Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Kitah Bet's Helping Hands

Kitah Bet loves to do mitzvot!

Whether it's helping a friend put on a smock,

 lending a hand for a jump down,

 helping Morah Rena spread a tablecloth for art,

 sharing,

 taking responsibility
.
or working as a team, the children in Kitah Bet look for ways to help others.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

KDH Birthday Wishes

We celebrated Lily's birthday last Wednesday. As we always do, we asked the children what good wishes they would like to give to Lily. These are some of the wishes:

Amitai: I hope you get all the transformers. 
Freeda: I wish you have lots of friends.
Dovid: I hope you have a wonderful day and a wonderful year.
Ilan: I wish you don't get sick.
Micah: I hope you have a good day today on your birthday and good times throughout the year.



We asked Lily if she had any good wishes that she would like to give to the class. Lily thought and then exclaimed, "You are the best class I could ever wish for!"

We agree!

Morah Sara
Morah Ruth

Symmetry in KDH

SYMMETRY  -  YRTEMMYS
Always a subject of interest. There is symmetry in math, science, nature, art and... KDH.

On Monday we took out a mirror and held it up, against the children's noses for them to see mirror images. 

We then gave the children their photographs, actually only a half a photograph.They drew the other half of their faces. 


At circle time we asked the children again, What does symmetrical mean? Amitai answered,"That's when one half is exactly the same as the other half." We took our hands and held them up next to each other. They were symmetrical.
So what are some things that are symmetrical? 
Rikki: A butterfly and the heart on my shirt.   Jules: an open book.    Lily: a paper plate.  Ilan: a rectangle divided down the middle.



Dovid: look at this fish on our area rug and slice it down the middle. 
Elijah: (standing up) I am symmetrical.  Lewis: Our lily pads.  Lily: a pillow.
Tirza: your face.  Chana: This piece of paper in the art center. Mina: my sweatshirt. 

We got an email last night from Shoshi Levin She told us that Rikki informed her that Wednesday's Show and Tell's topic would be symmetry. Rikki took Shoshi's hand, put it across her nose and said, "If you had a mirror I would see the same thing on the other side."

Morah Sara and I take piano lessons together on Monday nights. I sat there last night and was having trouble getting my left hand to hit the correct keys. Finally I looked at my hands, the numbers on the notes and said, "Wow, my hands and the numbers of the fingers are symmetrical. I need to learn as well as our students learn."

We are looking forward to tomorrow's Show and Tell!

Morah Ruth
Morah Sara





Monday, March 28, 2016

Spring is Here

(Above, we found only one ant.  Somehow or other, it climbed on one of clipboards and made its way into our classroom.  We returned it outside.)
The First Robin of Spring
  This week, we went outside to notice signs of spring.  We worked in pairs, one Kitah Gimmel child holding a clipboard and the other with a pencil.  We had a Nature Walk scavenger hunt paper.  Could we find dirt?  a tree? a worm? a bird? a sprout? an ant?  

  We talked about a scavenger hunt in class, then we prepared to go outdoors.  We were ready to search for the different items on our Nature Walk paper, and check the appropriate box on our paper.

  The children were enthusiastic about checking off the various items on their list.  Ari E said, "I found a worm!"  It was dead, but we counted it anyway.  Sam then noticed the ant, "I see an ant!"  Noa then added, "The ant is eating the (dead) worm!"  Nature at work.

 
  
 
(Above, our clipboards; outside with our buddies, checking off the items on our Nature Walk paper.)
  

  The Morahs gave us some assistance if we needed it.

  Sam called out, "I found a bird!"  He was paired with Noa, so she checked it off.  Ari E told her partner, Pearl, "There's a leaf."  Pearl asked her, "Where's the leaf ? (the check-off box with the picture and word "leaf" on the paper,) Together, they figured out how to work on their check-off Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt paper.

  What did I, as the Morah, like about this activity?  This was our first time with an actual paper-and-pencil task.  We prepared ahead of time, we knew what to do.  We worked in pairs.  There were enough materials for us to each have a clipboard, pencil and check-off list; but it was so much better working cooperatively.  When one child noticed that his buddy had checked-off an item that they hadn't seen, it was time to problem-solve.  Can we make a change?  I offered an eraser, the children made the correction by themselves.  A third child, in another pairing, offered her help as well.  So impressive!

   Later, we played Tic Tac Toe.  Instead of X's and O's, we played leaves vs. mulch chips.

  After some time outside with our Nature Walk check-off papers, we headed back inside for lunch.  We were in for a surprise--Rabbi Robinson had come to visit.  He likes to observe birds.  He actually keeps a bird diary where he records every bird he's seen, the date and time he's seen the bird, and the place of the sighting.
   The children told Rabbi Robinson the info that they knew about birds:  they live in trees, they come out of eggs.  Sam told us that they tweet.  Ari E told us they need water.  Rami and Hannah reminded us that they lay eggs.  Shlomit agreed that birds lay eggs. Noa told us they fly and Leiba said they have wings.

  Pearl spoke about chicks and Shaya told us birds have feathers.  Ruthie told us that birds have two feet. She also told us that the bird's mouth is called a beak.  Yoni said that he had seen a bluejay.
    Rabbi Robinson shared some info with us at Closing Circle.  He told us that mockingbirds can sing 200 different songs and that the brown thrasher, the official State of Georgia bird, has brown polka dots on its chest. Shaya remembered that the thrasher has dots when Rabbi Robinson brought up the subject again.  Pearl thinks she has a stuffed animal that looks a lot like a brown thrasher.  Rabbi Robinson also told us that cardinals are red, and they're easy to recognize.  Robins, he told us, have a red front.  Crows are all black.  All birds have feathers and wings, but not all birds fly.

  It was almost carpool time and we hadn't seen a bird.  We looked for signs of bird life, but we didn't notice any nests.  We did hear a lot of tweeting.  Finally,  we spotted a big red robin flying overhead.  We can now go back to our clipboards and check off  "bird" on our Nature Walk scavenger hunt paper.

  Hooray!  It's official--spring is here!

Morah Susan, Morah Yael and the nature-loving boys and girls from Kitah Gimmel

Fine Box with Kitah Alef

 Morah Myriam brought in a box to school. Yisroel was the first to inspect it. "It's not working." - Yisroel.
 Other friends came by to see what it was. Yisroel: "It's box." The children knocked on the box.
 Avraham Chaim: "What's this?" Morah: "Should we open it?" Avraham Chaim: "Yeah!"
 Our friends tried to open the box, but it would not open. Rafi: "I want open it." Morah: "Should we unlock it?" Children: "Yeah!"
 Rafi: "I can't, I can't, I got it!" Sylvia: "I open it." The children continue knocking on the box.


 Morah: "What sound is that?" Children take turns knocking on the box.
 Rafi, Yaakov Meir, Yisroel and Avraham Chaim all take turns trying to open the latch on the box.
 Yisroel: "I open it!" Yaakov Meir stands back and watches.The box is opened only to reveal another box! Yisroel opens the second box only to find a third box. Morah: "How many boxes do we have?"
 Yisroel: "I did it." The children start standing on the boxes. Rafi jumps off the big box. Yaakov Meir takes the smaller box and places it on a chair.


 Rafi stands on top of the box and counts 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. Yiroel joins him in counting

 The children take turns standing and stomping on the boxes. Yiroel tries to do a hand stand off the second box.








Friday, March 18, 2016

Noisemakers, Noisemakers I can hear you

In keeping with Kitah Pre-Aleph love for music, musical instruments. We have continued creating our own instruments to use on Purim.
We have a sensory bin filled with rice and beans and plastic eggs. The children scoop us some rice using a spoon and carefully pour it into the eggs. Then they hand it to the Morah to close it for them and then they shake shake shake. Their smile tells me they are proud of their own DIY egg shaker. We open it pour out the rice and start again.
Before purim we will seal them and the children will bring them home.
We also painted cardboard and we will use it to make our own clappers.




Shabbat Shalom
Morah Leah