Nursery Newsletter - 12th April

I cannot believe this is my last newsletter of the spring term!

A big thank you to Morah Cassie who has spent hours with the team preparing a very special Haggadah with each of your children. We hope you enjoy using it with your child at your Seder, whichever country you may be in. We are very proud of what they have prepared and we are sure you will be too.

The children continued learning the letter sounds following the phonics scheme; Essential Letters and Sounds. They learnt the letter sounds ‘i’ and ‘n’. If you are practising the letter sounds with your child, please make sure you are using the correct pronunciations. Attached is a video of how to pronounce each of the sounds correctly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwJx1NSineE

The children enjoyed sharing the objects they had chosen to represent the different letters and sounds learnt. Some children enjoyed making iguanas for the letter sound ‘i’’ and practised writing the ‘i’ sound. For the letter sound ‘n’, some children enjoyed practising writing numbers and writing the ‘n’ sound. This also links to the area of Mathematics.

In Mathematics we revised all of the 2D shapes. The children enjoyed listening to the book, ‘Mouse Shapes.’ This book is about three mice named Violet, Martin, and Fred who escape from a big, scary cat by hiding in a pile of shapes. "Look!" says Violet, once the coast is clear, "We can make things with them." The mice use the circles, triangles, and squares to create all sorts of pictures: a house, a tree, a book, and a fish. Some of the children then created their own shape pictures by cutting out different shapes in a variety of colours.

In Understanding the World the children enjoyed carrying on with the topic of minibeasts. We focused on the ant and the children enjoyed going into the garden area to see how many ants and other minibeasts they could find . They enjoyed listening to the non fiction book, ’Ants’ where we talked about true facts about the ant. Some of the children came into the garden area to clear up the beds by pulling up the old plants and weeds and putting in new soil. We then planted onions and radishes.

Please find below some activities that you can during the holiday with your child:

• Continue to read rhyming books and encourage them to say as many rhyming words as they can to create a rhyming string. 
• Continue to clap how many syllables there are in different words.
• Continue to explore alliteration and see how many objects/words you can find starting with the same letter sound.
• You can discuss CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant) , for example, cat, mat, peg, leg. See if your child is able to say the first, middle and last sounds. Let your child ‘sound talk’ each of the words, for example, c-a-t, m-a-t.
• Continue to look around the environment or your house to see what numbers your child can see. This includes looking for objects with numbers for example weighing scales, telephones, buses.
• Carry on with counting by rote with your child. How high can your child count?
• Continue to practise counting objects with your child using one to one correspondence. Make sure they say the number as each object is placed. Your child can practise counting the stairs up to bed and down in the morning. Make sure your child says the number name as they place each foot on the step.
• You can practise “one more than” and “how many altogether?”. This can be done while shopping. For example, if you have three apples, one more is? If you have two pears and 3 apples how many do you have altogether? 
• You can practise one less than. This can be done when your child is eating, for example using raisins. If you have 4 raisins and you eat one, how many have you got left?

Music:

• Mr Style joined the model seder. The children sang all the Pesach songs they had learnt with Morah Cassie and in their music lessons. They were accompanied by Mr Style playing the guitar. They sang so beautifully and with confidence and it made us all so proud.

PE:

• The children were split into groups and enjoyed a carousel of activities.
• They practised running to the cone and back.
• They completed a bear walk to the cone and back.
• They put both feet together and did bunny hops from one cone to another.
• They practised jumping over the hurdles.
• They walked from one end to the other with a ring on their head.
• They used the scooter to scoot to the scone and then scoot back.

Ivrit:

Shalom everyone,

In Ivrit this week, we learn more about Pesach and what we are not allowed to eat, such as:

Lechem לחם bread

Pasta פסטה  

Ugiyot עוגיות cookies

Challah חלה

Pita פיתה

We were so lucky to have Podi with us telling us what we can and can't eat on Pesach. Toda Podi. 

We loved the Matzah song. 

It was fun to learn the song about baby Moshe in his Teiva (basket). We sang it a few times and played The Parachute game using our River Nile from the story of Moshe. Inside we tried to catch the Matzah.

Here is the link to the song: 

https://youtu.be/XZ2zBKs-9Vk?feature=shared

Please share the song with your child to enjoy. 

In Jewish Studies this week, we had a fantastic time in our Home Corner, which was turned into a Matzah Factory, complete with a realistic looking oven, and play dough matzot. We have been learning so many brilliant Pesach songs in class, one of our favourites being: Frogs Here, Frogs There.

As a class, we looked at what happens towards the end of the Pesach Sedarim. On both Seder nights at the end of the Seder we sing לְשָׁנָה הַבָאָה בִּירוּשָלַיִם הַבְּנוּיָה! We hope to be in Yerusahalayim next year! We learned the words and practised singing Leshana Haba B'Yerushalayim as a class. We did such a great job, that we sang it with such gusto at the end of our Model Seder on Wednesday. Well done Nursery, I am so proud of you! Here is a nice clear online version, if you'd like to practice at home Lshana Haba by Olive Tree .Each of the children made their own sparkly and colurful crown complete with musical notes and the words לְשָׁנָה הַבָאָה בִּירוּשָלַיִם to wear with pride at the Sedarim.

On Wednesday we had our Model Seder. Each child had a role in the seder, be it saying a bracha or holding up an item on the seder plate, and they all did us so proud!  

Nursery class learnt that at the end of the second Seder we will start to count the Omer. We start to count up 7 complete weeks from Pesach until Shavuot. We will be counting the Omer every morning during tefillah after the Pesach break on a giant Omer Counter in the classroom. Each of the children made their own mini Omer Counter to use at home to count the Omer from the Second night of Pesach.

A few Pesach questions you can ask your child:

Why do we eat matzah on Pesach?

Answer: The Bnei Yisrael left Mitsrayim in such a rush that their bread dough had no time to rise, so they made flat matzah instead. 

Who did Hashem send to ask Paroh to let Bnei Yisrael out of Mitsrayim? 

Answer: Moshe

Why do we eat bitter herbs / maror on Pesach? 

Answer: To remind us of how bitter our lives were in Mitsrayim. 

Why do we dip our vegetables in salty water?

Answer:  To remember the tears Bnei Israel cried when we were slaves in Mitsrayim.

Can you name any of the 10 Makot / Plagues that Hashem sent to the Mitsrim?

Answer: blood, frogs, lice, wild animals....

What season is Pesach in ? 

Answer: Spring

We start to Count the Omer at Pesach. We will count seven weeks until the next big chag. Do you remember the name of that chag?

Answer: Shavuot.

On Friday we had our very special Shabbat Party.

The following children were on the Shabbat table:

Shabbat Aba: Levi

Shabbat Ima: Lielle

Shabbat Ben: Benji

Shabbat Bat : Leora

Important reminders:

• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry of what your child is doing during the holidays. It is always lovely to see.
• Please make sure you return your child’s clothes bag fully stocked.
• Please ensure all articles of clothing are named. Please send back your child’s apron.

Phonics:

Please can you send in your child’s object for our phonics lesson on Tuesday 7th May.

Please can the following children please bring in an object beginning with the letter sound ‘m’:

Noah

Sarah

Levi

Hannah

Joshua

Lielle

Micah

Lexie

Please can the following children please bring in an object starting with the letter sound ‘d’:

Elijah

Jesse

Jacob

Isaac

Joseph

Michael

Leora

Alana

Benji

Please can you make sure that the objects sent in begin with the actual sound for example ‘a’. An apple has the ‘a’ sound but an acorn does not have the ‘a’ sound the children are learning. 

If it is hard to find objects for any letters please send an object which has that letter sound in it.

Wishing you all חג אביב שמח

Happy Pesach , Chag Aviv Sameach

We look forward to seeing you back next term.

Miss Cowen, Morah Cassie, Morah Sari and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 5th April

Wow, another great and very busy week in Nursery!

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development we sat in a circle and discussed the importance of kindness and how it makes us feel if someone pushes us or uses unkind words. We also reminded the children that they must tell an adult if they are upset and the adult will help them resolve any situations. This also links to the area of Communication and Language.

The children continued learning the letter sounds following the phonics scheme, Essential Letters and Sounds. This is the scheme that the whole school is following and they will continue as they go into Reception. They learnt the letter sounds ‘t’ and ‘p’. If you are practising the letter sounds with your child, please make sure you are using the correct pronunciations. Attached is a video of how to pronounce each of the sounds correctly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwJx1NSineE

The children enjoyed sharing the objects they had chosen to represent the different letters and sounds learnt. Some children enjoyed making teeth for the letter sound ‘t’ and practised writing the ‘t’ sound. For the letter sound ‘p’, some of the children enjoyed colour mixing to make the colours pink and purple. They then used the paint colours they had used to paint their picture and practised writing the ‘p’ sound. This also links to the area Expressive Art and Design. Next week the children will learn the letters ‘i’ and ‘n’. 

The children enjoyed their last visit to the library for this term. Please make sure all library books are returned no later than Tuesday 9th April.

We would like to thank all of the parents who came in to read a story to the class this week. 

In Mathematics, we continued to revise numbers 0-10 and one more and one less than a given number up to 10. 

The children enjoyed making coconut pyramids with Mrs Dagul and weighing out all the ingredients.

In Understanding the world the children enjoyed carrying on with the topic of minibeasts. We focused on the snail and the children enjoyed going into the garden area to see how many they could find. They enjoyed listening to the non fiction book, ’Snails’ where we talked about true facts about the snail. 

The children also enjoyed making potions using different things found in the outdoor area. They discussed what happens when certain things are added to their potions. They also helped to plant more potatoes, radishes and onions.

Music:

• The main focus was Pesach and the children continued learning songs ready for the festival, including Ma Nishtana and Dayenu.

PE:

• They practised running from one cone to the next.
• They put their feet together and then bunny hopped from one cone to the next.
• They had fun practising bear walking using their hands and feet and crawling.
• The children then started to practise the activities for Sports Day. 
• These included throwing a bean bag into the hoops, balancing the egg on a spoon, balancing a ring on their head whilst walking and running from one side to the other.
• At the end of the lesson the children had a discussion about what skills they had learnt today in the PE lesson

Ivrit:

Spring is here and Pesach is on its way too.

We started to learn more new words such as:

Matza מצה

Yaien יין  wine

Hagada הגדה

Parparim פרפרים butterflies

Prachim פרחים  Flowers

Tzipor  ציפור  bird

Podi came to visit us all the way from Israel and sang to us his favourite song for Pesach: Simcha Raba  

‎שמחה רבה אביב הגיע פסח בא

We also had a very nice surprise from the ‘big school’ when Morah Sharon came and joined our Ivrit lesson. She was so proud to listen to all the children using many words in Ivrit with a good understanding and behaviour. Kol Hakavod Nursery!

Jewish Studies:

This week Nursery class did brilliantly looking into what goes on during the Seder at Pesach. There are so many different steps to the Seder that we use a Haggadah to help us get it right. We learned that the Seder has 14 different steps, starting with Kadesh where we have our first cup of grape juice and ending with Nirtzah. Each of the children made a handy Order of the Seder poster which the children can use at home to keep track of the Seder.

Nursery class also had a closer look at the meaning behind the Ma Nishtana and the four questions it poses at the start of the Seder: Why do we only eat matzah? Why do we eat maror? Why do we dip our vegetables twice? and Why do we lean? We discussed how the matzah is eaten to remind us of how we left Mitzrayim in a hurry incase Paroh changed his mind. We dip our vegetables in salt water to remind us of our tears as slaves in Mitzrayim and the maror reminds us of the bitterly hard work we suffered. We learned that we lean during the Seder to show that Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim and we can lean like free people now. We practiced some actions for each of the verses in the Ma Nishtana to help us bring the song to life.

We reviewed the ten plagues that Hashem brought upon Paroh and the Mitzrim before they let the Bnei Yisrael go and each child made a colourful lion picture to represent the plague of 'Wild Animals'.

On Friday we had our very special Shabbat Party.

The following children were on the Shabbat table:

Shabbat Aba: Noah

Shabbat Ima: Hannah

Shabbat Ben: Jacob

Shabbat Bat : Lexie

Important Reminder:

• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry. The children really enjoy sharing their news with the class.
• Please continue to send in waste in a named bag for your child/children to put into our compost bin and put it into our labelled basket placed outside the classroom each morning.
• Please send your child in with Tzedaka every Friday. Thank you!
• Please remember that the children’s starting time is 8.30-8.40 am. We will be starting promptly at 8.40am with Tefillah so please make sure your child is on time. If you arrive after this time and the blind is down and the door is closed this means that the carpet session has begun. You will need to then take your child back round to the side door where an adult will be waiting to bring your child into school. Children walking through the classroom unsettles the children already sitting and it is really important that we have a calm start to the day. Thank you for your support with this.
• Please can you also make sure that your child is escorted to the classroom door each morning and that they don’t run through the playground and then into the classroom on their own.
• Please make sure you send your child in with an object for the letter sound we are learning. 
• On Friday the 12th April the children will break up at 12.30pm.

Phonics:

Please can you send in your child’s object for our phonics lesson on Monday 8th April.

Please can the following children please bring in an object beginning with the letter sound ‘i’:

Noah

Sarah

Levi

Hannah

Joshua

Lielle

Micah

Lexie

Please can the following children please bring in an object starting with the letter sound ‘n’ for the session on: 

Elijah

Jesse

Jacob

Isaac

Joseph

Michael

Leora

Alana

Benji

Please can you make sure that the objects sent in begin with the actual sound for example ‘a’. An apple has the ‘a’ sound but an acorn does not have the ‘a’ sound the children are learning. 

If it is hard to find objects for any letters please send an object which has that letter sound in it.

Wishing you a lovely  weekend, Shabbat Shalom.

Miss Cowen, Morah Cassie, Morah Sari and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 28th March

Wow, another great and very busy week in Nursery!

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development we continued, reiterating the importance of using our words rather than our hands. We also reminded the children that they must tell an adult if they are upset and the adult will help them resolve any situations. This also links to the area of Communication and Language.

In Literacy we continued to practice oral blending and segmenting. We played ‘Simon Says’. Different words were sounded out, for example, “Simon says get your c-oa-t, coat!”, “Touch your h-ea-d, head!” “Simon says can you touch your b-a-ck, back!”  

The children started to learn the letter sounds following the new phonics scheme, Essential Letters and Sounds. This is the scheme that the whole school is following and they will continue as they go into Reception. They learnt the letter sounds ‘s’ and ‘a’. If you are practising the letter sounds with your child, please make sure you are using the correct pronunciations. Attached is a video of how to pronounce each of the sounds correctly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwJx1NSineE

The children enjoyed sharing the objects they had chosen to represent the different letters and sounds learnt. Some children enjoyed making a sun for the letter sound ‘s’ and either wrote the ‘s’ sound or sounded out the word and wrote ‘s-u-n’. For the letter sound ‘a’, some of the children enjoyed hand printing an alligator and practiced writing the letter ‘a’. This also links to the area Expressive Art and Design. Next week the children will learn the letters ‘t’ and ‘p’. 

The children enjoyed their weekly visit to the library to select their chosen book to bring home.

We would like to thank all of the parents who came in to read a story to the class this week. 

In Mathematics, we continued to revise numbers 0-10 and one more and one less than a given number up to 10. 

We revised the 2D shapes including a pentagon, hexagon and octagon. The children enjoyed exploring different iPad games to continue to develop their shape, number recognition and 1-1 correspondence skills. Again, it was lovely to see the children waiting so patiently for their turn.

Music:

• This week the children  started learning songs for Pesach.
• They discussed how the youngest child sings the Ma Nishtana and they started learning the words.
• They discussed the Afikomen and the four questions.
• They also started to learn Dayenu and the frog song.

PE:

• They practised their running from one cone to the next and then sidestepping from cone to cone.
• They put their feet together and then  bunny hopped from one side to the other.
• In pairs they practised rolling the ball to their partners.
• At the end of the lesson they discussed what skills they had learnt today.

Ivrit:

This week there were no Ivrit lessons.

Jewish Studies:

In Jewish Studies this week we started off with such a brilliant day of Purim celebrations! The children had such fun strutting their stuff in their Purim costumes on our special EYU Purim catwalk. Each child made chocolate chip hamantaschen with Mrs Dagul, and while they baked the EYU was filled with a gorgeous sweet Purim smell! Nursery decorated their Mishloach Manot boxes with gems, stickers and coloured paper and everyone had the chance to use our Purim sponge shapes and bright paints to make Purim collages. Thank you so much to the PTA for arranging for Mr Marvel to join us at the EYU for a brilliant magic show!

Just as soon as our Purim celebrations were over, it was time to start getting ready for our next chag; Pesach. We talked about how lucky we are to have so many joyful days in the Jewish calendar, and how there is always something nice to look forward to! We started to look more deeply into Pesach, when we remember and tell the story of Bnei Yisrael and their bitter time as slaves in Mitzrayim. We worked on some of the pages that will be going into our very own hand-crafted Haggadot, which will help us to tell the story of Yetsiyat Mitzrayim (leaving Egypt) at our seders.

Nursery explored the difference between matzah and chametz. We looked into the fact that we have a mitzvah to look for chametz (Bedikat Chametz) and burn Chametz (Biur Chametz) just before Pesach arrives. The children joined Morah Cassie in a treasure hunt for chametz around the classroom, and armed only with torches, big feathers and wooden spoons, managed to get all the hidden bits of chametz. The children also started on their own picture of Biur Chametz to enjoy at home. Well done Nursery class, you are doing so well learning all about Pesach!

Important Reminder:

• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry. The children really enjoy sharing their news with the class.
• Please continue to send in waste in a named bag for your child/children to put into our compost bin and put it into our labelled basket placed outside the classroom each morning.
• Please send your child in with Tzedaka every Friday. Thank you!
• Please remember that the children’s starting time is 8.30-8.40 am. We will be starting promptly at 8.40am with Tefillah so please make sure your child is on time. If you arrive after this time and the blind is down and the door is closed this means that the carpet session has begun. You will need to then take your child back round to the side door where an adult will be waiting to bring your child into school. Children walking through the classroom unsettles the children already sitting and it is really important that we have a calm start to the day. Thank you for your support with this.
• Please can you also make sure that your child is to the classroom door each morning and that they don’t run through the playground and then into the classroom on their own.
• Our topic for next term is People Who Help Us and I would be most grateful if you have a career that covers this area including being a doctor, dentist, optician and would be able to come in to talk to the children about what your role involves. Family members including grandparents, aunties, uncles who have interesting careers are also welcome. If you would like to email me if you are available to come in or speak to me at drop off or pick up that would be great. 

Phonics:

Please can you send in your child’s object for our phonics lesson on Tuesday 2nd April.

Please can the following children please bring in an object beginning with the letter sound ‘t’:

Noah

Sarah

Levi

Hannah

Joshua

Lielle

Micah

Lexie

Please can the following children please bring in an object starting with the letter sound ‘p’ for the session on: 

Elijah

Jesse

Jacob

Isaac

Joseph

Michael

Leora

Alana

Benji

Please can you make sure that the objects sent in begin with the actual sound for example ‘a’. An apple has the ‘a’ sound but an acorn does not have the ‘a’ sound the children are learning. 

Wishing you a lovely long  weekend, Shabbat Shalom.

Miss Cowen, Morah Cassie, Morah Sari and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 22nd March

Wow! Another great week in Nursery!

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development the focus continues to be kindness towards each other, reiterating the importance of using our words rather than are hands. We also reminded the children that they must tell an adult and the adult will help them resolve any situations. This also links to the area of Communication and Language.

In Literacy, we continued with Aspect 7: Oral blending and segmenting. We carried on playing the game ‘Simon Says’. Different words were sounded out, for example, “Simon Says get your c-oa-t, coat!”, “Touch your t-oe-s, toes!”, “Touch your f-ee-t, feet!” 

We also carried on practising sound talking using the puppets. The pictured sound mat was held up and different words were sounded out and the children had to see if they could find the correct picture to match.

We would like to thank all of the parents who came in to read a story to the class this week. It has been wonderful for the children to continue to listen to a huge variety of books. 

In Expressive Art and Design the children enjoyed listening to the nursery rhyme ‘Hickory, Dickory, Dock’. In class we learnt about the minute and hour hand and learnt about o’clock and half past. Some of the children enjoyed making a clock. They cut out a circle and wrote the numbers around the clock face. They then made small and big hands and then enjoyed practising moving their hands around to make different times, including 1 o’clock, 2 o'clock and so on.  This links to Mathematics.  We also read the story ,’The Bad Tempered Ladybird’ which focuses on time.

In Mathematics, we continued to revise numbers 0-10 and one more and one less than a given number up to 10. 

In Understanding the World the children planted parsley and radishes to take home to watch grow, ready to use for Pesach.

How to look after your Parsley pots:

• Place in a cool, lightly shaded spot to germinate.
• Make sure the compost doesn't dry out and you water it regularly.
• Please post pictures of your child’s parsley pot, so we can discuss growth in class.

Music:

• The children started the lesson with stretching exercises and a game of Simon Says.
• They enjoyed singing Purim songs including La Kova Sheli Shalosh Pinot and the Teddy bear song which they had learnt in the previous lesson.

PE:

• At the beginning of the lesson the children talked about how to develop their skills by listening and following instructions.
• They split into four teams.
• They practised their running skills by running from one side to the other side.
• They practised their throwing and catching skills by throwing the ball to their partners.
• They practised throwing the ball higher aiming to throw over their partners head. 

Ivrit:

We are so close to my favourite festival, Purim.

This week, we listened to more Purim songs in Ivrit. We also had to guess what Podi will dress up for Purim and also, learning that in nature, some animals like to dress up. We looked at some cards to find what they dress up as.

For our art activity, we created either Sad clown  ליצן עצוב  Leitzan Atzuv or Happy clown ליצן שמח  Leitzan Sameach. We made them using paper plates, foam shapes and pom-poms.

Looking forward to some amazing Purim fun.

Jewish Studies:

In Jewish Studies this week we had so much fun working with Mrs Dagul and Ishmael to build 'Queen Esther's Quarters' in the home corner. The children painted the big grey castle walls made of cardboard last week and this week, they were hung and decorated with flowers and swaithes of bright fabric. It all looks very regal! Nursery set the table for Esther's special feast and they even made yummy looking Hamansachen out of playdough. We reviewed the story behind Megillat Esther and the 4 special Purim mitzvot - mishloach manot, tzedakah, listening to the Megillah and having a special Purim seudah. We delved a little further into the mitzvah of tzedakah this week, and each of the children made and decorated a meaningful collage of a tzedakah box with silver coins.

Nursery also started to learn about our next Chag, Pesach which will be coming up soon. We had a look at some Pesach items - a seder plate, matzah, haggadah etc and talked about the meaning behind each one. We started to introduce the song Ma Nishtana, and got to work decorating some of the pages that will go into their very own Haggadah to be used at Seder.

On Friday we had our very special Shabbat Party.

The following children were on the Shabbat table:

Shabbat Aba: Benji

Shabbat Ima: Alana

Shabbat Ben:  Joshua

Shabbat Bat:   Lielle

Important Reminder:

• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry. The children really enjoy sharing their news with the class.
• Please continue to send in waste in a named bag for your child/children to put into our compost bin and put it into our labelled basket placed outside the classroom each morning.
• Please send your child in with Tzedaka every Friday. Thank you!
• Please remember that the children’s starting time is 8.30-8.40 am. We will be starting promptly at 8.40am with Tefillah so please make sure your child is on time. 
• Please make sure your child’s library book is returned by Tuesday. If your child’s library book is not returned, they will be unable to take home a new book, which will cause them disappointment. 

Important reminders: Purim Monday 25th March

• We are so excited to celebrate Purim with your child in school.
• Your child can come to school in fancy dress. Please make sure that the costume your child is wearing is easy for them to take up and down for toileting purposes. Please ensure that any trousers/dresses are not too long. Any props, including hats and glasses, must be named separately. (No swords, toy guns)
• So that your child can fulfill one of the mitzvot of Purim, please can you send them in with some Tzedaka. 
• If you have not yet sent in your child’s Mish loach Manot please make sure it is brought in on Monday 25th March.
• Please send your child in with a fruit snack as normal on this day.

Phonics:

Due to a short Summer Term we will begin to learn the letter sounds next week. We will learn two sounds a week. 

It would be great if the children could bring in an object beginning with the letter sounds they are learning to share with the class. Everyone will get an opportunity to bring an object for the different letter sounds and this will be arranged on a rota basis. This will also replace our weekly ‘Show and Tell’ sessions. Please can all objects be brought in on Monday 25th March. Only send in items that your child is happy to leave in school.

Please can the following children please bring in an object beginning with the letter sound ‘s’:

Noah

Sarah

Levi

Hannah

Joshua

Lielle

Micah

Lexie

Please can the following children please bring in an object starting with the letter sound ‘a’ for the session on: 

Elijah

Jesse

Jacob

Isaac

Joseph

Michael

Leora

Alana

Benji

Please can you make sure that the objects sent in begin with the actual sound for example ‘a’. An apple has the ‘a’ sound but an acorn does not have the ‘a’ sound the children are learning. 

Wishing you a lovely weekend, Shabbat Shalom.

Wishing you all a wonderful Purim over the weekend!

Miss Cowen, Morah Cassie, Morah Sari and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 15th March

Dear Parents,

Wow! Another busy and fun week in Nursery.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development we continued to focus on being kind to each other and reiterated the importance of using our words rather than are hands. We talked about examples that even if someone pushes us, takes something from us that we don’t retaliate back in any way. We must use our words, however frustrated we may be. We reminded the children that they must tell an adult and the adult will help them resolve any situations. This also links to the area of Communication and Language.

In Literacy, we continued with Aspect 7: Oral blending and segmenting. It is important that the children have plenty of experience listening to adults modelling oral blending and that they are introduced to grapheme-phoneme correspondences. For example, when giving children instructions or asking questions, the adult can segment the last word into separate phonemes (sounds) and then blend these together to say the word. ‘Simon Says’ is a fun game that we played in class that you may like to play at home. Different words were sounded out, for example, “Simon Says get your c-oa-t, coat!”, “Touch your t-oe-s, toes!” “Touch your f-ee-t, feet!” We will continue with oral blending and segmenting over the next few weeks.

We also introduced the children to a puppet that can only speak in ‘sound-talk’. The children met the puppet who we named

ch-i-p, Chip only whispers in Miss Cowen’s ear. To add to the activity, as Chip whispers, Miss Cowen repeated the sounds, and then said the word straight afterwards. For example: What would Chip like for tea today? Chip spoke silently in Miss Cowen’s ear and repeated ‘ch-ee-se’ and then said ‘cheese!’ We used different scenarios: What does Chip like to do in the playground? (hop,skip,jump,run, etc.) What is Ch-i-p’s favourite colour and Chip answered r-e-d, g-r-ee-n, m-au-ve. 

We would like to thank all of the parents/grandparents who came in to read a story to the class. It has been wonderful for the children to continue to listen to a huge variety of books. 

We continued to focus on nursery rhymes and this week we focused on, ‘Incy, Wincy, Spider’. The children enjoyed singing the nursery rhyme with actions. 

In Expressive Art and Design, some of the children enjoyed creating their own handprint spiders and then used a q-tip to create a spider's web. The children were interested to learn key facts about spiders and enjoyed listening to a non fiction book called, ’Spiders’. Some of the children went on a spider hunt around the outdoor area with magnifying glasses. This links to the area of Understanding the World. 

In Mathematics, we continued to revise numbers 0-10 and one more and one less than a given number up to 10. We played a fun game on the interactive whiteboard called ‘Colin the Chimp’. Colin loves to explore the jungle and gets muddled up with his numbers. The children had to work out the answers to different scenarios. For example there were three bananas  and one more was found on the floor. How many bananas are there now? There was one toucan and he flew away. How many toucons were left? 

The children also enjoyed continuing to learn about patterns and that patterns are everywhere. Some of the children enjoyed making different patterns using the keys, stickle bricks and Octons and others painted their own patterns. We discussed all the types of patterns, including stripes and spots and the children created their own. They enjoyed playing a shape game on the interactive whiteboard where they had to work out what was next in the pattern. Attached is the link for your child to continue to play this game. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/shape-patterns

Music:

• The children started the lesson with stretching and warm up exercises.
• They enjoyed learning some Purim songs and continued learning the Teddy Bear song from last week.

PE:

• The children enjoyed a selection of activities.
• They ran and jumped over the hurdles and then ran back again.
• In pairs they were given a tennis ball. They had to roll the ball to their partner and also then practised their catching skills by throwing the ball to each other. This was a good activity for developing their gross motor skills.

Ivrit:

Dear parents הורים יקרים

We are getting ready for the most happiest festival of the year

 פורים Purim

This week we listened to the story The Egg who Dressed Up הביצה שהתחפשה

After discussing about the book and learning new words such as:

Be’ytza ביצה egg

Kador כדור ball

Balon בלון balloon

Pitrya פטריה mushroom

Perach פרח flower

Chatul חתול cat

Tarnegolet תרנגולת hen

The children drew their own imaginary egg.

They have also created a 3D egg. The children chose to dress them up for what they will dress up for Purim. They decorated them with different materials and gave them names.

That was fun!

Jewish Studies:

This week in Jewish Studies Nursery looked into the parasha of the week Parashat Pekudei. In Parashat Pekudei, The Mishkan was now finished. An Anan, a cloud, came down from heaven and rested on the Mishkan. It showed Bnei Yisrael when to travel and when to rest. When it began to move from the Mishkan, Bnei Yisrael knew that it was time to fold up their tents and move on to another place. When it stopped moving, Bnei Yisrael knew that it was time to set up their tents round the Mishkan and have a rest. The Anan showed Bnei Yisrael that Hashem was always with them. Each child made a fantastic red and green stop-and-go sign to remember how the Anan told the Bnei Yisrael when to move and when to rest.

We also continued our learning about the upcoming chag of Purim. We looked into the four key mitzvot of Purim; giving mishloach manot משלח מנות;  giving charity צדקה; listening to the megila מגילה;  and having a special Purim meal/seudah. The children each made a colourful painted gragger - painting the base of the gragger a bright yellow using a variety of paint rollers and then using Purim sponge shapes to overlay the yellow with wonderfully textured colored Purim images. The children also enjoyed role-playing Queen Esther's Beauty Parlour outside with our hair stylist equipment- brushes, clips, hair dryers and combs.

The following children were on the Shabbat table:

Shabbat Aba: Joseph

Shabbat Ima: Leora

Shabbat Ben: Micah

Shabbat Bat: Sarah

Important Reminder:

• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry. The children really enjoy sharing their news with the class.
• Please continue to send in waste in a named bag for your child/children to put into our compost bin and put it into our labelled basket placed outside the classroom each morning.
• Please send your child in with Tzedaka every Friday. Thank you!
• Please remember that the children’s starting time is 8.30-8.40 am. We will be starting promptly at 8.40am with Tefillah so please make sure your child is on time. 
• Please make sure your child’s library book is returned byTuesday. If your child’s library book is not returned, they will be unable to pick a new book to bring home, which will cause them disappointment. 
•  

Important reminders: Purim

Monday 25th March   

• We are so excited to celebrate Purim with your child in school.
• Your child can come to school in fancy dress. Please make sure that the costume your child is wearing is easy for them to take up and down for toileting purposes. Please ensure that any trousers/dresses are not too long. Any props, including hats and glasses, must be named separately. 
• So that your child can fulfill one of the mitzvot of Purim, please can you send them in with some Tzedaka. 
• The children swap Mishloach Manot with each other. So that everyone has the same, please can you send in 1 small bag of crisps, one carton of drink and a packet of raisins. You do not need to gift wrap these as the children will be decorating special boxes to put their Mishloach Manot into.
• Please make sure all food sent in is on the Kashrut list. Please can this be sent in, in a small named plastic bag. For the children to be able to swap Mishloach Manot with each other, we need you to send this in no later than Friday 22nd March. 
• Please send your child in with a fruit snack as normal on this day.

Wishing you a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom.

Miss Cowen, Morah Cassie, Morah Sari and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 8th March

Dear Parents,

Wow! What an amazing week it has been in Nursery celebrating Book Week.

We would like to thank all of the parents/grandparents who came in to read a story to the class. It has been wonderful for the children to listen to a huge variety of books and they loved listening to a story in French too! 

In Understanding the World this week the children celebrated World Book Week. We had a local author called Stephanie Mason in to talk to the children. She has written a book called, ‘JoJo’s Jump. ’Jojo's Jump is a heartwarming story about a pony trying to perform her first jump. It was amazing for the children to meet a real life author and hear her life experiences and how she created her book. 

We have also focused on the book, ’The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ by Judith Kerr. The children enjoyed listening to the story and some of the children enjoyed pulling the different tabs to see who popped out.

Some of the children enjoyed creating their own tigers which they painted on a plate. They discussed the colours and pattern on the tigers body and then freely designed their own. This links to Expressive Art and Design.

We talked about the importance of manners and whether it is thoughtful to eat everything without considering others, like the tiger did. We continued to remind the children of the importance of saying please and thank you.

The children enjoyed preparing for our special ‘Tiger Who Came to Tea’ party. Some of the children enjoyed making paper chains to decorate the classroom. This activity was great for developing the children’s cutting skills as the children had to try and cut on the lines. This links to Physical development. 

It was lovely seeing the children come in all dressed as their favourite characters. The children enjoyed showing their lovely costumes to their classmates. 

All the children prepared their own food for our special tea party. This included making fairy cakes and making a plain or jam sandwich. When making the sandwiches, the children discussed the different shapes they could make when cutting their sandwiches including, squares or triangles.  This links to Mathematics.

The children enjoyed the party and all the food they had made. It was lovely seeing them at the party with their favourite teddies. They also were surprised when there was a knock at the door and another guest arrived at the party. The tiger actually came for tea. They soon guessed it was Miss Cowen who had dressed up!

In Mathematics, we continued to revise numbers 0-10 and one more and one less than a given number up to 10. We played a fun game on the interactive whiteboard covering this.

The children also enjoyed learning about patterns and that patterns are everywhere. Some of the children enjoyed making different patterns using the pegs and teddy bears and others painted their own patterns. We discussed all the types of patterns, including stripes and spots and the children created their own.

In Letters and Sounds we continued with Aspect 6 - Voice Sounds. We continued to play with Metal Mike, the toy robot computer. They selected a picture, for example, a cat, a fan, a van. We then sounded out and blended each of the sounds (phonemes) together, using a robotic voice and then the object/picture was fed to ‘Metal Mike’.

We also started Aspect 7: Oral Blending and Segmenting. It is important that the children have plenty of experience listening to adults modelling oral blending and that they are introduced to grapheme-phoneme correspondences. For example, when giving children instructions or asking questions, the adult can segment the last word into separate phonemes (sounds) and then blend these together to say the word. ‘Simon Says’ is a fun game that we played in class that you may like to play at home. Different words were sounded out, for example, “Simon Says get your c-oa-t, coat!”, “Touch your t-oe-s, toes!” “Touch your f-ee-t, feet!” 

We will continue with oral blending and segmenting next week.

The children enjoyed their weekly visit to the library, selecting a book to take home.

The children were keen to see how the potatoes were doing on the window sill. We discussed chitting again and checked to see if any roots had grown and whether any were ready for planting. They were excited to see that there were some. We then filled up a grow bag with soil and placed 5 potatoes in each bag and then covered them with more soil. We will continue to check the progress of the potatoes on the window sill and also monitor the potatoes in the grow bags. This links to the area of Understanding the World.

Music:

• The children started the music lesson off with stretching exercises.
• They continued to  learn the ‘Teddy Bear’ song, which included some positional language. https://youtu.be/76wc4xdgzGk?feature=shared

We used actions/dance moves to help remember the words and understand the different positional language.

• They also enjoyed singing the nursery rhyme ‘Here is the Bee hive’ with actions.

PE:

• The children were split into 4 teams.
• They began with a warm up activity where the children had to run from one cone to another.
• The children enjoyed completing a carousel of activities.
• They practised their hopping skills and hopped from one side to the other side.
• The children then enjoyed playing with the bats and balls. They practised hitting the ball to develop their hands and eye coordination skills.
• At the end of the lesson they had a discussion about what skills they had learnt that day.

Ivrit:

We had great fun learning about the Zachal (Caterpillar) and how he became a beautiful Parpar (butterfly).

We read from the book in Ivrit and watched the cartoon video in Ivrit.

We played some memory games and matched pictures to numbers.

For our fun activity in the book, some of the children made pictures from the story on lolly sticks. 

Jewish Studies:

This week we looked at the parasha of the week, which is Vayakhel, in which Bnei Yisrael are now building a Mishkan, a very special place where they will be able to come to talk to Hashem. Bnei Yisrael are told not to do any of the building work for the Mishkan on Shabbat. By not doing weekday activities on Shabbat, we make Shabbat special. There is a gorgeous song we have learned about Shabbat. Can your child sing it with you? The words are: ‘Yom Rishon avodah, Yom Sheni avodah, Yom Shlishi avodah, avodah! Yom Revii avodah, Yom Chamishi avodah, Yom Shishi avodah avodah! Yom Shabbat menucha, Yom Shabbat menucha, Yom Shabbat menucha, menucha! At the end of Shabbat we look for three stars in the sky and make Havdalah. At Havdalah we smell sweet spices as we say goodbye to Shabbat and hello to a brand new week. The children started to work on their own wonderfully fragranced piece of abstract art painted using pastes we made together from water, glue and ground spices such as cinnamon and paprika.

Nursery listened attentively to an abridged version of Megillat Esther, while some of the children and Mrs Dagul acted the story out for us with character puppets. We talked about how Megillat Esther is an amazing, almost unbelievable story that is still as scary, exciting, and pertinent today as it was when it happened hundreds of years ago. The children had fun practicing their 'boo's' for shul on Purim. Each of the children made puppets of two of the Purim story characters using lots of different materials and fabrics. We hope you have fun at home using them to tell the story of our brave hero Esther and wise Mordechai.

What a lovely way to end the week with the stay and play visit. We hope you enjoyed joining us for Kabbalat Shabbat. It was lovely seeing you all enjoying the different activities with your children. I hope it gave you an insight to what your child does during the day in Nursery. Thank you for joining us.

The following children were on the Shabbat table:

Shabbat Aba: Michael

Shabbat Ima: Lexie

Shabbat Ben: Elijah 

Shabbat Bat: Hannah

Important Reminder:

• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry. The children really enjoy sharing their news with the class.
• Please continue to send in waste in a named bag for your child/children to put into our compost bin and put it into our labelled basket placed outside the classroom each morning.

Important reminders: Purim

Monday 25th March   

• We are so excited to celebrate Purim with your child in school.
• Your child can come to school in fancy dress. Please make sure that the costume your child is wearing is easy for them to take up and down for toileting purposes. Please ensure that any trousers/dresses are not too long. Any props, including hats and glasses, must be named separately. 
• So that your child can fulfil one of the mitzvot of Purim, please can you send them in with some Tzedaka. 
• The children swap Mishloach Manot with each other. So that everyone has the same, please can you send in 1 small bag of crisps, one carton of drink and a packet of raisins. You do not need to gift wrap these as the children will be decorating special boxes to put their Mishloach Manot into.
• Please make sure all food sent in is on the Kashrut list. Please can this be sent in, in a small named plastic bag. For the children to be able to swap Mishloach Manot with each other, we need you to send this in no later than Friday 22nd March. 
• Please send your child in with a fruit snack as normal on this day.

Wishing you a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom.

Miss Cowen, Morah Cassie, Morah Sari and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 1st March

Dear Parents,

We hope you all had a lovely half term. We have had a very busy and fun week in Nursery.

The topic this week is nursery rhymes, focusing on Humpty Dumpty.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development we continued to discuss the importance of being kind to everyone and using our words not our hands to achieve a positive outcome.

Some of the children continued to enjoy playing in our Chinese restaurant. Some  also enjoyed playing in our car wash in the outdoor area. It was lovely seeing them wash all the cars! Role play is an amazing way to help to develop the children’s social interactions with each other, extend their vocabulary and further develop their communication and language.

In Expressive Arts and Design, the children enjoyed singing and listening to different nursery rhymes. Some of the children had fun making their own pictures of Humpty Dumpty. They drew the wall, then cut out an oval shape and drew Humpty’s face on it. It was lovely to see the children working independently to create their own Humpty Dumpty. This also links to the area of Mathematics.

The children also completed an experiment with Humpty Dumpty. They drew Humpty Dumpty’s face on an egg (not hard boiled). They then discussed in their pairs what material they could use to wrap Humpty in to try and protect him from breaking when dropped. It was amazing to see the children working collaboratively with each other, discussing and sharing ideas. The children were excited to see if they had managed to wrap Humpty Dumpty securely enough to stop him breaking. This experiment links to the area of Understanding the World.

Also in Understanding the World, the children were interested to learn about chitting potatoes. We discussed how chitting is the process of encouraging the seed potatoes to generate sturdy sprouts ready for when it is time to plant them in the ground. By exposing the seed potatoes to plenty of light and warmth, it spurs them into growth mode. Some of the children enjoyed sorting the potatoes and placing them in egg carton, making sure any shoots were pointing upwards. The potatoes have been placed on the window sill so they get plenty of light. When the shoots appear, we will plant the potatoes in grow bags in the garden.

In Mathematics, the children enjoyed learning about positional language. We covered a variety of different vocabulary including above, below, inside, outside, in, on, under, next to, behind, in front of, between and on top of. Some of the children came up to the front of the class together and practised standing in different positions or they placed the bunny in  a variety of different places.

Whilst completing the calendar, we discussed that in February there are only 28 days and every 4 years there is a leap year and then there are 29 days in February. We discussed how this year it is a leap year. We also talked about how there are normally 365 days in a year, but this year there is an extra day and there will be 366 days.

We also revised numbers from 0-10 and one more than a given number up to 10. We continued to focus on learning about one less than a given number and played a fun game on the interactive whiteboard.

In Literacy in Letters and Sounds, we continued with  Aspect 6: Voice Sounds.The main purpose of this aspect is to distinguish between the differences in vocal sounds, including oral blending and segmenting. We continued to explore different mouth movements including blowing, sucking, tongue stretching and wiggling. We continued to discuss how when reading a story you can use your voice to add sounds to the stories and also to depict different characters. 

Metal Mike was then introduced to the class in our phonics lesson. ‘Metal Mike’ is a toy robot computer. Some of the children came to the front and selected a picture, for example: cat, fan, van. We all sounded out and blended each of the sounds (phonemes) together, using a robotic voice and then the object/picture was fed to ‘Metal Mike’. Some of the children continued playing with Metal Mike during freeflow. We will continue with this next week.

The children enjoyed their weekly visit to the library, selecting a book to take home.

In Music:

• The children started the music lesson off with stretching exercises.
• The children learnt a song called ‘Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear’ which included some positional language. https://youtu.be/76wc4xdgzGk?feature=shared

We used actions/dance moves to help remember the words and understand the different positional language.

• The children listened to a variety of high and low music and then they had to stand up and stretch up high or sit down low depending on the music played. This activity was again linked to the positional language theme learnt in Mathematics. 
• They ended the lesson singing, ‘Incy Wincey Spider’. They stood up or sat down depending on words they heard like, "climbed up the water spout" they got up and  when they heard the word "rain" they knew that rain falls, so they sat down. 

In PE:

• The children enjoyed completing a variety of group activities. They lined up one behind each other and waited their turn.
• They balanced on the obstacles and then jumped off.
• They ran through a selection of hoops and then ran back to the end of the line.
• They stayed focused completing side steps and ensuring they stayed balanced.
• The children then enjoyed playing with the bats and balls. They were practising their hitting skills.

Ivrit:

It was so lovely to see all the children after the half-term break. 

For our upcoming book week, the children were introduced to the story הַזַּחַל הָרָעָב The Hungry Caterpillar in Ivrit.

We read the book and watched a short video in Ivrit. The children saw the changes that happened to the Zachal (caterpillar) from the minute he came out of his egg till he became a beautiful Parpar (butterfly). 

During next week's Book Week, the children will take part in a special art and craft about the book.

Morah Sari

ד

• Jewish Studies 
• In Jewish Studies this week we managed to squeeze in such a lot of Jewish Studies learning!
• This week we started to get ready for Purim and also Pesach. We each made colourful Seder plate pictures to go into our Haggadas, which are coming along well. We also got busy, making beautiful bright classroom decorations for Purim which will go up next week. Nursery I am so impressed by how much joy and enthusiasm you show for celebrating these wonderful Springtime Chagim.
• Nursery had a very quick look at the parasha from last week- Tetsaveh, which talked about some of the people who work in the Mishkan called Kohanim. They wore special clothes for this job. The most important Kohen was the Kohen Gadol who wore special clothes to show the importance of his job. Their jobs were to light the Menorah every day and to receive the gifts which Bnei Yisrael brought to the Mishkan. The Kohen Gadol and the Kohanim helped Bnei Yisrael to come closer to Hashem. We played matching games on the carpet to explore all sorts of different people - mechanics, teachers, lifeguards etc who help us in our lives, just as the Kohanim helped Bnei Yisrael in ancient times. We also had such fun outside with our pretend car-wash where the children helped each other to wash the EYU ride-on tricycles and cars.
• We looked a little closer to this week’s parasha, which is Ki Tisa, in which Hashem told Bnei Yisrael to keep Shabbat on the seventh day. We make Shabbat special and different by saying Kiddush over wine and having three meals at which we make a brachah over two challot and sing zemirot. The children were given the chance to make their own pretty Shabbat flowers out of doilies, coloured tissue, lolly sticks and pipe cleaners and other fun crafty supplies. Each child made a lovely challah collage by colouring and cutting out two chalot and then adding a shiny gold challah cloth for the challot to hide behind. Well done Nursery, you are doing so well, not only with your Jewish Studies knowledge, but also with your cutting skills, manual dexterity and self confidence. It is a pleasure to watch you develop every week!
• On Friday we had our very special Shabbat Party.

The following children were on the Shabbat table:

Shabbat Aba:   Jacob

Shabbat Ima:   Lielle

Shabbat Ben:   Jesse

Shabbat Bat :  Alana

Important reminders: 

• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry of what your child did on their half term holidays. The children really enjoy sharing their news with the class.
• Please continue to send in waste in a named bag for your child/children to put into our compost bin and put it into our labelled basket placed outside the classroom each morning. 

Reminder: Book Week- Week Commencing the 4th March

We are looking forward to Book Week this year. I know that you have received a letter from Mrs Craig but this is a reminder too!

• On Wednesday 6th March please send your child dressed in their favourite book character. Please make sure all costumes have easy access for toileting.
• Please make sure you have signed the sheet available for parents to come in and read to the children during book week and following weeks so that everyone gets an opportunity to read. Please make sure all books are age appropriate.
• It is really nice for the children to hear stories in different languages, so if you read for example French, Spanish, Italian or Ivrit books at home please bring them in to share with the class.
• On Thursday 7th March we will be having a special themed tea party. Please send your child in with a special teddy  but not one that they sleep with and would be upset by if they got left at school by mistake.
• On Friday 8th March we are looking forward to welcoming you for Kabbalat Shabbat at 1.00pm. After the Shabbat party you will be able to stay and play with your child till 2.00pm.

Wishing you a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen, Morah Cassie, Morah Sari and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 16th February

Dear Parents,

We have had another great week in Nursery.

Following on from last week, ’Mental Health Awareness week’ we continued to remind the children of the importance of being kind towards each other, using their words to get what they need, rather than their emotions. We reinforced to the children that the teachers are all there to help them, if they have any concerns, or need help in dealing with different situations.

We enjoyed another fun Show and Tell session where the children practised their questioning skills by asking questions to the child who had brought in their items. The children really are developing good questioning and answering skills. This links to the area of Communication and Language.

In Literacy in Letters and Sounds we started Aspect 6: Voice Sounds.The main purpose of this aspect is to distinguish between the differences in vocal sounds, including oral blending and segmenting. The children explored different mouth movements including blowing, sucking, tongue stretching and wiggling.

We discussed how when reading a story you can use your voice to add sounds to the stories and also to depict different characters. The children enjoyed three stories,’ Chicken Licken, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and Three Billy Goats Gruff’ which incorporated lots of voice changes.

The children enjoyed their weekly visit to the library. Please remember to return your child’s library book no later than Tuesday of each week, so that they are not disappointed when they are unable to bring a new book home with them.(This will be the Tuesday after Half Term).

In Mathematics, we revised numbers from 0-10 and also went over one more than a given number up to 10. We then focused on learning about one less than a given number.The children enjoyed playing a game called, ’The Less Than Monkey’ where the monkey makes mischief at the zoo. Everytime the zookeeper arrives at the animal enclosure and counts the animals, the ‘less than monkey’ removes one. The children had to help the zookeeper work out what one less will be. For example, how many lions are there? There are 3. What is one less than 3? The children could use their fingers to work out the answer but we also used the large Numicon pieces to help find the answers.

We had fun learning  about the Chinese New Year. The children learnt that this new year celebration is also called Lunar New Year. It is celebrated in January or February in many countries. Chinese New Year is a time to feast and to visit family members. People often hang glowing lanterns in temples or carry them during a night time parade. Each year is associated with one of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. This year it is the Year of the Dragon.

We talked about how different people celebrate different festivals and have different customs. We compared it to the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah and talked about some of the things we do to celebrate. 

The children also enjoyed listening to different songs in Chinese about shapes, the days of the week, months of the year and colours. We counted to 10 in Chinese and also learnt how to say hello - Ni Hao! Some of the children also enjoyed practising learning to write their numbers in Chinese. They enjoyed filling small red bags with rice and numbered coins. They used chopsticks and spoons to place the objects inside the bags. 

The children also had great fun role playing in our own Chinese restaurant. They enjoyed trying on our new chinese costumes. They also enjoyed making Chinese lanterns and paper chains which were hung in our role play area for decoration.  

The children enjoyed making Chinese New Year biscuits, called Hup Toh Soh with Mrs Dagul. They helped to weigh and mix all the ingredients together. We discussed with the children what a fortune cookie is and attached to the cookie bag you will find a message. We hope you enjoy reading these.

They enjoyed listening to the stories, ’Winnie and Wilbur At Chinese New Year’ and ‘Peppa’s Chinese New Year’.

The above links to the areas Mathematics, Literacy, Physical Development, Expressive Art and Design and Understanding the World.

In Understanding the World the children enjoyed continuing to put their waste brought in from home into our compost bin.

Please continue to send in waste in a named bag for your child/children to put into our compost bin and put it into our labelled basket placed outside the classroom each morning. This can include:

• fruit and vegetable scraps
• used tea bags, coffee grounds
• used eggshells
• grass cuttings, leaves
• small amounts of shredded paper

The children enjoyed learning about our final artist Pablo Picasso. Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. He is known for co-founding the Cubist movement. The children enjoyed creating artwork in the style of Picasso. They created faces using felt tips and crayons. It was amazing to see the children following the instructions on a special tutorial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCg-J6fdFxo

Looking back at all the artwork that the children have produced this term in a variety of different artists styles have made us all very proud. They have created some amazing work.

In Music:

• In music the children started the lesson with some stretching exercises.
• Then they were all given instruments to use. They sang the ‘Beehive’ song and played the different instruments, alongside singing the song.

In PE:

• The children split up into groups and completed a carousel of activities.
• The children ran around the cones.
• They completed bunny hops around the cones.
• They completed a sprint running from one side to the other side.
• They ended the lesson by discussing what skills they had learned that day. 
•  

Ivrit

Dear parents הורים יקרים

It was so lovely to see so many of you on Monday afternoon for our Yom Hamishpacha (family day) art activity. Thank you all for coming and making it so special for the children. 

The children have been learning a lot about Hamishpacha Sheli (my family) over the last few Ivrit lessons, practising words such as Ava, Ima, Savta, Saba, Ach (gadol=big), Achot (Katana=small). 

Wishing you a lovely Shabbat

Shabbat shalom, 

Morah Sari 

Jewish Studies 

This week we continued to look into the JS general curriculum and we focussed on the brachot we say for fruits and vegetables. Before we eat or drink we say thank you! We say thank you to Hashem when we say a bracha. There are lots of different brachot for different foods. Some fruits like apples, oranges, cherries and pears grow from a perennial tree or vine (one that does not renew its stem ) and does not grow too close to the ground we say בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הָעֵץ. Some fruit like melons, bananas, pineapples and also veggies are ‘fruits of the ground’. For these we say בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה. Yum! Each of the children made a gorgeous pineapple craft - pineapples are so sweet and delicious, it can sometimes be tricky to remember that they are Ha-adama fruits, so this craft will definitely help us!

We also looked at Parashat Terumah, in which Hashem told Moshe and Bnei Yisrael to build a Mishkan - a holy building which Bnei Yisrael came to, to feel close to Hashem. Each tribe contributed lovely things to beautify and build it: gold, silver, copper, turquoise, purple and scarlet wool. The Mishkan was filled with gold - the Aron, the Shulchan and the huge seven branched Menorah were golden and intricately decorated. There were wonderful sweet smells of freshly ground spices and delicious cakey breads. There were trumpets… it was quite a feast for the senses! The Bet Knesset/Shul today reminds us of the Mishkan, and saying tefillot and doing mitzvot help us to come closer to Hashem now. We felt some purple and scarlet fabrics which were laced with a fruity, woody orange and bergamot scent, that helped us imagine the sights and smells of the Mishkan. The children made delicious spicy potions from fresh rosemary cut from the EYU garden. Each child made a beautifully textured Menorah - behind- a- curtain-in -the -mishkan craft. They came out really lovely- well done Nursery.

On Friday we had our very special Shabbat Party.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Isaac

Shabbat Ima: Sarah

Shabbat Ben: Levi

Shabbat Bat :Leora

Important reminders: 

• Please remember that the children’s starting time is 8.30-8.40 am. We will be starting promptly at 8.40am with Tefillah so please make sure your child is on time. If your child is late,your child will be brought in through the side door.
• Please post pictures on Tapestry of what your child is doing in half term. They can then share with the class on their return. 

Reminder: Book Week- Week Commencing the 4th March

We are looking forward to Book Week this year. I know that you have received a letter from Mrs Craig but this is a reminder too!

• On Wednesday 6th March please send your child dressed in their favourite book character.
• Please make sure you sign the sheet available for parents to come in and read to the children during book week. So that everyone gets an opportunity to come in and read there will be dates available for the following weeks too.

Have a great Half Term week.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen, Morah Cassie, Morah Sari and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 9th February

Dear Parents,

We have had another fun  and very busy week in Nursery.

This week was Mental Health Awareness Week. We have focused on kindness towards each other. We talked about how people's feelings can be hurt if we are not kind. We reminded the children of the importance of using their words to get what they need, rather than their emotions. We also discussed how we keep our bodies healthy and that it is very important to keep our minds healthy too. 

We read a variety of different books throughout the week which focused on the topic of kindness. We talked about the importance of using our voices to speak up, express how we are feeling and that our opinions and voices matter. We reinforced to the children that the teachers are all there to help them, if they have any concerns, or need help in dealing with different situations.

We also listened to the following:

 Express Your Opinions | Good Habit Song for Kids | Kindergarten Song | Don't be afraid | JunyTony

Sesame Street: Name That Emotion with Murray!

We played a game called,  ‘A Box of Feelings’. We had three boxes labelled with the feelings happy, sad and angry. The children had to throw a ball into the different boxes and then discuss the times they have felt that different emotion.

We also re-read the book, ‘Ruby’s Worry’ to remind them of the importance of sharing any worries they may have, so they don’t get bigger. We reiterated to them that they can write down or draw a picture of their worry and put it inside the Worry Monster’s mouth and in the morning the worry will have disappeared.

The links to the areas of Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language.

We had another fun Show and Tell session where the children practised their questioning skills by asking questions to the child who had brought in their items. The children really are developing good questioning and answering skills. This links to the area of Communication and Language.

In Literacy we continued with aspect 5 Alliteration. We went over what alliteration is; when words begin with the same letter sound.

The  children enjoyed making alliteration aliens by cutting out different shapes. They enjoyed naming them, trying to use words beginning with the same sound. 

The children also enjoyed playing with mirrors. They each had their own mirror and they had to play at making faces and copying movements of the lips and tongue. As the children said different sounds we discussed  the way lips move, for example, when sounding out ‘p’ and ‘b’, the way that tongues poke out for ‘th’, the way teeth and lips touch for ‘f’ and the way lips shape the sounds ‘sh’ and ‘m’. This activity focuses on the sounds at the beginning of words in order for the children to hear the differences between them.

The children enjoyed their weekly visit to the library. Please remember to return your child’s library book no later than Tuesday of each week, so that they are not disappointed when they are unable to bring a new book home with them.

In Mathematics, we revised numbers from 0-10. We then continued learning about one more than a given number. The children enjoyed playing a game called, ’Roll up! Roll up! The circus master wanted the circus to be spectacular so he kept adding one more to some of the circus acts. The children had to work out what one more will be. For example, there was one juggler and you add one more, how many jugglers are there? The children could use their fingers to work out the answer, but we also used the large Numicon pieces to help find the answers.

In Understanding the World and Expressive Art and Design, the children continued to learn about the artist Jackson Pollock. They had fun creating their splash paintings. This is also a great activity for further developing the children’s gross motor skills.

The children learned about the artist Georges Seurat. Georges Seurat was known for the painting techniques known as pointillism. Some of the children enjoyed creating their pictures in the style of Seurat by dipping q tips into different coloured paint and creating their (pointillism paintings) dot pictures. This also links to Expressive Art and Design.

We were so lucky to have Mr Budwig come in to talk to the children about how to use the compost bin and how our food waste can be put in the bin. Mr Budwig demonstrated how we make compost using our new composter. We talked about all the things that can be put into the compost bin. Mr Budwig brought in the leftovers from his dinner the previous night! We learnt that we can also add grass, cardboard and newspaper. 

The children used a trowel to gently uncover the mud at the top of a container that Mr Budwig brought in and the children were amazed to discover worms. We learnt that worms like to eat vegetables, which is why we add these to the composter. The children then  helped to add leaves and the food waste that they had brought in. The children that wanted to, took it in turns to add a wiggly worm into the bin.  We closed the door and the children took it in turns to spin it around. Mr Budwig told us that it can take up to 6 to 7 months for it to become compost and that the worms eat it slowly.

Thank you so much Mr Budwig for coming in to teach the children. The session was enjoyed by all and it was extremely informative. We also appreciate the gift of the worms which were added to our compost bin.

Please make sure you regularly send in waste in a named bag for your child/children to put into our compost bin. This can include:

• fruit and vegetable scraps
• used tea bags, coffee grounds
• used eggshells
• grass cuttings, leaves
• small amounts of shredded paper

There will be a basket labelled compost waste outside the classroom each morning for your children to put their waste bag in.

In Music:

• In music the focus was mental health awareness week where the children learnt a song about emotions. It was called the ‘Happiness Song'. The children learnt the song line by line with actions.
• The children continued to learn the ‘Beehive’ song playing instruments alongside singing the song.

In PE:

• The children split up into groups and completed a carousel of activities.
• The children went from one side to the other side, by side walking.
• They completed bunny hops.
• They ran to the other side and then completed three star jumps.
• They used both hands to throw and catch the ball.
• They ended the lesson by discussing what skills they had learned that day. The main focus was running, throwing, catching and hopping.

Ivrit

Dear parents  הורים יקרים

This week we started learning and talking about our family Mishpacha.

The children were so happy to see their family photos and to show where is Ima (mum), Aba (dad), Ach (brother), Achot (sister), Saba (grandfather) and Savta (grandmother). 

We played some games and listened to a song in ivrit about My Family.

 המשפחה בבית  The family in the house

Thanks to everyone for sending your beautiful family photos.

Morah Sari

Jewish Studies 

In Jewish Studies we looked into the general JS syllabus and delved into the fascinating world of brachot. We took a close look at the bracha we make over milk (and lots of other drinks), Shehakol. We reflected on the fact that Hashem created the world and continues to let things grow, and that we say thank you before we eat or drink anything because we are grateful to Hashem for our food and drink. We also touched on the concept of having Hakarat HaTov/gratitude towards Hashem's precious creatures that provide milk for us. Each child made their own Shehakol collage depicting fresh cool milk pouring out of a carton into a glass.

This tied in beautifully when we looked at this week's parasha of Mishpatim. Here Moshe went up Har Sinai to receive the whole Torah. We discussed how keeping the mitzvot brings us closer to Hashem. One of the mitzvot of the Torah is to keep milk and meat separate. This is one of the ways of keeping Kosher. We spent time looking at different foods and deciding which were milky/dairy and which were meaty and we played a computer game I made up to categorise foods accordingly. Do you have any special milky or meaty family favourites at home? Do you have any fond food memories? What tastes and smells send you on a trip down memory lane? Each of the children made a meaty/milky food booklet to take home. Have a look and see if it can help you and your child decide what to have for dinner one night next week!

I am still collecting kitchen rolls and small plastic bottles. If you have any spares, please bring them to the EYU.

On Friday we had our very special Shabbat Party.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Jesse

Shabbat Ima: Hannah

Shabbat Ben: Michael

Shabbat Bat : Lielle

Important reminders: 

• Please remember that the children’s starting time is 8.30-8.40 am. We will be starting promptly at 8.40am with Tefillah so please make sure your child is on time. If your child is late, your child will be brought in through the side door.
• The weather is forecast to be changing. As doors and windows will be open during the day, please make sure your child has extra clothing to put on if they are cold. Please make sure all items of clothing are labelled including shoes, gloves, hats and scarves.

Have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen, Morah Cassie, Morah Sari and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 1st February

Dear Parents,

We have had another fun week in Nursery.

We continued to discuss the importance of being kind to each other in both how we use our words and hands. We reiterated that if the children need help to  resolve different situations, they must come and find a teacher. This links to the area of Personal, Social and Emotional Development

We had another fun Show and Tell session where the children practised their questioning skills by asking questions to the child who had brought in their items. The children really are developing good questioning and answering skills. This links to the area of Communication and Language.

In Literacy we revised Aspect 5, Rhythm and Rhyme. We continued to read different rhyming stories. We also continued with Aspect 5: Alliteration. We went over what alliteration is; when words begin with the same letter sound. The children enjoyed playing whose name begins with which letter sounds, whilst completing the register. We also discussed whose names begin with the same sound. The children also had fun trying to make up tongue twisters for each of the initials in the children’s first name.

You can also play, ‘I Spy With My Little Eye’, something beginning with the letter sound ‘s’,’a’ etc. Your child can go around the house and see what objects they can find that begin with the same sound. It is very important that you teach your child the correct letter sound, so I have attached a video for you to listen to, to hear how each sound is pronounced before you teach your child.

Please watch the attached video which will help you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwJx1NSineE

The children enjoyed their weekly visit to the library. Please remember to return your child’s library book no later than Tuesday of each week, so that they are not disappointed when they are unable to bring a new book home with them.

In Mathematics, we revised numbers from 0-10. We then focused on learning about one more than a given number. The children enjoyed playing a game called, ’The More Than Monkey’ where the monkey makes mischief at the zoo. Everytime the zookeeper arrives at the animal enclosure and counts the animals, the ‘more than monkey’ adds one more. The children had to help the zookeeper work out what one more will be. For example, how many lions are there? There are 3. What is one more than 3? The children could use their fingers to work out the answer but we also used the large Numicon pieces to help find the answers.

The children also had fun going on a shape walk around the EYU. They walked around with clipboards and a shape checklist. As they found each shape they put a mark against it. 

In Understanding the World and Expressive Art and Design, the children continued to learn about different artists. They learnt about the artist Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky was known for his concentric circles on squares. The children enjoyed painting or drawing a picture in the style of Kandinsky. They created the most amazing pictures, each one being very individual. They carefully selected the colours of their choice and painted or drew with great care and precision. Kandinsky was known for listening to music as he painted, so we put on music for the children to listen to as they created their pictures.

We also learnt about the artist Jackson Pollock who was famous for creating his paintings by splashing and pouring paint onto the canvas. Some of the children enjoyed going outside and freely created their pictures by splashing paint onto their paper. This is a great activity for developing the children’s gross motor skills and they also had a lot of fun.

The above all links to Expressive Art and Design.

In Music:

• The children had fun learning a new song called ‘Here is the Beehive’. It contains a mixture of different rhyming words. 
• They also had fun learning about different percussion instruments. They completed some call and response exercises as well as making up some rhythms using the instruments.

In PE:

• The children continued enjoying a carousel of activities.
• They were split up into three groups.
• They practised jumping around the cones.
• They jumped over the hurdles  using both feet.
• They used a scooter to scoot from one end and back.
• They ran up and down the hill

At the end of the lesson they discussed what skills they had learnt today.

Ivrit

Dear parents הורים יקרים

On Thursday the 1st of February, the children had the great pleasure to watch a unique theatre show in Ivrit, as part of the Festival of Spoken Ivrit. The show is called The Rabbit Mamushi and is based on a well known Israeli children's book.

We learned new words from the show, such as Tzav (turtle), Parpar (butterfly), Leta’ah (lizard), Arnav (rabbit), Lev (heart) and Oznaim (ears). The show was mostly in Ivrit. It was so much fun!

I would like to invite you into school on Monday 12th February to join Morah Sari for a Family Day/Yom HaMishpacha session at 2pm. The session will last until the end of the school day. In the week prior to you joining us, Morah Sari will be teaching the children about how the day is celebrated in Israel and we thought it would be great if you could come in and share the celebration and an activity with your child.

As part of our new existing topic in Ivrit lessons, we will talk and learn more about My Family in Ivrit. 

Can I please ask parents to send me one family photo? The photo should be only the parents, the child, and their siblings.

It would be great if the photos could be sent to me no later than Monday 5th February. 

The photo can be sent directly to my email: 

Srubin@keremschool.co.uk

Many thanks,

Morah Sari

Jewish Studies 

The children reviewed the story of Bnei Yisrael from their time in Mitsrayim as slaves to the horrible plagues Hashem sent to persuade Paroh to let them go. I am so impressed by how much the children remember and how enthusiastically they like to act out some of them! We remembered how in last week's parasha, Paroh changed his mind and wanted to get the Bnei Yisrael back, and how Hashem made a miracle and split the Yam Suf. We carried on the story a bit more by exploring the parasha of Yitro. Now that Bnei Yisrael were in the Midbar (desert), Moshe told them to get ready round Har Sinai to hear the Asseret Hadibrot (the Ten Rules). They were not allowed to go up on to Har Sinai. Hashem and Moshe said these rules to Bnei Yisrael. One of the rules of the Asseret Hadibrot was ‘Keep Shabbat’. Another rule was ‘Listen to your father and mother' (kibbud av v eim) We listened to a fabulous tune I am a Mountain all about how Har Sinai was chosen to be the location of the giving of the Torah (Matan Torah). Do have a listen and see if your child can remember some of the words and actions. Exploring the concept of kibbud av va eim, we listened to the story Mummy Do You Love Me? By J. Willis. Each child made their own beautiful har Sinai / Matan Torah picture with gems, cotton wool clouds, paper flowers and a tiny torah image. 

Two small notes:

1. Please check your child's JS folder every week for the lovely crafts they bring home. The small printed explanation on each craft is a nice way to start a conversation about their JS learning. The children are always so proud to show off their knowledge as they are all doing beautifully! 

2. I would like to start collecting kitchen rolls and small plastic bottles for some upcoming crafts. If you have any to hand please do bring them in.

On Friday we had our very special Shabbat Party.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Elijah

Shabbat Ima: Alana

Shabbat Ben: Isaac

Shabbat Bat : Lexie

Important reminders: 

• Please remember that the children’s starting time is 8.30-8.40 am. We will be starting promptly at 8.40am with Tefillah so please make sure your child is on time. If your child is late, your child will be brought in through the side door.

Have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen, Morah Cassie, Morah Sari and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 26th January

Dear Parents,

We have had an exciting week celebrating Tu B'Shvat, the birthday of the trees.

It was lovely that you were able to join us and make it so special. The children loved the workshop run by Seed. We hope you enjoy using the fruit plates that you decorated with your children and discussing the Tu b’shvat quiz further with them. 

The children were lucky to have a special מסיבת פירות fruit party (mesibat perot) on Monday with Morah Cassie and Morah Sari. Thank you for sending in all the fruit. The children were so excited to try a lot of different perot and to see their seeds inside. We made Ha Etz, Hadama and on a beautiful dragon fruit, we made a Shechiyanu together. We tried 3 of the Shivat Minim; tamar, olive and rimon and learned so many new names of fruits in Ivrit. They also made birthday crowns to wear to celebrate Yom Huledet to the Etz tree.

The children also enjoyed a baking session with Mrs. Dagul where they made apple crumbles. They helped to measure out all the ingredients and then mixed them altogether to make the crumble.

During the week, Nursery had fun making their grass heads and also planting cress. They filled the soil to the top of their pots. They covered one pot with grass seeds and the other with cress seeds.The seeds were lightly covered with a little bit more soil. They then sprayed the soil. 

Please encourage your child to look after their plants following the instructions which were sent home. It is important that your child understands the importance of caring for all living things, including plants. Once the grass has grown, your child can give their grasshead a hairstyle using bows and clips and once the cress has grown, your child can enjoy eating it.

Please post on Tapestry any pictures of your child caring for their grass head and cress and also showing any growth. It would be lovely for them to be able to share with the class!

On Thursday, Tu B’shvat it was lovely to see the children dressed in tree colours and they were lucky to celebrate with a second fruit party.

All the above links to the areas of Understanding the World, Mathematics, Physical Development and Communication and Language.

We had another fun show and tell session where the children practised their questioning skills, asking questions to the child who had brought in their show and tell. The children really are developing good questioning and answering skills. This links to the area of Communication and Language.

In Literacy we revised Aspect 4, rhythm and rhyme. We went over what a syllable is; it makes up part of a word. We continued to clap out the syllables in all the children’s names, months of the year and days of the week. We also continued to read some fun rhyming stories.

We then started Aspect 5: Alliteration. We discussed what alliteration is; when words begin with the same letter sound. We played ‘I Spy With My Little Eye’, somebody’s name beginning with the letter sound ‘J,M’ etc. We discussed whose names begin with the same sounds. We also started to see how many words the children could name beginning with the letter sounds, ‘a, b and c’. We will continue with alliteration next week.

In Mathematics, the number of the week was number 10. We practised counting a variety of different objects up to 10, using 1-1 correspondence.  Some of the children also enjoyed playing on the iPads where they completed a variety of different number games.

We read the book ‘’Handa’s Surprise’. Handa collects delicious fruits for her friend Akeyo. When she arrives at Akeyo's village, they are both surprised to find different fruits in the gift basket. They meet animals on the way who steal the fruit, but a goat butts the tangerine tree just in time and replenishes the lost goodies. We discussed one more and one less, whilst the fruit was being put into the basket and taken out.

In Understanding the World and Expressive Art and Design, the children continued to learn about different artists. This week we focused on the artist Vincent Van Gogh who was particularly known for his still life paintings. Some of the children enjoyed creating a still life painting of a fruit basket. They discussed the different fruits, including their shape and colour. They explored colour mixing to create some of the fruit colours to add into their pictures. This also links to Mathematics and Physical Development. 

Over the last few weeks the children have been doing a lot of artwork in the style of different artists. In class we have been encouraging the children to talk about their art work. It is important that they feel proud of their achievements. Please look at the posts of their work on Tapestry and you will be incredibly proud. This links to the areas of Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language.

In Music:

• The children did stretching and warm up exercises.
• They carried on learning the Tu B'shevat song.

In PE:

• The children continued enjoying a carousel of activities.
• They practised two footed jumping into the hoops, jumping over the hurdles and also balancing on the grass obstacles.

Jewish Studies 

In JS this week we delved into the parasha of Beshalach. In it, Bnei Yisrael leave Mitzrayim, but are soon pursued by Paroh and his mighty army. They arrive at the Yam Suf where Hashem makes a miracle happen and the sea splits so that Bnei Yisrael are able to walk across on dry land. Hashem makes another miracle for Bnei Yisrael; all the time that they are in the Midbar they eat Mann which miraculously appears each morning (except on Shabbat) and there is always enough for each family. We looked at some (pretend) Mann and talked about its sweet taste. Can you think of any miracles that happen in your life?

Nursery had a go at catching big plastic fish in the outside area and had a go at reenacting walking through the Yam Suf just like Bnei Yisrael. Each child painted their own Splitting of the Yam Suf scene, mixing and blending blue and green hues and using their fingers and brushes to mark the waves of the splitting sea.

In Jewish Studies this week we joined Morah Sari to celebrate Tu B’Shevat with a Tu B’Shevat Seder. We said the bracha ha’etz over lots of familiar fruits: grapes, apples , peaches and nectarines, and some more exotic fruit like mangoes, passion fruit and coconut. We looked at the seeds within the fruits, noticing which ones have lots and which ones have only one seed/stone. We said the bracha of ha’adama over banana and carrots, and we were able to say the special shehchiyanu bracha over a beautiful pink dragon  fruit. In class we looked at the Shivat HaMininm / The 7 Species of Israel- 7 foods that traditionally grow in Eretz Yisrael. These are: olives, figs, dates, pomegranates, grapes, wheat and barley. Can you remember them all? Have a listen to this fun fruity song Mango Banana V’ Melon  that we played in class, as Nursery created their own glittery pomegranate decorations.

On Friday we had our very special Shabbat Party.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Micah   

Shabbat Ima: Lexie

Shabbat Ben: Joseph  

Shabbat Bat : Sarah  

Important reminders: 

• Please remember that the children’s starting time is 8.30-8.40 am. We will be starting promptly at 8.40am with Tefillah so please make sure your child is on time. If your child is late, your child will be brought in through the side door.

Have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen, Morah Cassie, Morah Sari and the Nursery Team

Nursery Newsletter - 19th January

Dear Parents

On Wednesday 24th January we look forward to seeing you at a special activity run by Seed for Tu B’shvat. If you are unable to attend, grandparents are welcome. The session will start promptly at 8.45am and end at 9.45am. We ask parents to drop the children off at 8.30am so that the children can settle and then they will join you upstairs for the activity, as soon as they are ready. Please can you let me know who will be attending so I can set up the classroom accordingly. 

We have had another fun and busy week in Nursery, even though it has been very chilly!

We continued to talk about being kind to each other. We talked about the importance of using our words, not our hands to achieve a positive outcome. We also discussed that if the children are struggling to sort out a situation on their own, they must ask a teacher for support. This links to Personal, Social and Emotional Development. 

We continued with our ‘Show and Tell’ sessions this week. The children enjoyed asking questions to the children who had brought in their ‘Show and Tell’. We focused on using the words ‘who, what, when and why.’ We will be working on this for the rest of the term. This links to the area of Communication and Language.

In Literacy in our Letters and Sounds lesson we continued with Aspect 4, continuing to focus on rhythm and rhyme. The children  enjoyed playing some rhyming games on the IWB. Two rhyming words appeared on the screen and if they rhymed with each other, the children put their thumbs up and if they did not match it was thumbs down. We also played another game where four pictures and words were shown on the board and the children had to pick the one that did not rhyme and was the odd one out.

Please continue to read rhyming stories to your children. You can also practise developing your child’s knowledge to be able to say a rhyming string.

We also revised what a syllable is; it makes up part of a word. We then practised clapping how many syllables in the children’s names and then said how many syllables there were. We also practised clapping how many syllables there were in the days of the week and months of the year, whilst completing the calendar.

The children are really enjoying their weekly sessions at the library where they get the opportunity to listen to a story before selecting their book to take home. Please make sure your child’s library book is returned no later than the following Tuesday.

In Mathematics, the number of the week was number 8. We practised counting a variety of different objects up to 8, using 1-1 correspondence.

The children enjoyed baking with Mrs Dagul where they made blueberry muffins. They helped to measure out all the ingredients. This was the first of two baking sessions for Tu B’shvat and the next session will be next week.

In Understanding the World the children enjoyed learning about the artist Henri Matisse and that he was famous for his picture, ‘The Snail’ and for making collages by cutting out different shapes. The children created their own collage pictures in the style of Matisse. They signed their pictures like true artists. 

We then learnt about the artist Claude Monet. We learnt that Claude was the founder of the impressionist movement. Impressionism was all about using light, colour and small brush strokes. He was famous for landscapes and some of the children tried creating a picture in this style.

It made me so proud to see the wonderful artwork the children created. It was amazing!

The children were excited to see that the water in our water tray had turned to ice. They discussed why and also watched to see what happened to the ice throughout the day.

In Music:

• The children started the lesson with some warm up exercises where the children had to follow the instructions from Mr Style.
• They carried on learning the Tu B’shvat song from last week's lesson and sang some other popular songs the children know.

In PE this week:  

• The children enjoyed a variety of activities.
• The children enjoyed running around the cones, jumping over the hurdles using both feet and jumping into a set of hula hoops and completing 5 star jumps in each hoop.
• They worked on developing their turn taking skills.

Ivrit:

Dear parents הוֹרִים יְקָרִים

We had an exciting lesson this week, connecting with Tu Bishvat.

We looked on few fruits פירות and search for the hidden treasure. The children were thrilled when they found it. 

Also, looking over sizes of the different fruits, using the words 

Gadol. Big. גדול.    And Katan. Small. קטן

Here are the words we repeated in our lesson:

Tapuach. Apple. תַּפּוּחַ

Tapuz. Orange. תַּפּוּז 

Klemantina. Clementine. קְלֵמֶנְטִינָה 

Geshem. Rain. גֶּשֶׁם

Shemesh. Sun. שֶׁמֶשׁ

Adama. Soil.  אֲדָמָה

Next week, we will celebrate Tu Bishvat with lots of yummy delicious fruits. 

Have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Sari

Jewish Studies:

This week in Jewish Studies we continued to discuss the thrilling story of Bnei Yisrael's exodus from Egypt. In this week’s parasha - Bo, Paroh continues to refuse to let Bnei Yisrael out of Mitzrayim and so Hashem sent the final three makot/punishments, which were: Locusts, Darkness and Sickness of the Firstborn. Hashem rescued Bnei Yisrael from slavery and took them out of Mitzrayim to be free to become the Jewish Nation. It must have been very scary but also very exciting for the Bnei Yisrael. Hashem gave Moshe lots of different instructions to tell to Bnei Yisrael. The people listened carefully and followed all his instructions. Hashem also told Bnei Yisrael to celebrate the chag of Pesach every year from then on. Hashem told us that for seven days we must eat matzot, we must actively remember Yetsiyat Mitsrayim and we must refrain from eating chametz. Nursery class spent a little time this week preparing some beautiful crafts that we will use to enhance their Haggadah, including 'matzot', little water jugs and painted hand prints.

The children have had a fabulous time learning about TuB’Shevat which is coming up next week. Each child made a beautiful blossomy painting using all sorts of different media to apply their paint - cotton wool balls, tissue, fingers and brushes. We started to explore some TuB’Shevat songs as we will soon be celebrating the Birthday of the Trees. We listened to lots of TuB'Shevat songs including Carol Boyd's Tututubshvat and Rabbi B's Tree Song. We also looked into brachot HaEtz and HaAdama, which we say to thank Hashem for giving us such delicious fruits and vegetables for our snacks every day.

On Friday we had our lovely, happy Shabbat party, where we discussed aspects of Shabbat and we sang and danced. 

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba - Levi  

Shabbat Ima-  Leora

Shabbat Ben - Jacob

Shabbat Bat -  Hannah

Reminders:

• As the doors to the outside area are open during the day, please make sure your child has extra clothing to put on if they are cold.
• Please make sure all items of clothing are labelled including shoes, gloves, hats and scarves.
• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry of what your child is doing out of school. The children are enjoying sharing their pictures with their classmates.
• Please remember that the children’s starting time is 8.30-8.40 am. We will be starting promptly at 8.40am with Tefillah so please make sure your child is on time. If your child is late, your child will be brought in through the side door.
• On Thursday 25th January please send your child in wearing tree colours. (Brown, green or pink).
• On Thursday 25th January you do not need to send your child in with a fruit snack as we will be having a fruit party.
• Please remember to bring in the fruit you have signed up for on Monday 22nd January. Thank you.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat Shalom

Miss Cowen, Morah Cassie, Morah Sari and the Nursery Team

Nursery Newsletter - 12th January

Dear Parents,

We have had another fun and busy week in Nursery.

We continued to discuss the class rules, reiterating good sharing and kindness towards each other. This links to Personal, Social and Emotional Development. 

We started the ‘Show and Tell’ sessions this week. We introduced the meaning of questions and some of the children were picked to ask the child a question who had brought in their ‘Show and Tell’.  We focused on using the words ‘who, what, when and why.’ We will continue to further develop the children’s understanding of asking questions over the coming weeks. This links to the area of Communication and Language.

In Literacy, in Letters and Sounds we continued with Aspect 4 Rhythm and Rhyme. We went over what a rhyming word is and the children continued to enjoy listening to some rhyming stories.

The children enjoyed playing some rhyming games on the IWB. They enjoyed listening to pairs of rhyming words and they had to work out if the words rhymed or not. If the words rhymed, they put their thumbs up and if the words didn't rhyme it was thumbs down.

The next game was a game called ‘Silly Soup’. We learnt the rhyme:

“I am making lots of silly soup, 

 I am making soup that’s silly,

 I am going to cook it in the fridge, 

            To make it nice and chilly.”

The children had to decide from a selection of different objects which objects rhymed to put in the soup, for example a mat, hat, and cat.

The children started to focus on writing their name, learning the correct letter formation and starting points for each letter. This will now be a weekly focus.

In Mathematics, the number of the week was number 8. We practised counting a variety of different objects up to 8, using 1-1 correspondence. The children enjoyed practising counting up to 100 when exercising.

The children are going to be learning about different artists over the coming weeks. In preparation for this, we explored colour mixing. We read the book, ‘Mixed’ and learnt how from three primary colors, a variety of different colours can be made when mixed together. The children had fun experimenting and created some lovely artwork. We discussed how the shades can be made lighter by adding white or darker by adding black. This links to the area Expressive Arts and Design.

We read the book, ‘The Dot’ by Peter Reynolds. The Dot is a beautiful story about a girl named Vashti, who is encouraged by her teacher to take a risk.  Vashti does not believe she can draw.  She is filled with self-doubt until her teacher gently persuades her to ‘Just make a mark and see where it takes you.’  Once Vashti sees her artwork signed and framed, she is inspired to experiment more with dots. The children then created their own dot pictures using a variety of different colours, which included colour mixing. This links to the areas of Expressive Art and Design and Understanding the World.

All their pictures were amazing and very individual. The children signed their artwork like true artists. We will continue with the topic of artists the following week.

In Music this week:

• The children warmed up to a game of Simon Says.
• They learnt a special song for Tu B’shevat and Mr Style taught them the words. It was a song about soil and planting seeds.
• They then learnt the song Frère Jacques.
•  

In PE this week:  

We want to firstly wish Mr Antony congratulations on the birth of his daughter. He will be back at school soon, but the children still enjoyed a PE lesson in his absence.

• The children were split into teams to complete an obstacle course.
• The obstacle course included hopping around the cones, jumping over the hurdles using both feet and jumping into a set of hula hoops.
• They worked on developing their turn taking skills.
• They ended the lesson by practising their running skills in small groups.

In Ivrit this week:

Dear parents שלום הורים יקרים

It was lovely to see everyone back after the holidays. I hope you all had a relaxing time.

We are back with our new Ivrit topic Tu Bishvat טו בשבט

The New Year for the trees. 

This week we learned all about what a tree עץ (Etz) needs to grow; Adama (soil), Shemesh שמש (sun) and Geshem (rain). We also mentioned fruit trees and learned to say Tapuach תפוח (apple), Tapuz תפוז (orange), Anavim ענבים (grapes) and Agas אגס (pear). 

שבת שלום

Morah Sari❤️

Jewish Studies:

This week in Jewish Studies, Nursery got to experience some real magic in the EYU as Morah Cassie showed them how she could turn lovely clean water into bright red (pretend) 'blood'. Nursery was learning all about the scary plagues/makot that come up in this week's parasha Va’era. In this parasha, Moshe has grown up into an adult, and Hashem tells him to go to Paroh to ask him to let Beneh Yisrael go out of Mitzrayim. Paroh says ‘no’ so Hashem sends the first seven out of ten punishments/makot. The punishments are in the form of plagues which affect everything. There is blood in the water, frogs all over the place, lice on the people and in the air, wild animals roaming everywhere, animals getting sick, horrible boils on people and huge hail stones falling from the sky. 

Nursery made bouncy frogs jumping out of the red river Nile to enjoy at home. We listened to the song Frogs Here, Frogs There by Shaboom, which can be found easily online if you would like to listen at home. Nursery used foam bricks to build pyramids like the Bnei Yisrael. We used this week’s parasha as an opportunity to get an early start on our preparations for Pesach. The children prepared their colourful makot pictures which we will keep safe here at the EYU, ready to go into their Haggadahs. Ask your child how many of the makot/plagues they can remember.

Today we had our Kabbalat Shabbat party and the following children were on the Shabbat table:

Shabbat Aba - Joshua

Shabbat Ima -  Lielle

Shabbat Ben  - Noah

Shabbat Bat  -  Alana

Reminders:

• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry of what your child is doing out of school (especially any holiday pictures). The children are enjoying sharing their pictures with their classmates.
• Please remember that the children’s starting time is 8.30-8.40 am. We will be 

starting prompt at 8.40am with Tefillah so please make sure your child is on time. If your child is late, your child will be brought in through the side door.

• As the doors are open during the day, please make sure your child has extra clothing to put on if they are cold. 
• Please make sure all items of clothing are labelled including shoes, gloves, hats and scarves.
• Please make sure you sign the sheet for bringing fruit in for Tub’shvat. This will be outside the classroom on Monday 15th January. Fruit to be brought in for Monday 22nd January.
• Reminder- The Seed workshop for parents is on Wednesday 24th January at 8.45am -9.45 am.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend.

We wish you all a Shabbat Shalom

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team