Grape Class

Dear Purple Room Families,

Welcome back! It is so wonderful to be together as a class again. It seems like everyone grew over break! We have enjoyed reconnecting and meeting our new Morah: Morah Athena.

This week we continued our learning about plants and seeds as we get ready for Tu B'Shvat next week. The class has been particularly interested in the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. We have read some traditional retellings of the story, and some not so traditional versions!

Reading different versions of the same story helps the students compare and contrast characters and plot. It also helps them develop a sense of themselves as readers: some preferred the scarier giant in the traditional version, others preferred the funny or kind giant in the other versions. We talked about how different people like different things, and what types of stories we enjoy reading.

This story led to an interest in castles. We looked at the different depictions of castles in the books, and other images of real castles. There has been a lot of castle building in the block area! Below is one castle in several stages of construction. This one was built over several days.

We measured the castle as it got bigger.

On the last day, it was taller than Morah Shoshi! (Photo credit Daniel Lvov)

Jewish Learning

We have been learning about the parsha through felt stories each morning. We learned about the Jewish people being enslaved in Egypt, Moshe’s family saving him by putting him in the basket in the Nile, his encounter with the burning bush, and the first 7 plagues (for those paying attention, yes we covered the parshas from winter break, too!) We are also hard at work on our own siddurim (prayer books), which we should complete next week. The children are very excited to daven with them!

Active Play

We have been playing a lot of active games! We talk about how our bodies feel before, during, and after running around. These types of games help the children learn to move with energy while still being aware of others and their surroundings. We discuss what it means to cool down, and what it feels like to run quickly but not run into each other!

An animal race game