It is very powerful when a young child exerts their independence around making a choice. In this case, a 4 year old child walked up to our עברית (Ivrit-Hebrew) shelf, looked around and said, “I am going to do this!” When asked if they wanted a partner, they very confidently said, “no thank you.” They …
Tag: hebrew letters
Feb 11
Hebrew Literacy in Shalom Chaverim
This week in Shalom Chaverim, the children were busy exploring Hebrew letters together. There were Hebrew letters to investigate on the scroll tucked inside a mezuzzah! There was even a Hebrew letter right on the front of every mezuzzah we investigated– the letter shin, for Shema. Of course, there are so many different things to …
Jan 22
I did it my way
Something incredible happened today. A confident, independent, capable, AMAZING three-year-old (because all three-year-olds are all of those things and so many more!) found a bucket of Hebrew banana-gram tiles. And she started to match the tiles to a set of Hebrew magnets. And she created a system for herself to put the used banana-gram …
Jan 08
Shabbat!
We’ve started our new theme–Shabbat! There are SO MANY ways to play Shabbat with our Shorashim friends! We’ve been getting Shabbat dinner ready in the מִטְבָּח (mitbach–kitchen). We’ve built houses to have our Shabbat in. We stamped the letters of Shabbat, ש shin, ב bet, ת tav and found ש shin, ב bet, ת tav in the sensory …
Sep 14
Shteelim Shana Tovah Cards
This week Shteelim (‘saplings’ for kindergarten) worked on רֹאשׁ הַשָׁנַה (Rosh Hashanah) cards for their families. We traced lots of shapes like a תַפּוּחַ (tapuach– apple), a שׁוֹפָר (shofar), a רִימוֹן (rimon– pomegranate) and a pot of דְּבַשׁ (d’vash– honey). “I’m making mine for my family” “[Mine is for] my mom” While we drew, we thought about why we might give …
May 18
And the story goes…
This week we have been reviewing stories from the Torah that we have heard before… months ago! But our nursery and kindergarten children seem to remember like it was yesterday. We started with Bereshit (the beginning), floated with Noah, remembered Yosef (Joseph), and parted the sea with Moshe (Moses). There are so many stories and so …
Apr 07
Ma Nishtanah?
We have tackled the fundamental parts of the story of פֶּסַח (pesach), but it is time for us to delve into the four questions of the Ma Nishtanah. The Shorashimers have started learning the song by listening on the iPads and hearing them during Pegisha. While Shteelimers are creating their own charts by writing the most …
Jan 28
A wild beast visited Shorashim-Shteelim
Shorashim and Shteelim ventured into their second week of exploring the story of Yosef and his dreams. This week we continued with the story some more, and found out what kind of fate awaited Yosef after telling his dreams to his brothers and his father. We used different parts of the classroom to get to know …
Nov 20
One, Two, Three
With nursery children, things often go one, two, three. One child will have an idea, then a second child will join, then a third. Often it’s the best things that spread one, two, three. What fun! The first boy said, “I want to stretch my body. I want to do alef bet yoga.” And then it …
Sep 23
We Remember So Much Ivrit (Hebrew)
I’m amazed at how much עברית (Ivrit–Hebrew) Nitzanim children remember! Children remember the names of אותיות (otiot–letters) and צבעים (tzeva’im–colors) when they play bingo together. Children remember how to lead our ברכות (brachot–blessings) routine before we eat כיבוד (kibud–snack). Children remember vowel sounds when they play with our עברית (Ivrit–Hebrew) bananagrams. Children also remember …