Kitah Gan Katan Update

 

 

We spent a majority of our class studying about our synagogue.  We compared how Shaarey Zedek is the same and different as our schools ​ that we attend during the week. We also discussed how Rabbis might be the same/different then us. The kids imagined they might look like if they were Rabbis. Check out their beautiful creations below or in the Berman Center hallway.

 

 

 

Hebrew Update

Shalom 4th-6th Grade Families:

We are very impressed with our students Hebrew reading progress.  We just completed administering and correcting our mid-year Hebrew assessments.  Your children exhibited a nice improvement in their letter/vowel recognition and reading fluency.  We are very proud of their progress!

As a result of the assessments, we have made several adjustments in our reading group distribution and some are in a different reading group.  We will begin learning in our newly modified groups upon our return to school on February 23th.  If you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to email us at dgktz@sbcglobal.net.

In the meantime, we hope you have a fabulous mid-winter break and we look forward to continued great learning when we return.

B 'Shalom,

Morot Zachor and Katz

Hebrew Update

Dear 4th - 6th grade families, 

 We had a wonderful week of learning and reading together!

 

On Sunday we continued our assessments with all 3 grades. Not only do these assessments help us to place each child in the proper reading group for his/her level, but they also allow us to see the specific areas where they are struggling and what we need to focus on with them. It is so nice to see the amount of progress the students have made thus far! We finished the day playing a variety of Hebrew reading games.

When we return from break, we will begin in our newly organized reading groups. We read from our Hasefer books and played a challenging game of popcorn!

 We hope everyone has a nice break. We look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday, February 23rd!

 B'shalom, 

 Morah Dona Levinson 

 Morah Toby Schlussel 

 

Kitah Bet Update

Last Sunday we said a "Shechiyanu" together as a class. It was the first time we were all together!!
We had a great morning of studying Torah, working on our pictorial Torah of the book of Exodus. We made slave people out of matzah and your kids loved eating the matzah .

I shared with your kids the first of a series of books using yiddish . They loved "Noshy Boy" and we will continue with this series. Ask them about Noshy Boy's sister. Her name was "Keppy Girl" and she gave her brother some very good nutrition advice.

We are continuing our Hebrew reading curriculum and once again I ask you to practice with your  kids using their "parent-companion worksheets" in their take-home folder.

I also shared the book "Too Much is Plenty" with your kids. It continues our Shabbat themed stories.
Ask your kids what the Roman king wanted to do with Shabbat and if it worked out for his kingdom. Many of them seemed familiar with  the  word  "havdallah" from going to Bubbe & Zayde camp.This is what the story is about.

I hope everyone has a nice break and I will see you all back in class on Tuesday, February 23.

Shabbat shalom

Davida

7th grade class update

Shalom  to our 7th grade parents :

 We are still  continuing  our  discussion  about the Holocaust.  We discussed  the  difference  of each concentration  camps, which camps were  forced  labor  camps and which were  the death camps. 

 On Tuesday, we began watching the documentary, Paper Clips, about a school in White Hill, Tennessee. This school  started  a huge project learning  about the  Holocaust.  When  they started  learning  about it, the teacher  said, " that there  were 6,000,000 Jews that were killed  my Nazi Germany".  One student didn't  understand the number  6,000,000. There teacher  said," let's find an object  to start collecting  so we could have a better understanding of the number 6,000,000." They started  to look of small objects  to collect. They came across the word paper clips.  It was founded by the Norwegians during  WWII.  A symbol  that they used for peace, so that they wouldn't  get involved  with the war.

 We have  not finished  watching  the movie, God willing  when we return  from our  break, we will finish it. 

 If you have not yet  RSVP to Allison  for our tour to the Holocaust Museum on March  1, 2016 , please do so. 

 Have a fun and safe break  and Shabbat  Shalom!  😃 

 

MOROT RICE AND HOLLENBERG 

Morah Gawel Class Update

Hello!  We had an INCREDIBLE week this week.  I am so proud of the kids for finishing this unit off with such devotion. They really focused and saw it through.  First, we finished out Inside Out viewing.  There were some groans from the peanut gallery that we were not going to watch the entire movie, but you just can’t win em all….torture! Only 20 minutes of a movie.  Argh! I am so mean.

Anyway, the kids re-read the text of Sodom and Gomorrah. We focused on the section where God and Abraham “wrestle” (metaphorically) with the destruction of the city.  God shares with Abraham that he will destroy this city and Abraham begins negotiating with God to spare the city if he can find X number of good citizens.  Each time Abraham counters with a number, God basically says “sure.”  Because God knows that Abraham will NEVER find this number of good people.  When Abraham gets to 10, God ends the discussion and the text says “And the Lord departed when He finished speaking to Abraham and Abraham returned to his place.”  I LOVE this part of the text. We discussed how God is kind of humoring Abraham, similar to the way parents do.  I tell my kids “no problem, we absolutely will go to Disney World when you make $5,000.” And they furiously tried to do enough chores to make it to 5k. Never happened. Or “no problem, I will absolutely let you move to LA if you get cast in a movie.”  Your kids all laughed: apparently you all do this too!  The best part of the text though is the line above, where 1) God has the last word and then leaves the room, so to say and 2) Abraham “returns to his place.”  We all know who is in charge.

To hit home this text, we had some class THUMB WARS! And discussed the rules of wrestling. When kids wrestle at home with siblings or at school in gym class or as a spot, there are rules.  1) Opponents have to be equal in some way (weight/size/age) 2) no”REAL” bodily harm can happen 3) There is a moderator or ref who says “Stop!” when things get out of control. Apparently some kids at home have to be on a bed, or some can “only do it when mom and dad are gone.”  (ha!) Anyway, we discussed how when wrestling with God, how do we know what the rules were?  Abraham could push God in a way, but only so far.  .. And God was clearly a “stronger” opponent than Abraham, so he must have “gone easy on him.”

Tuesday, we took this info and put it into scripts from the movie Inside Out. The kids had to create a dialogue for the “control panel” in God and in Abraham’s head… They were AMAZING.. a few examples:

God

Disgust: I don’t want to do this, but this is what happens..

Anger: How dare he try to find fifty people?

Joy :He’ll find 10 people for sure! My boy! Abraham is awesome.

Disgust: Ok. Whatever. I’ll never find 10, so be it, let me be !

Anger: Wicked people everywhere! Always wicked!

 

Abraham:

Fear: I don’t want the world to end. Yikes!

Sadness: no. the world is going to end! No!!! Ahh!

Joy: I’ll see if I can go to 10 and see if he says 10 people is ok.  Abe can do it!

Joy: thanks God for saying yes!

Sadness: why did you do that God?  Now I am going to have to work hard!

The kids also figured out which dominant emotion controlled each control panel.  God’s was Fear and a few said Disgust and Anger.  For Abraham it was Fear and Joy.  The kids each had really interesting answers as to why they thought this way.  It was a great unit and a great discussion. Looking forward to working on Exodus when everyone gets back.

Have a FANTASTIC break.

Morah Leah

 

Kitah Hey Class Update

Dear Parents,

 Our class is making progress in their upcoming Passover Projects. We are hoping their Program & presentations will take place on April 17.  The Four groups are working on ;

                               Slavery to Freedom - Matzah

                               The number 4 @ the Seder & Elijah's cup

                               The Ten Plagues

                               The Seder Plate

Please try and spend a little time next discussing Passover with your children.  If you could review the Seder traditions, in your family, that would be helpful. We will be discussing individual family Seder traditions in March.

When we return our class will have a few sessions ( beginning in March) with an educator from the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan. The learners will be exposed to the original Jewish settlers in Michigan in the 1860's. It's a very interesting course culminating with a visit to many interesting spots in Detroit on Sunday, March 13. Please fill out the permission slip that was sent to you and return to Allison.

Have a great vacation.

Shabbat Shalom,

Cillia Kleiman

7th Grade Class Update

Dear Parents,

This week we continued our unit on the Holocaust. On Sunday we began with of an overview of what the Holocaust actually was by learning from individual survivors' first hand accounts of the atrocities they experienced at the hands of the Nazis. On Tuesday we began learning the history of WWII and the events that lead up to this all out World War.

We began our discussion with the Nuremberg laws and Kristallnacth and thought about what it would be like to be stripped of our rights and homeland. Then we examined a map of Europe to better understand why Germany invaded Poland and why so many death camps were located in Poland.

We hope you join us for our Tuesday, March 1 for our tour of the Holocaust Memorial Center. This special class will run from 5:45-8:15 pm. Please RSVP to Allison.

Best,
Morot Hollenberg and Rice

Kitah Bet update

We are continuing our Torah study on Sunday, learning the book of Exodus. We are creating a pictorial Torah on this book. We will hang our scroll in our room. Please stop by our room and have your children tell you about what they drew.  We will be connecting our Torah study with Pesach as we go along.

We divided into reading groups and with the help of my very capable "madrichim" were able to work in groups so each student had the necessary help to progress in their Hebrew reading skills.

We had "shira/tfillah" with Morah Erin on Sunday . I shared with your children the story "Baxter, The Pig Who wanted to be Kosher".  Ask your children why Baxter wanted to be kosher and what he tried to do to be kosher. 

On Tuesday we continued with our Hebrew reading and  played some Hebrew reading games.

I look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday .

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom,

Davida 

Morot Zachor/Katz Update

Shalom 4th-6th Grade Families:

We had another busy week at Religious School.  On Sunday, we played Hebrew games with the reading material.  We love watching the students assist and correct each other. Their ability to gently correct their peers is the ultimate form of assessment.

On Sunday, we had our mid-year Hebrew assessments.  We will be reviewing these assessments and make the appropriate adjustments to our reading groups to allow each of our students the best opportunity to improve his/her reading skills.  

 

Each child was asked to:

• Know the name and sound of the letters of the alphabet including sofit (final) letters.
• Know the different sounds of the Hebrew nekudot (vowels).
• Understand the correspondence between letters and nekudot (vowels).
• Explain the visual differences between letters that look alike but are different.
• Practice right to left dictionality of Hebrew.
• Decode one to three syllable sound and combination words.
• Use a list of vowel rules to aid in decoding difficult or unusual sounds combinations such as:

a)      Whenה  and  יare silent.

b)      How to determine when ןֹ  ן.  ן are consonants or vowels.

c)       Identifying the “double duty dot” on the שׁ  and .שׂ

As always, the Hebrew Resource page is available as a tool for you to assist your child on their Hebrew reading and tefillah chanting. Please feel free to be in touch with any questions.

 

We wish you and your family a restful Shabbat.

Morot Zachor and Katz

Hebrew Update from Schlussel/Levinson

Dear 4th - 6th grade families, 

On Sunday we started the day as we usually do, with a beautiful Tefillah session in the small chapel lead by Cantor Gutman. 

 We combined the 6th graders from both reading classes and played a very intense and challenging game of Hebrew reading "Popcorn". This game not only gives the students the opportunity to practice their reading skills, but it also helps them work on staying focused and on-task.

 Between classes, the entire school split up into their various Chugim (electives) groups. The kids continue to enjoy this special part of our day.☺

 The 4th and 5th graders read together from their books and also practiced and reviewed the days of the week in Hebrew that they learned last week. Ask them to tell you their names. Next we played a game of Hebrew reading  "tic-tac-toe", and ended the day with a quick round of "Shimshon Omer" (Simon Says).

 Tuesday began with the 6th graders in their Torah Lab with Cantor Gutman. Everyone did a nice job participating and practicing the parts of the bar and bat mitzvah service. 

 We spent the rest of the day giving the 4th, 5th and 6th graders a mid-year reading assessment. This will allow us to see the amount of progress each individual student has made thus far. Assessments will continue next Sunday for the kids that were absent. We ended the day exploring the map of Israel.

Wishing you a peaceful weekend with your family and friends. We look forward to seeing you all on Sunday. 

 Shabbat Shalom, 

 Morah Dona Levinson 

 Morah Toby Schlussel 

Morah Gawel Class Update

Hello All!

 We have had a great week at Hebrew School.  In class we have been watching the movie Inside Out and discussing: Core Memories, islands of Personality, Memories, Personality Types etc… The kids have been keeping notes about how the brain works by watching the movie. Sadly, as much as I would like to finish the movie, we have watched enough to be able to complete our task at hand.   So, they might want to finish watching it at home.

 On Sunday we will begin by creating a “control panel” a la Inside Out for the characters of God and Abraham in our narrative.  The kids will write the conversation out that would theoretically go on inside of God and Abraham’s head in the Sodom and Gomorrah narrative.  We will also create the Islands of Personality and Core memories that exist for God and Abraham.

 I am super excited about this.

Next week we will begin our Exodus narrative and the kids will be in tip top shape for Passover Seder.

 Have a nice weekend,

Leah

Kitah Hey Update

Dear Parents,

The students are very excited about their upcoming Passover projects. The kids have divided up into four groups. 

                                          Matzah ;  Slavery  - Freedom

                                          The Ten Plagues

                                          The Seder Plate

                                          Why is the # 4 important - Elijah's Cup

 

They are working beautifully together as a team coming up with original ideas to demonstrate their knowledge of their respective topics. They have lots of reference materials & computer access to do their research. Please feel free to discuss what group your child has joined and any ideas that you might have that they can implement. Their excitement is contagious!

Looking forward to see what original ideas they keep coming up with.

Shabbat Shalom

Cillia Kleiman