Dear Parents,

 

WELCOME NEW FRIEND, ALISA!

The Purple Room has been very warm and welcoming to a new friend who joined the class this week: Alisa Artish! The day before she arrived the Purple Room Friends thought of ideas how to help her feel comfortable in her new class with her new friends:

 

Ronan: We can teach her how to write.

Angie: We can play with and her and the animals and blocks.

Leah: We can show her the Morah and what’s her name and the Morah can say “Boker Tov” (Good Morning). We can show her how to slide down when we go outside. We can show her how to wash her hands. We can show her the Purple Room Keeping Safe sign.

Jemma: We can show her where everything is. We can show her the Safe Place.

Bracha: We can tell her what we do at birthdays. We can show her where the bathroom is. We can show her where the jobs are.

Naveed: We can show her how to daven. We can get a chair for Alisa so she can have snack.

Geffen: We can show her how to sign in and do her Morning Tasks. We can give her homework so she can learn. We can show her all the centers.

 

Tu B’Shvat

In honor of Tu B’Shvat, the Rosh Hashana for trees, the Purple Room focused on trees, parts of trees, plants and how they grow.  They planted grass and monitored its growth every day. They experimented with two trays of grass seeds. They covered one and not the other and noticed the covered one grew faster than the one that wasn’t. They decided to cover both trays to help the slow growing tray catch up.

 

The Purple Room Horticulturists also painted their own pots and planted gladiolas. They are keeping them in class for a while to observe their growth as they tend to them.

 

Song:

If I were a tree, what I’d be 3x

If I were a tree.

 

I would have a trunk (stretch out arms)

I would have branches (jump)

I would have leaves (whoosh with hands)

I would have apples (reach high and eat an apple… nom, nom, nom)

 

Math

The Purple Room Mathematicians explored tens this week. Utilizing the Montessori math beads the children built the tens board and figured out how many tens in each number.

 

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Perline

 Dear Parents,

 

 

Parsha Math

This week’s Parsha is Bo when Hashem finally takes the Jewish People out of Mitzrayim (Egypt). The Purple Room Mathematicians figured out the Gematria (numerical value) of the letters of the name of the Parsha: בא  ב     = 2 and    א  = 1. When they added them together they got 3! Which is the number of makos (plagues) we learn about in this Parsha.

 

If you were living in Mitzrayim, what would you ask your Mitzri neighbors for?

Bracha: Lights to decorate a house.

Jemma: A bed.

Ronan: Toys.

Angie: Playroom.

Geffen: Fast cars with remote control.

Naveed: A real magic wand I could make real magic.

 

If the Jewish people weren't forced to be slaves anymore, why did Hashem have to take them out of Mitzrayim?

Geffen: For davening to Hashem and listen to Hashem.

Bracha: Because the Jewish People didn’t like it there.

Jemma: So Pharoah doesn’t do the same thing he did again.

Naveed: Because Pharoah said yes.

 

 

Tree Math

The Purple Room Mathameticians figured out how Tu B’Shvat lands on the 15^th day of the Hebrew month of Shvat. They got the answer by figuring out the Gematria of the word Tu     and finding the sum of the letters.       = 9 and     = 6. When added together they found 15!

 

The Purple Room is preparing for Tu B’Shvat, the ‘Rosh Hashana’ for the trees. Hashem will decide on that day what is in store for all the trees. Will they have fruit this year? Will they have lots of leaves? Will they give shade?

 

The Purple Room know the parts of the trees. Ask your child.

 

How can we make a tree grow?

 

Jemma: Take some soil and put it in the bucket and then we take some branches, attach it together and then we take some real leaves and put it together and glue it onto the real branches. It’s like a fake tree. For a real tree I guess we just plant something.

 

Bracha: We can put some soil in one of the buckets and then we can take some tree seeds and we could put it in the soil and then we can water it for a few days and it could turn into a tree.

 

Naveed: I want to make grass. We going to need soil and grass seeds.

 

Angie: We can have some water to grow the tree with so we can make it bigger so it could look so strong because it’s so beautiful. I just like to have a shade of it.

 

Leah: We could use dirt and water and grass to make grass.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday Bracha! May your parents and family continue to have much nachas from you!

 

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Perline

 

Dear Parents,

 

Literacy

The Purple Room has been working on rhyming words. This is a great game to play at home. Your child can even make up some words. Such as ‘Who’s coming to supper, bupper, lupper…”! Or “Let’s all go home, rome, lome…” The Purple Room has been playing rhyming bingo and talking in rhyme to help the ear become more accustomed to the sounds of the words. They are learning that rhyming words have the same ending sounds such as cat, hat, bat…

They know that ‘rhyming words sound the same at the end’. They may not be spelled the same but they sound the same. The Purple Room Friends created an -at and -ed rhyming word list:

-at - cat, hat, rat, mat, sat, bat

-ed – bed, dead, said

 

A big Mazal Tov to two more Purple Room Friends who are now working with their Red Books! (Waseca Montessori Literacy Program) Mazal Tov to Geffen! Mazal Tov to Naveed! To be able to begin working with the Red Book means the child can identify every letter sound of the alphabet and can form words beginning with cat, man, etc. utilizing the moveable alphabet to do so.

 

Parsha

The Purple Room learned this week about a mean Pharoah who made not good choices. He was very mean to the Jewish People and made them work like slaves. The Jewish People cried out to Hashem to help them and take them away from this cruel country Mitzrayim. Hashem heard their cries and saved them by sending Moshe to take them out. Moshe went to Pharoah to tell him to let the Jewish People go but Pharoah said no. Then Hashem brought makos (plagues) upon the Mitzriyim, not the Jews. In this Parsha the Purple Room Friends learned about seven of the makos: Blood, Frogs, Lice, Wild Animals, Sick farm animals, Boils, and Hail.

 

Song:

 (TTTO: 4 Green and Speckled Frogs)

 

4 green and speckled frogs

Sitting on a Mitzri’s head

Eating from his delicious food,

Yum! Yum!

 

One jumped into the pot,

Where it was really hot,

Then there were 4 speckled frogs.

 

4 green and speckled frogs…

3…

2…

1…

 

THANK YOU!!

A HUGE thank you to Ronan Hensdell’s dad who built two wooden frames with circular holders wedged in for creating giant pixel pictures, patterns and matching games. Morah Perline has a kind friend who collected and saved bottle cases for many years and gave them to Morah to use for the  children. Ronan’s dad kindly cut them down and created two giant boards. The Purple Room Artists painted the frames and it looks stunning! (See CJP Facebook page) They will be available for all the classes to have fun with.

 

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Geffen! May you continue to bring nachas to your parents and family!

 

Please Note:

No school on Monday, January 18 Teacher In-Service Day.

 

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Perline

Shemos

 Dear Parents,

 

The Purple Room children were overjoyed to see each other after the Winter Break. Each had something to say about something they enjoyed over the vacation:

 

Geffen: I made fireworks by myself. I was just making one and my dad was putting on the fire. Only my dad made the fire. I was using a metal on a stick and then I used a special cup. I made a lot of them. I made some shapes: Star, pentagon, hexagon and a diamond.

Leah: The unicorn saw a ball. It was trying to get it. The ball was kind of freezing on his legs. The unicorn has strong hands to get it out and play with it.

Ronan: We had fireworks. My Papa got a lighter and he just did that. I liked the space one that had the eagle one on it. I made my own firework with the little one.

Naveed: We was in a park. And there was a seesaw with two twins. There was sand and a sandcastle. A twin made the sandcastle. The one who has a flower head. (He explained to me that meant curly hair.)

Jemma: I went to the ice cream place. It had vanilla icing and rainbow marshmallows and sprinkles and M&M’s. I went with my Daddy. He got me a special treat. And then he got me a smoothie. A raspberry one.

Angie: I like to see a rainbow because they are very beautiful. It was going in the water and showed up and made bright colors and I can see it.

 

Literacy

The Purple Room has been making up stories with the sight words on the Word Wall. They are becoming more familiar and extending their vocabulary.

 

Geography

During most mornings this week the Purple Room kids were piecing together the United States of America puzzle until completed. They know there are 50 states in America. They were amused by many of the states’ names … Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama.

 

Math

Some of the Purple Room Mathematicians were working on the Montessori teen boards this week creating teen numbers. For example, when 10 beads are added with 6 beads it comes to sixteen. They noticed that 6 and 10 sounds like six-ten, very close in sound to six-teen, 4 and 10 sounds like four-ten, very close sound to fourteen.

 

Parsha

There was a lot of catching up to do to be up to date with the Parsha. The children were quite curious what happened with Yosef and his brothers. But they were so happy to hear of the big reveal when Yosef told his brothers who he was. They hugged each other and finally Yosef was reunited with his father Yaakov.

 

In this week’s Parsha they learned about Moshe who lived after Yaakov and Yosef’s time. They heard how a mean Paroah who made not good choices made the Jewish People work much too hard, like slaves. But Hashem heard their cries and sent a special person to take them away from Mitzrayim and Paroah so they could serve Hashem with happiness.

 

Song:

Baby Moshe was in the basket,
The basket, the basket.
Baby Moshe was in the basket,
In the river Nile.

Who put him in there,
in there, in there?
Who put him in there,
In the river Nile?

His Mommy put him in there,
in there, in there.
His Mommy put him in there,
In the river Nile. 

The princess she was swimming,
Swimming, swimming.
The princess she was swimming,
In the river Nile. 

She took him to the palace,
the palace, the palace.
She took him to the palace,
Near the river Nile.

 

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Perline

 Dear Parents,

 

Chanukah, oh Chanukah, what fun we’ve had in Purple Room! Every day this week was packed with Chanukah fun integrated with literacy, math, science and art.

 

Science

The Purple Room Scientists tested many theories they had about oil and water. They used droppers to drop colored water onto the oil and blew colored oil and water with a straw.

 

Before they began the experiment, they offered their hypothesis. After they conducted the experiment they noted their observations:

 

Bracha:

Hypothesis: I think that colored water will turn clear.

Observation: It looks like bubbles.

 
Leah:

Hypothesis: I think the water will go up.

Observation: It looks like cents.

 

Jemma:

Hypothesis: I think it will turn red.

Observation: It looks like sparkling apple juice.

 

Ronen:

Hypothesis: I think the water will disappear.

 Observation: It looks like honey.

 

Naveed:

Observation:  The water went out.

 

Angie:

Observation: It looks like the ocean.

 

Observations of straw blowing the oil and water:

Jemma: When I was blowing with the straw the color was spreading around..

Bracha: It went to different corners and then went to the same place.

Leah: It made a duck.

Ronen:-  It stayed in its place.

 

Art

The Purple Room Artists created dreidel sculptures. They mixed plaster with water to create a dreidel. Once it dried they painted the dreidel and decorated the display stand to complete a stunning creation.

 

Made latkes from scratch. They peeled the potatoes and then grated them. Checked the eggs to make sure they were kosher (no blood spots) and mixed them with the potatoes, salt and flour

 

Math

The Purple Room Mathematicians ‘made’ latkes in a giant fry pan made of blocks. They each received an equation they had to figure out. They used the ‘latkes’ (aka Magnatiles) to represent the addends which they ‘threw’ into the pan. By figuring out the sum they knew how many jumps they got to jump into the giant fry pan.

 

Practical life skills

The Purple Room Cooks made delicious latkes this week from scratch. They peeled, cut, grated and mixed the potatoes. Eating them was the best part. The Purple Room children loved singing the latke song and would make sure to sing it down the hall so the ‘little kids can learn it’!

 

Song:

Latkele, latkele, hop, hop, hop,

Jump right into my pot.

Fry and sizzle merrily ,

For you’re the one I’ll eat, you see!

 

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Perline

 Dear Parents,

 

Integration, integration, integration. This week the Purple Room integrated Chanukah, literacy, science, Alef Beis, fine motor, math, creativity, and more into prepping for Chanukah. You name it and Chanukah was pulling it in.

 

The children had so much fun working on every step. They created paint on oil (art) Chanukah cards for their grandparents. Chanukah cards were created for their parents and the Kindergarten children sounded out and spelled words. The Chanukah gift for their parents began as a science experiment. They created Lava lamps beginning with oil and water (transferring liquids, a Montessori activity). The Purple Room Scientists noted their hypotheses on their Science sheet, then their observations and, finally, their conclusions. The Kindergarten children wrote their own notes sounding out the words (literacy). They discovered that, no matter what, the oil would always rise to the top even when they shook their bottles really hard. Then Jemma had the idea to add a dreidel to the bottle. The Purple Room Scientists noticed that the dreidel floated on top of the water but under the oil. They noted that the plastic dreidel is lighter than water but heavier than oil. They carefully and lovingly wrapped the present, tying it with a ribbon, so excited to give this Chanukah present to their parents.

 

The Purple Room children know why many people use oil to light in their menorahs and why we eat latkes and donuts fried in oil. Ask your child and he/she will tell you.

 

Creating the Chanukah Menorah involved many steps: The Purple Room Artists applied tape to the wood in a design, then painted over it. After the paint was dry, they peeled off the tape (fine motor). They then painted again with Mod Podge and glitter.  Then they were given candle holders and had to figure out if they had more or less than 8 (math). If they had more, how many did they have to take away (subtract) to get to 8? If they had less, how many more did they need to add (addition) to get to 8? Once they arrived at the correct answer they received clay to create a base for each candle holder. After which they received one more for the Shamash (the candle used to light the Menorah candles. The Purple Room Artists painted the clay bases when they were dry. They are so proud of all the extensive work put into their Menorahs and are so excited to light them every Chanukah night.

 

The children brought home their Chanukah song books to share with their families. They so enjoy the many ways one can make a dreidel (see song # 3). They can think of a few to add to the mix!

 

What a special treat the Purple Room children had this week: It rained!

Geffen: I said thank You Hashem for the rain.

The children had so much fun playing with mud, feeling the rain on their hands. They may have brought home muddy clothes but the smiles and shouts of glee were worth it. (Please send fresh clothes for their spare clothes bags J)

 

Happy Chanukah! Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Perline

 Dear Parents,

 

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of learning punctuated by the Thanksgiving break. The Purple Room flew from exploring their appreciation of things to learning about the light of Chanukah. Each Purple Room child created their own Thanksgiving tree with many of the things they felt thankful for. They incorporated the artist George Seurat’s Pointillism style when creating the jar and the leaves for the tree. Their personally painted rocks and wire twists added that extra pizzazz to an already charming creation.

 

Kind Respect

The Purple Room has an Ahavas Yisroel (loving another) sign displayed prominently on the classroom wall. The Purple Room friends have been working on speaking with kindness and respect for another. Here is a chant each child recites to another child every day:

 

____    ____ (insert person’s name) Pumpkin Eater

Had a friend he/she liked to greet

Treated ______ with kind respect

And in the morning,

Hugged his/her neck!

 

Parsha + Math

Yaakov divided his family and animals and belongings when going to meet Esav. The Purple Room played activities creating ‘groups of’. For example, when they divided 16 gems into 2 groups they found they had 8 gems in 2 groups. When they divided 8 dreidels into 2 groups they found 4 dreidels in each group.

Literacy

The Purple Room has been practicing letter writing this week. Tracing the letter on a card and then in colored sand as a sensory experience. Then the children practice the letters on the whiteboards with erasable markers (which they really enjoy!). The letters a, d, b, k and q are especially challenging but they keep practicing! :)

 

Parsha

In this week’s parsha, Parshas Vayishlach, the Purple Room learned how Yaakov did three things when going to meet Esav. Yaakov wasn’t sure if Esav was still angry with him from when Yaakov got the bracha instead of Esav all those years ago. Yaakov prepared gifts for Esav so that Esav would be more favorably inclined to him, then he divided his family in one group and the animals and belongings in another and, finally, Yaakov davened to Hashem for help.

 

What do you daven to Hashem for? I daven to Hashem for…

 

Ronan: … that I can see in the dark. I feel scared in the dark.

Jemma: … that Hashem should bring my Grandma who was 91 back to life.

Angie: … to help me read.

Bracha: … for some presents for Chanukah.

Leah: … to give me toys.

Geffen: … to help me read.

 

What kind of gifts might you send to a friend if you want to help them when they are upset?

 

Jemma: A card that says I hope you feel better.

Geffen: To do a race. With motorcycles. Real ones. Or a cake.

Angie: A heart.

Bracha: I would make a picture. I am very good at drawing. Actually write the words and actually make the pictures.

Ronan: A message. It says ‘I hope you feel better’.

Naveed: Flowers. 

Leah: A balloon.

 

When Yaakov traveled back to Eretz Yisrael with his family and many belongings he had to cross a river, the Jordan River. After crossing the river many times to get his entire entourage over to the other side, Yaakov realized he had left some jars back on the side he had come from. There were only a few jars and Yaakov could have left them there. But Yaakov knew to be responsible for his things, not to leave them lying around, and went back for them.

 

What are some ways we can take really good care of our personal or community belongings?

 

Jemma: We don’t drop books on the floor. We put them on the bookshelf. Also, you can’t throw a Siddur because it has Hashem’s name.

Geffen: If you have a motorcycle or if you’re hungry and you want to eat. You don’t leave it on the road. You leave your motorcycle in the garage and then you wash your hands and then you eat.

Ronan:  I don’t leave my toys on the floor so somebody could trip. I put them away where they go.

Angie: My dad takes care of the dishes. He puts them in the sink. I take care of my toys. I clean them all up.

 

Now that the Purple Room has ‘met’ the Patriarchs (aka the Three Fathers), Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov, they know who taught us to daven to Hashem three times a day:

 

Song:

Three Times a Day

(TTTO: Three Blind Mice)

 

Three times a day 2 x

To Hashem we pray 2x

Shacharis is the morning tune (learned from Avraham)

Mincha in the afternoon (learned from Yitzchak)

Ma’ariv by the light of the moon (learned from Yaakov)

Three times a day

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Perline