Grade 5 - Kitah Hey- Diana's Update!

Dear Kitah Hey families,

The fifth graders have been busy learning all about the recent holidays and sharing their knowledge with one another in class. We started out last Sunday with a fun zumba themed tefilah session led by Katie, a 6th grade teacher. This was a fun new way to wake ourselves up and connect to prayer.

The students also had a chance to decorate our very own sukkah in the Temple Israel courtyard! Students traced and cut out hands on construction paper and wrote about what they are thankful for.
The students then were able to hang these up, along with decorative fruits and vegetables to create a warm and festive feeling.

This afternoon, our students had the opportunity to visit Rabbi Liben's home. The fifth graders were taught how to shake the lulav and etrog in preparation for the upcoming holiday. They had a great time. 

With all of the holidays coming at once, I realized I need to change the Hebrew Calendar that was sent home in the students' Hebrew binders last week. We will soon start learning the prayer, Ein Kamocha, in class. Students will be asked to practice one new line of the prayer for homework each night (excluding shabbat, holidays, and vacations). Because we did not meet in class on Columbus Day weekend, this homework will start this coming Sunday, October 15th. The new calendar we will be using is below, as well as a link to that will take you to a recorded video of this prayer and its melody.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jhUud_sPTQ



Best,
Diana

Madrichim Update

Shana Tova everyone! The past two weeks have been full of new year celebrations and classroom bonding. Through Tikkun Olam, the madrichim are learning about leadership and justice for those who may need some extra help. The madrichim's role is to help students in the classroom who may need some one on one assistance. They are also there to support the lead/assistant teacher during activities and classroom management. The madrichim have started off this year strong and are already great assets to their classrooms. 

Thanks.

Sarah W.

Grade K - Gan Class Update 10-1-17

Hello Gan Class Families!

Happy October!  Our second class together was such a great day!

We joined the Aleph and Bet classes in the Sanctuary for Tefillah with Cantor Ken.  We reflected on our High Holiday experiences and began preparing for Sukkot and Simchat Torah with Cantor Ken.  He taught us how to shake the Lulav and many of the songs we will hear on Simchat Torah  as well.

With Bar, we played a silly soccer type game and learned about the High Holidays in Israel before learning the first of our Aleph Bet letters!  Bina, our madricha, introduced us to three new letters today.  Shin makes the sound sh- and begins the work shofar.  Tet makes the sound t- and begins the word talit and lamed makes the sound l- and begins the word lulav. Together we worked on recognizing these three letters and pairing them with their sounds.  Students are welcome to continue practicing at home with the coloring sheets and activities sent home today.

After snack, we turned our attentions to Sukkot, the holiday which begins this week.  To help beautify our community sukkah, we created colorful leaves to hang. Using color diffusion paper and markers, students decorated leaf shapes.  When water was applied, the color spread and blended to make very unique leaves which we hung with the help of Mr. Gilvarg at the end of our class day.  Ann was kind enough to share her poems with us.  They were about the High Holidays and Sukkot.  We are looking forward to hearing more of her original work for other holidays too.  While in the sukkah, students observed some important elements that make up a sukkah.  They recognized that the roof was not solid, that you could see the sky through it, and that there were at least 2 and a half walls.  Other observations included that the sukkah is big enough to eat and/or sleep in and is decorated with fruits and leaves.

There is no class at Temple Israel on Sunday, October 8th.  Our next class meeting will take place on Sunday, October 15th.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about the Gan Class.

Michelle

Grade 7 - Gesher is Amazing!

Sukkot is experienced with all one’s senses—we see, smell, touch, hear and taste wonderful things during this holiday! Today was an experiential exploration of Sukkot. We saw, heard and smelled the four species that compose the lulav. We are grateful to Shimon Blacker for teaching us how to tie the reeds that hold together the three green species of the lulav (myrtle, palm and willow) and after tying over 120 ties, we constructed 52 lulavim.  We created stars of hope to be hung in our synagogue sukkah and, after Sukkot, our inspirational stars will be sent to communities in distress.  

And we measured out the footprint of the smallest legal sukkah (28” square by 40” high).  We sat in these small spaces and put on our rabbinic thinking caps to understand what the rabbis may have intended when they made this determination.  Students imagined many possibilities for what one can do in this little space: eat, sleep, pray, drink, write, color, text, call a friend, play with Legos, meditate, sing… and many many more!

We also met with Bar Argaman our Israeli shin-shin and learned that people often choose to make new years resolutions at Rosh Hashanah.  Students wrote letters to their future selves to be opened at Rosh Hashanah 5779. 

Sunday morning classes will not be meeting on October 8^th due to the Columbus day holiday.

Moedim l’simcha--Best wishes for an amazing Sukkot holiday!

HaMorah Margalit (aka Gretchen Marks Brandt)

Grade 3 - Gimel Goings On

Shalom Gimel Families,

Shanah Tovah and Gamar Hatimah Tovah!  It was great to see so many of you at Temple over the High Holiday season.

Gimel students (affectionately known as the “Gimelites”) had a very busy Sunday morning!  We began our day with morning work (avodah) which was a review of the Hebrew letters.  During morning meeting (pegishah) students did a wonderful job greeting each other with a “Boker Tov _______”, reading the schedule, the weather, the Hebrew date and the season.  Everyone had a lot of fun playing our magic number counting game, and doing a Hebrew counting shakedown as a movement activity.  Ask your son/daughter about this.

Hebrew

This was an exciting week!  During the week, after discussing our thoughts about prayer, students received their prayer binders and made their own personalized covers for them.  Please look in their binders for the letter that explains our prayer curriculum and homework calendar.  The first prayers that will be studied will be the Barachu and Yotzer Or blessing which we will begin on the next Sunday that the students are together.  

Please see updated October homework calendar below:

Holidays

Students enjoyed making paper plate fruit to hang in the Temple Sukkah.  We also reviewed some information about Sukkot with a 4-in-a-row game.  The game was played as a whole class and students did a great job working in their teams to figure out the answers to questions about Sukkot.

Closing Circle

We ended our day with a closing circle where each student had an opportunity to share something they enjoyed about the day.  They learned to use the sentence starter, “Ani Ohev (boys)/Ohevet (girls) __________.  Our “peulah meyuchedet/פעולה מיוחדת (special activity) was a definite highlight.  This was the time spent in the Sukkah hanging decorations.

Wishing everyone a Chag Sukkot Sameach!

L’hitraot

Elana

Grade 1 - Sunday in Kitah Aleph

Kitah aleph students were introduced to their first Hebrew letter today, the letter bet. First, we talked about the fact that Hebrew goes from right to left instead of left to right. The children practiced reading some pictures on the board from right to left and then practiced moving their fingers and following Hebrew letters in that direction. The children learned that the letter bet looks like a ball inside a box and has the sound "b." We played a game called "Sandman" with the words "boker tov" to help everyone remember the sound. The children completed the first two pages in their Hebrew alphabet book tracing and picking out the letter bet.

Tefillah with Cantor Ken was filled with songs for the upcoming holidays of Sukkot and Simchat Torah. In class, we also learned about the holiday of Sukkot. The children got to see, touch and smell parts of the lulav and etrog. The children learned that the lulav and etrog remind us of the parts of our bodies. As Jews, we are supposed to pray to God with our whole being. We shake the lulav and etrog in all directions to remind us that God is everywhere. Kitah Aleph students practiced shaking a toy lulav and etrog in their correct manner and with the blessing. The children also listened to two stories about the holiday, "The Sukkah on the Roof" and "Night Lights," Then they made decorations for the sukkah.

We had a visit from our Shinshin, Bar today. He played games with the children and showed them a video with some holiday songs.

Best wishes for a wonderful Sukkot. Joanne, Cheryl and Sydney

Grade 4 - Sunday 10/1 in Kitah Dalet

Good afternoon! Today in fourth grade we discussed Sukkot, which led into making decorations for the sukkah here at Temple Israel! We decided our decorations should include some conversation starters for people in the sukkah. These include questions, like, "Why do we celebrate Sukkot?" "Why do we shake the lulav and etrog?" "Where did the Jews get materials for the sukkah in the desert?" These questions and more are all written on decorations in the sukkah, so be sure to come check them out and start some discussion!