Dear Parents,

The school year is flying by.  We've had two outstanding family education opportunities.  Our theme in January was "Keeping our body's healthy and safe." Arlyn Boltax, a yoga teacher and a trained nutritionist led two workshops for the entire school  entitled "Nourishing the whole self:  Body, Mind, and Soul."  She led us through some gentle yoga positions as well as taught us that we are what we eat.  She taught us that some snacks impair our thinking ability while others improve them.  We should stay away from those sugary snacks and turn to much more healthy snacks.  She brought in examples of tasty and nutritious snacks for us to enjoy.  Our teachers taught our classical texts to learn how much Judaism has to teach us about keeping healthy!

Of course in February we celebrated Tu Bishvat, the New Year for the Trees by learning what Judaism has to teach us about protecting our environment.  We  filled in our family trees forms.  We baked a special Tu Bishvat date nut cake in honor of the holiday.  We learned how important trees are and planted parsley for our Passover seder. (The parsley has been growing quite nicely!)  We concluded the morning with a Tu Bishvat Seder.

Shoresh

This month in Hebrew School the Shoresh class covered a lot of territory. We learned about Tu Bishvat, the Birthday of Trees. Each child spoke about why we are thankful for them, and planted their own seeds. In addition, we discussed the significance of our class name and the connection it has with Tu Bishvat. Each child was able to understand that they are the Shorashim or roots of the Hebrew School. As they grow, and continue in their grades they gain enough Jewish knowledge to become "Trees."  Morah Melissa

Hebrew

Ms. Amar's Hebrew Class

January and February we were busy learning about health issues and the sources in our Bible that talk about it. We learned about Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Esau. We studied about Tu BiShevat. and we have started learning about Purim. We started making our own Megillah and illustrating the story.

Hebrew, we continue to learn the letters and vowel sounds. We have almost completed the entire alphabet. Please remember that continuous practice is crucial to learning to read a new language. We will start learning prayers in anticipation of the service when we receive our Siddurim (prayer books)

Milana's Hebrew Class

For the past two months we have been studying a lot of Hebrew vocabulary because many of the students expressed the desire to learn how to speak Hebrew. We started with colors and had a quiz on which everyone did a good job. Then we continued with learning body parts and instead of having the traditional quiz/test we played Simon Says in Hebrew. Everyone did well exceptionally well and the reward for that excellence was no quizzes for a month. After the break we had an oral quiz on all the Hebrew vocab words and for a job well done we celebrated with a party. Currently we are playing a holiday and language trivia game which is also a good review for all that we have learned in the past.

Rabbi Greene’s Hebrew Class

We’ve continued to study the service for taking out the Torah Saturday morning.  We’ve been studying the prayer vocabulary as well as the melodies for the prayers.  Beginning in March I am going to invite my students to lead this service for the congregation in our main sanctuary.  I am excited about their ability to lead services so far in advance of their Bar/Bat Mitzvah.  I encourage you to bring your children to our services on Shabbat so what we learn in class will be reinforced during services.  You will be delighted to see and hear how much your children can truly participate in our services.