Term 3 - Week 7 - Creepy Crawlies

Hi there Moms and Dads,

Well if your skin isn't crawling by now, maybe this weeks theme will get you going - its the great big world of creepy crawlies! The dictionary defines these as animals that creep or crawl so thats exactly what we set out to discover.

From spiders and centepedes to snails and earthworms we had our work cut out for us in learning about the unique make-up and habits of these creatures. Did you know spiders have 8 legs and not 6 like insects or that a snail carries it home on its back for protection unlike the slug, who sadly is homeless. Thanks to Kaylee and Romi for bringing us some real live snails from their gardens to inspect.

Now if the kids thought that being a creepy crawly was an easy job, I think that life skills showed them just how amazing these animals really are as they tried their hands at making thier very own spider webs from ribbon. We also explored the letter "e" coming up with words such as egg, elephant, envelope and end.

In preparation for Rosh Hashanah in 2 weeks time we begun making bookmarks for grand parents day on the 7th of September. the kids are really excited for both of these upcoming events as I am sure you are all aware.

Next week we will really be sinking our teeth into the Jewish New Year, so please put those thinking caps on and bring any relevant materials for us all to expereince and enjoy.

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom.
Lots of love till next time
Morah Tanya

Term 3 - Week 6 - Insects

  

Hi there Moms and Dads,

Now that we've learnt about the birds we thought it would be a good time to learn about the bees! OK, before I give you the wrong idea, our theme for this week was insects, which naturally includes bees :-)

So what makes the insect unique to the animal kingdom? Well first they have 6 legs which are attached to their bodies made up of a head, thorax and abdomen. Oh yes and of course they have little antennae on their heads which are complex sensory organs used for various purposes such as touch, taste and smell. We also learnt about the life cycle of the butterfly and its amazing journey from caterpillar to pupa and back to butterfly - truly a magical transformation.

The children put their little antennae or rather hands to good use during life skills and art this week making butterfly shaped cookies and ladybugs from paper plates respectively. All the kids enjoyed the cookies so much they even asked me to share the recipe with them which I will arrange next week.

For the letter "h" this week we made hand prints and came up with some choice words such as hair, hippo, heart and happy.

We were also fortunate enough to have Sally (not Morah Sally) come and perform some classical children’s stories for us. We were treated to the Princess and the Pea, The Tortoise and the Hare and The Ugly Duckling, lots of fun!

This week Daniel celebrates his 4th birthday - Happy Birthday Daniel!

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom and fantastic weekend.
Lots of love till next time
Morah Tanya

Term 3 - Week 5 - Life Cycle of the Bird

Hi there Moms and Dads,

Birds of a feather flock together and how do we gets flocks? That’s right through reproduction and this was the basis for this weeks learning and activities.

To understand the life cycle of the bird we carried out a sequencing activity which took us through the various stages of the birds life which the children had to put in the correct order - of course in order to be successful with this exercise they had to remember which came first: the chicken or the egg? It was also explained during this exercise what makes an egg kosher, of course that being the absence of a blood spot.

In art we made our very own little chicks out of cotton wool, naturally painted them yellow and stuck beaks and eyes on them. We then converted empty egg boxes into nests for them to sleep in.

Thank you so much once again to everyone who has brought books, pictures and objects for our theme table. Next week we move away from the theme of birds and begin to explore the creep crawly world of insects.

This weeks letter was “k” which proved a little tricky for the kids as it phonetically sounds the same as "c". They did however manage to rattle off some appropriate words such as king, kangaroo, koala and kite to name but a few.

A big “Sinai Academy” happy birthday to Adin who turns 4 this week.

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom.
Lots of love till next time
Morah Tanya

Term 3 - Week 4 - Nesting and Eggs

Hi there Moms and Dads,

Well this week we learnt about nest eggs - OK maybe not the kind humans build, but rather the ones our feathered friends do.

Just like humans, birds build nests to protect their eggs and chicks to ensure they have the best chance of survival out in the wild. Actually not that different to our own reasons? I am sure however, that we do not use twigs, mud, grass and leaves to protect our "nest eggs" or leave them in trees but rather in a bank!

The children also explored the different types of eggs that various birds lay, from the large strong egg of the ostrich to the tiny fragile egg of the humming bird, not to mention the yummy chicken egg we enjoy in our daily diets. Thanks to Naor for bringing in an actual ostrich egg and skeleton bone for us all to see and touch.

In between all the fun facts and learning we had a great time in life skills making our very own nests and eggs out of salt dough and then painted them. We also put our artistic talents to good use and made some egg counting booklets.

The consonant 'c' was our letter of choice this week and the kids came up with some interesting words for example camera, camel, caterpillar, candy floss and candle to name but a few.

Happy 4th Birthday to Keira who celebrated her birthday during this weeks Shabbat ring.

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom and looking forward to updating you on nexts weeks theme which will be the life cycle of the bird and it's eggs.

Lots of love till next time
Morah Tanya