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It's hard to believe that it is finally spring! The children have been sharing what they already know about dinosaurs and are actively engaged in learning new information. They are studying about the three periods of the Mesozaic era, the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods. Each period gave birth to new and different dinosaurs, and the children are learning about characteristics and behavior patterns of each. They have learned new vocabulary words, such as herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore, as well as a poem to help them remember these terms. The students have had a chance to be Paleontologists and search for fossils in our own sandbox! You might want to ask them about how they learned their techniques with the help of a chocolate chip cookie!
Over the next few months we will be continuing our theme of Our Changing Environment and will refresh the bulletin board outside our room. The hibernating animals (including Benny our Alphabet Bear) will awaken from their sleep, and the children will add other animals that appear in the Spring along with birds' nests and baby animals. As Earth Day approaches, the children will be learning about how to take care of the earth. We will discuss pollution and recycling, and we will see what happens to the trash that we throw away. The children will think of ways that they and their families can help preserve our natural resources, such as turning off the water when we brush our teeth. Don't be surprised if they ask you to put a cloth napkin in their lunch boxes!
By the end of the year, the children will have learned to recognize, write, and produce the sound of all the consonants and vowels in the alphabet. They have enjoyed learning a new letter every week and braiinstorming colors, foods, and numbers that begin with the new letter. The children are becoming more familiar with the map of the United States as we see the journey that Benny the Bear takes each time he comes to our school to teach a new letter. Most recently, Benny flew all the way from Kansas to come here and fly a Kite!
In math the children are working with numbers at the concept level. They are exploring the possible arrangements for a given quantity of objects, and then recording these observations in the form of addition and subtraction problems. We have also had some discussions about fractions and what it looks like to divide up one whole thing.
It is almost time to start our discussion of farm animals, and we will be (hopefully!) hatching chicks in the classroom. The children will participate in math, writing, and science activities as we weigh and measure the chicks and make scientific observations as they learn about the growth of the chick before and after it hatches.
We will complete our study of the Great Masters during our last three months of school. In June, the children and both teachers will be taking them on a field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Watch your emails for more news of this as it approaches.
At the end of the month we will also be starting our unit on Fairy Tales during which time the children will have the opportunity to listen to various stories and determine whether they can detect patterns in them. They will also compare and contrast the various tales in regard to character and plot development.
As the year ends, I want you to know how much I have enjoyed having your children in the Kindergarten this year. Please check your calendars for the date of our Kindergarten breakfast, and be prepared to be amazed at how much they all have grown!
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The kindergarten students are well into their study of the aleph-bet, the Hebrew alphabet. Each week, we continue to introduce a new letter in the aleph-bet and use and learn vocabulary words that begin with that letter. Because our students have become accustomed to hearing Hebrew throughout the entire Kindergarten curriculum, they easily recognize and offer words that represent the appropriate letter-sound match. Each week we do many art projects, games and other activities that help reinforce the name of the letter, the sound of the letter, as well as new vocabulary we are studying. At the end of the week, each child completes a letter page which becomes part of an aleph-bet dictionary that will go home at the end of the year.
In T’filah, the students have finished learning the Shma and V’ahavta and continue to add to their repertoire. The students are particularly proud of being able to sing the V’ahavta with hand motions. We encourage students to say the Shma every night before going to bed. The class is also working on making Siddurim, which will be coming home at the end of the year. In Torah learning, we have finished B’reisheet stories and discussed the Exodus from Egypt in the holiday unit on Passover.
The children studied about Moses and what kind of a leader he was during our discussions about Pesach (Passover). For the holiday, we made a beautiful Haggadah while learning about the order of the Passover Seder. The class became familiar with the Passover items that adorn the Seder table, and all were very prepared to sing the four questions. Other holidays that kindergarteners will be studying in April, May and June include Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day), Yom Hazikaron (Israel Memorial Day), Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day), Lag B’Omer, and Shavuot.
The children in kindergarten love learning new Hebrew words and Torah stories and are very proud to be Jewish. We look forward to seeing you at the kindergarten breakfast when we will the students highlight some some of what they've learned this year.
“The world exists only because of the innocent breath of schoolchildren.”
---Talmud, Shabbat 119b
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