Providing Opportunities for Responsibility and Independence in Kitah Gimmel

The Kitah Gimmel morahs have noticed that as the year has progressed, the students LOVE to be special helpers! Each child craves independence and responsibility, and we, the morahs, have been looking for ways to foster and encourage these characteristics. We started implementing special jobs that each child is in charge of every day. Each day when the child enters the classroom, he or she goes through the routine of greeting the morah and unpacking snacks and lunch. Then, the morah reads the job that is posted above the child’s name that he or she is in charge of for the day. Each child takes the job seriously and refers back to his or her job throughout the day. In showing the children that they can be trusted to help with classroom responsibilities, they have begun to take ownership of the classroom.

Our jobs include the following: 

Line Leader

Leads the group from one activity to the next.

Tefillah Helper: 

This helper points to each prayer in the siddur and helps lead the bracha for food. 

Lunch and Snack Setup and Cleanup: 

These helpers set up the snacks and lunches. They wipe down the tables and help sweep the floor. 

Chair Helper:

The chair helper pushes in all the chairs so no one trips over them.

Caregiver:

If a student is feeling upset, the caregiver checks on them and helps retrieve band-aids and ice packs when necessary. The children are particularly serious about this job. If a child begins to cry, the caregivers have immediately stopped to run over and see how they can help!

Lost Item Helper: 

This helper has the job of performing the mitzvah of returning lost items.

Door Holder: 

The door holder needs to use their strong muscles and gross motor skills to push open the door and hold it for all of their friends.

Backpack Helper: 

This student helps pack up the backpacks at the end of the day. 

Depending on the number of children present that day, some jobs are done by multiple children. The key, we’ve found, is for each child to feel responsible for the functioning of the class, which in turn gives them the opportunity to develop important life skills. We are excited to see how these children continue to grow in their compassion for each other. At the beginning of the year, we introduced the concept of a “Safekeeper” to the students. We discussed how the morahs are the Safekeepers of the students at school and who their Safekeepers are at home. Now, we are showing the children how they can be Safekeepers for each other. They are all inspiring their morahs with their commitment and dedication to the task to which they are assigned each day!

Tu BShevat in KB!

It’s the birthday of the trees! What a beautiful holiday, giving thanks to the trees for all that they

give us, and being mindful of the year of growing that is ahead. We’ve celebrated in so

many ways, and spent so much of our reading time reading special books about trees

Morah Adi gets us from the library! 

Morah Adi made sure we had so much fruit from trees to explore with our taste buds,

noses, and hands during snack time and lunch. Victoria helped us fill a basket with all the

fruits we bought, and each day we try a new fruit! Friends can choose if they want to eat

the new fruit, we make the fruit bracha, and discuss who likes it and who doesn’t.

So far friends have really enjoyed avocado, orange, and pear! 

 

If the fruit we try has a seed, or pit, we put it in water to see if it will grow! We are growing a little garden by the window in our class! 

During tefillah Morah Adi has been teaching us about the 7 Species of Israel: wheat, barley, figs, dates, grapes, olives, and pomegranates. We play remembering games with pictures of the 7 Species, and learn details about each!

Friends also got to get their hands dirty! We asked the school to get fertilizer for us so that we could add it to the blueberry bushes, raspberry and blackberry vines, and sage and rosemary that are already growing at our school. We used shovels to add fertilizer to the base of the plants so that this year, they can grow back stronger! 

We learned a special bracha we say before smelling things, and Morah Adi taught us to say it with rosemary we picked and added to our challah! "Borei atzei besamim."

We even updated our trays for the holiday, using loose parts to decorate our very own trees!

We worked hard to paint and bead so many different decorations to hang in the trees on Tu BShevat! We used bells, bright colored felt, fun colored beads and wooden beads, and even little flower pots we painted to string up hanging decorations we will put in our fig tree at school on Tuesday when we celebrate!

Such a special holiday with these growing friends! Please take a moment to let us know how you plan to celebrate Tu BShevat at home!