This week in...
Kindergarten
This week we learned about Hanukkah. We learned about why we celebrate for 8 nights. We made our own menorah out of paper and paint. We also got to play a variety of Hanukkah games! Ask your child: Why do we celebrate for 8 nights? What is the game we play on Hanukkah?
1st Grade
We discussed the importance of Hannukah. We read and discussed about celebrating Hannukah. We did a magazine and red a book. We learned about the blessings of Hannukah. Ask your child: What different foods do we eat on Hannukah? What is the story of Hannukah?
2nd Grade
This week we revisited our Hannukah lessons. We had the students read aloud about the miracles of Hannukah and where we get our traditions for the holiday. We learned about dreidels, gelt, the lighting of the menorah and more! Ask your child: Why do we celebrate for eight days? What other ways do we celebrate?
3rd Grade
Judaics
Our students will be able to relate a few facts about the origin of Chanukah. They will discuss the victory of Judah the Maccabee and the miracle of Chanukah. They wil understand why Chanukah celebrates our right to practice our religion free of persecution. Students will divide into three group. Each will discuss a question related to our Hero Judah and present their thoughts to the class. They will end the lesson with an art activity: Creating a giant Chnukiah to decorate our class. Chag Sameah! Ask your child: What would you do if someone tried to force you to bow down to an idle? or do something else that violated your belief? What did Judah do when he saw the Greeks trying to force the Jewish people to convert from their religion?
Applied Hebrew
To begin the lesson, the students read the story of Chanukah in small groups. After they finished reading, every group acted out their favorite part and the rest of the class had to guess which part it was. We then discussed how the story of Chanukah can be tied to our five senses: We hear the shofar, see the candle light, smell and taste the latkes and sufganyot, and play with the dreidel. In addition, we learned how to light the Chanukkiah followed by Chanukah songs. Ask your child: What do the 8 days of Chanukah represent? How many days is Chanukah celebrated?
4th Grade
Judaics
Today we went to art with Morah Laura. We made visualiztions of the middot that we have been learning about. The students created beautiful banners which will be on display outside of our classroom.
Applied Hebrew
Parashat Vayeitzei: ויצא On his way out of Israel Jacob stops to rest, he takes a number of stones and puts them in a semi-circle around his head as protection and goes to sleep. He dreams of a ladder on which he sees angels going up and other angels going down the ladder, these were the angels which God sent to protect him on his trip. God reveals Himself to Jacob and promises him that the land on which he is resting will be given to his descendants, his children and grandchildren and their grandchildren. When Jacob wakes up the stones had become one, he takes the stone and makes it into an altar as a sign that that place is a holy place. Jacob ended up marrying Leah and Rachel after Laban, his father in low deceives him and gives him the oldest daughter first. Ask your child: What do you think about Jacob’s dream? What do you think about Laban’s action?
5th Grade
Judaics
This week we learned about Parshah Toldot (Gen. 25:19-28:9)! We continued to follow the story of the descendants of Abraham by talking about Jacob and Esau, the children of Isaac and Rebekah. We discussed the consequences of siblings not taking care of each other, and how that can impact relationships long-term. Ask your child: Why is it important to take care of your siblings/close family? What is something we can do to help support each other throughout our lives?
Applied Hebrew
We are going to learn the story of Hanukkah creating a cartoon. We will ask the question, "What really happened in this time to the Jews and how were the Maccabees able to defeat the Greesk?" We will watch a short movie about the story of Hanukkah and, based on the movie, we will create the Hanukkah cartoon. Ask your child: How were the Maccabees able to defeat the Greeks? Tell us the story of Hanukkah while we enjoy our gathering together.
6th Grade
Another busy week this week! With the semester coming to a close, we spent our time on Sunday doing a big review game (Jewpardy, as I like to call it) of material we covered up until ths point.
If you’d like to play with your family, you can do so here: https://jeopardylabs.com/play/holocaust-and-israel-review
We also had the chance to sit and learn from our Israeli Shinshinit, Nicole. She talked to the kids about the Israel Defence Forces. They learned what she is going to be doing when she returns to Israel (a special, elite unit that deals with cyber security and computer sciences), the number of years that men and women serve, the day in the life of a soldier, and some of the core values of the IDF.
I look forward to closing out the semester with our 6th graders this Sunday and we will have an exciting Spring Semester ahead!
7th Grade
We learned about Chanukah and prepared a Chanukah skit and follow-up lesson for Kindergarten through Second grade. We also had a chance to spend time with Nicole, our Shinshinit from Israel. Please make sure to come for our last Hebrew school before break for our skit and special time with the younger students and of course fun Hanukah games! Ask your child: What are you contributing to next weeks Hanukah skit and lesson with Kindergarten through Second grade? Tell me about the activities you did with Nicole, the shinshinit from Israel.
