News from Carole's Fifth Grade

Dear Parents, 

We started class today by answering some questions left over from last week about the nature of angels, i.e, do they only have one leg?  We discovered that the difference between angels & humans is that humans have choices & require 2 legs to move forward where some people believe that angels have only one leg because they have no free choice & can only do the task that God has commanded them to perform.  We also talked about the famous story of Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shamai & the challenge of teaching Torah while standing on one foot. The discussion of both stories was good and also important to our underlying understanding of the history & foundation of Judaism.

In Hebrew today we reviewed the Avot v'Imahot (p. 5), the Gevurot (p. 16) and the Kedusah (p. 28). Next week we will begin to evaluate each student's progress in these three prayers. We continue to talk about the importance of the prayers that make up the Amidah, standing prayer, which is said at every service. In addition, we continue to talk about ways to connect our lives and every day actions to these prayers. Sometimes that means that we need to separate ourselves from our daily activities and seek some time to think about the way we want to live our lives.

At services, Ethan and Nat led us in some of the morning prayers that we will be asked to lead at our Bar/Bat Mitzvot.  We also got in the holiday mood with some Hanukkah songs. 

After services we went over the blessings we say to light the Hanukkiah. We also talked about how to place the candles & the order in which to light them. We also had a really quick discussion about the creating Hanukkah presents that reflect Jewish values.  The students have a worksheet that they can do to create the "gifts."

We had the treat of art with Phyllis today where we made Hanukkah dreidel doves that reflect our values of peace, tzedakah and other mitzvot. The class first talked about how to associate value to each of the hebrew letters, Noon for Nes, Gimel for Gadol, Hay for Haya, and Shin for Sham.  Have your children explain the meaning behind the words on their art projects.

For Homework:

1.  Practice the prayers we have covered so far, Avot v'Imahot, Gevurot, and the Kedusha.

2.  Next week we will have our class Hanukkah party during the last 1/2 hour of class. We invite any student that would like to share a talent related to the holiday (such as playing a Hanukkah song on a musical instrument, reading a poem or story, etc.) to help us celebrate!

Also, Dawn Allen has offered to be the room parent helper for the holiday. Please contact Dawn if you'd like to help with any refreshments. Please remember that we have several food allergies in our classroom & would like to provide treats that are gluten free, peanut & tree nut free, dairy free and egg free.  Dawn's e-mail is: dawn.a.allen@sbcglobal.net

Happy Hanukkah to all.  Next week is our last class before winter break.  

Carole

Carole Mostow
caroleandmichael@comcast.net

News from Cindy Salomon's Class

Don't you wish you were in Cindy's class?



Sunday School News

We started the day with dance and music. We sang Chanukah songs, and practiced our song and dance for the lights and miracles service this Friday night.

In circle time we watched a video about the Chanukah story. We discussed the story, and how Judah Maccabee and his small army defeated Antiochus and his very large army. I asked the kids if they knew the word that meant being able to choose your religion, where you live, where you go to school, etc? Tyler answered "Freedom". 

We discussed what freedom meant to the Jewish people at the time of the Chanukah story. We realized that no matter what freedom is one of the most important things to have.

The tell me tube item yesterday was a potato, which was a perfect introduction to the story The Borrowed Chanukah Latkes.

We created some beautiful Chanukah place mats. As the kids finished their place mats they were able to build their own version of the holy temple, complete with a menorah and a stuffed Judah Maccabee. We also worked on a Menorah floor puzzle and did a pretend Chanukah with our holiday play set, dishes, and fake food.

We wrote about Freedom in our Torah journals. Even though the Chanukah story happened way after the Torah we thought this important topic still needed a page in our journals.

Yesterday's Hebrew letter was zayin. We worked on our worksheets, and made zayins out of Twizzlers.

In between all of that we had a great service with Rabbi Eitan, and had a wonderful pretend Shabbat.

Not only do the kids love the challah, but they are memorizing the Shabbat blessings.

There was so much Chanukah singing going on yesterday that while the kids were working on their place mats Ethan started singing and then one by one they all just joined in. 

We had an awesome day!

Friday night is our Lights and Miracles Service,

I hope to see you there.