Yellow Room Newsletter

10/15/21

    The Yellow Room is getting ready to build the Teva for our outdoor learning space. This week, Mike (Ronan’s dad) came and spoke to the children about the tools used for building, safety rules, and the importance of building support for a multilevel structure.  Mike told the children about using the hammer, and Jacob commented, “You hammer nails with a hammer!” Mike added that you can remove nails with the back of a hammer as well.  When hearing about the importance of support for a multilevel structure and then being told the table needs to have support built under it, Leanna proudly responded, “So it can hold the table up.”   

 

Mike spoke about the importance of safety glasses to protect your eyes when constructing something.  Leah responded, “I watched a movie about scientists and they wore those types of glasses.  Mike stated the scientists wear the safety goggles because they sometimes use chemicals and need to protect their eyes from the chemicals.

 

    Mike shared with the children that Levels were used to make sure that items do not tilt and showed them that you can see if things, like a table, are level horizontally or a piece of wood (modeling with his head) is level vertically. He showed the children how to mark a straight line with a string/chalk line.

 

 

When he showed the children the tape measure the children were very curious and wanted to measure everything. They decided that they wanted to know how long the tape measure was, then they measured the other tape measure.  A perfect opportunity for math!  The two tape measures were different lengths so the children could determine what the difference was between the two measuring tapes.  

 

                                           

   As the Teva project continues and the children begin construction, they will continue to have opportunities to use math, expand their communication skills and language knowledge, explore science, and space.  Of course they will continue to journal their ideas regarding the Teva.

 

    The Yellow Room again thanks Mike for speaking to us about the things we need to know as we get ready to build the Teva.  We also thank him for the supplies and the support in building.

 

Observing and Drawing

 

The Yellow Room has been spending time observing and drawing.  Observing and processing what they see and then transferring that thought into writing or a drawing supports the children’s development of their working memory.  They also relate what they see to items they know like lines, shapes, or images thus utilizing their long term memory.   The final product is an integration of old knowledge with new information to create the image they put on paper.

The process of observing also helps the children develop their patience and self-regulation.  Many are anxious to draw a picture of just a face, or just some lines for a plant or tree.  Asking the children to take some time and think about or talk about the shapes they see, the lines they see, and the relationship of space to lines provides them an opportunity to practice patience, slow down their process of drawing, and intentionally think about the lines and shapes they will put on their paper.

  

The process of drawing a face, a tree or a plant gives the children a chance to practice drawing all of the lines and curves they write daily when writing letters and words.   The face is a big curve like that in an “O” or “D”.  The smile is a small curve that starts a “p” or “b” curve.  The many short or long lines practice the vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines in many of the letters.  Practicing writing skills in a variety of ways helps children reinforce the muscle memory of the line formations for letter creation and strengthens their hand, arm and back muscles for writing.

    The end product of the observational drawing is a creative interpretation of what the children see: a creative piece that they feel pride in themselves for creating. They experience a sense of accomplishment as well.  Next time you are in the school, come down the hallway and see our observational drawings of plants.  See if you can determine which of the plant pictures your child drew. 

 

Featured Show and Tell: Mae

Mae shared with her classmates a doll she has at home (it was not brought to school).  She pulled from memory to tell her friends about her doll.  Mae’s classmates had the opportunity to use their imaginations and knowledge of dolls and hair to create an image in their minds of Mae’s doll.

Mae shared that her doll’s name is Miriam.  She said that her doll can wear old baby clothes that used to belong to her sister, Liran. She also said that she even fits into clothes that still fit Liran.  When asked where she got Miriam from,  Mae responded, "I got her from my mom.  She used to play with her.  I was not born yet.”  Mae let us know that she plays with Miriam in her room.  She added that her doll has hair the color of Leanna’s hair and that she believes Miriam has brown eyes.  As Mae stated that she can make a ponytail with Miriam’s hair, she modeled making a ponytail by grabbing her own hair.  She also stated she can make her legs walk.  One friend asked Mae if her doll, Miriam, does mitzvahs. What do you think?

Shabbat Shalom,
           Morah Devorah 

 

Dear Parents,

“As many as the stars and sand…” That’s the promise the Yellow Room children learned Hashem made to Avraham. Hashem promised Avraham that he would have as many descendants as the stars and sand. That’s a LOT of descendants! The Yellow Room tried to count the stars in the sky at night. For homework they looked at the sky at night and drew what they saw. They realized there are too many stars to count.

What I saw in the sky:

Ronan: I saw a planet. I saw Venus. That’s the moon. I wrote words on my picture. I saw the airplane right there.

Jacob: I drew these stars and I saw an airplane. My dad’s plane is Delta.

Leanna: There’s the moon and there’s the blue sky. I drew an airplane. First it went to Ronan. Then it went to Jacob. Then it went to me. There’s the planet Mercury.

Mae: This is my house and this is my front porch. I was drawing there. These are stars and that’s the moon and an airplane with its lights on. That’s what the two dots are.

I Love You Ritual:

(TTTO Twinkle twinkle) 

Twinkle, twinkle you’re a star

What a wonderful child you are

With bright eyes and nice round cheeks

A talented person from head to feet

Twinkle, twinkle you’re a star

What a wonderful child you are

Song:

(TTTO Twinkle twinkle)

 

Twinkle, twinkle kochavim (stars)

Shining in the shomayim (sky)

If you say Shema today

Everything will be okay

If you say Shema tonight

Everything will be alright

Twinkle, twinkle kochavim (stars)

Shining in the shomayim (sky)

 

Loose Parts

The Kindergarten Astronomers created their own sky filled with stars using loose parts on a framed felt board and creating their own patterns.

 

Kriyah

Avraham did not used to be called Avraham. At first, his name was Avram. And his wife Sarah’s name was Sarai. But after Avram and Sarai showed Hashem, by making good choices and listening to Him, Hashem took some of the letters from His own name and put them into Avram and Sarai’s name. The children used the Montessori Alef Beis letters to spell Avram and Sarai. Then they spelled one of Hashem’s names:  י – ה – ו - ה   Hashem took one Hey and put it in Avraham’s name and the other Hey into Sarai’s name. From then on they were called Avroham and Sarah.

DISCUSSION:

Have you ever moved from one place to another? What was that like?

Jacob: We went on vacation to Washington. We took Brewster. We went on a airplane Southwest. We had suitcases. We had pajamas in our suitcases. But not Brewster. He was next to me.

Mae: I used to live in Maryland and then we moved to Scottsdale and then we moved to Arizona. I was a baby in Maryland but there were too many fires there. One night I saw a lot of fire trucks. I saw no fire. I was wondering what they were doing there. There were too many storms in Scottsdale. They kept waking me up. I really like our house in Chandler. It’s blue and white. Our grandparents live close.

Leanna: I used to live in New Jersey. When we left I tried hard not to be sad. I didn’t really want to move because our house was really nice. The worst part of New Jersey was that we had tornadoes. So we moved to Arizona. I like Arizona. I like my house. We have a dog. Her name is Penny. We have a nice backyard and a warm pool.  I like my school because we live very close to here. We live only a meter.  We moved our stuff with a lot of bags. We rented a lot of bags. We had 21 bags!

Naveed: I was in California and then at nighttime we had a nighttime swim. There was a giant pool and a little Jacuzzi. In the middle of the pool there was a hole with a bit of trash in it. Then we went back home and we saw lots of boxes. We packed all our stuff in a suitcase. We needed a billion suitcases. I like the new house better. I sometimes like the old house because it had a Jacuzzi. Our new house just has a pool.

Ronan: We moved to our Nanny and Grandpa’s house just for a few days. They have a lot of toys. We only moved one bag of toys. It was easy. It was in a backpack.

Matching Stars

The Yellow Room Kriyah Experts matched the Alef Beis letters onto matching stars.

Sensory

The Yellow Room used the outdoor learning space to explore how much sand they could count from only a pinch of sand. They tried counting the grains but they said there were too many to count! And that was only from a pinch of sand!

Big Lesson of the Parsha

Avraham was told to do many things by Hashem. No matter how hard it was Avraham tried and tried and tried and did whatever Hashem told him to do. When Avraham was told to pick up and move and go wherever Hashem told him to go, he did it immediately. Even if it was hard for him he still did it. The Yellow Room discussed different things they each find difficult and are working on to make a good choice.

 

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Perline

 

 B”H

 

Dear Parents,

 

This week we explored the Parsha (Torah portion) of Noach in the Yellow Room. We learned that Hashem told Noach to build the taiva (ark) for 120 years so that the people would ask him what he’s doing and perhaps they would do Teshuva (return to doing good) and make good choices. But they still refused and so Hashem brought a mabul (flood) over the entire world. Hashem promised never to bring another mabul like that again and reminds us of that with a sign: the “keshes”, Hebrew for ‘rainbow’.

Song: https://www.chabad.org/519239

The people watched Noach while he hammered away
He worked on the teiva night and day
Hashem told him to do it, so people would ask
"What are you building, It’s a hard task."

Noach explained that teshuvah you must do
There are many not good things around us, it’s true
Hashem wants to destroy the world in which we live
Only through teshuvah, will Hashem forgive

The people didn’t listen, they did not understand
Then down came the rain throughout the land
Forty days and nights the flood came down
But Noach and his family did not drown

Parsha + Science

The Yellow Room learned about CONDENSATION, EVAPORATION and PRECIPITATION in connection with the Parsha which discussed the rain that fell and fell. And fell. And fell … for 40 days in the mabul (flood) in Noach’s time. The Yellow Room Scientists have filled their cups with water till the blue line and hypothesized how many days it would take for the water to EVAPORATE to get to the bottom red line as the water turns to vapor.

Song: Precipitation/Water cycle

TTTO She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain

Water travels in a cycle yes it does 2x
It goes up as evaporation
Forms clouds as condensation
Comes down as precipitation, yes it does

Resist Art

The Yellow Room Artists used Resist Art to explore how the watercolor resists the crayon designs as it rolls down the paper. They created falling ‘rain’ symbolizing the rain that fell in this week’s Parsha.

The Yellow Room discussed making choices. We all have choices as to how we talk and act. They know that the people in the time when Noach lived, a very long time ago, refused to make good choices. No matter how many chances Hashem gave them they still only made hurtful choices. They saw how Noach made good choices but didn’t want to follow his example. They continued to hurt each other, take things without permission, and be unkind.

I don’t copy what I see

Unless I know it’s good for me.

The Yellow Room Friends try to make good choices. Hashem is so proud of them.

Math

The Yellow Room Math Whizzes reinforced their one to one correspondence, counting the raindrops (blue paper raindrops) to match the number card. The cards were randomly labeled from 3 – 20.

 

Kriyah

Utilizing the Montessoi Alef Beis letters the Yellow Room Readers spelled the letters of this week’s Hebrew words and learned what they mean:

Cheshvan (the new Jewish month on our calendar)  - חשון

 - (keshes) - rainbowקשת

 - (mabul) - floodמבול

- (teiva) - arkתיבה

 

Shabbat Shalom!
Morah Perline

     

Yellow Room Explorations and Learning

 

Noach and Math 

    The story of Noach has brought so much inspiration, exploration, and learning to the Yellow Room children.  The children, as they learned about Noach and the Teva (vessel), were exploring numbers in relation to the levels of the Teva. They considered the size needed to house the People (Noach’s Family), the animals, and the trash that would accumulate over the year. The Teva has to be tall enough for the three parts when added together, challenging the children consider sums. They explored spatial relationships of the length, width and height of the Teva to accommodate all of the people, animals and trash.  They also worked with comparing length, width and height and the understanding that the Teva would be longer than tall, or wide.  

 

Comparing height.

Comparing length 

The children compared Naveed’s body along the length of the Teva and the height of the Teva see how they compared.

 

The Teva, Literacy, Writing, & More!

 

 While discussing the Teva the children worked phonetically to spell Teva. While spelling Teva, the children learned that a long vowel sound is made by saying the vowel’s name. Some children phonetically spelled People, Animals, and Trash.  

 

The children first made a two dimensional plan for the Teva and what they thought it should look like.  Next they learned about blueprints and drew their own blueprints of how they think the Teva should be built, given the understandings of the need for three levels and a window from the torah story of Noach.  

 

The children then learned about making a model.  They had to work through this idea of first learning that a model was not just a pretty lady in beautiful clothes walking down a runway, then understanding that a flat clay creation of what they thought the Teva should look like was not a model.  A model, as they learned, is a three dimensional miniature representation of the final structure.  Once they saw a three dimensional Teva replica they began to understand and build sides, bases and some built roofs or levels in their Tevas.

  

Natan shows his Teva model.

 

 

Leah and her Teva model, and Mae building her Teva model.

The children are working hard because, thanks to the generous donation by Ronan’s Dad, Mike Hensdell, we will be building a replica (much smaller than Noach’s original) Teva.  The children will be making the plans for the Teva and then we will begin construction (hopefully next week).  The Teva will be a permanent play structure in the outdoor learning space.

 

Jacob begins his Teva model with his blueprint in the back ground.

 

 

 

Leanna and Angie share their two-dimensional Teva plans and blueprints.

 

 

Ronan and Naveed building a large model of the Teva, including the levels for People, Animals, and trash.

 

 Shabbat Shalom,
Morah Devora

 

   

 

It’s Not a Box! - Literacy and Problem Solving

As the holidays continued so did the curiosity and excitement in the Yellow Room. The children have been exploring the book, It’s Not a Box.  They worked in learning teams to determine which Not-a-Box character they wanted to create.  Yellow Room friends were challenged to listen to peers' ideas and share their own ideas, compromise, take turns, discuss and refine ideas, make blueprints, and create the idea they chose to make with a classmate.  So much language and communication was used in our class.  Growth also occurred as children looked beyond what they wanted and explored the perspectives of one another. They found a compromise that considered everyone's ideas.  I was so pleased to see the children ask, “Is it okay if I put this tape on the wheels?", and then they discussed additional ideas. They were excited to tell me their ideas and show me their blueprints. I was also pleased to see the children so involved in their creations that they did not want to stop for free play, nor to go home.  Luckily we found a solution.  We realized that we can continue our creations next week.  The power of communication and compromise is active in the Yellow Room.

 

                                                 

 

   

   

 

 

           

Science? Actually it's Math!

The children have been exploring decomposing.  They have had discussions about what decomposing is with one another, and we found that it has several meanings related to how leaves outside decay, but also about how numbers can go from a whole to several parts.  We also determined that we are considering the decomposing of numbers.  As we continue to work on decomposing numbers the children continue to surprise me as they remind me that when we break a number into parts (while reading a story or telling a felt board story) that we just decomposed the whole number into parts.  They are taking their learning and applying it to other areas of learning.  Amazing!  They are doing such great work.

Literacy and Writing

Our reading groups have started and the children are enjoying working together to expand their literacy skills.  We are playing various literacy games to encourage literacy at school.  Watch for support games you can play at home to encourage your child’s literacy.  Children are working on the skills that will support their learning progression.  We are writing, spelling, reading and learning sight words. Learning is best supported when the children can apply it to their lives so we are taking our learning outside the classroom and discussing how it relates to our lives.  During our “Not a Box” project the children had so much to tell me about how they play with boxes at home or with friends.  I am so excited to hear how the many stories we talk about can be seen in the lives of the children.

                                                                 

                                               

                                 

Good Shabbos!

 Morah Devora