We began our week with a wonderful celebration!

Candle making

Doughnut decorating and eating

We finished our week with

hunting for hidden numerals in one of our favorite books

numeral tracing and writing

word building

We have learned 11 of the 26 letters of our alphabet. The letters have not been presented in the typical "abc" order, but in an order which allows the child to quickly put the sounds together to build words. The names of the letters are important for spelling, however the sounds are what enable to child to create and decode words. Words can be mysteries but once a child knows the clues, he/she will take off solving those mysteries. I have noticed an increase in all the children in their recognition of the sounds and it is very exciting to see the smiles on their faces when they begin to connect it all.

Morah Tzivie told us about the Jewish children during the time of the Maccabee's who tricked the Greek soldiers by playing driedel. At circle we played pretend that a greek soldier was coming to tell us not to sing about the Torah, and The Gan children were delighted to play the trick on the greek soldier, putting the Torah behind their back and spinning their drediels.

The smiles were wide and the giggles were loud. They tricked the "greek soldier" over and over and the children's pride and empowerment could be seen and felt.

Next week we will look at the differences of the 5 vertebrate classes of animals. What makes a bird different from a mammal? Are there any similarities between a reptile and a fish? We will these questions and more.