This week, Gan Aleph celebrated ט"ו בשבט. We learned that  ט"ו בשבט is a  holiday that celebrates the "birthday of the trees" in Israel. We asked ourselves: Do all trees in Israel really have the same birthday? We thought about it and knew that the answer had to be no because trees are planted everyday! The students learned that  ט"ו בשבט is actually the time when the trees stop absorbing water and nutrients from the soil via its roots since they have enough food stored up inside. Therefore, they begin to grow on their own. We learned the different parts of the tree in Hebrew: עץ / אילן - tree, שרש- root, ענף- branch, עלה- leaf, גזע- trunk and  פרח- flower or blossom. On  ט"ו בשבט, we planted our very own parsley, which we will take care of and grow until Pesach, when we can use it for Karpas at the Seder.   

This week the children of Ganon Gimmel were introduced to two new pre-reading programs.  In our classroom we have begun using a series called AlphaTales.  This program is made up of a series of books, each emphasizing a specific letter.  After reading the stories together the children have fun challenging one another to come up with as many words as they can which begin with letter being highlighted.  To complement this we are also working on proper letter formation.  All letters are made of four basic shapes, a big line, a little line, a big curve and a little curve.  Using clay, stickers, trays of sand and writing instruments, the children practice forming the letters.   On Thursday Ganon Gimmel visited the computer lab for the first time.  Members of the tech team introduced the children to the Lexia computer program.  The children will  be coming to the computer lab on a weekly basis to play a variety of rhyming, beginning sound, ending sound and letter recognition games on iPads and computers.  Looking forward to lots of literary success!