Morah Aronowitz’s newsletter

12 Tishrei 5773/Sep 28 2012

This week we finished learning about Yom Kippur and started learning about Sukkot.

Yom Kippur

I hope you all enjoyed the projects that were sent home before Yom Kippur. We worked very hard making them. I am sure your children made you very proud when they showed you how much they knew when you asked the Yom Kippur questions.

Sukkot

We made 3 different projects to go up in your sukka.  Here is what we learned and what we made for the sukka:

-          We learned about the Arba Minim (4 species) that we shake on Sukkot.  We discussed why we shake those 4 and what they mean. 

-          We learned about the different Ushpizin (guests) that come to our Sukka.  Every night we invite one of the guests to come and join us in the sukka.

-          We made a welcome sign for you to hang up by your door to you sukka.

Sukkot Questions you could ask your child

1)      How many days in total do we celebrate the Holiday of sukkot? 7

2)      What do we put on top of the sukka? Schach, anything that grows from the ground could be used.

3)      What do we shake on sukkot and how? We take the Arba Minim(4 species)-lulav,etrog, hadasim and aravot.  We shake them in all directions.

4)      Who are the ushpizin? They are the guests that we invite to our sukka every sukkot night. Avraham, Yitzchak, Yakov, Moshe,  Aharon, Yosef and Dovid

Next week sneak peek

We are going to build a sukka in our classroom and make our own sukkot out of graham crackers.  We are going to have a little dancing party at school.  We will make simchat torah projects and enjoy a special field trip to Joey and Lindsay Shottenstein’s sukka. (Sorry about the mix up; we accidentally sent the wrong invite in the email the first time around! We do expect to have double helpings of fun at the party J )

Friendly reminders

-         I am collecting empty pringle boxes with lids. If you have any, please send them to school with your child. (Thank you to those who have sent some in)

-         Please send a full change of clothes if you have not done so yet.

-         Please keep the Mitzvah notes coming, please write them on the etrog template provided; it is a lot of fun reading them out, loud.  The children really enjoy hearing about the mitzvoth their friends do at home.

-         Please send tzedakah money (a roll of pennies is a good amount) that they could keep in their cubby. 

-         Please make sure to put extra kippot in your boys backpack in case they need one at school.

We want to wish you a very good Shabbat and a wonderful Sukkot

Morah Aronowitz and Morah Naomi

Morah Aronowitz’s Judaic Newsletter

5 Tishrei 5773/ Sep 21 2012

Even though it was a short week we sure learned a lot and had great fun!!

Aleph Bet/Homework

We are not going to be learning any new letters until after the holidays since there is a lot to learn about all the different holidays.  We are still reviewing the letters we have learned so far - Aleph, Bet and Vet.  I would like to suggest that even though there is no official homework for the next couple of weeks, I encourage you to please review the letter name, helpful sign, and sound of the letter, and also how to write the letters.  In addition, please practice with your child how to write their Hebrew name.  I will send home worksheets with each child’s name on it so that you could, if you want/have the time, practice it with them.

Yom Kippur

We have had a lot of fun with the Yom kippur unit. Here are some of the things that we have covered this week: 

-         We discussed that this time is called Aseret Yemei Teshuhva, and that we have 10 special days to do extra mitzvoth and do Teshuvah.

-         We learned about the things we do on Yom Kippur and the things that we do not do on Yom Kippur.

-         We made a collage and learned a song of all the things we don’t do because on Yom Kippur we are like angels.

-         We read a book/learned a very fun song and painted Yonah in the fish.

Nachat Notes caught in the act…..

Periodically I will write about mitzvoth that I catch the children doing in school, for you to read and enjoy. I am very proud of all our children and the midot/characteristics that they are showing.

-         When I was carrying a pile of books, Nissan (Miles) noticed and came over to me, without me asking him to, and asked me if he could help me with the books. I was very impressed Nissan. Good Job!!

-         When a new girl came to school one day, Hadassah Rivkah (Rebekkah) made sure to help her find her place in the siddur that we use for Tefilah.

-         This week Chaim Shmuel gave up the hook he wanted because someone else wanted it too.

Friendly reminders

-         I am collecting empty pringle boxes with lids. If you have any, please send them to school with your child. (Thank you to those who have sent some in)

-         Please send a full change of clothes if you have not done so yet.

-         Please keep the Mitzvah notes coming, it is a lot of fun reading them out loud, the children really enjoy hearing about the mitzvoth their friends do at home.

-         Please send tzedakah money (a roll of pennies is a good amount) that they could keep in their cubby. 

-         It is very important to let us teachers know if your child will be missing school for any reason ie: going out of town.  This will allow us to get things ready for your child in time. Please write it in Both the Judaic and General studies folders- Thank you

Have a very good Shabbat!

Morah Aronowitz and Morah Naomi

Morah Aronowitz’s Judaic Newsletter


13 Elul 5772 /Aug 27, 2012

We have had another great week in kindergarten. The children are really adjusting well and are really happy.

Reading

This week we learned the letter Aleph. We learned the helpful sign- “To draw an aleph, above the letter to the left fall down.” We learned how to write an Aleph (Aleph is a hard letter to shape so don’t worry if your child has not mastered it yet-they will soon!!) We sang a song that starts with the letter Aleph and we learned about a middah that starts with the letter Aleph- Emet (telling the truth)

Thank you for taking the time to do homework with your children. I am sure you will be very happy with the results at the end of the year. The children did great during the assessments; they were very eager to show the Morot how much they have learned. Keep up the good work!!


Rosh Hashanah

We have been as busy as “bees” learning about Rosh Hashana. These are some of the things we have learned and have done this week:

1) We have been very busy working on our beautiful machzorim.

2) On Rosh Hashanah we say that Hashem (G-d) is our king and we appreciate everything he does for us. We talked about the beautiful world that Hashem created with all the beautiful colors. We talked about our families and about being thankful for attending a great school.

3) We discussed that Hashem remembers all the good things that we have done during the year. We got to draw a picture of mitzvoth that we did in our Machzorim.

4) We have learned the different sounds that the shofar makes. (Ask your child to sing you the song “The Shofar makes 3 loud sounds…..”. ) We played a game and read stories about different shofars.

5) We also worked on a very special surprise for our parents!!!

Kabalat Shabbat and Happy Birthday

We had our very first kabalat Shabbat this week. The children were very excited and we all had a great time learning all about the shofar. The children got to see many different kinds of shofarot, we discussed where they come from and how they are made. We sang songs and got to hear about this week’s Parsha. We celebrated Tani’s birthday. We want to wish Tani happy Birthday and to thank him for the snack.

Please remember that if you have any questions or concerns you are always able to reach me by writing in your child’s folder/emailing/calling.

- Please remember that your child should start their homework on Mon and return it by Thursday. This coming week your child will have the “Bet” homework to complete and should return it on Thursday.

- Please remember to look in your child’s folder, it should be emptied out every night and look to see if your child has notes from the teacher.

- I am collecting empty pringle boxes with lids. If you have any please send them to school with your child.

- Please send a full change of clothes.

- Please send tzedakah money (a roll of pennies is a good amount) that they could keep in their cubby.

- Please keep sending mitzvah notes

- Chalav U’dvash with Morah Eva will start after the holidays.

Have a wonderful Shabbat and enjoy the long weekend!

Morah Aronowitz and Morah Naomi