Religious School Parent Bulletin November 1, 2013
It was wonderful to see so many students at our Mitzvah Day with Congregation Or Chadash! Our thanks to Or Chadash for treating us to such a special time. Students made musical instruments out of recycled materials, painted a Jewish Values mural and made Hanukkah cards for Handmaker residents, among other activities. Thank you to all the families who donated clothing and recycled materials. The clothing will go to the First Rate Second Hand store.
This Sunday is going to be a very busy day. I look forward to seeing 3rd Grade parents at 11:15am on Sunday for our Kabbalat Siddur Parent Meeting. I also am looking forward to our Education Committee meeting and welcome any parents who would like to attend.
Lastly, I want to let you know that classroom teachers are going to be trained in CPR this Sunday after Religious School.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
"Turkey" Drive 2013, Nov. 3 – 24
Every year, CAI collects money to purchase kosher turkeys and other support for Jewish Family & Children's Services to help enhance the Thanksgiving celebration of families in need. Food items may be dropped off in the marked box in the administrative office lobby. Monetary donations may be dropped off or mailed in. Please make checks payable to CAI and note "Turkey Drive" on the check. Let's help enhance someone's Thanksgiving dinner! We will have our Turkey Drive Assembly on Sunday November 24 at 11:45am in the Library.
Saturday, Nov. 9 – Shabbat Family Experience, 10:30am in Epstein Chapel
Did you enjoy our High Holy Day Family Services? Then join us for another fun-filled, participatory service led by Religious School and THA students. Please RSVP to Kim by Nov. 6.
Sunday, Nov. 22 – Kindergarten thru 2nd Grade Shabbat Dinner & Service
Our youngest Religious School and THA students will lead parts of our Friday evening service (as well as some songs!) for a lively Shabbat experience. We’ll begin with dinner at 6:00pm, followed by a short service at 7:15pm.
TEACHERS' CLASSROOM RECAPS:
Kindergarten – Renee Hulsey
Recently the children learned the letter “zayin” as in “zaev,” which means wolf, and “zebrah,” which means zebra. We also learned that the mezuzah has the Shema inside. In art with Devin, we made Noah’s Ark mobiles, which are currently on display in the Religious School hallway. Come and take a look!
1st Grade – Nancy Auslander
First Grade had a blast at Mitzvah Day at Or Chadash!
2nd Grade – Bryan Gordon
The students learned Hebrew letters using white boards. We also played a game using the Hebrew word for go, “lekh,” and looked at the story of Jacob and Esau.
3rd Grade – Laura Olesen
We had a fun and exciting week! I hope you enjoyed and had a great time (as we did) at Or Chadash on Sunday! We enjoyed the activities and had fun connecting with each other. On Tuesday, we continued with learning prayers and roots of words, as well as new songs for Kabbalat Shabbat. We also selected our Judaics project: the Israel city of their choice.
4th Grade – Elana Israel
The 4th grade has been having some impressive philosophical conversations! The students have been sharing their opinions regarding the importance of community, especially in terms of the Jewish community. Through their own discussions, they are recognizing the importance of following Jewish law, while beginning to develop an understanding of human responsibility. The Hebrew class has begun reading with the letter “gimel,” and learning new Hebrew vocabulary words, like “geshem” (rain), “shemesh” (sun), and “yad” (hand). Everyone is doing excellent work!
5th Grade – Courtney DeYoung
On Judaics, we watched the Camp Ramah video for students to learn more about the Jewish day camp. In Hebrew, as a follow-up to our previous take home assignments, I allowed the two students who have brought back all their work to teach the class the vocabulary words. I allowed the students who are behind, to catch up to the other students. I saw great input from everyone and I hope every student continues to do their home assignments. As for those who do not do them, as a parent, it would be very beneficial if you found time to do the exercises assigned so you could also engage in the class activities. I continue to see incredible improvement from every student!
5th Grade – Sarah Artzi
This has been a busy week for us! First of all, special thanks to our students who participated in Mitzvah Day at Congregation Or Chadash this past Sunday. We were hosted to a morning filled with a variety of mitzvah-themed activities which included preparing bagged lunches for the homeless, painting a fabric mural to be shared within our Jewish community, and learning many new ruach-filled songs. On Tuesday, we took some time to watch a promotional video about Camp Ramah in California and talk about Jewish summer camps. You should have received a letter about Camp Ramah and the many programs available to help pay for this incredible summer experience. On Sunday, we'll return to our Life Cycles unit and start exploring Jewish life post bar/bat mitzvah.
6th Grade – MeMe Aguila
On Sunday, we had a great time at Or Chadash with Mitzvah Day, painting a beautiful mural, making sandwiches for Primavera Foundation, creating lots of ruach (spirit), singing and having lots of fun. On Tuesday, it was back to business. Our class had another prophet presentation, this time it being a PowerPoint about Deborah. Thank you, David, for a great job. In Hebrew, we had fun with the sentences that the class was writing using the vocabulary words that they’ve learned. They were some very creative sentences!
7th – 8th Grade – Sivan Shahmoon
This week we watched the movie "Cyberbully" relating it back to the Ethics of Speech and Communication. While watching the film, the students wrote down the ethical and unethical forms of speech and communication that they saw in the film.