Term 3 - Week 2 - Parts of a Bird

Hi there Moms and Dads

Well a rolling stone gathers no moss and boy things are surely rolling along in term 3.

This week we have been exploring the parts of a bird and what makes birds unique in our vast and great animal kingdom? Feathers, yes feathers are probably the most defining characteristics of the bird and our kids had great fun putting these "feathers" to good use making their very own birds. This weeks bird theme was also quite fitting as it was also a great way to explore the letter 'b' with beaks, bananas, boats, butterflies and balls to name but a few being the hot topic of the classroom discussions.

In life skills we learnt one way to beat the winter blues by making our own soup. The kids learnt to peel potatoes, chop carrots and dice turnips together with few other yummy vegetables.

Sticking with food Naor brought the biggest avocado I have ever seen for all of us to admire and eat. Every one had a chance to cut it open and use the avo slicer to cut it into slices. It was then thoroughly enjoyed as our midday snack. We also celebrated Musya's birthday, which fell over the holidays. Cinnamon and sugar pancakes smothered in syrup were the order of the day.

To end off the week we put our unique Sinai Academy spin on build a bear and instead built some birds from the various cut out body parts, cut out by the children. I am sure they will make great fridge decorations.

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom and a fantastic weekend.

Lots of love till next time
Morah Tanya

Term 3 - Week 1 - Welcome Back

Hi there Moms and Dads

Well the first week back at school has been quite exciting and emotional, not only for myself but I am sure for the children too.

From a personal point of view being away during the day from my beautiful little baby Demi has been a challenge, but thank goodness for all my children who have managed to fill the gap during the day. Each day is getting easier and I am really happy to be back in the saddle! Thank you so much to all the children and parents for the heartfelt warm welcome after my 4 month absence, it has really made my week a joy. It is questions like the one asked by Daniel Haynes in Thursday's morning ring "Morah Tanya, hows your baby doing?" that have made all the difference, thank you Daniel :)

The enthusiasm over the World Cup was still evident this week with all the kids and I am sure it has been an experience they will not forget anytime soon - I know I won't. The unity felt throughout South Africa over the past 6 weeks has been a great platform to lead us up to Nelson Mandela's birthday on Sun 18th July 2010. To mark the occasion the kids made friendship bracelets this week as well as bracelets reflecting his prison number whilst incarcerated on Robben Island

The balance of the week has been spent easing back into things and with the children exploring and enjoying all the new activities out in the classroom.

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom and a warm weekend. Go Bokke!

Lots of love till next time
Morah Tanya

Term 2: Week 8: World Cup

This week has flown by but has been very busy within the classroom.

We started off the week by celebrating Simonne's 6th birthday. We had a lovely birthday ring on Monday morning which included her mom Shelley showing us a beautiful photo timeline of Simonne's life from birth to the present day. We also got delicious cup cakes and 3 pot plants for the classroom. Thanks very much to Shelley, Jack and Simonne.

We continued our theme of World Cup and our count down to the start next week. We made flags - painting, colouring and gluing to make the different countries flags. We also made football pitches on green card board and focused on the shapes - rectangles and circles on the pitch and hexagons on the sphere football. The children have especially enjoyed playing the finger football game this week and scoring many goals to the cheers of their friends.

Our letter of the week was 'p' for puppy. We glued a picture of a puppy with floppy ears and paw prints to decorate. Other words the children came up with were poppy, pizza, pasta, pop, pineapple, porcupine, pink and princess to name but a few.

We will do baking next week to make gingerbread footballers and have a football dress up day on Wednesday as it is the last day of the term. We might even get to kick a ball around in a Class Bet football match! Looking forward to it.

Much love,
Morah Lana

Term 2:Week 7: World Cup

During class this week we have been learning a bit about the history of soccer and the build up to The World Cup. We have been looking at the different countries in the competition and their flags.

The children copied flags to colour in and the older ones also wrote their own country names. We did a maths worksheet where we had to count footballs, boots, goals and players. They even had a go at drawing their own footballers.

Our letter of the week was 'g' for girl and we all made a pretty girls with long ponytails. Onthe practical life shelf we have a bow frame where the children can practice to tie bows. They got to put this into practice when typing bows around their wool hair. The older girls also loves making their own woollen plaits.

For life skills we made some football player puppets with pegs for legs. They are all lined up in the Class Bet World Cup team. The children looked through the library books for inspiration for their choice of colour for the shirts.

So football fever is high in class bet and we continue more of this next week.
Have a fabulous weekend.
Much Love
Morah Lana

Term 2: Week 6: Shavuot & Healthy eating habits

Well another short but busy week. This week saw the preparation for Shavuot and the children decorated their boxes for the fruit donations. As we had been learning about our bodies and senses, we decided to decorate the boxes with finger print flowers. The children also coloured in flowers and drew pictures of flowers which they then glued onto their boxes.

Thanks to the parents for their generous donations of the fruits. This gave us the opportunity to link this in with our Healthy Eating habits theme. We talked about the different fruits and the children were very quick to tell us their favourites (and not so favourites).

We celebrated Layla and Kaylee's birthdays this week. Layla turned 5 and Kaylee turned 4. Thanks to their parents for joining us for their birthday rings and for the lovely donations of cultural puzzles from Kaylee.

We wisk Kiera well and look forward to seeing her back at school on Monday.

Have a lovely weekend.
Much love,
Morah Lana

Term 2: Week 5: The Senses

This week we have been finding out all about the world around us through our senses. We have smelled and tasted and felt and listened and seen so many different things.

The fun began with us tasting different foods - sweet sugar, bitter coffee, sour lemon and salty choips. There were some really funny faces pulled when we tasted the lemon. But big smiles when we tasted the sugar and the salty chip. The bitter coffee caused a bit of confusion for some... although we litererally tasted a drop of coffee on our finger, some children were very reluctant. One even said "No I cannot taste it. Coffee is not for children".

We enjoyed listening to mystery sounds - bells, a stapler, paper rustling and a cell phone ringing. We also of course worked with all our lovely Montessori Sensorial materials such as the fabrics and tactile tablets, the sound boxes and the colour boxes. All of these involve matching two of the same sounds, texture or coloured but isolates each sense per activity.

Our letter of the week was 'n' and although the obvious choice was "n for nose" we actually chose to do "net". This ties in with our football theme and the children made their own goal net with netting and sucker sticks for the posts.

During ring time we have been talking about our 10 Sinai classroom agreements. This ties in with our information groups with Morah Sarah on the Ten Commandments. We made our own version of the Torah with our own agreements on it. The main theme of the agreements is respect... Respecting Hashem, respecting our world, respecting our parents and Morahs and respecting our friends.

So we have had a busy but fun-filled week and wish you a restful and enjoyable weekend.
Much love,
Morah Lana

Term 2: Week 4: The Lungs

Phew... we have been out of breath this week with all the activities we have been focusing on to learn about our lungs and how they work. We have been blowing bubbles, blowing through straws to move different objects and then measuring the distance they travel and also making bubble art. We blew up balloons to make them different sizes - more air means bigger balloons. Thanks to good weather today, we even got outside to blow bubbles in the garden.

In Xhosa we learned that we have two 'amaphaphu' (lungs).

Our letter of the week was 'o' - for oxygen of course!! The children made an ostrich by sticking on a body and then using a straw and white paint to paint on the feathers.

Next week we are focusing on our senses with lots of things to taste, feel, see, hear and smell, alongside Shavuot, which ties in beautifully with flowers and using our senses.
Please feel free to post your comments or feedback, we love hearing from you all!
Have a wonderful weekend,
Much Love
Morah Lana