What Happened in Grades K-2 on Sunday, November 23...

Kindergarten

Did you know that it is now the month of Kislev? Did you know that we celebrate Chanukah during Kislev? Today, as we waited for all of our friends to arrive, we spent some time coloring pictures for Chanukah.

It is also November, and in November, we celebrate Thanksgiving! Being thankful is one of the themes in the prayers that we recite every Sunday morning, so in T'filah, we took some time to talk about what we are thankful for.

In our classroom, we continued to explore how being thankful is a Jewish value. We made cards to express what we are thankful for, which helped us connect Judaism to the American holiday of Thanksgiving!

Grade 1

Did you know that it is now the month of Kislev? Did you know that we celebrate Chanukah during Kislev? Today, as we waited for all of our friends to arrive, we spent some time coloring pictures for Chanukah.

We read a story about Chanukah and learned all about King Antiochus and how he told the Jews that they couldn't been Jewish any more. We learned about how the Jews fought a war to protect their right to be Jewish and about how after they won, they light the menorah and the oil lasted for eight days. After the story, we got to make masks so that we can pretend to be either one of the Judah Maccabees fellow soldiers or one of King Antiouchus' men. Now we can act the story out at home!

After the mask making, we went to Art with Mrs. Shulgasser where we learned about oil candles for Chanukah. We made bowls out of clay with wicks coming out of them so we can fill our  bowls with oil and use them as an oil lamp. We will take them home with us the next time we are at Religious School, Sunday, December 7, which is also the day of our Consecration family program!

Grade 2

The first thing we did today was read a story with our teacher. It was really fun! It was called The Golden Calf, and it was about how when Moses and went to the top of Mount Sinai the Jewish people made a golden calf. We learned that this was not a good decision! 

Next, we did an activity called Solving the Problem. Our teacher counted us off by threes, then we got into groups. We read the paper for our group to discuss, then we brainstormed, and finally we talked about the problems that God, Moses and the Israelites faced. Each group got the chance to help God, Moses or the Israelites solve a different problem.

We had Kehillah during class today! While we ate our goldfish and drank our water, we continued to talk about the story and the problems within it. We discussed how the Israelites reacted to Moses’ absence by making an idol, how God became angry, and then, how Moses smashed the Ten Commandments in the end. 

During T'filah today, two of our madrachim helped out. We had a lot of fun saying the prayers. Rabbi told us a story about this week’s Torah portion, which is about Jacob. 

After T'filah, we learned about the letter alef. Ask us what sound it makes! (it's a trick question!)

In Library, we read a story about the letter nun, which is the letter we’ll be learning about next week, We also read another story book about Moses and the Ten Commandments. It was fun to see how two different books told the same story with different pictures and in slightly different ways!

 

What Happened in Grades 3-6 on Sunday, November 16...

Grade 3

Today Mrs. Gabay couldn’t be here because she had a death in her family. To help us understand what Jewish people do in the event of a death, Rabbi Denker came in and explained what happens, and what we can do, even if we are not related to the person who passed away.

Then, we all made cards showing our sympathy for Mrs. Gabay. We hope these cards will make her feel better.

We learned that even if we have never met the person who has passed, it is important to be kind and thoughtful to those who've experienced a loss.

Ethan even made a paper swan for her! That was a real act of G'milut Chasadim, or an Act of Loving Kindness.

Grade 4

Our Grade 4 students took on a huge task today! Our teens had organized a Bake Sale to raise funds for the synagogue's scholarship fund. The only problem was that the teens were all gone today at a NFTY event. So, they turned to the fourth grade and asked us if we could help out. We worked together as upstanders to create signs, prices and organize the table. We raised over $90! In addition, Mrs. Milgrom played a game with us. It was a scavenger hunt with Hebrew letters where we had to first figure out the letter and then go find items at the boutique that started with that letter. The winning team got to pick a small treat from the bake sale.

Grade 5

In T'filah, Cantor Lawrence taught us a new tune! Ask your student which prayer was sung differently.

We had Kehillah in class today. After talking about tzedakah (did you know that the real meaning of the word tzedakah has to do with justice?) we brainstormed where we would like our grades' tzedakah money to go.

After Kehillah, we had Art.  Grade 5 is moving on to the G'vurot, so what better way to learn about it than with some art projects? We got a slip of paper with a line from the prayer, then we matched up with our partners to make superheroes out of our ideas from our part of the G'vurot.

When we finalized our superheroes' identities and powers, we got to draw them! Mrs. Schulgasser showed us how to properly draw bodies. 

Last but not least, we got to work in our Hebrew workbooks. We moved past the Avot v'Imahot and onto the G'vurot, where we read through the prayer and then correlated it with our art projects. It was an awesome day!

Grade 6

Grade 6 was at the Count Me In program today! This program was the culminating program for their Count Me In curriculum. While our Documentors weren't there to take pictures, we hope that they had a fantastic time!

What Happened in Grades K-2 on Sunday, November 9...

Kindergarten

As we waited for all of our friends to arrive, we worked on welcoming them with pretty artwork. These pictures of two friends hugging and signs that say"Welcome"greeted everyone as they arrived and helped us "welcome the stranger," the mitzvah that we are learning about!

Once everyone arrived, we welcomed the whole class and every student individually by signing our "Shalom Song."

During Kehillah, a man named Jerry came in to talk about Camp GUCI, and it sounds like a lot of fun! We saw a video that showed us all the fun activities we could do and all the friends we could meet while we ate our snack. While we aren't quite old enough to go to GUCI, we are excited to know that such great summer camps exist.

After that, we got to stay in the Social Hall while the older grades went to class. We got to learn some fun and silly dances that we will get to do one day if we go to Camp GUCI! It was so much fun. 

When we got back to class, we shared about our weekends. Then we reviewed the list that we made about how to welcome someone new into our class 

Finally, we had art. It was really fun! We learned about making friends and keeping friends, as well as being nice to others. We made chaverim, Hebrew for "friends," with pipe cleaners, foam beads and then we gave them smiles; after all, the best way to make a friend is to smile!

Grade 1

Grade 1 had a great day today! We started by reviewing what it means to be a Jewish Super Hero. Did you know that we all did something this past week that makes us Jewish Super Heroes, just like the people in the TaNaCH? Then, Mrs. Lashley came in a read us a story about kindness, which fit perfectly, because Jewish Super Heroes are all kind. 

Later on in our day, we learned about what it means to show Derech Eretz. Derech Eretz means that we respect the rules and laws of the place that we are in. Ms. Levy gave us strips of paper with different Derech Eretz scenarios on them and we all drew a picture to illustrate the example that we were given.

At the end of the day, we each got a special tzedakah box to decorate. We are excited to take them home and use them to collect tzedakah!

Grade 2

Grade 2 began their day with tzedakah then we got packages from Miss Evans. When we opened them there was a box and a matching worksheet. Once we went over our answers as a class, we worked on decorating our very own tzedakah boxes with cool stickers and drawings. 

Then, Miss Evans read us a story about Moses. We learned about how in the desert, Moses helped everyone solve their problems. But it became too hard for Moses to be available to EVERYONE, so he enlisted the help of his father-in-law, Jethro. Jethro helped Moses pick out people who could help Moses and design a system of who would answer which problems. This taught us that even though we are good at something, sometimes, we need help to figure out how to be the best we can be. We drew pictures of how we can apply this lesson to our lives. 

During Kehillah, a man named Jerry came in to talk about a day camp with us. The camp was called Camp GUCI, and it sounds like a lot of fun! We saw a video that showed us all the fun activities we could do and all the friends we could meet while we ate our snack.

After that, we got to stay while the older grades left. We got to learn some fun dances that we would get the opportunity to do during camp! It was so much fun. 

Afterward, we went back to class. Since Miss Evans wasn’t here last week, we went over what we learned last week, then went on to our new focus, which was about Moses and Jethro. We read a short story called ‘Moses Has a Problem,’ then discussed what Moses could have done better in his situation. We brainstormed ideas, coming to three conclusions; he needed helpers, a schedule, and some breaks. 

Last but not least, we used our workbooks to go over our new Hebrew letter - Lamed.