Very very important!

Dear Parents

With a start of a new learning unit about our community, Pre-K friends will take short and long walking trips in order to see and visit different places. Please send your child to school with all winter accessories on a daily basis, including: boots, hats, mittens/gloves, scarf, etc.  The kids should therefore be properly dressed to go on a trip. 

P.S. - Children who come to school in boots should have a pair of comfortable indoor shoes to change into when they arrive in school, leaving their boots in their cubby. 

- it would be helpful to keep an extra zip-up sweater in school so that your child can put it on or take it off if he or she so choose. 

Our Community- Our School

Pre-K Friends started a new learning unit - Our Community. The big idea of the unit is to teach friends that a peaceful community is a group of people who spend time together and share a place. In a peaceful community people help each other, solve problems talking to each other and sharing ideas.

Look ,for example, at our Pre-K class. Our class is a small community. Pre-K friends spend time together and share a place learning and playing together. Everyone has responsibilities in the class. Some friends are responsible for setting tables for breakfast and lunch, some take care of pets, some are Morah's helpers. For example, Naomi was a Davening Helper. Her responsibility was to hold a siddur during Davening. Naomi helped everyone follow along and daven together.  

In Mazel Day School, there are lot of students. School is a bigger kind of community than our class community.  Pre-K Friends are just a small part of school community. Children of the same age usually put together in one grade. Kindergarten class is another part in the school community.  Pre-K friends visited Kindergarten class to find out what do they learn and do in their community.

Kindergarten Friends were very kind to Pre-K friends and they happily shared that they have daily schedule in the class that they follow. They try to do all work that morahs plan for them in order to help them learn. There is time for learning and for recess (that means free play). Kindergartners have a lot of responsibilities: to do their homework, read books, keep their classroom neat, be respectful to each other.

There are lot of students in the school. Every class has two Morahs. What are Morahs' responsibilities in our school community? Pre-K friends said that main responsibility is to take care of them. That is absolutely correct! To take care of friends, to make sure that they learn Alef-Beis, ABC and many other things, to teach them how to get along with each other - these are morahs responsibilities.  

But who is in our school community responsible for fixing things from toys and furniture to fixing broken tiles? Who does give Pre-K friends a ride to a gym? Who does make sure that  school friends have fruits for snack? Who is always friendly and ready to help? It is Gena!   

There is one person who is charge of all things that happen in our Mazel Day School Community. It is Morah Chanie. She is a leader of the school community. It is not an easy job! How does she do it? With this question in mind, we visited Morah Chanie in her office.

Morah Chanie said that of course her job is not easy one. But she has a lot of helpers: morahs, Mrs. Inna, Morah Sarah, Gena and others. Morah Chanie makes sure that all her helpers know their responsibilities and do their job nicely. She makes sure that morahs have everything they need for teaching and taking care of friends. For example, Morah Chanie makes sure that every class gets great books to read and great toys to play and to learn with. 

Thank you to Morah Chanie, Gena and our Kindergarten Friends for letting us visit you and helping us to learn about our school community.

Shabbos Box

Our new Shabbos box is ready to be given out.

This week the lucky friend that will be taking it home is............... Mickey!

Enjoy & Good Shabbos!

Special Thank You!

Dear Parents,

Mazel Day School Chanukah Recital was a big success! Pre-K Friends did an amazing job performing their part in front of real audience. Dear Parents, you are a big part of this success. We want to express our gratitude to all of you for taking responsibility to practice with your kids at home and make it perfect! THANK YOU! 

A special thank you goes to Sophie's mom, Svetlana Sky, and Leon's mom, Natalia Permyak, for supporting and helping with ideas and supplies in the costumes preparation and stage decoration. THANK YOU! 

To see Pre-K Chanukah Recital please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvechsLHHEk

Letter Chof

This week our Mailman was Ari who brought us the letter Chof.  

It has one little line on top, one little line coming down, and one little line across on the bottom.

This letter doesn't have a dot. 

Hint: Chof doesn't have a cold therefore it doesn't need a candy like the Kaf.

Letter Kaf

We couldn't wait to learn the next letter. Mailman Leon brought us the letter Kaf.

Kaf has one little line on top, one little line going down, and one little line across on the bottom. It also has a dot in the middle.

Hint: Kaf is eating a kosher candy for its cold. It is also a hungry letter which only eats kosher foods. Whenever it goes shopping it always looks for these signs on the food.

Kosher begins with the letter Kaf.

Excitments of the Chanukah week

                                                   We lit a menorah and sang Chanukah songs

                                                              We made latkes

and ate them.

We made Chanukah cookies

We performed for our friends from the Senior Citizen Center

 and treated them with cookies we made.

And finally we performed at our school's Chanukah Recital

to see more visit our http://prek5772.shutterfly.com/pictures/1433

A road to good health

Dear Parents,

as winter season continues, our worries about our children staying healthy and attending school full time continue as well. How can we help our children build strong immune system? How can we help them to resist airborne viruses?  With these questions we approached one of our parents who is often guest in our classroom and who is a Certified Wellness and Weight Management Coach, Zoya Davidov- known among Pre-K friends as Ema's mom.  

"While it’s true that our kids inherit some of our booboos, their lifestyle and nutrition play major role in the strength of their immunity. Did you know that digestive and lymphatic systems carry 80% of that responsibility?  Therefore, it is very important to keep their tummy health at its ultimate and concentrate our efforts on giving our kids the nutrition their body needs and cleansing and removing their body from toxins.

While intestine absorbs all the nutrients we eat, lymphatic system works hard to clean up waist products while protecting us from infections such as viruses, bacteria and fungi as well as tumors. It runs along side of the circulatory system and it has no pump: fluid is moved passively during muscle contraction. That is why it’s crucially important to keep our kids moving, to keep toxins flushing away from their systems.There is what you, dear parents, should start to do right away

• limit amount of sugar your child consumes. Sugar should come in its natural form from fruits and root veggies. Don’t offer your kid a juice to drink, instead make the water available on the counter all day long, just like in the class room.
• 
  

  buy whole grain unsweetened cereals, plain organic yogurts and mix in a small amount of honey or any fruit jam that your child likes. This way you control how much sugar she/he consumes.
•  veggies and fruits.
  

  Decrease and ultimately eliminate white flower foods from your child’s diet. I suggest crowding out method, which means gradually substituting with whole grains, fresh

Stay healthy,
Zoya Davidov

To see Zoya's full article with suggestions how to help children make healthy choices please visit our Pre-K shutterfly page (top right site column- "Files") http://prek5772.shutterfly.com/pictures

Forward your questions to
http://zoya-davidov.healthcoach.integrativenutrition.com/contact or
http://www.facebook.com/#!/EMZwellness
or leave your question as a comment on the blog. We will ask Zoya to address your question directly on the blog. 

Eliana's Show and Tell

This week Show and Tell host was Eliana. Eliana brought something very interesting to the class. Friends learned that Eliana takes singing classes. She told friends that she has a costume of duckling that she wore for a Musical show where she played a role of little duckling.  Eliana showed friends her costume and a well deserved trophy that she got after the show. Friends asked her why did she bring these things? Eliana said that she really likes her costume and likes to sing. We hope that one day Eliana will be brave enough to sing in front of her friends.
To see Eliana's Show and Tell please visit  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8ofkYE9ceM

Winter Vocation Homework for Parents

1. Take your kid outside everyday. ( Outside play on windless days when the temperature is above 32 F is recommended by NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.)
 2. Read to your kids daily. Read something that you would enjoy together. Look through old photographs, watch favorite movie and discuss it.
3. Bake or cook together. Give your kid some manageable work- cut veggies, break eggs, mix cookie butter...
4. Take a trip to a book store like Barnes and Nobles.
5. Let your kid call his friends. Use the school directory book that has been sent to you at the beginning of the year.
6. Let your kid use the site http://www.starfall.com/ to review letters that we learned already.
7. Less TV!
8. Put music on and dance!

This week we learned

The letter G was the letter of the week. To make the letter one needs one big curve, two little line. The words "'grape'', ''guitar'', ''glue'' or ''gum'' start with the letter G. We were happy to learn that three of our friends last names start with "G"-  Liza Gerber, Rachel Gabo and David Gleiser. To review letters that we learned already please visit http://www.starfall.com/

This week we learned

This week we learned the letter Q. To make a letter one needs two curves and one little line. The letter Q starts such words as question, queen, quarter, quickly.  To review the letter and its sound please visit:
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/letter-q/load.htm?f

The next week lettet is the letter G. To pre teach the letter please visit http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/letter-g/load.htm?f

Pre-K friends are learning about number 4. On the number line the number 4 stands between numbers 3 and 5. Number 3 stands before the number 4, number 5 stands after the number 4. We learned that 4 is one more than 3 and one less than 5.

Show and Tell hosted by David S.

David S. was the host of this week Show and Tell.  When David brought a big box in the class, everyone was guessing what it is. The box was nicely decorated with pictures of Alef Beis.  David said that it is the Aron Kodesh where he keeps his Torah. David takes the torah out almost every day, except the days when he forgets to take it out:) David even showed everyone his Torah. Thank you, David for an interesting Show and Tell time.
To see David's Show and Tell follow the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovQ5bo8Uruc
Next week Show and Tell host is JASON!