Friday 12th April, 2024

Dear Parents,

Another amazing week in Reception! We can’t believe the Spring term is officially finished! Even though it’s been a longer term, it absolutely flew by! 

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank Morah Cassie for all her hard work on the gorgeous Haggadah’s. She worked incredibly hard on them and the outcome is amazing. We hope you enjoy using them over the holidays! 

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week, we discussed personal space. This is an incredibly important topic that is important for us to review/ discuss on a regular basis. 

In Physical Development this week the children loved building the Sydney Opera House and the Great Barrier Reef. We used the water tray and many of our various construction blocks in order to do so. In PE this week, Reception continued their preparations for Sports day by practising events such as Sprint races (marks, set, go), Scooter riding, hurdle running and bean bag throwing. 

In Literacy this week there have been no new digraphs or trigraphs. Once again, we have been revisiting prior learning as it is crucial for the children to feel confident with those before moving on to new ones. This week, we also spent each day reviewing the many recent tricky words as they seem to be quite difficult. The children wrote about their weekend news on Monday and later on during the week, the children continued to write their amazing Australian fun- facts!  In Drawing Club this week, we worked on ‘ The Snail and the Whale’. Our words for the week were: slithered, curled, immense and hideous. 

In Maths this week the children did a lot of counting of certain fish! We continued pattern making and we practised counting in 2’s and 10’s. The children have been amazing with their counting and have absolutely loved it. We did most of our Maths lessons outside this week as the weather’s been gorgeous. 

In Understanding the World this week, the children continued to learn about Australia. This weeks focus was on the incredible sea life, especially in the Great Barrier Reef. The children all had the opportunity of painting their own beautiful fish/ sea portraits. This also links to the art and design as the children used the Great Barrier Reef as their focus for the week. 

In Jewish Studies this week, we looked a little closer 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 sing with joy and hope for a beautiful peaceful bright future. We had a great class discussion about Israel and the people that we know and love who live there. Lots of the children have cousins, aunties, uncles and grandparents in Israel. We talked about how Yerushalayim is an ancient city, with each buildings sandstone having an interesting tale to tell. The children made Yerushalayim scenes, cutting and colouring and sticking while we practised singing Leshana Haba B'Yerushalayim and Ma Nishtana. 

At the end of the second Seder we start to count the Omer. We start to count up 7 complete weeks from Pesach until Shavuot. We had such fun counting the Omer each morning during tefillah last year on our giant class Omer Counter, so we were excited to make our own Omer Counters so that we will be able to count each night at home. 

On Wednesday we had our Model Seder, with lots of singing, dipping, leaning and nibbling. 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! 

We have listened to and learned so many great Pesach songs over the past few weeks. Two of our favourites are : Frogs! A Passover Song by Carol Boyd and Who Knows One, by Shaboom. Have a listen at home, they are great fun! 

In alef-bet this week we looked at the letter Tsadi, which says ‘ts’, and comes at the end of our new vocabulary word:

-tsafun (one of the stages of the pesach Seder).

At the Shabbat table this week we had:

Imma - Carmi

Abba - Zac

Bat - Elise

Ben- Oliver

Wishing you all a fabulous Pesach, 

Morah Cassie

Shabbat shalom and have a wonderful end of term break. We are already looking forward to seeing you and your wonderful children back in May! 

Mrs. Ranson, Miss Le Fort and Miss Molina 

Reminders

-FS wellies to be returned for the first Thursday back.

-We are still missing several library books, please can they kindly be returned on the first day back.

-No homework is set, however please do continue to read with your children, work on the tricky words, complete Doodle Tasks and read the eBooks. 

- We would love to see the wonderful activities you are doing over the holidays so please do post on Tapestry! It is such a lovely way to stay connected! 

- Next half term, we will be starting our ‘ Superhero’ unit. If you have any props, books, toys etc that you think would enhance the children's learning, please feel free to send it in on the first day back- thank you!

Friday 5th April, 2024

Dear Parents,

Another short week, come and gone! Thank you to all the parents for joining me for the focus meetings, we are now officially finished with them for the spring term! It is so lovely getting a chance to speak to each of you one on one about your fantastic children. Next term, there will be the end of the year report, but should you have concerns, I am always happy to meet with you. 

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week, we discussed meal time manners and we worked hard on being polite. We discussed how it makes people feel good when we say our please and thank you’s, especially when someone is helping and serving us. 

In Physical Development this week the children loved building the Sydney Opera House and the Great Barrier Reef. We used the water tray and many of our various construction blocks in order to do so. In PE this week, Reception began their preparations for Sports Day by practising events such as egg and spoon, quoit balancing, bean bag throwing and running races. The children also baked pyramid biscuits for Pesach with Mrs. Dagul. They had to measure, mix and bake! Their biscuits turned out really well and were delicious! 

In Literacy this week there have been no new digraphs or trigraphs. Once again, we have been revisiting prior learning as it is crucial for the children to feel confident with those before moving on to new ones. This week, we also spent each day reviewing the many recent tricky words as they seem to be quite difficult. In Drawing Club this week the children read and worked on ‘ Annie the Apple’.  As it was a short week last week and our Purim celebrations, we were able to finish it this week. It was all about accepting one another for our true colours and it doesn’t matter what’s on the outside of us, but what truly matters is what’s on the inside. The children’s key words were: erupted, darkness, determined and accepted. We also connected many of Annie’s character traits to our Kerem characteristics. It was great to review and hear many of the children put the Kerem characteristics into full sentences. 

In Maths this week the children have been pattern making! As we are learning about Australia, there are many beautiful patterns that are used on Australian boomerangs and it was amazing for the children to see and then replicate repeated patterns. They loved it! 

In Understanding the World this week, the children learnt all about Australia, we learnt all about the different species (especially the creepy crawly ones) that live on this continent. We learnt about the climate, weather, different cities and most importantly, its beautiful landmarks! 

In Art and Design this week the children created and designed their own boomerangs. They put their pattern making skills to work and created their own patterns and used them on their very own boomerangs!  

In Jewish Studies this week, we 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 practised singing along to a fabulous version of Ma Nishtana by the Maccabeats which you can search for online and listen to at home; it's great fun! Each of the children made lolly stick puppets of the 10 plagues to use during Seder to help them recount the story of Yetsiyat Mitzrayim. 

We also looked into the Order of the Seder. We learned that the Seder has 14 different steps. Every Seder, no matter where you are in the world has the very same steps, and those are the same steps that we as a nation have been doing for generations. A Seder is something quite special and beautiful. We made a handy Order of the Seder poster and had a go at singing this song (to the tune of Yachad Yachad): 

“Kadesh urchats, Carpas yachats

Magid rochtsa, Motsi matsa

Marror korech, Shulchan orech 

Tsafun barech, Hallel nirtsah.

Pesach, we celebrate!

With matsah maror and the seder plate . Ma nishtana , 4 cups of wine!

Found the Afikoman

and the prize is mine!”

In alef-bet we looked at a new letter - Pey, which says ‘p’ and comes at the beginning of the words:

-Paroh, and 

-Patach (the name of the hebrew vowel). 

The children are doing so well with their new vocabulary words and with blending their alef-bet letters with the vowels Kamatz and Patach. 

At the Shabbat table this week we had:

Imma - Rafaela

Abba - Bobby

Bat - Noa

Ben- Leo G

Shabbat shalom and have a lovely weekend,

Mrs. Ranson, Miss Le Fort and Miss Molina 

Reminders

-We finish Friday 12th April at 12:30pm

-No Broadway Mini Club on Thursday 11th April so please ensure you are collecting your child at 3pm. 

- No Forest School 11th April. We will be sending home wellies to be washed for the summer term please.

Thursday 28th March, 2024

Dear Parents,

Another wonderful week, come and gone! We hope you all had a lovely Purim! Thank you again to all of our wonderful reading volunteers this week, we’ve really loved having you!

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week, we used our special puppet friends to role play and create certain scenarios that could help us become better pupils and better friends. The children then wrote sentences about what makes them a good friend. 

In Physical Development this week the children loved their PE club with Mr. Antony on Monday and they had a great time in Wednesday’s PE lesson. In PE this week, Reception used their hand-eye coordination skills they have been developing to play competitive ball games amongst each other, learning how to work and play as a team.

In Literacy this week there have been no new digraphs or trigraphs. Once again, we have been revisiting prior learning as it is crucial for the children to feel confident with those before moving on to new ones. This week, we did learn two new tricky words: ‘ children and love’.  In Drawing Club this week the children read and worked on a book I wrote in University called ‘ Annie the Apple’. It was all about accepting one another for our true colours and it doesn’t matter what’s on the outside of us, but what truly matters is what’s on the inside. The children’s key words were: erupted, darkness, determined and accepted. We also connected many of Annie’s character traits to our Kerem characteristics. It was great to review and hear many of the children put the Kerem characteristics into full sentences. 

In Maths this week the children have been working on counting. We practised writing numbers 1-10 in Mandarin which the children loved. We also did a lot of 1:1 correspondence within 10. We spent a lot of time this week focusing on simple subtraction as this often seems to be tricky. It is helpful to work on this consistently as it continues to consolidate the children's knowledge. 

In Understanding the World this week, the children continued to learn about Asia. We had a specific focus this week on Israel as Israel is located in Asia. We devoted almost a whole week to this specific country as of course, it plays a vital role in our hearts, our lives and in our history! We read several books, learnt about Israeli food, culture, music, religion and language! This ties in to creative art and design as the children designed their own plates full of all their favourite Israeli delicacies!

In Jewish Studies this week we celebrated Purim on Monday with a whole day of Purim fun. We started the day with a fashion parade which gave everyone in the EYU a chance to show off their smart costumes and to give their friends a big cheer. The children then decorated Mishloach Manot boxes with paints and Purim sponge shapes. Everyone had a chance to make delicious Hamantaschen filled with chocolate chips and sprinkles with Mrs Dagul, (what a treat!) and some of the children chose to make their own very fancy Purim crowns complete with feathers and tissue-paper flowers. We read a gorgeous book by Barbara Diamond Goldin called Cakes and Miracles; a Purim Tale, while our Hamantaschen were baking - it was wonderful to read about the main character’s sweet Purim cakes while we were surrounded by the wonderful smell of our own cooking.  Thank you so much to the PTA for arranging for Mr Marvel to join us at the EYU for a brilliant magic show!

In alef-bet this week we looked at the letter Mem, which says ‘m’, and occurs at the start of our new vocabulary words:

-maggid - a stage in the Pesach Seder

-matzah, and 

-marror - bitter herb. 

We also 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. We started to learn about the difference between chametz and Matzah. We discussed how chametz can be something physical and tangible eg bread, or that chametz can be anything in our lives that holds us back from being our best selves, such as worries, or bad habits. We looked into the beautiful mitzvah of searching the house the night before Pesach for chametz (Bedikat Chametz), and we had such fun going on our own chametz hunt around the classroom armed with feathers, wooden spoons and torches. Well done Reception class, I know no chametz will be getting past your keen eyes! 

Shabbat shalom for tomorrow, have a lovely long weekend and we will see you all on Tuesday!

Mrs. Ranson, Miss Le Fort and Miss Molina 

Reminders:

Important reminders:

-Thank you for being so great with returning the homework folders these past few weeks.

-Doodle and ELS reading books online are assigned every week. We’ve seemed to dip with those completing them, so please do continue to use them. They are amazing resources!

Friday 22nd March, 2024

Dear Parents,

Another wonderful week, come and gone! Thank you again to all of our wonderful reading volunteers this week, we’ve really loved having you! Also, thank you to our parent guests on Wednesday who came to speak to the children about the Iranian new year! Finally, thank you all for joining us on Wednesday for our hands on ‘ Seed’ activity! We hope you all enjoyed making your hug in a mug! 

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week, we had a group discussion and circle time reiterating the importance of privacy when going to the toilets and at all times. We explained how this is a private time and we must keep it that way. 

In Physical Development this week the children have been doing a lot of cutting and gluing in order to make their own lanterns. This also links to expressive arts and design as the children were then given the chance to decorate their lantern and present it to the class and explain how/why they made it the way they did! In PE this week, Reception continued to develop their hand-eye coordination skills through throwing, catching and over arm bowling skills and games.

In Literacy this week there have been no new digraphs or trigraphs. Once again, we have been revisiting prior learning as it is crucial for the children to feel confident with those before moving on to new ones. This week, we did learn three new tricky words: little, one and do.  In Drawing Club this week the children read and worked on, ‘ Ten Minutes to Bed Little Unicorn.’ Our key words were: sparkly, riot, dashing and prancing. As this book focuses on both maths and literacy, the children also worked hard on spelling numbers such as ‘ ten’ and ‘ eight’ which is of course, a super tricky word to spell! 

In Maths this week the children have been working on counting. We’ve been using our wonderful animals from Asia and we’ve been counting them and making them into groups. We’ve also been discussing whether whatever number we’ve counted is either an even number or an odd number. They’ve even been practising a little song on it too! As always, we’ve continued to work on simple addition and subtraction as well. 

In Understanding the World this week, the children hopped onto our wonderful BA first class aeroplane and headed to Asia! We discussed many different countries and many different facts. We looked at famous mountains, rivers, climate, people, culture, landmarks and the numerous languages spoken in these countries. The children then also wrote about these facts! 

In Jewish Studies this week 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. We reflected on the fact that tzedakah is something that people do daily or weekly, but that Purim is a particularly auspicious time to give. Each of the children made and decorated their own colourful Purim Tzedakah boxes from card to use and enjoy at home. 

We were so lucky to be visited by Seed, who ran a fabulous Pre-Purim session, making delicious Mishloach Manot Hugs in Mugs. We cannot wait to give them to someone special on Purim day. 

In alef-bet this week we focussed on the letter Kuf, which says ‘k’, and some new vocabulary words that start with Kuf:

-Kadesh, the first stage of the Pesach Seder, 

-Kamatz - the name of a Hebrew vowel, and

-Kabbalat Shabbat. 

The children are doing so well with their alef-bet learning and getting to grips with the new vocabulary words. Do keep practising blending letters and vowels together to make new sounds, and keep reviewing the new vocabulary cards each week. 

We also looked into this week’s Parasha of Vayikra. Whenever Bnei Yisrael wanted to show their love for Hashem, they brought a gift to the Mishkan. Bnei Yisrael also brought gifts to the Mishkan whenever they wanted to say ‘sorry’ or ‘thank you’ to Hashem. We discussed as a class different things we would like to say ‘thank you’ for to Hashem, be it a new baby in the family, a beloved toy, or having a lovely Mummy and Daddy… there is always so much to be thankful for! We tied this in nicely with some Haggadah preparation week - preparing the page for Hallel, Hallel being the bit in the Seder where we praise and give thanks to Hashem. We had a beautiful sing-along to the song Hodu L’ashem from Hallel with percussion instruments. Well done Reception class, you have such wonderful enthusiasm and each of you brings so much joy and verve to our classes!

On Friday we had our Shabbat party. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Leo G

Shabbat Ima - Arianna

Shabbat Ben - MJ

Shabbat Bat - Amelie

Wishing you all a wonderful Purim over the weekend!

The Reception children arrived on site and began their session with our song, count and name game. It was wonderful to look up into the branches of the Willow tree and see the changes it has gone through each week. The children spotted that the leaves have become longer and the catkins are much softer and fluffier this week.

After a recap of our rules, we played a game of Squirrels. The children have not played this for a little while and were noticeably much more confident following the squirrel actions and finding partners to escape from the fox.

Next we gathered at the tarp to listen to the story of Ostara and the Hare. This is a story from the Celtic tradition, telling the tale of the Spring Equinox, where Hare lays a colourful egg and is confused why this has happened.

Some children took inspiration from the story and used their willow weaving skills again this week to make Hare headdresses. They manipulated the willow to make it curve, before measuring it to the size of their head and weaving it in and out to form a hoop. They then used their twisting skills to create ears using pipe cleaners which they attached to the willow. Over recent weeks, the children's confidence in their own abilities has really increased. They have become much more independent and are happy to explore and try things out. An opportunity to explore with natural paintbrushes and paint was also given. Lots of the children explored mixing colours together to create brown to paint the trunks of the trees and then different patterns were created for the leaves using catkins as a painting tool. There was also exploration using the binoculars and magnifiers and an interest in making mini dens for the Forest Friends.

We concluded our session with our Spring Equinox ceremony. We lit a candle and shared a moment of gratitude for the things that we love about Spring.

Have a great week,

Emma and Carrie

Reminders:

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 a 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 Tzedakah. 
• Please send your child in with a fruit snack as normal on this day.
• Next week we will be continuing our learning on Asia with a special emphasis on Israel. We will be looking into Israeli food so if you would like to have/ try some food this weekend, it would be great so they have some prior knowledge on this! May make for a nice family weekend activity! If you do eat/try Israeli food, please can you print pictures of the food and bring them in next week.

Friday 15th March, 2024,

Dear Parents,

What a wonderful week we have had! This week has genuinely flown by! Thank you so much to all the parent reading volunteers this week. We loved having you and as always, it was just so special! 

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children all enjoyed another special puppet show and we went over different scenarios with relevant issues and we discussed how we would solve them. This also linked to Communication and Language as this meant that the children were sharing their responses and thoughts with the class. 

In Physical Development this week the children have been doing a lot of cutting and glueing in order to make their African animal puppets! We’ve been working on a lot of different pattern making with various prints and the children have been using an array of materials in order to create their very own puppets! This also links to expressive arts and design as the children were then given the chance to showcase their plates/ puppets to the class once they had completed their design. In PE this week, Reception built on their hand-eye coordination skills through bowling, throwing and catching activities using a tennis ball.

In Literacy this week there have been no new digraphs or trigraphs. Once again, we have been revisiting prior learning as it is crucial for the children to feel confident with those before moving on to new ones. This week, we did learn three new tricky words: some, come and there. The children continued to write full sentences this week while reviewing prior digraphs such as ‘ ch, sh, th, ng and nk’. For example: It is a shop.  I can chat. In Drawing Club this week the children read and worked on, ‘ Giraffes Can’t Dance’. Our key words were: munching, elegant, clumsy, brave and swaying. 

In Maths this week the children have been creating different patterns using our animal prints. We also used shapes for example: circle, triangle, square, circle, triangle, what comes next? 

In Understanding the World this week the children hopped onto their African Safari and immersed themselves into the amazing african wilderness! We spotted many different types of animals and discussed exciting facts about several African countries and animals! We also listened to African Music and may have even had a little dance party…

In Jewish Studies this week we looked into the four key mitzvot of Purim The 4 Purim Mitzvot are: giving mishloach manot משלח מנות;  giving charity צדקה; listening to the megila מגילה;  and having a special Purim meal/ seudah. The children talked about the different foods they would like to give as part of their mishloach manot- from heart shaped cookies to hamantaschen. Each child made their own Purim gragger/raashan to shake and make a noise when the name Haman is read during the reading of the Megillah. We filled the graggers with lentils, which have given them their unique sound when shaken. 

In alef-bet, we looked at the new letter ‘Sin’, which makes the sound ‘S’ and comes at the beginning of two new words:

-Sameach, meaning ‘happy’, and

-Sarah (wife of Avraham)

We also looked at some letter blends and focussed on how we can now make the word ‘Chag’, meaning festival from Chet, Patach and Gimmel. 

At home have a go at blending your alef-bet laminated letters with your orange hebrew vowels and see what blends you can make. Can you make the sounds ‘ha’, ‘va’ and ‘ga’ with your cards? Can you make ‘chag’ from Chet, Patach and Gimmel?

We also looked into the 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 rest. The Anan showed Bnei Yisrael that Hashem was always with them. We talked about how we feel Hashem’s presence in our lives today, be it in the morning sunshine, or in the way that Hashem helps our bodies grow. Can you think of any other ways you feel Hashem’s presence in your life? Each of the children made an Anan Crown to take home and enjoy!

On Friday we had our Shabbat party. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Rafi

Shabbat Ima - Elise

Shabbat Ben - Zac

Shabbat Bat - Rafaela

In Forest School this week, The Reception children were excited to see the mud and puddles again. We shared our welcome routine and introduced a new game.  We asked the children to think about their breath. The children took a breath through their nose and then a long breath out through their mouth. We changed our breath out into a hum, then an ahhhhh and practised stopping when we ran out of breath. Once we got the hang of this we had a go at running for as long as we could whilst screaming and stopped when we ran out of breath. We went back to the start and tried to run further and beat our previous attempt, which many of the children did.

Having had a good run, we gathered back at the tarp to listen to the story What Small Rabbit Heard, which tells of a rabbit who did not want to go outside to play because it was too cold, he was too busy and too tired. We recognised times when some of us have felt this way too. We all laughed as Small Rabbit misheard the instructions of Big Rabbit and ended up getting up to lots of fun outdoor adventures on a very windy day.

For the rest of the session, the children followed their own interests. Lots of children were thinking about the wind today and having a go at making a weather vane. For this they had to use their cutting skills to cut a leaf into an arrow shape, and insert it on either end of a straw. The trickiest part was using our strength to push a pin through the straw and into a stick. The best bit was watching it spin as the wind blew. We also had some children who put their knot skills to work tying ribbons on to sticks to also show which way the wind was blowing. Finally the mud provided lots of opportunity for exploration and for those children who were fascinated by the feel of it squishing under their boots. We also had some children who enjoyed exploring and spotting the different colours that Spring is starting to bring.

To finish our session, we gathered back at the log circle and sang I am Awake! 

Have a great week,

Emma and Carrie

Reminders:

-Please can I remind parents that all reading folders need to be returned to school by Thursday morning. This gives my staff and I plenty of time to get them ready for Friday. ***Homework should be posted on Tapestry every week. ***

- Purim event Wednesday 20th March, we look forward to it and we will see you from 8:45-9:45 that morning!

- No club Monday 18th March. Pick-up will therefore be at the usual 3pm. 

- We will be travelling a long way to Asia as of Monday so please feel free to bring in any books or toys that you believe would enhance their learning!

- A reminder that all snacks for after school clubs and for packed lunches on a Friday should be healthy snacks.

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.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs. Ranson, Miss Le Fort and Miss Molina

Friday 8th March, 2024,

Dear Parents,

What a wonderful week we have had. World Book Week was definitely one for the books this year! Thank you to all the parent volunteers who came and read this week with the children, it was beyond lovely! 

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children all had a special circle time with their favourite teddies and why they’re important. In a way, for many of us, they’re like family! We also did a runway fashion show with our costumes on Wednesday! This was definitely a favourite! 

In Communication and Language this week the children have all been sharing their favourite books. The children each had the opportunity to speak in front of the class and say what their favourite book is and why. They also had the opportunity on Wednesday to share their favourite teddy or stuffed animal with the rest of the class. It was such a special time for each child and this activity was loved by all!

In Physical Development this week the children have been doing a lot of cutting and glueing as they had the sequencing cards to sort from our book/theme of the week which is ‘ Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?’. In PE this week, Reception continued to develop their hand- eye coordination skills through Hockey practice and drills. Learning to correctly hold the Hockey stick and to dribble and hit the ball with good control. On Thursday, the children also participated in several different baking activities with Mrs Dagul. The children had to measure and mix all the ingredients. The children baked delicious cupcakes and jello! 

In Literacy this week there have been no new digraphs or trigraphs. Once again, we have been revisiting prior learning as it is crucial for the children to feel confident with those before moving on to new ones. This week, we did learn three new tricky words: some, come and there. The children also wrote sentences this week based on whichever London landmark they chose to create. This will be displayed in our London Museum this afternoon when you come for a visit! 

In Maths this week the children have been revising one more/one less than a given number. We also had quite a few lessons on number bonds to 5 and then 10, it would be great for the children to continue to work on this at home. 

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 heart-warming 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 also discussed various different books and different styles authors may have. We also continued our learning on Europe and we discussed other European countries and facts on several major cities in Europe. The children have truly enjoyed learning about Europe over the last two weeks and the many new facts. We are very excited to move on to Africa next week!

In Creative Arts and Design this week the children finished their London landmark creation. They are very excited to showcase their landmarks at our very own London Museum on Friday. The children used junk modelling in order to create their models and the best part about it, is they worked together in teams to create their 3D pieces! We also created paper plates with our favourite story book characters! This was in honour of World Book Day and the children enjoyed cutting,sticking and painting in order to make them!

In Forest School this week Reception children started with their welcome routine and calling to the different trees. This half term, we will be focussing on our body sensations and our feelings. We thought about how we might be feeling if our bodies are all tight and scrunchy. The children recognised that this was an uncomfortable feeling like anger, worry or sadness. We also thought about the more comfortable feelings like calm, relaxed and happy and how our bodies feel loose, warm and open when we feel like this. We shared a technique that the children can use if their body feels uncomfortable called Flower Breathing. We all imagined holding a dandelion clock and slowly breathing in and out, imagining blowing the seeds off. The children recognised that as they breathed out their shoulders dropped and relaxed.

After this we played a quick game of Eagle Eyes. The children enjoyed hiding and creeping closer to the tarp when Emma had her eyes closed. We gathered back on the tarp to hear Emma tell the story Every Breath A Smile. This thinks about how we breathe and how it can calm our bodies down and then help us to notice and feel grateful for the wonderful things around us.

For the rest of the session the children followed their own interests and met their own needs. Some children decided to get creative and make gifts for their mums and loved ones. Some decorated pots and planted sunflower seeds in them. Others used different hole punches to cut shapes out of leaves which they put in tiny pots to create pots of love. We also had some children who bent pieces of willow and put their knot skills to work securing the pieces together to make willow hearts. There was also some mud exploration, returning to their puddles.

To conclude our session, we gathered back together to share something we were proud of that we did today. Lots of children were proud that they were able to make something for their families.

Have a great week,

Emma and Nancy

In Jewish Studies this week we looked at the thrilling and colourful story of Queen Esther as told from Megillat Esther on Purim. We learned that the story took place hundreds of years ago, but it is still as exciting and relevant now as it was then - full of intrigue, beautiful princesses, really nasty baddies and amazing plot twists! We had such fun playing the game ‘Guess Who’ as a class, with some of the children coming up to the front as one of the characters from the Purim story and the other children asking questions to guess who they were. Reception class, I do believe you would all make excellent detectives! Each of the children made puppets of two of the Purim story characters using lots of different materials and fabrics. 

In alef-bet this week we looked at the letter Vav, which says ‘v’ and comes up at the beginning of our new vocabulary word:

-Vashti (the name of the Queen in the Purim Story). 

We also introduced our new ‘helper’ vowel Patach, which gives the letter it sits under the sound ‘a’, just like in the word Vashti. 

We also touched on the parasha of the week, which is Vayakhel. In parashat Vayakhel, Bnei Yisrael were building a Mishkan, a very special place where they were able to go to talk to Hashem. Bnei Yisrael were 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. Follow the link to have a listen Yom Rishon Avodah Marcia Jacobs Can you sing along? At the end of Shabbat we look for three stars in the sky and we know it is time to make Havdalah, where we smell sweet spices as we say goodbye to Shabbat and hello to a brand new week. Reception forraged in the EYU garden for fresh rosemary and were given cinnamon bark and rose buds and made a sparkly Besamim Bag to take home and use for havdalah. 

On Friday we had our Shabbat party. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Oliver

Shabbat Ima - Noa M

Shabbat Ben - Léo M

Shabbat Bat - Carmi

Reminders:

-Please can I remind parents that all reading folders need to be returned to school by Thursday morning. This gives my staff and I plenty of time to get them ready for Friday. ***Homework should be posted on Tapestry every week. ***

- Next week we will travel on an African Safari to Africa! If you have anything at home that you think could enhance their learning ( books, animal toys etc. ) please feel free to bring them in. The more, the merrier! 

- Purim event Wednesday 20th March, we look forward to it and we will see you from 8:45-9:45 that morning!

- No club Monday 18th March. Pick-up will therefore be at the usual 3pm. 

- We have not been able to visit the library as only two children brought their books back this week. Please can we kindly ask that all Library books are returned Monday 11th March. 

- A reminder that all snacks for after school clubs and for packed lunches on a Friday should be healthy snacks. 

Friday 1st March, 2024

Dear Parents,

It was so lovely to welcome the children back after the February half term holidays. Everyone was excited to be back and share their holiday news!

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we worked on ‘compliments’. We discussed what a compliment is, when we give one and how we give one. We did a circle time where each child picked out a name and they had to give that child a compliment. 

In Communication and Language this week the children have been speaking about their holiday news. I have heard about ski trips, visits to Legoland, swims in a hotel pool, the balloon museum and many holiday camps. The children have all gained so much confidence when speaking in a large group and their friends listened very politely. 

In Physical Development this week the children have been writing, drawing, cutting, sticking and finally painting. We started learning about Europe this week with a key focus on London. The children have been learning about the various London Landmarks and they’ve been creating junk models of these famous landmarks! In PE this week, Reception focused on developing their hand- eye coordination skills through tennis drills and games. Learning to correctly hold the racket and swing to hit the ball.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been revising the tricky words, phonemes and digraphs which we have already learnt. The new tricky words this week were: said, so and have. 

In Maths this week the children have been learning that when you add two numbers together it doesn’t matter what order they are written. E.g. 2+4 is the same as 4+2. However, when writing minus sums, you have to put the bigger number first. E.g. 6-2 is not the same as 2-6. We have used the rolling dice to create some lovely minus (take away) sums. This is something we looked at at the end of the last half term, but it was really good to refresh our memories! 

In Understanding the World this week the children went on an exciting local walk on Monday. It’s really important for the children to learn about their local area. We walked around and discussed the different churches nearby, the various plants, different styles of homes, the many shops and finally the beautiful parks! 

In Forest School this week Reception children were keen to squelch in the muddy puddles as soon as they arrived. It is wonderful to see their confidence and excitement in this environment more. We shared our welcome routine and then introduced our game Creeping Comanche. The children thought about animals that need to move quietly and then stay still when they stalk their prey and had a practice at moving in this way. We lifted our feet up slowly and put them down carefully to move without making a sound. Next we introduced the drum. The children had to listen carefully and only move closer to Emma when the drum was playing. As soon as it stopped they had to freeze and not move. They were really good at this and understood the need to move slowly.

After this, we gathered together to hear Emma tell the story Stuck by Oliver Jeffers.In the story Floyd gets his kite stuck in a tree and throws up lots of different things to knock it back down but they all get stuck.

Our Forest Friends had been exploring today and had also gotten stuck up the trees. Some children chose to work together to maneuver long sticks to poke them down. Others had a go at making slingshots, cutting holes in leather, threading through springy rubber bands and then attaching it to a Y stick. This took lots of patience, particularly when it broke or came undone. These are important challenges to go through, as the children recognise and learn that  they have the skills to fix it, or come up with a way to make it better. We also had a giant catapult, which some children used to fire the Forest Friends across the woods. There was also a great amount of mud play and exploration.

We finished with our goodbye song.

Have a great week,

Emma and Carrie

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have been creating junk models based on their London Landmark learning. The children have created 3D models of Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, the Shard and many more. We are very excited to show you next Friday when we have you over in the afternoon!

In Jewish Studies this week we had a 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 then 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. We played a fun interactive game, choosing different items and activities and deciding if they were ‘Shabbat friendly’ or ‘not Shabbat friendly’. We talked about making Shabbat special in our own ways, for example wearing smart clothes or buying flowers to brighten up the shabbat table. The children were encouraged to make Shabbat flowers out of doilies, coloured tissue, lolly sticks and pipe cleaners. Each child made their own Shabbat table picture with ‘Shabbat friendly’ items on the table and their family joining a festive Shabbat meal. Well done Reception, I am so impressed by your excellent work! 

In alef-bet this week, we moved on to the next stage of our learning, and focussed on two words that feature the letter Alef:

 -lo, meaning 'no, and 

-adam, meaning 'man'. 

We also introduced the vowel KAMATZ, which makes the sound 'a', as in 'adam', when found underneath a letter. 

This week we also started to get ready for two really special upcoming Chagim - Purim and Pesach. We started to prepare beautiful bright classroom decorations for Purim which will go up next week. We also each made colourful Seder plate pictures to go into our Haggadas. We talked about how lucky we are to have such a jam-packed and joyful calendar in the Jewish world and how quickly time seemed to have passed from Chanukah in the dark winter days to Tu B’shevat, Purim and Pesach which are so full of Springtime renewal vibes!

This week on our Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Noah H.

Shabbat Ima - Amelie

Shabbat Ben - Sammy

Shabbat Bat - Arianna

Reminders:

-World book week is next week, please can your children wear a costume on Wednesday. Regarding costumes, please can you ensure they are toilet friendly. 🙂

-On Wednesday, please can your child bring in their favourite teddy bear ( or stuffed animal) as we are focusing on ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You see?’ By Eric Carle. We have some lovely activities to go along with it.

- Most library books have not been returned, we cannot visit/ get new books if we haven’t received the old ones back please. 

- Friday 8th March, we look forward to hosting you all from 1-2pm. 

- Thank you all for using the eBooks and logging onto Doodle, it’s great to see so many using these resources now, I am so pleased! 

Thank you and Shabbat Shalom. Have a great weekend.

Mrs. Ranson, Miss Le Fort and Miss Molina 

Friday 16th February, 2024

Dear Parents,

I cannot believe this week officially marks halfway through the academic year! It has gone way too fast and time must slow down! 

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children finished discussing and completing activities for Mental Health Awareness week last week. We focused on the colour monster and discussed small, medium and big problems. We also went over what we can do when we feel these certain emotions. All of these emotions are okay and it’s important we speak to a friend, parent or school adult if we ever have a problem. Sometimes speaking about a problem instantly makes us feel better.

In Communication and Language this week the children presented their penguin writing booklets to the class. Each child had the opportunity of reading their sentence(s) to the class and explained their favourite fact on Antarctica. I have to say, out of the 3 continents so far, this one seems to be the most popular and it’s a shame as it’s the most difficult to visit due to its cold climate! 

In Physical Development this week, the children baked some delicious treats for the Chinese New year. The children were also busy in the construction building their own icebergs and glaciers. It was amazing hearing their methodology about how they were going to construct and why. They all were amazing and so creative! In PE this week, the children did a lot of different jumps. They worked on jumping over hurdles and star jumps! 

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been revising the sounds and tricky words we have already learnt. We’ve also been doing our usual weekend news and this week we finished writing our little penguin books with fun facts about Antarctica! This week for Drawing Club, we worked on ‘The Colour Monster’. The children absolutely loved this beautiful book about emotions and the various colours used to represent emotions. Our key words were : fear, calm, sadness, happiness and angry. We always use hand gestures and facial expressions to help represent our key words and we incorporate them in our drawings! 

In Maths this week the children used number lines to practise 1 more and 1 less than a number. Some children chose not to use the number line as they felt confident. It is great to see how many of the children are now capable of saying what is one less than a given number which at the start of the year, was super tricky! 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.

In Understanding the World this week, we continued to travel across Antarctica! We used ice and made our own icebergs! We looked at the different wildlife and different things that grow in the world's coldest climate! We also looked at what human beings would go there to visit and why! On Tuesday, the children celebrated family day as they do in Israel! The children had the best time completing an art activity with their parents and siblings. 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children were encouraged to do some ‘free painting’. Many of the children chose to paint animals in the Antarctic. 

In Jewish Studies this week we 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 built their own mini 3D Mishkan, complete with Kohen Gadol, Menorah and Aron. 

In Alef bet we looked at words that end in the letter Fay Sofit, which says ‘f’:

-off, meaning ‘chicken’.

We also looked at words that end in the letter Ayin, which is a silent letter, but takes on the sound of any vowel that is underneath it, just like in our two new words: 

-Shema, and 

-sefardeya, meaning frog. 

Note Please send your JS zip-folders back by Thursday each week so that Morah Cassie can put your alef-bet vocabulary cards in them and they will reach you in pristine condition. If you are missing any cards, please do let her know by emailing cdaniels@keremschool.co.uk or by putting a little note in your child’s zip folder. 

We also looked into the JS general curriculum and 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. There is a fabulous song to help us remember all that delicious information - have a look for The Brachos Song by JKids online and have a listen. We had a go at a game Morah Cassie made online to see which bracha we say for different delicious foods.  Each of the children made a fabulous shopping trolley craft with one trolley filled with googly cute googly eyed Ha-adama produce and the other trolley filled with Ha-etz produce. The children loved sharing their thoughts on their favourite Ha-Adama and Ha-etz foods in our class discussion!

This week on our Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Ollie

Shabbat Ima - Arianna

Shabbat Ben - MJ

Shabbat Bat - Carmi

Reminders:

• Please can children bring in boxes, milk bottles, cardboard tubes, and straws for an art project that will begin first thing Monday 26th February. We will be junk modelling London landmarks. 
• There will be no homework as it’s half term, but please do post pictures of activities or trips so the children can share once they come back! Please do of course, continue to read and work on the sounds and tricky words. 

• After school club snacks should only be healthy snacks.
• After the break, we will be beginning our next continent... Europe! 

Many thanks,

Have a wonderful half term break, safe travels and we look forward to seeing you all Monday 26th February! 

Mrs. Ranson, Miss Le Fort and Miss Molina

Friday 9th February, 2024

Dear Parents,

Another week has come and gone, but the Reception fun seems to only grow!

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children have been discussing Children’s Mental Health week. We read many stories about Mental Health and Self Esteem, one of them being ‘Ruby’s Worry’. The children then discussed what Ruby could have been worried about and what they could do if they had a worry. Most of them knew that they could speak to someone, their parents, an older sibling, a teacher, etc. We also discussed what we can do if we are upset or angry and some of the suggestions were:  ‘find a quiet place to sit until you calm down’, ‘listen to calming music’, ‘take deep breaths’, ‘count slowly to ten’ or ‘do something you enjoy’.

In Communication and Language this week the children have had a lot of discussions on the Chinese New Year. The children continued their paintings and they also learnt a lot of fun facts on Antarctica! Please ask your child to tell you the fun facts they’ve learnt… you will be so impressed! We also had a circle time after reading Ruby’s Worry and each child shared something they were worried about. We explained to the children that it’s okay to not have a worry at all and that’s great. This can also be linked to PSED. 

In Physical Development this week the children were hard at work learning about composting with Mr. Budwig in nursery. You will be able to see loads of pictures on Tapestry, please be sure to have a look! The children also completed various obstacle courses with Mr. Antony in PE on Wednesday. 

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been revising the sounds and tricky words we have already learnt. We did, however, look at two new tricky words which were ‘when and what’. We’ve also been doing our usual weekend news and this week we wrote little penguin books with fun facts about Antarctica! This week for Drawing Club, we worked on,‘The Lost Penguin’. The children absolutely loved this beautiful book about friendship. Key words that they focused on were: lonely, ignore, remember, lost, forgotten and strength. We always act out the words and the children are then given a task of drawing something related to the story. 

In Maths this week the children have continued to learn about the relationship between addition and subtraction. They are learning, for example, that if 5+3=8, then 3+5=8 and also that 8-3=5 and 8-5=3. They are enjoying finding out these relationships between numbers and it all seems to be making sense to them. 

In Understanding the World this week we travelled all the way to Antarctica! We used ice and made our own icebergs! We looked at the different wildlife and different things that grow in the world's coldest climate! We also looked at what human beings would go there to visit and why! We learnt about its climate and weather, they were shocked to hear it gets to -90 degrees! 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have created their very own penguin books! They had to create the design, work on all the cutting and glueing and then they had to write their very own sentence! 

In Forest School, Reception were also very excited, jumping in the puddles as soon as they arrived. It was wonderful to see their joy and carefree playfulness. Today we focussed on Lunar New Year which will be celebrated by many different people on the 10th February. We gathered together for our song, counting and name game before our first activity, which was a hunt for 12 small animals of the Chinese Zodiac. They ran around looking high and low.

Once they were all found, we gathered back together to hear the story: The Great Race. This is a story about how the Chinese Zodiac came to be. This year it is the year of the dragon. As the story was told, the children used the toy animals to join in.

For the rest of the session, some children made dragon puppets. First this involved threading leaves onto a string for the body. They then used their knot skills to tie each side of the body to sticks: one for the front and one for the back. They squashed clay on to the front stick and shaped it to create a head, adding natural materials for eyes, ears, a mouth and fire. Some took their dragons for a fly around the forest. Other children enjoyed the mud, climbing on the 'boat' and singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat' together. They enjoyed exploring and testing the depth of the different puddles with their wellies.

To conclude our session we gathered back together and sang our song Boom Chicka Boom, encouraging the children to find their voice. 

Have a great week,

Emma and Carrie

In Jewish Studies this week we looked at parashat Mishpatim in which Moshe went up Har Sinai to receive the whole Torah. We discussed how keeping the mitzvot of the Torah bring us closer to Hashem. Some people connect to some mitzvot more than others. Do you or your family have any favourite mitzvot? Why are they particularly meaningful to you? One of the mitzvot of the Torah is to keep milk and meat separate. This is one of the ways of keeping Kosher. We discussed our favourite meaty and milky foods and we each made a rather funky concertina meaty-milky food craft, which meant decorating, drawing and cutting foods and sorting them into meat and milk. 

In alef-bet this week we looked at vocabulary that ends in the letter Gimel, which says ‘g’:

-chag, meaning ‘festival’

-dag, meaning ’fish’ and

- etrog

We pointed out that Gimmel looks quite a bit like Nun, but the way to remember that it is Gimmel, is that it has a ‘gap’ at its base. 

We also looked at words that end in Chet, which says ‘ch’, as in:

-Pesach. 

We looked into the general JS syllabus and delved into the fascinating world of brachot. We reflected on how 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 focussed on the bracha of Hamotsi (for bread and challah) and Mezonot  (for cake, pie and biscuits). We had a heated debate over which - cake, biscuits or pie, is best and concluded that we are just so lucky that there are literally thousands of delicious things in Hashem’s world for us to taste and enjoy. We played a computer game I created, where the children had to decide which brachot went with which foods. Luckily, we played this just before lunch! Each child made their own gorgeous personalised bakery collage with all sorts of delicious baked treats categorised into Hamotsi and Mezonot as an aide memoire. Well done Reception,  your passion for such an important topic is second to none! 

This week on our Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Léo M

Shabbat Ima - Rafaela

Shabbat Ben - Zac

Shabbat Bat - Arianna

Reminders:

• Please post your child’s homework on Tapestry.
• Please can you always email me to let me know if your child is going home with someone else. 
• After school club snacks should only be healthy snacks.
• Family day Tuesday 13th February at 2pm.
• Library books must be returned otherwise your child will not be able to take a new one.
• Phonics begins at 8:40am, please ensure your child is on time. We have some children that are missing several phonics lessons/ week due to being late. 
• Please bring kitchen rolls and small plastic bottles to Morah Cassie 

Many thanks,

Shabbat Shalom and have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Ranson, Miss Le Fort and Miss Molina

Friday 2nd February,

Dear Parents,

And so we come to the end of another week. It has been a very happy week in Reception, it is so great seeing the children coming in every day beaming ear to ear! We also had a wonderful week introducing Noah and Sammy back to the amazing Kerem family! 

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we have again had the puppets out to illustrate how we should treat our friends and to show how unkind words or actions make us feel. The children seem to relate well to the puppets and really enjoy when they pay us a visit. 

In Communication and Language this week the children have been discussing what they did on the weekend, as well as voicing their thoughts on the actions of the puppets. They have told stories of times when they felt overwhelmed by the actions of their friends and by how their friends have made them feel. It is so heart-warming to hear them speak so honestly.

In Physical Development this week the children have been learning all about the Chinese new year coming up. Although we haven’t started our learning on Asia yet, it felt right to start the celebrations as the new year is on the 10th of February this year! The children have been creating their own dragons using various shapes. They’ve had to cut the shapes and then glue the shapes together. They had to explain what shapes they were using and why. Later in the week, the children also did paintings of the dragon using their handprints. Please make sure to have a look on Tapestry as they are absolutely beautiful! In PE this week, Reception focused on developing their motor skills, through completing a circuit consisting of hopping, climbing, balancing, running and jumping.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have learnt two new tricky words: ball and tall. They have also learnt three new graphemes: er ,ure ow . They will have these new tricky words and digraph/trigraph cards in their reading folder. This is just a reminder that the tricky words and sound cards don't need to come to school every week. I would much rather you keep them at home and work with them, just returning the small folder. 

In Maths this week the children learnt the bonds of eight. I also reintroduced Mr Minus very briefly. We discussed how we can make four number sentences using just three numbers. E.g. If I give them the numbers 3, 5 and 8 they can make 3+5=8, 5+3=8, 8-3=5 and 8-5=3. They were intrigued to see the relationship between the addition and subtraction. 

All reception children have now been signed up to Doodle Maths. This is an online Maths programme covering all the steps in the Maths learning. Your child's login details are in their homework folders. 

In Understanding the World this week and Expressive Arts and Design the children have learnt about Chinese New Year. We watched a learning video about Chinese New Year and as it is the year of the dragon, the children used their own handprints in order to decorate a dragon. We also learnt a little bit of mandarin and we learnt fun facts about China. 

We also had several children from year 4 join our class on Wednesday! They have been learning all about the Amazon Rainforest and seeing as we’re learning about South America, they came and presented their projects to the children. They taught the children about the amazing wildlife in this region, several famous artists and they also brought raw cacao beans for the children to see which come from South America as well. The children absolutely loved it and it was such a pleasure having them over at the EYU. 

Jewish Studies:

We explored the parasha of Yitro. Now that Bnei Yisrael are in the Midbar (desert), Moshe tells them to get ready round Har Sinai to hear the Asseret Hadibrot (the Ten Rules). They are not allowed to go up on to Har Sinai. Hashem and Moshe say these rules to Bnei Yisrael. One of the rules of the Asseret Hadibrot is ‘Keep Shabbat’. Another rule is ‘Listen to your father and mother. The children 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). Each child made a 3D collage of Bnei Yisrael dancing and waiting excitedly round Har Sinai until Moshe came down with the Torah. 

In alef-bet this week we had a look at some new vocabulary words that end with the letter

Final chaf , which says ‘ch’  as in:

-choshech, meaning ‘darkness,’and

-melech, meaning ‘king’  

and Samech, which says ‘S,’ as in:

-sus, meaning ‘horse,’ and 

-carpas the vegetable that we look forward to dipping in salt water at Seder. 

-cos, meaning ‘cup’. 

On Friday we had our usual Shabbat party. On the Shabbat table were:

Shabbat Aba- Noah H

Shabbat Ima - Elise

Shabbat Banim - Sammy & Oliver

Shabbat Bat - Noa M

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

Shabbat Shalom, 

Morah Cassie

Reminders:

- eBooks have been assigned. It makes me really sad as I can see so many families have never used them. They are such an amazing tool to enhance your child's learning! It is another way to ensure your child is reading and there are sound buttons for them to press in order to hear the sound if they find it tricky. I have also assigned Doodle homework, so please be sure to login! 

- Next week we will start to learn about Antarctica. Should you have any books, toys, games or fun facts to do with this continent, please feel free to bring them in! We will spend the last two weeks of this half term focusing on this continent. 

- We 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.

- Please remember to send Morah Sari a photo of you and your family.

Wishing you all Shabbat Shalom and have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs. Ranson, Miss Lefort and Miss Molina

Friday 26th January,

Dear Parents,

What an amazing and exciting week we have had!

In Personal, Social  and Emotional Development this week we used our puppets in order to discuss different feelings and emotions. Our puppet friends acted out certain scenarios and the children had to explain what emotion they felt and explain why. We also discussed looks and appearances and learnt how everyone is ‘perfect just the way they are’ and that if we all looked the same and acted the same way, the world would be a boring place. I introduced the word unique and we used it in several different contexts. 

In Communication and Language Development this week the children have been discussing what they did on the weekend. They have also continued to listen to lots of stories and discuss various aspects of these stories. 

In Physical Development this week the children have been creating rainforest animals. As we are currently learning about South America, the children have learnt about various animals this week and they had the opportunity of creating their very own toucans! The children absolutely loved using paper plates and paint in order to make their creations! In PE the children were very happy to have Mr. Antony back, the children jumped and hopped over the hills and obstacles. They also worked on balancing. 

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been revising the sounds and tricky words which they have already learnt. They have also learnt ‘ow, oi, ear and air’.  We also started incorporating ‘the Drawing Club’ into the classroom which is a special programme used in Literacy in order to entice children to read more and express their creativity through art. This means we deep dive into one specific book a week and we focus on specific vocabulary words and the children work on the character and setting through their own drawings. It was our first time doing it this week and the children absolutely loved it. Our key words this week were: Giving, receiving, abundance, friendship, hopeful, affection and growing as we read the book, ‘The Giving Tree’. 

In Maths this week the children learnt the number bonds to seven. The children wrote the number bonds and practised them using Kung Fu Maths. They then enjoyed the online dice rolling activity. I would set the dice rolling and they would tell me when to press stop. They then did the Kung Fu number sentence then wrote the number sentence on their whiteboards. They are becoming increasingly confident with number sentences and I am so proud of their progress. Many of the children have enjoyed using the ‘dot’ method when it comes to adding. For example 1+6=7. They would draw one dot, then 6 dots, then count them all together. The children also baked delicious apple crumbles on Thursday! They had to measure all the ingredients and mix it together. They were delicious! 

In Understanding the World this week we have been learning about South America. We have discussed several countries located in this continent. We learnt about the weather, culture, religion and language in many of these countries. Many of the children already knew several facts about these countries as some of their favourite football players come from there!

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have designed their own toucans. I have to say, I think it’s been my favourite art project so far. The children created the most beautiful toucans using various colours. I am very excited for you to see their masterpieces on Tapestry! They had to cut, glue, fold, paint and most importantly… create! 

Forest School:

Reception children started in the field with our welcome song, calling to the trees and our name game. After recapping the rules we invited the children to go on a bud hunt. We talked about what buds were and acted out being a bud on a tree, getting bigger and bigger and bigger until it opened up to show the new leaves that are hiding inside. The children were then given a bud stick from a mystery tree. We looked at the buds and described their colour, shape and size before going on a hunt to find the mystery tree they came from. We identified the Willow buds, the hornbeam buds and the oak tree buds.

We had a closer look at some willow buds and enjoyed feeling the soft furry catkins before sharing The Tale of the Pussy Willow. A story which tells of how the pussy willow and weeping willow got their names. Storytelling is a lovely way to introduce the children to nature and the environment while helping to build their vocabulary and developing concentration skills. All the children listened well and joined in with some actions and sound effects. 

For the rest of the session, some children enjoyed relaxing in the hammocks. With Spring just around the corner, some of our activities involved looking at buds closely. The children had the opportunity to identify more of the tree's buds using our bud ID poster and then used them to get crafty. Some children rolled out clay tiles and used the buds to imprint patterns into the clay. Others had a go at using them with clay to make Spring Kittens like in the story. They also had the opportunity to use the charcoal that they enjoyed last week and the Lime tree was appreciated as they used one of the branches to make a swing.

We finished back at the log circle together and everyone shared the name of their favourite bud.

Have a great week,

Emma and Carrie

In Jewish Studies this week we joined Morah Sari and celebrated Tu B’Shevat with a fruity 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 and have for hundreds and hundreds of years - since the Bnei Yisrael came to the land and even before! These 7 are: olives, figs, dates, pomegranates, grapes, wheat and barley. The children made beautiful, colourful Shivat HaMinim collages and played matching games featuring the Shivat HaMinim. We learned words and made actions for this fruity song  Mango Banana V’ Melon  - have a listen at home and see if they can remember the words!

In alef-bet, Reception looked at words that end in Yud, which says ‘y’:

-pri, meaning ‘fruit’ and

-Sinai. 

We looked at words that end in Final Tsadi, which says ‘ts’:

-etz, meaning ‘tree’

-eretz, meaning ‘land’.

We also learned about  the parasha of Beshalach, in which Bnei Yisrael leave Mitzrayim, but are soon pursued by Paroh. 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. We discussed the miracles that happen in our own lives; a new baby in the family, waking up in the morning, the changing of the seasons etcetera. We played with the big magnetic fishing game, listened to the song Miracles from The Prince of Egypt and had a go at dressing up as ‘Suzanne,’ a Jellyfish who witnessed the miraculous splitting of the Yam Suf! Ask your child all about what Suzanne and her fish friends saw. Each child made their own 3D Splitting of the Yam Suf, which came out really beautifully -well done Reception class, I am so proud of you! 

On Friday we had our Shabbat party. This week on the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Rafi

Shabbat Ima - Amelie

Shabbat Ben -Leo G

Shabbat Bat - Rafaela

Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Cassie

Thank you everyone for a wonderful week!

Have a great weekend, enjoy the slightly warmer weather and Shabbat Shalom.

Mrs. Ranson, Miss Le Fort and Miss Molina

Dear Parents,

What an amazing and exciting week we have had despite the cold weather. The children had their very first ‘little trip’ and more learning on North America was had! 

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children have been continuing to work on their different emotions. Each child picked a card and it gave a certain emotion. The children then acted out that emotion and we discussed when we would feel each emotion, why and how we could change that emotion for the better. The children loved this activity as they love acting and they love critical thinking! 

In Communication and Language this week the children have listened to many different stories, discussing the main characters in the book. The children have really been enjoying the ‘All Around the World’ themed books and discussing the many different cities, countries and continents. 

In Physical Development this week the children have been moulding with playdough in order to make our own North American igloos. The children have been continuing to work on their pencil grip and we’ve also been participating in a lot of construction making! 

In PE, the children participated in races. The children have been asking to race for weeks, so they absolutely loved it! It felt like a full on Sports Day!

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have learnt ‘ ar, ur, oo and or’. It was a lot of new learning this week, but as always, a lot of fun! The tricky words this week were ‘they, all and are’. 

In Maths this week the children have been revising number bonds to 6 using simple addition. The children also baked some delicious blueberry muffins and they had to weigh and measure all the ingredients in order to do so!  

In Understanding the World this week, we continued to learn about North America with a specific emphasis this week on Mexico. The children loved learning about the hot climate,  learning about the different types of land, the Spanish language and the different culture! We even had our own little trip to the post office! In case you haven’t received your postcard yet, I will leave that a secret for now! 

This week in Jewish Studies we looked at the parasha of Bo. In this week’s parasha Paroh continues to refuse to let Bnei Yisrael out of Egypt/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. Hashem gave Moshe lots of different instructions to tell to Bnei Yisrael. Bnei Yisrael listened carefully to Moshe and followed all his instructions. In this parasha Hashem 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. Reception class  made their own matzot using lego base plates and the crayon rubbing method. They also produced some beautiful painted handprints that we will be keeping to make their Haggadahs. 

In alef-bet we looked at some new vocabulary words that end in the letter Hey. We discussed how Hey usually makes the sound ‘h’, however when Hey comes at the end of a word, it is silent, as in the words: 

-yaldah, meaning girl

-mitzvah

-simcha, meaning joy

-Torah, and 

-tefilah, meaning prayer. 

We started to learn about TuB’Shevat which is coming up next week. We read the beautiful book Happy Birthday Tree, by M Rosenberg, and the gorgeous classic The Giving Tree, by Shel Sliverstein. We talked about how trees help us so much in our lives and we started to explore some TuB’Shevat songs. Each child made their own blossoming almond tree with colourful card and tissue paper. We also touched on the meaning behind the brachot HaEtz and HaAdama, which we say over our fruits and vegetables every day at the EYU at snack time. 

On Friday we had our Shabbat Party. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Oliver

Shabbat Ima - Noa

Shabbat Ben - Léo M

Shabbat Bat - Elise

Reminders:

-Please remember to return your child’s reading folder by Thursday morning at the latest in order for us to have it ready to hand out the next day, Friday. 

- After school club returns Monday 22nd January with Mr. Antony. 

- eBooks have been assigned and your child has a whole week to read them.

-Tu BiShvat celebrations will be Thursday 25th January, please make sure to bring in your fruit for that day! Children will be able to dress up on that day. I will provide further details on Monday. 

- Hair should be tied up at all times. 

- Phonics begins each morning at 8:40am. Please ensure your child is here on time. 

Shabbat shalom,

Mrs. Ranson, Miss Le Fort and Miss Molina

Dear Parents,

It has been a lovely first full week back to school after the holidays and finally we are all back together again.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children have been trying very hard to communicate with one another in a polite and respectful way. We started off with singing our amazing Sophie Says song and then we reviewed the many different emotions. We did some acting out of certain emotions and the children had to guess based on the various facial expressions and actions. We discussed how it’s okay to feel different emotions and we don’t always need to be ‘happy’. 

In Communication and Language this week the children have listened to many different stories, discussing the main characters in the book. The children have really been enjoying the ‘All Around the World’ themed books and discussing the many different cities, countries and continents. 

In Physical Development this week the children have been moulding with playdough, threading beads, cutting, writing, sticking, building with Lego, knocking nails in cork boards in the Taptap game and building the equestrian role play. Outside they have been riding bikes, climbing the climbing frame, writing in shaving foam and building with Stickle Bricks and Octagons. We also made our own snow this week using baking soda and shaving cream! 

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been reviewing the previously learnt phonemes, digraphs and trigraph. Our new digraph for this week was ‘ oo’. It is crucial that the children are confident with these before we move on to more new ones next week! 

In Maths this week the children have been revising number bonds using simple addition. They have also been learning about doubling. We started with doubling numbers to double five and then extended it to double ten. When writing it on the white board, the children could immediately see the pattern of, when doubling to ten, the answers were counting in twos. 

In Understanding the World this week we started learning about different continents. We started off with North America and discussed the different countries in this continent and how they are so different from one another. I, of course, spoke a lot about Canada and we discussed the many different cultures, types of people, climate, religions etc. within these countries. 

Reception children started with their usual routine followed by their names and actions.

We needed to warm our bodies up, so we returned to an old game with them called Nest Robbers. In this game the children had to get pieces of food back to their nest, without being caught by the red kites or having their food stolen by the corvids. They worked really well in their pairs, ensuring their nests were guarded and evading the predators with some great dodging.

Once our bodies were warmed up, we gathered together to listen to the story of Jack Frost. We thought about all of the fun things that can be done in Winter and how beautiful it is.

For the rest of the session, the children followed their own interests. Today they had the opportunity of becoming birds trying to get food out of a piece of ice. They used sticks as beaks to peck at the ice and get the food out, which they really enjoyed. Other children worked together to create a picture of a snowman on the ground using flour and natural materials to decorate. The children had to share their ideas and collaborate as they added on features such as the hat, the scarf, buttons, a mouth and eyes.We also had some children using sticks which they secured together to look like snowflakes.

We ended the session gathered together to share our favourite thing about Winter.

Have a great week,

Emma ands Carrie

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have been making their own totem poles. We’ve been discussing that in northern Canada, the native culture plays a huge role in society and something they are well known for is their beautiful artistic totem poles. They are used to represent their ancestry, people and events.  

This week in Jewish Studies, Reception looked into the parasha of 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 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. The children were excited to see Morah Cassie magically turn water into ‘blood’ and had fun looking for the frogs and wild animals hidden all around the classroom. Reception used foam bricks, wooden blocks and lego to build pyramids like the Bnei Yisrael and some dressed up as Egyptian taskmasters. Each child made a frog craft to take home and enjoy. We used this week’s parasha as an opportunity to get an early start on our preparations for Pesach. The children prepared their 10 Makot page which we will keep safe here at the EYU, ready to go into their Haggadahs. 

In alef-bet we had a review of some of our vocabulary from earlier on in the year. We also introduced Daled, which says ‘d’ and some vocabulary words that end in Daled:

-echad, meaning ‘one’

-chessed, meaning ‘kindness’

-yad, meaning ‘hand,’ and 

-yeled, meaning ‘boy’ . 

Reception also looked at the difference between Reish and Daled- they look very similar so they often get mixed up. A nice way to remember the difference is that Reish is a bit rounder, like a rainbow, whereas Daled has a little tail, just like a dog. Keep up the brilliant work practising your vocabulary and letters at home, the children are doing so well! Try mixing up a few vocabulary cards and making sets of words that end with the same letter, or grouping them in other fun ways eg: foods, numbers etc.

On Friday we had our Shabbat party. On the Shabbat table this week we had:

Shabbat Aba - Leo G

Shabbat Ima - Carmi

Shabbat Ben - Rafi

Shabbat Bat - Amelie

Reminders:

-More families have been enjoying the eBooks so it’s great to see. It would be great to see everyone using them in order to further consolidate your child's learning! 

- Please remember phonics begins at 8:40am, there have been many lates this week.

- No after school club Monday 15th January.

- Next week we will continue to work on North America.

- Your children visited the school library this week and brought home their chosen book. Please have it returned every Monday so they can take a new one.

Dear Parents,

It was wonderful to see so many smiley faces on Thursday morning. We have missed seeing your children every day over the holidays and it was so nice to be all together again. We hope you all had a wonderful holiday and once again, a very happy and healthy new year to all!

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development, the children have been revising the school and classroom rules and reconnecting with their friends. The children have been reminding themselves and each other how to speak to one another and how to be kind. 

In Communication and Language the children told us all about their holidays, some abroad, some local and some staying at home, just like me. It sounds like there was lots of fun in the sun and the children seem to be well rested and excited to be back. 

In Physical Development, the children have practised their writing skills both on paper and on whiteboards. They have done cutting and sticking as well as balancing the Citiblocs and manipulating the Playmobil characters. They have moulded, rolled and pinched the playdough, making different shapes. They have run around in the playground, ridden on the bikes and climbed the climbing frame. 

In Literacy, the children have been revising the phonic sounds and tricky monster words we have learnt. They have also been writing words and sentences on their whiteboards. Some children have been writing their own holiday news stories using some very good sound talking as well as phonetically plausible spellings. (Just a reminder of what phonetically plausible spelling means: it is when the child sounds out a word and writes the sounds they hear based on the phonics they have learnt. For example, a child might write the word ‘one’ as ‘wun’. Another very popular example is ‘chocolate’ being written as ‘choklit’.) 

In Understanding the World, we looked at a map of the world and plotted on that map where people went on holiday. We found out where lots of exciting countries were located and it was very interesting to realise that what looks like such a small distance on a map is an aeroplane flight many hours long. 

In Expressive Arts and Design,the children accessed the home corner, cooking up a storm using the playdough to make cookies, meatballs, pizza and lots of other lovely, yummy foods. They have created dialogues with the spaceship and combined this with the Citiblox, creating very interesting role play. 

Jewish Studies: It was so lovely to see the children looking so well and raring to go for a new term. We got off to a fabulous start; we discussed the parasha of Shemot. This is the first parasha of the second book of the Torah. In this parasha Moshe is born to Yocheved and Amram. However, Paroh, King of Mitzrayim wanted to get rid of all the Jewish baby boys. Yocheved hid him for three months at home and then when she couldn't hide him any longer, she put him in a Tevah (basket/box) in the river. His sister Miriam watched over him and he was spotted and taken out of the water by Paroh's daughter, Batya.

We talked about the middah of kindness in the parasha and all the different kind people who looked after Moshe in the story. We talked about how scared but also how brave Yocheved and Miriam must have been! We read the book Moses in the Bullrushes by K. Sully, and Had a go at singing a song to the tune of ‘Oh My Darling Clementine’ the words being:

In the water,

In a basket,

Who could that small baby be? 

In the water, in a basket, floating oh so quietly. 

It is Moshe, baby Moshe, baby Moshe- so tiny. 

It is Moshe , baby Moshe put there by his kind mummy. 

On Friday we had our Shabbat Party. On the Shabbat table this week we had:

Shabbat Aba - Zac

Shabbat Ima - Arianna

Shabbat Bat - Carmi

Shabbat Ben - Bobby

Reminders:

• Next week we will be visiting the school library so your child will be bringing home another book.
• For the next two weeks, we will be working on North America, please feel free to bring in any special books,pictures or things your child would like to show if your family comes from this continent. 
• Please ensure your child is reading the Ebooks each week. I assign them on a weekly basis and I can see only half of the class are accessing them. 
• Homework this week is the assigned Ebook, reading book and reviewing the phonemes, digraphs, trigraph and tricky monster words as this will be a huge focus next week. 

Wishing everyone Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend.

Mrs. Ranson, Miss Le Fort and Miss Molina

Wednesday 13th December,

Dear Parents,

Wow! I cannot believe what a busy Autumn Term we have had and how quickly it has gone.

There have been many highlights this term, the biggest one for me has simply been getting to know your children and their different personalities. I also wanted to extend a huge thank you to all of you for making me feel so welcome and part of the Kerem family. I have absolutely loved this term and teaching your children. 

A particular highlight this term was seeing so many children learn to read. It is such a beautiful thing to observe and that is truly why Reception is one of my favourite years to teach. I have loved watching your children play together, smile together, learn together and teach each other. It truly has been an inspirational term of learning and inspiring a love for learning. The ‘All About Me’ topic is always a favourite and it was so wonderful watching the children explore different parts of the body, physical features, hobbies and interests and so much more! 

For me, Forest School is always a highlight. Emma is amazing with the children and they always enjoy her lessons. By far, the most exciting Forest School session has to have been the cold and icy afternoon watching the children be incredibly resilient and not one complaint was made. 

Who can forget the other highlight this year! It was watching the children perform twice in one month. Their presentations and performances were truly memorable! The children said their lines and sang so beautifully which is never an easy task! It is wonderful to see the children blossom with their acting and singing skills! 

This week in Jewish Studies we explored the parasha of Miketz. In the parasha, Pharoh has a very worrying dream about seven fat cows and seven thin cows. He is told about Yosef who is able to interpret dreams. Before meeting with Pharoh, Yosef washes, shaves and dresses himself nicely in order to show honour to the king. We do the same and prepare ourselves for Shabbat in order to meet the Shabbat Queen –Shabbat Hamalkah. Respect for king and queens is to teach us how to show respect to Hashem. Yosef explains to Paroh that his dream means that there will be seven years with lots of food and then seven years with very little food. Pharoh's dream comes true. Reception class had fun dressing Barbie dolls to meet King Charles and Queen Camilla. We also got a chance to roleplay as hairdressers and stylists with our hairdresser kit and mannequins. Each child made a big bright collage of poor worried Paroh dreaming about cows. 

In alef-bet this week we focussed on reviewing the letters and some of the vocabulary we have covered so far this term. The children are doing so well with this, so please do keep up your brilliant efforts and just have a look over your vocabulary and alef bet letters over the winter break. 

We continued to get into the Chanukah spirit by looking at the difference between a menorah, which has seven branches, and a Chanukia, which has eight branches and a shamash. 

We have covered so much in Jewish Studies this year so far and I am so excited to continue to teach your children after the big winter break! I have absolutely loved the beautiful crafts we have made together and how they have each expressed themselves so creatively through them. I especially liked the tiny sparkly honey pots we made for Rosh Hashanah, the Jacob’s ladder scenes for parashat Vayetsei and our gorgeous sevivon spinning modern art pictures. Well done Reception!

All in all it has been an amazing Autumn term. Thank you everyone for your support this term. Please enjoy the holidays. If you are staying at home, wrap up warmly and be safe. If you are travelling, safe travels and enjoy your holiday.

Dear parents שלום לכולם

It was so lovely to see so many of you for our Chanukah show last week. The children had a great time learning and dancing the song and I'm sure you will all agreed they did an amazing job

For our last Ivrit lesson of this term, we had a special story-show called Giveret Keresh and Mar Ma'aroch. Learning about Levivot (latkes). The children watched the story through a hand made character and after, they made small puppet characters of their own. 

Here is a reference from the original story to show your child: 

https://youtu.be/b-Ls8WPZoIM?feature=shared

Have a wonderful break

 Morah Sari

Reminders:

Ebooks have been assigned which specifically go over the recent digraphs and trigraph. Books have also been sent home in order to work on reading. We do not give out homework for the holiday, however I would strongly encourage you to continue working on the tricky words, phonemes, digraphs and recent trigraph in order to consolidate your child’s knowledge. 

Forest School January 4th - First day back. Please ensure your child has appropriate clothing and comes to school with their wellies. ( They were sent home on the 7th in order to be washed)

On Thursday 4th January please can each child bring in 3-5 kitchen cardboard rolls. (not with the tissue on it) We will be using this for our first craft activity. Please can it kindly be in a bag with your child's name on it. 

Happy holidays and see you all in 2024! 

Mrs. Ranson, Miss Le Fort and Miss Molina

Wednesday 13th December,

Dear Parents,

Wow! I cannot believe what a busy Autumn Term we have had and how quickly it has gone.

There have been many highlights this term, the biggest one for me has simply been getting to know your children and their different personalities. We welcomed a new friend at the beginning of the year which is always exciting. I also wanted to extend a huge thank you to all of you for making me feel so welcome and part of the Kerem family. I have absolutely loved this term and teaching your children. 

A particular highlight this term was seeing so many children learn to read. It is such a beautiful thing to observe and that is truly why Reception is one of my favourite years to teach. Another memory is watching the children try an array of different foods with our new caterers. So many of the children have tried new foods and it’s been such a pleasure to see. I have loved watching your children play together, smile together, learn today and teach each other. It truly has been an inspirational term of learning and inspiring a love for learning. The ‘All About Me’ topic is always a favourite and it was so wonderful watching the children explore different parts of the body, physical features, hobbies and interests and so much more! 

For me, Forest School is always a highlight. Emma is amazing with the children and they always enjoy her lessons. By far, the most exciting Forest School session has to have been the cold and icy afternoon watching the children be incredibly resilient and not one complaint was made. Thank you Emma for always giving our children something they will remember.

Who can forget the other highlight this year! It was watching the children perform twice in one month. Their presentations and performances were truly memorable! The children said their lines and sang so beautifully which is never an easy task! It is wonderful to see the children blossom with their acting and singing skills! 

This week in Jewish Studies we explored the parasha of Miketz. In the parasha, Pharoh has a very worrying dream about seven fat cows and seven thin cows. He is told about Yosef who is able to interpret dreams. Before meeting with Pharoh, Yosef washes, shaves and dresses himself nicely in order to show honour to the king. We do the same and prepare ourselves for Shabbat in order to meet the Shabbat Queen –Shabbat Hamalkah. Respect for king and queens is to teach us how to show respect to Hashem. Yosef explains to Paroh that his dream means that there will be seven years with lots of food and then seven years with very little food. Pharoh's dream comes true. Reception class had fun dressing Barbie dolls to meet King Charles and Queen Camilla. We also got a chance to roleplay as hairdressers and stylists with our hairdresser kit and mannequins. Each child made a big bright collage of poor worried Paroh dreaming about cows. 

In alef-bet this week we focussed on reviewing the letters and some of the vocabulary we have covered so far this term. The children are doing so well with this, so please do keep up your brilliant efforts and just have a look over your vocabulary and alef bet letters over the winter break. 

We continued to get into the Chanukah spirit by looking at the difference between a menorah, which has seven branches, and a Chanukia, which has eight branches and a shamash. 

We have covered so much in Jewish Studies this year so far and I am so excited to continue to learn with you after the big Winter break! I have absolutely loved the beautiful crafts we have made together and how you have each expressed yourselves so creatively through them. I especially liked the tiny sparkly honey pots we made for Rosh Hashanah, the Jacob’s ladder scenes for parashat Vayetsei and our gorgeous sevivon spinning modern art pictures. Well done Reception!

All in all it has been an amazing Autumn term. Thank you everyone for your support this term. Please enjoy the holidays. If you are staying at home, wrap up warmly and be safe. If you are travelling, safe travels and enjoy your holiday.

Reminders:

Ebooks have been assigned which specifically go over the recent digraphs and trigraph. Books have also been sent home in order to work on reading. There is a no homework policy during holiday time, however I would strongly encourage you to continue working on the tricky words and the phonemes, digraphs and recent trigraph in order to consolidate your child’s knowledge. 

Forest School January 5th- First day back. Please ensure your child has appropriate clothing and comes to school with their wellies. ( They were sent home on the 7th in order to be washed)

Please on Thursday the 4th January can each child bring in 3-5 kitchen cardboard rolls. ( not with the tissue on it)We will be using this for our first craft activity. Please can it kindly be in a bag with your child's name on it. 

Happy holidays and see you all in 2024! 

Mrs. Ranson, Miss Le Fort and Miss Molina

Friday 8th December, 

Dear Parents,

What a busy week we have had! Thank you all so much for coming to the show today and we hope you enjoyed it! Also, we would like to wish you all a happy chanukah! 

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we started off with a Sophie Says puppet show. We discussed the word ‘private’ and what it means. We used several scenarios to role play this out using the puppets, with the children having to answer questions based on the given scenarios.

In Communication and Language this week we have read lots of stories, identifying the main characters and the setting. We have also been rehearsing for the show today so many of the children have been jumping out of their comfort zone and performing in front of their peers and parents. 

In Physical Development this week the children have continued to design and cut out their own skeletons. We’ve been learning about all the different parts of the body, so the children have been creating their very own! They have moulded, pinched and rolled playdough, making emotion faces and making various parts of the body. This was a continuation of last week's lessons and links with Arts and Design. In PE this week the children worked on their jumping and skipping skills. 

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been reviewing all the prior phonemes, digraphs and recent trigraph. This week and next will all be a review in order to consolidate prior knowledge. I have been completing a phonics assessment for each child this week. 

In Maths this week we have been recapping Mr Plus with the bonds of six. We have also started to learn about subtraction but we will continue to work on this in the new year. The children have been completing various equations in many different ways using pebble stones, numicon, Unifix cubes etc.

In Understanding the World we have continued to learn about Chanukah and many of the upcoming celebrations around the world. 

In Forest School this week, Reception children had a bit of a rainy session, but they put up their hoods and had great fun enjoying the muddy puddles.

We started our session with our name game and welcome routine before playing a game of Squirrels that was introduced last week to warm up our bodies.

Next we asked the children to find something in Forest School that they could make a sound with to create a woodland band. Some children chose sticks to hit together or drum with, others found leaves to swoosh together and we found bumpy things that could be scratched to make a sound. We gathered back together and Carrie taught us a song about the Menorah, which we sang together.

This inspired us to make some musical instruments using small bells. The children used pipe cleaners to thread the bells on and wrapped these around some willow sticks. They then learnt how to tie strips of blue and white material onto their sticks. It took a lot of concentration, fine motor skills and patience to manipulate the pipe cleaners and material. It felt frustrating when it fell off, but we learnt how to make the pipe cleaner more secure by twisting it, which tightened it around the stick. We now have a new phrase: I can do difficult things! Other children used peelers to whittle elder sticks to create elder candles, which they added a small yellow leaf to, to make it look like a flame. There was also fun in the hammocks and fungus hunting in the woods. The children were very excited to find a Trumpet fungus that was as big as their hand.

To finish our session, we gathered back together to sing our Menorah song again accompanied by our jingly Hanukkah sticks.

Happy Hanukkah and see you next year.

Kind regards,

Emma and Carrie

In Jewish Studies this week, Reception class explored parashat Vayeshev. We learned about Yosef, the son of Yaakov and Rachel. In this parasha Yaakov gives Yosef a beautiful coat as a gift. Yosef shows it to his older brothers and they become jealous of him. Yosef has two dreams. One of them is about the sun, moon and stars bowing down to him. Yosef tells his brothers about his dreams. They become angry and even more jealous of him. They send Yosef away and he eventually arrives in Mitzrayim. A very exciting parasha! Each child made their own small Yosef’s Coat picture to take home and we also filled a large Yosef’s Coat poster with colourful fabrics, gems and sponge-shapes as a class project. We explored colour and mathematics by playing with dominoes. We listened to some songs from the show Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and a beautiful song called Coat of Many Colours by Dolly Parton which the children loved.

In alef-bet we focused on a new letter - Lamed, which makes the sound ‘l’ and occurs at the end of our four new vocabulary words:

-degel - meaning ‘flag’

-ohel- meaning ‘tent’ 

-gadol- meaning ‘big’, and 

-Yisrael- meaning ‘Israel’

We continued to learn about Chanukah, and focussed on the nes/miracle of the pure oil lasting eight days. We discussed which fried foods are our favourites, a topic about which we all felt very passionate! We explored how oil and water don't mix; making and shaking tiny bottles of oil and coloured water. We tried our hand at making different coloured oil-water bottles from the primary colours; red, yellow and blue. Each child made a fabulous sparkly olive oil jug craft to take home. 

Thank you for joining us at the EYU for our very special Chanukiah lighting. It is always so lovely to see the children joining in so proudly.

On the Shabbat table this week we had:

Shabbat Aba - MJ

Shabbat Ima - Elise

Shabbat Ben - Leo G

Shabbat Bat - Noa

Reminders:

-A reminder that each week along with the reading book, I also assign an Ebook to be read and signed for as well. I will be assigning several over the holidays so you will have plenty to read with your child. It is an amazing resource and sadly I can see many aren’t using it. 

- We would love to see more pictures of weekend outings, holidays, homework, reading etc. on Tapestry. The children often share this with the class so please continue to post!

-The school term ends Wednesday 13th December at 12:30pm. This week will be the last week of homework for the term. 

Wishing everyone Shabbat Shalom and a great weekend.

Kind regards

Mrs Ranson, Miss Le Fort and Miss Molina

Friday 1st December, 

Dear Parents,

What a busy week we have had! So many exciting activities happened this week!

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we have been discussing different feelings. The children all knew about the three most popular feelings of happy, sad and angry. They enjoyed learning about feelings of frustration, elation, fear, etc. It was fun seeing them working in pairs, pulling different faces at each other and their partner having to identify the emotion. 

In Communication and Language this week we have read lots of stories, identifying the main characters and the setting. The children have also thought about and discussed something that would make them fearful. It fills me with such pride when I see how their confidence has grown and that they are happy to speak in a large group. 

In Physical Development this week the children have designed and cut out their own skeletons. We’ve been learning about all the different parts of the body, so the children have been creating their very own! They have moulded, pinched and rolled playdough, making emotion faces and making various parts of the body. They have enjoyed the climbing frame and hill in the nursery playground and built with the crates and blocks outside. In PE this week, the children participated in various obstacle courses. They also continued to work on their throwing and catching skills. 

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have learnt three new digraphs, one new trigraph and two new tricky words. They learnt the 'ai', 'ee', 'oa’ and 'igh' sounds. Their new tricky words were ‘was and her’'. Their homework sheet will reflect the work we have done. 

In Maths this week we have been recapping Mr Plus with the bonds of six. The children know that it doesn't matter which order you write the numbers in addition and that 4+2 is the same as 2+4. We also learnt how to do Maths Kung Fu, using our whole body to say the number sentence. 

In Understanding the World we have finally completed our weather chart observations for the month of November. We can't wait to add up all the different weather types and make a bar chart next week, comparing the different numbers. 

In Forest School this week, after our welcome circle, we played a fast paced running game the groups enjoy called Squirrels.

Once the warmth had built up in our bodies, we gathered together to hear Emma tell an old folktale about the Winter solstice called Deer Mother. This story tells of the courageous Deer Mother travelling to Southern lands to bring back the Sun to break the endless Winter. 

Children in all groups were so excited to be back in the woods, they grabbed ropes, mallets, tarps and trowels and headed under the trees. Swings, dens and digging amongst the leaves and spotting fungus were popular activities. The children were also enjoying the movement and containment of being in the hammocks again. Reception children also thoroughly enjoyed going on a worm hunt with Carrie and climbing the trees, identifying together if they were safe or not, by looking for buds on the branches. They were particularly excited when they found some eggs and found out that they were snail eggs.

Today we had our bow saw out to saw logs, which were then drilled with our hand drills to make Reindeer like the one in the story. They decorated them with a face using pens and cut and inserted branches of silver birch or alder as antlers. This week is also National Tree Week. Another activity that some children explored was using cow parsley and the hapazone technique to print on material to create a tree print, which they also enjoyed decorating with pens to bring the woodland scene to life. Finally the children helped look after the birds. At this time of year it is much harder for them to find food and so the children threaded cheese and apple on to wire and hung it on the trees for them.

To conclude our sessions today we sang 40 Years on an Iceberg together. This is a fun movement song that felt particularly relevant today.

Have a great week,

Emma and Carrie

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children designed their own skeletons and we were also incredibly lucky to have Anne Brackup come and complete an ‘All About Me’ collage activity with the children on Monday. The children also had the opportunity to decorate their own bags for the ‘Gifts for Israel’ initiative. The children also baked delicious chocolate chip cookies with an autumn theme! There have been a lot of different art projects this week and the children have thoroughly enjoyed them all!

In Jewish Studies this week, we looked at the parasha of Vayishlach. In Parashat Vayishlach, the time has come for Yaakov to return home with all his family. He is frightened to meet his brother Esav because the last time they were together Esav was very angry with him. Yaakov wants to make friends, so he sends presents to Esav. He sends lots of boy and girl goats, sheep, cows, donkeys and even some camels. When they meet this time, Yaacov and Esav don’t quarrel. We talked about the value of ‘getting along with others,’ even if we have differences of opinion, we can still try to act in a  cordial and respectful manner. Each of the children made a sheep picture to take home. We looked at the book ‘Dear Zoo’ by Rod Campbell and spotted one of the animals that Yaacov gave to Esav. We offered lots of different animal activities for our free-flow including: animal dominoes, animal masks to cut out and roleplay with, animal puzzles and a fun Ba Ba Black Sheep number matching game. 

In alef-bet this week we looked at a new letter - Reish, which makes the sound ‘r’. We learned some words that end in the letter Reish. Do have a look over the vocabulary cards for these words if you can this weekend: 

-midbar - meaning ‘desert’

-or - meaning ‘light’

-ner- meaning ‘candle’

-siddur , and 

-shofar

We continued to explore Chanukah this week and we focussed on the role of the sevivon/ dreidel in the Chanukah story. The Children learned that King Antiochus would not let the Jewish people keep any of Hashem’s mitzvot or learn Torah, but the Jewish people did not stop learning Torah. When the soldiers came by, the Jewish people covered up that they were learning Torah by playing dreidel/ סביבון. When the soldiers asked “are you learning Torah?” the Jews would say “no, we are playing dreidel/סביבון”. Once the soldiers were gone, the Jews would once again continue to learn Torah quietly. Each of the children made a unique piece of abstract art by dipping a sevivon in paint and spinning it on card. These sevivon pieces came out really beautifully.

On Friday we had our usual Shabbat party. On the Shabbat table this week we had:

Shabbat Aba - Léo 

Shabbat Ima - Rafaela

Shabbat Ben - Zac

Shabbat Bat- Arianna

Reminders:

-A reminder that each week along with the reading book, I also assign an Ebook to be read and signed for as well.

-Friday 8th December is our Chanukah show,the script has been sent home, please could you kindly rehearse your child's line with them. Feel free to work on the songs as well. 

- This week we have slipped slightly with the lateness. Please remember children should be in no later than 8:40. I sadly have some children missing out on the start of their phonics lesson. 

- Please can the children wear a Chanukkah jumper for the show on the 8th December. This can be any colour, so long as it’s Chanukkah themed! Feel free to make your own. 🙂 Please can children bring their jumper in on Wednesday 6th December for a dress rehearsal. 

- Our next topic in the Spring Term will be, ‘ All Around the World’. I would really like to get a display made before the end of the term, so I would therefore like to find out where everyone’s family is from. Please could I ask for each of you to email me where your family comes from. If you were born in England, but perhaps your parents came from Eastern Europe, could you email me the name of country? If your parents were born in England, that’s fine too! Or perhaps email me where their parents were born? Whatever you feel most comfortable with!  Thank you so much!

- There will be no after school club on Monday 4th December.

- We would love to see more pictures of weekend outings, homework, reading etc. on Tapestry. The children often share this with the class so please continue to post!

- Thank you to everyone for bringing in gifts for the children in Israel. The children absolutely loved this project and we cannot thank you enough for your generosity! 

Wishing everyone Shabbat Shalom and a great weekend.

Kind regards

Mrs Ranson, Miss Le Fort and Miss Molina

Friday 24th November,

Dear Parents,

What a busy week we have had. Without a doubt, the highlight of the week has been the Chagigat HaSiddur performance today. Thank you to everyone who attended.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children continued learning that 'it's okay not to be okay'. We have been discussing some of the things that might make us angry or sad or upset. Some children showed huge emotional intelligence. As some of the children didn’t have time to finish last week, the children continued to create their friendship bracelets. Each child had the opportunity to make two bracelets; one for them and one for their special friend.  It was really lovely to see them being so kind and so appreciative. 

In Communication and Language this week it was largely related to the PSED with children saying what makes them angry or sad. I am loving the fact that some children who were previously a bit shy to speak in a large group were able to share their thoughts with the group. It tells me how much their confidence has grown and developed.

In Physical Development the children have been doing lots of writing on their whiteboards in Maths. Many of them still need some support with number formation. They have also been writing the tricky words on paper and using their hands to write in the non cooked coloured rice. This is always a great activity as it truly helps with their fine motor skills. We also did some gardening when we had beautiful sunshine! We are excited to see our daffodils and tulips grow! We also had our amazing challah bake on Thursday where all the children participated in baking their own challahs. They loved every minute of it! The children also participated in a chollah bake on Thursday which was super exciting! Please see Tapestry for numerous photographs! 

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been listening to many stories, discussing the main characters. The children have learnt four new digraphs this week. A digraph is two letters together that make one sound. They have learnt the digraphs ‘sh’ ‘th’ ‘ng’ and ‘nk’. The tricky word this week was ‘push’. Their homework will reflect the work we have done.

In Maths this week the children have been working with Mr Plus ( we thought it would be fun to give him a name) and learning how to write number sentences. They know that two groups of objects can be added together to make a total. Mr Plus has been shopping for treats and walking through the forest gathering goodies in both his hands. It was really great for the children to learn the plus symbol and be able to know what it is used for. It was also great for children to begin to understand the concept of number bonds as we used the plus symbol to work on number bonds to 5. We tried to reinforce the fact that when we use the plus sign, the number will always get bigger and become a greater number. We also had an amazing time in the sunshine on Monday when we incorporated adding into our gardening activity! The children had to count how many holes we would dig and had to add together the number of tulips and daffodils. It would be great if you could continue to work on this at home. Example: You have two Cheerios and I have 3 Cheerios, how many do we have altogether? 

In Understanding the World this week the children have continued to do the weather board, drawing the weather each day. They are getting very excited that this is almost at an end and then we can use our Maths skills to count and compare the different weathers.

In Forest School this week, Reception children gathered at our tarp to share our welcome routine with counting and our copying name game. 

Today was all about dragons and so we started with a dragon egg game. Emma (who was blindfolded) was a mother dragon looking after her eggs. The children took it in turns to creep up to steal one of her eggs. They had to move really quietly to avoid being heard by Emma as if they were heard they had to return to their seat empty handed. 

Next, we shared the story: The Trouble with Dragons, which told of a group of dragons that used all of the Earth's resources and were left on their own. It taught us about how to be kind and look after our planet. 

For the rest of the session, the children explored in their own ways. Some children continued playing with the dragon eggs and soft toy dragons. Others enjoyed creating ride along dragons. This involved lots of problem solving. They stuffed a sock with newspaper and had to think of a way to attach it to a stick using pipe cleaners. They then decorated them with pens and pieces of material for the fire and tail. This was not an easy task, but the children persevered and were proud of their creations. Another crafty activity that many children enjoyed was using wool tops to wet felt and create dragon's eggs. This is a very mindful activity that took a lot of time and patience, but once again brought a great sense of pride. Others used the hazel sticks to build dragon dens, balancing the sticks one on top of the other over a frame. This again was a great problem solving activity as they had to think about using the right length sticks to make it stay up and not collapse.

To conclude our session, we gathered back at the log circle. We asked the children to think about, if they had a dragon, what kind of dragon would it be. It was wonderful to hear them use their imaginations and tell us about their magical dragons.

Have a great week,

Emma and Carrie

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children did some independent painting. They also cut and stuck collage pictures, constructed with the magnetic shapes, played with the Playmobil holiday park and role played in the home corner with the dressing up clothes. Their main art piece of the week was creating their very own Chanukah bunting for us to put on display. The children had to cut the cloth themselves in a correct triangular formation and they used special felt tips in order to design their own Chanukiah, dreidel or donuts! 

Thank you to all of you who made it for our Chanukiah making session and Chagigat Siddur. The children did us so proud, as usual! The children were so excited to see their pictures and read your beautiful messages in their siddur and we are all so looking forward to using them for Tefillah here at the EYU. 

This week in Jewish Studies, we looked at Parashat Vayetze, in which Yaacov leaves home and travels to Charan to find a wife. On the journey he stops for a rest and has a dream in which there is a big ladder with angels/malachim going up and down. In the dream Hashem promises Yaacov that he will have lots of children and that Yaacov and his family will be given Eretz Yisrael. We had such a fabulous time making ladders big and small out of all sorts of materials including sponge bricks, wooden blocks and lolly sticks. We counted rungs, compared ladder lengths and laid rungs down according to numbers rolled on a dice. Each of the children made a picture of Yaacov’s dream with the angels represented by colourful pompoms. 

In alef-bet this week, we continued to explore the letter Nun Sofit (final nun), which says ‘n’ and we focussed on two words that end with Nun Sofit: 

-shemen, meaning oil, and 

-sevivon, meaning dreidel 

Please keep going with your vocabulary and letter card practice, even if it's only a couple of minutes once or twice a week. 

We carried on looking at Chanukah this week, and focussed our attention on the significance of the sevivon/dreidel. Why did the Jewish people play with a sevivon? In order to hide their Torah learning from horrible King Antiochus’ soldiers - what a clever ruse! The children have made and decorated their own 3D sevivon/dreidel made from card, which will be used to decorate the EYU. 

On our Shabbat table this week we had:

Shabbat Aba -Bobby

Shabbat Ima - Amelie

Shabbat Ben - MJ

Shabbat Bat - Arianna

Reminders:

-A reminder that each week along with the reading book, I also assign an Ebook to be read and signed for as well.

-Friday 8th December is our Channukah show, I am sending home the script, please could you kindly rehearse your child's line with them. Feel free to work on the songs as well. 

- Thank you so much for being on time, this week has been amazing and nearly every child has arrived by 8:40 every day so well done! This means no one is missing the start of phonics so this is crucial. 

- Please can the children wear a Chanukkah jumper for the show on the 8th December. This can be any colour, so long as it’s Chanukkah themed! Feel free to make your own. 🙂

- There will be no after school club on Monday 4th December.

- Please make sure gifts for the ‘gift bag initiative to Israel’ are sent in no later than Tuesday 28th November. 

- FINAL CALL: Pictures of your child's hobbies, interests, family, favourite toy etc are due Monday 27th November. Please make sure you have this ready as it would be a shame for your child to arrive on the day and have no pictures. 🙁 Please can you kindly bring in magazines as well so the children can use them for collages. All of their pictures should be in an envelope with their name on it. 

Have a wonderful weekend and Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Mrs. Ranson, Miss Le Fort and Miss Molina

Friday 17th November,

Dear Parents,

I cannot believe how quickly this term is flying by. It has been such a pleasure seeing so many of you at the focus meetings and I look forward to discussing your children with the parents I've not yet seen. This week has been Anti-Bullying week so we have been having many discussions about how to treat our friends. 

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we discussed what we think bullying is. The children gave some lovely ideas in the discussion, including verbal bullying and saying unkind things. Our Anti-Bullying week display looks really exciting and the children are very proud of their work. The children wore their odd socks and even created their own pair in order to teach the children that we’re all different and all unique. 

As part of Anti-Bullying week, Natasha from Streetwise came in and spoke to the children about friendship and bullying. She started by talking to the children about their friends and what they like to play with their friends at school. She then showed them an animated video with birds. There were lots of little birds and a big bird and there was a lot of being unkind in the video. The children discussed some of the unkind behaviour (bullying) they had seen. Natasha then discussed what they could do if someone was being unkind to them. The children had some very good ideas, including telling someone, asking them to play, being kind to them and telling them to stop.

Our Communication and Language this week has been largely based on Anti-Bullying week. The children have discussed bullying and what it means and the different types of bullying. The children also expressed how it makes them feel if someone is unkind to them. We also discussed some nice things that we can do to our friends in order to make sure they are feeling happy.

In Physical Development this week the children have decorated and cut out odd socks, drawn around their forearms and hands and decorated them and then cut them out and threaded beads to make bracelets if they wanted to. The children also had to do a lot of cutting and glueing when it came to making and decorating their own crowns which they will wear at their performance next Friday 24th November.  In PE this week, the children continued with throwing and catching. 

In Literacy this week we have read many books about bullying and being kind to each other. The children are recognising the main characters in the story and discussing them. In Phonics this week the children have learnt the new sounds 'y', 'z and zz', 'qu' and 'sh'. Two letters that make a sound is called a digraph which the children are familiar with. It’s good to use the language ‘ phoneme’ and ‘digraph’ when speaking to the children and working on their phonics. The new harder to say and harder to read words (tricky) words are 'we', 'be' and 'me’'. Their homework sheet this week will reflect the new sounds and words we have learnt.

In Maths this week the children have been using unifix cubes and various shapes to measure different socks. This has proven to be a great fun activity. We also used measuring cups to learn about different capacities and we tried to measure the amount of rain we had each day this week and we then compared the different capacities. 

In Understanding the World this week we did some special paintings for Diwali. The children read various books on the celebration and learnt the significance of Diwali. The children then went on to create their own henna’s after seeing several examples and made their own. They first had to trace their own hand and then went onto creating their own henna patterns using brown paint. They absolutely loved this activity! They also baked sweet Indian treats on Thursday in order to continue the celebrations! 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children decorated odd socks and hand prints for our Anti-Bullying week display. They threaded beads to make their friendship bracelets, one for themself and one for a friend. They also had fun with the Barbies and ponies as well. Finally, the children also created and decorated their own crowns which they will be using for their presentation coming up in a few weeks time. 

This week in Forest School, Reception children started with their welcome routine and another game of Forest Fire. They really enjoy chasing each other and being chased.

Next we gathered together to listen to Emma tell the story of How the Stars Came to Be. The children enjoyed joining in with actions and sound effects as Emma told the story.

For the rest of the session the children chose to follow their own interests to meet their own needs. Some children chose to make a den with Carrie using ropes, tarps, mallets and pegs. They worked together to tie a ridge line  which they hung a tarp over and then tied out together. This involved lots of teamwork and communication. Their hard work was rewarded when it was finished as they enjoyed going inside and using finger torches to play. Finally, they used clay to make candle holders or diva lights. They pinched and shaped the clay, then decorated them with coloured leaves and patterns, finishing it with a tea light candle inside. There was also lots of fun to be had using the hazel sticks and ropes again, building mini dens for the Forest Friends.

At the end of the session, we gathered together at the log circle to share some of the things that we learned and enjoyed.

Have a great week,

Emma and Carrie

This week in Jewish Studies, the children learnt about the parasha of Toledot in which Yitzchak and Rivkah got married and had twin boys – Esav and Yaacov. The twins grew up to be very different in appearance, character and behaviour. Esav was a hunter and Yaacov loved to study. When Yitzchak was old he asked Esav to hunt an animal and prepare a tasty meal. Esav listened to his daddy and went immediately to prepare such a meal. Rivkah asked Yaacov to do the same thing, and he did as she asked. We learn from Esav and Yaacov how important it is to honour our mummy and daddy. We call this middah ‘Kibbud av va-em’. We listened to a song about hobbies and took time playing with the Barbie dolls outside and discussed how we as people can have different interests from each other but still have lots of common values. This tied in really nicely with Anti Bullying Week, as we reflected as a class on the fact that Esav and Yaacov had different interests and strengths, but they shared the beautiful common ground of kibbud av va-em. Reception Class made Esav and Yaacov finger puppets to cherish at home.

In alef-bet this week we started to look at a new letter- Nun Sofit (final nun), which says ‘n’. We learned our new vocabulary words that end in Nun Sofit:

-even-meaning stone/rock

-ben-meaning son

-gan-meaning garden and

-yayin- meaning wine

Keep up the brilliant work practising your letters and vocabulary words at home. Do remember to sign the yellow page in your alef bet folder each time you practise. 

Reception class also celebrated Rosh Chodesh Kislev and started to learn about the story of Chanukah. We have started to learn the words and tunes of Sevivon Sov Sov Sov and listened and sang along with a gorgeous version of Maoz Tsur by Boys Town Jerusalem. We made beautiful pictures of Chanukia’s out of lolly sticks and have started to make Chanukah themed decorations for the classroom. 

We are so looking forward to our Chagigat Siddur next week. Please keep practising your child’s line at home with them so they are really confident on the day. Boys, please do make sure to wear tsitsit and kippot on the day too.

This week on the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Rafael

Shabbat Ima - Noa

Shabbat Ben - Leo G

Shabbat Bat - Rafaela

Reminders:

• I am still having to send out reminders, so please can I kindly ask that all homework folders are returned by Thursday at the latest.
• School begins at 8:30am and children should arrive no later than 8:40am. I then take the register and we talk about the day. Our phonics lesson begins at 8:45am and it means that your child is missing the beginning of the lesson if they arrive late.
• On Friday’s, school will finish at 12:30pm.
• Pictures of your child's hobbies, interests, family, favourite toy etc are due Monday 27th November. Please make sure you have this ready as it would be a shame for your child to arrive on the day and have no pictures. 🙁 Please can you kindly bring in magazines as well so the children can use them for collages. All of their pictures should be in an envelope with their name on it. 
• Please remember focus meetings have begun and will continue every Thursday until the end of the term. Please email me if there are any issues. 
• You will find in your child’s bag a template for you to write a note to your child for their siddur. Please can you write your message and return it to me on Monday so that we can put it in your child’s siddur ready for next Friday.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs. Ranson, Miss Le Fort and Miss Molina

Friday 10th November, 

Dear Parents,

What an exciting week we have had here in Reception! Another week has come and gone so quickly, but the children have had a wonderful week! 

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the puppets made another appearance showing us how to be kind to our friends. This week the children learnt that Sophie says It’s okay not to be okay. It was so heartwarming to hear many of the children discussing this with their parents at home time. You will probably be hearing a lot about what Sophie says in the coming weeks and months.

In Communication and Language this week the children have been discussing things that can make them feel upset or, in Sophie’s words, ‘not okay’. The children told me of some of the things that make them feel ‘not okay’ and we also came to the conclusion that sometimes we don’t know why we are feeling not okay and that is okay! It was also good for the children to share some of their worries and learn who they can discuss their worries with. Often speaking about them makes us feel better! 

The children also discussed their bonfire night and the fireworks they saw and heard. I heard some lovely expressive and descriptive language. 

In Physical Development this week the children participated in a very sensory activity whereby they created their own fireworks using shaving foam. They were then able to decorate it with glitter and as always, they had modelled versions in front of them or they were able to start from scratch and create their own. It’s amazing to see how incredibly creative they can be. In PE, the children worked on their throwing and catching skills. 

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been working on ‘ j’ ‘v’ ‘w’ and ‘x’. The harder to say and harder to read words were ‘buses, he and she’. It is wonderful to see so many children practising their phonemes and reading their books at home.It is great to see many of the children making such amazing progress!

In Understanding the World this week we discussed Remembrance Day and why we wear poppies on the 11th of November. The children were very interested in this, with many of them choosing to make their own poppies to stick onto their jumpers. It was lovely that some of them chose to make a poppy to take home for a sibling or a parent.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children finished off their homes which you can see on Tapestry. Thank you so much for bringing in the shoe boxes as the children absolutely LOVED this activity and learnt about so many different types of homes and what makes their home so special! We also created our own fireworks using shaving foam and glitter and doing a special firework painting! 

In Forest School, after our usual opening circle, the children gathered together to play ForestFire. The children had to think of animals that lived in the British woodland and when their animal was called, they ran past the 'fire' and tried to reach the safety of the other side without getting caught. If they got caught they became the fire and helped catch. They really enjoyed this running and chasing game and thought about the sensations in their bodies after all the running around.

After this, we listened to Emma tell the story of Fox and Fire. This story teaches us about the wonderful benefits of fire such as warmth, light and cooked food, while also reminding us to be respectful in order to avoid getting burnt.

For the rest of the session, the children followed their own interests and met their own needs. Lots of children had their first experience of whittling. They used peelers to remove the bark from pieces of Elder and then palm drills to hollow out the ends. They then decorated their rocket by pushing material strips in the end to make the tail. It was fun seeing the children enjoying flying their rockets through the air. Others used sticks and rope to build tripod dens for the Forest Friends. They tied the sticks together and then started balancing sticks on this to make it warm and dry for the Forest Friends.

We finished the session back together with a song: We are the Wild Ones. Some children enjoyed joining in with the rhythm by clapping and patting their knees.

Have a great week,

Emma and Lenka

This week in JS we learned about the parasha of Chayei Sara. We learned that Avraham and Sarah were eventually blessed with a son called Yitzchak. When he grew up Avraham sent his servant Eliezer to find Yitzchak a wife. Eliezer met Rivkah at the well where she gave water not only to him but to all his camels. When Eliezer saw what a kind person Rivkah was, he knew that she would be the right wife for Yitzchak. The children made a 3d well craft out of card, sticky tape and lolly sticks. They were quite a challenge to create, but the results were smashing! We learned some fabulous songs this week as a class. The first was Alice the camel makaton- Singing hands. We listened to the catchy tuneEliezer Made a Test by Rabbi M.Dubin.We also learned a song that goes to the tune of Frere Jaques - you might like to have a go at singing it at home. The lyrics are :“Rivka met Eliezer x2 At the well x2 She gave him lots of water, x2 His camels too! X2”

Rivkah agreed to marry Yizchak and Eliezer gave her lots of beautiful gifts. When Rivka married Yitzchak, she lit shabbat candles in Yitzchak’s tent just as his mummy Sarah had done in her and Avraham’s tent. Nowadays when we light shabbat candles we are joining generations and generations of Jewish people (and especially Jewish women) who have brought the beautiful light of Shabbat into Jewish homes for thousands of years. The children each made a really special shabbat candle lighting moving- parts poster,which we are going to use for a display in the EYU. 

In alef bet this week, we continued to explore the letter Mem Sofit, which makes the sound ‘m’. I will be sending home cards with this week’s vocabulary:

adom- meaning red

geshem-meaning rain

hayom - meaning today

shalom - meaning peace/hello

We have started to get ready for the Chagigat Siddur and each of the children has been given a line to practise at home. They are going to be fantastic! You should have received an email from me on Monday with your child’s line. If you haven’t, please do let me know! 

This week on the shabbat table we had: 

Shabbat Aba - Oliver

Shabbat Ima - Carmi 

Shabbat Ben - Léo M.

Shabbat Bat - Amelie

Reminders:

• Please remember homework folders (the large colourful envelopes) must be returned by Thursday latest, in order for me to give your child their new phonemes for the week (on a Friday) for you to keep at home in order to practise with them. I get the folders ready every Thursday to be sent home Friday so it’s really helpful for them to be at school by Thursday. I also need to kindly ask that books are returned by Thursday at the latest otherwise, I sadly cannot give them a new one. Please ensure that you’ve filled out the reading log. It’s important that your child reads the book more than once which is why it’s important for you to keep the book for a few days. This gives them the chance to consolidate their learning/new words. It also gives them the chance to progress and see their own progression. 
• Please feel free to send in your child's homework once it’s complete, but please post it on Tapestry beforehand.  
• Please remember Reception begins at 8:30am with lessons beginning at 8:40. We have been seeing a lot of lateness and it is crucial the children are here on time. We are going to have to start being tougher on this as it's quite disruptive to the rest of the class. Reception will finish at 12:30 on Fridays for this half term.
• Please remember focus meetings have begun. If you are unsure when yours is, feel free to email me.
• We have a special surprise guest coming to teach an art lesson on Monday 27th November. For this lesson, we will need magazines (please ensure they are child friendly) and  photocopies of family pictures for a collage for an ‘all about me’ project. Please can you take a picture of their favourite toy and bring it in as well. If you could slowly start bringing these in with your child's name on it, that would be amazing! This is all for the 27th November, so no rush but I wanted to give advance notice. Please can all your child’s pictures be placed in an envelope with their name on it. 
• On Monday 13th it is ‘ Odd Sock Day’ for anti-bullying week, please ensure your child is dressed in odd socks and ready for this day.