Category Archives: holidays

upcoming events!

We’ve got some exciting things happening here at OJCS that will carry us to the end of March! See flyers below for more details.

Wednesday, March 20th: Innovation Day
Please join us in our classroom from 9 am to 9:45 am to experiment with us and hear about our scientific investigations!

Monday, March 25th to Thursday, March 28th: Ruach week!
No school on Friday, March 29th.
There is a Grade 8 raffle happening that week as well, see flyers for info on ticket prices and prizes!
Here are the daily themes:
Monday: Our class costume theme is “מה שבא לי”. Borrowing from one of the themes of the Purim holiday, ״ונהפוך הוא״, we are taking a phrase that we have worked hard on flipping around – ״לא בא לי״ – and are flipping it into “מה שבא לי”! This is also the day we visit the school wide Purim carnival, please see the flyer below asking for donations of gently used toys for prizes.
Tuesday: Tacky Tuesday. Wear your most mis-matched clothing!
Wednesday: Wild West! Yee haw cowboys and cowgirls! Let’s practice our cowboy hustle!
Thursday: PJ Day, also dress down day! Bring your toonies and loonies in support of the Humane Society!

Homework alert!

We have been getting ready to celebrate Tu Bi’Shevat (**special homework after photos**). We’ve done some beautiful art, read stories, learned some songs, and learned about Shivat Haminim. Here’s another story from our very own amazing librarian, Brigitte, that you can enjoy at home together. We also started germinating some beans and lentils, and we will be planting them on Thursday or Friday, depending on how long their roots get.

HOMEWORK: This Thursday, January 25th, in honour of Tu Bi’Shevat, we will be having a “favourite fruit” show and tell. Please send your child with one or two types of fruit that they enjoy, packaged separately from their lunch and snacks. Please leave stems, peels, and seeds/pits as we will be exploring each fruit as well. Thank you!

This Friday, January 26th, we will be having a dress down day in support of JNF. Please send a loonie or a toonie. See flyer below.

 

Tu Bi’shevat higiya!

Welcome back from winter break! Your children adjusted really quickly to being back in the classroom and were excited to jump right back into learning! We kicked off with a discussion about the upcoming holiday of Tu Bi’Shevat. We talked about what trees provide for humans, animals, and the environment. We looked at our empty, frozen, snow-covered Canadian trees, and beautifully blooming almond trees in Israel, talked about the similarities and differences of Tu Bi’Shevat in Canada and in Israel, and then translated that learning into some beautiful art. Take a look!

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?

 

Colour Mixing continued, and a little bit of sukkot!

This week, we had a blast mixing colours in so many different ways. We conducted the walking rainbow experiment, painted with watercolour paints, listened to colour mixing songs, and finally, made our own type of colour wheel with a mixing chart to remind us what happens when you mix different primary colours together.

We’ve also been preparing for Sukkot. We made decorations for the school Sukkah and for home, learned about arba’at ha’minim, and made Sukkah collages in art class. So much fun!

Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom!

Upcoming events

Shalom JK families!

We had such a lovely time yesterday with all of our special visitors yesterday morning for generations day, we hope they come back and visit soon!

We have a busy schedule over the next two weeks so here are some important dates and reminders:

  • In honour of Shavuot, OJCS is compiling a recipe book. JK is responsible for desserts so please send in/email your family’s most favourite dairy or pareve desserts! Cite your source if it’s from a website or cookbook!
  • Friday, May 19: Dress down day! JK has decided to have a PJ day, so wear your cozy pjs, bring a stuffy (as long as it fits in your backpack), and some friends even want to wear their slippers as indoor shoes!
  • Monday, May 22: NO SCHOOL Victoria Day
  • Thursday, May 25: DAIRY DAY in honour of Shavuot we are having an assembly with a special dairy treat! We are also collecting donations of food items for the Ottawa Kosher Food Bank. Please see flyer below for more details.
  • Friday, May 26: NO SCHOOL Shavuot

Please remember to send your child dressed appropriately for the weather, which includes a light jacket or sweatshirt, rain gear if needed, a sun hat, and please consider applying sunscreen in the morning. You can also send in sunscreen for your child to reapply before we go out later in the day.

Reminder!

This Friday, March 3rd, dismissal is at 3:00 pm!

Next week is Ruach Week, where every day of the week is an opportunity to dress up in a different theme.
See the poster below for the schedule.


Another way we celebrate is by going to the school-wide Purim Carnival. To make it even more fun, students can win tickets and trade them in for prizes! We are looking for donations of gently used toys and tchatchkes to be used as prizes. If you would like to donate something and are unsure if it is appropriate, please send us a picture and we will let you know!