Religious School Parent Bulletin
February 8, 2013

Thank you to all of the “World Wide Wrap” volunteers! A special thank you to Religious School parents Mark Cassius and Tidi Ozeri for their help in demonstrating the wearing of tefillin!

One of the Religious School’s bulletin boards in the hallway has been redecorated to reflect the MITZVAH 613 campaign. 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. Our goal is $700, enough for each student to have a letter in the Torah dedicated to him/her. We hope that you will join in this important mitzvah (commandment) and bring a little change as tzedakah every week to put in their class pushke (tzedakah box).

I hope to see you at our Shabbat Family Experience afternoon service this Saturday at 5:00pm. The afternoon service is always a lot of fun, and I look forward to our students’ participation!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

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.

Sunday, Feb. 24
Purim Creative Megillah Reading and Festive Meal 10:00 a.m. in the Sanctuary
It’s a mitzvah to eat, drink and be merry on Purim and costumes are encouraged! Our celebration includes stories, songs, magic, comedy and fun for all. 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!  $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/1^st Grade – Renee Hulsey
The class discussed tzedakah this week. Since the Religious School is using our tzedakah to purchase letters in the new congregational Torah, we will start discussing some of the letters each week. For example, this week we discussed aleph, which is the first letter in the name of Abraham, the first Jew. Then we walked around our classroom and were able to find a few alephs. In Hebrew, the kindergarten class went on a scavenger hunt for Hebrew letters. The 1st Graders learned the letter tet and the vowel that makes the “oo” sound. In art with Devin, we made groggers for Purim, and Mallory read a story about how Esther saved the day. Next week we will be learning more about Purim.

2^nd Grade – Natalie Guerin
The students had a special treat on Tuesday. As we are now learning a letter in the Torah each class, we went into the sanctuary with Rabbi Herman, who opened up the Torah for us, showed us the size of the panels and how they are put together to form the Torah. It opened to the Ten Commandments, and the children could read the Hebrew and recognize that they knew that "lo" means "no," which was great fun for them. They had quite a few questions that Rabbi Herman answered for them and even stumped him on a couple!

3^rd Grade – Laura Olesen
Another great week! The 3rd Graders are now studying about the Negev, the large desert in Israel. They are also doing a terrific job in Hebrew, as they have been practicing blessings and Birkat HaMazon. Please encourage them to practice the "practice pages" they bring home. I also hope they will continue to practice their solos and prayers for Siddur Dedication. The students are also learning the "Ma Nishtana" in preparation for Pesach. Remember: They can go online to hear their solos. Great job 3^rd Graders!

4^th Grade
This week in Hebrew we learned about the V’ahavta prayer. On Sunday, we covered vocabulary and new suffixes and prefixes and played Pictionary to practice our new words. On Tuesday, the students worked in pairs on writing, using whiteboards, and reading, timing each other. In Judaics on Sunday, students completed an earlier activity about temple times and learned about the difference between Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi Jewish communities. On Tuesday, students completed a quiz and played a review game.

5^th Grade – Courtney DeYoung
The 5^th Graders continued studying the life-cycle ritual of brit milah/baby naming.

 6^th Grade – MeMe Aguila
We finally finished all of our reports regarding early 1900's Jewish life in America. The students did a great job! We learned about the contributions that Jewish scientists made, as well as about the first Jewish charities and the Labor Movement. We have almost completed our journey through Jewish American history. In Hebrew we are continuing progress in learning conversational Hebrew and having fun expanding our vocabulary.

7^th – 8^th Grade – Jacob Kotz
The 7^th/8^th Graders did a brief history of the Holocaust, going through a timeline of the key events. They read a poem “At My Bar Mitzvah and His” and looked at some pictures related to survivors and the camps. They also briefly discussed the 7^th/8^th Grade Service that we do at the end of the year. Mark your calendars for April 27!

 Rabbi Ben Herman