B”H

 

Dear Parents,

 

The children were so excited to see each other again this week! They were so happy when they realized that the first day back in CJP was Rosh Chodesh Shvat, the first day of the Jewish month of Shvat. The Yellow Room Friends learned about the first mitzvah the Jews were given which was to make a calendar based on the cycle of the moon.  The Friends are on the lookout for the size of the moon and like to check it out at night so they can see it grow bigger and smaller.

 

Song:

New Moon, New Moon

(TTTO Baa Baa Black Sheep)

 

New moon, new moon,

What do you say?

I say the new month

Begins on this day.

 

Full moon, full moon,

What do you mean?

The middle of the month,

I am right in between.

 

Tiny moon, tiny moon,

Up in the sky,

The month is over,

Time to say goodbye.

 

Thank you, thank you,

Moon so bright,

I’ll look out for you

Each night.

 

Parsha + Kriyah + Math

The Yellow Room Kriyah Friends missed out on two weeks of Parsha, due to vacation. They caught up with the Parsha and learned about the last makos (plagues) Hashem gave the Mitzriyim (Egyptians). The Yellow Room whizzes figured out how many makos were mentioned in this Parsha by figuring out the gematria (numerical value) of the letters of the Parsha name: Bo. Spelled in Hebrew it has a Beis and an Alef. Beis = 2 and Alef = 1. 2 + 1 = 3. Three makos are mentioned in this Parsha!

 

The Yellow Room also learned about the mezuza that we hang on the right doorpost and how it reminds us that Hashem protects us just as He did when he saved us from slavery in Mitzrayim. The Yellow Room focused on the Shin letter this week and where the dot goes on the letter (the right).      ש‘

 

Happy Birthday, Naveed!

Happy 6^th birthday, Naveed! May your parents and family continue to have only nachas from you always!

 

Mitzvah Notes Please

Your child does so many positive things. Please send in a Mitzvah note every day with your child. It makes your child feel so noticed by you and puts him/her in touch with the positive things your child does. If you’ve run out and need more Mitzvah notes, please let me know and I will put another packet in your child’s backpack.

 

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Perline

 

Developing Community and Learning Through Play!

    The Yellow Room is booming with pride in their class community and in themselves. The children in the Yellow Room have been playing with babies since before the winter break. It is still an area of focus for them.  They have realized differences in how they speak and interact with the babies as compared to how they treat one another.  They use this play to develop an understanding of how to treat others and themselves. They use this play to continue building their classroom community: A place where they feel connected to peers and have a sense of belonging, a place where they have trust and feel confident in taking risks in learning including stating and discussing their ideas, their needs, and their interests.

Mae and Jacob build a home for animals.

 

 

Playing babies in homes built by peers

                                                                                    Building community also entails building a confidence and trust to explore, and to be oneself, and be supported by peers. The children often spend time exploring ideas and then excitedly share their findings with peers, as Naveed did with the domino effect and blocks.  Of course the class was excited to see Naveed’s experiment and immediately wanted to replicate it.                               

Drawing Self Portraits: an exercise in patience, observation, and expression

Each month the children have been drawing their self portraits, and this month they were excited to introduce this project to Shyli, our new classmate. Their guidance was a success, as clear by her dedication to the activity.

Each child interprets what they see in the mirror and draws their representation (Ronan proudly stated he drew circles for his freckles).  

The exploration of the self portraits led into a class discussion of similarities and differences as we continued the lessons from before winter break.  This week after reading Same, Same, But Different, we discussed how some of our houses are different from people who live in other places.  We looked at the way we play and others play (including our friends).  The children also talked about respecting the interests of others.  During this discussion the children learned that their friends’ interest, though not their own, can have a hidden common interest.  When Jacob shared his Thomas train this week the children learned that some of the class had been on trains for travel, and some had been on trains at amusement centers. 

 

Reminder: Strawberry Shortcake Cooking Day

Thursday, January 13, 2022 

The exploration of similarities and differences is also part of a new project that the children are working on. This week we began to discuss penpals and began to explore what they would say and ask of a penpal.  The children have started writing a letter to send to a penpal telling the penpal about themselves and asking for information as well.

 

 Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Devora

 

 B”H

 

Dear Parents,

 

Caring and Empathy

Welcome Baby Dolls! This week seven new baby dolls were welcomed into the Yellow Room. The Yellow Room has adopted a new Conscious Discipline program, Baby Doll Circle Time, which encourages caring and empathy (see CJP Facebook Group).  Each dad or mom (aka Yellow Room Friend) gave their baby doll a bracha (blessing).

 

Parsha

In this week’s Parsha the Yellow Room Friends learned how Yaakov gave brachot (blessings) to his 12 sons at the end of his very long life.

Thank you, Yellow Room Parents, for sending in your personal bracha (blessing) for your child. They were read to each child and will be put into a binder for the children to look at any time.

Yaakov also gave a bracha to his grandsons, Yosef’s sons, Menashe and Efraim. But Yaakov did a very strange thing: instead of putting his right hand on the elder grandson Menashe’s head, he crossed his hands and put his right hand on Efraim, the younger grandson’s head, and his left hand on Menashe, the older grandson’s head. This was because Yaakov knew that in the future a descendant would be born from Efraim who would lead the Jewish People into Eretz Yisrael (Israel): Yehoshua.

 

Song:

(TTTO: If You’re Happy and You Know It)

 

When Yaakov blessed Yosef’s sons,

He crossed his hands.

When Yaakov blessed Yosef’s sons,

He crossed his hands.

He put his right hand on Efraim

And his left hand on Menashe.

Then he blessed Yosef’ sons,

He crossed his hands.

The bracha Yaakov gave his grandsons is often recited by Jewish children before sleep:

Song:

https://www.chabad.org/519469

This Tefilah (prayer) from Yaakov, at night is said:
By all Jewish children, before going to bed
To Ephraim and Menasheh, this bracha, Yaakov gave
"May the malach (angel) watch over you, for me he did save
In the name of my fathers, Avrohom and Yitzchok too
May Hashem’s bracha, forever be with you

Hamalach hagoel osi mikol ra
Y’vorech es han’orim, vikorei bahem sh’mee
V’sheim avosai, Avrohom v’Yitzchok
V’yidgu larov b’kerev haaretz

Yaakov gave each of his 12 sons a different bracha because each son is different and has specific needs. The Yellow Room discussed how each child is different. The Kindergarten Friends heard the brachos from the parents being read for each child. Each child received a different bracha because each person is different and unique.

 

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Perline

 

Strawberry Shortcake!

The children in the Yellow Room are bustling with excitement as they prepare for shopping and making strawberry shortcake.  As the children continue to play shopping and family, create strawberry shortcakes, play cook for family, create homes and kitchens from materials they build on foundational skills for continued education and adult life. 

Through play the children are developing confidence and peer play competence as they problem solve.  There is only one shopping cart and we all want it. Or, I want to play with you and build a kitchen, but the second child wants to build a new house.  Conflict comes up in life throughout childhood and adulthood and learning the skills to resolve conflict and move forward is a skill that will help children through homework, peer disagreements, careers and even family time.  The competence they develop in peer relationships is known to support their motivation to learn, task persistence, autonomy and prosocial behavior.  

Children’s ability to link memory to new involvements is another area that is blossoming in the Yellow Room.  The children have been enjoying books, especially Cook-a-Doodle Doo and  It’s Not a Stick.  Over the last several weeks the children’s development of making connections has been blooming as they notice connections between things they have done in class in the past and new things they are doing or reading about.  While writing the foods that his friends like for breakfast, Naveed noticed that Ronan likes cookies.  He called Morah Devora over and stated “Morah, 'cookie' is like the Cook-a-Doodle Doo book. They both have 'cook' in them." Leanna was also making connections as she read the It’s Not a Stick book and stated, “Look Morah, it’s the Starry Night painting in this book just like we painted.”   As children’s abilities to make connections between concepts develop, they increase their ability to think about the many things they are learning in a more complex way.

Relating Math and Literacy to the Parsha

This week in the Parsha the children learned with Morah Perline about Yaakov’s children and how each is different than the other.  The children explored many differences in themselves and their friends.  They especially enjoyed looking at how each of their families are different.  The children graphed “How many are in your immediate family?”  The children each decided who makes a family.  Some children said their grandparents were part of their family.  Some children said their pets were part of their family.  And, one decided their niece was part of their family. 

 

The children have a new friend joining the Yellow Room in January and they were curious about her, so they made predictions of who they thought might be in her family.  They decided she has a mom, a dad, a sister, a brother, and herself (5 in her family).  The children also decided to write and send a note to our new friend, Shyli, to ask her how many people are in her family.  They also asked what she likes for breakfast  (as we are started to graph foods we eat and explore food choices). 

 The graph provides for more math and literacy learning as it allows the children to learn to read a graph and determine who has the “most” in their family, who has the “least”, and who has five, or nine in their family.  Ask your child about who they feel is part of your family, and enjoy their thoughts and reasoning.

The children’s exploration of how they are the same or different from their friends provided these ideas:

Same                   

Mae:       We’re all human.                       

Leanna:  We all have hearts, hair. And we all go to school.

Angie:    We all have brains to think,  bones,  and lips.   We all learn Torah, and have blood.  We all like to draw.

Jacob:    We can all be patient. We all bench. We all learn aleph bais.

Naveed: We all have eyes and noses.

Leah:     We all have ears.

The children are still considering the things that are different about each of them.  Mae stated we are different because we have different feelings. Exploring difference provides children a respect for themselves and others as they realize they do not have to be exactly like their friends.

Over winter break please have your children join you in an exploration of items and people in the environment that are different.

Enjoy your winter break.

Have a wonderful, restful Shabbos!

Morah Devora