents and a feeling of belonging in a world that is alive, welcoming and authentic.” As teachers, we constantly assess how students are interacting with the space, and adjust our learning environment to encourage more authentic learning. The space has changed a great deal since you first toured in August. We were looking forward to showing you around our classroom during parent teacher conferences; since that couldn’t happen please enjoy this newsletter tour!

Outdoor Classroom

The Kindergarten class began planning a teva (ark) during Parshat Noach. Mr. Mike Hensdell is helping them turn these plans into reality, building a real teva out of wood for the children to play on. The Purple Room has been able to participate in some of the building sessions, learning about tools, safety, and construction!

 

Dramatic Play

There is so much interest in cooking in the Purple Room! We have added another play kitchen, dishes, and a real toaster oven (unplugged!) for children to explore this interest. There was discussion in the dramatic play area of shopping for food, so the morahs brought in grocery circulars and showed the children how to cut out foods to make “shopping lists.” The children began to pretend that they are going to the store, and are talking about what we need to add to make our dramatic play corner a grocery store. A student worked with a morah to compose a note to the Peach Room, asking if we “can please borrow your shopping cart.” The children are participating in and planning changes to their learning space.

Blocks

Seeing that the towers were getting taller and the buildings more complex, we added more blocks to our block area. Now whole cities appear, sometimes extending across the classroom!

Safe Space

The Safe Space is a cozy spot where a child can go for some alone time. A classroom is a very social place; it’s important to have a place that’s only for one person! The children requested more pillows, so we added them to make it even more cozy. On the wall outside you can see images of some prompts we use to help children identify emotions and calm down when needed. These are from Conscious Discipline; if you want to learn about these tools in more detail please join the CJP Parenting Book Club!

Writing Center

There is a lot of interest in writing in the Purple Room! We added a Writing Center to the library, stocked with notebooks, interesting papers, post its, and writing tools. Children visit this center to compose notes, create written material for dramatic play, and explore the different writing materials.

 

Science

Our science center has so much happening! There are many different materials for exploring our current interest: insects. We are also fish-sitting the Yellow Room’s fish, Rainbow. We are learning how to care for a class pet in preparation of getting our own.

 

Art

We have expanded the space and materials available in our art center, with materials for 3D collage, different types of paint, colored tape, and many types of drawing tools. This is a favorite space in the classroom.

 

Music

We have a new music center! Children can explore sounds and songs in this space.

Jewish Learning

 

Jewish Learning isn’t a space in our classroom, it’s something that permeates our whole day. This week we learned about how Eisav sold his birthright for a pot of red lentil soup, and then made our own lentil soup! The story of Eisav and Yaakov led to many discussions of choices. These two brothers were so similar in some ways, but made such different choices about how to live their lives. We talked about how every person has the ability to make choices that can be either kind or unhelpful.

We hope you have wonderful weekend!

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Shoshi and Morah Shaina