The Schoolhouse News
Welcome back— hope you had a joyous sukkos holiday...
Volume III, Issue 5 October 16, 2009 Parshas Bereishis
ABOVE: Noam shows his work with the ten board—an activity that highlights the decimal places of ones and tens and encourages un‐ derstanding of linear counting. FAR RIGHT: Binyamin traces the quatrefoil shape with the metal inset, a tracing tray that develops fine mo‐ tor control with the pencil. RIGHT: Dovy punches a sukkah shape with the jumbo push‐ pin tray.
UPCOMING DATES: Tuesday, October 20 at 7:30pm— First Parent Curriculum Night‐ Overview and Practical Life Friday, October 30 at 10am— Skokie Health Department administers H1N1 vaccines to children of families who wish to participate Motzei Shabbos October 31 at 7pm— First Melaveh Malkah for moms on 8 principles of Montessori Philosophy
TOP: Eliyahu sharpens pencils with a small brassie manual sharpener—a practical life exercise in finger and wrist control (a must‐have for home use!) BELOW: Reb Moshe presents a preschool version of a “great lesson” on how H‐shem created the uni‐ verse. Montessori impressionistic lessons are meant to peak a child’s interest by dramatic story‐ telling and compelling experiments or sensory props. Here, you see that each day of creation is laid out with a corresponding work from the shelf— the most exciting moment was when Reb Moshe lit aleph‐beis letters on fire to dramatize how H‐shem spoke the world into creation. You can ask your child about each day of creation by describing what H‐shem made on that day and having he or she de‐ scribe what was shown in the lesson. The overarch‐ ing goal is to inspire children to walk away asking their own questions and wanting to learn more. Every time children say, “NO! Don’t stop! More!” We know our lesson was successful. After all, one of the most beautiful and awe‐inspiring ways to connect Jewish children to H‐shem is for them to appreciate the intricacies of H‐shem’s creation.
The sounds and songs of Simchas Torah could be heard in the classroom Tuesday Morning. Many of the children, while eager to return to school, brought the songs and excitement of the holiday back with them. It was nice to see all of the bright and exuberant faces in the classroom. As after any break it has taken some time for the children to return to the schedule and routine of school. Nonetheless, a lot of learning has been taken place this week. We started on Tuesday with a “Great Lesson.” In traditional Montessori Classrooms the “Great Lessons” explain through the drama of story telling events like creation, the advent of math and writing in human history, and scientific discoveries. Our lessons this week came from Parashas Bereshis. We darkened the lights and covered all of the ma‐ terials with rugs. Quietly, Reb Moshe began to tell the story: First, before all of the children were born, before their mothers and father were born, before Reb Moshe was born, and before all of their grand parents were born; there was nothing at all. Nothing. But was there really noth‐ ing? No, there was Hashem. Hashem took the letters of the Aleph Bet and created the world; Reb Moshe lit an Aleph and a Bet on fire. On the first day Hashem created light and he said it was good. Hashem split the waters between the lower waters and the upper waters. The lower he call Mi’yim the upper he called Sh’Mi’yim (sky.) Reb Moshe took a bottle that was mixed with blue colored water and oil to show the separa‐ tion. This was the second day and Hashem said it was good. Hashem created land, air, water, and plants. Reb Moshe held up jars of soil, air and water, then a plant. This was the third day and Hashem said it was good. Hashem created the constellations, planets, and etc. Reb Moshe brought out a model of the solar system. This was the forth day and Hashem said it was good. Hashem created the birds and sea creatures. Reb Moshe held up puzzles from the classroom of a fish and a bird. (Everyone yelled out “those are from our class!”) This was the fifth day and Hashem said it was good. Hashem created all of the animals and then Adam. Reb Moshe held up objects of animals and then everyone pointed to themselves to show that this was the first person. This was the sixth day and Hashem said it was good. Hashem then rested. Reb Moshe held up our Shabbos table setting with a challah, cos Kiddush, and candles. (Everyone shouted “those are from our class!”) The next day we were treated to another part of the “Great Lesson” of Creation. Reb Moshe told the story of the creation of Adam, the man. While telling the story Reb Moshe took damp sand that was placed all over the Seven Continents map and gathered it all together. He then molded the sand into the shape of a person. Everyone laughed because Reb Moshe is not the best sculptor. That being the case it was still evidently a person. Finally, Reb Moshe told how Hashem blew a soul into the man and he then lived. Lastly, Reb Moshe told the story of the two brothers, Ky’en and Havel. We talked about the being jealous or wanting what others might have. Many of the children had insightful statements about feeling that way and what it meant. Some of the children drew pictures to explain the story. It was truly amazing to see how deeply they felt the story. Please remember that school starts at 830am sharp. The morning time for pick‐up is 1245. Afternoon pick up is 330. Friday, pick up is 1245 but will move to 1pm starting next Friday. No outside food our drinks are allowed to be brought in to the school, saved for later or after school (except in special circumstances where the school has been made aware prior.) Though we really don’t like to be bad guys we will still take and throw away anything that is brought in. Please do not send your child to school with toys in their pockets, or anywhere else. The weather is start‐ ing to get cold but we still go outside. Please, Please, Please send your child with warm clothes. Finally, check all clothing articles that they are properly labeled, easy enough for your child to put on and take off, and that there is nothing obstructing closing zippers or buttons. Part of our job is helping children feel and become successful in their daily habits. This begins by taking the small steps dressing has to offer. A fond welcome to our new assistant teacher Morah Libi Zeller! (taking over for Morah Maura who moved over Suk‐ kos break) Mazal Tov to Moshe Drutman on his 4th birthday! Thank you to the Ohayon family for donating two books to the school! All the best, Reb Moshe, Morah Miriam, Morah Libi
Elementary
TOP: Morah Rivkah presents the “great lesson” on how H‐shem made Adam and Chava. We are still working on trying to upload these videos to youtube.com...almost there! ABOVE: Chaya Mushka orders the spool of Sefer Bereishis. We have begun to work with the pneumonic Chumash system that assists the children in remembering which perek each of the major stories are found in Chumash. (See Parsha column)
ABOVE: Sara makes a Chava from sand and glue dough, as we did in the great lesson.
TOP LEFT: Happy birthday, Sammy! TOP RIGHT: Sammy adds large deci‐ mal numbers with the bead frame abacus. ABOVE: Chavie and Meir make diagrams of the parts of the horse after reviewing the purpose of each part and the characteristics of mammals. RIGHT: Rabbi Zitter re‐ views with Sara, Esther, Guyli and Chavie the first mitzvah of the To‐ rah—p’ru urvu (be fruitful and multi‐ ply), by enacting a Jewish wedding.
Music Corner
For the past couple weeks in choir we had a great time getting ready for our concert in November where we are planning to perform songs in Hebrew, Yiddish and English. In elementary music literacy class this week, we focused on experiencing musical concepts through movement. In one of our exercises we started out with the beat being the quarter note and then moved twice as fast or twice as slow to get the feeling for eighth and half notes. The physical experience of the timing rela‐ tionship between the different note values allows the children to develop a natural and intuitive understand‐ ing of the musical notation rather than just visual rec‐ ognition. We also improvised different rhythmic pat‐ terns with simultaneous marching and clapping, later notating the results on the board. Some of the new music notation symbols that were introduced this week include eighth note rest and single eighth note. Previ‐ ously we played aural recognition games with the Do‐ re‐mi combinations, notating these pitches on the mu‐ sical staff. In our pre‐school music classes we learned a new song called “What do we do on Shabbat”. Everyone really enjoyed contributing ideas such as, “going to shul”, “davening” and “doing havdallah” which were all added on to the song as improvised verses. We also contin‐ ued to practice the concept of high/low in music. One of our favorites was the apple orchard game where the children pretended to reach for apples from high branches upon hearing a HIGH note in the accompani‐ ment and later picked an apple off the floor when they heard a LOW note. We continued to reinforce the con‐ cept of the ABA form in music by doing different mo‐ tions corresponding to each part of this musical form. As an introduction to rhythmic notation we did a play rhyme with a repeating rhythmic pattern performed by groups of children. The goal was to create an ensemble experience where each group of instruments would re‐ spond on cue with a distinct rhythmic pattern, begin‐ ning and ending together. It was really impressive when the older pre‐schoolers took it upon themselves to assist the younger children, teaching them the rhyth‐ mic pattern and making sure everyone begins and ends on time.
We have now added “reading to a friend” to our quiet reading period. Everyone practiced sitting knee‐to‐knee‐elbow‐to‐ elbow and quietly taking turns reading to each other. Chavie, Esther, Meira Tova and Lea enjoy sharing the books they chose together. We are now having quiet reading for 15 minutes each day (even Morahs) and it has really grown on every‐ one—even the children who told us on the first day of school that they hated reading. They are learning how to enjoy books dur‐ ing this time—not just the nuts‐and‐bolts of reading mechanics.
TOP LEFT: Leora, Donny and Ari punch out countries for North America continent maps—we are now through Canada, United States, Mexico and Greenland. TOP RIGHT: Chava Shira practices sorting geometric sol‐ ids by number of edges. ABOVE: Dovid and Mickey research knots and then tie them! Here, Dovid makes Mickey a rock‐climbing harness. QUIZ YOUR CHILD ON THE CHUMASH MEMORY SYSTEM EACH WEEK...WAIT UNTIL THEY CAN SAY ALL FIFTY!
From Parshas Bereishis… The Chumash memory system works like this: 1. Each perek of Chumash has a corresponding key word. 2. The children come up with a silly story that incorpo‐ rates the key word with a concept in the story/laws contained in the perek. 3. They can recall the story for any given perek or the perek for any given story...eventually a great skill for text learning and cross‐referencing. In this parsha we have: 1 SUN (Silly Story—H‐shem put His Hand in His pocket and pulled out the sun and said “y’chi or” and made the light) or H‐shem created the universe 2 GLUE (Silly Story—H‐shem poured glue onto the earth and formed a man—Adam) or H‐shem created Adam and Chava 3 TREE (Silly Story—A yellow‐eyed snake hung from a tree in Gan Eden and tempted Chava into eating fruit) or the nachash tempted Chava to eat from the etz hadaas and she shared with Adam 4 DOOR (Silly Story—Cain was jealous of his brother Hevel so he unhinged the door from his house and hit Hevel over the head) or Cain killed Hevel 5 HIVE (Silly Story—Hive rhymes with live) or the 10 generations from Adam to Noach who all lived very long lives