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Letter Kof

This week we learned letter Kof. It has one big line on top, one big line coming down, one big line on the bottom, and one dot inside. Letter kof and letter Bais look similar but what makes them two DIFFERENT letters is the little line that bais has on the bottom and kof does not.

Hint to remember the form of kof: Kof has a cough and a cold so he has to suck on a cough drop until he gets better.

Kosher begins with kof.
Just like eating healthy food is good for our body, so too, eating kosher food is good for our neshama.
Here are a few of the kosher symbols we learned that we can see on foods we buy.

Parshas Vayigash

For more info on the Parsha click here:
http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/341220/jewish/Vayigash-Roundup.htm

For a nice song on the Parsha click here:
http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/573572/jewish/Parshah-Song.htm

Letter Yud

Sammy brought us the Letter Yud. Yud has an extra little line on top, and extra little line coming down.

It the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet.

Yiztchok Yisroel - (Ethan) begins with the letter Yud

Yarmulka begins with the letter Yud

Yeled (boy) begins with the letter Yud

Parshas Mikaitz

For more info on the Parsha click here:
http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/340553/jewish/Mikeitz-Roundup.htm


For a nice song on the Parsha click here:
http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/573571/jewish/Parshah-Song.htm

Chanuka Story and Costums "Catch Up"

The Jewish people learning Torah and doing mitzvos in caves and when the Greeks came they pulled out their dreidels and played.

The Jewish people found one closed jug of oil with the Kohen Gadol's signature on it.

It was pure olive oil ready to light the menorah with.

The Kohen Gadol lighting the menorah.

(In the Beis Hamikdosh, the menorah had 7 branches plus one more for the shamesh helper candle. Today, we have 8 branches plus one more for the Shamesh as a reminder that the oil in the menorah burned for 8 days and nights.)

Friends lighting the menorah

In the process of crafting our menorahs

Squeezing olives for oil

Enjoying the oily donuts we made

Peeling potatoes for latkas

Parshas Vayeishev

For more info on the Parsha click link below:

http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/322901/jewish/Vayeishev-Roundup.htm

Letter Tes

This past week, our Mail Carrier was our dear friend Rochelle. She carefully brought us letter Tes. It seemed a bit difficult to form, but in fact it was pretty simple after all. The form of letter Tes has one big line coming down, one big line on the bottom, one big line going up, and one little slanted line coming down. It looks like a teapot.

Tallis begins with a Tes

Sammy davening with a tallis

At our Shabbos party, every boy got to be a Shabbos Totty (Father in Yiddish)

and every girl got to be a Shabbos Tantah (aunt in Yiddish) and wear a tichel (head covering in Yiddish)

Our Community - Our School

Community. What is it?  Friends learned that community is made by people who live, work or play together and make decisions together... Is our class a community? Yes, side by side friends learn and play together. Everyone in our community has responsibilities.

For example, Etelle was a nurse this week.

She responsibly took care of all the boo-booes applying antiseptic spray and bandages.

Friends discussed how we need each other.  What are morahs responsibilities? Friends need morahs who teach them, morahs need friends to teach. But what are morahs other responsibilities?

Friends visited Nursery and Pre-Nursery Classes to talk to morahs about their responsibilities.

 Morah Tammy, Sarah, Frumie and Perl said that they make sure that friends are safe, healthy, and happy. And one more thing- morahs make sure that friends learn. But who takes responsibilities to get everything that morahs  need for teaching? Books,  paper, and markers. How lunches and snacks get to our school? Who is responsible for this?  

To find out answers on these questions, friends visited the school office. There we met Inna, Nata and Naama.  They told friends that each of them is responsible for different things. Inna is responsible for all orders morahs make- books, paper, and markers. Nata is responsible for copies and binding books. Naama is responsible for our trips and fixing our lunches if there is any issues. We didn't loose opportunity and mentioned to her that Pre-K would like to get more chicken nuggets and ketchup and less grilled veggies.  We discussed as well what are Gena's and Izabelle responsibilities.

Next week, we will discuss what makes a peaceful community.

Mazel Tov! Mazel Tov!

Mazel Tov to our dear friend Sammy on turning 5 years old!

Friends and Morahs wish Sammy to have Happy Birthday Cakes, race car, Batman and Spider man, Fresh Beats Band coloring book, have a lot of friends, be healthy and happy.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Shafir, Mazel Tov to you! May all your mishpucha have only simcha from Sammy!

Thank you so much for great presents to our class. Friends enjoyed them very much!

See the Block Center addition takes place on the carpet. Girls created an amazing construction using curves.

Everyone enjoyed playing with clicks creating machines and constructions.

Thank you for bringing excitement into our class!

This week we learned

The letter of the week was the letter Q. To make the letter, one needs two big curves and one little line.

Together with the letter and its sound, we learned some words that start with the letter Q.

For example, how we call a woman that rules a country- QUEEN.

When you do something very fast, you do it QUICKLY.

When you don't make a sound, you are QUIET.

A cover that is made up of colorful pieces of fabric is a QUILT.

When we want to find out something, we ask a QUESTION.

We work hard practicing on identifying beginning sounds of the words and write them down.  

Number 7 was the number of the week. Without any trouble, friends found the number on the number line between 6 and 8. When morah asked what do friends know about the number, they said that 7 is more than 6,5,4,3,2,1,and 0 , but less than 8,9 and 10. To make the number, one needs one little line and one big line.

What is Family?

Pre-K Friends discussed that everyone of them with all alikenesses and differences have something very special. It is their families. When morahs asked what is "family" there is what friends said...
Family means you don't stay alone. (Eli)
Family means to play peaceful and go to the store together. (Gabriel)
Family means to stay inside with your family. You  can't talk to strangers. (Benny)
Family is a brother, mother, father, cousins, gradparents and if someone's house breaks we take them into our house. (Ethan)
Family means you need to listen to them and have a great day.(Ariella)
Family is your mama, father, grandmothers and grandpas. (Sammy)
Family means your family stays with you and you have so much fun. (Leora)
Family is your mom, father, brother, grandma, grandpa, and of course me. (Dylan)
Family means a lot of fun, without family we would cry. (Nicole)
Family means you stay with each other. (Rochelle)

Pre-K Week News

On Monday, a part of our classroom celling fell down due to a roof leaking.

Rabbi Avramel Okonov has reassured us that school administration is taking care of this matter.

For a while we could not be in our classroom but no one got upset. We tried our best to make it work. While Gena was cleaning all the celling mess, we had a  lunch in one of  pretended "Yerushalyim restaurants."

On Tuesday, friends visited a Senior Citizen Center. We came to visit elderly people who are someone's grandpas and grandmas. We put Chanukah smiles on their faces by performing our songs and giving out sugar cookies that we made ourselves.  

In return, we got chocolate and some real gelts.

Thursday was the day of our Chanukah performance for Mazel Day School friends who we miss a lot! We did an amazing job with the help of an amazing team!

Thank you to all of you, dear parents, for practicing songs with us and coming to our recital!Thank you to Sammy's and Benny's mom who helped us with Macabees costumes!

A special thank you to Ethan's mom and grandfather who made a very special decorations for our performance- dreidels which were a huge hit!  Thank you to Sammy's mom for posting our performance on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owRy-9xgNf0

  WE HAD A HAPPY CHANUKAH with a miracle to share:)

Gabriel's Show and Tell

First Pre-K Show and Tell was hosted by our friend Gabriel. Gabriel brought  his very peaceful toy wolf Puffy Tiger-Wolf. Puffy is soft and fluffy. Gabriel said that he takes him everywhere and even sleeps with him. Gabriel takes a good care of Puffy, washing him and brushing his teeth. 

Friends asked Gabriel a lot of questions, for example, what places Gabriel takes Puffy to, if Puffy does watch movies with Gabriel, if he goes to the bathroom and etc:) 

Next Thursday Show and Tell host is Sammy Shafir. 

All About Me- My Senses- Seeing and Hearing

Pre-K Friends learn about one of five senses- Seeing. It is called the sense of sight. Our eyes are like cameras that never stop taking pictures. Eyes quickly send pictures to our brain. Brain sends us back information about what we see. Our eyes are shaped like round balls. We can only see the front of them. The backs of our eyes are safe inside of our head. Our eyes let us see things far away and close, let us see pretty colors, and to see important signs like "Stop" sign. The sense of sight keep us safe.  How we can keep our eyes healthy and safe?  Protect your eyes- don't look straight on the sunlight or any other source of light, wear sunglasses during sunny days.

 There are sounds all around us. Some sounds make us want to dance. Some make us aware of danger. Some sounds are high like a whistle sound, some sounds are low, like a drum sound. How do we hear them?  Hearing is one of the senses. Why do we have two ears? Why are they located on both sides of our head? It helps us hear sounds all around us. When we look in a mirror, we can see only a part of our ear that is called the outer ear. It is shaped like a baseball glove. This shape helps to catch the sounds. But what happens next?  The sounds travel into the little hole in our ear straight to a eardrum that starts vibration that passes on to other parts of inner ear: three little bones, tube and to the nerves that send special message to our brain. Brain "reads" the message and lets us know what sound do we hear. 

Senses keep us safe!

This week we learned

The letter of this week was the letter O. To make the letter, one needs two big curves.

 Friends wanted to know how to write a lower case letter "O".

They figured out this all by themselves- two little curves.

The letter "O" might sound different in some words. We can find the letter in such words like octagon, owl, octopus, ostrich, olive, ox, and it starts such words like ocean and on. It is a challenge for friends to recognize a difference between sounds of "u" and "o" words. We are going to practice and practice!

To celebrate two last letters we learned - C and O- Pre-K friends made a very special

Carrot- Cranberry- Orange Salad. Did everyone eat it? No... Did they try at least? Yes. That is an accomplishment.  

To review the letter "O" sound  and preteach the letter "Q" sound please visit www.starfall.com

This week we learned

The letter of the week was the letter C. To make the letter one needs one big curve. The letter C says /k/. Leora's mom name starts with letter C- Caren.

Sam's grandma name starts with letter C- Caroline.

The letter C is a pretty sweet letter - candy, cake, cupcake, caramel, cone, cotton candy and of course, cocoa. To master letter C sound and preview next week letter O, please visit www.starfall.com

All About Me- My Body

On Monday,friends met a new friend- MAT MAN! He taught us about parts of the body. What are they for?

Friends said, that a head is for thinking, for a face or for a head band to have on.
Hands are for playing, touching, and holding. Arms are for hugging. Legs are for standing and sitting. Feet are for running, jumping, and hopping.
"What is a belly button for?", asked morah.
"It is for nothing", said some friends.
"It is for pressing it down", said others.
 Some friends said, that when they were in mommies tummies, there was a special cord that connected them to mommies. When they were born, a doctor cut the cord off and tah-dah on its place appeared a belly button! 
On Tuesday, Pre-K friends discussed what is inside of our body. Friends said that they know it all- bones, heart, brain, food and other staff. 

We learned that each of Pre-K friends have 206 bones in their bodies. Our bones form SKELETON! We can't see it, it is under our skin and muscles. Bones give us shape, without it we would look like a blob. As we grow, our skeleton grows.
Do you know where are the smallest bones? Inside of our ears.
Do you know where are the biggest bones? In our legs.

Some skeleton bones do important job- they PROTECT internal organs.

 A skull protects brain, ribcage protects heart and lungs. Muscles and joints help skeleton to move.   

Letter Ches

Our Mail Man this week to bring us a new letter was our dear friend Dylan. He brought us the letter Ches. It has one big line on top, one big line coming down on the right side, jump to the other side and make one big line coming down on the left. Make sure the line on the left is attached to the line on top, other wise, it'll be letter Hey. :)

Dylan taking out letter Ches from envelope


Chaya Raizel begins with the letter Ches

Ariella forming letter Ches

At a Chasuna (wedding), the kalla (bride) and chosson (groom) get married under a Chuppa (wedding canopy) Chasuna, chosson, and chuppa all begins with letter Ches. Also, notice that the shape of the chuppa looks like the letter Ches. We had a little mock wedding to see how the chuppa actually has the same form as our letter of the week.

We had four friends come hold the sticks of the chuppa, Rochelle dressed up like a kalla (bride) 

and Ethan dressed up like a chosson (groom).

Challa also begins with letter Ches.

We went to the kitchen to see Morah Bella, our very own challa baker, who we have on school grounds.

Song 1: "Mix mix mix the challa

Mix mix mix the challa

Mix mix mix the challa

get ready for shabbos"

Song 2: "Sticky sticky sticky sticky challa dough, challa dough, challa dough.

Sticky sticky sticky sticky challa dough, challa dough, challa dough.

Challa for Shabbos."

For letter Ches, we wanted to make our challa for shabbos extra special so we voted for toppings we wanted to put on top of our challa. Sprinkles and chocolate chips were the winning toppings! :)


For Mommas and Pappas: 
Q: What is challa? Why do we knead and bake challa for shabbos? What is the significance for it? why is it such a special and holy mitzva especially for women? 
Click on link below to find an article that interests you.
http://www.chabad.org/theJewishWoman/article_cdo/aid/323423/jewish/Challah.htm
Click link below for reason we braid challa.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/480266/jewish/Why-Is-Challah-Braided.htm