OJCS KINDERGARTEN / GAN  

Today we celebrated Tu B’Shevat, the birthday of the trees. Why do we celebrate this holiday? It is to remind us of our connection to the earth and our responsibility to take care of the environment.

We have many reasons to thank the trees. Here are the yeladim sharing a few in Hebrew:

We also celebrated in several different ways:

We painted pots and planted seeds.

 

We learned the names of the parts of a tree in Hebrew:

And we even had a Tu B’Shevat Seder.

Chag Sameach,

The Kindergarten team

We have completed our 21 day challenge with our mindful moments rocks!

Encourage your kids to continue to take a mindful moment when they need to or want to. Even though our challenge might be done, we will be still be using the vocabulary and taking a minute or two for mindfulness. Our class loves to have calming music play in the background while we do our mindful moment.

Take a look at our journey with mindfulness…

Morah Taylor

What a Great Global School Play Day we had. Thanks for sending in such great games to use in the class and play with. The class demonstrated great sharing, inclusiveness with their games and making everyone feel welcome to play, and of course using great critical thinking and creativity while using our time to collaborate with each other. Here is a snapshot of what it looked like in the Kindergarten today.  I was so proud of our children and being a part of this huge global awareness day.

Here is a letter from our Winter Fun Day Planners.

Good morning K parents and students!

Our exciting Winter Fun Day is quickly approaching and before we can fully immerse ourselves in the wonder of snow and ice… We need consent forms filled and returned. I have printed paper copies for those who have not handed back in and extended the return date to Friday, February 7th, 2020. These copies will be coming home tonight.

As mentioned in a recent email you can indicate on the form whether your child wishes to partake in skating or tobogganing so we can allocate appropriate numbers of staff to each activity.

Regardless of the activity,  helmets MUST be worn.

Thank you for your continued support,

Miss M

 

Tomorrow is Global School Play Day that our class will be a part of.  If you have any board games or items you think can be incorporated into our day, you are welcome to send them to school tomorrow. Unstructured play helps children develop 21st century skills.

In a world where education places emphasis on “academics” why would a school dedicate a certain amount of the day to play? There are many good, solid reasons:

• Boosts Creativity — When children create make-believe games, they use their imaginations and develop abstract thinking.
• Teaches Social Skills — Playing together, children learn how to get along with others. They develop empathy while learning to negotiate and compromise.
• Develops Critical Thinking Skills — During unstructured play, children take risks, make mistakes, and learn important problem-solving skills.
• Promotes Emotional Health — Free play reduces anxiety and stress in children, allows them to sleep better, and improves overall emotional health.
• Fosters Independence — Children learn to make decisions, follow their own interests, and gain self-confidence.
• Improves Physical Fitness — Playing actively helps children improve gross motor skills and build healthy bodies.

Thanks for your support in helping make this Day a Great One!

*On another Fun Day Note… please send in your permission slips for Winter Fun Day by Tomorrow if you haven’t already. They were sent home electronically. 

The K Team

As we end our unit on Space…we’d like to share a link that we watched in class. The link is called EarthSky and thanks to Miko’s Mom for taking the picture of the planet Venus, that was visible in the sky, two days ago.

We are now going from up above to way down below. There is so much to learn about the Ocean! Take a look at our photo  of some of the wonders and inquiry’s the class will be looking into. It’s already an exciting adventure. Listening to whale sounds, talking about how to keep the oceans clean, as well as life under the sea. If you have any books or expertise on the subject, and would like to share it with the class, please do so.  Shabbat Shalom!

 

Time is flying by! This week we celebrated Rosh Chodesh Shevat.

In the Gan we began learning about a special holiday that takes place this month…Tu B’Shevat…the birthday of the trees. Trees are important to us for so many reasons. Here are a few that the yeladim listed: 

They make air!

They give us shade!

They give us fruit to eat!

They give us wood to build houses!

They give us paper towels and paper!

So many important things come from trees and that is why we recognize how important they are during this holiday. 

In Israel, the trees are starting to bloom and people plant trees in honour of the holiday. Here the ground is frozen and the trees are sleeping but we will still celebrate with a planting activity… details coming soon.

For now, we are learning a special song which you will also find featured in the Shabbat 7:

Hashkediya Porachat

Hashkediya Porachat 

V’shemesh paz zorachat

Tziporim m’rosh kol gag

Mevasrot et bo ha chag

Tu B’Shevat higiya, Chag ha ilanot

Tu B’Shevat higiya, Chag ha ilanot

הַשְּׁקֵדִיָּה פּוֹרַחַת

וְשֶׁמֶשׁ פָּז זוֹרַחַת

צִפֳּרִים מֵרֹאשׁ כָּל גַּג

מְבַשְּׂרוֹת אֶת בּוֹא הֶחָג

ט”וּ בִּשְׁבָט הִגִּיעַ – חַג הָאִילָנוֹת

ט”וּ בִּשְׁבָט הִגִּיעַ – חַג הָאִילָנוֹת

Shabbat Shalom

Learning Flipgrid with our Grade 5 students!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun with our new found dress up accessories!

As we wind down from our Space Inquiry… we hoped you all had a chance to talk about our amazing Solar Systems the kinders made. After learning many facts about each planet we created each planet according to their properties. We then had to order them in the correct order. We practised our printing skills by labeling each planet and giving it a Title. Today we listened  to the story Ada Twist the scientist ,read by an astronaut from her shuttle. If you would like to listen to more stories, read by different astronauts,  here is the link.
https://storytimefromspace.com/

We began our learning about Flipgrid with our Grade 5 students helping us navigate this tool . Everyone logged into the site and recorded what their favourite planet was. We will continue to learn how to use Flipgrid  and send you information as we learn it.

 

On February 5th there is a National Global School Play Day  to remember why Play is so important to the health of children.  I have chosen to be a part of this Global Day since it is something I am very passionate about. Please read  and visit the following article to help you better understand what this day is all about.
There is a great Ted Talk included , that I recommend you listen to, in order to help better understand why play is so important for the mental well being of our children.

https://pin.it/gesadt3ai5uqfj

Global School Play Day Official Website – www.gobalschoolplayday.com

I’m excited to participate in this very important movement to help promote the well being for our children .

 

Bonjour!

It is getting awfully chilly! It is important to remember our accessoires d’hiver!

Nous mettons (we put on)

-un chapeau

-un foulard

-des bottes

-des mitaines / des gants

Our class had so much fun trying on accessories and trying to guess which were missing!

 

This week we began a new unit in Hebrew centered around winter (choref). The yeladim are learning new vocabulary such as:

שֶׁלֶג – sheleg (snow)

פְּתִית שֶׁלֶג – ptitei sheleg (snowflake)

כַּדוּר שֶׁלֶג- cadur sheleg (snowball)

אִישׁ שֶׁלֶג- eesh sheleg (snowman)

We are alo learning about the types of clothes we wear in the winter and naming the body parts that they go on:

חוּלצָה – chultzah (shirt)

מִכְנָסַיִים – michnasaim (pants)

גַרבַּיִם – garbaim (socks)

שִׂמלָה- simlah (dress)

מְעִיל – me’il (coat)

כְּפָפוֹת – kfafot (mittens) 

מִכְנְסֵי שֶׁלֶג – michnasi sheleg (snow pants)

סְוֶדֶר – sveder (sweater)

כּוֹבַע – covah (hat)

צָעִיף – tzayif (scarf)

מַגָּפַיִם – magafayim (boots)

Here they are in action singing one of our new songs:

We also finished the book of Bereshit (Hazak, Hazak! Venit–Hazek!), complete with the story of Joseph and how the Jewish people ended up in Egypt. This week in the Shabbat, 7 you will find a beautiful lullaby based on the blessing that Jacob gave to Menashe and Efraim (his grandsons from Joseph). 

Here is the version that we listened to in class:

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom!