We're so excited about our UPCOMING OPEN HOUSE! We'll have breakfast, and a tour with Tu B'shevat activities in each classroom!

Bring your friends, children are welcome!!

Chanukah - in the classroom

Early Childhood Shabbaton at Butzel Conference Center - outstanding success!

Families with children in the Early Childhood Center at Akiva enjoyed a weekend "chalk-full" of activities for adults and children.

Beginning with Oneg Shabbat, the warm atmosphere of the Chalet and Guest houses brought families together for tefillot, games and active play. As the snowflakes fell shabbat morning, we enjoyed Tefillah services, especially Mussaf, sung by the very talented Dr. Daniel Mizrahi. Children davened at their own pace and enjoyed "tot shabbat" led by Helayne Shaw, the Tamarack camp family educator. After lunch and kiddush, families could enjoy Menucha or play games in the main house. After a fantastic Havdalah service, led by Daniel Greenbaum, the Early Childhood Families had a group Chanukah Menorah candlelighting followed by smores by the campfire. Sunday morning, we traveled to Pioneer Village at Camp Tamarack for candle making, donut making and the creation of a family picture frame. Our Family Camp/Shabbaton was made possible by a generous grant from the Berman Family Foundation. We are grateful to the Mandell L. & Madeleine H. Berman Foundation for their continued generous support in Jewish Family Education.


You may have noticed that the chanukah menorot that were sent home in our classes can not be lit. The most important reason is that we chose to make menorot that were the safest for families. Unfortunately, we have heard of situations when other schools have sent home menorot, only to start a fire, or chas v'shalom someone was burned. Even though they couldn't be lit, all of the menorot were created to be interactive. In Morah Sarah's class, the children's fine motor co-ordination skills were honed as the children squeezed clothespins each night of chanukah. In Morah Helene's class, children used corks to count each night of Chanukah. In Morah Pia's class, the children used colorful crayons to make repetitive patterns or self-choice.
On Friday, the children entertained the crowd of parents, grandparents uncles, aunts and friends with their repetoire of Chanukah songs, and we were entertained by Eileen DeLorenzo a storyteller who shared wonderful stories, and encouraged audience participation! Thank you to the Fischman family for generously sponsoring this year's Chanukah entertainment!
Happy Chanukah!

This week has been exciting as the children in our hallway have been preparing for Chanukah. We have been singing songs, baking cookies, making crafts, melting candles, and so much more! Hands-on activities and student centered interactions leave plenty of room for creativity and inquiry. In addition to the goal of having students try to direct the activities, based on their interest, is also the seamless integration of Judaic and General studies activities. This can really be seen through the following animated discussion that occurred in kindergarten. Grace Kleinfeldt and Naomi Doppelt proudly told the class that they had won second place in this year's Jewish News Chanukah concert - Mazel tov! As winners, they received a monetary award of $18 each. Mrs. Nachlas asked them if they knew why $18 was a significant number, they didn't. Thus began an activity that blended math, kriyah and gimatria. Mrs. Goldman quickly jumped in with her trusty popsicle sticks and counting by 10's and ones, and matching each letter to its number correspondence, the children learned about how Chai = 18! What a great lesson!

You will see that many of the classes created beautiful and imaginative menorahs. Please note that for safety reasons, we have made a conscientious decision to create menorahs that don't actually light, but ones that your children can add a flame to each night of Chanukah.

May the Chanukah holiday bring light to your families! Chag Urim Samayach!

Shabbat Shalom!

Welcome to December!!

What an exciting week! We are enjoying the colder weather and being outside bundled in our hats, gloves and mittens. For those parents who have asked, we try to go outside at least once per day, if the combination of the temperature and wind chill is higher than 20 degrees.

We have enjoyed many of the parent-families joining our Early Childhood Classes for our ArtSmarts program. We explored feelings, by Picasso in morah Pia's classroom. Thank you to all our parent-volunteers for coming! If you would like to volunteer for this wonderful program, please contact Nancy Kleinfeldt or Sue Barash.

Chanukah is coming and we're so happy! Our classes are alight with activities ranging from menorahs to dreidels and latkes in between. You are cordially invited to join us on December 14th @ 9:30am in the "big shul" for our Early Childhood Sing-a-long. This year, we present a StoryTeller, Eileen DeLorenzo, and her interactive story telling as part of our Chanukah Program. We would like to thank Ari & Monica Fischman and family for generously sponsoring this year's Chanukah activity.

Next week, families of our Early Childhood Center will be going to Butzel Center for a Shabbaton and Retreat. We'll take pictures and tell you all about the our exciting weekend!

Mazel tov Rivkah & Yitzchak

Mazel tov Rivkah & Yitzchak!

Click on the ABOVE link to see how the Parasha of the week comes to life in our ECC!

Exercising the Right to Vote!


On November 6th, while adults around North America went out to vote, the children of our Early Childhood Center also exercised their right to vote. Although they didn't vote on matters of national importance, voting on the preference of apple juice to grape juice was a very relevant decision. Grape juice won in a 57 to 30 victory over apple juice! This week, the entire faculty of Akiva Hebrew Day School had the opportunity to "professionally develop" in ways that were relevant to their age group. Sponsored by Federation's Alliance for Jewish Education, Early Childhood Educators from Jewish institutions throughout the state joined together at Temple Beth El for a full day of engaging and thought provoking activities. Beginning with a keynote, Marty Applebaum whose theme was "Say Yes and get more co-operation" all about the benefits of positive reinforcement.

Workshops throughout the day included our very own 2nd grade teacher Mrs. Anita Batt, who presented a toolbox of instructional strategies to support phonemic awareness and literacy schools for preschoolers. Lizzie Rothstein engaged the participants with instructional strategies to support structure and routine for all types of students with learning challenges. Another popular presenter was Lori Lasday who presented "my body is Israel" an interactive and entertaining way of teaching preschoolers the geography of Israel using all their body parts. The endnote, Rabbi Muller, of partners in Torah closed with the inspiring message conveying the values and practices of love and kindness in an enjoyable, inspiring and relevant manner.

Teacher spotlight:

Mrs. Rivkah Nachlas

We are spotlighting Mrs. Nachlas this week as a way of showing our Hakarat Hatov & Yasher Koach on all the wonderful ways she makes the  Judaic component of the Kindergarten curriculum "come to life". This week, for Parashat Chaye Sarah, the students participated in a mock wedding celebrating the parasha including dancing and gift making (just like Yitzchak presented to Rivkah). Mrs. Nachlas has been teaching at Akiva for over 18 years. In addition to receiving the Grinspoon Steinhardt award for teacher excellence in 2009, Mrs. Nachlas brings her own style and enthusiasm to teaching. She knows that all students can learn and she supports them with love and affection. Wonderful job on the wedding! Pictures to come next week!

Have you met the kittens?

November's Here! Let's bring on the winter cheer!

We hope that the changes in weather are ensuring that you have gloves, boots, and hats adjacent to your bottle of sunscreen! The rapidly changing weather keeps us on our toes! This month, three brand new enrichments were introduced; ArtSmarts, Yoga & gymnastics. In ArtSmarts, Parent-volunteers are invited to come to the classrooms and teach about an artist and their style. No knowledge or ability to draw is necessary, and we welcomeparents to come into all of our classes, from Kindergarten all the way to our Nursery 2 children. Parent-Volunteers Nancy Kleinfeldt and Sue Barash are coordinating this program, so please feel free to contact them for questions or to volunteer!  

Gymnastics got of to a wonderful start and we are grateful to the JCC of Oak Park for continuing this partnership from the summer, throughout the school year.  

Due to inclement weather, the visit from the Fire Truck was postponed until November 7th....we’ll post pictures after they come!

See Rivkah & Yitzchak get married!! You are invited to the Multi-Purpose Room @ 9:00am on November 9th for a "wedding" celebration!

Have you registered for our Shabbaton? If you have a child in the Early Childhood Center and are interested in joining us for our retreat, please make sure to send in your deposit and register ASAP to be able to benefit from the $100 early registration bonus!

 

Do you know how you can find out more about our Early Childhood Center?

Have a wonderful Month!