Dear Parents,
In spite of the snowfall, we were very productive on
Sunday. Increasing the amount of sentence reading along with adding new letters
into the weekly lesson. We began with
the letter Lamed and practiced writing the letter multiple times. Each student
read different sentences with two letter words and then increased it by three
letters. My goal is to get them to the point where they are able to read
sentences but that will take time until we learn the entire alphabet. There
have been incredible improvements and we are working very hard at accomplishing
the writing skills as well as the fluency of the reading.
The students listened while I read sentences to them
in Hebrew then they had to decide based on the picture which sentence
matched. They really concentrated and
participated in explaining in English what the sentence stated in Hebrew. I was so proud of them that they were able to
figure out each sentence. This exercise is a great way to assess the students and
see just how much they understand.
We began talking about Tu'B'Shevat and the students
colored a tree using their thumb and dipped it in paint to create their
beautiful picture. We will be making a project next Sunday for Tu'B'Shevat. We
talked about what this holiday means. We celebrate the New Year of the
Trees. It is celebrated on the 15th Day
of the Month of Shevat. In Israel, our ancestors observed Tu'B'Shevat the date
came at a time when trees seem to be born, or come to life. The winter rain
ends, the air turns warm and the sap rises in the trees, green buds appear, and
the world feels new. Although, this does not feel real to us because we still
have cold Winter months ahead, we celebrate the holiday anyways.
We completed our booklet on G'milut Chasadim and we
are beginning our Chai curriculum Avodah. We will learn about different
holiday's, blessings, Havdalah, Pesach (Passover) etc.
We talked about blessings and what they mean. A
blessing is a way of thanking god for the food we eat, fruits that grow on
trees, happy occasions, and good things that god created. We recited the
blessings for challah, grape juice, fruit and all things that come to being.
Blessings are an important concept in Judaism because it is a way of
acknowledging and thanking god for the many wonderful gifts we have in our
lives. Saying blessings help us remember God's role in bringing us food and
guiding us in respectful behavior. We will continue learning about blessings
and next week we will discuss how Jewish tradition teaches us to say one hundred
blessings a day.
The students tasted various foods from carob chips, to crackers, to
figs etc and they rated each food item they sampled. We also sang Happy
Birthday to the trees and enjoyed a piece of cake to celebrate.
Looking forward to seeing you on Sunday...have a
good rest of your week and enjoy your weekend.>
Shabbat Shalom!
Lisa Dresner Wais
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