HSRS Announcements (Hodaahot הוֹדָוֹת) New Information TZEDAKAH! Prior to spring break, each class will be designing mitzvah projects. All the money collected through weekly tzedakah contributions will be used for the project. This is a great way to be a mensch and a wonderful habit to form at a young age!
PJ LIBRARY AND PJ OUR WAY Did you know that kids can get free PJ Library books until age 12? Parents, you can sign your 0-9 year old kiddos up at https://pjlibrary.org/home and they'll get a book delivered in the mail each month. For kids age 9-12, they can sign up for PJ Our Way where they get to choose their own chapter book each month. Sign up for PJ Our Way here. Have any questions about PJ Library or want to get to know other Jewish families in your area? Reach out to our PJ Library Family Connector, Kyla Pfeif at kyla@nocoharshalom.org.
Previous Information Sent! JEWISH SLEEPAWAY CAMP 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.
We will be hosting a camp fair on January 28 after HSRS!! Come learn about the 3 Jewish Overnight camps in Colorado: JCC Ranch Camp, Ramah of the Rockies, and Shwayder
Important Dates & Upcoming Events
January 19- Shabbat Jr at 5:30pm, oneg to follow January 21- Beresheet Day 3 at 10:30am January 21- TuBeshvat celebrated for grades K-2 January 24- TuBeshvat celebrated for grades 3-7 January 24- BBYO Meeting at 6:30pm (come as early as 5:15!) January 27- 2nd/3rd grade Havdallah from 5:30-7:30pm January 28- NO SCHOOL FOR 2ND AND 3RD GRADES ONLY January 28- Camp Fair from 12-1pm January 28- Stand With Us Workshop for Teens from 12-1:30pm February 3- 6th grade Saturday Morning Shabbat Service February 4- NO SCHOOL FOR 6TH GRADE ONLY February 4- Beresheet Day 4 at 10:30am February 10- 4th/5th grade Havdallah from 5:30-7:30pm February 11- NO SCHOOL FOR 4TH AND 5TH GRADES ONLY
BBYO & Teens
Teen of the Week! Zelda is one of our 2nd grade madrichim. She is great at helping with small group hebrew lessons, an incredible line leader and leads some fun read alouds! We are so happy to have Zelda in our program.
Synagogue & Community News
From Our Teachers
Beresheet (Preschool) Day 3 of Beresheet will meet on January 21!
Kitah Gan (Kindergarten) Sunday from Morah JoJo- Hey everyone, our first day back was a success! We started the day off with Israeli dance; Judy taught us 2 dances and the kids were amazing. We then headed to the classroom for Hebrew. The kids all reviewed their previous letters and practiced their sounds. We wrote all the letters on the whiteboard and in our books for double practice. We then colored different Aleph Bet pictures to decorate our classroom. After a quick snack we were back for the final lesson. This week was all about Tu’Beshvat and our love for nature. We talked about what the holiday represents and why it should be special to all of us. The kids colored more pictures and read a story about an ambitious Apple tree. We ended the day with some one on one Rabbi time. Rabbi was able to answer all our Judaism questions and give more background about Tu’Beshvat. Everyone was fantastic, see you all next week!
Kitah Alef (First Grade) Sunday from Morah Brenna, subbing for Morah Katie- We enjoyed Israeli dance with Morah Judy. We learned the Hebrew letter Zayin and we read a lot of stories about Noah’s Ark. We finished the day with coloring Noah and the animals.
Kitah Bet (Second Grade) Sunday from Morah Anne- I hope everyone is staying warm during this very cold, arctic-like weekend! I was very pleased to see so many students smiling and excited to be at religious school today-it made my heart happy! After Shira, we dove into some solid Hebrew learning. Students were sounding out letters and words and doing a magnificent job decoding the language. We had a quick session of “stump the Rabbi” before heading off to learn some Israeli dancing. It was a busy morning but great way to get our wiggles out. We spent the rest of the morning discussing Shabbat. We talked about the importance of the holiday and how it might look different for different people/families. The morning seemed to fly by! Despite the bitter cold, I had a great morning just being with your children. 😊 Oh, and Merlin passed out birthday invitations to the class. Please note that if you were not in class today, (or you forgot your invitation,) you are still invited to his party. WHEN: Sunday, January 21, 2024 TIME: after religious school WHERE: Totally 80’s Pizza- 2567 S. Shields st Unit 4C Fort Collins, Co. 80526 I hope you all have a fantastic week!
Kitah Gimel (Third Grade) Wednesday from Morah Shoshanna, subbing for Morah Robin- On Wednesday I had the privilege to sub for Morah Robin. We enjoyed learning the Adon Olam in Tefillah with Josh. The class was very impressive with remembering all the things they have learned before break, so we didn’t have to review much. We spent the majority of the evening finishing up our lesson understanding the meaning of the silent vowel sounds, shva vowel : (silent, ends the syllable) in Mitzvah. The kids also got to review the words and meanings of Mitzvah and Havdalah, to which they all gave some great examples of what they mean. They seem to really love playing HangMan, so we had some fun reviewing the Hebrew words while playing.
Sunday from Morah Robin- Kitah Gimmel had perfect attendance for their well-deserved Class Party! The students have worked very hard thus far this year in their Hebrew studies and Chai Curriculum. For their class party, we watched a movie, Monsters Inc., and enjoyed movie snacks and donuts. We did take a few breaks from the movie – we had Israeli Dance with Judy, and a visit from Rabbi Finestone.
Kitah Dalet (Fourth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Merav- It was great to be together again. It was fun to hear everyone share something about their winter break with the Kitah. We reviewed our Aleph Bet and words on our wall.
Wednesday from Morah Sophie- Happy new year, I hope everyone had a great break! We were so excited to be back. We started by having the students choose the movie that we will be watching for our class party on Sunday. Then, we spent most of the rest of class discussing new year’s resolutions for ourselves as well as for the class. We made a poster with class resolutions to keep on the board for the remainder of the year!
Sunday from Morah Merav and Morah Sophie- Sunday in Kitah Dalet we had so much fun celebrating together. It sure was cold outside, but it was nice and warm in our Kitah. We watched most of the movie ‘Elemental’ together and enjoyed a Sundae treat. We will find time to watch the end of the movie next Sunday. Special thanks to Judy who taught us another fun Israeli Dance in the sanctuary. It was a blast! ‘Yesh Lanu Tayish’ (We have a goat!). Yesh! Yesh! Yesh Yesh Yesh Yesh!
Kitah Hay (Fifth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Lauren- Kita Hay did a great job on their Hebrew studies this week! They are all reading sentences in Hebrew, which is amazing! On the Hebrew horizon is learning 4 eating blessings and the V’ahafta. We played Mr. Bendy (who needs a kippah) for break. The class is wondering what we will do with the kelev and hatool Morah Lauren brought in for next week.
Sunday from Morah Lauren- Kita Hay was full of learning, song, and Mr. Bendy from Channukah. Kids principally learned the order of first events from creation through Jacob. Rabbi will come in next week to answer questions about the flood from archeology in Israel. Wednesday will be cool puppet plays to learn Hebrew sentences.
Kitah Vav (Sixth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Leah- Wednesday, we came back from break with a great Tefillah (prayer) session focusing on Adon Olam. Back in the classroom we initiated the semester with a review of our classroom rules (Brit Kehillah) and then moved into our study of being a gibor / giborah. Ask your student what that means. We will focus on being these as look at acts of loving kindness this semester. After our indoor break where we played two full rounds of apples to apples, we ended our first Wednesday night back with some Hebrew.
Sunday from Morah Leah- On Sunday we braved the cold temperatures and gathered to learn more about being a hero. Each student took their turn sharing and expanding on one another ideas of what it means to enact gimilut chasadim - ACTS of loving kindness. After an indoor snack and break we spend some time with Hebrew and then need our day in the sanctuary participating in Israeli dance. Shavua Tov - a good week to you all. Morah Leah
Please note - the 6th grade will be leading the community in Shabbat morning service on Saturday, February 3. Please mark your calendars and make plans to attend from 10AM to about noon, with oneg to follow. More details coming soon.
Kitah Zayin (Seventh Grade) Wednesday from Rabbi Finestone- For the first half of class, Kita Zayin mastered the first part of the Aleinu prayer, with students singing it in pairs, and then as the entire class. During the second half of class we looked at another ethical dilemma, one which asked whether the one criminal who was caught had to testify and identify his partners in crime. Jewish law on this is clear: one must testify if a neighbor has been harmed. The students were diverted fed on this, but they did see the logic in the Jewish legal position.
Sunday from Morah Michelle- Sunday was an introduction to the Holocaust and WWII. We created a KWL chart and I was impressed with how much students already knew about WWI and WWII. It is important to me that students are able to understand more fully about how an atrocity like the Holocaust is able to occur. Building on previous lessons about antisemitic tropes, we discussed how easy it was for Hitler and the Nazi party to use Jews as a scapegoat for all of Germany's problems following WWI. I then had students rank which rights were most important to them (right to vote, marry whomever you choose, owning a pet, etc.). We then went through all of the rights the Nazi Party took from the Jews starting in 1933. We ended class by watching a short movie, produced by the Shoa Foundation, that detailed the life of Dr. Ruth Westheimer and how she survived the Holocaust. You can watch the movie here: (https://youtu.be/fL9V06b14L0). We had an interesting discussion about the variety of experiences survivors of the Holocaust had and the traits we admired in Dr. Ruth. I am looking forward to more conversations in the weeks to come.
From Our Specials
Shira News No Shira Josh this week as he was still on winter break from CSU! But we did have Morah Leah take us through a musical journey of Jewish musicians. HOMEWORK! Find the name of a Jewish musician that we didn't talk about and tell your teacher for an additional shekel!
Tefillah News Tefillah Josh has done a wonderful job working through the Saturday morning Shabbat service with our students. This week, in addition to our usual routines, we added Adon Olam to our learning!
News from the Sifriyah (Library) Israeli Folk Dance: We had a great time and helped stay warm learning Israeli folk dances!!
Gan and Kita Alef learned "Simi Yadech b'yadee" (Put your hand in my hand) and partnered both with their own classmates and with someone from the other class. To finish off, we did a round of the Hokey Pokey "Hebrew style" and learned the Hebrew word for hand ("yad").
Kita Bet and Kita Gimel learned "Noladati L'Shalom" (I was born for peace) and we shared our wishes for the coming year.
Kita Dalet and Kita Hey learned "Yesh Lanu Tayish" (We have a goat), a silly dance in the form of a reel.
Kita Vav and Kita Zayin traveled to Ukraine ahead of Storytime visiting Ashkenazi (generally European/Eastern European) countries later this month. We learned a Ukrainian partner dance called "Karobushka" (the Peddler's Dance). We talked about peddlers being a common Jewish occupation in Eastern Europe. The dance is lively and energetic and each student got to partner with a teacher.
News from the Kitchen We will see Morah Ellen and Morah Shoshanna back in the kitchen in February!
