3-6 Gimmel Peek at the Week 11.02.26

Dear Parents,

Happy November wishes! Thank you for taking time to meet with us this week for the Parent-Teacher conferences. Your trust and involvement are crucial to support these wonderful children to progress in their developmental stage.

In Geography, the North American map has been introduced. We will highlight the three main countries - USA, Canada, and Mexico, zooming in on the animals, people and culture; creating tiny model flags of these countries is an engaging activity for our students. Singing our traditional Montessori continent song, focusing on the color code of the orange continent (North America) in the globe and matching the animals of North America help bring the map to life.

In Science, our study of mammals is adding another exciting dimension to the classroom. The children are discovering the wide variety of wild and domesticated mammals, from elephants, horses, zebras, and pandas to rams, cows, sheep, goats, and even the tiny possum. This topic has sparked lively conversations about the children's pets, their playful antics, and how to care for them. Our older students will create animal booklets, exploring topics such as the parts of a horse and animals of North America.

Food preparation continues to be a favorite Practical Life activity, and making healthy snacks is becoming part of the children's routine. After practicing banana and cucumber slicing, we will move on to preparing and tasting corn and other fall vegetables.

Have a wonderful week!

- Morahs Uma, Kara, Chaya, & K.

3-6 Gimmel Peek at the Week 10.19.26

Dear Parents,

Thank you to everyone who participated in our Curriculum Night last week! It was great to see your curiosity and engagement as you got a glimpse of your child's environment and works. We appreciate your time and the trust you place in us with your precious children. Your love, support and understanding supercharges our energy!

The study of pumpkins is a predominant botany topic in Gimmel, where the students are learning about the various sizes, shapes, colors, textures and varieties of pumpkins. We are in the process of dissecting a pumpkin to learn its parts. We will be studying the pumpkin life-cycle as well. The progression from seed to sprout to plant to flower to fruit will be a fun experience! We also plan to plant pumpkin seeds in individual bags to complement the initial stages of the life-cycle lesson. Hopefully they can see the process of sprouting shortly thereafter. The older Gimmel friends will also create a booklet about the pumpkin life-cycle. Pumpkins permeate the Math area also, as we will be using them as counters, along with leaves. We hope all these activities will inspire pumpkin discussions at home, which then will lead naturally to many shared recipes about yummy pumpkin pies, pumpkin breads and pumpkin cupcakes and of course plans to visit a pumpkin patch!

In art, coloring great white pumpkins is a popular activity, and in the practical area, washing the pumpkins and gourds are satisfying works for Gimmel friends.

In science, the entire class will be enjoying the Sink-and-Float experiment. The children will place things from nature such as leaves, tomatoes, flowers, rocks, acorns,corn kernels, and of course pumpkin seeds as well as other objects in our environment like coins, marbles, craft sticks and paper clips in water, and observe whether the object floats on the surface or sinks to the bottom; then, the older friends will learn to sort and label the objects accordingly.

We thank Zane's family for providing farm fresh pumpkins; and thank Esther’s family for bringing beautiful fall blooms for our flower arrangement activity!

We look forward to seeing you during our upcoming Parent-Teacher conferences the first week of November. Please ensure you have reserved your time on our SignUp Genius.

- Morahs Uma, Kara, Chaya, & K.

3-6 Gimmel Peek at the Week 10.05.26

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the pleasant month of October! Fall is a favorite time of the year for all of us. The gentle transition of the trees, with green leaves changing into a colorful palette of reds, oranges, yellows and browns is a beautiful reminder of the wonders of nature. Our Gimmel children are not only enjoying their outdoor play time but also observing the changes in trees. 

The Montessori botany leaf cabinet activity provides a solid understanding of the leaves from various trees. The children will collate the leaves on our Nature Table, and compare their relative shapes such as linear, oblong, and triangular. We will also learn to identify the different types of trees - such as oak, maple, and weeping willows - in our neighborhood. Our kindergartners and older friends will be tracing the leaf shapes, naming them, and creating their own booklets.

In the Language area, we are happy to see the emerging readers in our Gimmel room. After spending a prolonged period learning the phonetic sounds of the alphabet as a first step, and later using the Montessori Movable Alphabet box to encode words, these students have gained the confidence to decode. It is rewarding to watch their progress.

We have started our science experiments with the color-mixing activity, which involves creating new colors by mixing the primary colors. The reactions of the children experiencing the color changing right before their eyes are magical, where red and blue makes violet, while yellow and red makes orange. Seeing the children’s face light up in joy when they discover a new combination is a treat to watch. Further, we have introduced balancing scales, where the children will explore balance, compare weights and learn the concepts of heavier, lighter and equal, using various objects such as acorns, pinecones, and pebbles from nature.  

We have introduced Flower Arranging as an activity in Practical Life. This work gives the children an opportunity to appreciate the color and fragrance of different flowers, and instills care and love for nature. The activity involves a young child choosing his/her favorite flower, carefully cutting the stem, choosing a vase, pouring water through a funnel into the vase, inserting the flower, and finally carrying and placing the flower vase on a table of his/her choice. A complete sequence of this work, including the subsequent cleanup gives a sense of accomplishment and immense satisfaction to the child. What a great lesson in Grace & Courtesy to learn at a young age! We enjoy seeing our community awash in colors, thanks to the flower contributions from Marice, Romy and Lenny.

Have a wonderful week, and thank you for your support as always!

- Morahs Uma, Kara, Chaya, & K.

3-6 Gimmel Peek at the Week 9.28.26

Hello, wonderful preschool families!

Spirits are high in the Gimmel classroom, as we officially welcome the autumn season and begin Sukkot celebrations!  The children have highly anticipated sharing meals together under the Sukkah.  They have been hard at work creating colorful and festive paper chains to decorate the space.  These chains not only provide great practice for fine motor strength and coordination, but their creation is a wonderful opportunity for children to work collaboratively, sharing materials and balancing responsibilities.  We love listening to their happy, purposeful chatter, as they work toward a common goal…creating the longest and most beautiful chains they can!  

Beyond enjoying meals together in the Sukkah, we will also use the space to get her and learn all about the Sukkot holiday.  The children will be invited to shake the Lulav and Esrog.  Using edible materials, each child will also be encouraged to build his or her own Sukkah!  After carefully assembling the graham crackers, marshmallow fluff and sour straws, we will enjoy snacking on our edible Sukkahs in the Sukkah…so fun!

Exciting things are happening in our indoor learning environment, too!  As we head into the end of September, we are beginning one of our most popular curriculum units of the year…transportation!  Opportunities abound for our vehicle enthusiasts to work with cars, planes, trains, ships, and more in a variety of ways.  Our friends are using vehicles to sort, count, match, pattern, and more!  One particularly popular activity has been sorting vehicles by where they travel, in the water, on the land, or through the air.  While many of the vehicles are easy determinations, this work has sparked many creative discussions.  Vehicles also provide an amazing opportunity to introduce some unique and specific vocabulary.  From work trucks at a construction site to different types of trains, the children love learning the names for different vehicles and what makes them unique.   This is a great chance to initiate some conversations with your children…get curious about the vehicles you pass on a walk or the drive home!

As we are into the autumn season, weather preparedness becomes an important factor for our school days.  Sending your child with items like water resistant shoes, a sweater or jacket, and other items to help him or her comfortably enjoy the outdoor environment is incredibly helpful.  We know that fall weather can be unpredictable, making this tricky at times.  Stashing a jacket, gloves, and hat in your child’s backpack for in between days can be helpful to keep them ready for those unexpected or surprising cool days.  Thank you so much for helping us keep your little ones cozy, happy, and ready to learn!

We hope you all have a wonderful week ahead!

Morahs Kara, Uma, Chaya, and K

3-6 Gimmel Peek at the Week 9.08.26

Hello, wonderful Gimmel families!

What a beautiful start to the month of September we have had!  The children have enjoyed learning all about Rosh Hashanah and preparing for holiday celebrations.  Apple slicing has been an incredibly popular lesson in class for the past two weeks.  The children take such joy and pride in selecting and slicing their own shiny and sweet apple for snack.  Not only is this food preparation activity fun, but it also requires great coordination, concentration, small motor strength, and mental sequencing.  The process also engages all of the child’s senses!  Of course, we just had to invite the children to taste some apple slices dipped in sticky sweet honey, too! Yum! 

Bees can also be found buzzing throughout the different areas of our classroom.  In the science center, children are encouraged to learn the many important jobs of the hardworking honeybees.  These tiny insects sure do work hard to create the honey we so enjoy!  We are also comparing the different types of bees.  The visual differences are so subtle, and the children really have to look closely to spot each bee’s unique characteristics!  We are also learning catchy rhymes about bees, counting bees, and creating art inspired by honeycomb.  To top it all off, this week we are eagerly anticipating a visit from a real life beekeeper!  Our Gimmel students are already brimming with questions about how he safely works with bees, how much honey bees make, and more.  We can’t wait!

With all of the excitement leading up to Rosh Hashanah, we’ve also seen great progress in establishing our daily routines, friendly connections, and a learning environment alive with exploration and learning!  It’s beautiful to see our classroom community truly begin to take form.  We’ve gotten to celebrate our first in class birthdays.  We’ve welcomed the wonderful Ms. Joanie for music and drama classes.  We’ve observed children making meaningful connections with materials, requesting or offering lessons, and actively participating in group lessons.  We are also so very grateful for the generous support of family volunteers to help with laundry and supplying flowers.  It is amazing the growth and progress that can take place in one short month.  

We are wishing you all a wonderful week, and of course, the sweetest New Year!

-Morahs Kara, Uma, K, and Chaya

3-6 Gimmel Peek at the Week 8.24.26

Dear Parents,

Our students have adapted well to the Gimmel environment, showing increasing independence in hand-washing, eating snacks, changing indoor-outdoor shoes, and exploring new works in different areas.

In Culture, we will be introducing the popular Spinning Sandpaper Globe. This globe helps children recognize the difference between the blue oceans of the world and its continents. It also gives them a concrete sense of the Earth's shape and guides them in visualizing the relative distribution of land and water.

In the Science area, the students will be introduced to the differences between living and non-living things. We will focus more closely on living things by exploring plants and animals, which can grow, move and breathe. Our new friends will attempt to identify and sort animals according to whether they live on land, in the air, or in water. As a hands-on experience, we plan to invite the students (who are comfortable) to explore the land in our backyard to observe living things. We are sure they will be pretty excited to discover various living things such as earthworms, ants, and other animals which are animals that live in the soil. 

In Language, the I-Spy box gives a concrete understanding of phonetic sounds represented by the letters of the alphabet. The older friends will start becoming familiar with rhyming objects and words and will also practice forming words with the Movable Alphabet box.

We have introduced a favorite Montessori exercise called the Silence Game. In this exercise, the children and Morahs enjoy a few moments of silence, while closing their eyes and listening to their breathing. This activity helps our students to relax their bodies and become attuned to their environment. We will continue to practice this peaceful activity everyday to improve the children's self-control and concentration, and most importantly to help them appreciate the beauty of silence.

As we prepare for the upcoming Rosh Hashanah celebrations, our Science theme will focus on Apples and Bees. In the coming weeks, we will focus on studying the life-cycle of an apple tree, tasting apples, and apple washing and slicing activity in Practical area; as for bees, the children will learn about the facts of honeybees and their important role in the pollination of fruit trees.

We look forward to seeing all our friends and parents at Popsicle & Play this evening!

- Morahs Uma, Kara, Chaya, & K.

3-6 Gimmel Peek at the Week 8.17.26

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the 2026-27 school year! This is a time of excitement and enthusiasm. We were so happy to see our continuing friends and meet our new students last week.

We have set up our Gimmel environment with great care and precise materials to engage the students. Our goal is to promote exploration so as to build independence and intelligence within the child. Our program encompasses Practical Life, Sensorial, Math, Language, and Culture areas. Our Cultural curriculum further includes Science, Geography, Nature Studies, and Art. 

Our students’ morning routine starts by setting their backpacks and lunch boxes in assigned spots. Then they place the coins in the Tzedakah box, enter the classroom, exchange outdoor shoes for indoor slippers, wash hands, and join friends. This is a step by step assignment, and we can observe the independence and flow with their routine. Our morning work cycle starts at 9:00 AM and ends at 11:15 AM, followed by Davening and play time. The children start lunch at noon, and the younger friends proceed for nap/resting time. The afternoon work cycle with older friends and kindergartners runs from 1:00 PM to 3:15 PM. 

Our popular Show and Tell program takes place every Tuesday. Please help your child to bring one item of their choice (which can easily fit in their backpack) to show to their classmates. This is a great opportunity for them to describe their special items in their own words. This is a favorite activity for our students that also promotes public speaking and communication skills.

Please pack your child's snack in an easy to open container with healthy finger foods that require no utensils, tearing or adult help, such as fruits and dry mix snacks. Kindly label your child's water bottle and snack box with their name.

We look forward to another fabulous and safe year with your children!

- Morahs Uma, Kara, Chaya, & K.

3-6 Gimmel Peek at the Week 8.14.26

Dear Parents,

Welcome to another great school year! We are super excited to have the kids entering their first, second, and grand third year in Gimmel start their wonderful learning experiences. Our classroom environment has been carefully prepared and is ready for all the students to explore, enjoy and learn with curiosity-driven independence.  

We are happy to welcome Morah K to join our Gimmel team of Morahs Uma, Kara, and Chaya!

Please ensure that your child arrives by 9 AM for our community gathering and to start their day peacefully. We look forward to a fruitful partnership with you to create a beautiful experience for our students!

Warm regards,

- Morahs Uma, Kara, K, Chaya