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Sunday, December 17, 2017

Gan Class Update 12-17-17

Hello Gan Class Families!

Happy Hanukkah to you all!  I hope the holiday has been filled with family and friends.  I heard about a lot of the excellent activities you have enjoyed so far and of course some of the gifts that your children are super excited about.

Today was a busy day!  We started with Tefillah in the Sanctuary where Cantor Ken shared with us the new Torah covers which were presented to the congregation on Friday evening.  If you haven't had the opportunity to see them yet, I have included a picture from this morning.  Students thought that they looked like the sky and the ocean.

Because today was Hanukkah, Cantor Ken led a part of the service that we haven't experienced before.  It is called Hallel and it is another way to express how thankful we are. 

There was a special guest at Temple Israel this morning.  Bar's mother is here all the way from Israel and she joined us in class this morning.  This was a real treat.  We practiced welcoming her to our classroom in Hebrew.  Bar taught us about Hanukkah in Israel and helped us learn to play dreidel.  He explained that the letters on a dreidel are different in Israel than they are in the United States which we also learned about last week.   Another thing that we learned was that children in Israel do not get presents for Hanukkah.  The holiday is a time to be with friends and family...don't worry, they do get gelt! Bar also shared with us this super cool video, check it out!

In our Torah Stories, students illustrated a picture to help them remember the main idea of the story of Noah's Ark.  When we return to class in January, we will learn about the Tower of Babel before meeting Abraham and his family.

A big focus of today's class was Hanukkah!  Students heard about many rituals of the holiday and shared things that they do at home to celebrate.  Each student took a picture in our Hanukkah photo booth which was sent home with them to share with families.  The day concluded in the Social Hall for our whole school Hanukkah celebration.  A special THANK YOU goes out to the members of the Men's Club for serving delicious latkes and apple cider.  We played dreidel, got gelt and Hanukkah tattoos and enjoyed being together as a class to celebrate the holiday.  We finished the morning with Hanukkah songs and lighting the candles with Cantor Ken.

Our next class will take place on January 7th.  Enjoy the winter break and Happy New Year!

Michelle

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