HSRS Announcements (Hodaahot הוֹדָוֹת) New Information
Pizza on April 24- CANCELLED! 3rd-7th grade families! Please plan ahead. We will not be providing pizza on April 24 due to Passover. We will have some snacks such as veggies and fruit so the students have some food in their bellies before our sugar-filled Chocolate Seder, but it wil not be a formal dinner
Previous Information Sent! Photography Reminder 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.
Recordings of various prayers Needing to practice one of the prayers? Take a listen using this website. https://soundcloud.com/heeb-1
Important Dates & Upcoming Events April 12- Gil Hersh Hospitality Dinner, hosted by the 7th grade April 14- Beresheet Day 7 at 10:30am April 19- Shabbat Jr at 5:30pm, oneg to follow April 20- 4th/5th grade Saturday morning Shabbat service April 21- NO SCHOOL FOR 4TH AND 5TH GRADES April 24- NO PIZZA SERVED! April 24- Chocolate Seder during HSRS for grades 3-7 April 28- Matzah Mania during HSRS for grades K-2
BBYO & Teens Mitzvah Project! The teens are busy working on their mitzvah project. They are making no-sew blankets that will be donated to Project Linus, supporting children with various needs.
Synagogue & Community News
From Our Teachers Beresheet (Preschool) We spent Day 6 learning about land animals. The kids couldn't believe that people were included! We learned about Noah's Ark and even had animal crackers for snack! We will return for our day of rest on April 14. Don't forget to wear your comfy pajamas.
Kitah Gan (Kindergarten) Hey everyone! We started with a bit of Hebrew, practicing our letter recognition with a bit of Aleph-Bet Yoga. We learned new letters and repeated a few previous ones, finishing with writing all the letters we have learned on the whiteboard. After a quick snack break, we moved on to our Chai lesson. This week we tried to focus on our upcoming Passover and the Seder dinner traditions. We read a book about a Red Hen trying to prepare her Seder dinner and her unconditional kindness to her friends. The kids all created their own Seder plates, we talked about each of the ingredients and what they represent. While they decorated their plates, we read about Moses and the Hebrew's in Egypt. We touched on the subject of living conditions and why it was so important for the Hebrews to leave and have freedom. We ended the day going over their great escape and the miracle of the Sea of Reeds parting. They all did great, we will finish up our Passover lesson next week.
Kitah Alef (First Grade) We had so much fun making cups for Passover. The students had a choice of making one for Elijah or for Miriam. See if they can tell you which one they chose. Then we read a story called welcoming Elijah a Passover tale with a tail. A little boy was very surprised with. He opened the door during his Passover Seder. Who did he find? After snack and a chili recess we came back to the classroom to learn about and act out the story of Abraham and Sarah welcoming three strangers. Abraham was very surprised to find that the strangers had been walking in the desert for so long and wash their feet for them when they arrived. All of the students were able to give examples of other peoples homes where they truly feel welcome. This added to our mitzvot and this one is called Hachnasat Orchim. We talked a little bit about the four questions, listened to a recording, and then began practicing them using transliteration. We will work more on the Hebrew next week. Finally, we practiced our next letter, nun.
Kitah Bet (Second Grade) Morah Brenna, subbing for Morah Anne- We had a lot of fun. We learned about Shabbat with a read-aloud and a discussion of ways we like to rest. We played Shabbat bingo and won lots of shekels. After our break outside we practiced Hebrew and then we watched a special movie about Shabbat. We enjoyed popcorn and m&m’s with our stuffed animals!
Kitah Gimmel (Third Grade) Wednesday from Morah Robin- Kitah Gimmel started the 3rd section of their Chai Curriculum – G’milut Chasadim. As Jews, we have a responsibility to perform acts of G’milut Chasadim – to make the world a better, holier place. We worked in our Chai workbooks and shared how we each can contribute to making the world a better place. After a short break outside, we started Volume Two of our Hebrew workbooks!! We are still learning new Hebrew letters and vowels while expanding our vocabulary.
Sunday from Morah Robin- Boker Tov, Sunday morning after Shira, Kitah Gimmel continued working very hard with Volume Two of their Hebrew workbooks. The lessons are getting harder and harder but everyone was very focused and attentive. They earned a handful of cotton balls!!! After a short snack and break outside, we made DIY pillows for our senior community members as part of our mitzvah projects. Finally, our madrichim played hebrew telephone games with the students – lots of fun!
Kitah Dalet (Fourth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Merav- We went over and worked on our prayer for Israel for the student-led service on April 20. We are getting excited to see everyone at the Fourth/Fifth grade led Shabbat service. We also read from our word wall which has some new words that is challenging everybody.
Wednesday from Morah Sophie- Wednesday was another catch up day as we have some students that missed making their piece of the tribe dial. I think, hopefully, we are fully done with those now! The rest of the students that already finished continued working on their questions for our Jeopardy game that we will play soon.
Sunday from Morah Merav- We worked with Rabbi and everyone had the opportunity to pick parts they’re comfortable and excited to lead on April 20. Have you marked your calendars?! We watched a Hebrew music video (“Am Yisrael Chai”) with English subtitles. We talked about this as a group and made connections to our own Prayer for Israel. We played outside during break, until everyone got chilly and we finished our break in our kitah. Please remember to bring your jackets and hats so that we can comfortably spend our recess time outside.
Sunday from Morah Sophie- This Sunday, we dove into Israeli food as our next topic in the culture section of class. We watched a video about Israeli street food at the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv. We will be making some Israeli food on Wednesday, so I wanted to have a small introduction. Rabbi also came in to class to help us choose parts for the Shabbat service we will be leading on April 20!
Kitah Hay (Fifth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Lauren- Kita Hay on Wednesday evening began with Teffilah Josh. The group sounds beautiful! We practiced Hebrew reading skills and continued learning the V’ahafta. We began painting pots for the Kita Hay Mitzva Project of planting flowers in a painted pot for people in hospital or hospice.
Sunday from Morah Lauren- Sunday began with Shira Josh. Kita Hay worked on Hebrew vocabulary and reading. We learned about the prophet Samuel. We spent the last part of class working on our mitzva pots.
Kitah Vav (Sixth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Leah- After we prayed together in the Sanctuary with the all the classes, we moved to Hebrew language learning. Your students continue to read silently each time then read aloud to me. If you are curious about your student's progress in prayer reading - please let me know. From Hebrew we moved right into the lesson on Bris. Dr. Bernie Birnbaum presented the anatomical and logistic aspects of this covenant. Dr. Birnbau does a great job of keeping the information relevant and in context of modern medicine while realizing the importance of welcoming the youngest Jews in the covenant. If you want to learn more about what we talked about - please feel free to reach out. A huge thank you (TODAH RABAH!) to Dr. Brinbaum for giving us his time and knowledge.
Havdallah - How sweet it was to be with your students on Saturday night. We get the sanctuary to ourselves as we had a pasta dinner and made the three traditional components of the Havdallah service - Kiddish cup, braided candle and a spice box. We then had our service - singing the traditional prayer songs of the service and lighting candles. This is a muli-sensory holiday and your students were so well behaved, engaged and polite. After, we played four corners in the courtyard and finished the night with ice cream sundaes. Shavua Tov - A good week to you all and see you Wednesday night.
Kitah Zayin (Seventh Grade) Wednesday from Rabbi Finestone- Kita Zayin turned their attention to the publicity for the hospitality dinner. The students made posters for the building, and wrote a beautiful invitation to Adele Eastman. For the second half of class, the students chose which prayers they would be leading for the service that evening.
Sunday from Morah Michelle- Sunday was a busy day making cake pops! We also learned about Jews in Hollywood. Did you know that Universal, Warner Brothers, and Paramount studios were all started by Jews? We ended class by watching clips from a few Steven Spielberg movies: E.T., Jurassic Park, and JAWS. Please remember to register for the Hospitality Dinner. Your 7th grade student does not pay to attend but all other family members need to purchase tickets. Please do this as soon as possible so we know how many guests to expect.
From Our Specials News from the Sifriyah (Library) Reading Challenge: Several 4th graders received their prizes for bingo. Keep up the good work!! And most of the classroom book racks have been restocked, so there's lots of different books to choose from to check out. Currently in the foyer bookcase there are "mighty girl" books to check out. Starting next week, in the foyer bookcase there will be Passover books as well as books about personal journeys for children, teens and adults available for checkout. The for sale bookcase in the foyer will feature haggadot.
Hebrew: I had the pleasure of tutoring a 7th grade student in Hebrew and was delighted with his progress since the last time I worked with his group!! Way to go!!
News from Shira Shira Josh taught us a new song this week. Take a listen to Weave me the Sunshine. In the upcoming weeks, we will focus on songs for Passover. We also had many eager מתנדבים (volunteers) who helped with all of the actions.
News from Tefillah We had a wonderful evening of reviewing the Saturday morning Shabbat Service. Up next is the Friday evening Kabbalat Shabbat Service.
News from the Kitchen Morah Ellen and Morah Shoshanna are back (the next two Sundays) for our final cooking of the schoolyear. Charoset from different regions!
