HSRS Announcements (Hodaahot הוֹדָוֹת) We are looking for classroom parents for 5th, 6th, and 7th grades. The task is to plan a few social events for the class (and their families) and help coordinate/set up/clean up for the oneg at our grade level Shabbat Services. Please respond if you are interested!
We encourage students to bring tzedakah each class session. It's a great habit to start at a young age. All money collected is then used for a mitzvah of the grade level's choice.
If your student is going to be absent or late to class, please let us know. It's important for planning the day's activities, plus we can accurately order pizza on Wednesday evenings.
Important Dates & Upcoming Events
September 3- NO HSRS September 6- BBYO Meeting from 6:30-7:30pm September 8 - Backyard Shabbat Jr. (Rescheduled date) September 17- NO HSRS September 24- NO HSRS September 30- PJ Havdalah in the Sukkah (details to come!)
BBYO & Teens
Synagogue & Community News
From Our Teachers
Kitah Gan (Kindergarten) No class this Sunday, we will see you on September 10.
Kitah Alef (First Grade) No class this Sunday, we will see you on September 10.
Kitah Bet (Second Grade) No class this Sunday, we will see you on September 10.
Kitah Gimel (Third Grade) Wednesday- After pizza and Tefillah, we proceeded to our classroom. We reviewed our Hebrew lesson plan from Sunday, practicing Shin, Bet, and Tav and the key word Shabbat. We reviewed Shabbat concepts and also talked about the four Mitzvot of Shabbat; 1) remember, 2) observe, 3) delight in, and 4) honor Shabbat, and what we can do to fulfill these mitzvot. After taking a quick break outside, we made Shabbat candles out of beeswax along with candle holders made out of small jars filled with colored sand. The students absolutely loved this activity! Finally, we conducted a mock shabbat. We slowly explained and went through the steps of lighting the sabbath candles, drawing our hands around the candles and toward our face, covering our eyes with our hands then saying the blessing. We then continued with the blessings over grape juice and challah, both of which the students enjoyed immensely. Perhaps your kiddos will want to lead your family’s next Shabbat at home!
Kitah Dalet (Fourth Grade) We were all together Wednesday with Morot Sophie and Merav. After T’filah, We learned about Eretz Israel and worked in teams drawing our own maps of the land of Israel. We continued working on our Aleph Bet.
Kitah Hay (Fifth Grade) Wednesday from From Safranit (librarian) Judy subbing for Morah Lauren: It was my pleasure to sub this evening with the 5th grade class. We had a good time and everyone was able to stay focused and everyone had great participation. They earned lots of shekels! We reviewed basic vowel sounds--which ones say "ah", which ones say "eh", etc. We also worked on pronouncing khet and khaf with the guttural "clear your throat" sound and the unique vowel sounds when khet and khaf are the final letters in a word. We also started in the Chai book with a prophets word search and discussed what a prophet is and what they do. We talked about how Prophets is one of the three sections of the Tanach (Hebrew Bible) and that the word Tanach is an acronym for Torah (Torah), Nevi'im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings). After break we did Hebrew reading drills--reading in pairs (rotating pairs so everyone read with everyone else) and Hebrew reading challenges. One challenge was for each student to find and read a word with a specific vowel sound (for example, find and read a word that ends with an "ah" sound). Another challenge was having a student read a word of their choice and the other students had to find the word that was read. I'm happy to say they did really well with both challenges!!
Kitah Vav (Sixth Grade) Wednesday- Shalom Families of Kitah Vav, We began our Wednesday night class with an introduction to the Amidah portion of a prayer service. This is our overarching focus for prayer this year and your student did a great job asking questions and thinking about what this portion of the service means - more to come in the following weeks as we dive deeper into the subject. Just before break we brought out some one and easier two syllable Hebrew words - continuing our refresher of language and reading. After our break we dove into what is a life cycle. Wow it was a "kiss your brain" kind of night with so many wonderful comments and particulars about what is a life cycle and how it relates to living a jewish life. More to come as begin our learning with Jewish pregnancy and birth as our first unit in the coming weeks. Shavua Tov (a good week to you all)
Kitah Zayin (Seventh Grade) Wednesday from Morah Mollie (subbing for Rabbi Finestone)- Wednesday in the 7th grade we practiced the morning blessings that we say on Saturday mornings and talked a little bit about why we say them. We also did some work with ethical dilemmas when it comes to Shabbat, and when it would be okay to break Shabbat. The students had very great ideas and discussions about the scenario and were able to dig deeper.
From Our Specials
Shira News Since there isn't class on Sunday, September 3, Shira Josh will return on September 10.
News from the Sifriyah (Library)The Diversity Bibliography is now online! With it you can find books that we have in our library about Jews in relationship with other ethnic/religious groups, multiple Jewish identities and Jewish communities around the world.
News from the Kitchen We have a few weeks before Morah Ellen will be returning to the kitchen! Get ready to whip up something delicious.
