It's been a while.

I am sorry I have not been keeping up with my blog. As some of you know, and some of you don't, my husband had a bad bought of pneumonia, was in hospital for a few weeks, and has been in, and still is, in rehab, getting his strength back. So I have been going in 6 directions at once.
Let me tell you, your kids are doing really well.
The Core Strength-Jewish Values class is getting really good at sit ups and push ups (physical core is important, too!)  and of course figuring out how to live our values, like Kedosha - Holiness, Chochma - WIsdom, Derech Eretz- Thoughtfulnes, Kehilla- Community,Tikkun Olom-Repairing the World, Ahavat Yisroel-Love of Israel, both the young country and the people (that includes all of us). Ask them about our surprise gift to the kindergarten class, and how we have helped the synagogue with recycling.

In Hebrew the students have been digging into the meanings of the prayers and have a tackled V' Ahavtah and Borachu. They should be able to tell you what they are and why we say them.

In Heroes and Villians of the Torah we are writing a comic book featuring Pharoh, Haman and Mustache Man as the Villians, and Abraham, Noah, Moses, along with Shifra and Puah, the midwives that saved the Jewish Babies under Pharoh, and Zelophehads's daughters, as the good guys. Who are these women? Ask your students, they know.

Chag Sameach Sukkot - Happy Sukkot Holiday!  I hope you have all been well the last couple of weeks. I was out of town and then away from my computer for a while. Glad to be back!

This Sunday!!! Come one, come all to celebrate Torah and learning with pizza, music, dancing, and general merriment.  Our festivities begin at 5:30 p.m. with a pizza dinner and then continue on with a lively and fun service beginning at 6:30 p.m.  We will unroll the Torah and get our groove on with the Mighty Shir Hadash Klezmer Band.  During our celebration we will also have the opportunity to officially welcome our new students into the Shir Hadash learning family with our consecration ceremony.  Each of our new students will get their own Torah as we celebrate the beauty of Jewish learning for a new generation.  Go HERE for additional info and to RSVP for the event.
This is a Super FUN service that counts towards the attendance recommendations. 

If your student is in the Core Strengths don't forget to have them keep their eyes open for examples of Jewish Values out in the world. Take a picture or write it down. If they (or you) see someone doing something wise, or thoughtful, or kind, or making something beautiful, doing something sacred (saying a prayer, lighting candles, kissing a mezzuzah) They should take a picture or write it down and bring it in on Sunday, so we can make a Midot (Values) Collage. Each student will receive a raffle ticket for each one.

Our Hebrew class continued to delve into the Shma and V'Ahavta prayer which can be found in your Mezzuzah, so we made Mezzuzah''s while studying.

IN Hero's and Villains we encountered the story  of Moses being floated down the Nile in a basket, being saved, first by the Midwives, then by his Mother, Sister, and Pharoh's Daughter.  The Women saved the Jews!

I look forward to seeing you all on Sunday, at School and at Simchat Torah (There will be Affy Tapples!)

Getting into the Flow

The 2nd week of Hebrew School started to feel a little more settled (a LITTLE more). Everyone found their way to the right rooms, and we got into the subject matter. Hebrew is still being fine tuned as some students still needed to be evaluated.

Core Strength- Jewish Values
We again began with  sit ups and push ups while reciting the 7 values (middot) of Shir Hadash. I think we will all be in great shape by the end of the semester!
 This week we discussed Kehilla/Community. What is a community? How many communities are we part of? Some examples are School communities, Neighborhood, Scouts, Jewish Community,  Shir Hadash, etc. We talked about things that we do for our community that we might not do for complete strangers, even if we haven;t actually met the community members. We watched a short video about Operation Solomon, that brought members of the Ethiopian Jewish Community to Israel. Then we made puppets of members of our communities, including one that looks just like Rabbi Eitan!

Hebrew- While Morah Limor was finishing up the last of the evaluations, we all joined together with Morah Forouz and played Hebrew games.

Heroes and Villains of the Torah - Noah
We began with a rousing rendition of the Floody Floody song, you all remember it from summer camp. Here is a link to it on Youtube  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMQjYJdtwoc
As I was the only one to sing, it became a little bit awkward, but I persevered!
We discussed the attributes that Made Noah a hero, and discussed if he would be considered a hero today, or was it just by contrast to the rest of hte people surrounding him?  We pretty much all agree that he would be not that special today.  We made Ark Diorama's some of which are on display in the room if you want to take a look.

I will be out of town at a family wedding next week, but if you have any questions please drop me a note.

For the week of 9/11/16

And....We're off!
The first week of Religious school has come and gone. One or two minor glitches arose and were quickly sorted out. Next week we will all get to Tefillah (services) with Rabbi Eitan, everyone will be assigned to their Hebrew class, and be in the right Judaica choice.

First hour-Core Strength- Jewish Values we discussed what are Values, what are Jewish values and where do we find them in the world.
We watched a video about using words that hurt or words that help. The students were able to determine what values were demonstrated in the video. We also did sit ups and push ups while reciting the values in both Hebrew and English (it is core strength, after all.)
The Hebrew word often used is Midot (middot) in Yiddish Middos.
the 7 Middot (core values) of Shir Hadash are :

1. Kedusha (Holiness): Pursuing spirituality in our lives
2. Hochma (Wisdom): Enriching Jewish life through the study of Jewish sacred texts, history, language, literature and civilization
3. Kehilla (Community): Connecting students and parents together in a caring and sharing larger Jewish “family”
4. Derech Eretz (Thoughtfulness): Being a mensch; behaving with kindness, compassion, respect, dignity and sensitivity
5. Tikkun Olam (Healing the World): Improving the lives of others, the environment and the world around us
6. Hidur Mitzvah (Beauty): Elevating life, worship and learning through the creative arts
7. Ahavat Yisrael (Love of Israel): Supporting and visiting Israel – the homeland of the Jewish People

If your kids are playing Pokemon Go! (Or even if they are not) they can also play Middot Go! and keep their eyes open for examples of these 7 values out in the world. If they have a camera, or a phone, or if you have one, and the students are either witnesses of, or they themselves are acting on one of our values-take a picture of it, or jot it down. We will be collecting them each week and posting them in the room, the students will earn points and collect prizes.  If you can't print out pictures, you can email them to me at Lynnearons1@gmail.com

Hebrew-Almost everyone was evaluated by Limor Wasserman, our Hebrew specialist, who will assign them to their appropriate Hebrew class. after the students were evaluated, we played Hebrew Bingo, getting in some good practice remembering letters and vowels.

Third hour -Hero's and Villains of the Torah
As a class we discussed what makes someone a hero, hhat sort of personality traits a person has to have to be a hero. Is a Hero always good?  We talked about Super Heroes' and the students got to imagine their own superhero and what their super power would be and how they would look. We will be talking about Noah next week and what made him a Hero of the Torah. We will be working on a Class Comic book for a semester long project.

See you all on Sunday,
Morah Lynne