HSRS Announcements (Hodaahot הוֹדָוֹת) Our 7th graders will be leading the Saturday morning Shabbat Service on December 16. Please join them either in-person or on zoom. 7th grade parents- if you haven't RSVPd that your student will be in attendance or volunteered to lead part of the service, email hsrs@nocoharshalom.org.
Need a last minute Hanukkah gift? Present for a teacher? Our scrip coordinator, Tal Bloom, will be selling gift cards after HSRS on the next two Sundays. Email scrip@nocoharshalom.org if you have any questions before Sunday.
Is your child interested in going to sleepaway camp for the first time? We are thrilled to announce that applications are now open for Jewish Overnight Summer Camp Grants! JEWISHcolorado One Happy Camper (OHC) Program, in partnership with The Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC), awards grants of between $700 and $1000 to eligible families sending their children to Jewish overnight camps for the first time.
Important Dates & Upcoming Events
December 8- Shabbat Jr at 5:30pm (art project and oneg to follow) December 8- BBYO Hanukkah Party 5:30-7:30pm, see below for registration info December 10- Hanukkah celebrated at HSRS December 16- 7th grade Saturday Morning Shabbat Service DECEMBER 17- NO SCHOOL FOR 7TH GRADE ONLY December 17- Beresheet Day 2 from 10:30-12pm
BBYO & Teens Our teens are awesome! Bondi is our featured madricha of the week! She helps with administrative stuff and in the kitchen. She excels at leading the HaMotzi at snacktime, taking photos for our newsletter, and helping get kids to class!
Synagogue & Community News
From Our Teachers
Kitah Gan (Kindergarten) and Kitah Alef (First Grade) Our Kitah Gan and Kitah Alef students enjoyed a wonderful evening of spaghetti, crafts, Havdalah rituals, and ice cream sundaes this past Saturday. It was great to end Shabbat together.
Kitah Bet (Second Grade) Sunday from Morah Anne- What a fun-filled, jam-packed day we had in religious school! After group shira, Safrenit Judy read us a story called the Boston Chocolate Party (written by Tami Lehman-Wilzig.) We learned briefly about the 3 different types of Jews that settled around the world, and some customs they observe during Hanukkah. Then we went to the kitchen to learn about (and make!) hot chocolate and egg creams. After a quick break we had popcorn, made Hanukkah snow globes, and played a few games. I hope you have a great week and I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.
Kitah Gimel (Third Grade) Wednesday from Morah Robin- We primarily focused on Hebrew studies. We first reviewed all the Hebrew letters we’ve learned thus far this year. We then continued with Lesson 7 learning the letters pey, resh, and final mem. In Lesson 7 the students are starting to read complete Hebrew sentences in order to answer workbook questions. We are also starting to quiz ourselves on words we’ve learned thus far using flash cards. We did take a break during all this learning – the students chose to stay inside and do floor puzzles! I am extremely impressed at how quickly everyone is learning!
Sunday from Morah Robin-We had so much fun getting ready for Chanukah. We read “The Story of Hanukkah” which talks about the history of Hanukkah, why we light the 8 candles on the menorah, why we play the dreidel game, and why we eat foods cooked in oil. We then made menorahs out of pasta, Star of David mobiles out of pipe cleaners, and dreidels out of pretzels, marshmallows, and hersey kisses. We also had a visit from Librarian Judy. She read "The Boston Chocolate Party" by Tami Lehman-Wilzig and Rabbi Deborah R. Prinz. This story takes place during Hanukkah and is about a Sephardic family who make a new chocolate drink they introduce to the New England colonists in December 1773. We then had cooking in the kitchen with Shoshanna and made hot chocolate and chocolate egg cream drinks. Delicious! At the end of the day we finished Lesson 7 in our Hebrew books. Great Sunday morning all around!!
Kitah Dalet (Fourth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Merav- We are stepping up our Hebrew reading. The group that has been working on the Aleph-bet wall has started reading our growing word wall. Our other group decided to try to read from our Sidurim (prayer books). We started with reading the Shema and Vahavta in Hebrew (not in transliteration). It was challenging, but they were up for the challenge.
Wednesday from Morah Judy, subbing for Morah Sophie- I had a really nice time with the students! She prepared a lovely lesson plan for me about thankfulness. I had two groups and for each group I read them "Thank You God for Everything" We talked about how being grateful and thankful is about noticing the things around you, and that there was a famous Rabbi who said that if we can't find 100 things a day to be grateful for, then we weren't paying enough attention. :-) But that's it's OK to be grateful for the same things every day. :-) Then they drew pictures or made a list of things they were thankful for. All the pictures and lists were collected so Morah Sophie can see them. We talked about how a blessing in Judaism is a way of saying that we've been paying attention and have noticed things to be thankful for; that all blessings begin with the word "baruch" and that the word for a blessing is "bracha". We also spent a little time on the Shechechiyanu. We talked about how the Shechechiyanu is a blessing that marks the firsts in our lives, and we brainstormed examples, such as the first day of school, the first night of Hanukkah, the first time you ride a bike by yourself without training wheels, the first time you try a new food, etc. We were also able to work a little on decoding the Shechechiyanu a bit so they could understand the prayer. For example, I explained that "nu" at the end of a word means "us". I said that as they learn more words and word endings they will be able to find them in the prayers and be able to understand the prayers better.
Sunday from Morah Merav- Sunday, we continued working on reading the Shema and Vahavta using flash cards. The other group worked on a Hebrew worksheet. Ask your student how many letters are in the Hebrew Aleph Bet. Everyone in Kitah Dalet had an opportunity to read from our word wall. We also had a visit with Rabbi in our kitah and everyone had an opportunity to ask her questions. It was awesome and we can’t wait for her next visit. Sunday from Morah Sophie- We read the story of Chanukah today! Obviously they know the story pretty well, but everyone could use a refresher. Then, we made Chanukah banners to bring home!
Kitah Hay (Fifth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Lauren- Wednesday night Kita Hay was a learning and fun filled event. They did a very nice job with their reading. Everyone can read full sentences. It’s very exciting. They played kickball at break in the twinkling playscape. We then painted our crafts and read a Hannukah story. This Wednesday, we have new things to learn and another cool craft for Hannukah celebrations. I love this class! Thank you all for your hard work this week 🌞
Sunday from Morah Laurel- We spent our class learning about Hanukkah. It was a busy day.
5th grade genealogy project: Genealogy questionnaires were handed out to the 5th grade class. This is an annual project in which Judy offers to do genealogical research for families that are interested (completely voluntary; not required). The questionnaire also includes space for optional family stories and family heirlooms. The stories and heirlooms do not have to be Jewish related. If possible, please have your student return the questionnaire before winter break, so that I can use that time for research. Thank you! Please let Judy know if you have any questions or concerns.
Kitah Vav (Sixth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Leah- It was good to be back together again for T’fillah. After, we moved to the classroom and began to learn Adon Olam. Some students are already familiar which is great! We will periodically sing / read this song of praise as it is commonly sung at Bar / Bat Mitzvah services and so many different tunes. After a break in the snow we came back to the classroom and looked at proverbs from the Ketuviim (writings) portion of the Hebrew Bible: Te-Na-Kh.
A few announcements, first - I will be pre-teaching the lesson on Brit and naming services and we are lucky to have Dr. Bernie Birnbaum coming in on 12/20 to complete the topic. We will be discussion anatomy and naming body parts involved in a Brit (Bris). And second - the bring your own screen or book party will be on Sunday December 17 for an hour at the end of class - where we will sip hot chocolate with toppings. Please send in with your student their preferred electronic or book on 12/17. Finally, my work and one of my own children's winter concert have me traveling and not with your students for the remaining Wednesdays of December. We have wonderful subs and lessons planned - it will just not be me with your student.
Sunday from Morah Leah- After a Hannukah filled Shira - we moved to the classroom and worked on our Hebrew reading. I am so proud of this class and how well they are progressing in their Hebrew language. Rabbi joined us and shared some of her time as we look ahead to Hannukah this week - she told us about the two miracles of Hannukah. Ask your student about each. After a break we worked heard and read some Psalms - with particular focus on poetry. Your student did a great job with this lesson and we worked on our own poems as well. Shavua Tov!
Kitah Zayin (Seventh Grade) Wednesday from Rabbi Finestone- On Wednesday night, we held a class discussion and decided to send our collected Sedaka money to a hospital in Israel that specializes in treating children for both physical and psychological wounds. The students were very committed to this cause. For Hebrew, we are working on the prayers of the Torah service, and worked on the Ein Kamocha prayer before the Torah is taken from the ark. During the second half of class, we looked at two ethical, dilemmas, one involving using a hurtful nickname.
Sunday from Morah Michelle- We spent our shortened class time (we had cooking, story time and time with the Rabbi) playing a Hanukkah word scramble and Hanukkah Scattergories. We then practiced our dvar for the Saturday morning service on the 16th. I hope to see everyone there.
From Our Specials
News from the Sifriyah (Library) Storytime: We explored the arts and culture of the second largest Jewish community in the world, here in America, and looked at Jewish contributions to American culture through food and music. In Kitahs Bet, Gimmel and Hey, to put the story in context, we looked at the Jewish family tree, describing it as having its roots in the land of Israel, the trunk represented the 4000 years of Jewish peoplehood, and how during that time some Jews left the land of Israel and that some Jews stayed, either in Israel or in the Middle East. Then we looked at the 3 main branches of the Jewish people--the Mizrachim (based on the word mizrach/east for the Jews of Israel and the Middle East), the Sephardim (based on the word Sepharad/Spain) and the Ashkenazim (based on the word Ashkenaz/Germany). I explained that the first Jews in what became America were primarily Sephardic Jews, and that they introduced hot chocolate drinks to the colonists. Our story was "The Boston Chocolate Party" by Tami Lehman-Wilzig, which takes place during Hanukkah in 1773. The story is based on true events, as the Boston Tea Party actually occurred on the last night of Hanukkah.
In 7th grade Storytime we focused on music, through the songs of Irving Berlin. Our story was "Write On Irving Berlin" and Morah Michelle played us excerpts of the songs mentioned in the book, notably "God Bless America" and "White Christmas". But a class favorite was "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning". Here is a link to Irving Berlin singing it in the movie "This is the Army" from 1943: Irving Berlin - "Oh How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning" This is the Army 1943 HD - YouTube Rabbi Finestone joined us and we had a great discussion about some of the other Christmas songs written by Jews, such as "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer", "Let it Snow", "Silver Bells" and "Walking in a Winter Wonderland". Rabbi tied our discussion to Hanukkah and how while early immigrants wanted to fit in, today we celebrate and take pride in our uniqueness and differences.
News from the Kitchen Many thanks to Morah Shoshanna for making Sephardic hot chocolate with the students. She also introduced them to egg cremes (chocolate, milk and seltzer, no eggs!), a cold soda fountain drink invented by the Ashkenazim in New York City during the immigrant period of the 18802-1920s. The origin of the name is unclear, but could have been for the creamy froth on top of the drink that looks kind of like a foamy egg white topping.
