Our visit to the Shule

As part of our unit on "My community", we went to visit our community Shule. Rabbi Okonov (shira's father) opened the Aron Kodesh ( Ark) for us and showed us the beautiful Torahs

He held a beautiful silver crown to put on the Torah

We all had a chance to kiss the Torah

a view of the beautiful shule from our seat in the front:)

W each had a turn to see the first letter of our hebrew name in the Torah!

Michelle and Michael looking at the "mem"

Matthew kissed the torah after he found his letter

Chaim Tal closed the Torah when we were finished.

Noya held the special silver"yad"/pointer when she found her letter

We used special "siddurim" ( prayer books) from the Shule to daven /pray with and we felt so special singing all our davening songs

My community

We continued our unit on "My community". We spoke about different forms of transportation that take us throughout our community. People travel by car, bus, and trains to get to work or school. Sometimes people travel with a boat or airplane.

We dot painted cars to hang on out "My community" bulletin board.


We continued to speak about different places in our communiyt such as the Library, the post office, the Fire Station, the Police office, The Grocery store, The Bakery etc.
We used water colors to paint different places in our community.



During the bad weather when we could not go outside we joined with the Prenursery 2 class and did "music and movement' and exercises with a parachute..



Using scissors to practice cutting.
"D" for Daniella

"I made a dinosaur"

"M" for Michael



"N" for Noya



Tu bishvat party

This past Thursday, was the Jewish holiday of Tu B’Shvat (the 15th day of the month of Shvat).  Tu B’Shvat is the Rosh Hashanah (New Year) for trees and plant life. Tu B’Shvat marks the renewal of plant growth cycle in the Land of Israel.   Tu B’Shvat is traditionally celebrated by eating a new fruit that one has not tasted for one year, as well as eating from the seven species /special fruits that grow in Israel (pomegranate, date, fig, wheat, barley, olive, grape).  You can read more about Tu B’Shvat online at our website: www.freeofbrighton.com.

We had in  school a Tu B’Shvat Party in which all the children gathered for a communal fruit tasting party.  They tasted from the seven special fruits of Israel (see below) as well as enjoyed a yummy chocolate cake shaped like a tree (a fun tradition that we started at Mazel).

We joined all the other preschool classes in the shule with our beautiful fruit hats.

Matthew enjoying pomegranate seeds

Michael deciding if he should taste the sticky sweet dates:)

Noya eating a pretzel (made from wheat)

Aaron eating a cracker (made from wheat)

Nir eating barley

Shira tasting a fig.

Noya eating Barley. She even asked for seconds:)

Michelle loved the olives!

Daniella enjoyed the grapes

Aron eating grapes

Matthew braving a new fruit - a star fruit.

Daniella and Noya tried the star fruit too.

Matthew cleaned off the plate of this new fruit too ;) :)

As we left the shule , we walked by the table and saw all the fruits that we had tasted as well as the tree birthday cake.