HSRS Announcements (Hodaahot הוֹדָוֹת) New Information Just a reminder- We have many upcoming bar/bat mitzvahs as well as grade level services. Please remember that photography and videography are not allowed on Shabbat.
Previous Information Sent! DRESSING FOR OUTSIDE RECESS! On Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings, our students crave breaktime. Most sessions, we do go outside. Please make sure your child is dressed for the weather; bringing coats, hats, gloves, etc.
VOLUNTEER AND SUBSTITUTE TEACHER NEEDS We have some current needs for volunteers as well as to expand our substitute teacher list. Take a look at the SIGN UP GENIUS and see if there are any ways for you to help!
SERVICE ATTENDANCE The next few months is the perfect time for your student to meet their service attendance requirement. As a reminder, Kindergarten and 1st grade students are encouraged to attend 1 service; 2nd grade attends 2 services; 3rd grade attends 3 services and so on. Attending grade level services, zoom services, bar/bat mitzvahs out of town all can count toward this goal. 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!
Important Dates & Upcoming Events
February 28- BBYO Mtg from 6:30-7:30pm March 1- Shabbat Jr at 5:30pm, oneg to follow March 6- Teen Baking Event for Purim from 5:30-7:30pm March 10-17- NO HSRS for SPRING BREAK March 22- Shabbat Jr at 5:30pm, oneg to follow March 24- Purim celebrated during HSRS, costumes encouraged March 30- 6th Havdalah from 5:30-7:30pm (NOTE THE GRADE CHANGE) March 31- NO SCHOOL FOR 6TH GRADE (NOTE THE GRADE CHANGE) March 31- Beresheet Day 6 at 10:30am
BBYO & Teens Teen of the Week! Hailey is one of our Kindergarten madrichim, she is great with the kiddos and is always there to support with small group work, games, or even to come to their services and havdalah. She is a great addition to the Kindergarten team and we’re so grateful for everything she does!
Synagogue & Community News
From Our Teachers
Beresheet (Preschool) Day 5 of creation was so much fun! We made bird feeders, bird houses, played in our orb bead ocean, went fishing, flew glider birds, and more. The highlight of the day was eating like a bird....we used chopsticks during snacktime.
Kitah Gan (Kindergarten) Sunday from Morah JoJo- Hey Everyone! As always we started off with Hebrew, specifically Aleph-Bet Yoga. This time around the kids had to name the letters and sounds instead of having them called out. They did amazing and remembered all of the letters we have learned so far, and a few they learned from home. After that we hit our Hebrew books, writing and sounding out new letters, finishing with writing them all on the whiteboard. We had a quick snack break and then went back to our room for an art contest. We had our outside consultant, Ben from second grade, judge the contest. With our creative juices flowing we started our Chai lesson. This week we learned about being made in the image of God, B’Tzelem Elohim, and how important it is to celebrate the qualities that make each of us unique. The kids created self portraits, and realized how much they have in common and what makes them uniquely different. We finished the day reading "The Only One Club" and celebrated being the Only One of something with our Only One Club badges. They all did fantastic, see you next week.
Kitah Alef (First Grade) Sunday from Morah Laura- This was a great week in Kita Aleph. The letter of the week was lamed, which I always refer to as my favorite letter. The students also practiced writing and identifying the other letters of the aleph bet. We continued our discussion about gemilut hasadim and did a crossword puzzle to review the values. The students brainstormed basic needs and then voted to decide on an area for our mitzvah project. It was decided that they will make and/or provide soft objects for children in need. We will be making small stuffed animals and ribbon blankets. We will use our Tzedakah money to purchase materials. Please let me know if you have suggestions for places to donate these objects. We will get started in the next few weeks. Many students checked out library books a few weeks ago and need to return them. They have started new BINGO boards to earn credit for each Jewish book read. We also made a delicious dip for our fresh, gluten free pita bread. The students all seemed to enjoy the bright green Zhoug Sauce.
Kitah Bet (Second Grade) We didn't have class on Sunday because the students led services the day before. We are so proud of our second graders. They demonstrated wonderful attention skills and knew so many of the prayers already.
Kitah Gimmel (Third Grade)- Wednesday from Morah Robin- After Tefillah, Kitah Gimmel spent the evening primarily practicing their D’Var for Saturday’s Shabbat service. Saturday will be a great opportunity for the parents and congregation to see how far Kitah Gimmel has come with their Hebrew vocabulary. Stay tuned!
Kitah Dalet (Fourth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Merav- We finished reading the story about Family (משפחה) in Hebrew. We also reviewed the new words we learned.
Sunday from Morah Merav- We are preparing for the Shabbat service we will be leading in April 20. Please mark your calendars. You will not want to miss this Shabbat service! We are working on writing our own Prayer for Israel. It was a beautiful class and everyone had something to share from their own heart and mind. What a great group of kids I get to be with! Thank you everyone! 💙
Wednesday and Sunday from Morah Sophie- Both Wednesday and Sunday, we worked on our final project of our personal tribes! They turned out perfect, and the students are so excited to share them with the congregation.
Kitah Hay (Fifth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Debbie, subbing for Morah Lauren- Hi everyone, I had the pleasure of subbing for the 5th grade class Wednesday night. We continued our study of the Shema and V'ahavta. First, we reviewed sight reading vocabulary from our last 2 lessons. Next, we continued our exercise of cutting out individual words of the prayers and gluing them in columns based on the number of syllables in each word. Finally, after enjoying break outside in the pleasant weather, we reviewed and sang the prayers line by line. Ask your student to sing the Shema for you. Thanks for sharing your students with me!
Sunday from Morah Lauren- Kita Hay had a full day of Hebrew, Shirah, recess, bingo, and cooking Yemeni Jewish treats. We are learning the V’ahafta and making it our own week by week. Hope to see everyone Wednesday.
Kitah Vav (Sixth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Leah- After Tefilah in the sanctuary, we continued with Hebrew lessons and concluded the night with the Gemilut Chasadim value of Maachil R’eviim - feeding the hungry. Sunday from Morah Leah- Shira was joy filled in the sanctuary - Kitah Vav did a great job volunteering during the song session. After the Hebrew lesson, we continued looking at Gemilut Chasadim value of Empathy. Your student did a great job reviewing the difference between sympathy and empathy. It was a gorgeous day and after our break and finishing up the lesson we ended in the kitchen making schugg and homemade pita. Shavua Tov - and a good week.
Kitah Zayin (Seventh Grade) Wednesday- The seventh grade had the opportunity to leave campus and have a late night at CSU. The participated in Holocaust Awareness Week by meeting and learning from Mrs Esther Basch (The Honey Girl). Mrs Basch is 96 years old and told her story of being a survivor of the Holocaust.
Sunday from Morah Michelle- On Sunday, the students did a lot of cooking! They made one gluten free cheesecake and two regular. I cleaned dishes while they whisked and smashed and poured. It’s always tricky doing all the prep and baking and clean up before the school day ends but we were successful! I will send home any pans with your child on Wednesday. Thanks.
From Our Specials
News from the Sifriyah (Library) I had the pleasure of working with our new-to-Hebrew learners. We talked about Hebrew as the "native language of the Jewish people" and reviewed the letters Bet, Resh, Khaf and Finah Khaf, and the vowels kamatz ("ah" sound that looks like a little "t" under the letter), shva (the 2 vertical dots that can either say "uh" or end a syllable and shuruk (the vav with the dot in the center that says "ooh"). Everyone read very well with some challenging words!
Book Bingo Reading Challenge: All the 2nd and 3rd graders who attended services on Saturday will receive credit for 3 books read!! I'm getting caught up on who has earned prizes and they will be handed out next week.
News from Shira Shira Josh spent the Sunday teaching us songs for Purim!
News from Tefillah Another session of focusing on the Aleinu. We learned some movements to accompany the prayer.
News from the Kitchen Thank you to Melanie and Becky for joining us in the kitchen. Students made homemade gluten-free pita and zhoug (a Yemenite condiment with jalapeños, cilantro, garlic, and othe seasonings).
