Religious School Parent Bulletin
January 31, 2014
Friendly reminders:
All men and women and their children of Bar or Bat Mitzvah age are invited on Sunday, Feb. 2, 9:30am to the Men’s Club “World Wide Wrap” to learn how to wear tefillin. A short movie about how to put on tefillin will be shown, followed by hands-on time to practice. Rabbi Robert Eisen will have a tefillin completely taken apart so everyone can see the prayers on the parchment paper. PARENTS: This is a wonderful opportunity for you to learn as well. Breakfast is free! For more information and to RSVP, contact Mark Levine.
I hope to see you on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 5:00pm for our Shabbat Family Experience. It will be a wonderful opportunity to bond with other families and for your children to showcase their prayer skills. It’s interactive, spirit-filled and participatory.
Get creative … and be colorful! All students and their families are invited to participate in FREE art projects on Sunday, Feb. 16 as part of the “Festival of Israeli Art Show & Sale.” Local artist Julie Stein will guide everyone through three stations: Making a small clay pot, painting on canvas using acrylic paints, and decorating a picture frame. Join us at 9:30am and/or 12:30pm. All ages welcome and it’s all free. Parents: Come see the Art Show! Over 1500 works of art by more than 100 known and upcoming Israeli artists will be on display by Safrai Gallery of Israel. Show proceeds will benefit CAI’s youth and education programs!
Thank you to the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona for our annual religious school student subsidy to help pay for consumable materials for our students.
TEACHERS' CLASSROOM RECAPS:
Kindergarten and 1st Grade – Renee Hulsey
We had a great class this week. As our first class combined, we started off by establishing class rules. Some of the challenges include learning to raise our hands to speak and to listen. Please help by reminding your child of these rules at home. We also learned the new letters “mem” for kindergarten and “daled” for 1st grade. Nichole taught us a new niggun (wordless melody) in music, and we reviewed Tu B’Shevat. Please remember to bring tzedakah next week.
2nd Grade – Bryan Gordon
The students practiced the Hebrew words amod (stand) and shev (sit). We also studied the story of Samson and Delilah.
3rd Grade – Laura Olesen
We had a wonderful week in Religious School! The students are progressing well in tefillah as they continue to prepare for Siddur Dedication. Please be sure all students are practicing their solos. Your encouragement in this is much appreciated. In Judaics, we have begun Chapter 4 in their Explorer’s Bible "Joshua fights for freedom."
4th Grade – Elana Israel
This week in Judaics, the students began learning about Jewish history. We discussed the origins of rabbis, the yeshiva, and the Messiah. In Hebrew, we have been working with “tav” versus “tet,” as well as the shva (silent vowel). Everybody is doing terrific work!
5th Grade – Courtney DeYoung & Sarah Artzi
This week in Judaics, we reached the final event in our lifecycle unit: death. While this can be a difficult and heavy topic to cover, our approach focuses on the wonderfully supportive customs Judaism provides for its mourners. Our vocabulary for this unit includes kaddish (a prayer recited by mourners), yahrzeit (the Yiddish word for the yearly anniversary of a death), and shiva (the seven day period of mourning following the funeral). Our class is very blessed not to have much first-hand experience with this topic and, as usual, everyone is asking thoughtful questions which reflect an age-appropriate curiosity. Before completing our lifecycle studies, we will cover the topic of conversion. During this time we will have the opportunity to meet with Phyllis Broad, our congregation's remarkable master teacher who has taught conversion classes for over four decades. More information to come!
6th Grade – MeMe Aguila
The children have been given a research assignment: Each student picked three names of American Jews who made an impact in the 20th Century. They will report on their person, along with bringing in a picture of the person that will be displayed on our class bulletin board. This is in combination with what we are learning about Jewish American 20th Century history. The names include Joe Shuster and Howard Schultz, just to name a few. In Hebrew, we are continuing working on our Let's Talk Hebrew book, as well as our Ulpan sheets. Look for Hebrew vocabulary puzzles; they will be given on Tuesdays and will be brought back to class the following Tuesday.
7th – 8th Grade – Sivan Shahmoon
The students continued their study of the Holocaust in preparation of leading the Yom HaShoah service for religious school. We instituted a new format in which each student will prepare a short lesson to teach the class.