2's Class - Miss Emily & Morah Mimi

This week in preschool! Here are some fun activities we did this week and what learning they promote:

• Keys and rings have been super popular. They promote both hand eye coordination, task persistence, and fine motor development (or the development of the muscles in their fingers and hands; super important for holding a pen/pencil in the future and even tying their shoes).
• Babies have been a hit in the classroom for a bit now. Taking care of babies is a dramatic play practice as well as life skills. We have pretend diapers to put on the babies and we’re slowly learning how to strap them on (another fine motor and problem solving activity as well!).
• Sorting apples. Sorting apples by color is a great math activity. Sometimes we even challenge them by adding tongs and making it a fine motor activity as well. We do the sorting into colored bowls or even cupcake tins. This also ties back to our Rosh Hashanah lessons!
• Art. We did some art this week! Some marble painting flowers where we used our big muscles to shake a box and get the paint all over and some “honeycomb” printing! This is both creative processes. If your child does not have one it’s because they chose not to do the activity, which is perfectly alright.
• In circle time we’ve been doing "The Shofar in the Shul goes Toot, Toot" "Dip the Apple in the Honey" “Five Little Monkeys Swinging From a Tree” or as the friends all call it, “Mr. Alligator.” This promotes counting forwards and backwards from one to five. This also promotes voice modulation as we have to whisper when Mr. Alligator creeps along.
  

Until next week,

Ms. Emily

Hello!

• Coming to a teacher and telling them they need help for one.
• To use their words (“stop!” or “no!” or “I don’t like it.”)
• To try to default to not retaliating.

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the new school year! I know that some of you haven’t experienced being in school before and others feel like seasoned professionals by now. Nevertheless, welcome to this terrific milestone and welcome to the twos!

            This week our main focus in the classroom has been routine, schedule, and getting comfortable with your children. I know there’s been a lot of separation anxiety so far but I want to reassure you that it’s totally normal. Once we build trust with your child, then the separation anxiety and tears will lessen in the mornings. Our friends need to feel safe and loved to stop the separation anxiety but I can tell you this: after you leave the crying usually lasts for five minutes tops. Then they’re off to playing and exploring the classroom.

            Back to our routine. This week has been all about getting your child used to being in this new environment with a new set of rules and expectations. We’re learning all over again how to sit for circle time, how to wash our hands, how to clean up after ourselves, and how to become autonomous. Because that’s the true goal of the year, to create autonomous, or self-sufficient, beings within our classroom. Hopefully by the end of the year your child will be taking out their own lunch, cleaning up after themselves both with toys and at meal times, helping dress themselves and aid us in diapering or toileting. All of these are long term goals and will take baby steps to get there. We’ve started our journey this week and though it feels like there’s a long way to go, I guarantee you the end of the year comes faster than you think.

            In Ms. Emily’s circle time, we’ve been keeping it very short. Our welcome song is sung first. It’s called “The Good Morning Train” and we sing each friend's name, greeting them with a playful “Choo-choo!” The friends love to be acknowledged and it also helps everyone learn who each other is. Then we move onto a felt story. This week we’ve been doing “Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons.” It’s a great felt story that promotes counting, memorization, and even goes over a body part (the belly button, which really helps for them to identify when we’re changing diapers and need them to show us their stomach so we can change them quicker). Then we usually do a quick story—this week we’ve been reading “Chika Chika, Boom Boom.” It’s an alphabet book which helps with letter recognition and understanding.

            In our Judaic circle with Morah Mimi we’ve been singing the usual blessings, giving tzedakah, and kissing the torah, and reading mitzvah notes (try to leave one at drop off. The papers are located in the pen box and can be left there when completed). Here are some songs we’ve been singing:

“We Open One Eye”

We open one eye, we open two.

We say Modeh Ani ‘cause it means thank you.

We wash our yedayim six times that’s true.

That’s what every Jewish boy and girl must do.

            This is followed by the Modeh Ani blessing. Then after we say Shema we sing this song:

“Hashem is Here!”

Hashem is here, Hashem is there. Hashem is truly everywhere.

Up, up, down, down,  right, left and all around.

Here, there and everywhere that’s where Hashem is found!

            We look forward to an amazing year with your children. The best part of teaching is watching them grow, learn, and explore. We can’t wait to watch it happen!

Until next week,

Hi! I’m Ms. Emily and I will be your lead teacher this year. I love the way that children see the world, with wide eyes and open hearts. I love how much they teach us day after day. I love introducing them to the world. Welcome to the new school year! Welcome to preschool! Welcome to our classroom. This is such an overwhelming time for both children and parents alike but you’re not going to be in this alone. We are here to be a teammate to you and your child for the duration of the school year. I am here to make all our transitions into this new year easier for everyone involved and to make your child’s life at school fun and meaningful. I know this is an uncertain time for your child but know they will be safe, loved, and have tons of fun in our classroom!

Important Classroom Notes:

·        Please have ALL belongings labeled with your child’s name.

·        Please provide a few sets of weather appropriate clothes.

·        Please provide an earthquake kit (see handbook for details).

In our classroom, we believe in an open-ended play-based learning environment. Basically, the children choose what they want to play with and it’s our job to provide set-ups and activities that promote learning in all the domains.  I try to base our curriculum off of interest and the particular needs of the children. I love to create set ups and activities that pull the children into the world that we’ve created for them for that day. Each day, especially now that your two-year-old’s are discovering much more, is such an adventure and leads to such amazing teachable moments. This year I have set the goal to helping your children become more autonomous (being self-sufficient). In this classroom our friends do as much as they can for themselves with the guidance of the teachers in order to be successful. We will also be focusing heavily on the social-emotional domain of learning. We plan on helping our friends learn the words they will need to communicate with others. We will learn how to play with others and learn important life skills that we will need for the rest of our lives.

I truly believe that Preschool really works well when everyone is involved. We love having parents share what’s going on at home and really be a part of the classroom environment. Questions about what’s going on on a day-to-day basis are welcomed and encouraged in the classroom, but we encourage you to limit the amount discussed at pick-up. More in depth conversations are perfect to send us over our classroom emails! We want you to feel a part of this team. Integrating family and the child’s home life is important to building the classroom into a safe environment where your child can feel comfortable to learn and grow. I can’t wait to watch it happen and to meet everyone in the next couple of weeks! I can be contacted at any time through my school email and will be sure to respond as soon as I can.

Thank you,
Ms. Emily
[email protected]

Dear parents,

We are very excited to have your children in our class this year!  We hope to infuse them with a love for Judaism by approaching all learning with creativity and enthusiasm.  They will be learning the Hebrew alphabet and Hebrew words.  The Jewish holidays will come alive as they participate in hands-on experiences.  The children will be encouraged to perform good deeds(Midot Tovot) as we collect and share mitzvah notes daily.  The Judaism program includes sensory activities, music and movement, yoga, felt stories and puppet play!

Morah Mimi

From  Ms Emily and Morah Sarah

FROM MISS EMILY & MORAH SARAH!

We are closing in on the end of the year and it’s amazing what progress we’ve made! Our friends are playing cooperatively, talking up a storm, cleaning up one toy before moving onto the next, and washing our hands completely independently. We are so very proud of them. We also did a toy rotation this week and all the new options are super popular. A lot of behavior problems were simply because they were bored so this has had a positive outcome.

This week we got ready for Shavuot some more. We put a Har Sinai on our board and water colored some flowers to hang on the mountain and our friends thoroughly loved the process. They turned out beautiful. We’ve been singing a couple songs every day and our friends are super into them. Here are the lyrics:

I am a mountain so very high, I can reach all the way up to the sky

The Torah should be given on me, For I am as tall as can be, You see

"Oh no said the wide mountain"

I am a mountain so very wide, I can reach all the way from side to side

The Torah should be given on me, For I am as wide as can be, You see

Now little Har Sinai just stood there and sighed, I know I’m not tall and I know I’m not wide

The Torah shouldn’t be given on me, But that’s ok cause that’s just how HaShem made me

From all the mountains HaShem chose Sinai, Because he did not hold himself up so high

He had such simple and humble ways from this we learn humbleness pays

HaShem gave us a present, do you know what it was?

He gave us the Torah so we can keep its laws.

He asked the other nations, do you want this gift of mine?

But they “No Thank you, for Torah there’s no time”.

Then to Bnai Yisroel HaShem did go we said Na’aseh V’nishma

Because we love HaShem so

Then to Bnai Yisroel HaShem did go we said Na’aseh V’nishma

Because we love HaShem so

We look forward to seeing everyone at our performance on Monday the 17th. Our friends have been practicing their song and dance every day and are really excited about it all. Note that often when a friend gets on stage they freeze up. Don’t be surprised if this happens. But, I anticipate our friends blowing us away!

 This week in preschool!

We’re noticing a huge jump in development in the gross motor area. Gross motor is all your child’s large working muscles. For example, we’ve noticed that a lot of friends are starting to use the pedals on the tricycles. Not only is this gross motor development but it’s also evidence of bilateral movement. Bilateral movement is evidence that both hemispheres of the brain are connecting and working together!