Sequencing- Rainbow- Wonder Time

Pre-K friends learn about sequence which is a particular order in which related events, movements, colors or things follows each other.
WONDER TIME! WONDER TIME!
What makes the colors of a rainbow? 
It takes two things to make a rainbow- sunlight and raindrops. Can it be one without other? No. 
Sunlight is made up of seven colors that appears in sequence! Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. When the sun shines through the raindrops in just the right way, we see beautiful colors against the clouds.  
To remember sequence of the rainbow colors, remember the name -ROY G BIV.
R-Red, O-Orange, Y-Yellow, G-Green, B-Blue,I-Indigo and V-Violet

Cup Cake and Cake Party

Once again our Reward Jar was full!

It was the time to celebrate this achievement!

Friends pulled an piece of paper with a written party idea on it. What a surprise! It was Emy's idea.

Shimon, Aaron, and Shlomo prepared cup cake batter for all friends. Before they did so, they asked everyone what kind cupcake everyone wants. The data showed that 11 friends wanted chocolate cup cakes, but 1 friend wanted vanilla. Not one cupcake was alike. Some friends put strawberries inside, some blueberries, some friends put apples inside, and some put cookies.  When cupcakes were baked, friends decorated them with different icing and sprinkles.

Thank you Emy for a delicious idea!

Our World- Land

On the third day of creation Hashem created the land.  We learned that the biggest parts of land are called continents. There are seven continents on the Earth- North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Antarctica.
Some land is flat. Land that is flat is called a plain. The land that is hilly and high is called a mountain. Land that is surrounded by water is called an island. People use land in different ways. They build houses on land, grow plants on land and travel on land.

Sense of Smelling- Wonder Time

This week Dr. Zhanna taught us about sense of smell. This smell begins with our noses. All kinds of smells are floating in the air around us. When we take a breath of air, we take in lots of smells. The air carrying the smells goes into our nose. It moves deep inside our head and into our nasal cavity. There are millions of tiny little hairs inside our nasal cavity. These special hairs “catch” the floating smells. The hairs send message right to our brain that tells us what the smells are. Dr. Zhanna told us that some smells are good, some are bad, and some smells are dangerous.  The smell of flowers or cupcake is a good smell.  A scared skunk gives off a very bad smell. Food that is rotten smells bad. The brain gets the message and tells us not to eat it. Some smells are very strong. The smell of onion can make someone cry. The smell of smoke warns us of danger. 

Like other senses, sense of smell helps us to learn about the world and keeps us safe.
Wonder Time! Wonder Time!

Elephants have such long noses- trunks. How do elephants use their trunks?
Elephants use their trunks to smell even give and to push and pull. They pick up food and other small things with their trunks. they can also warn other elephants of danger by trumpeting through their trunks.  Elephants even give themselves baths with their trunks by sucking up water and spraying it over their heads.

Mazel Tov, Zaylin!

Mazel Tov to our friend Zaylin

who turned 5 years old!!!

Our friends wished Zaylin to learn Torah and

do lots of mitzvahs!

Zaylin's Mom wished Zaylin to be

healthy and happy!

Pre-K friends and Morahs want to thank Zaylin's parents for all the Birthday bags and presents! May you continue to have only simcha from Zaylin and baby Madeline.   

Pre-K Health and Fitness Month

Do you know how to stay healthy?

1. Follow basic safety tips 

Chava Evalyn's dad is a pharmacist. He visited our class and told us not only about an importance of medicine taking when one is sick but also about the danger of taking medicine  - pills or vitamins- without an adult supervision. We learned that children should never ever take medicine on their own. If a bottle of peels has been found friends should tell an adult to put it away.  

2. Eat and drink healthy! 

We visited the Juice Bar.

What can be better than a cup of fresh squeezed juice that is delicious and full of vitamins.  

3. Exercises every day!

Rain Walk

When it rains, everything gets wet. Thanks to our moms and dad, we try our best to keep dry in the rain by wearing a waterproof coat, rubber boots, and putting up an umbrella.

Being in the rain, we could observe two steps of water cycle: condensation in form of clouds and precipitation in form of light rain. Everything starts with sun that shines on water and Earth making it warm. The water warms up and turned into invisible vapor raises into the air. It is very cold up in the sky. When water vapor cools, it stick together forming water droplets. When they are heavy enough, the water droplets fall back to Earth as precipitation in form of rain, snow or hail.

We have noticed that it rained for few days already. Is it ever too much rain? Heavy rain can sometimes cause flood. It happens in places which are very close to water. The rain can make rivers overflow. Water rushes onto the land and can cause o lot of damage.
Is it ever too little of rain? In some parts of our world, it doesn't rain for months. We learned that there is a special brocha for the rain. We ask Hashem to send enough rain on the land of Israel. What does mean enough? Not too little, not too much.



Rainbow

Tasting

If we put food in our mouth how do we know what it is. How do we know if it is sweat or salty, sour or bitter? How our body gets information? The answer is through the sense of taste that begins with you tongue. Friends looking at each other tongues noticed little bumps on their tongues. Morah said that these bumps called taste buds.When we eat something the taste buds tell brain what you are tasting. Then the brain tells us if we like or not what we are eating or drinking.
In the class we decided to gather information about our most and least favorite tastes. The collected data showed, the most favorite taste is sweat, the least favorite is bitter. Everyone agrees that without different tastes the food would be not such enjoyment.
What mitzvah we can do using the sense of taste? Tasting Shabbos challah, an apple in honey, or grape juice!

Lag Beomer

This Sunday is the holiday of Lag Beomer. Lag Beomer is the celebration of two things: 1) The stopping of an epidemic that affected 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva (about 2,000 years ago.) 2) The yartzeit (day of passing) of a great Jewish Rabbi, (author of the Zohar- the original book of Kabbala.)

In our class we had a "crash course"in some Jewish history and learned some of the background of the above events.

Along time ago there was a shepherd boy named Akiva. He watched his sheep all day and night and didn’t ever go to school. When Akiva got older he  married Rachel. Rachel told Rabbi Akiva that he should go to school and learn Torah. Rabbi Akiva said, “I’m 40 years old! And I don’t even know the Alef Bais! I can’t go to school! Rachel told him to try so R’ Akiva went to school with all the little children. Rabbi Akiva tried his best  and learned a lot, he went to a higher grade and higher grade until he himself became a great Rabbi with 24,000 students!

Song:

Many years ago, a small shepherd boy, watched the sheep all day.

Akiva didn’t even learn the Alef Bais, which all of us can say.

Rachel his smart wife, gave him good advice and this is what she said,

“It’s never too late to start learning Torah, if you try your best.”

R’ Akiva learned all day and night. A Tzaddik and Rebbe he became.

He had many students who all learned Torah and we can do the same.

Rabbi Akiva taught his students that a huge principle in the whole Torah is loving your friend like you love yourself. His students tried to love their friends like themselves. They made the mistake of thinking that it meant that their friends have to follow their own ideas because their ideas are correct. This was not so kind because it’s ok to have different ideas. They started fighting with each other because they wanted everyone to do things their way.

There was a terrible epidemic that affected almost all of Rabbi Akiva's students. Right after Pesach, they all started to get sick. Everyone was so sad. But on Lag Beomer the students stopped getting sick!

Lag Beomer became a day of celebration. It is also a day to emphasize the teaching of Rabbi Akiva, to love you friends, like you love yourself, "Váhavta Leraiacha Kamocha."

We spoke about how we can have practice "Váhavta Leraiacha Kamocha," (loving your friend like you love yourself." Here are some of our ideas:

Shlomo: I can share my toys with Shimon.
Jacklyn: I share my toys with Lauren.
Zaylin: I can share a Torah with Emy.
Alan: I share my police car with Ariella.
Emy: I try to share my toys. But sometimes I am shy.
Yonni: I share my train with Shimon.
Evalyn: I listen to Yonni.
Nosson: I give Tzedaka to poor people.
Shimon: I share my toy train track with Yonni.
Aharon: I share my toys with Shlomo.
Ariel: I share my toys with my friends.

Rabbi Akiva had five students who did not get sick. One of them was Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. R’ Shimon lived in a very hard time for the Jews. The Romans did not let the Jewish people learn Torah.  But the Jews would not stop learning Torah! They would go to the fields with Torahs and Bows and Arrows and if the Romans would come they would hide their Torahs and pretend to be practicing their archery. (For this reason it is a custom to play with bows and arrows on Lag Beomer.)

Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai heard that the Romans knew he was learning Torah and they wanted to stop him! He and his son had to run away and hide in a cave so they wouldn’t find him!

R’ Shimon and his son R’ Elazar lived in a cave for thirteen years! They drank from a stream of water near the cave and they ate Carob from a Carob tree nearby.  

Song:

Lets remember Bar Yochai

For thirteen years in a cave,

He learned Torah with his son.

Chorus: Bar Yochai, Bar Yochai, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai

Bar Yochai, Bar Yochai, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai

Lag Beomer is celebrated by going out to fields or parks as well as shooting bows and arrows. It is also a custom for some to light bonfires to commemorate the day of passing of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. (This is done because the book he wrote called the Zohar, means light, his teachings lit up the Torah and revealed some of the secrets of the Torah.) 

Lag Beomer is also a time to strengthen our love for our fellow Jew. This is why we have a parade, where Jewish people come from all over in unity to celebrate together. (Looking forward to seeing all of you there! :)

For Your Information

Dear Parents,
we would like to bring to your attention the schedule of Pre-K future events.
As you know Pre-K friends are learning about the water these days. This week we will attentively watch the weather and with first possibility explore the RAIN going on the Rain Trip. For this trip everyone needs a pair of rain boots, rain coat, an umbrella and extra clothes change. We might get wet! 

Other events include:
May 18th- Botanical Gardens
May 19th - Juice Sale
May 25th - Prospect Park Zoo
May 26th - Fleet on Coney Island  (please keep this event as a secret trip)

Please be advised that we will try our best to attend all these events despite the weather condition. Therefore we ask you to dress your child according to the weather conditions. If you have any questions or comments please contact us without hesitation.

Letter Resh

This week we learned the letter Resh.

The letter Resh has a big line on top and a big line that goes down.

Resh looks like a "rakevet" a train making a turn.

Ruven and Ron start with the letter Resh

Trip and much more

Click here to view these pictures larger

Our Senses- Hearing

There are sounds all around us. Some sounds make us want to dance. Some make us aware of danger. Some sounds are high like a whistle, some sounds are low, like a drum. How do we hear them?  Hearing is one of the senses. On each side of our head there is an ear that helps us hear sounds all around us. When we look in a mirror we can see only part of our ear. That part is called the outer ear. It is shaped like a baseball glove. This shape helps to catch the sounds. But what happens next?  The sounds travel into the little hole in our ear straight to a eardrum that starts vibration that passes on to other parts of inner ear: three little bones, tube and to the nerves that send special message to our brain. Brain "reads" the message and lets us know what sound do we hear. 

Some people can't hear. They are deaf. It affects their ability to speak. They can't say correctly sounds because they never hear them. These people use sign language to communicate with each other. Some people who have partial hearing use hearing aids. In class, we read the book about elephant Oliver who could not hear well. He was not happy, he was always on the side when his friends played games, his brother and sister could not watch TV with him, because Oliver would made it very very loud. One day, his mom took him to a doctor who gave him a hearing aids. Oliver was the happiest elephant because w]he could hear his friends singing "Happy Birthday" song to him he could play with his friends, he could enjoy TV show with his family.  

With our ears we can do so many mitzvas. We can hear the sounds of shofar on Rosh Hashana and megillah on Purim, we can hear music and someone's brocha!  

Dr. Zhanna taught us "Ear Do and Don'ts":

Do cover your ears when the sound is very loud

Do make TV sound low

Don't put anything inside of your ear

Do go to a doctor if your ear hurts 

Do pay attention to every sound around you. It might warn you of danger.

Our World - Water

On the second day, Hashem created water. What is water? Friends said that water makes us wet, we drink water, we give water to animals and we water plants. Morah said that water gives us the fastest way to cool off, the fastest way to get clean. We learned that water is liquid (something that we can pour); it doesn't have shape. It always the shape of the thing that's holding it.  Water likes to stick to some things like paper towel, rags, even our clothes.

 Does water stick to everything? We put a large drop of water on the waxed paper. Lifting the paper we observed the drop slided off. The paper was not wet. Morah told us that water doesn't wet wax and fat. As a matter of fact, duck's feathers are coated with a kind of grease that keeps duck dry after it dives  under the water.  

We learned that water is one of the things that get used again and again. It keeps going around and around- we call the "Water Cycle". We learned the song about it.
TTTO She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain
Water travels in a cycle, yes it does.Water travels in a cycle, yes it does.It goes up as evaporation,Forms clouds as condensation,Then falls down as precipitation, yes it does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePSJU3Qm41E&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Cb3SIMRCIE
 Next week, we are going to learn more about water cycle, about different properties of water and how it can be changed from liquid to solid matter, and then to gas.

Excitments of this week

Meeting the World War II Veteran

Rosh Hodesh Rally

Dr. Zhanna is telling us about Hearing Sense and the ways to protect our ears.

Trip to the New York Aquarium

Working on a part of our Bulletin Board

Parshas Behar

This week's Parsha:
http://torahtots.com/parsha/vayikra/behar2.htm

Seeing world

Click here to view these pictures larger

To Our Mamas!

Happy Mother's Day to Pre-K Super Moms! 
We love you...  
for making yummy food,
for giving a lot of hugs,
for yummy chicken salad,
for beautiful art work you make,
for playing with me and making a house for a little frog,
for loving me and cooking food for me,
for cream cheese sandwiches and real frog that I got as a pet.

With Love Always Yours 
Ariel, Alan, Aaron, Nosson, Chava Evalyn, Jacklyn, Zaylin, Yonni, Shlomo, Ron, Yonni, and Shimon

Making Patterns

Pattern is a set of objects that repeat again and again.

Could you read the patterns we made?

Blue, green, blue, green... Shlomo made color pattern.

Does it look right?

Could you read this pattern? Standing, sitting, sitting, standing sitting, sitting...

Try to read these patterns:)

Our Senses- Seeing

Our friend, Dr. Zhanna taught us about one of five senses- Seeing. It is called the sense of sight. Our eyes are like cameras that never stop taking pictures. Eyes quickly send these pictures to our brain. Brain sends us back information about what we see. Our eyes are shaped like round balls. We can only see the front of them. The backs of our eyes are safe inside of our head. When we look at our eyes in a mirror, we can see black circles in the middle of our eye that is pupil. It lets light into our eye. The colored part around the pupil is the iris. We noticed that most friends have brown iris, other friends have blue, green or grey iris. Our eyes let us see things far, far away, to see pretty colors, and to see important signs like "Stop" sign.
Dr. Zhanna taught us that there are three things that protect our eyes- skull, eyebrows, and eyelids. A skull protects the back of our eyes, eyebrows don't let sweat get into eyes, eyelashes protect our eyes from dust. We can do more protecting our eyes. For example, don't look straight on the sunlight or any other light; wear sunglasses.

Our World- Light

This week we started the new unit  “Our World." The world amazes us every day. Hashem created it for us. On the first day of creation Hashem created light and separated it from the dark. He called the light day and the dark- night. Light is all around us. Friends said that light is good because it let us see our friends, toys and all things around, it let us to be safe and do not bump into things when we walk. Friends made list of things that make light- sun, stars, lightning, fire, candle, flashlight, fireworks, fireflies, and lamps. We discovered that things that make light are hot. One of them is SUN that gives us light and warmth. Sun is a closest star to the Earth, that is why we can see it and feel its warmth.

Light travels in straight lines and it goes everywhere; it goes through things that are transparent. Transparent means clear or see through. Such things like glass, window, water, glasses or plastic are transparent. The light could be blocked by opaque things, things that are solid. Walls, doors, blocks, books, people are opaque. When light is blocked by opaque object it stops. An opaque object forms a shadow.

Some things need Energy to make light. Flashlights need batteries, lamps need electricity. Energy is everywhere- it lights up our houses, it warms us up, it plays music and move cars, buses and trains. In class we made a list of the things that we use energy for. Next week we are going to discuss what would happen if energy rans out and how we can save energy.

Koof

This week we learned the letter Koof.

Koof has a big curve and a big line that comes down.

Koof looks like Kiddush pouring down.

Here are other Hebrew words we learned that begin with a Koof:

"Cafe"

Friends in our class enjoyed painting with, smelling and tasting "cafe."

Kodesh

Kodesh, means holy or special for Hashem. Some examples of things that are Kodesh are Torahs, siddurim (prayer books,) a Tallis (prayer shawl,) the land of Israel and you! Every single person is Kadosh because they have a neshama, a piece of Hashem inside of them.  Additionally, when a person does a mitzvah they become more "Kadosh."

We treat things that are Kadosh with respect. We do not put "kodesh" things on the floor. We also can show respect by kissing things that are Kodesh. This is why some people kiss Torahs, siddurim and tzitzis.