Red Room Class: UNDER THE SEA/ SHAVUOT!

Dear Parents,

We had so much fun this week preparing for our beach party. We introduced our unit by reading, The Rainbow Fish, Crabs New Shell, and Hidden Treasures. We then had a discussion about the different types of fish and sea creatures that live in the ocean such as dolphins, whales, sharks, crabs, lobsters, and turtles.

Then, the children created shell people by painting large shells, adding eyes, hair, and accordion shaped arms & legs. The results were spectacular!

The children made aquariums by placing fish stickers on the outside of a plastic containers, and then added rocks, shells, glitter, frogs, and blue-colored water inside the containers. The results were spectacular! The children had so much fun swirling them around and watching the fish and frogs swim around in the water.

We watched the butterflies being released from their butterfly garden.

Having fun in the playground:

On Thursday we introduced Shavuot by reading:

No Rules for Michael, by Sylvia A. Rouss and A Mountain of Blintzes, by Barbara Diamond Goldin.

We learned that Shavuot is "Festival of the Weeks" was originally an agriculture festival marking the beginning of the wheat harvest. The festival became associated with giving the Torah at Mount Sinai.

We then created our own Ten Commandments. First we each painted a tablet and then we we came up with our own "Ten Commandments."

This is what the children said:

"Hug your Mommy"

"Don't hit your friends"

"Raise your hand before speaking"

"Don't walk out of the classroom"

"Hold hands with your friends"

"Don't yell at people"

"Read books to your mother"

"Say nice words to your friends"

"Be kind to people"

"Share with you friends"

Please stop by and look at them displayed on our classroom bulletin board.

We concluded our week with a fun Israeli dance class with Talia.

The children sang "Torah, Torah" while hugging and dancing around the room with Torahs. They also sang "Shavtem Mayim, " and did the motions to the "Hokey Pokey," while reciting the words in Hebrew.