What Happened in Grades 3-6 on Sunday, February 2...

Grade 3

In Mrs. Gabay's class, we did an exercise that will help us get ready to explore the Torah in more detail. In this exercise, we learned about the different books that make up the Torah and put them in order. Did you know that there are Hebrew and English names for each book?

After our opening exercise, we began looking at Torah text. We started at the best place to start - the beginning! Here we are reading about the story of Creation.

In Mrs. Zaas' class, we made a giant list of how we do things differently on Shabbat as we begin to think about what makes Shabbat a special day of the week.

Then, in Hebrew with Mrs. Zaas we practiced Hebrew Through Movement using a football in honor of the Super Bowl. Did you know that Mrs. Zaas' son works for the Denver Broncos? Her sign on the luach (white board) gave it away!

Grade 4

In Mrs. Abrams' Judaics class, we worked in small groups to identify what makes someone an Upstander and what makes someone a Bystander.

Each group looked at pictures of different scenarios and decided if the people in the pictures were acting as Upstanders or Bystanders.

Then, we worked to create our own scenarios of Upstanders and Bystanders. Our work today all helped us better understand our Jewish obligation to address issues in the world around us, linking us back to our touchstone text for this unit: "It is not upon you to complete the work, neither are you free from desisting from it" Pirkei Avot 2:15-16.

In Mr. Feinberg's Judaics class we continued our exploration of the opening text of Bereshit (Genesis) and explored what the text means by "good," a word that God uses to describe each step of Creation.

After focusing specifically on the word "good," we raised questions about the text and then grouped our questions thematically. This will set our focus for next week's class. 

In Hebrew, we continued working on decoding Yotzer Or. Mr. Feinberg was very impressed with how well we did!

Grade 5

Our day started with T'filah, led by Cantor Yomtov.

For snack, we enjoyed goldfish - always a favorite!

Then we had Art with Mrs. Schulgasser. To begin, Ms. Gonzalez read us a story about Joshua, who took over for Moses when the Israelites crossed the Jordan River and entered into the Land of Israel.

Then, we made bookmarks that depicted images relating to the story.

After Art, our whole class came back to the Youth Lounge to work on our Hebrew decoding. We worked in pairs and small groups on the Kedushah, the third blessing in the Amidah.

Grade 6

In Mr. Solomon's Hebrew class we started with Hebrew Through Movement. We are excited to start adding new vocabulary words soon and today we focused a lot on the command "l'hatzbiah." By looking at this picture, can you guess what that means?

After Hebrew Through Movement, we reviewed the roots that appear frequently in the opening prayers of the Torah service.

We also read through the part of the Torah service where we take the Torah out of the Ark. We're excited to be wrapping up our work on this collection of prayers and moving on to the next part of the Torah service.

In Ms. Killam's class, we learned about the different part of the Israeli Army, known as the IDF (Israeli Defense Force).

We talked about what we might do after High School and how this is different from the experience that our Israeli peers will have, as they will all join the army.

We also learned about those Israelis who are exempt from Army service and why.

Grade 6 is excited that we've earned another Marble Jar Party! We'll be celebrating on February 23. Going forward, each teacher has upped their challenge to the students in terms of how marbles can be earned. Ask your student what these new challenges will be.