Parshas Bamidbar Candlelighting: 8:05 PM Shomrai Nursery May 26, 2017 2 Sivan 5777 Havdalah: 9:12 PM Weekly Glimpse Kitat Simcha s End of Year Celebration We had a wonderful time at our end of year celebration on Wednesday! It was nice to see the children working alongside their parents decorating our homemade Tzedaka boxes. The students sang some of their favorite davening songs, enjoyed the pumpkin muffins we had prepared the day before in honor of the upcoming Rosh Chodesh Sivan, and finally, we said farewell to our butterflies. While the children were super excited to release them from their habitat, they were also was a little sad to see them go. All six butterflies flew away safely. It was special to share this unique experience with our parents. Thank you for joining us! Daily thoughts, expressions, interests, communications, explorations, collaborations, adventures, research and discoveries, as experienced by students at Shomrai Nursery 2017 YISE SHOMRAI NURSERY
Kitat Simcha Says Goodbye to the Butterflies During our morning meeting we challenged the children to imagine they were a butterfly and just set free. Where would you fly? Benjamin: I would fly home. Avigail: I have fake wings, I have a butterfly in my house. Effie: I would fly to Toys R'Us, also to my house. Goldie, Shai, and Shira: To the park. Dalia and Tehilla would fly to their homes. Kivi: I would fly to the park. Chana Fraydel: Grandma and Grandpa. David: I will go to Wheaton park to watch the trucks. On Thursday morning we offered the children the opportunity to write and draw pictures with mini 'grown up' pens. "I'm writing Effie's name," Goldie announced. "I know my letters." Effie spelled out his name for Goldie: "E-F-F-I-E." He watched and made sure she was spelling it correctly. "Yeah, that's my name!" he assured her. "Let's write Kivi's name," suggested Goldie. Effie rushed over to Kivi's cubby and checked the spelling. "K-I-V-I," he shouted across to Goldie. "I'm making a person, it's Morah Jessica," Kivi proclaimed. Benjamin drew a big circle, and then many lines coming out from the bottom. He added two small circles as eyes, more lines on top for hair, and a curved line for a mouth. "It's you" he shared when the Morah asked who he was drawing. Shira practiced writing with the mini pens. She held one up and announced "this one orange." Shai drew a rainbow, moving the pen back and forth to make the arch. Wishing everyone a wonderful Shabbos and a good Yom Tov! Morah Yocheved and Morah Jessica Calendar Reminders 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 *2017-2018 Calendar is available online*
A Sefer Torah in Kitat Gefen On Wednesday, the children in Kitat Gefen were invited to look at a children s Sefer Torah. They took off its cover, unrolled and rolled it, and looked at the paper and letters. "What do you think is inside the cover?" asked the morah. "I don't know," said Yosef. "Let's open it," said Noah. "What is it?" "Roller pin!" said Mirele. "A Torah," said Tamar. "What do you see inside?" "Paper," answered Noah "Numbers," said Simon. "Letters," said Tamar. "They look different because it's Hebrew letters." "Let's roll it up," said Simon. "We got the Torah from Hashem!" said Dovid excitedly. The morah explained that Hashem wrote rules in the Torah. Then we read Ten Good Rules by Susan Remick Topek and came up with a list of our own class rules. Shabbat Shalom & Chag Sameach, Morah Belana and Morah Chaya Sara
Lag B omer Carnival 2017 Wrap Up! A great time was had by all this past Sunday at Shomrai Nursery s annual Lag B omer Carnival. Thank you for coming out! Our carnival coordinator, Teanna Mainzer, spearheaded this program and coordinated every detail with her team of staff, parents and youth volunteers from beginning to end. Our annual carnival and raffle raised over $1000 toward our playground fundraising. It s already been put to use by replacing the top layer of the sandbox with new stained wood. Thank you to Emily Friedman and Teanna Mainzer for organizing the raffle and collecting the prizes. Lastly, we can t have a carnival without cotton candy and sno cones. Thank yo to the Mond Family for allowing us to use their machines. Raffle Winners: Basya Katz Wheaton Essentials Carol Lazar A Great Summer at Camp Shomrai Judith A. Manelis Baby Gear Racheli Simon Kemp Mill Kosher Rivkah C. Manes Beautiful Photography Plant a Seed & Paint a Frame STREAM Room - Solo Cup and Ramp Challenges
Flowers for Shavuot in Kitat Tamar The holiday of Shavuot is around the corner and the children in Kitat Tamar are excited. The class learned that it is customary to decorate the Shul with flowers and greenery in honor of the Shavuot. During one mid-morning meeting last week, we discussed Shavuot and how the class wanted to prepare for the holiday. Let s make challah, Rivka suggested. Let s make flowers, Naomi proposed to the class. The class agreed that those were good ideas. On Monday afternoon the class discussed how they would craft their flowers and what materials they could use. We could use green pipe cleaners to make the stems, Morgan declared. I think we should use pompoms, Mimi said thoughtfully. We need sticks, Gavi thought. We could use tissue paper, Dina added. When we concluded the meeting the class decided to go downstairs to the art closet to select assorted materials to use in this endeavor. The class worked from Tuesday through Thursday to craft flowers and flower pots, and then arrange the flowers in their flower pots. On Thursday afternoon the children were excited when we displayed their beautiful creations on the exploration table. The Morah wanted to take the children to play outdoors but they insisted that they wanted to look at their creations and show one another. The children assembled excitedly and were eager to share how they created their flowers. I took a stick and I took some pretend leaves and I took a button and I glued it on, Serena described. I got green buttons and a stick, Ami S. told the class. I forgot how I did it, Mimi said, before remembering. Oh yes, I glued paper and I glued a circle. The petals, I took another little circle and then glued pompoms on top of it. For the sunflower I took petals and I glued them on. I cut out tissue paper and then I put tape so it stuck on then I taped a button, Avi showed his friends. Please have your children explain how they created the flowers and flower pots. The other activity that the children enjoyed in anticipation for Shavuot was to churn butter. We plan to spread the butter on the challah that we baked on Thursday. Shabbat Shalom and Chag Shavuot Sameach, Morot Lisa & Devorah Sarah
Kitat Shalom Releases their Butterflies As our students walked into our class, many of them came to see how our butterfly guests were doing. "They are bigger now. They can flap their wings good," said Eliana. "They want to flap away but they can't," observed Tzippy. "They are trying to flap their wings. It can't because they are wet," said Moshe. "They are trying to fly but their wings are wet," Natan agreed. "Look, he is eating the watermelon," said Yaakov. "Their mouth is like an elephant nose," observed Esti F., who noticed an elongated proboscis that the butterfly was using to eat the fruit. "They live outside," Leba commented. "And they eat watermelon and sugar," added Shalom. During snack time Leba suggested that we share our apples with the butterflies. We placed a slice into the habitat. Soon the butterflies were eating the apples along with sugar water and watermelon. During our meeting time we explained to our students that we would be releasing our butterflies from the habitat into our garden. We wanted to do that before the rain came. "I hope the butterflies will find their mommy," said Moshe. "I hope the butterflies will be able to fly out there," said Chana. "Let's sing Shalom Chaveirim," suggested Daniel. When we went outside we placed the habitat in our garden, opened the door, and waited for the butterflies to fly away. Surprisingly, the butterflies were flying around the habitat and enjoying the fruit. "Why are they not flying?" wondered Michal. "Shoo fly, shoo fly," Yaakov ordered. "Fly out butterfly!" commanded Esti S. Daniel began to sing Goodbye my friends, goodbye my friends... and Daniel's friends joined him in the song. All of a sudden one butterfly flew out of the cage to the joyous sound of surprise and wonder of our students. However, the other three butterflies wouldn't budge. "Look! There is a bird, maybe they are scared of the bird?" suggested Moshe, pointing to a bird sitting on the roof of the shul. "Yeah, the bird is looking for the butterfly. They don't want to be eaten by a bird," Chana agreed. "Maybe they don't know that they can fly," suggested Esti S. The Morahs helped the rest of the butterflies out of the habitat. The children had the chance to see our winged friends up-close and say their goodbyes before the butterflies flew up into the sky. This concluded our butterfly experience. We hope that this multi-week wondrous lesson will continue to inspire and fascinate your children. With best regards, Kitat Shalom Morot
The Torah is Special in Kitat Rimon In getting ready for Shavuot and our Pre-K siyum, Kitat Rimon has been exploring our connection to the Torah. This week we created pages for our personal siddurim about the Torah and why it is special. Here are some of our thoughts: The Torah is so special because Ahuva: Hashem gave the Torah to Moshe and Moshe gave it to us. Simcha: We have the Torah and people celebrate having it. Sheva: It gives us Mitzvos and it makes you listen to your Abba. Tzvi: We got it from Hashem. Suri: We love it. Hashem gave it to us. Akiva: It has the Mitzvos in it. Lilly: Hashem gave it to the Jewish people. Shulamis: Hashem gave it to us as a present. Shmuel Reuven: It tells you the Mitzvot. Yakov Gedaliah: We got it from Hashem. Rahm: Hashem gave us the Torah. Below are samples of artwork we created for our siddurim. Shabbat Shalom & Chag Sameach, Morah Naomi & Morah Yvette Thank you to our Shabbat Party Sponsors Eliana Goodman & Family Yosef Manheim & Family Benjamin Ben-Shoushan & Family Shulamis Turin & Family Miriam Bracha Mervis & Family Talya Kushnier & Family