Letter Beis

Bina was our Mail Carrier who brought us the Letter Beis. Beis has ne big line on top, one big line coming down, one EXTRA big line on the bottom (big line + a little line= extra big), and a dot.

Beis looks like a bayis- house with one roof on top, one wall coming down, a floor and a backyard, plus a nice window in the house. The door of the bayis is always open.

Mail Carrier Bina holding Letter Beis

Bayis begins with Beis

Joshua forming letter Beis

(Picture coming soon)

Bina, Boris-Boruch, and Binyomin- Boruch begin with the letter Beis.

Simchas Torah

Do you have a favorite book? What is it? What do you do when you’re

finished reading the book? Do you give it to your cousin? No, you read

it again and again.

We have a special Torah that Hashem loves so much and Hashem wants us

to love too!

All year long, when the Rabbi comes to shul he takes the Torah out of the Aron Kodesh and reads a portion of it every Monday, Thursday, and Shabbos ( including Rosh Chodesh and Yomim Tovim). It tells of great stories with wonderful lessons to learn from. It also tells of all the mitzvos (commandments) we can keep. 

Simchas Torah is a happy Yom Tov celebrating the completion of reading from the Torah and for the continuation of its reading all over again right after this yom tov. 

How do we celebrate? We go to shul and dance with the Torah and flags and sing pleasant and cheerful songs. 

David posing with the Torah

The friends getting their flags ready for dancing. 

Things we did this week

Friends eating in the Sukka

We all got the chance to shake the lulav and esrog.

Here Michelle is doing the shake :)

Doing Tashlich at the beach

Sukkos

A long time ago the Jews lived in the Midbar (desert). There were snakes there

as well as tall mountains and a very hot sun. Hashem loves the Jews so

much He did not want them to get bit by snakes, climb tall mountains, or get hot from

the sun. Hashem wanted to protect them so He surrounded

them with 6 clouds, one on top to protect them from the sun, one on the bottom to protect their feet from snakes and scorpions, one in front to flatten the mountains and make it easy for the Jews to on walk hassle free, one in back to protect them from enemies, one on each side to protect them from free roaming wild animals, plus one cloud/ GPS to show them where to go. :)

To remember this Mitzva and show Hashem we trust Him, we now build a sukka and use it for 7 days. We

eat in the sukka, do mitzvos in the sukka, and some people even sleep in the sukka.

What is a Sukka?

 A sukka is a hut made of 4 walls, a roof made of leaves called schach, and the ground. In order to be kosher,

nothing could be over the sukka roof except the sky, no trees or permanent roofs!

Song: Take me out to the Sukka

Take me out in the fall, 

Put some schach on top of me,

Then decorations up on the wall.

Shake shake shake the lulav

Along with the esrog too

And a one, two, three hadasim and two aravot!

On Sukkos we have a special mitzvah of Lulav and Esrog. 

We take 4 kinds of plants:

1.Lulav- tall and skinny 

2.Esrog- round and yellow,

3.Hadasim- 3 leaves, 

4.Aravot- 2 leaves. 

They all look different and some of these plants have a smell and some don’t. We PUT them all together

and make the bracha "Al Netilas Lulav", and shake them. We show Hashem we know He loves when we are all together. Even though we are all different, look different, act different- we could still be friends!

We SHAKE them in all directions (right, left, front, up, down, and back three times each) to show that Hashem is everywhere. 

Song: Did you ever shake a Lulav, a lulav, a lulav,

Did you ever shake a lulav on a Sukkos day?

Upwards and downwards and frontwards and backwards, 

Did you ever shake a lulav on a Sukkos day?

Simply Thank You!

Dear Parents,
 we want to thank you for your great support and participation. The family pictures that you sent  us became a very important part of our class.

Friends learn about each other's families. These pictures provide them with great warmth, love and comfort. They love you, they miss you, they proud of you. Please continue to send your family pictures if you go on vocation, you do something cool, you cook with kids.... It will help them to make memories, it will help them to develop language skills and much much more.

Numbers and Shapes

Pre-K friends started the math unit with reviewing a basic shape and simple numbers. This two weeks, friends "play" with circle. When Morah asked friends how do they know that circle is a circle, friends said that they know how a circle looks like:) Morah taught friends that circle needs just one line that goes around. It doesn't have sides, corners or angles. It is round.

Friends learned what is a NUMBER LINE. It is a line where numbers live. First number on the line is Mister Number Zero. Zero means NOTHING. Second number on the number line is Mister Number 1. Its place is right after number 0. Friends know that 1 is more than 0.  0 is less than 1.

To practice concepts " Nothing" and "One more", friends played games " Squeeze and Tweeze"  and " My Sukkah".  

For advanced learning, we don't suggest any websites:)  Dear Parents, use your daily life routine for math lessons.  Ask you kid to bring one more spoon,  put one more coin in a tzedakah box and etc. 

This week we learned

The letter of these two weeks ( very short weeks) is the letter L. To make the letter one needs a big line and a little line. The letter L says "l".  Friends were very happy to learn that Reuven's mom name, Tammy's grandma's name, Bina's  great grandfather's name start with the letter of the week. Joshua was very happy to see picture of all his family because Joshua's mom, dad, sister and Joshua share the same last name that starts with the letter L.

Friends were asked to bring things from home that start with this letter. Alec, Ben and David brought LIONS, Boris brought a LEAF and LIPSTICK, Tammy brought a LEAF that she found outside of her house, Bina brought a picture of her great grandfather LENYA, who is 92 years old ( till 120:), Eliana brought a LADYBUG, other friends and Morah Inna brought LEMONS and LIMES.

 Friends practice to make letters of the week with cookie dough.

They practice to make letter L with their bodies. 

And finally, friends practice to write letter L in their brand new Handwriting Without Tears books. 

For advanced learning, dear Parents, you could play with your kids "silly L" game. Adding the L sound to every word you say. For example, moon- loon, ball - lall, table- lable, apple- lapple, good- lood... 

To review the letter L sound, please visit one of our favorite sites http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/letter-l/load.htm?f

Letter Alef

Come join along as Pre-K learns the Hebrew alphabet this year. 

We had a Mail Carrier named Avigail bring us the first letter of the Alef Beis. We were all so curious which letter it would be. She pulled it out from the envelope. Ta da. It was letter Alef . Alef has one big slanted line coming down, one little line on top, and one little line coming down.    

We saw a mnemonic to help us remember the form of Alef. It was an aviron- (airplane).

When the aviron flies in the sky, its body is slanted while one wing is up and one is down. Then, in order for the aviron-אוירוןto make a safe landing, it has to fly up a bit more in the sky and then land down to the ground.

 

Our Mail Carrier Avigail

Alec forming a letter Alef with play dough.

Neat work! :)

Three friends in our class has the letter Alef at the beginning of their Hebrew name.

Avigail-אביגיל

Eliana Esther-אסתר אליענה

Avraham-אברהם

אוירון- Airplane begins with Alef

Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year. It is a day for us to look at the way we behaved during the past year and to apologize and ask Hashem to forgive us for any choices we've made that weren't so good and to ask Hashem to give us a good year.  

Hashem  loves us and wants to give us a sweet and happy year.

We do things at this time to show Hashem we love Him and want a happy year.

BEFORE YOM KIPPUR: 

We show Hashem we care about people by saying sorry to those whom we may have wronged in any way and ask for their forgiveness. 

We give extra tzedaka.

We swing a chicken around our heads and ask Hashem that if we have done anything wrong and ask Hashem to have mercy and forgive us. We then give the chicken to poor people to eat. This shows Hashem that we care about others and we will help them, just like Hashem will help us.

We also eat sweet honey cake. Yum!

ON YOM KIPPUR: 

Adults should not eat or drink.

Adults and children dont wear leather shoes, spray on perfume, or smear on creams since we're busy davening to Hashem asking Him to give us a sweet year. Nothing else on this day is as important as fasting and davening.

After a long day of fasting at the end of Yom Kippur, the Rabbi blows the Shofar and then we ask Hashem that next year we should celebrate in Yerushalayim. 

We should all be inscribed in the Book Of Life for a good, happy, healthy, and sweet year! Amen!

Here you see David helping to make the honey cake 

Michelle putting on crocs, non leather shoes showing a type of shoes allowed to be worn on Yom Kippur.

The kids heard the different sounds and saw the different sizes of the shofar at the Shofar Show in our class. Here Joshua is holding a real long shofar. do you think it makes a loud sound? Well, it actually makes a low sound surprisingly enough. :)

The friends decorating their tzedaka boxes 

The boys bravely touching the rooster (male chicken) that the Rabbi swung over their heads.

The girls touching the hen (female chicken) that the Rabbi swung over their heads.