The Month of Elul

Elul - Preparing for the High Holidays

K2 read the story of The King In The Feild which describes how Hashem is so close to us during the whole entire month of Elul. He is like a King who ventures out among the people, waiting, asking and wanting hear how He can help. It is so easy to reach out to Hashem during this time.

Morah Sharon dressed up as a King to read the story

The SHOFAR

Because ELUL is a month of preparation for the upcoming High Holidays, we remind ourselves to do good, collect as many mitzvos as we can and remember Hashem by blowing the shofar daily. Rabbi Naftali came to our class to blow the shofar for us. 

We also read the story about Shofy and Blowfy and the Shofar. Each K2 friend had a chance to hold, examine and try to blow a shofar. We couldn't wait until Rosh Hashana when we hear it blown in Shul.
 

Passing the shofar around

   

Elul 25th - The Birthday of the World.

Both K1 and K2 came together for a special Birthday Party. We know that Rosh Hashana marks the creation of Man. Therefore, the world was 'born' or began its creation 6 days prior. Making it the 25th of Elul.

Morah Sharon brought a surprise wrapped up. Everybody had a chance to guess what was inside. Some friends were selected to help the Morahs open up the surprise.

It was a globe. We made a crown for the globe and sang Happy Birthday to the World. We wished the environment lots of lasting health and sustainability and said we would recycle paper by having a scrap paper box so we can help reduce waste. 

 

 

Hebrew Reading in K2 - Alef, Beis, Veis and Gimmel!

Our Hebrew Reading lessons usually start with time in the circle introducing the letter and then time at our tables completing various fun activties which help us remember the name and shape.
We also practice the blending process and the direction of Hebrew text being right to left.

Below are the first four letters we have covered this year.

ALEF
We sorted magnetic letters into 2 different categories - alef  and not alef.
We also used these to form a large alef on the whiteboard.
See the next blog post below for the craft we completed by pasting alefs onto our Torah Scrolls.

 

  

BEIS
We learned that BEIS has a button in the middle and a little piece of its fence sticking out of the back. We played a blindfolded game of 'place the button in the Beis'.
 We shaped our body like a Beis and formed our own Alef and Beis sequencing patterns. 

 

   

               

We searched for Alef and Beis and glued down our own pattern on the strip, starting right to left.

We hunted for Alef and Beis and named the letters collected on our boards.

VEIS and the sound KAMATZ!!

Each of the K2 friends learned the vowel Kamatz.

It looks like this  ̞

When Kamatz is placed under a letter, it makes the sound aw.

The class formed Kamatz by placing our fist under our wrist. We sing a song with all of the letters in the Alef Beis, using a kamatz puppet, to practise the sound 'aw'.

 

 

 

Adding 'kamatz' under the letters found

When learning VEIS, we saw that VEIS and BEIS are exactly the same, except that VEIS doesn't have a 'button'.

At our centers, we turned VEIS into BEIS by adding a button. We also sequenced letter patterns, added kamatz underneath each letter and read it to a friend.

In Pairs, we took turns to name each letter on the reading worksheet. We then added kamatz underneath each letter and read the page again.

 

 

When differentiating Beis and Veis, we noted that the back of the Beis is the same, it sticks out. Each friend got a chance to color the back of the Beis and Veis. We then added kamatz underneath and read the sheet.

  

 

 GIMMEL 

Our GIMMEL is always running to help a friend and do a mitzvah. We named it 'Gomel Chessed Gimmel'.
In our centers, we drew Gimmel running to do a chessed/kindness for a friend.
In the playground, we ran with our body shaped like a Gimmel. It has been such a fun letter

 

 

Illustrating Gomel Chessed Gimmel helping a friend

Reading 'Gimmel' with a partner

Hunting for Gimmel

 

Gimmel Stamping

 

 

  

First Look at the Torah

Before learning our first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet...
Before even learning our first Judaic studies lesson..
K2 had a chance to look at the source of all our guidelines for leading a Jewish way of life.

We passed around a small Torah scroll and we looked out how Alef א actually looks like a Torah connecting the people below to Hashem above.

We formed our own Alef using strips of colored paper. We decorate a Torah scroll by pasting Alefs the correct way up. These artworks were displayed in the hallway. On the carpet, we also formed our bodies into the shape of an Alef.