HSRS Announcements (Hodaahot הוֹדָוֹת) New Information Calling All Graduating High School Seniors! We continue to post information about Scholarships on the Har Shalom Website. We have another one that was recently posted, that is due on April 15. Visit the Har Shalom Website for more information.
Previous Information Sent!
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 will not be a formal dinner
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) April 14 will be our final day of Beresheet. Don't forget to wear your PJs.
Kitah Gan (Kindergarten) From Morah Melanie, subbing for Morah JoJo- Kinder was all about Shabbat. We read Shabbat stories, shared special traditions our own families do on Shabbat and how we like to enjoy Shabbat, and everyone made their own candleholders. We also practiced singing the blessing after lighting candles. Kinders practiced their Hebrew letters and had a turn in the kitchen to make charoset.
Kitah Alef (First Grade) Another busy day in Kita Aleph! We started our day with centers. The first one was our letter of the day, samech. I hope the students are enjoying bringing home their papers to show you. Another Center was making Afikomen Bags. Although they might not have come up beautiful, it was a fun activity and great for their fine motor skills. Finally, we colored some sedar plate pieces and will use them next week. After snack, we practiced the four questions and saying some new Passover songs. It was also wonderful to have Judy come in and read Rita‘s story about cleaning our homes for Passover. A few of the students checked out more books to read and will get points on their bingo boards when they return them. If you have other books from the school library, please bring them back as soon as possible. Our marble jar is almost full and we are planning on having a party soon. Please let me know if you have any wonderful and unique ideas to celebrate. After listening to many ideas, it seems like we may be doing a game day with puppet shows and a gluten-free snack.
Kitah Bet (Second Grade) Hello kita bet! Sunday was a great day at religious school! After shira, we did a quick spring clean of our supplies before spending most of the day working on Hebrew. We did a lesson, reviewed/learned some new letters/sounds/vowels, practiced reading and played several Hebrew games. The madrichim were amazing as they each took a “game” to work in small groups with the students on their Hebrew. Next week we will do more Hebrew learning/review as well as begin the story of Pesach. Have a great week. I look forward to seeing you next week!
Kitah Gimmel (Third Grade) Wednesday from Morah Robin- Kitah Gimmel continued their discussion on G’milut Chasadim. Specifically, we talked about K’lal Yisrael – the community of Israel, and how Jews around the world care for each other no matter how far apart they live. We discussed the meaning of “Israel is one, though dispersed among the seventy nations.” We looked up several Jewish resources/committees online like the JDC, the WUPJ, and The Jewish Federations of North America to see how they all are continually helping Jewish communities around the world. After a short break outside, we read fact sheets about Jews of Ethiopia and Jews of Argentina, then answered questions about these communities in our Chai workbooks. The challenges and problems the Jewish populations face in these countries was a real eye opener to many students in the classroom, yet bittersweet since Jewish organizations are aware and helping.
Sunday from Morah Robin- Boker Tov, On Sunday morning after Shira, Kitah Gimmel spent quality time working in their Hebrew workbooks continuing with Lesson 11 (each lesson is getting longer and harder). After snack and break, we continued working on our Mitzah project – today making cards for our senior community members. The students did an absolute beautiful job on the cards. So proud! After the cards, we practiced hebew songs that we may be singing to the seniors as well.
Kitah Dalet (Fourth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Sophie and Morah Debbie, subbing for Morah Merav- Wednesday we decided to switch it up and did a day full of cooking! Starting back into the Israeli culture unit, we learned about some of the most popular dishes. We made hummus and tzatziki sauce from scratch! All of the students had so much fun!
Sunday from Morah Merav- In Hebrew class today we focused on numbers in Hebrew and counting. We played a game and identified large numbers.
Sunday from Morah Sophie- Sunday was a busy day full of cooking and storytime. Judy taught us about Jewish people in Morocco and we had a traditional “seder”. We then made charoset from 4 different countries during cooking. With the time we had left, we learned about Kibbutzim in Israel!
Kitah Hay (Fifth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Lauren- Kita Hay on Wednesday read in Hebrew, practicing vocabulary, vowels, and reading fluency. They are doing beautifully with the V’ahafta prayer. Kita Hay has been working on their mitzvah project of gifting people in hospice a painted pot of spring flowers and a card with nice thoughts. Below are photos of their colorful gifts! 🌷
Sunday from Morah Lauren- On Sunday Kita Hay sang prayers, practiced Hebrew, had snack indoors, worked on their mitzvah projects, and listened to prophet stories with discussion of Jewish values.We will deliver our hospice gifts this week or next and have a treat after. More info coming soon.
Kitah Vav (Sixth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Leah- Wednesday after T’filah (Prayer) we continued our Hebrew language lessons and then we did class research on what organization we wanted to donate our Tzedakah money too. After viewing videos and voting, the class decided to donate half the tzedakah to Team Seas and the other half to UNICEF. We will also be doing a trash pickup outing - keep reading emails for information on this selfless deed we will be doing as a class.
Sunday from Morah Leah- wow what a busy day. After shira and Hebrew, we had Storytime. Judy lead us theough Moroccan Passover traditions. Then after a break we went to cooking where we made four different types of Charoset. Ask your student which was their favorite. Then back to the classroom where we learned from this week's parsha in Leviticus about keeping kosher. After we learned the traditions of keeping kosher - the class worked in teams to make their own kosher menus. Shavua Tov - a good week to you all. Morah Leah
Kitah Zayin (Seventh Grade) Wednesday from Rabbi Finestone- During the first part of class, we worked on the closing prayers of the Torah service and practiced the pronunciation of the Hebrew, as well as the melodies for these prayers. During the second half of class, we looked at two new ethical dilemmas. The first asked if one is ever permitted to sacrifice one's life in order to preserve a commandment. The second dilemma involved giving charity to people who you might suspect are not really deserving, but are scammers. Do you give if you are not sure? Our tradition answers that, even if you have doubts, it is better to give to 10 people, nine of whom are fake, in order to catch the one person who truly needs it. Great discussion on both topics.
Sunday from Morah Michelle- We had a busy day! After shirah, we learned about the Jewish history of Barbie. Many students already knew that Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie, was Jewish but did you know she was born in Denver? We talked about the Jewish actors that were in the Barbie movie and then watched the short award-winning documentary Barbie, Jewish? The Full Story: The Future Starts Here. This documentary gives a sweeping view of Jewish culture/history as it relates to Barbie. It's only 16 minutes and it's worth a watch. We then successfully (?) made cotton candy for the Hospitality Dinner signature drink. Let's just say making cotton candy was quite the experience. We ended class with storytime and cooking. I'll be at Wednesday school helping with Hospitality Dinner set-up. If you haven't already, please register your family...you do not need to pay for your 7th grader. Please reach out to me with any questions. https://www.nocoharshalom.org/event/hersh
From Our Specials News from the Sifriyah (Library) In the foyer "check out" bookcase are books about Passover for children, teens and adults. Hagaddot are available in the "for sale" bookcase.
Storytime:In Kitas Dalet, Vav and Zayin we experienced a Moroccan (Sephardic) seder and tried various customs unique to this community. The "leader" wore white (for purity, wholeness and to remind us of the Kohanim of the Temple) held the seder plate over the head of the "attendees" and recited "Bib'hilu yatzanu mi-Mitzraim (in haste we left Egypt) to symbolically give us strength for our journey. We held candles and formed a procession to welcome Elijah into our home. And thanks to Morah Ellen and Morah Shoshanna we got to try Moroccan charoset made with dates. YUM!! We also learned about Maimuna, the Moroccan day after Passover "yay we can eat chametz!" holiday which is now a national holiday in Israel. A small information sheet was sent home with your student, so take a look!
Kita Alef: Our story was entitled "Izzy the Whiz and Passover McClean". It is about the "bedikat chametz"-- the search for chametz--that is traditionally done the night before Passover, in which we use a feather to sweep any leftover chametz onto a wooden spoon. The chametz is then ceremonially burned. In our story, Izzy builds a machine to help clean for Passover, but oh, no, things go terribly wrong!! Don't worry, everything turns out all right in the end.
News from Shira Shira Josh spent the morning teaching and singing Passover songs with us. What fun! One of the favs was certainly "Flat like Matzvah".
News from Tefillah Tefillah Josh started teaching us Shalom Aleichem. Take a listen!Josh has also been working on Sundays and Wednesdays to help our new HSRS students learn Hebrew. Todah Rabah Tefillah Josh!
News from the Kitchen MMMMM. Half of our school made four different types of charoset with Morah Ellen and Morah Shoshanna. The four kinds were Sephardic, Moroccan, Brazillian, and Traditional. Ask your student which were their favorites? The other half of the school will be cooking next Sunday.
