DALET

Our letter this week was ד (dalet). ד makes a "d" sound and has a diving board. Once again, we had to use our eagle eyes to make sure that we didn't miss the diving board and think it was a ר (reish).

Here are some words we learned that start with the letter ד:

Honey          D-vash     דבש

Door            Deh-let      דלת

Bee              D-vo-rah  דבורה

Flag             Deh-gel       דגל

Bear            Dov               דב

Fish             Dag               דג

Glue          Deh-vek        דבק

Teddy Bear    Doo-bee   דובי

Chamsot Created by גן (Kindgergarten)

In Judaics, we have been learning about the Chamsa.  It is a symbol associated with the Jewish people, however many Jews don't know why.  Here is a quick fact list of the Chamsa.

• Comes from the word chamaish (5) in Hebrew,
• Roots in the Middle East & Northern Africa. ( See Map Below)
• Is used in Islam as well.
• Has no religious significance but is regarded as a good luck charm.  Protection from the "evil eye".
• So popular it can be found on phone cases, jewelry, clothing, etc...In the U.S. and abroad.

                                     

It was important for me to remind each student that the Chamsa is a cool symbol, but that it is just that- A SYMBOL. It is a reminder of "God's Hand". Each student created their very own Chamsa and are very excited to bring it home.

We are making our way through the Aleph-Bet

This week's letter:

The Letter Vet

Surprise! בּ (bet) has a twin too. בּ(bet's) twin is ב (vet). ב is almost identical to בּ (bet) but 2 things are different.

1.) ב (vet) makes a "v" sound

2.) ב (vet) does not have a belly button.

If you look closely, you can still tell they are in the same family because both have a back bench. I also like the idea of the belly button being vacuumed up. The kids loved the idea of all the twins!

The Letter Chaf

כ (chaf) makes a "ch" sound which is created at the back of the mouth. כ happens to be in the same family as כּ (kaf). They are twins, but NOT identical. These family letters can be confusing so I created a cute story to help your child remember.

כּ (kaf) was not feeling well and had a sore throat, so he went to Nurse Wendy and she gave him a cough drop. His throat felt much better, and when he spoke he made a "k" sound. Now as we know, when one child gets sick so does the other. כ (chaf) also had a sore throat and went to Nurse Wendy, but she was all out of cough drops. So, when he spoke he made a "ch" sound because of his sore throat and mucus.

I know the mucus part is kind of gross, but these little clues within my story really help your child see the difference.

The Letter Reish

 The letter ר (reish) makes a "r" sound.  It is one of my favorites for obvious reasons. (My name starts with one!) ר (reish) also has a round roof. Here are some useful words that start with our new letter:

Spirit - Roo-ach רוח

Legs- Rag-li-yeem רגלים

Head- Rosh ראש

Wednesday- Yom Reh-vee-e יום רביעי

Street- R-chov רחוב

Munchie Math in Hebrew! What?

To practice counting and our colors we used skittles!

Video of all our fun!

 Kindergarten גן News

In addition to learning the letter ה, we have also learned a new vowel!

THE LETTER ה (HAY)

ה (hay) is a fun letter because of the silly way you can remember its "h" sound. Imagine that the letter is a horse stall. The gap on the left is where you throw the hay to the horses. Also, you can think of hay as only having half of a side. It is important to note that ה is silent when it shows up at the end of a word. Here are some new words that start with a hay:

Mountain       Har                  הר

Parents         Ho-reem         הורים

Haggadah     Ha-ga-dah      הגדה

She                Hee                 היא

He                  Hoo                 הוא

Havdalah       Hav-da-lah     הבדלה

Hora                                      הורה

New Vowel  

Our new vowel is the sh'va.  It's job is to tell us to say the sound (s) before and then stop.

  For example:  

The sh'va lets us know to say Riv-kah as 2 separate syllables.  Though this can be a hard concept, the students got it very easily.  

Another example would be : 

 לְ  = l

To work on this vowel along with reviewing our others, each students completed a color by vowel worksheet Vowels are "falling" all around.  It was a blast!