December 15th, 2017
Happy Hanukkah!
This week we learned a bit about Hanukkah. We started by reading the story called Shmelf the Hanukkah Elf by Greg Wolfe. This story explains why Santa does not visit Jewish kids. Shmelf learns about Hanukkah and some of the traditions surrounding it. The kids were quite surprised to learn that Santa doesn’t visit all children. It was a great opportunity to talk about diversity in holidays and our families.
We learned about some of the traditions surrounding Hanukkah, ie: the Dreidel game, fried foods like Latke to represent the oil last 8 days, the lighting of the Menorah, opening a gift on each night of Hanukkah, etc. We made our own drawn menorahs with eight candles that represent each day of Hanukkah and the middle candle to light the rest. We used pasta noodles for the candles and tissue paper for the flames. Each day someone adds another candle to our drawn menorah.
We also touched on Kwanzaa; the colours of Kwanzaa (black, red and green), who celebrates this holiday and the Kenorah. We made Kenorahs from paper shapes and added a glittery star as well as the written word Kenorah. We also made original artwork using a variety of materials in the Kwanzaa colours.
Our numbers this week were three through seven. We practiced writing them, spelling their number words and representing them through hunts for sets of objects and drawings.
We have also been working on addition of single digit numbers. It is great to see them using their adding skills in our everyday routines and tasks, ie: at snack/lunch they will figure out how many boys and girls there are and add them together, or how many people are sitting on each side of the table and add them that way.
Love the game Sorry!, which is a great way to practice recognizing numbers, counting, following the rules of the game, and understanding that certain moves happen in the game that may set you back but it is just part of the game. I am starting to see some of the kids strategizing as they play.
Our movement songs this week were the Reindeer Pokey and Christmas Freeze by the Kiboomers. They definitely are looking forward to more Christmas themed movement songs this coming week!
Happy Hanukkah!
This week we learned a bit about Hanukkah. We started by reading the story called Shmelf the Hanukkah Elf by Greg Wolfe. This story explains why Santa does not visit Jewish kids. Shmelf learns about Hanukkah and some of the traditions surrounding it. The kids were quite surprised to learn that Santa doesn’t visit all children. It was a great opportunity to talk about diversity in holidays and our families.
We learned about some of the traditions surrounding Hanukkah, ie: the Dreidel game, fried foods like Latke to represent the oil last 8 days, the lighting of the Menorah, opening a gift on each night of Hanukkah, etc. We made our own drawn menorahs with eight candles that represent each day of Hanukkah and the middle candle to light the rest. We used pasta noodles for the candles and tissue paper for the flames. Each day someone adds another candle to our drawn menorah.
We also touched on Kwanzaa; the colours of Kwanzaa (black, red and green), who celebrates this holiday and the Kenorah. We made Kenorahs from paper shapes and added a glittery star as well as the written word Kenorah. We also made original artwork using a variety of materials in the Kwanzaa colours.
Our numbers this week were three through seven. We practiced writing them, spelling their number words and representing them through hunts for sets of objects and drawings.
We have also been working on addition of single digit numbers. It is great to see them using their adding skills in our everyday routines and tasks, ie: at snack/lunch they will figure out how many boys and girls there are and add them together, or how many people are sitting on each side of the table and add them that way.
Love the game Sorry!, which is a great way to practice recognizing numbers, counting, following the rules of the game, and understanding that certain moves happen in the game that may set you back but it is just part of the game. I am starting to see some of the kids strategizing as they play.
Our movement songs this week were the Reindeer Pokey and Christmas Freeze by the Kiboomers. They definitely are looking forward to more Christmas themed movement songs this coming week!
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