What Happened in Grades K-2 on Sunday, October 18...

Kindergarten

Today was Curriculum day; all of our parents came to Religious School and went to class with us. We got to show our parents what we do every weekend. We first went to services and showed our parents what we do in services. Then we got to listen to the Rabbi tell us about this week’s Torah portion, we learned that this week’s Torah portion was about seeing the world differently.

After services we went to the social hall and played games while are parents got to know ourteachers. The first game we played was The West Wind Blows, which is a game where someone goes to the middle of the circle and says what they like to do. If someone else in the circle likes it too then they have to swap places with someone else. The last person in the circle says what they like and it repeats. It  was fun because we got to spend time with kids in other grades.

We then played another game, called Indian Chief. In Indian Chief one person leaves the room and we choose a leader to follow. While everyone followed the leader, the one person came back and had to guess who the leader was. It was fun to do this and them we went and had snack and went back to are classrooms with are parents. 

After we went back to the classroom, we got in a group with are families. All of the families got 3 pictures. They had to discuss which picture showed someone loving their neighbor as themselves and which ones didn't. We then shared it with the class and we all shared our opinions. 

We then did arts and crafts. We all got to make pictures of what it looks like when we love our neighbor as ourselves. We had so much fun learning with our parents!

Grade 1

Today, October 18^th, was Curriculum Day, and the parents. The parents joined us in T’filah and the Rabbi taught us about how this week's Torah portion is about finding new places or new mountains to see the world in a physically and spiritually better way.

The students split into two groups and we played games such as Where The West wind Blows and Indian Chief, in which the kids pick a person to go into the middle of the circle and say what they like to do or for example if they have a cat, then all the kids that have cats will get up and run to a different chair somewhere throughout the circle. This all happened while the parents were learning about the students' teachers in the classrooms.

Ms. Levy asked what a blessing is, and what we pray for. The kids came up with a list such as thanking God for creating the world, having a place to live, food, animals and for being Jewish.

Each family was split up, and drew pictures about what we say blessings for so they can hang it in their houses to remind them what they are praying for. Many were thankful for their families and for their homes and pets.

The final thing they did today, was sharing what they drew with the rest of the class, Ms. Levy holding them up so everyone could see what they had drawn.

Grade 2

Today was Curriculum Day! During T’filah, the Youth Choir helped sing Mi Chamocha. 

The parents and students split up after the morning service. Adults stayed in the sanctuary, and kids went to the social hall. There, we played fun games. The first game we played was called ‘the west wind blows.’ In this game, the person in the middle said something they do in their lives or something they like, then people who share that interest got up and had to take a chair. The person who was left without a chair was ‘it.’ We then played ‘indian chief,’ which was a copycat game. The chief had to change the move that everyone was copying, and the person who was ‘it’ had to name who the chief was.

Back in class, students reunited with their parents. We then went over what we learned last week, which was fun! We went outside and tried to notice things we usually don’t notice, such as veins on leaves or acorns on the ground.

Afterward, we played a fun game. We teamed up with our parents and went around to stations. Our room became a Jewish museum, and we rotated between six different stations, each with a different object to learn about. We filled out corresponding questions. These items were as follows: a mezzuzah, a Star of David puzzle, Shabbat candles, a menorah, a TaNaCH, and a shofar.

To follow up on this activity, we sat back down and had a discussion about new things we learned at the ‘museum.’ One fun fact that nearly none of us knew is that TaNaCH is an acronym!