Gan A Literacy Lessons

In Gan Aleph, we read The Mitten by Jan Brett. Before we began our lesson, we decided to take a survey to see if we prefer mittens, gloves, or our bare hands. We created a bar graph using our own mittens, gloves, and hand prints. The children were very excited to create a 3D bar graph. We tallied our data and came to the conclusion that most of us prefer to wear nothing on our hands. We continued by making a story map, by breaking the story into categories: title, author, setting, and characters. We then put the story into sequential order and practiced writing number and color words.

As we read the book, we had many questions about the animals in the story. In order to find out more about them, we did research and learned very interesting facts about each animal. The children are looking forward to journaling their findings and presenting them to class..

Gan Students Prepare for Tu B'shvat

Gan Daled is excitedly getting ready for Tu B'shvat next week, learning all about fruits and all things that grow. In preparation for planting next week, we collaged pots using photographs of beautiful fruits. Students cut the photos and designed their pots to highlight the rainbows of color Hashem creates on all of the trees. 

Pre-K Havdallah Night

The Pre-K children of Yavneh Academy and Gan Yavneh gathered together for a fun and festive Havdallah night. During Havdallah we use many of our senses—we listen to the beautiful singing of Havdallah, smell the fragrant besamim, taste delicious grape juice. The children then used their senses as they made their own besamim boxes, made interesting creations using wax sticks and played a game called “name that smell.” The highlight of the evening was when everyone sang Havdallah together and played interactive games related to Havdallah and Shabbat. A great time was had by all.

Andrew Galitzer, of Torah Comics, Visits Yavneh Academy

Andrew Galitzer, the author and illustrator of Torah Comics, presented to the Yavneh Academy fourth graders last week. His book features comics for each Parsha in the Torah and he helped the Yavneh students create a comic about the Parsha they are learning in Chumash. Students were engaged and enjoyed hearing his story and making a comic of their own! Check out his workshop at Torahcomics.com/workshops for more lessons on Parsha comics.

5th Graders Study Owl Pellets

5B has been learning some amazing things about the world around us! We explored the differences between predators and prey, how animals eat different foods for energy, and we created our very own food chains. We learned that producers such as plants are the only organisms that can make their own energy from the sun while consumers need to consume producers and other living things to gain energy. This week we also dissected owl pellets: The students were nervous at first, but as each pellet was broken into, the students became very excited. We used science and experimentation to learn about what owls eat and found amazing skeletons within our pellets! 

Dovrei Ivrit

3B and 3C read and analyzed a story in Ivrit this week, Madua Eitz ha-Oren Lo Sameach? The story about a pine tree who did not appreciate his needles was a springboard for discussions about Tu B'shvat and recognizing that the grass is not always greener on the other side. On Wednesday we held a grand review and conversation of what we learned that we conducted entirely in Hebrew. Students were proud of the vocabulary they picked up and their expanding Hebrew capabilities!

Chumash Students Learn First-Hand about Emunah

On Monday morning, the halls were filled with blindfolded students being led by other students - a recipe for disaster or a wonderful learning opportunity? 8B Chumash students explored Avraham's test of "Lech Lecha" with a hands-on experiment. The students split into pairs, with one partner blindfolded. Morah Tamar quietly told the non-blindfolded partner where to guide the blindfolded person. The destination was kept hidden from the person being led. Once they arrived at the destination, the person looked around to see where they were, and then blindfolded once more and was led back to the classroom. Once the silly-looking students returned back, they de-briefed. As their experiences proved, both journeys (the way to the unknown destination and the known way back) were a bit confusing and scary, but it was clear that being unaware of the destination, while perhaps more exciting, required a much greater sense of trust in their partner. Avraham, in being told to go to "The land that I will show you," displayed a tremendous amount of trust in Hashem, following Him blindly on a journey to a mysterious destination. By experimenting in this way, 8B students were able to internalize the degree of emunah that Avraham exhibited - and had some fun along the way!