What Happened in Grades 3-6 on Sunday, November 3...

Grade 3

Today in Judaics with Mrs. Gabay, we had a substitute teacher named Mrs. Barasch. As a class, we read about the Parshat HaShavuah, weekly Torah Portion, Vayetze. Specifically, we focused on the part of the parsha that talks about Yaakov and how he ends up married to both Rachel and Leah. 

We also had a substitute teacher in Mrs. Zaas' Judaics class! Julia Ullman worked with us to help us identify different types of G'milut Chasadim. For example, in Judaism it is a mitzvah to take care of animals (Tza'ar Ba'alei Chaim). Ask your child what they came up with for the kinds of things that we can do to fulfill this mitzvah.

Did you know that G'milut Chasadim are Acts of Loving-kindness? We learned that today and then drew a picture of what we can do to perform G'milut Chasadim towards others.

In Hebrew class, we made word searches and then traded with a partner so that we could try to find the words in someone else's word search.

We also worked on our Hebrew Through Movement. Julia told us to run, jump, spin or hand her either a Chanukah candle or a Shabbat candle. In Hebrew these are called "ner shel Chanukah" or "ner shel Shabbat."

Grade 4

In T'filah today, Rabbi Denker talked about Parshat HaShavuah (the weekly Torah Portion). This week's parsha is Toldot. A lot happens in Vayetze, but Rabbi focused on Yaakov's dream.

In Mr. Feinberg's Judaics, we read a text from Kedoshim about how God commands us not to put a stumbling block in front of the blind. As a class, we discussed the difference between being literally blind and figuratively blind.

In Mrs. Abrams' Judaics class, we acted as upstanders by taking action to address a problem that is too big to solve by ourselves but one for which we are able to act as a part of the solution. The blankets that we made today are going to be donated to Project Night Night. 

In Hebrew, we reviewed the letter Hay as a prefix, which means "the." We identified places that this prefix appears in prayers. 

We also practiced reading the brachot that we've been studying and reviewed when we say which brachot.

Grade 5

In T'filah today, Rabbi Denker talked about Parshat HaShavuah (the weekly Torah Portion). This week's parsha is Vayetze. We were particularly interested in the way that Rabbi talked about Jacob's relationship with God.

To start off in Judaics with Ms. Gonzalez, we reviewed what Hebrew month it is now (hint - it is no longer Cheshvan!) and what chagim (holidays) are in this month.

We also used our Parking Lot to brainstorm ideas for where we'd like to donate the Tzedakah that we collect this year.

For Philosophical Inquiry this week, we started exploring a new text, Bereshit Chapter 9. Click here to read the text yourself and then ask your child what questions they found in the text.

In Hebrew with Ms. Silverstein, we worked together as a class to identify important vowel patterns and root letters within the Avot v'Imahot.

Lastly, we were able to act out a story from our workbook about how the Magen David (Sheild of David, or as it is more often known, Star of David) was created.

Grade 6

Mr. Solomon started Hebrew with TPR (Total Physical Response - also called Hebrew Through Movement). Today, we learned that the prefix "la" means "to."

Then, we learned about the shoresh (root) mem - lamed - chaf. When we see Hebrew words that are made up of these root letters, we know that they have to do with the concept of "kingship" or "ruler."

In Judaics with Ms. Killam, we started our exploration of Israel. We looked at maps of Israel to acquaint ourselves with this important country.

We also pretended that we are going to take a trip to Israel and brainstormed what we would bring with us and why.

In this picture, we are working on a True or False quiz. In reviewing the quiz, we learned a lot about what we know and what we don't know about Israel!