November 2023 | Cheshvan 5784

Kindergarten-2nd Grade Monthly Newsletter

Learning about the third day of creation

What did our students learn?

What an exciting and fun-filled beginning our Kindergarten through Second graders had! We started off by solidifying our understanding of what the Torah is, how it is made and what is inside! Then all the classes began discussing Creation. Each week the classes learned about one of the days of creation beginning with Day 1 where God separated the darkness with light and up to Day 5, where animals that fly and animals that swim were created. We have been using a series of books, short videos and hands-on activities to enhance the students' learning. We also learned about Sukkot and had a chance to visit the sukkah and shake the Lulav and Etrog.

Making a match with a tree memory game

What did our students do?

All of the students engaged in many hands-on activities during their enrichment time.

The Kindergarten and first graders used torn paper art, science experiments, an outdoor discovery of trees, and a mobile of their own creation to further their understanding of the first five days of creation.

The Second graders focused their chug time on teva (nature), where they found Hebrew letter shapes in nature, learned about the prayer for creation (Ma'ariv Aravim), differentiated between gadol (big) and katan (small), and made bracelets to show solidarity with Israel.

All the grades made bird feeders for the fifth day of creation as well as gratitude jars for the connection to Thanksgiving with the Jewish value of hoda'ah, thankfulness.

The Family Table

The learners have really enjoyed our discussions about the Torah and what was created each day. Here are some questions or conversation starters that you can discuss with your learner:

• Do you know how many days it took God to create the Earth?

• What happened on the 7th day and what do we call it?

• If you could create anything, what would it be?



• Have your family come up with different movements for each of the days of creation.

Student's Corner

Here are some of the many thoughtful comments we heard from our students this past month:

• “Wow, it is pretty cool that God created so much in only a few days!”

• “I really liked it when the teacher shut off the lights as we learned about how God separated the darkness!”

• “Hebrew Through Movement is really fun, I like it when we get to move around and run!"

• “It is fun going outside to learn about nature, but it was really cold out!”

• “Music is cool, I like hearing the guitar and singing along.”