HSRS Announcements (Hodaahot הודעות) New Information Momentum has announced that their men's trips to Israel will conclude with the final journey May 5th-11th, 2025. This trip is open to men with children under the age of 18 living at home. If you are interested in receiving more information or would like to participate, please reach by Friday, January 24th to Kyla Pfeif at kyla.pfeif@gmail.com or Scott Bloom at scott.b.bloom@gmail.com. Don't miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to embark on an unforgettable journey!
Previous Sent Information
Summer Camp Are you looking for an overnight camp or specialty experience for your children? With more than 150 traditional and specialty overnight camps to choose from, you can make this summer a perfect adventure for your first-time camper! And... Did you know that first-time campers may be eligible for a One Happy Camper Grant? Campers attending 12-19 days receive $700 and those attending 19+ days receive $1,000. If you have any questions or need additional information, please reach out to Heather Flowers, OHC Professional at JEWISHcolorado, at hflowers@JEWISHcolorado.org for further details. Adventure Awaits! Har Shalom will be hosting a Jewish Summer Camp fair on February 9 after HSRS. Attending Services It was absolutely wonderful seeing so many students at High Holiday services. Don't forget that we have "Service Attendance Recommendations". One of the best ways to feel confident and prepared for leading Saturday morning services is by watching others lead. It is suggested that our Kinder/1st graders attend 1 service over the course of the year, 2nd grade attends 2 services, 3rd grade attends 3 services, and so on. These can be attended virtually, at other synagogues, at a classmate's bar/bat mitzvah, at one of our grade level Shabbats, etc. High Holiday services count towards this goal!
Har Shalom's Phones! Har Shalom has a new phone system. To call the religious school, please dial 970-223-5191, ext. 103.
Important Dates & Upcoming Events January 25- Kinder/1st/2nd grade Havdalah from 5:30-7:30pm January 26- NO SCHOOL FOR GRADES Kinder, First, and Second February 1- 4th/5th grade Saturday morning Shabbat Service at 10:15am February 2- NO SCHOOL FOR GRADES Fourth and Fifth February 2- Beresheet Day 4 from 10:30am-12pm February 7- PJs and Pancakes Shabbat Jr at 5:30pm February 15- 3rd/4th/5th grade Havdalah from 5:30-7:30pm February 16- NO SCHOOL FOR GRADES Third, Fourth and Fifth March 1- 2nd/3rd grade Saturday morning Shabbat Service at 10:15am March 2- NO SCHOOL FOR GRADES Seconds and Third March 2- Beresheet Day 5 from 10:30-12pm March 7- Shabbat Jr at 5:30-7:30pm March 7- 5th and 6th Grade Friday evening Shabbat Service at 6:30pm March 9- Purim Celebrated at HSRS. COSTUMES ENCOURAGED!!!!
BBYO & Teen Things Teen of the Week! Each week, we will be recognizing one of our amazing teen volunteers who went above and beyond to help. Ceci is our Madricha of the week! She is very hands on with the 1st graders and they love doing stations with her! We are so so lucky for her, and her support to the program.
Synagogue & Community News
From Our Teachers Beresheet (Preschool) from Morah Kyla and Morah Joanie Morah Kyla and Morah Joanie will see you on February 2. Don't forget to water those plants from last week!!
Kitah Gan (Kindergarten) from Morah JoJo This week, we started class by practicing our Hebrew letters from Aleph through Nun, working on writing and sounding them out repeatedly to make sure we come back next year with the letters memorized and ready to start reading words. The kids focused on reinforcing their skills through repetition, and after our Hebrew lesson, we moved on to the main lesson of the day. The focus of the day was learning about Tzedakah, the Hebrew word for charity and righteousness. The class discussed how they’ve been donating Tzedakah all year, and we talked about how we get to decide together at the end of the year which organization to donate the money they’ve worked so hard to raise. We also had story time with Judy, who read the book One Good Deed by Terri Fields, which tied in perfectly with our lesson on kindness and helping others. The kids created a Tzedakah Tree and decorated their own Tzedakah Boxes to remind them of the importance of giving. Everyone left excited to continue practicing Tzedakah and spreading kindness in their everyday lives. Remember that next week we will celebrate Havdalah on Saturday night and not attend religious school on Sunday.
Kitah Alef (First Grade) from Morah Laura It was another busy and productive day in Kira Aleph. We had a great discussion about Havdalah and learned that it begins after the viewing of 3 stars in the sky on Saturday night. We used our five senses to learn about the traditions. We smell the spices, taste the wine, see the flame, feel the warmth and hear the sounds of the blessings and the flame being extinguished in the wine. For centers, we made Havdalah play-dough and learned about the letter samech. We also enjoyed a special treat of hot chocolate on this freezing day. The students practiced their “khen” for yes and “toda roba” for thank you. Remember that next week we will celebrate Havdalah on Saturday night and not attend religious school on Sunday.
Kitah Bet (Second Grade) from Morah Anne Hello Kita Bet! I hope you are staying warm on this bitterly cold weekend! We had a great (semi-relaxing) class this week. After shira, we jumped right into to a quick Hebrew letter game. Kids were up and moving to match letters with names as they moved around the room. After a quick indoor snack and break, we played a Shabbat Kahoot reviewing the terms and routine of the holiday. We had some time to take an indoor brain-break before we settled in to watch a movie and enjoy some hot chocolate. A great way to spend a bitter cold morning! Please remember this coming week, we celebrate the Havdalah as a class on Saturday evening. There is no class on Sunday morning. I look forward to seeing your kiddos there! Have a great week.
Kitah Gimmel (Third Grade) from Morah Robin Wednesday- We started with a discussion about God, recognizing that students may still have questions about God. We read a few chapters in “I Have Some Questions About God”. The chapters/questions the students wanted to read about were “If There Is One God, Why are There So Many Religions?”, “Does God Know What I Am Thinking or What I Will Do?”, “Does God Care Which Team Wins The World Series or The Super Bowl?”, and “Why Is There So Much Bad in a World Created by a Good God?”. The answers/stories in each chapter are told by Rabbis. Please discuss with your kiddos what the stories shared. After break outside, we moved on to the final Avodah lesson in our Chai Curriculum and summarized what we learned about Avodah - the work we do to find sacred connections to God, community, and self. Finally, the students did an activity in their Chai workbooks that refreshed everything they’ve learned about Avodah thus far this year. Sunday- This morning after Shira with Josh, Sifranit Judy came to our classroom to read us “The Legend of Freedom Hill”, a fictional story set during the California Gold Rush, in which a girl teams up with her best friend in search of gold to buy her mother’s freedom from a slave catcher. We then played a few games where the students had to work as a team to solve the game. Great games! Next, the class started on the G’milut Chasadim portion of the 3rd grade Curriculum. We discussed how each of us has a responsibility to perform acts of G’milut Chasadim – to make the world a better, holier place. We read “It Only Takes a Minute” about how short acts of kindness are acts of G’milut Chasadim. We then turned to our Chai workbooks and gave examples of different acts of G’milut Chasadim. After a short snack break inside, the class split into two groups, each reading a short scenario and develop solutions to the problem in the scenario. Each group then role played their solutions to the rest of the class. Finally, we turned to our Hebrew workbooks and continued with Lesson 7. We are starting to craft full sentences in this lesson. Very exciting!!
Kitah Dalet (Fourth Grade) from Morah Merav Wednesday- We are preparing for our student led Shabbat Service coming up on Feb 1. We spent time talking about and practicing the ‘Mi Chamocha’, which we will be leading at the Shabbat service. We spent time at the aleph bet board and read Hebrew flash cards. We also had time for a craft and made Israeli flags.
Sunday- Sunday we had a full and fun morning. After Shira we shared time catching up with the Kitah. We spent time with Rabbi and Kitah Hay. Everyone had a chance to pick some parts they’d like to lead at our joint student led Shabbat Service on February 1. We had another great Storytime with Judy. Students were engaged and always appreciate their time with Judy. Todah Rabah Judy. It was so cold outside, we enjoyed our snack and recess indoors in our kitah. Everybody loved having free time in class. Student chose to make art, play board games, and build with the Structures blocks. Don’t forget to let us know if your student will be participating in the Service on Saturday February 1.
Kitah Hay (Fifth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Lauren- Wednesday Kita Hay Hebrew reviewed our vocabulary, vowels, and prayers. Students read prayers aloud in Hebrew while their partners identify the prayer in Hebrew. Students are ready to move into our next book after Kita Hay Shabbat. I look forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday! Wednesday from Morah Sophie- In preparation for our Shabbat service approaching quickly, we learned about a couple more prophets. We read quotes from Isaiah and Amos, then pretended to be them and gave a speech to the Israelites. We will use these prophets for our Shabbat service.
Sunday from Morah Karri, subbing for Morah Lauren- During Shira, we sang songs related to Trees and the Earth to begin preparing for Tu B'Shvat. Nicki visited our class to discuss and review behavioral expections with the class. We spent a lot of time working in small groups on our Devar. Each group began reading about a profit, highlighting important pieces of information, then began making a list of bullet points to include in the Devar. Deb came in for storytime and read a story about a Synagogue and the moving response of the congregation as they learned of President Lincoln's assassination. Then we read and studying the Mourner's Kaddish. We met with Rabbi Finestone to choose parts for the service that will be led by 4th and 5th graders on February 1st. Most everyone was eager to volunteer for the prayers!
Sunday from Morah Sophie- We started working on our Devar part of the service. The students were each assigned a prophet in their groups and started to do research about them. Judy had story time with us, and rabbi helped us choose our parts for our Shabbat service.
Kitah Vav (Sixth Grade) from Morah Aviva Wednesday- On Wednesday, we built "bagels" (a game) by translating english sentences into hebrew. We continued reading the gvurot prayer, then learned about rainforests for Gimilot Chasadim.
Sunday- We played Headbanz using places instead of objects to review our "where do I live?" vocabulary. We then continued our lesson on rainforests from Wednesday by making 2 posters and a quiz (which I was graded a B- by the kids) describing jewish values with conserving rainforests. After recess, we started the chapter of conservation. The kids walked around the synagogue taking pictures of things they found wasteful and things they found environmental. After, the groups presented their findings on posters describing what the synagogue could improve on and how it connects to the torah.
Kitah Zayin (Seventh Grade) Wednesday from Rabbi Finestone- For our Hebrew reading practice, we began working on the Friday evening prayer of "Shalom Aleichem," and discussed the imagery of inviting angels into our homes for Shabbat. For our ethics section, the class looked at the story of Moses and the burning bush as an example of accepting challenges in life and rising to the challenge. Great discussions this evening on that topic.
Sunday from Rabbi Finestone- In light of recent events, the students and I practiced the Hebrew for a special prayer for the release of the hostages. We then talked about the central idea of the prayer, which was to give God the power to act in this world.
Sunday from Morah Michelle- Sunday was a great day! The Rabbi spoke with the students about the three hostages that were released and we studied the Hebrew prayer for those who are held captive. I guess some promises might have been made to the kids who were at Sadie's bat-mitzvah that if they came to religious school, we would take them to Starbucks. We had ten 7th graders in attendance on Sunday(!), so Nicki and I piled into our two minivans and made the short drive over to Starbucks. It's quite the scene when all of us enter the coffeeshop, especially since almost all of the kids were rocking their pajama bottom swag from the bat-mitzvah, but I am always proud at how polite and respectful our kiddos are to the workers and other customers. Upon our return, we got a snack and ate it in the classroom due to the severe cold. I was planning on spending the rest of class talking about the Holocaust, but the kids had a lot of questions about the hostage deal. I did my best to explain the situation in Gaza and why some hostages were being released and some were having to wait. We ended class by learning about all of the rights and privileges that the Jewish population in Germany lost between the period of 1933-1938. We watched a short clip of a Holocaust survivor speak about her experience which you can find here: https://youtu.be/F4f82KmHLdc?si=p_gwuc_2u7XL95c4 See everyone next week.
From our Specials (chuggim חגים)
News from the Sifriyah (Library) Reading Challenge: WOW!! So many prizes were handed out today! Keep up the excellent reading!
Storytime: We're working on the Civil War Era. In 3rd grade we read "Legend of Freedom Hill" about a Black girl (Rosabel) and a Jewish girl (Sophie) who work together to buy the freedom of Rosabel's mother and 4 other enslaved people. Our activities were teamwork games where the students needed to work together to solve challenges. We discovered that teamwork can be fun!
In 4th and 5th grade we read "Rebecca's Prayer for President Lincoln", based on a true story in which Jewish congregations spontaneously arose to recite the Kaddish prayer after hearing of President Lincoln's assassination. Our activity was a Hebrew lesson based on the Kaddish. Even though it's a long a difficult prayer in Aramaic, we were able to decode parts of it and find words we knew. We also discussed why mourners would say a prayer that glorified God and why the Kaddish is said in community, when there is a minyan.
During January, in honor of Martin Luther King Day, the checkout bookshelf in the foyer has books related to the Black/Jewish partnership and books about blended Black/Jewish families.
News from Teffillah (Prayer Session) with Deb In Tefillah on Wednesday, we learned Baruch She’amar and reviewed Mi Shebeirach. Beginning this Wednesday we will run the Shabbat morning Service Tefillah in order, filling in any Tefillot we’ve missed.
News from Small Group with Deb In Small Group Hebrew we reviewed the vowel sounds and worked on a few additional consonants, pointing out prayer words (and general Hebrew vocabulary) that is popping up in the text as the students know more and more letters. We are well beyond the half-way point of the text, with all students making excellent progress.
