What Happened in Grades 3-6 on Sunday, May 8...

Grade 3

Today when we came in we went to T’filah. The Cantor led services, and we all followed along in our prayer books. Then we talked about words we can make with koof, daled and shin. Cantor talked to us about Kadosh, Holiness. We talked about how we refer to ourselves as a holy people, but that being holy doesn't make us better than others and that all people are made in God's image. 

Next, we had Kehillah in the classroom. We sent all the madrachim outside of the classroom. We wrote and discussed all the nice things are madrachim do for us and how they help out our teacher. Mrs. Milgrom will use our feedback when she writes her end of year thank you notes!

After Kehillah, we played a few different games to review the Hebrew that we've learned.

In Judaics, we wrote about someone or something that is living that is special to us. We wrote about a relationship with this person then we could write about what makes them special to us.

Then we shared with are class the people we wrote about and we wrote it on the board. During our discussion, we explored how special relationships with other people help us connect to God.

Grade 4

During T'filah, Cantor talked to us about Kadosh, Holiness. We talked about how we refer to ourselves as a holy people, but that being holy doesn't make us better than others and that all people are made in God's image. 

In Kehillah, we asked our madrichim to leave and spent a few minutes talking about all of the things that we appreciate about them. Mrs. Milgrom will use our feedback in her end of year thank you notes!

Then, during Judaics, Mr. Stone posted images up around our room that illustrate the different kinds of Lo Aleicha moments that we've talked about. We all shared which ones we found the most interesting and important and why.

Then, we worked individually to identify a problem that we see in the world and talk about how we can begin to work on the program, even if we can't solve it.

During Hebrew, we spent time reviewing the Shabbat evening prayers that we say at home, like the blessing over the candles.

Grade 5

To begin the day, Grade 5 had T'filah with Cantor Lawrence. During this time of prayer, we focused on the Mi Chamochah and choices, such as whether to get a tea or a coffee at Starbucks. We reviewed from last week, when we learned the root letters koof, dalet, and shin. Words we can make with this root are Kadosh, Kiddush, and Kidushah. We focused on Kadosh, which means holy. To be holy, we do mitzvot. Our moral of today was that every choice we make counts toward how holy we are as people, and how our life will commence. We had Kehilah in class, and during our snack, we wrote up ideas of why we liked our madrachim this year. Mrs. Milgrom will use our feedback in her end of year thank you notes!

After snack, we shifted our focus to holidays. Last week we had Yom Hashoah, which is Holocaust remembrance day. We then discussed upcoming holidays, such as Yom HaZikaron, Israeli memorial day, and Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israeli independence day. We split into two groups who then researched one of the two holidays, and we did a small presentation on what things are specific to these holidays. 

Afterward, our teacher went more in depth about Yom HaZikaron. We watched a video depicting the alarm that goes throughout Israel, which indicates silence. This is an important show of respect for said holiday. 

Next we began planning our own Yom Ha'atzmaut party, which will be our little celebration of the end of the year. We want to make it as authentic as possible, with Israeli treats and marches around the synagogue. 

Last but not least, we had Hebrew. For this, we reviewed all of the prayers we’ve learned so that next week we can make a video that shows all of them off. 

Grade 6

During T'filah, Cantor talked to us about Kadosh, Holiness. We talked about how we refer to ourselves as a holy people, but that being holy doesn't make us better than others and that all people are made in God's image. 

In Art class, Mrs. Schulgasser helped us create self portraits that express our individual Jewish identities and consider who we have been, who we are and who we will be.

In Hebrew, we reviewed different words from the Torah service using Tic Tac Torah. We needed the word in the box correctly in order to claim it as an "x" or an "o."

We also reviewed Haftarah trope and their tunes, focusing on how they appear in the blessings.

We finished with Around the World!