Religious School Parent Bulletin
February 15, 2013
The Kindergarten, 1st Grade and 3rd Grade students have all turned in a full tzedakah box. The K/1st Graders raised $34.00 and 3rd raised $37.35 for a total of $71.35 towards our goal of $700.00! That goal will be enough money for each child to have a letter of the Torah in his/her name. Yasher koach (great job) to these students in setting a wonderful example for each of us to follow! I look forward to receiving full tzedakah boxes from the other classes soon.
It was nice to have seven families at our Shabbat Family Experience this past Saturday afternoon. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Sunday, Feb. 24
Purim Creative Megillah Reading and Festive Meal 10:00 a.m. in Sanctuary
Please join us for our celebration with stories, songs, costumes, fun, magic and comedy! We’ll start with a creative/family Megillah reading and costume parade, followed by a se’udah (festive meal) of quiche, cereal, yogurt, mini bagels, fruit and hamentashen. Be amazed and amused by the magic, comedy and illusions of George Franzen. You won’t believe your eyes! EARLY BIRD PRICE $8 per person (ages 3+) OR $20 per family of four with RSVP by Feb. 20 ($13 pp at the door). For more information & to RSVP, contact Barb.
Teachers’ Classroom Recaps:
Kindergarten/1st Grade – Renee Hulsey
This past Sunday, the students learned about the letter "Bet" as in "Baruch." We reviewed the Hebrew letters that we've learned so far and the 1st graders learned about the vowel that sounds like "oh" and the letter "Tet." We also read the story of Purim and learned about the main characters. Next week, we’ll be learning more about the customs of celebrating Purim, as well as more Hebrew letters. Don't forget to bring tzedakah!
2nd Grade – Natalie Guerin
The highlight of the week for the 2nd Graders was reading the story of David and Goliath. After we read and discussed it, they enjoyed acting it out. We also read "God's Gift of Shabbat" and made progress learning the Four Questions with Morah Nichole. The children should all be ready to read or sing the Four Questions in Hebrew for your family Seder!
3rd Grade – Laura Olesen
We had a wonderful week! Thank you to those who returned their quiz on Jerusalem. For those who have not, you can still turn them in Sunday or Tuesday. We finished our section on the Negev and Eilat this week and added stickers to our Israel map. Students also completed their personal Israel maps. I am also happy to know many students are practicing their Hebrew "practice sheets" at home. Way to go! Great job with solos as well!
4th Grade-Sarah Artzi
This week for Judaics, as part of our exploration of ancient Jewish history, I asked the students to find out if they were Askenazi or Sephardi. We learned that the Hebrew word for Spain is "Sepharad" and that those Jews who originally came from Spain and Portugal were the first Sephardim. Those Jews whose roots are based in Germany and Eastern Europe are Askenazim. As we begin our look at the holiday of Passover, we will start to see how some of these cultural differences come into play. On Sunday, we will be working on a project for Purim in preparation for the congregational Purim Celebration on Feb. 24.
4th Grade-Rodin Molina
On Sunday in Hebrew, we worked on prefixes, suffixes and reading. Students learned what the V’ahvata prayer means in English and learned about mezzuzot. On Tuesday, we continued our conversation about the prayer and discussed what it means to “love God” and worked on learning vocabulary from the prayer. In Judaics, students were introduced to the Golden Age of Jewry in Spain. We discussed the origins of the prosperity during this time, learned what life looked like for Jews, and began learning about Maimonides as an important figure who was born during this time period.
5th Grade – Courtney DeYoung
On Sunday in Judaics, we continued in the life-cycle book, discussing the names that each child had and how they got it. On Tuesday, we talked about responsibilities that they each had as students, children and Jews. In Hebrew, we worked on Chapter 8 in the Hineni Hebrew book. Since we are so close to finishing the book, we went back and practiced reading different pages.
6th Grade – MeMe Aguila
On Sunday in Judaics, we talked about the Jewish influences in the entertainment industry. On Tuesday, we continued the discussion and talked about the changing Jewish community. In Hebrew, the class completed Chapter 8 in Let's Talk Hebrew and then divided into two groups to write their own Hebrew story using the vocabulary words they've learned in the chapters we have covered so far.
7th – 8th Grade – Jacob Kotz
The 7th and 8th Graders continued their study of the Holocaust.
Rabbi Ben Herman