Monthly Archives: November 2023

Goodbye dear November…

Remeber way back when, on November 1st, we had a lovely guest (Dov) who made our November Weather Tracker? Well, here we are at the end of the month – wow time flies! We learned about the weather in English, Hebrew, and our favourite ended up being French! We love singing Quel temps fait-il by Alain Lelait.

Here is what we discovered:

November has a lot of different kinds of weather, usually more than one at a time, and it changes during the day! The most common weather was cloudy (nuageux). There was also a lot of sunshine (soleil) and wind (vent). There were some rainy days (pluie) and some snowy days (neige). There were no foggy days (brouillard). We added a rainbow (arc-en-ciel) because Ittay saw one!

A big thank you to Ittay for bringing in his weekend and PD Day weather tracker to add to our data collection!

the final product!

Using Hebrew letter stamps, JK decorated their latke platter to create a letter and name recognition game. On the back of each of their torn-paper latkes (which dried beautifully over the weekend!) is one Hebrew letter from their name, which they have to match to one of the golden letters on their platter. They’ve been practicing all morning and will bring them home before Chanukah!

something’s cooking in JK!

The past 2 days we’ve been experimenting with torn paper, water, and white glue to make “latke batter” We listened to Chanukah songs while we tore up a bunch of paper (some from our recycling bin!), added water, let sit overnight, and checked out what happened to it all this morning. Then, we squeezed out the water, mixed in white glue, smoothed it together, and shaped our “levivot” – one for each letter in our names, and set them out to dry … stay tuned for the final results next week!

Can you guess whose names these represent?

 

coming up…

For dress down day next Thursday, November 30 we will be having a JK pyjama day! Please bring your loonies and toonies to help support the Royal Canadian Legion.

Upcoming:

Friday, November 24: No School PD Day

Thursday, November 30: Dress down day (JK only PJ Day)

Tuesday, December 5 – Thursday, December 7: Scholastic Book Fair! (JK visits on Thursday, see flyer for more details)

Kindness Camels

Last week’s Parasha, Chayei Sarah, highlighted the Jewish value of Chessed – kindness, which is something we have been discussing and showing a lot of in JK! Earlier this week, we highlighted (low-lighted?) silhouetted decorated camels against beautiful watercolour sunsets. The reason for this is that in the Parasha, Rivkah (Rebecca) shows kindness by offering water not only to people, but to camels as well. Just as water fills up the camel’s hump, kindness fills up our hearts!

winter gear

Shalom families,

Thank you so much for your time and collaboration for our goal setting conferences, I am really proud of how self-aware your children are, and how they are building their skills. Kol Ha’Kavod!

A few of you asked so here it is: The Winter Gear Checklist!

To keep at school:
– a pair of running shoes
– 2 pairs of extra socks
– extra pair of warm mittens/gloves (optional. Some days, the snow is wetter than others, we do our best to dry out mittens/gloves
– an extra uniform and undergarments as always

To bring every day:
– waterproof winter boots
– snow suit. This includes snow pants and jacket, and can be a one piece or two piece suit, with the option to leave the snow pants at school if your child(ren) take the bus. You can also leave an extra pair of snow pants at school if you’d like. Because we end our day outdoors, weather permitting, your child will already be fully dressed in their winter gear. Please let me know what you choose so we can all keep track!
– warm mittens, preferably long ones that can be tucked into sleeves
– a neck warmer (nice and cozy! Neck warmers are much safer than scarves for outdoor play. Scarves have ends that can get pulled or caught in the play structure, which can be dangerous)
– warm winter hat

Our cutoff temperature for JK outdoor play is -15 C with or without wind chill. Please know that we will be going outside every day, weather permitting, and should conditions change while we are outdoors, we would go back inside.

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out for clarification, questions, comments, and compliments!

Homework alert!

This month, we are learning all about the weather, starting with weather vocabulary and terms in all three languages. We are also tracking the weather for the entire month of November and need your help!

In your child’s backpack today, you will find the weather wheel they made in class, as well as their homework! It is a weather tracking form for PD days and weekends. They learned how to use it by colouring in each appropriate rectangle for the date noted to the left, and they are very excited to have the responsibility of homework!

**Please do not do any homework over Shabbat**

Please send back completed charts (or a photo of the completed chart) on Monday, November 27 so we can add the data points to our classroom chart.

Thank you for your collaboration!

Guest Blog!

Shalom!

Today we had the pleasure of a guest in our class, Dov. Yes, he really is a human, not a bear! And, he appreciated the honey that you sent in for him! He wanted to conduct one of his favourite science experiments with the class and here are his thoughts on how the day went:

Hi, I’m Dov, a high school student. Today was Take Your Kid to Work day at my school, so I came to help out. I had a great time in the JK classroom today, playing with your kids. At the end of the day, I ran an experiment with the class. The experiment is a volcano eruption, made using baking soda, vinegar, dish soap and food coloring for fun. Beforehand we built the volcano out of Lego surrounding an empty bottle. In the class we prepared the experiment, starting with the baking soda. We put the baking soda in the bottle, then took a spare pitcher and added the vinegar, soap and food coloring to make a light orange. The kids predicted that it would be a fast but small eruption. We went outside and I poured the contents of the pitcher into the bottle. It quickly erupted into a large pile of bubbly light pink lava. It was so much fun to do and I can’t wait to come back next time I have an off day.