Education – 4th grade (Blatt)

9/7: Today in class we worked on:

We had a wonderful first day of school.
The whole school gathered to start off the year with a fun assembly which included prayer, hearing the shofar for Elul, minute to win it Jewish style, and confetti ‘canons’! It was lovely to have so many parents join us!
Then, 4^th grade parents joined me to learn what their students will be doing this year while the students stayed with Morah Alexa and the madrichim.
After meeting with parents, our 4^th graders gathered and we started our learning.
First, we decided that supporting hospitals in Israel, such as the Hadassah Hospital would be our Tzedakah for the year.
Afterwards, we saw how the Expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal led to America eventually becoming a haven for our people. We looked, through a short play, how Jews lived in different countries in 1650, just prior to the first arrival of Jews in what became the United States. In our study, we compared how Jews lived in England, Holland, Germany, Poland, the Turkish Empire, and Yemen. Everyone thought Yemen was not a good place to be Jewish then.
We discussed what liturgical items the first Jews in America might have brought with them to help them stay close to Judaism. Philip Ayzenberg was surprised to learn that there was actually one Jewish person, Asher Levy, already living in New Amsterdam when the “23” new arrivals first reached the colony.
Since, we had some time we looked at “summer recipes” from the Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. Everyone liked the “Israeli Fruit Cake” and Layla Brand thought it was interesting that a person “named Sarah” had managed to get so many of her recipes posted on the site!
We ended the day with all of K – 6^th grade together for shira led by Morah Alexa.
Students received lollipops on their way out to celebrate the tradition that Jewish learning should be sweet.
All in all, it was a great first day of Bait-Sefer Ha-Datit!

Homework to be completed by next class:

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