March 29, 2024 |

Grade K – Gan Class Update 11-6-16

Posted on November 7, 2016

Hello Temple Israel Families!

The Gan class was very busy today.  We started the morning in the Sanctuary with Cantor Ken for Tefilah.  We are practicing following along with the pages, treating the siddur with respect and learning many of the morning prayers.  Cantor Ken always points out how the pictures on the page relate to the prayers and asks us to share our personal connections.

In our classroom we revisited the story of Adam and Eve which we read for the first time last week.  This week we reviewed the story of Creation with each student sharing something that God created before resting on Shabbat.  Then, we read for a second time about Adam and Eve being tricked by the snake and eating the from the forbidden tree.  Students illustrated the main idea of this story which will be included in their student workbook.

After snack we learned that another name for a temple or a synagogue is a beit k’nesset. We discovered that there are lots of things that people do in a beit k’nesset which can include learning, praying, working celebrating and doing good things for other people.  To see this first hand, we traveled around the building looking for evidence of the activities happening.  There were lots of students learning in classrooms.  Robin and Rabbi Liben invited us into their offices to see what those spaces looked like and to think about the activities that might take place there.  We stopped in the hallway to see where people can leave donations of toilet paper for those who might need some and met the Sisterhood ladies that were setting up the Rummage Sale so that people who needed new clothes could come buy some.  We visited the chapel and the sanctuary, the spaces where we most often pray and checked out the Temple Office and the Sisterhood Judaica shop.  Special stops on the trip included the kitchen and a viewing of the walk-in refrigerator the secret pathway behind the bima and hanging out on the beanbag chairs in the Youth Office upstairs.  Students know that the kitchen and the space behind the bima are places they can only visit with the permission of an adult.  It was exciting for students to see new places in the building and get to ask questions to congregants and staff at the Temple.

Our letter of the day was caf.  Caf makes the sound k- and begins the word kippah.  To practice our letters we had three stations.  At the first, students could practice writing the letters we have already learned with white board markers.  At the second station we played a Go Fish game with our Hebrew Letters and at the third station, students worked with Bina to play Aleph Bet Adventure.  Our letter recognition skills are getting better each class and we now know six letters!

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about the Gan Class.

Have a wonderful week!

Michelle