Grade 6/Kitah Vav

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3-19-2020

Hello 6th grade families! I hope you are doing well and hanging in during this time. I wanted to check in with you and get your feedback about the best way to have a virtual class and relay information to you all.

I am planning to set up a Google Classroom for 6th Grade, but before I do so I have a few questions for you:

Do your children all have a personal gmail account that they can use for this? If not, would they be able to one?

Would you (parents) like to be added as students to the classroom so you can access everything? 

Please let me know if you can, so I can determine the best way for everyone to set up a virtual classroom!

Thank you so much!

Hilary

3-3-2020
Hello 6th Grade families!

This week we were excited to get Tu B'shvat cards and letters from the Habonim school! We responded with letters about what we did over February break, Purim cards, and some videos to send their way. It is so fun to see the excitement in receiving items from our Israel penpals, and we are hoping to schedule another Skype date soon. We read and discussed a Purim text, which was a nice refresher to remind us the Purim details we forgot. This will come in handy next week when we play our Purim Jeopardy game! 

I hope to see you all on March 22nd for the next Moving Traditions family session!

Hilary

2-12-2020

Hello 6th Grade families!

One of my favorite parts of this week was having a different Tefilah experience with the kids. We went outside in honor of Tu B'Shvat and got to be in nature to think about creation, animals, what our place, among others. We also practiced a moment of mindfulness in nature to think about what we experienced with all of our different senses. It is amazing how much we don't pay attention to in our daily lives that we suddenly notice when we stop to pay attention. Some of the things the kids noticed were the sound of the wind rustling through the trees, birds, traffic, someone opening a nearby door. There were yellow cards tied to trees and bushes around the synagogue and everyone was so excited to go from card to card and think about what was on them. 

Aside from Tefilah, we also continued in the Moving Traditions curriculum to get ready for upcoming Bar and Bat Mitzvot. This particular lesson was about giving and receiving attention, and how that might look different for people based on gender. We are continuing with those lessons throughout the year and look forward to our next family session on March 22!

Hilary

2-4-20
Hello 6th Grade families!

It was nice to see some of you at our annual World Wide Wrap event! With the help of the mens club and other community members, the 5th and 6th grades came together for a little bit to learn about Tefilin, what they are, who wears them, and how to put them on. We got to see some artwork and blessings from students who have graduated and what tefillin means to them. Then, the 6th graders got some hands on practice wrapping and unwrapping tefilin on themselves and learning the brachot that go along with them. 

Next week we are looking forward to our Tu Bishvat seder and other fun activities!

Hilary

1-28-2020

Hello 6th Grade families!

So nice to see your kids this morning. We had a fun morning with Yahav, Anna, and some other activities throughout the morning. Yahav played a jeopardy game with us about the Israeli Army, Airforce, and Navy. Anna taught us some new songs and also led us in Tefilah. In our room, we started a preliminary discussion of what we already know about Tu Beshvat (It is a Jewish Holiday, it is the birthday of the tress, and you have to wait for trees to be 5 years old in order to pick the fruit). This leads us into our next activity of learning more about Tu Beshvat in partners, and then creating a way to teach the rest of the class. Options are to create a Jeopardy game, Kahoot game, or lead an art project. I'm excited to see what they come up with in 2 weeks when we celebrate Tu Beshvat!

Just as a reminder, that next week, February 2nd from 10-12 is a special program to learn about putting on tefillin!

Hilary

1-15-2020

Hello 6th Grade families! We had such a fun morning! We finally got a chance to Skype with our new Israeli friends, and match some faces with names. One of the most excited parts of 6th Grade is developing a deeper understanding about Haifa and having the chance to correspond with Israeli students the same age. We have written and received a few letters, made some videos, and now finally had the chance to chat. Did you know there is Tik Tok in Israel too? That was a fun realization for some of the kids here. We had the chance to share about the Haifa projects we did, and they told us that they did some Boston projects as well (The Freedom Trail, Larry Bird and the Celtics, and John Adams just to name a few). We also had the chance to take turns asking question about what life is like in Israel vs. the USA. It was so fun and we are working on scheduling another time later in the Spring!

Hilary

1-7-20

Hello 6th Grade families! I hope you all had a restful break and enjoyed the holiday season. On Sunday we started our first lesson from the Moving Traditions curriculum, discussion the transitional period from being a child to a teenager. We started with a game, where students had to work together to transition from one part of the room to the other part. This symbolized the transition that they are experiencing as they become teenagers. We looked back to our childhoods and thought about some of the significant experiences we had. We will continue this topic next week.

Upcoming:

Sunday January 12: We have rescheduled our Skype session with the Habonim School! Because of the time difference it will take place right at 9:00. If possible, please arrive a few minutes early so that we can get set up and be ready to go right at 9:00!

I hope you all have a great week!

Hilary

12-18-19

Hello 6th Grade families!

As a community, Temple Israel has been practicing adding mindfulness into the classroom. As a new practice, this can be challenging. This morning we tried to choose one spot to look at and pay attention to our breaths. This moment was filled with movement, chairs being moved, tables bouncing, coughing, laughing, eye contact, whispering...this list goes on! After a short discussion about what it means to be mindful, we tried again. We passed a Havdalah candle around, and we all took turns about what we noticed about it. Then we tried to have a mindful moment again, this time with the lights off and all of us staring at the candle. What a peaceful moment! Every student was quietly staring at the flame. There was no movement, chairs being moved, tables bouncing, coughing, laughing, eye contact, whispering...it was quiet! This moment was really special for me because I got to see your children taking a moment to be mindful and present.

We were also lucky to have time with Yahav (originally this was going to be canceled because of the timing of our Skype). This picture I snapped this morning captured the love our students have for Yahav and learning about Israel from him!

Unfortunately, our Skype call with Habonim did not happen and we will reschedule it.  

Also, thank you so much for the Amazon gift card and card from the students. I truly enjoy teaching this group, and I hope you all have a great Chanukah vacation!

Hilary

12-10-19

Hello 6th Grade families!

It was so nice to see those of you who came to the Tallit workshop on Sunday. The designs came out great, and I look forward to seeing the finished products! Once our volunteer seamstresses finish sewing them, you will all be invited back to tie tzitzit for them.

PThis week we will be preparing for our first Skype date with the Habonim school, which will happen on Sunday Dec 15th. Please try to arrive a little early if you can, or as close to 9 as possible to ensure we start on time, as Israel is 7 hours ahead of us and all the students are coming in on their Sunday afternoon to meet with us.

Hoping you have a restful week!

Hilary

11-19-19

Hello 6th Grade families!

We had a productive morning finishing up our Haifa projects. Everyone is finished or just waiting to put on the finishing touches this week. Working on our projects took up most of our morning, and then we were able to take a break with singing/Tefilah with Anna. After that, we all took a few minutes to step back and look at each other's projects, offering compliments and constructive feedback. This week on Tuesday/Wednesday we will practice presenting, and try to record videos to send to the Habonim School in Haifa.

We look forward to seeing you next Sunday for the Haifa expo from 9:30-10:00, and then for the Moving Traditions program right after that!

Hilary

11-13-19

Hello 6th Grade families!

This week has been busy, as we are quickly approaching many exciting events! On Sunday, Yahav led a heated game of Jeopardy that he created about different Israel topics (Women in sports, Maccabiah, Paralympics, and Olympics). Each topic had both questions and challenges, and it was great to see the kids have so much fun interacting with him! We were also extremely lucky and honored to have special guests come talk to us about the military and share some of their personal experiences. There were so many questions and comments for them, and it was beautiful to see them genuinely interested and engaged. To top it all off, Anna, our new song leader, came to teach us two new songs/prayers.

Our Haifa projects are coming along. They will be finished next week, and we look forward to sharing them with you at our Haifa expo on November 24th from 9:30-10:00. Later that morning is our first family program from Moving Traditions.

Have a great week!

Hilary

11-5-19

Hello 6th Grade families,

Today we had a surprise visitor! Bar came back with the delegation from Haifa and we were so lucky to have time to chat with him and hear all about his experiences in the IDF. It was fun to see Bar and catch up with him. The delegation also was helpful by answering questions about our Haifa projects.

Today we got our first letters from our penpals in Haifa, and we got to send our collages back with the delegation. We also bought "Make Way for Ducklings" to sign and send with them. If you have any pictures of your kids with the statues in Boston, we would love to make a copy of them and send them to Israel!

As a reminder, our Haifa expo is on November 24th at 9:00. We are making progress on our topics and are almost ready to start assembling the visuals! We are excited and hope you can make it!

10-29-19

Hi 6th Grade families! After a busy month of holidays and special events, things are finally starting to settle down. Here are some examples of fun times that happened this month. We had a delicious Rosh Hashanah seder with sweetness and new foods. We reflected in a mirror literally to reflect about our previous year. We thought about the traits that most define us and what traits we want to work on in the coming year. Sukkot brought fun rotations where we participated in a STEM sukkah building activity, a Jeopardy style trivia game about Sukkot, and edible sukkah building! Some kids helped assemble lulavs, and we all had the opportunity to shake them in the sukkah. Last Sunday 6th and 7th graders went to Temple Beth Am for a day of service. There, they sorted clothes, built buddy benches and collection boxes, designed and painted murals, decorated bags, and overall had a fun morning hanging out with each other.

Here are some things to look forward to:

1. On November 3rd we will welcome visitors from a delegation in Haifa. They will visit our class, share about Haifra, and we will have the opportunity to ask questions that we have from our preliminary research.

2. November 24th is our Haifa Expo. It will start at 9:00am and you are all invited to see what we have learned about Haifa.

Have a great week!

Hilary

9-24-19

Hi 6th Grade families!

This week we had a lot of exciting things happen! Here are some highlights:

1. We talked about our partnership with the Habonim School inHaifa, and started our connection by making Shana Tova cards to 6th graders there. This will be an ongoing partnership throughout the year.

2. Because of our partnership with Haifa, the 6th graders started thinking about what they already know about Haifa and what topics would be interesting to them to research. Pictured below is a discussion about what they know, and jotting facts on sticky notes.

3. The sisterhood came into lead a Sukkah decorating project with us in preparation for Sukkot. We will help decorate the Sukkah in a few weeks!

4. First trope lesson with Cantor Ken!

As a reminder, there is no school next Sunday or Tuesday in celebration of Rosh Hashanah. The following Sunday, October 6th, we will meet offsite for a community Tashlich. I hope to see you all there!

Shana Tova!

Hilary

9-18-19

Hi 6th Grade families!

What a great start to our year! On Tuesday and Wednesday, your kids did a fabulous job setting up and running the Apple and Honey Olympics. They practice their Hebrew by also making signs for their stations, and were great role models for the younger children. They also learned about different tzedakah organizations to discuss and vote about where to donate all the winnings from the Olympic games.

On Sunday we were all together for the first time and it was nice to see the big group. We adapted the game Code Names to share about our summers and get to know each other better. We met Yahav, our new Israeli Shinshin, and we also met Anna and were lucky to have her lead us in some Tefila and songs!

Something to look forward to next week is Sukkah decorating and getting ready for all the holidays!

Hilary


5-12-19

Hello 6th grade families!

Our penultimate Sunday came and went, and now we have one more weekday session to wrap up the end of the year before our siyyum on Sunday. I have witnessed your children firsthand working hard to think through aspects of their Bnai Mitzvah, learn how to read trope, form a connection with Nitzan as she taught us about Haifa, make connections with the Habonim school in Haifa, think about life through the lens of immigrants, how to advocate for important matters, and how to work together as a class. It was an honor to teach your children, to learn from them, work with them, and guide them. I am sure they are excited that the year is over and are getting ready for whatever adventures summer brings!

Just a reminder for Sunday, our Haifa projects will be displayed from 9-10. Some of the 6th graders will be leading you in a game of Kahoot, so please bring your phone for the presentations! If you do not feel comfortable using your phone, some iPads will be available. At 10:00 we will join the rest of the school in the sanctuary for Tefilah led by the 7th grade (something to look forward to even more next year when your children do the same!), followed by a siyyum in their honor. Hope to see you then!

Hilary

5-5-19

Hi 6th grade families,

This past week we had the honor of welcoming Josef back to lead our drumming circle! He is very engaging and the students enjoyed being able to let loose and explore on the drums. Josef brought many different kinds of drums and shakers, and students took turns being able to drum on each. After practicing with beats and rhythm, Josef led us in incorporating tefilah that we know along with the drumming. While it took a little practice to drum lightly and not drown out our voices, we eventually got the hang of it and we sounded great!

After Tefilah we wrote more letters to our penpals in Haifa. Our students really enjoyed being part of the Skype partnership and are upset that there will be no more Skype sessions for the rest of the year. If your child wants to continue writing to their penpal during the summer, I am happy to contact the Habonim school and set that up!

Have a great week, and we look forward to showing you our Haifa projects on May 19th from 9-10!

4-28-19

Hello 6th grade families! 

It was so nice to see so many of you this past Sunday for our tzitzit tying event. The finished products look great, and I look forward to seeing the kids wear them during services or when they will read from the Torah! Sunday morning was a busy day all around. Before you came, we had a successful Skype call with our sister school, the Habonim School in Haifa. It was so nice to put a faces to names from our pen-pals. We talked about Passover and what we did for vacation. We also taught them about sleepaway camp and they can't imagine being away all summer! Of course there was also time to talk about Ariana Grande and other popular music, too. When we hung up, our kids were so excited, they wanted to write more letters right away.

Our Haifa projects are also coming along nicely. Most of us are just finishing up with the first researching/building part, and are ready for the next step. You are all welcome to come view the project on the morning of May 19th from 9-10!

Have a great week!

4-7-19

Hello 6th Grade families!

This week we continued constructing our Haifa projects. Most of us have finished constructing the first part and are on to working on our presentations. We will continue these projects for the coming weeks, and showcase them on the morning of May 19th!

We also had the honor of welcoming Mayor Spicer of Framingham to talk to us about what she does and what it means to be an advocate and a leader. During her time with us, the kids were given the opportunity to share some of the concerns they have about their schools and community. These ranged from homework policies, kosher lunch options, language class offerings, school bus routes, etc. Mayor Spicer told us that the best way to share a concern is to write a letter, and encouraged us to do so. Therefore, we are in the process of writing letters to school principals/superintendents/the mayor to address some of our concerns. Please encourage your kids that this is a great way to be an advocate and stand up for what they think is fair!

Upcoming events:

Sunday April 28th, we will Skype with the Habonim school at 9:00.

Sunday April 28th we have our tzitzit tying program to finish our tallitot!

Hope everyone has a restful break!

3-31-19

Hello 6th Grade families,

This week we dedicated a majority of time to our projects, which will be the standard for the remaining 5(!) Sundays of the year. The students have divided themselves in groups to tackle a different area of Haifa, and will work together to research and present that component. I am very excited to see how the projects will turn out, and we hope you can join us on the morning of May 19th (the last day) to check them out as well!

We also read an essay by Rabbi Norman Cohen about this week's Torah portion, Metzora. We learned that the portion talks about diseases and sickness, and how Rabbi Cohen interprets that to mean gossiping. We talked about things going "viral" and where that word came from. Two values came up in our discussion, dignity and respect, and we tied that back into our unit on values.

Some things to look forward to:

1. On Sunday, Mayer Spicer will be in to talk to the kids about advocacy.

2. On April 28th, we will have our next Skype date with the Habonim school.

Here is to another great week!

Hilary

3-24-19

Hi 6th grade families!

This week we had fun starting our Haifa projects. We continued our brainstorming and started building the first steps of our models. Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed supplies for our project! We will continue these in the coming weeks. Be on the lookout for an invitation to come check out our final projects! This will most likely be more towards the end of May, but I will keep you updated.

We were also lucky enough to welcome Gary Alpert back to Temple to lead a discussion about disabilities and bullying. Some of the positive things we started paying attention to were:

-The Google Doodle the other day showing a cane for the blind

-walk signals that makes noises for people who are blind

-texting was invented to Deaf people

Some room for improvements we have noticed:

-push buttons for people in wheelchairs that open the door the wrong way

-shortage of ASL interpreters who are able to provide access to Deaf 

-people with good intentions trying to help people with disabilities without asking permission

Lastly, we got more letters from our penpals at the Habonim school, and we took some time to respond to them and take pictures as well.

Next week we have a special Tefilah with Josh Warshawsky, and we look forward to that!

3-17-19

Hello 6th Grade families!

This week we started brainstorming and discussing our Haifa project, and we are super excited about it! We will be building a model of the city, to include many important landmarks. The landmarks that we chose are:

The Haifa airport

HaCarmelit (the train station of Haifa)

University of Haifa

The Haifa Symphony Orchestra

Maccabi Haifa basketball

Sammy Ofer Soccer Stadium

Rambam Health Center (with the underground hospital)

The Haifa Zoo

Beit Ha'Gefen (Israeli-Arab coexistence)

Shulamit Levenberg and her diabetes research

Israeli/China/US Triangle Port

This project will be on the kids to be as creative as the want to be, how they want to represent the city, and the materials they need to build the city. These are the materials they would like to start with. If you have any of these materials and are willing to share, we would be very appreciative!

-pipe cleaners

-fabric

-legos

-hay

-air dry clay

-paint

-rolling pin

-play dough tools

-cardboard boxes

-hot glue gun

-fuse beads/iron

-popsicle sticks

-tooth picks

-old magazines

We will be sure to send more pictures as the projects unfolds! Here is one picture from the planning stage.

3-10-19

Hello 6th Grade families!

This week, we were dragging a little bit because of the time change, but once we got things rolling, we were back to our old selves. As some of you may know, over February break, Spacecraft Beresheet launched from Israel. We watched a few videos related to that, and saw some pretty neat pictures.

As we continued class, we started brainstorming/making videos of ourselves and our school to send to our penpals in Israel. Last week we got letters back, and it was exciting, so we want to keep the exchange going! Hopefully our next Facetime with them will be on April 7th.

We ended class practicing Hebrew, practicing Bar/Bat Mitzvah portions, and trying to play a little Hebrew Monopoly It was interesting for us to learn that the streets on the board are real streets in Israel, and not just Hebrew translations of the streets on our Monopoly board!

Next week, we will be starting our Haifa project. We will also have a cool opportunity to participate in a drumming circle!

3-3-19

Hello 6th Grade families! It was so nice to see some of you at the Moving Traditions event this past Sunday. For those of you who missed it, we talked about the differences in being the host and guest of a party, and the responsibilities for each. Both the children and the parents prioritized different responsibilities of a party, and then compared with their own families. It was interested to hear from the kids about what makes a good guest, and how to be accommodating for guests who might not be Jewish. One of the biggest concerns is how to inform out guests to put their phones away during the service. We decided that the more information guests have, they feel better prepared for the service and able to anticipate what is coming next.

Moving forward, we will be starting projects on Haifa. With the help of Nitzan, we are narrowing down famous landmarks, important people, and other areas of Haifa to be explored. I will update you as the project progresses! We will also be continuing our penpal writing with students from the Habonim School in Haifa.

Lastly, together with the 7th Grade class on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we are starting a unit on advocacy. We will be researching several advocates in Jewish history and today, and will be be creating posters to showcase them. We will also be discussing what it means to be an advocate and how to be an advocate.

Have a great week!

2-10-19

This week, we finished up our final lesson from the B'nai Mitzvah program! We talked about the party, emotions that accompany the party, and how we might feel differently at our own parties and other people's parties. Some of the highlights from this morning were dancing the hora, watching some video clips of Bar/Bat Mitzvahs portrayed in movies, and playing some classic party games. We found that B'nai mitzvahs portrayed in movies and TV are not accurate and do not account for all the hard work that goes into them. We learned that what makes some people happy, stresses other people out (dancing). 

Just a reminder that there is no school next Sunday and the following Sunday for February break, and the Sunday after that (March 3) is our family program from 10-12.

Have a great break!

2-3-19

Hi 6th grade families!

This week, the 6th grade was lucky enough to join the World Wide Wrap, which is a program sponsored by the men's club. We watched videos about what tefilin is, who wraps tefilin, how we wrap, and some of the reasons why we wrap. It was great to personally hear from members of the community about their own personal stories, and why they wrap. Some of them only started wrapping tefilin after their parents died, some of them started after their bnai mitzvah, we heard from women who grew up wanting to put on tefilin, however it was not accepted at that time for women. No matter the reason, the stories were all inspiring to hear. After the overview, everyone was invited to put on a tallit, and then learn how to wrap tefilin. A special thanks to all the parents and community members who were able to come and support our class!

Next week, we will finish up our Bnai Mitzvah lessons to get ready for our second family program, which will be on March 3rd from 10-12 (the Sunday after break), and we will also continue our penpal exchange with the Habonim School in Haifa.

12-16-18

Hi 6th Grade families!

This past Sunday was so fun making Tallitot together! We decorated the fabric and our expert volunteer sewers will have them ready for us soon. It is an amazing experience to work together to design a meaningful Jewish artifact. I understand that some of you will use a talit passed down from a grandparent, which is so special. Now you will have two tallitot to pass down to your own future children and grandchildren. We will finish up with the Tzitzit tying on February 3rd.

Hope everyone has a great vacation and New Year! See you in 2019!

12-9-18

Hello 6th Grade families!

This week in religious school, we had fun celebrating Chanukah with the ultimate dreidel champion and some gelt checkers, and then finished our celebration off with latkes and cider from the Men's Club. We also continued our Bnai Mitzvah lessons, talking about important issues like how choosing our own outfits is related to becoming an adult, gender identity and expression through clothes, and expectations that society sets up for us. It was a lively discussion where our students felt comfortable to share their perspectives.

We are so excited about our upcoming Tallit making workshop! It will be this coming Sunday 12/16 from 9-12. I look forward to seeing everyone there!

12-2-18

Hi 6th grade families!

This week we had an exciting Skype session with the Habonim School in Haifa! This was something we have been preparing for by practicing introducing ourselves in Hebrew, and saying one thing about ourselves that we like. Ask your kids how to introduce themselves in Hebrew - we learned 3 different ways. It was so great to see the excitement in all the kids, and it was especially nice that we were able to light Chanukah candles together and sing Chanukah songs.

Something to look forward to is the next lesson from our Bnai Mitzvah program, and our Tallit making program, with more details coming soon. 

11-18-18

Hi 6th Grade Families!

This week we had a lot of fun participating in the next lesson from our Moving Traditions program to prepare for our Bnai Mitzvah. The focus on this lesson was what it is like to be the center of attention, and if that is something we like or don't like. We played 4 corners, where each corner was labeled strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree. The a series of statements were said, and students moved about the room to where they fit. Everyone was engaged and was willing to elaborate on their answers! The class also learned the words introvert, extrovert, and ambivert. Ask them what they mean!

Remember there is no school next Sunday because of Thanksgiving. Something to look forward to is our Skype conference with the Habonim school in Israel! We were originally scheduled to Skype last week, but due to a scheduling conflict, it was postponed to December 2nd.

Have a great week and happy Thanksgiving!

11-11-18

This past Sunday the 6th grade went on a field trip to Newport to visit the Touro Synagogue, and other historic sites in Newport! We started off our trip at the welcome center, where we learned a brief history. After lunch, we were welcomed into the oldest synagogue and learned about the unique history of the building, congregation, and founders. We learned that the building is in it's original state, and we even saw a 500 year old Torah! Ask your child what their favorite part was and what they learned!

Two things to look forward to:

1. Reflection projects coming from our field trip. So far we have a blog post, Kahoot game, and an iMovie.

2. First Skype meeting with the Habonim school on Sunday 11/18.

11-4-18

Today we talked with the rabbi about The Tree Of Life temple loss that occurred Pittsburgh. The students discussed how they feel about the event and how they can help others feel safe. In the classroom the 7th grade wrote questions about the field trip to the temple in Newport. The 6th graders wrote introductions to say to their pen pals in Haifa. 

10-28-18

Do you remember the game "Cross the River" from gym class? You and your team must work together to figure out how to cross a "river" by stepping on a limited number of stones. It was fun and challenging, and we ran out of time before any team had an opportunity to make it to the other side. When we got back to class, one student asked, "What did that game have to do with Hebrew school?" Instead of answering him myself, I opened up the floor, and these were the top answers from your children:

1. It's like our journey through life

2. Our Bar/Bat Mitzvah will be challenging, but we have other people to support us through

3. We need to work together to succeed in life

4. When things get hard, we can turn to our community

I must say, they had some great insight! We continued with our B'nai Mitzvah program by discussing what is means to transition from childhood to your teenage years. We had fun reminiscing about what it was like to be a kid!

We will continue with four more B'nai Mitzvah sessions with 6th grade before inviting you back for the final family session. 

10-21-18

Hello from 6th/7th! This Sunday we had a great day of service at the Brophy school. Our day was divided into different projects. We started our day with munchkins and hot chocolate (which may have been the highlight for some people)! We met a family of refugees who moved from Syria, and they thanked us so much for all the work we are doing for other refugees in in Syria. He thanked us in Arabic and someone from the Jewish Teen Initiative translated for us. We worked in an assembly line to package 200 care packages from families in refugees! We were careful to package with care and intent to make sure every package arrived intact. We also made cards that we wrote in Arabic to put in the packages. It was great to see the students to engaged in the projects! After the care packages, we split into groups to help with gardening in the front of the school, and painting the blacktop in the back of the school. 

Some students decided to stay at Temple Israel for a day of learning, and it was great to swap experiences with each other when we came back.

Something to look forward to is that we will continue our work with refugees and immigration, as well as prepare for our interview projects with people who have immigrated. If you or a family member have immigrated, and would be willing to be interviewed, please feel free to email Hilary (hilary.henninger@gmail.com).

10-14-18

Today in the 6/7 grade we watched a video about Syrian refugees. The students discussed what they can do to help refugees in the United States. We were shocked to learn how many people have been displaced in 2016...ask your children how many people in the world escaped their countries due to persecution and economic problems.We saw a picture of the Turkish border where millions of Syrian refugees have been living. We tackled heavy questions thinking about why it is important for us as Jewish people to know and care about this, and what can we do about it? We finished the day by 6th grade practicing trope with Cantor Ken while the 7th grade practiced their modern Hebrew. 

Next Sunday we have a service project, and we look forward to be able to give back to our community!