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