January 2, :23 יב טבת תשעה פרשת ויחי

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1 The Week IN words January 2, :23 יב טבת תשעה פרשת ויחי

2 CALENDAR NOTES January 7 & 13-Parent Teacher Conferences January 11 31st Anniversary Dinner January Mid-Winter Break January 26 Classes Resume Help us make this years dinner campaign the most successful campaign ever. Phone-a-thons are taking place 1/4, 1/5, 1/6 from 7:00 PM- 10:00 PM at the Klurman Campus (Miami Gardens Drive). All money raised will be applied to your Give or Get obligation. rschwartz@ytcteam.org to reserve your spot. HOT LUNCH CYCLE 3 The Hot Lunch order form for the next cycle (January 26 March 31) is now available online at our website

3 Rabbi Avrohom and Shoshana Jablon on the Bar Mitzvah of their son Kalman. ***SOME APPOINTMENTS STILL AVAILABLE!!!*** Effective Parent-Teacher communication is essential to ensure the success of our Early Childhood Program. We have therefore set aside two evenings for the teachers to meet with you to discuss your child s progress. Conferences for the Pre-KI, KII & KIII classes will take place on Wednesday, January 7 from 6:20 to 9:00 p.m. Conferences for Nursery, Pre-KII & KI will take place on Tuesday, January 13 from 6:20-9:00 p.m. Please note that appointments are scheduled at ten minute intervals. If you come late to your appointment, you will not be able to have additional time.

4 Nursery news JUDAIC STUDIES MOROT SHULAMIS & TAMI In Parashas Vayechi, we learned that when Yaakov was very old he gave Yosef s sons Menashe and Efraim brochos. When Yaakov went to bless Menashe and Efraim, he crossed his hands putting the right hand on Efraim and left on Menashe. The children learned the blessing, Hamalach Hagoel,that Yaakov gave them. Yaakov was 147 when he died. When the shvatim went to bury yaakov in המכפלה Esavמערת wouldn't allow it. In the confusion of the argument, Chushim, Yaakov's grandson killed Esav. The children were excited to sing the song Hamalach HaGoel. חזק חזק ונתחזק We learned that the Abbas will say ספר in shul this week because they will complete Weבראשית. are continuing on in our Brachos unit. The children learned many new Hebrew words for the foods they eat and are getting more familiar with the brochos. Some of the words that we learned were: גזר ירקות עוף בשר חלב ענבים תפוז SECULAR STUDIES MOROT SHULAMIS & SUSAN Our unit on Community Helpers was so much fun! The children really enjoyed learning about policemen, firefighters, mail carriers, doctors, dentists, and teachers. At the art center, the children created a fire hat, and a fire truck with a ladder and a Dalmatian dog too! We also made mail bags to take home, which we filled with letters written by the children. The class was very excited about their own mail! We listened to several stories about community helpers such as Curious George Visits The Hospital by Margaret and H.A. Rey, My Friend The Teacher by Leslie Eckard. and A Day in The life of a firefighter by, Linda Hayward. During dramatic play time the whole class got to wear community helper costumes, and play with community helper puppets. They made a doctor s clinic, cooked in the firehouse, and prepared food in the kitchen. We had doctors, firefighters, nurses, dentists, policeman, and even an artist!!!!!! we also set up a private library and took turns being the librarian and signing books out for the day! The concept of patterning was introduced to the class this week. We used unifix cubes and parquetry blocks to make several patterns. we also used pegs and pegboards as well as sorting manipulatives to create patterns.

5 PRe-K PAGES JUDAIC STUDIES MOROT HEIDI & NECHAMA In Parashas Vayechi, we learned about the brachos that Yaakov gave to his sons and grandsons. We learned how Yaakov crossed his hands when he blessed Menashe and Efraim and we spoke about the many mitzvos that we can do with our hands. We sang Hamalach Hagoel and discussed the beautiful brachos that parents give their children on Friday night at the Shabbos table. We have started a new unit on Brachos and will continue this theme over the next few weeks. We welcome any books, tapes or CD s that you might have at home on this topic that can be shared with us for use in the classroom. For our Hebrew language program, a unit featuring food items was also introduced. Some of the phrases that the children are becoming familiar with are: למי יש לחם? יש לי לחם אני אומר ברכת המוציא אני אומר ברכת המוציא על הלחם אני אומרת ברכת המוציא אני אומרת ברכת המוציא על הלחם Our Hebrew letter of the week is the ches. Some of the new Hebrew vocabulary words that the children learned were: חלון חשך חלב חתול חלה חבר חברה SECULAR STUDIES MORAH JUDY Last week we learned about Henri Matisse. The children learned words associated with his style such as, space, overlap and creative shapes. Two visitors last week helped introduce and familiarize the children with Matisse. The visitors were Rafi's grandparents and Moishy s Bubbie who were all visiting from N.Y. Rafi's grandmother, who is an artist herself, introduced the children to the techniques of Henri Matisse by sharing a book and pictures of his art work. She also gave us information about the life of Matisse. She then presented an art project and joined the children in creating collages in the style of Henri Matisse. Moishy's Bubbie joined us from Monsey, where she teaches her own class. She was visiting the Summer family to welcome Moishy's new baby sister. Moishy s Bubbie kept all the children entertained as she read two funny Dr. Suess stories to the Pre-KII class. Our artists of the week were Jackson Pollock and Alexander Calder. Jackson Pollock was famous for his "splatter" paint techniques. it was exciting to take on his style of painting, by splattering paint on a canvas outside of our classroom. The children splattered paint by throwing the paint off of paintbrushes and onto a large canvas. Alexander Calder was famous for "surrealism, and large sculptures and mobiles. Pre-KI and Pre-KII enjoyed Calder's technique so much, that they worked on their projects for two days. The art unit has been an eye opening experience for all the children in Pre-K. It covers all areas of academic learning, and the "arts". The children s work can be seen displayed in the classrooms in their wonderful art galleries. Our letter of the week was the letter Ii. Some letter Ii words the Pre-K children listed were, igloo, inch, iguana and insect. The children experienced making a model igloo out of ice. Our class igloo is in the freezer with a polar bear living inside. As a math exercise the children spent time measuring objects, around school, by the inch. In conjunction with the letter Ii and the measuring activity we read the story Inch by Inch, by Leo Lionni. Please continue to listen to the phone-line stories. You can now hear the story for the letter Ii. To help reinforce alphabet knowledge please feel free to listen to past letter stories.

6 kindergarten CORNER JUDAIC STUDIES MOROT BAYLA & RENA The excitement in the kindergarten never subsides! We started a fun and delicious unit on Brachos. We discussed the importance of thanking Hashem for the many wonderful foods that he gives us. We focused on the brachos "Borei Prei Hagafen", and "Hamotzi Lechem Min Ha aretz".we created a wine bottle necklace and started working on beautiful bentcher holders. As a culminating activity we enjoyed a special Hagafen and Hamotzi snack. We integrated the Bracha unit with our D'vash V'chalav program. The yeladim learned the following sentences: אני אוכל לחם אני שותה יין מי רוצה לחמניה? מי רוצה יין? The children enjoyed listening to the books When I fell into my Kiddush Cup by Sashi Fridman and Way too Much Challah Dough by Goldie Shulman. This week we introduced the Letters Chaf and Chof Sofis. We also reviewed the Kof and Chof families" The yeladim made a Kibbud Av Va Eim board game that s lots of fun to play. For Parshas Vayechi, the children acted out the story of Yaakov Avinu blessing Ephraim and Menashe. We also sang the Tefillah "Hamalach Hagoel" and discussed the brachos which Yaakov gave to his children, the Twelve Shevatim. We hope that all of the children are going to be in shul this Shabbos so they can sing "Chazak, Chazak, V'nischazek. For Project Derech we learned that it is wrong to argue with a parent. The students had many examples to add to the discussion on this topic. SECULAR STUDIES MOROT HEIDI & PEARLY For the next three weeks the kindergarten class will be learning about pollution. We started out the unit by asking the children what they know about pollution. We got very good answers from the children who seem to already know a lot about the topic. Pollution contaminates and makes our world dirty. It also has become a big problem and causes lots of harm to the environment, the people and the animals. We learned about the four kinds of pollution: air, water, land and noise. This week we concentrated on air pollution. We discussed where it comes from and how it effects us. For the next few weeks the children will be working on writing and illustrating a book on pollution and how to keep the world clean. In math this week the children worked with numbers greater than 10. They used 10 frames to model numbers 10 to 15. They filled up one 10 frame to model the number 10 and then added more counters to show numbers greater than 10. For example: for number 11, the children filled up one whole ten frame and then added one more counter to make 11. The children benefit greatly from practice with the 10 frames. The frames allow the children to visually and kinesthetically model and review numbers We are still learning about Frits in the SUPERKIDS program and how he loves to fish. It's a little sad because Frits never catches any fish. The fish usually flip flop away from him. With this letterbook the children learned about sentences. They learned that we must always start a sentence with a capital letter and end with a period. A period at the end of a sentence tells the reader that the sentence is complete. We also learned about question arks. When there is a question mark at the end of the sentence it indicates an asking sentence. The children enjoyed learning about end marks and can t wait to use them more in their own writing.

7 Erev Shabbos Parashas Vayechi, 5775 Dear Parents, The Brachos (blessings) that Yaakov Avinu bestowed upon his sons, as discussed in this week s Parsha, also include some significant criticism for their temperaments and character makeup. Chazal point out that Yaakov Avinu waited to critique his sons until he was on his deathbed out of fear that they would be so put off by the criticism, that had he spoken to them earlier in his life they might have left him altogether. Apparently, that would not be the case at the very end of his life. How frightening a thought! Is it not the parent s responsibility to criticize their children? If the greatest people ever the twelve sons of Yaakov couldn t handle criticism appropriately, how can we say anything negative to our children?! And if we can t criticize, how will our children ever learn to do what s right? The answer to this important dilemma can be stated simply that there is a world of difference between criticizing a person s essence, and guiding someone to the proper behavior and values. Yaakov was pointing out flaws in his sons essential character, improper Midos that require a lifetime of work to correct. If someone is not on the proper Madreiga (level) to accept the challenge, he could be turned off altogether. Our role as parents is not to pass judgment on our children s character, and certainly not to share that assessment with them. We are to guide them. When your child does something inappropriate, even if it s to act dishonestly, or to use foul language, the appropriate response needs to be directed towards the behavior. Never say you re a bad boy which is judging his essence and generalizing one action to pass judgment over who he is. Rather say that was a bad thing you did. We guide behavior and steer it towards a more appropriate way of acting whether our child s age is seventeen months or seventeen years. To a child who drops and spills things frequently, never say you re so clumsy but do point out the need to focus on what you are doing, and how to hold things better. You may withhold the right to pour or hold certain items, until the child can show more responsibility in handling it. When we label children for misbehaving, they believe what we say. A great child psychologist, the late Dr. Haim Ginott put it well; Labeling is Disabling. Children will behave in a way that proves us right which is the exact opposite of our intention. If we recognize the tremendous power we have over our children, especially in how we shape their attitudes, perceptions and feelings of self-worth, we ll realize how essential it is to reformulate our speech patterns and always talk about what they do, not who they are. The only time we should address the totality of our children, is to let them know how precious they are and how much we love them for who they are. Have a label-free Shabbos! Rabbi Kalman Baumann Principal

8 WEeKLY WRAP-UP