Peek Through Our Window
A glimpse into our week at YLS
December 11, 2015
29 Kislev 5776
Dear Parents,
Shabbat Shalom,
Morah Chana, Morah Rachael and Morah Butsie
Thank You!
Thank you parents for the gifts and yummy treats. It made our Chanukah so special!
Chanukah Sameach,
The Morot, Mrs. Troodler, and Mrs. Twersky
Needed: Cardboard tubes and metals cans with a lid!
If you have any cardboard tubes-any size, and/or coffee cans or metal cans with lids please send them in with your child on Monday. Thank you!
Explored
We worked with the morot to explore our portfolios this week. We saw how much we have grown as learners over the year. We also reflected on what was easy for us and what was challenging. Many of us found that the activities that were challenging were also the most enjoyable! After looking at the portfolios, we thought of personal goals.
We explored the themes we had studied while learning Sefer Bereishit. In planning for our siyum, we created and broke into three committees: the dvar Torah committee, the refreshments committee, and the costumes and decorations committee. The dvar Torah committee thought about all of the parshiyot to find common themes throughout that could provide a starting point for a dvar Torah. The refreshments committee thought of foods that are discussed in the Sefer as well as foods we could make that are related to what we’ve learned. The costume committee made a list of the people featured in the Sefer and drew costume designs.
Discovered
We discovered that baby Allie, Morah Sharona’s daughter, has grown! We compared photographs of Allie from when she was first born to more recent pictures. We then got to meet her virtually! We caught up with Morah Sharona and the baby. We were excited to tell her all about our new builder boards and to inform her that we have been celebrating Chanukah!
We discovered that we can use oil for many different things. While thinking about how angry and sad the Jewish people must have felt when they saw there was only a little bit of oil in the Beit HaMikdash, we found we could make calming oil and water toys using oil. While making them, we also discovered the oil and water do not mix, and that food coloring doesn’t mix with oil, either!
- It’s not so easy to make oil! After reviewing the story of Chanukah with us, Rabbi Strasberg from Chabad led us through the process of making oil from olives. We learned that olives contain a pit, juice, fruit, and oil, and that, today, we use a press and a special machine to separate the oil from the other parts. We also learned about the machines that people used to make oil in the days of the Maccabees. We finished by using the oil we made to light a chanukiah!
Created
Because we put our chanukiot in our windows for all to see, we decided we would also make Chanukah decorations for our windows. We used tissue paper and wax paper to make transparent designs and geometric shapes.
- We used candles to create a picture. We couldn’t see what we drew until we painted over it with water colors. The pictures were revealed because the water in the watercolors don’t mix with the wax of the candles.
Celebrated
We celebrated Chanukah all week long! Morah Chana led us in making delicious sufganiyot. She also compiled a video of our Chanukah lessons, and we watched it as a class. It was a lot of fun seeing ourselves on video! Later in the week, we made latkes and cookies for Chanukah. The peelings, grating, and chopping of potatoes was a great way to work our fine motor skills! We also played dreidel all week long and incorporated it into our math lessons by counting our earnings as we played. We used mathematical reasoning to figure out how many candles we would need for all of Chanukah. We made up our own version of the song “Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel.” Click here for the lyrics.
Wondered
What makes Chanukah different from the other chaggim we’ve studied? First, we created a timeline of all of the Chagim that we’ve studied. We then reviewed the chagim by sorting pictures that could remind us of the things we have studied. We then looked for common ways that we celebrate the chaggim and common themes that we discuss. We also discussed the origins of the Chanukah story vs. the rest of the Chagim.
What makes us proud to be Jewish? We remembered that, under Antiochus’ rule, the Jewish people had to practice Judaism in secret. We imagined what it would be like to study Torah and daven while fearing that we would be discovered by Antiochus’ army. We then imagined what it looks like to study Torah and daven proudly and openly, as we can today. We thought about how we show that we are proud to be Jewish. We showed that we are proud to be Jewish by lighting our chanukiah outside for all to see.
- We wondered why Yosef pretended not to know his brothers when they came down to Egypt. We discussed how the feeling Yosef must have felt when he saw his brothers for the first time after so many years.
Ivrit at YLS
Dear Parents,
This week in Ivrit we celebrated Chanukah!
On Monday, after spending time before Chanukah discussing who in our families likes sufganiyot and who likes latkes, and learning the recipe for sufganiyot, it was finally time to make sufganiyot on our own. The children really enjoyed preparing the dough, filling it with jelly and finally eating the finished sufganiyot! On Tuesday, we played Chanukah bingo. I asked questions about Chanukah in Ivrit and the children marked off the correct picture on their bingo board. Afterwards, we watched the video that features your children learning about Chanukah in school. The children loved seeing themselves on the big screen and enjoyed singing along with the video! On Wednesday, we worked in stations. Each station was a designated color and the children filled out their Chanukah related work with that color marker. This was an introduction for us to start learning about colors in Ivrit. On Thursday we had a relay race where we paired up and each team played had a piece on a Chanukah board game that I made. If they landed on certain spaces on the board they had to do something related to Chanukah. For example: A space may say to spin the dreidel and then sing “Sivivon Sof Sof Sof” very fast until the dreidel fell. Each group wore a crown with a candle of the same color.
This week we reviewed all our songs and sentences from the previous weeks.
You can find our Ivrit Chanukah video below.
Chanukah Sameach,
Morah Chana