Term 3 - Week 7 : More Creepy Crawlies

Our week first started with the big news about the two towers that were demolished......and for those who did not know about it......we had lots of stories even some that included the terrible traffic which took so long....!!!!
This week we discussed other creepy crawlies and how people often think that spiders are insects but they have eight hairy legs, eight eyes,  two body parts, and six spinnerets for spinning silk.............these 'insects' fall into the insect family and are called arachnids - the spiders web is strong and sticky and if it gets broken the spider will often eat it up before spinning another one.  We also discussed how some bugs have two pairs of wings, which are symmetrically identical and how insects cannot chew their food and as such they inject saliva into their prey which liquifies what they want to eat and this enables them to suck up this soft part of their victim. 
Our letter focus this week was 'e' for egg - the children spent quite a bit of time ornately colouring in their very detailed egg - and came up with interesting words like elephant, egg, end.....to name but a few!!
We also started decorating our bookmarks for grandparents/someone special day......and of course have been practicing our songs!
In life skills we tried our hand at threading......using a spiral shape and red ribbon we tried to spin our very own spiders' web.....and with lots of imagination these webs could be the real mccoy!!
Some very exciting news for us is to welcome to our Class Bet family our beautiful zebra finches - we have a girl and a boy, named by the children as Lola and Ruffy....a huge thank you to Jordyn and her family for this donation including cage and stand, on behalf of Jordyns' 4th birthday. The children are all very excited and I am sure that this will be the start of an amazing experience for us all.....and each one will get their share in caring for our new babies!! 
Thank you to Lana and Marina for looking after my class on Wednesday, I was given the day to go and observe at another school - the experience, although enriching, made me realise that our little hive at Sinai Academy is truly the bees knees........and on that note, we will be buzzing about into our new bee theme next week and look forward to you sending bee books and anything relating to bees and flowers for our theme table.  So, until we chat again......with love Morah Mandy

Term 3 - Week 6 : Insects

The week started with great excitement with 'Sally the Storyteller' who came to school and entertained the children with her wonderful tales....'The Princess and the Pea, The Tortoise and the Hare and The Ugly Duckling..!!
And without disappointing we kept the excitement flowing with our theme of the creepy crawly world of insects – with their 6 six legs and 3 body parts – head, thorax and abdomen – and did a beautiful worksheet building the parts of an ant. We spoke about the largest insect which is a type of beetle, to the smallest insect being a type of wasp. We learnt that even insects have skeletons, but theirs is on the outside, called an exoskeleton . The world of insects is so vast and fascinating - some look as though they are praying, others look like sticks, and some can even walk on water. We did another amazing worksheet this week wherein the children got to grade in size four different types of insects (ladybirds, crickets, dragonflies and butterflies) – challenging for some but enjoyed by all.
And of course in keeping with our theme of insects the true highlight of the week was baking – each child got to spoon, roll and cut their dough into delicious butterfly biscuits – a yummy treat!!
We played a fun bug catching game – with large insects which were hidden around the classroom and each child got a chance to run around trying to find their own bug and then came back to the mat and told us which bug they found – lots of fun was had and it was so nice to see how the children helped each other in giving clues as to where the bugs were hiding…..!!!
We also did a fun experiment with insects that grow in water – we put small bugs into a bowl of water on Monday and have been watching their growth daily – the children are rather intrigued as to how big they have grown.

Our letter focus this week was ‘h’ and we made handprints with glitter and the chidren came up with some interesting words like hamster, heart, head, hand, to name but a few….!!
And besides broadening our general knowledge of insect facts we also had a very creative week and created some beautiful ladybugs and butterflies which can be found on our ever growing bulletin board.
Thanks to those who have sent wonderful books for our theme table - please keep these coming...we continue with our insect theme next week!!
So until we chat again.......with love Morah Mandy

Term 3 - Week 5 : Eggs

This week our topic was all about eggs...how it is a safe place for a baby animal to grow…and that eggs are laid by birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects.
We spoke about the amazing large ostrich egg which is hard enough to withstand an adult standing on it to the small hens eggs which we eat.....Each child shared a story of their favourite egg meal (boiled, fried, scrambled) - I was told by one "my best is egg and mooshstersauce!!" – The children were very interested to learn the different properties of an egg, such as, the yolk, the albumen, outer and inner membrane – all which are needed in order for the embryo to develop properly and the air cell which is the spot that the baby pecks at on its way out…..! We did a beautiful worksheet on the life cycle of a bird - putting into order from egg form through the stages of development until it is a beautiful grown up bird – although challenging they tackled the task eagerly. In life skills each child made their very own little chicks hatching out of an egg…!!

Our letter focus this week was ‘k’ – the children created beautiful kites with brightly coloured sticks and ribbon and although a little confusing with ‘c’ words, in between the many, came up with words like, kangaroo, king, kid, kiss.

A big thank you to Benni for very kindly bringing bright plastic eggs for each child.
Wishing Meira a very happy 5th birthday which we celebrated at school this week and a Refuah Shleima.
Next week we enter the exciting world of insects, so please send some insect related items and books for our theme table.
So until we chat again……with love Morah Mandy

Term 3 : Week 4 - Nests

I am writing this blog from my bed with a very sore set of lungs and ribs from this incessant coughing and I can only hope that I will completely mend this time around - As I look around my bed, I see it as my nest - my place of safety and security until I am able to spread my wings again and fly......!



So....the week started well with our discussion about nests, how many different types there are, hanging nests, cup nests (most common), platform nests, scrape nests, but the main objective of all the nests is that they are a place for a bird to lay eggs, and raise their young until they are strong enough to leave. We discussed what nests are made up of (twigs, leaves, grass, mud), and how incredible these structures are. The children had loads of fun in life skills in creating their own nests using salt dough and their imagination, they all made beautiful nests each with their own eggs, which they then painted accordingly.

A fun maths sheet 'counting eggs', was also part of this weeks activities.

Our letter focus was the letter 'c', the children finger painted their own 'curly c' onto the page and enjoyed making caterpillar markings and came up with some interesting words like cake, clown, cow, can, etc.....

And of course even without me being there, the week automatically fell perfectly into place thanks to the amazing teamwork from all at Sinai Academy.

The highlight for the children was getting a chance to see the skeleton of an ostrich together with ostrich eggs, thank you to Naor from Morah Tanyas' class.

And with lots of birds pictures, some coloured in, some traced and labelled, the children are certainly getting their fill about the beautiful bird life around us.

One last personal thought I would like to share with you - our lives are all so hectic that we tend to take so much for granted - but once you are grounded (as I have been) you see that there is so much to be grateful for - even a sheer breath of air - because when it is not so freely available, you sure do miss it!! I am most grateful to you all for your compassion, understanding, tolerance and thank you!!!

We will be branching into the life-cycle of eggs next week, so please keep all the wonderful books and items coming for our theme table.

Until we chat again, with love Morah Mandy

Term 3 - Week 3 : Types Of Birds

This week our topic was different types of birds……….we spoke about birds of prey, with their talons, rounded beaks and incredibly good eyesight, nocturnal birds whose eyes are so big that they cannot move them instead they have to turn their heads half way round on either side, to the flightless birds like the penguin and the ostrich, but the one thing that classifies all these in the same category and makes them different from any other animal is the fact that they all have feathers!!! We also broadened our knowledge with learning about the fastest flying bird (falcon), the largest bird (ostrich), the smallest bird (hummingbird).
Our focus letter this week was ‘u’ – the children glued, painted and creatively decorated their beautiful umbrellas’ – and came up with some interesting words like up, under, umbrella, etc….
In keeping with our bird theme, we decided to make binoculars for our bird watching and as such, in life skills this week we painted, decorated and put a set of these together – I believe the activity was a great hit!
We have a fun cutting and sorting activity planned where the children will get a chance to paste a picture of a bird in the appropriate box, , but I will tell you more about how that went next week.
We celebrated Carlas’ birthday this week, wishing you a very happy birthday and thank you to you and your family for the lovely donation of a book on behalf of your birthday.
I would like to extend a huge thank you to my colleagues (Morah Marina, Morah Sally, Morah Lana) for assisting in my classroom whilst I was away sick – it was a comforting thought knowing that my class was in such capable hands. Thanks for a job well done!
Thanks to all those who have sent books for the theme table, please keep them coming – we will be continuing with our bird theme next week, branching into nests and eggs, so watch this space.
Until we chat again…..with love Morah Mandy

Term 3 - Week 2

Wow - the weeks are sure flying by!!
Our theme this week was BIRDS - 'what it is' and its body parts, and we spent a fun week discussing this. And to the delight of many, with lots of giggles and jiggles, we all got to do the chicken dance....!! (ask your kids they'll show you how it is done)
Our letter focus this week was the letter 'b' - the children got to create and decorate (using feathers, foam, paint and koki's) their very own beautiful birds, and came up with some good words - butterfly, books, bat, box, banana, to name but a few.
In life skills the children peeled and chopped vegetables to make delicious vegetable soup, which they got to enjoy as part of Shabbat.
As a further activity, they did a worksheet on parts of the bird - they had to build their birds with cut out body parts of a bird, some very interesting results followed, they may not all resemble birds, but loads of fun was had by all!!
We will be continuing our theme of birds next week, branching into types of birds - please keep those books coming for our nature table!
So watch this space......until we chat again.....
With love xx Morah Mandy

Term 3 - Week 1 'Welcome Back'

Wow it is hard to believe that the anticipation for the extra long June/July holidays have come and gone and we are already at the end of our first week back at school and very much into the swing of things!!
As always at the beginning of every term there is huge excitement to be back at school, see all our friends and Morahs again and to get our hands onto all the fun new materials! To see the kids beautiful, bright, shining faces on entering their classroom, it was heartwarming and gratifying to see how comfortable and content they are to be back 'at home'
This week we have been settling in......loving our new resources and materials and re-acquainting ourselves with our 'sinai agreements'.
In life skills we made beautiful friendship bracelets(their little fingers worked really hard) but what made these a little different and extra special is that we added the numbers '46664' on them to celebrate with the rest of the world our amazing Nelson Mandela - and each child got to draw beautiful pictures for Madiba for his birthday on Sunday 18 July. We had a very brief discussion about him and I promised the children that I would send their beautiful pictures to him for his 92nd birthday.
In honour of Tisha B'Av - we had a beautiful 'glitter art activity' (thank you Morah Sarah) - the children absolutely loved peeling off the paper and shaking glitter all over to create their very beautiful Beit Hamikdash - we all literally sparkled with glitter from head to toe!!
This week we were lucky to celebrate two birthdays - Wishing Ethan L and Kira a very happy year and a very big thank you to both families for your beautiful donation of puzzles and games to the school in honour of your birthdays.
Next week we begin our themes starting with birds, your contribution to our theme table would be greatly appreciated!
So watch this space......until we chat again!!
With love Morah Mandy