We had a short week, only 3 days, but we learned a lot.
Ms. Emily (Emily Kahan, LICSW, Department of Behavioral Health, School Mental Health Program) started the wonderful Kimochi program in Gan Ramat Gan. The program is about 6 weeks, one session a week, about 30 minutes long. Kimochi (KEY.MO.CHEE) means “feeling” in Japanese. Sometimes kids (and adults) have strong feelings that can fuel challenging behaviors. Sometimes it’s hard to know how to communicate when you are in an emotional moment. Kimochis are a playful way to help children (and adults!) learn how to identify and express feelings. When kids can communicate their feelings effectively, they develop positive social skills that lead to lasting friendships and success in all aspects of life. Kimochis teach the fourth “R”—reading, writing, arithmetic, and RELATIONSHIPS. This “R” is the foundation for success in ALL areas of life. You can read more about Kimochis here.
Hebrew
We learned to count to 10 . In the afternoons we practice counting at the Math tables. Click here to see the numbers and pronunciation at the Additional Resources section of the Hebrew at Sela website. (this is the the website of the upper grades) We learned the following words about weather: Sun, Rain, Rainbow, Snow, Clouds. Click here to see the pronunciation. One of our favorite books in Hebrew is "Lo Rotza" (I don't want) about a little girl who doesn't want anything when her parents are leaving and she keeps crying. This is a great book to express emotions, we love to say "lo rotza (f)/ lo rotze(m)" lo rotze (m) / lo rotza (f) - don't want lo - no ken - yes boche (m) / bocha(f) - cries Listen to the book below: Book of the Week:
Song of the Week:
We learned "Shalom Lachem" a great greeting song. Moments of the Week:
0 Comments
This week Ms. Alexander started the Second Step Program in Gan Ramat Gan. This is an amazing program which teaches skills in the following four areas: "1. Skills for Learning: Children gain skills to help them be better learners, including how to focus their attention, listen carefully, and ask for help. 2. Empathy: Children learn to identify and understand their own and others’ feelings. Children also learn how to show care for others. 3. Emotion Management: Children learn how to calm down when they have strong feelings, such as worry or anger. 4. Friendship Skills and Problem Solving: Children learn how to make and keep friends and to solve problems with others in a positive way." "Home Links are simple, fun activities for you and your child to do together. They are a great way for you to understand what your child is learning and for your child to show you what he or she knows." Please find the first home link here. You can read the full introductory letter here. We practiced and learned the following vocabulary in Hebrew:
On Monday during Center Time, the Hebrew group moved into the Art Center. We created sun, clouds and rain from construction paper and had our first adventure with paper glue sticks (devek). For many of us, this was the first time using this magic object. Ms. Anna taught us the words shemesh, ananim and geshem, while showing us how to apply the glue (devek) on only one side of the paper. We fell in love with paper glue and encourage our parents to use it at home. We sang "Geshem, geshem" (Rain, rain...) while adding the rain drops with blue (kahol) crayons. On Tuesday, Hebrew moved into the Block Center (kubiot). Ms. Anna spoke with us about the colors of the blocks. We sang the song "Yesh li kubiot katanot..." (I have small blocks..) On Wednesday, a Magic Box appeared in the classroom , we closed our eyes and tried to feel what was in the box. (kise, shulhan, katar, karon) On Thursday, we played Bingo with colors at the Hebrew table in groups of 4. On Friday, we read one of the best children's books in Israeli literature :The Tale of Five Balloons. You can read more about the plot and educational value of this story in English here. Ms. Anna's family prepared a version of the story for Gan Ramat Gan last year. Listen to the story below. After we read the book, some of the students colored the balloons and we spoke about the colors. You can download the coloring page below if you would like to color the balloons at home.
On Thursday, Ms. Alexander taught us how to use water colors in the Art Center and as we are all very talented artists, we painted our first master pieces. We encourage our parents to let us paint with water colors at home. On Friday, we celebrated Preston's birthday. Mazal Tov!!! See more about birthday here. Moments of the Week:
This week the following Centers were open in the classroom: Blocks, Dramatic Play, Toys, Games and Puzzles, Art, Library and Science.
On Monday Ramat Ganians received their badges and learned the concept of "Four Friends at a Center" . Our citizens are free to choose places during Center time, they only need to check how many friends are playing in the chosen Center. If there is place, they can place their badges on the wall.
During Center time we also started our Small Group activities both in English and Hebrew.
Ms. Alexander started assessment of recognition of English letters. Ms. Anna started Hebrew groups with memory games. We learned the following words in Hebrew: Kise - Chair Shulhan - Table Shatiach - Carpet Delet - Door In addition to memory games we also colored some of these objects. If you would like to use the same sheets at home, you can download the files here.
Both in English and in Hebrew we are learning about our classroom. Our Dramatic Play area is now a School. Ms. Alexander discussed with the class activities in school. and she read books about these activities and stories about school. In our School (in the Dramatic Center) we have always two teachers and two students. (Mora - Teacher, Talmid - Student) We have milk for breakfast (Halav - Milk) , table, chairs, carpet (shulhan, kise, shatiah)
We also installed a new bookshelf in the School area where children can read books about school. We checked out the following books from a public library (you can find these titles in your library as well, in case you would like to read them at home)
Hebrew Books:
Ms Anna read books in Hebrew about balloons, elephants and a caterpillar.
Hebrew Music
This is the playlist of our favorite songs. Play it for us at home and in the car and we will sing along. As we had a rainy day during the week. We learned the following song about rain. Geshem - Rain Moments of the Week:
On Monday we started to nap in school. After lunch, Ms. Alexander and Ms. Anna placed the mats on the floor along with our special blankets from home. We listened to classical music and most of us fell asleep quite fast. In case you would like to try this at home, here are our sleeping music links: Classical Music for Sleeping and Mozart Lullaby
We also learned a song about blocks.
Kubiot Ktanot...-Small Blocks We can use our small blocks to build: Katar - Engine Karon - Train car Oniya - Boat Aviron - Airplane As today was the 10th day of school, the very mysterious Zero the Hero arrived to our class room. Ms. Alexander read a book about Zero the Hero and we also received a letter from him or her. We prepared Zero the Hero masks and Zero the Hero art work with 10 stickers. Zero left for Labor's Day Weekend but will come back on day 20. We also opened our Math tables in the afternoons. (see us in the Moments of the Week album enjoying Math) Today we celebrated Logan and Isaac. They are 3. Mazal Tov!!! They walked around the Sun 3 times. Click here to view the slideshow. Moments of the Week: (Center Time, Outdoor and Indoor Recess. Math and Geometry. |
Archives
June 2019
|