HSRS Announcements (Hodaahot הוֹדָוֹת) As your students may have told you, we had a lockdown drill on Wednesday night. After speaking with the students, we all realized that we have had drills while in our classrooms, but never while in the sanctuary as a large group. This is a place where we cook, pray, play gaga, attend services, sing, eat, and hang out. We spoke about the importance of having a plan and how practicing makes scary situations a little less scary. The students were amazing (and if you ask them, they may tell you about a super special Har Shalom secret!)
A few families have asked how they can help their children learn Hebrew and the prayers at home. This is a great resource for online Alef-Bet games. Also, I suggest you have your student listen to the prayers using Soundcloud. These recordings are our tunes, sung slowly, by one of our congregants.
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 at noon. JCC Ranch Camp, Ramah of the Rockies, and Shwayder will be in attendance to answer your summer camp questions!
Important Dates & Upcoming Events
November 19, 22, 26- NO HSRS November 29- BBYO meeting from 6:30-7:30pm, feel free to come as early as 5:15 to hang/do homework/bring your own meat-free dinner. December 2- Kindergarten/1st grade Havdalah at 5:30pm December 3- NO SCHOOL FOR KINDERGARTEN/1ST GRADE ONLY December 3- Mitzvah Day with Or Hadash from 1-2:30pm December 8- Shabbat Jr at 5:30pm, followed by New Member Shabbat at 6:30pm 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 The long-awaited BBYO memberships for your teens are now available! We have been working hard to get you a discounted membership price and were able to get them down from $249 to $180. Click on this link to pay for your child's membership through Har Shalom. Once purchased, you will receive a code to register your teen through the BBYO website for free!
Synagogue & Community News
From Our Teachers
Kitah Gimel (Third Grade) Wednesday from Morah Robin- We reviewed the Chai Lesson plans we’ve completed thus far that encapsulate Parashat K’Doshim – living a life of Holiness. We then added “Love your Neighbor” to this concept. The students were asked to resolve a difficult dilemma - How do you create two teams of six players when there are 13 players and 2 players are not good at the game. Their solutions were very impressive! This led to a discussion about the quote “Love your fellow human being as you love yourself.” Leviticus 19:18. After a short break outside, we reviewed our Hebrew Letters learned thus far, then started on Lesson 7. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Break!
Kitah Dalet (Fourth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Merav- We continue to work on reading Hebrew. The group still working on aleph-bet is doing great and getting better all the time. Please keep taking time to practice your aleph bet cards OUT OF ORDER. We also worked on some vowels and started reading the word wall. The other group had lots of new words on the wall to tackle. It was a great class! The whole class came up with a list of charities we’d like to donate our Kitah’s tzedakah to. Everyone voted and it was a landslide for sending our money to support Israel and the IDF. I am a proud morah! Nice job Kitah Dalet! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break everyone!
Wednesday from Morah Sophie- Kita Dalet is obsessed with singing the Sh’ma recently, so we did an entire lesson on it. We read both the Sh’ma and V’ahavta english translations and discussed the meaning by each prayer. Then, the students wrote stories with the prayers as characters! We ended class by choosing the charity to donate the class tzedakah to.
Kitah Hay (Fifth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Lauren- Kita Hay had an eventful Hebrew class Wednesday night. We started with Tefillah Josh for prayers. We studied Hebrew and everyone read really well with difficult material. They are great friend helpers with reading. We then painted rocks and learned about Jewish rock traditions. It was awesome to have the whole class present!!! Wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving break.
Kitah Vav (Sixth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Debbie, subbing for Morah Leah- Hi all, it's Debbie Duffy and I got to substitute for Leah this week. After great participation in T'filah, we had a lock-down drill and everyone did really well. During class, we discussed the relationship between Sukkot and Thanksgiving. We also read the story, "It Could Always Be Worse," and talked about gratitude. During Hebrew language instruction, students read aloud the prayers that they're working on individually. They've made a lot of great progress. Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Kitah Zayin (Seventh Grade) Wednesday from Rabbi Finestone- We spent the first part of class reviewing the Hebrew names for all things on the Bimah: the Torah scrolls, the different items associated with the Torah scroll, the eternal light, etc. We also discussed their meaning and symbolism. This is part of our preparation for learning, and strengthening our knowledge of the prayers of the Torah service. During the second half, we continued our theme of accepting personal responsibility, and read a synopsis of the story of David and Bathsheba. The students were shocked by David’s actions, which led to a great discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of kings and presidents.
From Our Specials
Shira and Tefillah News Tefillah Josh did an awesome job teaching us about tefillin and how it relates to the Shema and V'ahavta. We passed it around and enjoyed discussing its purpose.
News from the Sifriyah (Library) Starting the week after Thanksgiving, Hanukkah books will be available in the classrooms and in the foyer checkout bookcase.
News from the Kitchen Morah Ellen will be back in December!
