GRADE 1—ISRAEL MAY 1, 2016

Dear families:

Great to see the children after our April vacation!  We talked about counting the Omer from the second day of Pesach until Shavuot.  Today, May 1, is day 8 of the count; we colored in the days on our class counter.

Today we learned about Israel, for Israel Independence Day.  We looked at a map of Israel and found it on a world map.  Israel is about the size of Massachusetts.  We saw pictures of sites in Israel and some of my own photos from my last trip there, to reinforce students’ knowledge. 

STORY: We read Sammy Spider’s First Trip to Israel.  Sammy Spider is in trouble!  He’s a stowaway—trapped inside Josh Shapiro’s toy airplane on a trip to Israel.  As they explore Israel, Sammy and Josh learn that “shalom” means hello, goodbye, and peace.  From the beaches of Tel Aviv and the Dead Sea, to Jerusalem, the Negev desert, and a kibbutz, we discover the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures of Israel with Sammy.

CRAFT:  Students created themselves as “me floating in the Dead Sea.”  See the sample, with me!  I showed photos of people (and me) floating; we talked about the mud some people put on, the chemicals floating, and how you should float, rather than splashing in the water.

 Students solved a puzzle with the word “Yisrael” in Hebrew hidden in the window.

 HEBREW:  We learned the sound “eh,” represented by three dots under a letter, as in degel (flag) and  shemesh (sun).  Our Hebrew letter was פ pay, which is the first letter in Purim, Pesach, “parah” (cow)  and “peel” (elephant).

TORAH:  We began learning about Jacob and Esau.  There was no “shalom bayit” (peace in the home) in Isaac’s family because he favored Esau, while his wife Rebecca favored Jacob.  Jacob tricked both Esau and Isaac, gaining the birthright and his father’s blessing.  He ran away to his uncle Laban.  Years later, with a family of his own, Jacob made peace with Esau. More next week.

Judy and Cheryl (Esther and Tzipporah)