Shomrai Nursery. A Sense of Belonging

Transcription

1 Parshas Emor Candlelighting: 7:53 PM Havdalah: 8:58 PM Shomrai Nursery May 12, Iyar 5777 Weekly Glimpse A Sense of Belonging At the end of this week s parsha, a fight breaks out in the camp. It seemed to be about land, but for one party it was more significant. We learn the story of the unique Jew: born to a Jewish mother and an Egyptian father. He leaves Egypt, experiences all the miracles of the desert and wants to set up his tent amongst the tribe of Dan, the land of his mother. Land was at a premium and a fight broke out whether he was allowed to do so. The case comes before Moshe and Moshe rules that although Jewish status comes from the mother, tribal status follows the father. Because his father was not from the tribe of Dan, he was not entitled to set up his tent in Dan s land. The man leaves the court and curses G-d. One could ask, He curses G-d, an act punishable by death, simply because he lost a a court case for a piece of land? Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz explains he lost much more than a piece of land: he lost his place of belonging, he had no home and no place to turn. A person who doesn t have a home can fall to the greatest of depths in the shortest of times. We learn the importance of having a sense of belonging and space. What happens to children who don t feel they belong? We see incidents of bullying and victims of bullies. Bullies are often lacking in confidence and try to establish it, and often those who are bullied don't have the confidence to stand up for themselves. This is a message to parents and educators of unconditional love. A child should have a deep knowing that they belong and have a place, no matter what. Each classroom is a community and has an identity. Each member of the community, children or adult, matters. When a child is sick or absent, we express our concern by calling and hope for their return. Every child has their own space: a cubby or hook with their name and picture. Each classroom has a class picture identifying the children and morot by name and picture. In some classes, there are designated places to sit for meeting times, snack and lunch. Children have their placemats or trays for snack. Within in the classroom, there may be rotating jobs to water the plants, turn off the lights, take out the placemats, or set up for snack. Each child matters and it makes a difference when they are there and when they are not there. Daily thoughts, expressions, interests, communications, explorations, collaborations, adventures, research and discoveries, as experienced by students at Shomrai Nursery 2017 YISE SHOMRAI NURSERY

2 Mother s Day Happy Day in Kitat Tamar Preparations for the upcoming Mother s Day kept Kitat Tamar busy this week. We began with an inquiry to the children. What makes your mom s special to you? the Morah asked the class one afternoon during a meeting. She gives me food, Ami S. suggested. I like cooking with her, Avi, Mimi and Dina shared. She snuggles with me, Avi, Gavi and Morgan told the class. I love her so much and she loves me. She always sings me a lullaby before I go to bed and she gives me a kiss, Naomi shared. I love hugging her, Serena volunteered. I like baking cupcakes with her, Chaim Yitzy said. I like to play with her, Mimi enthused. I like reading with her, Eliana said. I like coloring with her, Rivka shared with us. She cooks for us, Ami L. informed the class. I like baking challah with her, Talya said. The next step was to make a unique gift for the Mommies and Imas. Our topic of investigation led us to the perfect opportunity to culminate our interest of books and book making with Mother s Day. The children were thrilled to create a unique gift for a Mother s Day present, and decided to create homemade paper to use to make their mothers a card. On Wednesday we proceeded to make our last batch of homemade paper. I want to make a red paper, Ami L. requested during center time. That is my mom s favorite color. I want to use all the colors of glitter, Naomi decided. I want to make a special color, Dina considered as she chose her color. I don t know what my mom s favorite color is, Gavi contemplated. I want to make a white paper, he decided. I want to make dark blue for my Ima, Talya said excitedly. The children lovingly made their paper, and then asked to write a class poem in honor of Mother s Day. On Thursday the children wrote messages and illustrated their cards and envelopes. We are also sending home a cookbook with the actual recipes that we used to cook and bake throughout the school year. We hope that you will love testing these recipes with your children. Shabbat Shalom and Happy Mother s Day!

3 The Value of Self Portraits In Pre-K we have been creating self portraits using a variety of media since the beginning of the school year. Each month we have examined ourselves in mirrors and made representations of ourselves through drawing, painting and loose parts. We begin by reviewing parts of the body using the beloved Mat-Man. Then the new media is introduced. Over the course of the year we have drawn ourselves with pencils and crayons, created leaf man representations using natural materials, used window markers to draw our reflections on mirrors, used Wikki-Stixx to craft our forms, dressed ourselves in costume on black and white images, and our most recently constructed representations of ourselves using a variety of loose parts on canvas. We ve observed the children s growth and development over time. As we witnessed the progression of the children's self-portraits during the school year, the children have made great advancement in their ability to form and draw increasingly accurate and nuanced portraits. The children's self portraits make visible how much the children have grown and developed over the year. The portraits remind all of us of how capable these students are: the growth in fine motor skills, increased concentration on a challenging task, the ability to carefully observe and depict specific shapes,. Additionally, the portraits also offered us a window into children's self concept. The use of self portraiture over time offers us a developmental perspective on each child's unique maturation process. We will display the children s self portraits at the Pre-K siyyum. We can t wait for you to see their work!

4 Tinkering in Kitat Shalom Wednesday, when our students walked into our class, they found a printer on the table. Natan and Leba were the first to approach it. The students began joyfully but cautiously opening and closing the lid and pushing some buttons with expectations that something would occur. "A video, explained Leba. "A flash, said Natan as he pushed the buttons. "What is going on?" wondered Natan, noticing that nothing was happening. "What are we doing here?" asked Eliana as she entered the classroom. "What is this?" asked Esti F. "Is there something moving?" she wondered. "It said mail man, said Natan authoritatively to the girls, pointing to the space that he imagined was a screen. As Shalom entered the scene he explained: "Nothing is coming out. Paper is supposed to come out of there because it's a printer. One of the students began to push the lid down as another was trying to open it. Don't do that, it's going to break!" Eliana warned her friends. "Where is the paper?" Shalom continued to wonder out loud. Esti F. ran over to the paper tray to get a piece of paper for her co-explorers. Natan took the paper and tried to feed it into the printer. No turn it! We need to turn it the other way, suggested Eliana. "It's supposed to be like this, said Chana. "I don't have a printer like this at home, said Natan. "I have a printer like this at home, said Chana. "It's not going! Nothing is happening, said Esti F., expecting the paper to move into the printer. "Maybe it could go this way, said Eliana. "It is, it has to go all the way, said Chana, clearly knowing what to do. "OK, push it but don't crumble it!" said Eliana. "It's not working, we have to plug it in, said Esti F. "No we have to push it harder, protested Chana. "Then we have to charge it, continued Esti F. pointing to the back of the printer. "Let's charge it! Look there is a purple hole, said Eliana inspecting the back of the machine. "Don't touch it!" warned Natan nervously. Esti S. entered the play with authority. "We need to get the paper out!" she exclaimed. "Do we still need to charge it?" wondered Esti S. "Wake up computer, Eliana spoke to the printer. "It's not working! I want to take it apart with a screw driver!" said Natan.

5 Kitat Shalom Continued Shalom brought some cut up pieces of paper from our cutting station and tried to feed it into the printer. "We need to make a plan. Don't put away the paper. I need to test it, said Eliana to her friends who were getting screwdrivers ready to do some unscrewing. Oh! I know this is a Philips screw driver, said Seth. "Let's break it, said Shalom to his friends. "Screwdriver!" exclaimed Eliana. As the students began to attempt to unscrew the few visible screws the screws would not budge. "Oh man! It's not going!" said Seth. "Could you please pass me those pliers?" Michal asked Eliana across the table. "Do you want to trade your screwdriver for my pliers?" asked Eliana. Michal nodded and the exchange took place amicably. Some of the students began banging their tools on the printer in frustration. "I don't think it's a good idea to cut it, warned Chana. "I got the soft stuff off, announced Shalom showing the soft round pads to his friends. Thursday, students continued their exploration and quickly got to work deconstructing the machine by prying parts of the printer open and collecting the parts in a bin. The sustained and involved conversation shared here demonstrates how much our students have grown during this year. Listening to the conversational threads of collaboration, concepts, hypothesis, and problem solving expressed by the children, we appreciate more deeply their competence. Conversations like this reveal how children construct knowledge as they engage in self-directed inquiry that is purposefully facilitated by teachers. We look forward to more STREAM tinkering experiences in our class. With best regards, Kitat Shalom Morot Calendar Reminders Wed, May 17 - Mom s Night Out at 8PM Sun, May 21 - Lag B Omer Carnival 10-12PM & Raffle Drawing ( Wed, May 25 - Kitat Simcha s End of Year Celebration 9:15am Mon, May 29 - Memorial Day - No School Tue - Thur, May 30 Jun 1- Erev / Shavuot - No School Wed, Jun 7 - Kitat Gefen End of Year Celebration 9:15am Wed, Jun 7 - Kitat Shalom End of Year Celebration 10:15am Wed, Jun 14 - Last full day of school Thu, Jun 15 - Pre K Graduation 9:15am (Arcola) Thur, Jun 15-12PM Dismissal (2s & 3s) Mon, Jun 26 - First day of camp Tue, Aug 29 - Orientation Wed, Aug 30 - First day of school * Calendar is available online* Annual YISE Shomrai Nursery Raffle Great prizes including free camp, Uppa Baby stroller, Yehudis Goldfarb Photography and More!! Enter online at Calling all volunteers! We need parents for set up (9:15-10), shift 1 (10-11), shift 2 (11-12) and clean up (12-12:45). If you are available to help with the carnival, please Teanna Mainzer at brzyc@yahoo.com.

6 Kitat Gefen Paints Har Sinai As the children began to learn about Shavuot, they had so much fun exploring the texture of paint with their feet. Last week the children painted Har Sinai by mixing all the primary colors together. Today they made footprints going up the mountain. The children chose what color they wanted their foot painted by the Morah and then pressed their foot on the mountain! Some of the children chose not to participate in his activity while some didn't want to stop. "What holiday is coming up? Sha... Vu..." prompted the Morah. "Os" said Shayna "And what present did Hashem give us" asked the morah as she sang the song. "Torah!" The children answered in unison. "Who brought down the Torah?" "Moshe," answered Tamar. Morot Belana and Chaya Sara Pre K Parsha Questions Ami S:Why is everything in the Parsha with number Seven? All: Why number seven? Eliana: Why is everything number seven except for Chanukah? Chaim Yitzy: Why does Sukkot come after Yom Kippur? Chaim Yitzy: Why can t an animal have a mum? Suri: Why did Moshe have to tell the rules? Why didn t Hashem tell them Himself? Shayna: Why is Yom Tov like Shabbos? Why can t we do muktza things? Elisheva: Why on Chol Hamoed you could use muktza stuff and not on Yom Tov? Thank you to our Shabbat Party Sponsors Tehilla Scher & Family Jacob Mainzer & Family Morgan Walter & Family Esti Feldman & Family Shalom Wohl & Family Simcha Mizel & Family

7 YISE Shomrai Nursery PTA Presents Mom s Night Out AMAZING SALADS with Shushy Turin Join us for an evening out with friends and a cooking demo of salads with Shushy Turin! Shushy will be demonstrating some new salad ideas using a few simple ingredients that will transform the taste of your food. She will make the average salad quite special, with food combinations that you have never thought about. May 17 at 8:00 PM At the home of Bayla Goodman Monticello Ave $18 Suggested Donation ($10 entry at the door) Open to women in the community

8 Drilling and Crafting in Kitat Simcha This week we began working on a special craft to give our Mommies/Imas as a Mother's Day gift. The children picked out some wooden chips from the playground and brought them into our "studio." We set up various jars filled with paint the students had mixed for a previous project. We tried dipping the pieces of mulch into the jars but some of the wooden pieces did not fit. We ended up pulling out our paint brushes to finish the job. On Thursday morning, when the paint had dried, we were ready to decorate! The morot put out various decorative washi tapes as well as pipe cleaners and let the children choose their colors and personalize their gifts. The Morah brought in a hand drill to make a hole in each stick. We were designing key chains for our mommies and needed a pipe cleaner to fit through. Some children tried out the hand drill. David took the drill and winded the gear, pushing the drill bit into a large piece of wood. "It's a drill!" David exclaimed as he stabilized the gadget. "I'm trying to make a shape," he explained. David gave Effie a turn with the drill, making sure to pass it carefully. Effie began doing the same thing as David, since he had been watching carefully. "I'm making a circle," Effie announced. "I made a hole, look!" Kivi was the next one up. He was extremely focused on the task at hand. Benjamin watched beside Kivi. "It's almost touching the table," Benjamin warned. He was noticing how deeply the drill was sinking into the piece of wood. He put his head under the table to see if a hole had been made. It was not as deep as he had first feared. Later, we encouraged the children to tell us something nice their Mommy or Ima does for them: Goldie: Dinner. Kivi: Reads to me. Effie: She gives me hugs or kisses before early care. David: Mommy reads me books. When I'm going to sleep she gets me snuggles. Dalia: She gives me food. Avigail: She sings me a lullaby when I go to sleep. Tehilla: She gives me dinner. My mommy laughs with me when I do something silly. Benjamin: I like when my mommy plays with toys with me. Have a Good Shabbos! Morah Yocheved and Morah Jessica

9 YISE Shomrai Nursery invites you to a LAG B'OMER CARNIVAL Sunday, May 21 10:00AM-12:00PM Shomrai Nursery 813 University Blvd West Admission: $5 child under 12 $15 family max Arts n' Crafts Moon Bounce Face Painting STEM Activities Raffle Drawing...and more! Cotton Candy Watermelon Waterslide! Please park in rear of church parking lot