Talk and Work it Out

First Grade has been working on what it means to be a good friend. We pick a specific area and work on it weekly. This week Morah read the book, Talk and Work it Out. After reading the book, we gave the example of children building Legos and it being time to clean up. One of the children grabs all the Legos and tries to put them away. While he thought he was being helpful, he destroyed an others Lego creation. Obviously this upset his friend and the friend yelled at his classmate who ruined his creation. This was an example given that Zaylin and Simon acted out. (We do a lot of role playing)
As a class we spoke about the situation and possible solutions. We spoke about not acting on our anger right away rather express to the person who upset you, why you're upset in a calm voice. The you give each other time to speak about the situation, apologize and even come up with a plan to make the friend you hurt happy. Zaylin and Simon then acted out the solutions we spoke about.

PURIM;)

Dear parents,

It has been a very busy and exciting week learning all about Purim!

In First Grade we acted out the story of Purim, learned lots of new songs and learned all about what we need to do On Purim.

1.       Hear the Megillah Reading

2.       Give Mishloach Manot-(gift bag with 2 at least two treats) to a friend.

3.       Give extra charity to the poor

4.       Eat a Festive meal.

Although it’s not a must however it is a custom to Dress up in a costume to be happy on PurimJ

We had a lot of fun making The Purim Character Puppets and decorating Graggers to use when hearing Haman’s name!

In addition each child has A prepared Mishloach Manot-goody bag, to do the mitzvah of giving it to a friend on Purim

Below is a link where you can find the Purim Story, Hamantashen Recipe, holiday guide and more!

http://www.chabad.org/holidays/purim/default_cdo/aid/109190/jewish/Purim.htm

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Purim!!!

Morah Mushky

Writing Workshop

In Writing Workshop we have been working on a unit called: How To. In this unit the children write about things they know how to do, by using transition words. They use words such as: First, Then, Next, Last, Finally. The first step is to sketch out a picture that will go along with the words of the How To story. Before the kids started writing they made a list of all the things they know how to do. They wrote two to three How To stories. They are now in the process of editing and revising a How To they chose to publish. 

I also modeled for the class how to write a How To story, and I chose to write about making a salad. I though it would be really great if the class could use an actual How To story to make something. Today in class we made a big salad. Each child had a chance to cut a vegetable, and put it in the bowl. When we were all finished they enjoyed yummy salad. 

Morah Gaby