Dear Purple Kindergarten Parents,

Rosh Hashana is the new year! And the Kindergarten children know ALL about that! They know the most important mitzvah of the Jewish Holiday is to hear the shofar ‘loud and clear’. You can hear them sing many of the songs in their Rosh Hashana repertoire on the CJP Facebook page, accompanied by their instruments and Mr. Guitar. They can identify the three sounds the shofar blows as they have depicted in their Machzor (High Holidays prayer book). Working diligently on their own machzor, the Kindergarten Writers expressed their personal requests of Hashem by sounding out the words and transcribing them onto pages of their Machzor. They will try to remember to take their Machzor to and from shul on Rosh Hashana.

The Kindergarten Friends had many good wishes to express to others but alas! only one page was allotted for this in their Machzor.  Ask your Kindergartener to show you his/her thoughtful wish for a friend (or, as in one case, for a Morah!).

Reinforcing Alef Beis Literacy, the Kindergarteners identified the letters in many Rosh Hashana words: Shana Tova, Machzor, Shofar, to name but a few.

In keeping with the Rosh Hashana mitzva of Shofar, this week the Kindergarten Artists painted a still life of the shofar.

The Kindergarteners went on a ‘Tashlich Walk’ in preparation for the real Tashlich Walk on Rosh Hashana. They sang their Tashlich song as they went. You can hear them sing it on the CJP Facebook group. Morah Perline is looking forward to joining with the Kindergarteners on Rosh Hashana for the Tashlich Walk in Desert Breeze Park at 5:30 pm on Monday, September 10. Come and join!

Questions abounded when the Kindergarten Kids walked into class on Wednesday and saw streamers, birthday signs and heard the Happy Birthday song playing. Whose birthday is it? they wanted to know. Kindergarten celebrated the world’s birthday this week on 25th of Elul (which coincided this year with September 5), wore birthday masks, sang Happy Birthday to the world and learned to their shock that the world is ‘SOOOOOO OLD!’. They know that the world is now 5,779 years old. The Kindergarten Kids can recite all the 12 months of the Jewish year and know that we are presently in the month of Elul which is coming to an end. But Tishrei is coming and that month is FULL of wonderful Jewish Holidays!

The Kindergarten Parsha Whizzes know that the Parsha of the week, Nitzavim, is always read just before Rosh Hashana because Nitzavim means ‘standing firm’. They have been practicing ‘standing firm’ every time they hear the word ‘Nitzavim’. We are standing firm before Hashem on Rosh Hashana in the sure knowledge that Hashem will give us a good sweet new year. Try it out with your child. Say ‘Nitzavim’ and see what happens!

Please refer to the CJP Facebook group for a pictorial display of some of this week’s learning.

Wishing you and your family a Ketiva V’chatima Tova, L’shana Tova U’metuka – may you be written and sealed for a sweet new year!

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Perline

The Kindergarten Writers have been working on their Machzor for Rosh Hashana this week. They are taking this time in the Jewish month of Elul to reflect on their year and make resolutions for the new year. They entered their personal thoughts on this in their machzor and ask Hashem to help them achieve success. Jonah resolved to help his friends clean.

Mr. Guitar (aka Mrs. Perline’s guitar) has taken up permanent residence in the classroom and now makes a regular appearance with the Kindergarten Singers. This week, Mr. Guitar was led in song by Nosson when he brought in an old favorite, ‘Darkecho’. The Singers have been learning many Rosh Hashana songs and, with the help of Mr. Guitar,  been practicing differentiating between the different blasts the Shofar makes.

Thank you to Mrs. Lvov, Ben’s and Shimmy’s mother, for bringing in a different type of shofar for the children to explore. Mrs. Lvov explained that this very long shofar is a Yemenite shofar and it comes from Israel. The children felt the heaviness of the shofar and were amazed that the ram could carry two such heavy ‘horns’ on its head. After exploring the shofar the Kindergarteners noticed a few differences between the shofars:

Vella: soft and hard, Jonah: different,

Nosson: tough and smooth,

Ben: smooth and hard,

Shimmy: more soft and bumpy.

The children were very impressed when Mrs. Lvov actually, and expertly, blew the shofar!

Hygiene: The children know to scrub their hands with soap and count out the required 20 seconds. Shimmy would rather sing one of his favorite songs, ‘Hashem gave us a present’, instead of counting and, after timing the song, found that it takes exactly 20 seconds to sing it!

It was exciting for the Kindergarteners to learn in this week’s Parsha about the 7 Kinds Israel is famous for. They had fun searching the classroom for the 7 Kinds and then leading a ‘procession’ to ‘Yerushalayim’ to bring their first fruits (Bikurim) to Hashem. Vella was the first to notice all the red strings around the room and wondered why they were there. Ask your Kindergartener for the explanation.

Please refer to the CJP Facebook group for a pictorial display of some of this week’s learning.

Wishing you and your family a Ketiva V’chatima Tova, L’shana Tova U’metuka – may you be written and sealed for a sweet new year!

Morah Perline

In preparation for Rosh Hashana , the Kindergarten Kids have been reflecting on this past year. They are thinking about all the mitzvos they have already done and are making resolutions for the new year. Creating self-portraits (see Purple Room’s bulletin board in the hallway) was one step in reflection. Painting self-portraits can be tricky. Getting the right size canvas was challenging for some: Ben was only able to paint his right eye; that’s all he had space for.

This week’s parsha was chockfull of mitzvos and the Kindergarten Kids learned a few. Ask him/her!
Hashovas Aveida (returning lost things)
Shiluach hakan (sending away the mother bird)
Building a ma’akeh (a fence)

Please look in your child's backpack for his/her parsha sheet!

The Kindergarten Kids integrated Alef Beis Literacy, Outdoor Play and Parsha to explore the mitzva of Hashovas Aveida. Morah Perline ‘somehow’ lost a whole bunch of Alef Beis letters in the playground at Outdoor Play but the Purple Kindergarten Friends did the mitzvah of returning lost things and returned all the lettes to Morah. Jonah was ace at finding all the lost letter ‘Hey’s’.

The Kindergarten Kids played ‘Baby Bird, Baby Bird, Mother!’ (variation of Duck, Duck, Goose) to better understand how to be kind to animals and chase away the mother bird if, for some reason, you may need to get the baby birds. They know not to make the mother bird feel sad. Nosson was a super fast runner and was able to run to his spot without being caught!

Safety is so important and the Wise Kindergarten Parsha Experts know what is and isn’t safe. Vella is able to explain to you what makes a swimming pool safe: build a ‘ma’akeh’ (fence) around it. Shimmy can show you how to make a roof on a house safe and all the children know that medicines must be kept safely out of reach of children.

In relation to safety, the children learned about hygiene, too. They know the proper procedure for washing hands. They know to scrub their hands while they count to 20, reinforcing counting all those ‘teen’ numbers without missing one! Ben was very helpful and acted out each step in pictures which are affixed to the wall near the sink. Come see.

The Kindergarten Bakers made the challa dough again for the entire Preschool. Let them know how the challa comes out this Shabbat! Enjoy!

Please see the CJP Facebook page for comprehensive pictures of this week’s Kindergarten learning activities.

Shabbat Shalom!
Morah Perline

The first week for Kindergarten in the Purple Room at CPJ was exciting. The children are happy and excited and collaborate together in learning and play.

Taking advantage of the cooler weather in the morning for Water Play, the children naturally gravitated to the muddiest area and gleefully sat in the mud, reveling in the cool, smooth feel of the wet soil. At first, Jonah didn’t want to sit in the mud and get ‘dirty’ but he was so brave and tried it anyway. He sat in it, swished his legs in the mud and explored the feeling. Jonah shows courage in trying new things. The children have been excavating and digging in the soil as the water trickles down the hill into their area. Their construction area has turned into an ocean, according to Nosson, or a summer rain area, according to Ben, depending on who you ask. Vella dished out the mud into a tray while Jonah brought her fresh water from up the hill. “It’s from the sprinkler,” he said. Shimmy dug a very deep hole using his excavation tool, a spade. It is wonderful to see the children embracing this fantastic sensory experience.

Kindergarten explored the Parsha of the week, Shoftim (Judges), which teaches about the responsibility of the Jewish People to create courts of law, have a Jewish King and not wasting things. The children learned about the different levels of courts: one with 3 judges, the higher court with 23 judges and the highest court, Sanhedrin, with 70 judges and one Nasi (president). Each court has an odd number of judges in case they need to make a ‘majority’ vote. The children learned what this means by experimenting with different scenarios and voting to see what the ‘majority’ voted on. Counting the votes, they determined which option had more and which votes had less.

The Kindergarten Friends created their own crowns and know that a Jewish King always carried a Sefer Torah with him wherever he went. (Not a smartphone! ☺) He also kept a second Torah in his treasury. Some children decided to cut triangles and some chose to cut semicircles for the crown. They decided how to decorate their crowns and later sized them for their friends.

Reviewing their knowledge of Alef Beis, the Kindergarten Whizzes tested their memory through touch while blindfolded. It was a fun experience to ‘see’ the Alef through touch as well as seeing it later when the blindfold was off.

The Kindergarten, being the highest grade in the land, nay, the Preschool, made dough so that all the classes could make challah for Shabbos. Thank you, Kindergarten!

Being responsible is a serious business in the Purple Room and the children happily fulfill their tasks eagerly. This week Ben was the Bus Boy, Jonah the Custodian, Nosson the Room Inspector, Shimmy was the Light Switch Helper and Vella the Door Holder. Each child had an additional job as well and they carried them out very responsibly. What ‘Mentchen’!

Please see the private CJP Family Facebook Group for more pictures of our week!

Have a wonderful Shabbos!
Morah (Shternie) Perline

After an awesome animal week, the purple room continued with insects.

On Monday we reviewed what an insect is and we learned that some insects go through a metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two or more distinct stages. The insect we are observing and learning about is a butterfly.

The purple room had a very exiting trip to the library. In the library we met a very nice librarian named Debbie, she showed us where all the books are kept and how everyone works together to keep the library clean and in order. Our friends also joined story time in the library, they got to move, dance and listen to two stories. Morah D opened a library card and each friend picked a butterfly book that we took back to our class. What an educational trip!

On Tuesday we visited Morah Felicia’s class and she gave us our caterpillars. Our friends created little houses for each caterpillar, they put food on the bottom of a plastic cup and used a paint brush to gently put our caterpillars inside. Each friend gave a name to their new pet.
Nechama’s friend is Butterfly Rainbow
Vella’s friend is Minnie
Ben’s friend is Nemo
Nosson’s friend is Nero
Shimmy’s friend is Dory
Morah D’s friend is Kelsey

Every day when each child comes into the class, they write in their journal about what changes they see happening. Our friends saw that caterpillars also make webs like spiders and they eat a lot.  We are excited for them to turn into butterflies for us to release at Graduation!

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah D

What an great week! One of my favorites.
ANIMAL WEEK
Monday was mammal week. Morah D brought in her dog ( Brownie ) and Morah Felicia brought in her guinea pig ( Trevor ). Both animals are mammals.
What is a mammal? Our friends learned that a mammal has hair or fur, is warm blooded, makes milk for their babies and can’t breathe underwater. Are people mammals? Yes we are also mammals. Ben thought that even if someone is bald, they are still a mammal. Our friends learned that the largest land mammal is an elephant and the largest water mammal is the blue whale. All of CJP got to play with brownie and Trevor, they felt their hair and even got kisses. Brownie went outside with all our friends and everyone got a chance to walk the dog.
Tuesday was fish day. Morah Gitty brought us different fish for our friends to observe, how do they eat? How do they swim? How do they breathe? A fish is an animal that is cold blooded, they have fins and a tale to help them swim, they lay see-through eggs, they live in the water and have gills to breathe in the water. The largest fish is a whale shark. Our friends put their fingers into the water so they can feel the fish suck on their fingers.
Wednesday was bird day. CJP had chicks, ducklings, and a parakeet in our school. What is a bird? Birds are warm blooded, they have wings but not all birds fly, birds have feathers, birds lay hard shell eggs. The largest bird is an ostrich, one ostrich egg equals to 24 chicken eggs.
Our friends all played, held and observed the duckling and chicks. We had 3 ducklings and 3 chicks. Our ducklings joined all our friends outside, we set up a small pool for them to swim in, they were racing and cleaning themselves in the water.  Later our chicks joined us in the grass and we got to observe how different the ducks are from the chicks. Ducks have webbed feet and chicks don’t, they also are different colors and have a different beak.
Thursday was reptile day, we had lizards and tortoises in our school. Reptiles are cold blooded, they lay soft shell eggs, and have scaly like skin but not shiny. The largest reptile is the salt water crocodile. Our friends got to hold and feel the tortoise shell and arms. We took the tortoises outside so that we can feed them lettuce from our garden.
Friday was insect day. In our school we had hissing cockroaches, horn warms, earth worms and crickets. Insects lay eggs and they have 3 pairs of legs. The largest insect is the giant weta. Interacting with insects can be very scary and it took us some time to get used to them but after a while we were able to conquer our fear and hold all the insects-even the giant cockroach, some friends even put them on their heads!
This has been a very fun week.

Share this week was about the letter P
Nosson brought in his pieces that he can build with.
Vella brought in popcorn
Ben brought pie that we made from scratch with their mom
Nechama brought in a giant pot the we cooked all our friends in

Shabbat Shalom!
See you all next week.

Morah D

What an exciting week!
This week in the purple room we learned and experimented with different solids, liquids and gases.
On Monday our friends learned that a solid is firm and stable like a chair, table and many other things. A liquid is a fluid that conforms to its container like water and juices. Gas is an air like fluid that expands freely to fill any space like air and carbon dioxide (and of course a fart). After learning about solid, liquid and gas it was time to wash hands, we used liquid soap, liquid water and a solid paper towel.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we experimented with balloons. Morah D filled one balloon with water, one with air and one was solid ice. Our friends weighed the ice balloons, water balloons, and air balloons to see which weighed more. Then we bounced the balloons to see which one bounced more, after all the bouncing we made little holes so we can feel the air, water and ice.
On Thursday our green room friends joined us to experiment with dry ice. Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide, that people and animals breathe out and plants breathe in. We put coins into the dry ice and saw them dancing and making noises until the coins froze, then we added dry ice to hot water we heard it boiling and we saw steam clouds coming out. Our next experiment was hot water, bubbles solution and dry ice. Bubbles were popping out of the bowl, our friends used their fingers to pop the bubbles and steam popped from within the bubbles.
In our outdoor classroom the purple room was very interested in bugs and building a house for the beetles, the beetle house was full of different rooms, hiding place and even a small river with a boat so they don’t drown.

Share this week was about the letter O
Nosson brought in his Omer chart
Ben brought in an octopus
Nechama brought in an owl and an orange
Shimmy brought in oats for everyone

See you next week!
Morah D