Grade K - Gan Class Update 10-1-17

Hello Gan Class Families!

Happy October!  Our second class together was such a great day!

We joined the Aleph and Bet classes in the Sanctuary for Tefillah with Cantor Ken.  We reflected on our High Holiday experiences and began preparing for Sukkot and Simchat Torah with Cantor Ken.  He taught us how to shake the Lulav and many of the songs we will hear on Simchat Torah  as well.

With Bar, we played a silly soccer type game and learned about the High Holidays in Israel before learning the first of our Aleph Bet letters!  Bina, our madricha, introduced us to three new letters today.  Shin makes the sound sh- and begins the work shofar.  Tet makes the sound t- and begins the word talit and lamed makes the sound l- and begins the word lulav. Together we worked on recognizing these three letters and pairing them with their sounds.  Students are welcome to continue practicing at home with the coloring sheets and activities sent home today.

After snack, we turned our attentions to Sukkot, the holiday which begins this week.  To help beautify our community sukkah, we created colorful leaves to hang. Using color diffusion paper and markers, students decorated leaf shapes.  When water was applied, the color spread and blended to make very unique leaves which we hung with the help of Mr. Gilvarg at the end of our class day.  Ann was kind enough to share her poems with us.  They were about the High Holidays and Sukkot.  We are looking forward to hearing more of her original work for other holidays too.  While in the sukkah, students observed some important elements that make up a sukkah.  They recognized that the roof was not solid, that you could see the sky through it, and that there were at least 2 and a half walls.  Other observations included that the sukkah is big enough to eat and/or sleep in and is decorated with fruits and leaves.

There is no class at Temple Israel on Sunday, October 8th.  Our next class meeting will take place on Sunday, October 15th.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about the Gan Class.

Michelle