Using our Feet!

This week in the purple room was all about our legs, feet, and toes.
On Monday we learned about the different parts of our legs. We counted our toes, all our friends counted 5 toes on each foot. We learned that we use our feet to walk and our knees to crawl. Ben told us that "Boo Boo uses his knees to crawl and feet to walk" and then all our friends tried to crawl on their knees.
Tuesday and Wednesday were fun days in our classroom, we used our legs to do different obstacle courses that Morah D set out for us.
Tuesdays obstacle course started with playing soccer to pass, run and kick the ball using our legs.  After soccer we jumped over tires. We had a line of feet facing different directions, and our friends jumped and turned their bodies in the direction of the feet. We finished our obstacle course by dipping our feet into paint and walking on paper to see our footprints.  We had lots of fun slipping in the paint and getting dirty.  On Wednesday instead of dipping our feet into the paint we tried to use our toes to grab the paint brush and paint with our toes.
Thursday and Friday were muddy days.  Our obstacle course was crawling through tires, pulling on ropes and dipping our feet in mud. Our friends used lots of sand and water to make the mud, which felt very dirty and gooey to them.  The mud was also different from paint, and our friends realized that they can feel different textures with their feet as well as their hands.

This week we started learning Parsha with Morah Gitty.  In this week's parsha of Vayera we learned all about Abraham and Sarah’s hachnasat orchim (inviting guests). We created Abraham's tent which had 4 doors for all to visit. We also learnt about the 3 malachim (angels) that came with 2 pieces of news, one that Sara will have a baby and the other that the city of Sedom will be destroyed. We also learnt all about akeidas yitchak, how Avraham always listened to Hashem.

Lech Lecha

This week in the purple room we learned all about parshas Lech Lecha and the different faces we see every day. On Monday we learned who Avraham was and how he found Hashem. When Avraham was 3 years old he thought the sun was Hashem. At night he noticed that the sun disappeared and the moon appeared instead. He knew that the sun and the moon could not be Hashem. An angel came to Avraham and told him about Hashem.  Avraham became a very important person, he was teaching everyone about Hashem. To test Avraham, Hashem told him to leave his fathers house and go to a new land. Avraham listened to Hashem and left, but he wasn’t sure where to go. He saw all kinds of people on his way, and Hashem finally told him to settle in Canaan.  Avraham was very old and he didn't have any children.  Hashem promised him that he was going to have as many children as the stars in the sky and finally Avraham had a son named Yitzchak! Avraham was a very kind person and loved having guests that even when he had just had a bris, he still invited people to his tent.

We made self portraits this week, and learned about different kinds of faces and what they might look like when we are happy, sad, excited, or angry.  On Monday we made silly faces using rocks.  We also counted different parts of our face.  We counted our eyelashes, some of our friends had 90 lashes, while others only counted 10 or 20.

Our friends used jems to create sad faces, and used cubes to build robot faces.  This turned into building big robots and Nosson tried to create the tallest robot and make it the "Hashem robot".

On Thursday and Friday we used cut up papers and clay to make faces, and we had Morah Jac come to our class so that our friends can draw her face.

We also learned about other parts on our faces that we can’t see. We learned that lashes protect our eyes from dust and dirt, we also have wipers inside our eyes and every time we blink the wipers clean our eyes just like the wipers on a truck. Our noses also have little hairs inside that clean the air we breath in. Our friends tried breathing through our nose and mouth to see which was easier. The mouth won.
 
Have a good Shabbat!
Morah D

Breishis and Creation!

Welcome back!

After celebrating so many great holidays we're back to a full and fun packed schedule.  

During the past 2 weeks our purple room friends have fully experienced what a sukkah is. We ate in a kosher sukkah outside where we can see the stars and we ate in a non kosher sukkah that we built inside our room were we couldn't see the stars. We also learned all about Simchas Torah and that we begin reading all of the Parshiot from the beginning.

This week in the purple room we learned all about parshas Breishis and parshas Noach.  We learned that Breishis is the first word in our Torah and in this first parsha Hashem created the world. We began a collaborative project to demonstrate what was created on each day of creation.  On day one Hashem created light and darkness. Our friends used yellow and black paint to paint the light and dark.  On day two Hashem created the heavens and water.  To recreate the shomayim our friends used white cotton balls and glue, to create the water they used blue and clear stones and then poured blue glitter on top.
Tuesday we learned all about what Hashem created on the third and fourth day.  On the third day Hashem created land, mountains, fruits, vegetables and flowers. Our friends worked together outside to collect leaves, flowers and rocks.  They made sure to only collect materials that fell on the ground because they didn't want to hurt what Hashem created. We used all of the collected materials to make land, trees, fruits, vegetables and a mountain. On the fourth day Hashem created the sun, moon, stars and he hid the holy light for tzaddikim in the future. To make the sun we used yellow markers to make circles, to make the moon and stars we used black and gray markers to make a half moon because Shimmy  told us he has never seen a full moon.

On Wednesday we learned about the last two days of creation. On the fifth day Hashem created birds, lizards, fish, and leviathans. To recreate the fifth day our friends searched through all of the animals in our room to find which animals were created and which were not.  We used some of the birds and sea creatures to add to our canvas.  On the sixth day Hashem created all the other animals and finally he created people. Our friends took all of the animals and paired them up because Hashem created all the animals in pairs and glued them to our picture.  To make people we used twisty sticks and cotton balls. We also learned that's Hashem created people last because he wanted the world to be ready for them.

We finished the week off learning about Shabbat. Hashem rested on the seventh day and enjoyed what he created, that's why we also rest on Shabbat and keep it holy. The next parsha is parshas Noah, and some of the animals that were on the ark came to visit us. The petting zoo brought chickens, sheep, goats,ducks,a rooster, and a llama for all our friends to play with and brush their hair. 

Please ask your children about what Hashem created, they were all so excited to learned and create each day.
Shabbat shalom
Moral D

Yom Kippur

This week in the purple room we learned all about Yom Kippur.

On Monday we learned that on Yom Kippur many adults fast, but the children are not allowed to fast. Our friends learned that we wear white clothing so we look like angels.  We also don't wear leather shoes on Yom Kippur.  It is a special day to do teshuva and say sorry for anything we may have done wrong over the past year.  We daven to Hashem to write us in the book of life for a wonderful sweet year!

On Tuesday our friends learned about Kaparot, we take a live hen or rooster and turn it over our heads 3 times and say a pasuk.

In our math center this week, we played the game uno.  You can learn a lot from Uno! We matched colors, numbers, counted our cards and had fun playing a game while learning.

On Wednesday and Thursday we read the story of Yona and the whale.  We spoke about how he didn't listen to Hashem and was swallowed by a big fish, but he did Teshuva and Hashem forgave him. 

We discovered that we can use our math rods for building a maze! It was lots of fun. We tried to balance a pillow, a cup and a bell while counting our steps walking through the maze and trying not to drop the pillow, cup or ring the bell.  This was very hard and very funny.

In our out door play ground our friends had to clean up all the toys and help Morah move the stumps to create new seats all over our play ground, the stumps were very heavy but we learned that if we turn them over and work together we can roll them to their new spot.

Have a great weekend and easy fast.
Morah D

Building our own Shul

Rosh Hashana is almost here! In the purple room we learned all about the different names of Rosh Hashana, we ate green and red apples to see which one is sweet and sour and dipped sweet apples into honey for sweet new year. Our friends learned about teshuva, and tashlich, and what we say on Rosh Hashana.

SHANA TOVA
Our dramatic area was filled with pictures of a round challah, shofars for friends to feel and blow, candles for them to light and say a bracha, apples and honey for them to try and a machzors for them to daven with.

Our block area was filled with pictures of different shuls, so our friends built there own shul, an Aaron for the Torahs, and seats for them to sit and daven.  We even had Rabbi Tzvi come blow the shofar in our new shul. The next day in our block area our friends built an Aaron Kodesh next to Kitchen 18, and they only served meat-not dairy, because Kitchen 18 doesn't have pizza.

Thursday was a busy day with baking honey cake.  We filled up the whole school with a holiday smell, that reminded Ben and Shimmy that they made a lemon cake for their grandpas birthday.
Nosson said "that's cool, I will need a cake when I'm Bar Mitzvah'd".
Ben said "call us when it's your Bar Mitzvah and we'll make you a cake".

Shares this week
Vella brought in her blue stone that she loves "I can see the whole carpet when you look through it" and again it was hard.
Nosson brought a monster truck "The wheels spin, some of it is glass"
Ben brought an ambulance "It's white on top gray on the bottom" Nosson said "No it's silver".
Shimmy brought a butterfly "It's made of wood, it's smooshy ".
Nechama brought in her bobcat, the whiskers were made of strings and it's eyes were hard.

Have a good weekend & Shabbat shalom
Morah D

PS Please see the Facebook group for lots more pictures of our week!

The beginning of Rosh Hashana learning!

This week in the purple room we discussed what everyone did during the long weekend.

Vella said " I played and went to bed."

Nosson said " I watched a video, and played on my Ipad, and I went to the park with my cousins the Lipskers. "

Ben said " I went to a new park and we didn't see anything it was so dark."

Shimmy said " I went to snow."

Nechama said " i went to Target and bought a dinosaur."  which she brought on her share day.

Our friends are very excited that we finished  our calendar!  After so much fun and hard work we were finally able to put our calendar together.  While we were putting the calendar together we enjoyed remembering who wrote each number and letter. We learned the days of the week in Hebrew and English, and we learned that Hebrew letters are also numbers.
 

During our quiet time we are still have lots of fun while learning independently. Each friend wrote there full names in Hebrew and English using dry erase markers.  Later during the week we added writing Hebrew letters, upper case ABC, and numbers 1-10, learning that the number 10 is made of two numbers 1 and 0.

  

Rosh Hashana is close by, so our friends started learning about the different names of Rosh Hashana, why we blow the Shofar, why we eat apples dipped in honey, and much more. To have a fun discussion about the holiday Morah D hid objects that pertain to Rosh Hashana in balloons filled with water and froze them.  The next day our friends had to chisel the objects from the ice and tell us about why and what the object is used for.

Share day started last week. Each friend brings in something very special to them, they tell all our friends about it, the class is able to ask questions and have a chance to feel/touch what they brought.

Last week Nosson brought a sling shot that has many colors and he showed us how to use it.

Last week Vella brought in a hard-not-soft doll named Claudine " I pretend to play with it and I love it"

Last week Ben brought in his Spiderman that "He has a bottom which says 4 years and up."  Nosson replied "Spiderman wears leggings and underwear on top"

Last week Nechama brought a fluffy pilliow that she has had for a very long time and she sleeps with it.

Last week Shimmy brought in Dusty the plane and boat "it lands in water, it is red and black and white"

   

This weeks share.

Shimmy brought a ball and a Frisbee that is purple, the Frisbee was hard but the ball was soft.

Ben brought a tortoise that is sharp, sticky, and smells like clay, AND OF COURSE ITS HARD.

Nechama's share came all the way from target to visit us. He is very hard. Nechama also showed us the correct way the dinosaur roars.  

Vella brought her blue stone like the letter Ll and she really really really loves it.

Nossson brought in a snake that opens its mouth and its not hard on the bottom.

Shabbat Shalom Morah D

Calendar for the New Year!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
  In the purple room this week we worked on our Hebrew calendar. All of our friends wrote the Hebrew days, months, year and numbers. Look out for the official Purple Room calendar next week, made entirely by our class! 

  Mitzva was a big topic this week, learning what a mitzva is and how we can do more mitzvos through out the day.
Nosson said " To help someone, and say' please can I have'. If we do a mitzva Hashem gets closer."
Ben " Light candles"
Batya (Vella) "I put on my shoes and say Thank you to my mommy."
Shimmy " Say Thank you to my mommy."
Nechama " Saying Thank you."



Many mitzvos happen every day in our class.  Vella was running around in the classroom and Nechama said "Vella don't run it's the rule, you can get hurt. Stop I don't want you to get hurt your my best friend."

Our class room mitzva we spoke about this week is saying Hi and how are you when we meet new people and our friends.



















Our sensory bin this week has been filled with dirt and play food, our friends searched through the dirt to 'dig up' the food and told everyone the bracha for that food.











   Our math area this week has all been about numbers recognizing them and counting. We used our puzzle pictures to count the number of pictures and connect them to the right number

Our block area was filled with pictures this week of buildings, parks, castles, roads, and playgrounds.
Ben and Shimmy built a castle on a hill.
Ben said: "No it's not a hill it's a volcano"
Shimmy said: " Morah D all the blocks don't fit we need a screw driver."

It was another wonderful week full of learning and exploring.  Looking forward to next week when we will begin to learn about Rosh Hashana.

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah D