Education – Daled Tuesday (Reisberg)

4/16: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Before class started, we joined together for an all-school Tefillah, a brief service, led by Rabbi Prass. He led a discussion about who encourages us to try something new, what those new things are, and why it is important to try new things.  The students had lovely answers.  He spoke about why it is important to try new things like Passover food and religious experiences.
  2. We went over V’shamru on pages 76, 77, and 78. We read and completed the activities in the book.
  3. We practiced our part for the all-school Model Seder.
  4. the all-school Model Sedar was very clever and creative. Rabbi Prass will be emailing you a video of what our class did.  I hope you have a chance to view the video.

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading v’shamru, lines 1-4 on page 76 in your book.

Reminders:

  • Sunday, April 21: We have Religious School
  • Tuesday, April 23: NO Tuesday Hebrew School – 1st Day Pesach
  • You can always access the school calendars by clicking here.
  • You can always access the entire CBA calendar by clicking here  

4/9: Today in class we worked on:

  1. We began in an all-school t’fillah led by Rabbi Prass.  Rabbi Prass led a discussion about What were your reactions to the eclipse? How can we recreate the unique factor in the eclipse?  Why do we need to recreate these unique moments?  The learners had some wonderful answers.  We then pointed out that our Jewish calendar and stopping for moments of t’fillah help mark unique moments.
  2. Today we started lesson 8 – v’shamru.  V’shamru comes from the Torah (Exodus 31:14-17). God spoke these words to Moses just before giving him the Ten Commandments. We are to keep, or guard, Shabbat as a sign of the everlasting covenant (brit) between God and the Jewish people.  We practiced reading all four lines together.
  3. We took the alef-bet quiz again today, it’s the same assessment we’ve taken twice already this year.  It’s a great review of Hebrew letters and vowels.  I’m pleased to share that everyone did great and everyone’s scores improved from the last time we took it!
  4. Next Tuesday, April 16th is the Pesach mock seder. We spent time today practicing our retelling of the Passover story
  5. We finished the day by joining the other Hebrew classes to review the four questions and Hebrew Through Movement.  If your student is going to be singing the Four Questions at your seder, encourage them to do it b’Ivrit (in Hebrew).

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading v’shamru, lines 1-4 on page 76 in your book.

4/2: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Welcome back! I hope everyone had a nice and relaxing spring break.
  2. Today, we began with an all-school t’fillah in the sanctuary led by Rabbi Prass.  He pointed out that most families have that someone that repeats stories over and over.  He then led us in a discussion about Why is THAT family story, being told over and over, a good thing?  And why is that family story, something that strengthens you?  The learners had lovely responses including that the main reason we need to appreciate these stories is because they usually contain a lesson that we need to internalize. We then saw how the last section of the kedusha prayer spoke about telling of God’s greatness.
  3. Today we reviewed L’cha Dodi, a poem written by Shlomo Ha’levi about Shabbat.  We practiced reading a few of the verses in Hebrew.  The poem is quite long and while we’re only working on a few lines of it, the entire blessing is in the text books.  We saw that Shlomo Ha’levi used his name and wrote this poem as an acrostic.  We then used our names and wrote acrostic verses about our favorite Jewish holidays.
  4. In a few weeks, we’ll be celebrating Pesach together.  At Hebrew school, each class is responsible for preparing and presenting part of the seder to the other classes. Daled shares the magid, the retelling of the passover story. Today, we reviewed the story and talked about how we want to present it.  We’ll spend more time next week finalizing before we present on the 16th.
  5. The entire school finished the day with Rabbi Prass, and Hebrew through movement.  We added some new words connected to our next holiday of Pesach.

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading L’cha Dodi on page 68

3/19: Today in class we worked on:

  1. We began the day with an al- school T’Fillah led by Rabbi Prass.  We talked about why we need “collective wins” and how we feel with ‘personal wins’.  Then we talked about the story of Purim is both a collective win for the Jewish people and a personal win for Mordechai and Esther.
  2. In class we worked on L’cha Dodi (page 68 & 69)
  3. We practiced our parts for the megillah reading\
  4. Students read from the Megillah in front of the whole school.  The megillah has no vowels just like the Torah! They did so awesome while performing the Mitzvah!   You can watch them on the CBA YouTube channel by clicking here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5pbz5AFZEY ).

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Keep reviewing

Reminders:

  • March 24- March 31: CBA Religious School & Hebrew School Spring Break
  • April 2: Tuesday Hebrew School Resumes
  • You can always access the school calendars by clicking here.
  • You can always access the entire CBA calendar by clicking here.

3/12: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Our day began with an all-school Tefillah in the sanctuary, a brief service, led by Rabbi Prass. Talia S. and Ella U. helped lead. We also talked about two things going on Israel: The first was the good news of how many hostages have been released, AND the work of how many hostages still need to be released.  Secondly, we also watched a video about, sufganiyot, the special Chanukah jelly doughnuts. That was a delicious experience!
  2. We continued with lesson 3 – the K’dushah. We practiced reading the blessing in its entirety, lines 1-8 (page 28). 
  3. One of everyone’s favorite parts of this blessing is the choreography – when we say “kadosh, kadosh, kadosh”, we rise up on our toes three times.   We talked about why we do this – it’s a physical way of trying to come closer to God.  This line, and three other lines in the blessing come out of the TaNaKh, the Hebrew bible.
  4. We discussed what the TaNaKh is – it’s an acronym that stands for “Torah, N’ve-eem(prophets) and K’tuvim (writing) – the three “sections” that make up the Hebrew Bible.  We used a Hebrew/English TaNaKh, looked up the three lines from the K’dusha that come straight out of the biblical text: Isaiah 6:1-3, Ezekiel 3:12 and Psalms 146:10.   We each took a turn reading the Hebrew and English from the TaNaKh text.
  5. We took another Alef-Bet letter quiz.  We take this short assessment a few times during the school year to reinforce the Hebrew letters and vowels.  The key here is to see improvement in scores as the year progresses. Everyone did really well!
  6. We finished our work today with a review of the Chanukah blessings.
  7. The last fifteen minutes of class was spent playing “Hebrew Through Movement.” Led by Rabbi Prass and Charlie. Several of our students were able to lead the group in this activity today.
  8. Happy Chanukah!

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading lines 1-8 of the K’dusha, on page 28.

3/5: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Today, we began with an all-school t’fillah in the sanctuary led by Rabbi Prass.  He asked the students “how can you make someone feel special?” and “Why should you make someone feel special?”  The students had lovely answers.  Then we connected this to the kedusha prayer, how we can remind God, how God is special, and God needs us.
  2. We wrapped up lesson 5, Birkat Shalom (blessings of peace) with a review worksheet and a quick reading review of both Shalom Rav and Sim Shalom.
  3. The next lesson is Oseh Shalom (to make peace). This is a prayer said immediately after the Amidah and asks God to make peace in our lives and in our world.  This is probably one of the more “famous” prayers, as all the students in class quickly recognized a few different tunes this prayer is often sung to.
  4. In two weeks, we’ll be celebrating the holiday of Purim.  Today, everyone in class was assigned four words from the megilah that they’ll read aloud along with the other Hebrew classes.  We sent home their assigned words for practice and we’ll spent time next week reviewing them again as well.
  5. We ended class with Rabbi Prass and the other Hebew classes looking at different artistic responses to the terror attacks on Oct 7 in Israel.

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading your four words from the Megillah

2/27: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Today, we began with an all-school t’fillah in the sanctuary with Rabbi Prass.   He led a discussion on things that ‘lift us up.’  Then we looked at the line in the kedusha prayer “kadosh, kadosh, kadosh” which has us act like the angels, lifting us higher, closer to God’s throne.
  2. This afternoon we continued with the lesson on birkat shalom, blessings of peace. We read through lines 1-2 of Sim Shalom (recited in a morning service) that we were introduced to last week and sight read the last three lines of the blessing today – which also happen to be the same lines that are sandwiched in the Shalom Rav blessing (said in an evening service).  Everyone had an opportunity to read the blessing in its entirety.
  3. We took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and spent the last half of class outside playing a vocabulary review game.
  4. The students finished the day with Rabbi Prass, and Hebrew through movement, adding on new words.

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading lines 1-4 of the Shalom Rav, on page 46 and lines 1-2 and 6-8 of Sim Shalom on page 50 in your book.

2/20: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Before class started, we attended Tefillah, led by Rabbi Prass. He led a discussion about the reality that we all have felt ‘low’ at least point in our lives.  Then we shared someone who has helped lift us up.  Then Rabbi Prass pointed out that in our prayer Gevurot, it praises God for being the source/inspiration for lifting up “those who sleep in the dust.” The students contributed some interesting answers including how valuable their pets are as a foil to talk to.
  2. We worked on Sim Shalom in our book (page 46 & 50).  Sim Shalom is the prayer for peace we recite in the morning.  They also reviewed Shalom Rav (page 46) the prayer for peace in the evening service.
  3. We did the workbook exercises on pages 51-53.
  4. Then we played Hebrew review games using the vocabulary words on page 46 and 51, and played a few rounds of Hebrew Hangman together. Alternatively, using word cards 44-59, you can play around the world.
  5. Lastly, we joined the entire school to play Hebrew Through Motion (HTM). Today’s session was so interesting because Rabbi connected the (HTM) based on everything the students did while wearing a Tallit.
  6. Lihitaot (good-bye)!

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Review the vocabulary we covered, and practice reading pages 46 &50

2/13: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Before class started, we attended an all-school Tefillah, led by Rabbi Prass. He talked asked all of us to share a strength we all admire/aspire to and why.  The students contributed some interesting answers.  Then we talked about how the prayer Gevurot talks about God’s strength of helping others.
  2. Today we reviewed lines one and two of Shalom Rav, the blessing for peace we say during an evening service and added lines 3 and 4 to complete the blessing.
  3. We searched through Shalom Rav for words that have a bet-resh-chaf (bless) root, words related to peace and words related to the Jewish people.
  4. The last 15 minutes were spent in class playing a Blooket to review the Hodah blessing.
  5. We joined the other Hebrew classes for Hebrew Thru Movement in the sanctuary.

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading lines 1-4 of the Shalom Rav, on page 46.

2/6: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Before class started, we attended Tefillah, a brief service, led by Rabbi Prass. He talked about who/what makes us feel protected, why that is such a special feeling, and how we feel when we don’t feel protected.  Then we looked at the last line of the Avot v’imahot which Blesses God for the being the “Shield of Abraham and Help of Sarah”
  2. We did a vocabulary Review Worksheet which reviews vocabulary from lessons 1-4. 
  3. We started lesson 5: Birkat Shalom (prayers for peace) which begin on page 46.
  4. We did the workbook page 47.
  5. We played Hebrew Hangman with the new words on page 47.
  6. We concluded the session with all the students joined together for our weekly round of “Hebrew Through Movement” where we keep adding in new words each week.

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading page 46 and review the vocabulary words

1/30: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Before we went to our classroom, we attended an all-school Tefillah, a brief service, led by Rabbi Prass. We discussed what it means to know someone who has a WOW Factor, and how God is the ultimate example of one having a Wow Factor in our prayer, Avot V’imahot
  2. We added in the final two lines of the Ho’da’ah blessing and spent a good deal of time doing reading practice.
  3. Students completed two worksheets – one focused on vocabulary words with English translations of “thanks”, identifying lines in the blessing where these words appear.  Our second worksheet reviewed letter sounds when a dagesh (dot) is added.  In particular, focusing in on the letter vav -and when it makes a ‘v’ sound and when it makes an “oo” sound as a vowel. 
  4. We ended our time in class together playing a game that was a combination of bingo and tic tac toe, reviewing English to Hebrew and Hebrew to English vocabulary.
  5. We joined the other Hebrew classes for Hebrew Thru Movement in the sanctuary.

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading lines 1-7 of the Hoda’ah, on page 36.

1/23: Today in class we worked on:

  1. At the beginning of the session, we attended an all-school Tefillah, led by Rabbi Prass. He led a discussion about who has our back and what it feels like to have someone’s back.  This led us to see how the opening lines of the avot v’imahot talk about God having our back due to the individual relationship God has with our ancestors and us. It was a very interesting conversation.
  2. We continued with lesson 4, the Hoda’ah (Thanksgiving) blessing. We spent a good amount of time with reading practice, lines 1-5.  Everyone had the opportunity to read through the lines independently and as a group.  They did a great job!
  3. We reviewed the vocabulary we learned last week and completed a few workbook activities.  In the blessing, we refer to God as “tzur”, a rock.  We talked about who the “rocks” are in our lives and why.  We finished class time looking at words with the root “Hey Lamed Lamed” – meaning praise.
  4. All the classes joined together for our weekly round of Hebrew Through Motion, led by Charlie, where we continue to add on Hebrew words for trees in preparation for Tu Bishvat. 

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading lines 1-6 of the Hoda’ah, on page 36.

1/16: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Welcome back! Happy New Year!
  2. Our day began with an all-school Tefillah, a brief service, led by Rabbi Prass. We talked about times “When I a time you have not been able/allowed to speak? And “What bothered you about that?  How did that feel?”  That was our segue into the first prayer, ‘adonai sifatai” God open up my lips.
  3. Today we started Lesson 4 – Hoda’ah.  The Hoda’ah (Thanksgiving) is the second to last blessing in the Shabbat Amidah. Before we conclude the Amidah section of prayer, we say a prayer of thanksgiving to God. We acknowledge that God alone created the blessings and the good in our lives. We bow at the beginning and end of the blessing to show respect and gratitude.
  4. We practiced reading lines 1-2 of the blessing on page 36 in our books.
  5. We reviewed the vocabulary for this blessing, in particular, three words that are themed around “thanks” and two around “praise”.  We played a game of vocabulary tic-tac-toe.
  6. Class ended with an all-school Tu B’shevat version of Hebrew Thru Movement in the sanctuary.

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading lines 1-2 of the Hoda’ah, on page 36.

12/19: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Our day began with Tefillah, a brief service, led by Rabbi Prass.  We talked about the success of the Israel Art Fair CBA co-sponsored and how we helped them. We also talked about ways we can bring light during these days of less sunlight.
  2. We started with a quick review of the K’dusha blessing and spent most of the class time playing an online game that reviewed the themes and vocabulary of the blessing.
  3. We spent a little time talking about Hebrew/English cognates – words in both languages that have the same origin and are connected – for example “Pizza” in English is “Pizza” in Hebrew, “bus” in English is “autobus” in Hebrew.   We got into an interesting conversation about how this happened.  Cliff notes version: Hebrew is originally a biblical language, created and used thousands of years ago.  For a long time, Hebrew wasn’t a spoken language, but rather a language of prayer and the Bible.  A man named Eliezer Ben-Yehuda created the first modern Hebrew-English dictionary in the early 20th century. There are of course many words that didn’t exist in biblical times, or even in the early 20th century, that needed a Hebrew equivalent. 
  4. To celebrate a fantastic semester, we ended this afternoon with a pizza party!
  5. Have a safe and fun winter break!

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading lines 1-8 of the K’dusha, on page 28.
  2. If you need help with pronunciation, or you want to follow along, use this website: https://www.behrmanhouse.com/hinfree/kdushah-prayer-page.html?uid=0&modid=3&activityid=20

Reminders:

  • December 24th: CBA Religious School & Hebrew School Winter Break Begins
  • January 14th: Religious School Resumes
  • January 16th: Tuesday Hebrew School Resumes
  • You can always access the school calendars by clicking here.
  • You can always access the entire CBA calendar by clicking here.

12/12: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Our day began with an all-school Tefillah, a brief service, led by Rabbi Prass. We also lit the Chanukah candles, and discussed miracles that happen in our lives.
  2. We wrapped up lesson 3 – the K’dushah.  We started with reading the blessing together (lines 1-8, page 28) and then spent time working on two end-of-lesson worksheets that focused on vocabulary and blessing themes.
  3. In celebration of Chanukah – we played dreidel. Before playing, we talked about the meaning of the Hebrew letters on the dreidel (Nun, Gimel, Hey, Shin) – meaning nes gadol ha’ya sham- a great miracle happened there.  We also saw one dreidel with a slight variation –(Nun, Gimel, Hey, Pey)- meaning nes gadol ha’ya po -a great miracle happened here.  That dreidel came from Israel!
  4. Class wrapped up with the other classes in Hebrew Through Movement.
  5. Happy Chanukah!

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading lines 1-8 of the K’dusha, on page 28.

12/5: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Our day began with an all-school Tefillah in the sanctuary, a brief service, led by Rabbi Prass. Talia S. and Ella U. helped lead. We also talked about two things going on Israel: The first was the good news of how many hostages have been released, AND the work of how many hostages still need to be released.  Secondly, we also watched a video about, sufganiyot, the special Chanukah jelly doughnuts. That was a delicious experience!
  2. We continued with lesson 3 – the K’dushah. We practiced reading the blessing in its entirety, lines 1-8 (page 28). 
  3. One of everyone’s favorite parts of this blessing is the choreography – when we say “kadosh, kadosh, kadosh”, we rise up on our toes three times.   We talked about why we do this – it’s a physical way of trying to come closer to God.  This line, and three other lines in the blessing come out of the TaNaKh, the Hebrew bible.
  4. We discussed what the TaNaKh is – it’s an acronym that stands for “Torah, N’ve-eem(prophets) and K’tuvim (writing) – the three “sections” that make up the Hebrew Bible.  We used a Hebrew/English TaNaKh, looked up the three lines from the K’dusha that come straight out of the biblical text: Isaiah 6:1-3, Ezekiel 3:12 and Psalms 146:10.   We each took a turn reading the Hebrew and English from the TaNaKh text.
  5. We took another Alef-Bet letter quiz.  We take this short assessment a few times during the school year to reinforce the Hebrew letters and vowels.  The key here is to see improvement in scores as the year progresses. Everyone did really well!
  6. We finished our work today with a review of the Chanukah blessings.
  7. The last fifteen minutes of class were spent playing “Hebrew Through Movement.” Led by Rabbi Prass and Charlie. Several of our students were able to lead the group in this activity today.
  8. Happy Chanukah!

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading lines 1-8 of the K’dusha, on page 28.

11/28: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Our day began with all-school Tefillah, a brief service, led by Rabbi Prass.  We discussed the recent ‘better’ news coming out of Israel in regards to the hostages being released.
  2. We continued with lesson 3 – the K’dushah. We practiced reading lines 1-6 (page 28), completed the vocabulary activity on page 29 and played a reading/vocabulary review game.
  3. With Chanukah right around the corner- we spent some time today practicing the Chanukah blessings.
  4. We did an activity that focused on the root Koof-Daled-Shin.  This root is in the word n’kadesh (let us sanctify/make holy).  This root tells us that “holy” is part of a word’s meaning.  We searched through the entirety of the K’dusha blessing and found every word with this root (all 6 of them)
  5. The last fifteen minutes of class was spent talking to the parents who visited the synagogue today for Hebrew school open house. While I was with the parents, the students were in the sanctuary doing Hebrew Through Movement led by our Madrich Charlie.

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading lines 1-6 of the K’dusha, on page 28.

11/14: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Our day began with an all-school Tefillah, led by Rabbi Bellows. We studied the meaning of one of our prayers that dealt with “freeing the captive.” Rabbi then explained how old this prayer is and yet, how meaningful it is in our world today.
  2. We started lesson 3, the K’dusha.  This blessing is the third in the Amidah.  The K’dusha proclaims God’s holiness.  Verses from this blessing come from the Bible (book of Prophets). We imitate the angels in the prophet Isaiah’s visions when we recite this prayer.  The blessing is on page 28 and we focused on lines 1 and 2.
  3. We did a Hebrew phonetics writing activity and played an online Gimkit game reviewing the G’vurot blessing.
  4. The last fifteen minutes of our day was spent with Charlie working on “Hebrew Through Movement” with the entire school.
  5. Happy Thanksgiving!

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading lines 1-7 of the G’vurot, on page 16.
  2. Practice reading lines 1-2 of the K’dusha, on page 28.

11/7: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Our day began with an all-school Tefillah, a brief service, led by Rabbi Prass. As part of the t’fillah, we read the English translation of a new song written about Israel’s current situation and watched a video showing how Israelis from all walks of life are helping the soldiers and others who are in need.  Ask your student about the song.
  2. This afternoon was spent reviewing the G’vurot blessing.  We worked on three worksheets – highlighting vocabulary and blessing themes.  We practiced reading the blessing individually and together as a group.
  3. Next, we, along with kitah gimmel, met with Rabbi Prass for “Hebrew Through Movement.” The students had an opportunity to lead the activities today, and we had a fun time.
  4. We wrapped up this afternoon talking about the word “Gibor”, which means “mighty”, “powerful” or “hero”. We discussed Jewish history heroes who acted bravely and helped the Jewish people and we also described things we’ve done that are brave and “hero” like.

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading the G’vurot, lines 1-7 on page 16 in your book.
  2. Please bring a phone or tablet to class next week for an online review game.

10/24: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Our day began with Tefillah and several videos of Israeli soldiers commenting about how happy they were to receive notes from our CBA Students.
  2. This afternoon we started by reviewing the 6 praises of God’s powers, or abilities, that are mentioned in the G’vurot: create life, sustain life, save life, help the falling, heal the sick, free the captive.  Since we are created in God’s image (B’tzelem Elocheim), we have the ability to act in “godly” ways.  We discussed actions we could take that would imitate some of God’s powers. For example – help the falling (donate food or clothes), heal the sick (visit sick friends or relatives, send get-well cards).
  3. We practiced reading lines 1-7 of the G’vurot on page 16
  4. We joined kitah Gimmel for Hebrew through Movement outside, led by our madrich Charlie.
  5. We wrapped up this afternoon with a vocabulary review exercise in our workbooks and played a review game.

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading the G’vurot, lines 1-7 on page 16 in your book.
    • If you need help with pronunciation, or if you want to follow along, use this website: https://www.behrmanhouse.com/hinfree/gvurot-prayer-page.html?uid=0&modid=3&activityid=19

10/17: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Our day began with Tefillah led by Rabbi Prass. As part of t’fillah, we discussed the situation in Israel, and the students expressed some interesting opinions and asked several excellent questions.
  2. This afternoon we started lesson 2- the G’vurot.  This blessing speaks of God’s powers to help us when we’re in need; God’s powers to create, to save and to sustain life.  We started with reading lines 1-2 of the blessing and introducing the vocabulary.
  3. We joined kitah Gimmel outside for Hebrew through Movement.
  4. We took an alef-bet letter quiz.  This is an assessment we do 3-4 times during the year to check up on our recognition of Hebrew letters and sound vowels make.  Everyone did a really nice job on the first quiz of the year!
  5. We ended class with a vocabulary review game.

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading the G’vurot, lines 1-2 on page 16 in your book.
    • If you need help with pronunciation, or if you want to follow along, use this website: https://www.behrmanhouse.com/hinfree/gvurot-prayer-page.html?uid=0&modid=3&activityid=19

10/10: Today in class we worked on:

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf0PWJ40z1E or https://fb.watch/nCEXzIHHxD/ ) so that Israelis know they are not alone.  In the video each learner was able to say, “My prayer for Israel is……….”
  2. Today we wrapped up lesson one- Avot V’Imahot.  We completed a blessing review worksheet where students identified the theme of the blessing, key vocabulary words and reflected on what the blessing means to them.  They also completed a few activities in their textbooks while being pulled to read one on one with me.
  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq-3bOnA3HI  And we of course reviewed our Hebrew thru Movement vocabulary.
  4. Class ended with an Avot V’Imahot Blooket review game.

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading the Avot V’Imahot, lines 1-7 on page 5 in your textbook.

10/3: Today in class we worked on:

  1.  Our day began with an all-school Tefillah led by Rabbi Prass.  We We discussed times we personally have celebrated in the last week, and how we Jews have so many celebrations this month.
  2. We jumped back into the Avot V’Imahot (pg 5) and practiced reading the blessing all the way through.  We spent a little bit of time breaking words into syllables to help us decode and read challenging Hebrew words.
  3. Hebrew Though Motion with the Bet and Gimmel classes was outside in the sukkah!
  4. Back in the classroom, we introduced more vocabulary words and completed a vocab activity in our workbooks.  We played a few vocabulary games.
  5. We ended class by introducing root (Shoresh) letters.  Almost all Hebrew words are built upon root letters and are formed in such a way where small manipulations can create many different, but related meanings.  The first root we learned today was BET- RESH- CHAF.   This root is in the word “baruch” which means bless and “bracha” which means blessing!

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading the Avot V’Imahot, lines 1-7 on page 5 in your textbook.

9/26: Today in class we worked on:

  1. We began with community-wide Tefilla. Rabbi Prass led t’fillah and a discussion about what was one Jewish thing we did between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
  2. We reviewed the vocabulary from last week before doing a family tree activity. The Avot V’Imahot outlines the very beginning of our Jewish family tree- Abraham and Sarah, their son Isaac and his wife Rebecca, and their son Jacob and his two wives, Rachel and Leah.  We made our own family trees, using Hebrew words for grandmother/grandfather, mother/father, aunt/uncle, cousin, sister/brother.
  3. We joined the 5th grade Gimmel class outside for Hebrew Through Movement
  4. For reading practice- we reviewed lines 1-3 of the Avot V’Imahot we learned last week. New lines will be added next week.
  5. With the last few minutes of class, we played Wordle with Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur words.

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading the Avot V’Imahot, lines 1-3 on page 5 in your textbook.

9/19: Today in class we worked on:

  1. Welcome back! It was great meeting everyone this afternoon.
  2. We began in an all-school assembly with Rabbi Prass.
  3. We jumped into a little Hebrew vocabulary and writing practice, sharing what Beit Sefer (school) we go to, our favorite seret (movie), sefer (book), and our favorite thing l’echol (to eat). We also shared what we did this kaytz (summer).
  4. We joined Rabbi Prass and kitah gimel outside for Hebrew Through Movement.
  5. Back in the classroom, we introduced the first bracha (blessing) we’re learning this year, Avot V’Imahot. This is the first blessing in the Amidah, the central prayer section of every service.  Avot means fathers and Imahot means mothers.  This blessing reminds us that our ancestors, Abraham, Issac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel each had a special and unique relationship with God. It asks God to watch over us, protect us, and bless us, just as God did for our ancestors. We read lines 1-3.

Homework to be completed by next class:

  1. Practice reading the Avot V’Imahot, lines 1-3 on page 5 in your textbook.