What's that I hear?

This week we learned about a few more things we do to prepare and celebrate Rosh Hashanah.

Morah Tzivie: Mason, what did you bring to school today?

Mason: My shofar.

Morah Tzivie: When do we use the shofar? 

Matan: Rosh Hashanah.

Morah Tzivie: Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It is used for a special mitzvah, Rabbi will come and he will blow it for us.

When we hear the shofar it reminds us: 

Rosh Hashanah is coming!

 It's time to celebrate! 

Hashem please give us a sweet new year!

Morah Tzivie had a secret to share with us.

Morah Tzivie: In this bag is another special food we eat on Rosh Hashanah. 

Reach inside and see if you can guess what it is just by feeling it, BUT if you do guess, keep the secret until everyone has had a turn.

Morah Tzivie: Any guesses?  .....

I'll give you a hint, it is round, it has a little crown on its head

Olivia: A pomegranate!

Morah Tzivie: That's right! Pomegranates have so so so so so many tiny seeds inside, it reminds us of all the so so so so so many good things we hope to have and all the so so so so so many sweet thing we will do in the new year.

Morah Tzivie: What 3 things do we do to celebrate Rosh Hashanah?

Olivia: Dip apples in honey.'

Mason: Don't be sour.

Nora: The shofar. 

Mason: I'll blow mine loud so all the people will hear it.

Morah Tzivie: People will hear the shofar and know Rosh Hashanah is coming, and eat pomegranates to remind us of all the many good things we hope to have and will do.

My friends have really been enjoying an addition to our playground.

Maya: I didn't know we had a pond.

Nora: It's for the holiday Rosh Hashanah.

Olivia: Yeah it's not for us but maybe fish will come live in it.

Jade noticed that a few sunflower petals fell in the pond it looked like someone had spilt yellow paint.

Renita and the children have done some fall planting. 

We are enjoying some mint, and waiting for carrots to grow.

In the meantime, they are enjoying the last bit of broccoli.

We are excited to start our new year with helping hands

 and kinds words with our friends in the classroom.

We are also very excited to send sweet wishes for the new year to our grandparents. 

 
Shana tova u'metuka
have a happy, sweet New Year!

Apples dipped in honey we do eat

Apples are all over the classroom.

Buckets have needed to be filled with fingerprint apples.

 

The Apple board game is hardly ever on the shelf, it is played so often.

 

Stories have been read with count a-long activities.

 There is an apple 'balance' tree in our room that has needed careful harvesting.

Apple mysteries were discovered in the sensory box.

But why so many apples?

Morah Tzivie: A special holiday is coming up.

Olivia: Rosh Hashanah.

Morah Tzivie: That's right! The new year. 

At the new year we eat something to remind us to have a sweet new year.

Nora: Apples dipped in honey.

Morah Tzivie: When we want to wish our families and friends a good and sweet new year, 

we can say Shana tova u'metuka.

We had our honey vs lemon/sweet vs sour taste test.

The lemons left a very clear taste sensation in my friend's mouths.

Morah Katie: When have you have felt sour like a lemon? 

Maybe when a friend yelled or grabbed a toy? 

Maybe when a friend didn't listen to your words? 

When those things happen to me I know know I feel bad and sad, maybe even mad and sour.

Sadie: I don't like sour.

Honey was a much more pleasant taste experience. 

Morah Katie: What can we do to fix a sour feeling? To make it go away?

Sadie: Water.

Mason: Honey!

Nora/Maya: SWEET THINGS!

Morah Katie: When we choose to do sweet kind things like helping, listening, sharing we can make a sour feeling turn sweet.

Matan had dropped the green spatula. Nora picked it up.

Matan began to demand it back. He then chose to use sweet kind words,

Matan: Nora can I have that back please?

Nora: Yes.

Morah Katie wanted to move the logs away from the fence, Emily offered to help her.

It made Morah Katie feel very sweet to have such great help, and Emily felt happy and proud too!

Nora and Maya were playing with the containers, 

Nora: Oh I have a bit more, here Maya you have one more. Now we slide.

Maya: Now we slide.

Songs are fun, informative, and great classroom tools.

"Dip the apple in the honey 

Make a bracha* loud and clear

Shana tova u'metuka

have a happy sweet new year"

*blessing

Singing this holiday song in class as some of my friends began to feel sour, 

 helped to remind them to use kind words to solve their problems.

In addition to apples, 

we have bees in our classroom. 

Morah Katie: Why do we have a bee craft?

Nora: It's a fun craft!

Morah Katie: I'm glad you like it. Do we need bees for anything?

Kyllee: Bees make honey.

Morah Katie: What do we use honey for?

Nora: We dip our apples in it.

Morah Katie: Why do we dip our apples in honey?

Nora: For the special day.

Maya: Rosh Hashanah. 

Matan: We dip the apples in the honey to have sweetness in the new year.

Nora: So we need bees for honey to dip our apples to have a sweet new year.

Morah Katie: Well, what are some sweet kind things you can do with your family today?

Aura: I can help mom clean.

Maia: I can help mom clean too.

Lochlan: I can help dad in the garden.

Kyllee: I can share with my sister.

Nora: I can help.

Morah Katie: So if  YOU do all those things, aren't YOU helping people have a sweet day? 

So don't you think You can help people have a sweet new year?

Nora: Oh yeah it's really us, we just eat the apples.

Maya: And the honey.

Nora: And the honey.

Maya: AND the honey.

Nora: AND the honey.

Maya: And the honey.

Nora: AND the honey.