The week of October 24

The past week in language arts, we enjoyed our first Great Books story, The Frog Prince. Children illustrated responses to the story, acted out selections, and discussed the story in class.  In writing workshop, we are finishing up our small moments unit. We concentrated on continuing to add details to our stories, including feelings and dialogue. Children have also begun making their own alphabet books in school, while practicing reading books featuring a single letter of the alphabet. Most children chose one book to take home to read to a family member - check your child's folder for his/her book. Don't be concerned if s/he forgets a word, or seems to rely heavily on pictures. This is just one step in the journey to becoming a fluent reader!

We began our study of Torah with the story of creation. Every child illustrated one scene from the story, and on Tuesday, chose one day of creation to represent in collage. These are on display in the hall along with our "shabbat watercolors." We put on relaxing music and tried to create paintings that captured the mood of shabbat. Make sure to ask your child what "serendipity" means and how it relates to painting with watercolors.

At morning meeting we've been focusing on naming our emotions, and identifying what different emotions might look and sound like. We played several games where we tried to guess which feeling a clasmate was acting out. We also brainstormed strategies for what to do when we are feeling angry or frustrated in school.

In math, we're working on reading our "tricky teens." We played several games to reinforce what these numbers represent.

Every week, the Gan bakes four challah breads, two for our class and two to share. This week we sent our challahs to a family in the extended community whose mother had a concussion and needs some extra help. We talked about the mitzvah of helping families with food when someone is sick or recovering from an illness, or even welcoming a new baby.

Can you believe this weather? I'm not sure how this will affect our plans to study signs of Fall, inasmuch as they've mostly tipped over or blown away!