BZ Senior Kindergarteners have made new west coast friends! At the beginning of the school year, students “met” a Kindergarten class at Laurel Elementary School in Oakland, California via Zoom. Since then, the students have been regularly meeting throughout the year and are learning so much about their new friends.

At their first Zoom “meet and greet”, each class had the opportunity to ask each other thoughtfully prepared questions such as, “what languages do you speak?”, “do you have any pets?”, “are you in-person at school?” It turned out that while there were some differences, there were certainly a lot of similarities too! After all, the students are all the same age and learning many of the same things.

During another meeting, SK107 celebrated World Kindness Day. The students brainstormed over 12 acts of kindness and wrote and illustrated these acts together. They even taught the kindergarteners at Laurel about Tzedakah! It was inspiring to hear everyone’s ideas and how we can make the world a kinder and better place for everyone. 

Recently, students shared about the holidays and how they celebrate at home and at school. They showed their friends a Hanukkiah and taught them how to play dreidel. They even performed “Sevivon Sov Sov Sov’! Our friends then taught us about Christmas. Since they are doing distant learning, many of the Laurel kindergarteners were able to show us their Christmas trees-- Florence had a train with a track on top of hers! They sang “Up on the Rooftop” which was a festive Christmas song about Santa. It was enlightening and endearing to hear and see how everyone celebrates the holidays.

SK1107 looks forward to our Zoom calls and love learning about each other. Through our interactions with other cultures, we hope our students will continue to build awareness and appreciation for different cultures and lifestyles in other communities.