3's Class - Miss Lisa & Morah Mimi

Hello Families 

As you have noticed when dropping off your child, we are really working on the children doing their “job” independently. This does take patience and time but they will get there. We teachers get so used to the ritual that we often need to stop and break down the expectation and most importantly remember their age and experience. We are asking them to:

• Say goodbye to loved ones (and that is sometimes REALLY hard)
• Remove their lunch and snacks from their backpack and place it in their upper cubby 
• Put their backpack in their Lower cubby
• Put their water bottle in the container by the door
• Wash their hands and make a room choice

And we are expecting them to focus on these tedious tasks when friends are SO excited to talk and play with them and there are SO many inviting activities and shiny distractions along the way! Oh yeah and they’re THREE YEAR OLDS! I try to hold that in my mind when determining expectations for the students. They have been on the planet for three years. Their bodies and minds are developing faster than they ever will, they're being immersed in information and stimuli constantly, and they are attempting to cope with REALLY BIG FEELINGS. Wow, that’s a lot huh? But with patience and support they will get there. 

We also work on autonomy with changing clothes and putting on shoes and socks. They are so proud and confident when they do it. I assure you that we notice when things are inside out and backwards and we did try to get them to fix it, but they worked SO hard to do it themselves and are SO proud and anxious to get back to playing that they typically refuse to fix it. 

With the hot days and water play we will get plenty of practice.

My email is unfortunately still not working so if you need to email me you will have to go through Chanie for a while.

Have a great weekend!

Thank you Rabbi Popack for blowing the shofar for us!  We sang a shofar song to the tune of The Wheels of the Bus.  It goes like this:  The shofar in the Shul goes tu tu tu, tu tu tu, tu tu tu.  The shofar in the Shul goes tu tu tu on Rosh Hashanah! The apple in the honey goes dip, dip, dip, dip , dip, dip on Rosh Hashanah. The people in the shul go daven daven daven , daven , daven , daven on Rosh Hashanah. The bumblebees in the hive go buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz on Rosh Hashanah.

We are thanking the bumblebees for giving us honey. They give us honey so we can dip our apples in it. We will be tasting different kinds of apples before Rosh Hashanah and deciding which one we like better. 

Every Friday, we enjoy a Shabbat party.  Morah Raizel plays her guitar while we sing Shabbat tunes.  We love her special puppets!

Reminder:  please send a mitzvah note with your child daily.  Near the sign-in sheet by the front door are papers you can use for this purpose.  Your children look forward to hearing these readings each day.      

Shabbat Shalom!  Have a wonderful and joyous weekend! 

Morah Mimi

Hello families,

We got right off and running despite it being a short week. The majority of the class has been together for at least one year so they were already happy to see their “besties.” New friends have quickly become right at home and happily embraced by the group.

I am happy to announce that this year I will have Miss Bailey as my aide this year. She was in the two year old class during the summer and had already made connections with the students. She is also a guinea pig enthusiast (or fanatic if you prefer) and she will often bring her furry friends to visit our classroom.

Mora Mimi will be our Judaic teacher and spends a couple of hours with the class daily. She will do the Davening, read Mitzvah notes, and do the holiday themes and projects. 

Reminders

Make sure that your child has extra clothes in their cubby daily & if they come home in different clothing please remember to supplement the next day. We will be doing water play next week and I want everyone to participate.

Please remember to send a water cup daily

We do not nap on Fridays because with the two o'clock dismissal there isn’t time to put them down and get them back up. Typically we will send home bedding on Thursday, but due to the short week we will send them home next Thursday 

A Note from Morah Mimi

Dear Parents,

We’ve had a great start to the year! It’s been wonderful seeing familiar faces and meeting new friends. The children are getting used to the routine, and we’re enjoying getting to know each of them.

Each day, we start with davening and giving tzedakah. We also talk about mitzvah notes, which are a special part of our day.. Please keep sending mitzvah notes with your child. I read them every day, and the children are always so happy to hear their mitzvot shared.  

Every Friday, we make challah to take home, which the children really enjoy. 

We can’t wait for what’s to come in our class as the year continues!

Have a wonderful Shabbat shalom and long weekend!

Morah Mimi  

Welcome families,

      My name is Lisa Haley and I am excited to be your child’s teacher this year. This will be my fourteenth year here at the Hebrew Academy and my twenty eighth in early childhood education.  

Philosophy

      I support the “Whole child” approach to early childhood education. This includes: cognitive, physical, and social/emotional. Young children are “Active learners” meaning that they learn by doing. They gain information through their five senses and from concrete experiences that they obtain in their environment and with one another. Academics are an intrinsic component in everything that we do throughout our day. We read, count, observe, discuss, explore, negotiate, problem solve, and use critical thinking skills all day long. The broad term for all of this learning is “play”. A child’s “work” is actively engaging in play with their peers. As young children tend to throw themselves into their work, this can get quite messy so please dress your child for success and make sure that they have a complete change of clothes in their cubby daily.

Snacks

In addition to lunch please send two snack items if your child is half day and four if your child is full day. At the end of the day the children can also finish their lunches. Also please send a labeled water bottle or drinking cup everyday.

Communication

      I have found that a strong and consistent connection between home and school plays a pivotal role in scholastic success; particularly at the preschool level. For many children this is their first time away from family for extended periods of time. Please contact me if you wish to discuss any questions, concerns, or comments regarding your child or our program. I am looking forward to getting to know you and your child and to a wonderful school year. 

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 Miss Lisa 

Year End

Another year has flown by and it's time to say goodbye. I look at photos of the children up in the classroom and they look like babies! They even notice it. Pictures before the boys first haircuts and how all of their cheeks were fatter, it is amazing how much they have grown! Mora Mimi and I were talking about how all of their skills have improved so much and how they are working to resolve conflicts independently. They are also more confident and ready for new challenges in the four year old class next year.

I want to thank all of you first and foremost for sharing your children with me, it was an amazing school year. Also I need to thank you so much for your support and communication throughout the year. I really felt we were working together to best meet your child's needs. 

Most of all I want to thank:

Ari, Asher, Ben, Elias, Goldie, Hannah, Oren, Pearl, Ruby, Savannah, Shiloh, Shneur, Tohar, Zalman

For every little thing that they brought to our classroom family this year, celebrate responsibly graduates and have a wonderful summer! 

From Morah Mimi

I can’t believe this is our last week in school. 

We’ve enjoyed learning Aleph Bais, celebrating holidays, and learning all kinds of skills. 

It’s  been amazing to witness their problem-solving skills and persistence develop over the months. These activities have not only been fun but have also added  to their cognitive growth.

Get ready for a lot of water play this summer. It’s great for their sensory development and lots of fun, whether in the pool or on the playground.

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to teach your beautiful children. We learned a lot this year. Keep giving your  children mitzvah notes. They love that incentive. 

Have a super fun and relaxing summer! 

FROM MS LISA  (See below for news from Morah Mimi)

Group Time

As our enthusiasms were elsewhere, we hadn't played Guess What's Missing in quite awhile. We randomly decided to revisit this game and I was blown away by their growth and progress with zero practice. It was all natural cognitive development. The students who formerly had no interest in the game were nailing it! We need to remember that children intrinsically challenge themselves so when they have zero interest in something, they typically aren't ready for it and may feel a bit self conscious about it, especially in front of a group. Give them time, space, and opportunities and they will get there. 

Performance 

It's already time for our year end Performance! We have been practicing a song that we have delighted in all year so trust and believe me when I say: THEY KNOW IT. Now, whether or not they will show this fact onstage is another matter entirely. They may refuse to get on the stage, freeze, cry, pee their pants …it's anyone's guess but remember that it's all good. I don't want them to feel pressure, just have fun! 

Fine Motor

This week I put out tongue depressors, colored tape, scissors, and markers. The students were very creative and I was floored by their ability to keep the marker on such a tiny, raised space. Some friends taped down the sticks or wrapped them while others just made beautiful sticks to take home. Many of the children can now work their bimanual skills to cut off tape completely independently. This isn't “mastery with scissors” because it only requires a single cut, but they are doing it with one hand and the self-confidence is through the roof which encourages them to try for that next step.

FROM MORAH MIMI 

FROM MS LISA 

Patterns

We have been beginning to explore patterns this week. We used our glorious graph and colored circles to create simple A-B-A-B patterns at group time. The students picked up on it very quickly. On the third day I switched it up to magnatiles with a square-triangle pattern. This took a minute as the children were used to noting colors. Now the colors were irrelevant and could be next to each other so long as the shapes differed. They soon switched cognitive gears and caught on to the new pattern. We then played with an auditory pattern with a slap-slap-clap-slap-slap-clap pattern and an homage to “We will Rock You.” Through understanding patterns, children learn to make predictions, to understand what comes next, to make logical connections, and to use reasoning skills which is a higher level brain function. 

Creative Art

The students had the opportunity to explore painting as well as creating collages with colored glue and foam letters and spring flowers and insects. As is always the case, my art enthusiasts can't get enough while my “Not a fan” kiddos can't be paid to do it. We are who we are right?

Magnatiles 

Our work with Magnatiles has developed exponentially recently and not just with my block enthusiasts. Just about all of my students are gravitating to this task and the structures are becoming much more complex. They are as tall as a child or with different enclosures to separate rooms for their micro-dramatic people, animals, or vehicles. I have seen squares used to make triangle structures, cars being built and feats that seem to defy physics. And we still hold fast and firm that you only get to knock down your own work. If you break a friend's then the blocks are closed for you. Our consistent and logical consequences have resonated and our being respected…most of the time. We still have to test those boundaries to make sure that there is order in the universe, right? 

 FROM MISS LISA (Scroll down for Judaic News.)

Manipulatives

We had a lot of fine motor and math work in our table choices this week. Connect four worked the pincer grasp and one to one correspondence, as did the light bright, pegboards and push pin activities. I also shaped out some of our puzzles with Miss Deana for some variety. It is really great to see how far the students have come in their abilities. The best part is seeing the growth in their confidence. They approach new puzzles with self confidence rather than insecurity. They may need help once or twice, but they are seeing that the same puzzle skills they use with familiar puzzles can be transferred over to new ones.

 Assessments will be sent home in the upcoming weeks and it is important to note the progress that came from simply letting children play. Their improvement wasn't because of anything I was formally teaching, but because of their natural tendency towards learning. All we need to do is facilitate an environment with developmentally appropriate activities and give them time and space to work while thoroughly enjoying themselves and goals will be reached.

 Graphing

With tremendous work from Miss Bailey we have completed our glorious graph. The students' names are printed horizontally across the bottom and numbers 1-10 are ascending vertically on both sides. Remember this is SUPER preliminary. We are just familiarizing ourselves with the visual of a graph and the concept that it helps us to quantify. We count the buttons on our clothing and even if they don't have any that day they will get a handful of colorful circles to put on the graph above their name. We count as we apply them and work on some of our math vocabulary: less, more, same, most, and total. As long as their interest holds we will be finding all sorts of items to graph in our day.

FROM MORAH MIMI 

This week, we learned the amazing story of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and his son, Eliezer.   From him, we learn the importance of being kind to one another. When asked how we can show kindness, some student responses included sharing, being gentle, and taking turns with toys. 

We discovered that on Lag B'Omer, we enjoy picnics, bonfires, and singing songs around the fire. The children had fun decorating pieces of wood with watercolors and we enjoyed nature's beauty.

During group time, we went on a pretend picnic, using the song "We're Going on a Picnic," where each child chose a food to add to our basket. Another exciting activity was a music and movement song by Kira Wiley called "Going on a Walk," where we pretended to be bears hiking in the forest. The children were fully engaged and excited.

We sang a lovely song around our pretend fire: "Oh, let’s be friends  and join together, oh, let’s be friends now and forever. Oh Let’s be friends and join together. Oh, let’s be friends cause that’s the Torah way."

Have a Wonderful week and a Shabbat Shalom!