Newsletter

Religious School Bulletin Feb. 1, 2013

By Debra Lytle - Thursday, January 31st, 2013

Religious School Parent Bulletin February 1, 2013

The students did a great job in our lockdown training. Yasher Koach! We will next be doing a fire drill in February.

Each grade in Religious School will be collecting tzedakah through the end of the year to go towards purchasing part of the newly-commissioned Anshei Israel Torah. We hope that you will join in this important mitzvah (commandment).

I hope to see you at our Shabbat Family Experience afternoon service a week from this Saturday!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Sunday, Feb. 3
Men’s Club “World Wide Wrap” 9:30-11:00am
As part of a national Men’s Club initiative, the 5th and 6th Grade religious school students will be learning how to put on tefillin. All men and women are encouraged to come and bring their tefillin (if they have) to help demonstrate to their children this important mitzvah (commandment). Please RSVP to Mark Levine to let him know that you will be attending.

Saturday, Feb. 9
Shabbat Family Experience 5:00 pm in the Epstein Chapel
Share in this interactive, spirit-filled and participatory service led by children in the Religious School and Tucson Hebrew Academy. Participants will lead the afternoon and evening Shabbat services with a delicious meal in between. Please RSVP for the service to Rabbi Herman and for the meal to Kim.

Teachers’ Classroom Recaps:

Kindergarten/1st Grade – Renee Hulsey
We practiced our school lockdown procedures this week and the students were wonderful. They followed directions and we were very safe. We also learned about Tu B’Shvat and talked about how valuable trees are to us. Thank you to everyone who joined us at our K-2 Shabbat service. The kids did a great job!

2nd Grade – Natalie Guerin
We are progressing through our Hebrew books, adding new words with each chapter. We use flash cards for review and the students’ Hebrew vocabulary is growing every week. This week we read the story of Sampson in our Bible series and we read about "Thanking God" in our series, "Let's Discover God." We have also begun learning the Four Questions and the students’ sheets have been color-coded to indicate repeating words!

3rd Grade – Laura Olesen
The students are doing a wonderful job preparing for Siddur Dedication and working on their solos.  Please encourage your children to keep practicing via the web site (they have directions on how to log on). They have also done a terrific job working on their Divrei Torah! In Judaics, they took a quiz on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They are also working on various Brachot (blessings) in Hebrew and enjoyed practicing what they learned on the computers. Please encourage your child to practice the "practice pages" that I give them. It makes a HUGE difference. Great job 3rd Graders!

4th Grade – Sarah Artzi
This week for Judaics, we joined Morah Rodin's class to celebrate Tu B'shevat, the Festival of the Trees. We were treated to a beautiful Seder where we said the blessings and sampled grapefruit, figs and olives, taking time to appreciate the many wonderful things that trees bring to our lives. In the coming weeks we will begin our unit on Purim, leading up to our congregational Megillah reading and Family Purim Celebration on Feb. 24. In Hebrew, we began studying the third section of the Amidah, the Kedushah, which focuses on the theme of holiness. We are noticing how many words in this part of the prayer are based on the Hebrew root "kadesh," or holy.

4th Grade – Rodin Molina
This week in Hebrew, students finished the chapter on the Sh’ma, reviewing the material using the computer lab. We used sheets that the students made to play Bingo with review and new vocabulary, and the students completed a quiz on the chapter. In Judaics on Sunday, the 4th Grade classes joined together to learn about Tu B’Shevat and shared in a seder. Students learned about the origins and history of the holiday and learned the appropriate blessings. On Tuesday, we learned about some of the most important Rabbis who compiled the Talmud. Students gave brief reports on several of the most prominent and we read a few stories about each.

5th Grade – Courtney DeYoung
On Sunday, the Judaics class talked about what a life cycle is and we discussed what we will be covering over the remainder of the year. On Tuesday, we began with birth and discussed the origin and meaning of students’ Hebrew names. I have only heard positive feedback from this book so far and everyone is very excited! On both Sunday and Tuesday in Hebrew, we continued in the Hineni 3 textbook and work book, learning about the Kaddish. I have seen great improvement from the students.

6th Grade – MeMe Aguila
This week, some of the students presented their reports on Jewish American History; we learned about Hank Greenberg, Emma Lazaraus, the Jewish influence on the Labor Movement and the effects of WWI. We look forward to the remaining reports. The class has also been learning a lot from Rabbi Eisen's visits, as each member moves to prepare for his/her Bar/Bat Mitzvah. In Hebrew, we are continuing our study in conversational Hebrew as we learn vocabulary words about traveling. In addition we learned how to say the fruits of Israel in Hebrew.

7th – 8th Grade – Jacob Kotz

The students watched the documentary, “One Survivor Remembers,” in preparation for leading the Yom HaShoah Service in April.

 

Rabbi Ben Herman