April 15, :26 פרשת מצורע שבת הגדול

Transcription

1 The Week IN words April 15, :26 ז ניסן תשע ו פרשת מצורע שבת הגדול

2 PESACH IS AROUND THE CORNER!! Fulfill your SCRIP obligation and help our Yeshiva by purchasing gift cards! Discover Your Child s World We invite the parents and community to explore first-hand our curriculum, special programs and new ECE and KES initiatives. Tuesday, May 10 at 7:00 PM Please see the flyer for more details. MAZEL TOV Rabbi Chaim Shmuel and Shoshana Blinder on the birth of a daughter. Rabbi Mordechai and Es Palgon on the birth of a granddaughter, born to their children Rabbi Chaim Shmuel and Shoshana Blinder.

3 CALENDAR NOTES Wednesday, April 20 Sunday, May 1 Pesach Break Monday, May 2 Classes resume at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, May 10 Discover Your Child s World Expo Sunday, May 29 12th Annual Chinese Auction Monday, May 30-Memorial Day. Teacher work day. No classes Friday, June 10-Monday, 13 Shavuos Break Tuesday, June 14 Classes resume at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday, June 15 Kindergarten Graduation Thursday, June 16 Last day of school. Dismissal at 12:45 p.m. LEAVING EARLY? Please notify the office if your child will be leaving early for Pesach break so that their bags can be sent home with them.

4 Nursery news NURSERY I-MORAH TAMI With Rosh Chodesh Nisan here, the yeladim in the Nursery 1 are excitedly counting the days until Chag HaPesach. We have been busy working on our beautiful Haggados and learning and understanding everything about the Seder night. We have been reviewing the 10 makkos and we discussed the concepts of bedikas chometz and biur chometz. The kearah has been discussed and we know what should be put on the kearah and where everything is placed. The second question of the Mah Nishtana was introduced this week as well as the songs Avadim Hayinu and Eliyahu. Has your child started singing the Mah Nishtana at home? We know how proud our Abba and Imma are going to be when they hear us on the seder night. We know our Abba reclines at the seder so that he will feel just like a king. The yeladim had an amazing time at the Matza factory. This week, we continued our Hebrew language unit on Pesach and learned the following words: בדיקת חמץ בעור חמץ עשר מכות צפרדע חושך NURSERY II MORAH MIRIAM This week, nursery two was very busy preparing for Pesach. With all the talk and preparation that we have been doing the children are getting so excited for the Seder and especially being able to sing the mah nishtanah! Our model Seder was a big hit! The children has such a great time doing all the things that we have been learning about over the past couple of weeks. The children also had a good laugh watching the Morahs find the afikomen that was hidden last week. We worked hard creating our beautiful hagados and look forward to showing our parents all that we have learned! Enjoy your Pesach break and have a "chag kasher v sameach"! Our Model Seder which was held on Wednesday was a big success, the yeladim knew so much and enjoyed every moment of it. Thank you for sending in all the items for our model Seder. For Parshas Metzorah, we learned that in the time of the Beis Hamikdash, the mother of a new baby would bring a special Korban to the Kohen to thank Hashem. We also talked about the mitzvah of Bris Milah. NURSERY I MORAH SUSAN This was such a wonderful week in nursery as we worked on a unit about Spring. We talked about all the wonderful things that happen as spring comes and how it is different in places where winter is cold. The class went on a "Spring Walk" and found birds, plants and butterflies. Our afternoon meeting was very exciting as we learned a new song to introduce us to springtime. Simcha raba Simcha raba Aviv higiya Pesach ba! NURSERY II MORAH RACHELI This week, we discussed animals and their different habitats. We played with our animals and sang the song Where do I live? Ocean? Farm? Jungle? We made our own mini aquariums, ripped tissue paper to create jungle scenes and built fences for our farm animals. We also played Duck, duck, goose and introduced some new bean bag activities and songs. We learned about chameleons and how they camouflage themselves to hide. We listened to very cute books about Chameleons. The Colorful Chameleon by Mario Gomboli and A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni Finally, on Friday we were visited by a real farm animal a sheep, who taught us about Korban Pesach. During our storytime, the children loved hearing how when Morah Susan was young she found a blue jay baby bird in the melting snow and how she and her father fed him and kept him until he could fly as spring came. The children also listened to the story Spring in The Kingdom of Ying by Liza Charlesworth which also had a blue jay!! During our art center, the class painted their

5 PRe-K PAGES JUDAIC STUDIES MORAH NECHAMA This week, we learned about Parashas Metzora. This parsha focuses on not speaking lashon hara. We learned what would happen if tzara as was in a Jewish person s home, and what the Kohen would have to check for. We reinforced the concept that Hashem gives us the opportunity to do teshuva. Some books we read about Lashon Hara include Yossi, The Boy Who Wouldn t Speak Lashon Hara by Phyllis Weinberg and Yettle s Feathers by Joan Rothenberg. We continued learning about Pesach. The children enjoyed hearing the story The Ten Plagues Of Egypt by Shoshana Lepon. Our Model Seder was amazing! All the Yeladim participated with much enthusiasm using all of the information they were taught. Thank you to all the parents who sent in food for our Model Seder. Reminder: if you will be going away early for Pesach, please let us know so that we can try and send home all of the Pesach projects. This week we learned the letter Tzadi Sofis. We also reviewed all of the letters we have learned so far using many different games to make it very exciting. Have a wonderful Shabbos! SECULAR STUDIES MORAH JUDY This week the Pre-K children reviewed all the letters that they have learned so far. They decorated Alphabet books, and practiced recognizing these letters in written words. They have been working on their writing skills by copying sight words and writing on our Message Board. This week the children had the opportunity to share their Pesach plans. They completed sentences like, I am going to, for Pesach, or will be at my house for Pesach. In preparation for Pesach, we also played a game called "Afikomon Where Are You?" The children took turns hiding the Afikomon. The person appointed to find it would walk around the room and get signals from the hider letting them know if they were close or far away from the Afikoman using the words hot and cold. The children enjoyed playing this game and it served as a wonderful lesson in fair game playing As an experiment, we mixed glue, starch and paint to create slime. We experimented changing the slime colors, and exposing the slime to different temperatures. One night we kept the slime at room temperature, the next we put it in the freezer. It was definitely more fun to play with, when it was cold. The children put the slime in tubes, cups and plates. They stretched it, cut it and rolled it into various shapes. The best part was watching how easily the children shared the slime with each other! It seems like the children have really taken to heart the lessons about middos, responsibility and leadership that they have been learning in school from their Morahs and Rabbi Fried, who visits our class from time to time. The Pre-K children have been exhibiting much excitement about math subjects. They spent time solving simple addition and subtraction problems and have been creating patterns and number scenarios using counting bears and other manipulative objects.

6 kindergarten CORNER JUDAIC STUDIES MOROT BAYLA, ESTY & RENA SECULAR STUDIES MOROT HEIDI & PEARLY With Chodesh Nissan here, we are counting the days until Chag Ha'Pesach. We learned that Pesach is also called Chag Ha'Aviv and that Chodesh Nisan is called Rosh Chadashim. We finished our Haggados and are looking forward to using them, as well as our other beautiful projects at the Seder. We talked about the responses of the four sons and the significance of the words Pesach, Matza and Marror. We are sure that you will get a lot of nachas hearing your child recite the Mah Nishtana at the Seder. Our culminating activities this week leading up to Pesach were the Model Seder and Rabbi G's Matzah factory. The yeladim had a great time at both of these hands on, interactive and exciting programs. Some of the books the children enjoyed this week were, The Mouse in The Matzah Factory by Francine Medoff, Boruch Learns about Pesach by Rabbi Shmuel Kunda, and What is the Reason by Chaim Press. For Parshas Metzorah, we learned about the punishment of Tzoraas during the times of the Bais Hamikdash. We heard how Tzoraas can get on your skin, clothes or house, and how difficult it was for the metzorah to leave his family and seclude himself outside the city while he did teshuva. We discussed how loshon harah affects others, and we concluded that if we all concentrate on speaking loshon tov we will be doing a great mitzvah. We enjoyed listening to the book Yossie the Boy Who Wouldn't Speak Lashon Harah by Phyliss Weinberg. In Project Derech we learned that it is a mitzvah to help a teacher. We wish each and every family a Chag Kosher V'Sameach, enjoy your special time with your children. The Kindergarten children have mixed feeling about being on their last Superkids book! They are so excited that they are finally up to the last book, but at the same time they are so sad that they won t be going on anymore adventures with the Superkids. The last book concentrates on the letters X, Y, and Z and sight words YOU and WAS. We looked at pictures and went down memory lane, talking about all the wonderful moments the Superkids had in their club and how much we learned from them. Every child was given an ACHIEVEMENT AWARD to celebrate their accomplishments. After Pesach the Kindergarten classes will get together for a Superkids celebration! In math we spent a great amount of time on measurements. We learned measurement vocabulary words like, length, height and weight. After learning the meaning of these terms, we put our knowledge to use and walked around the room measuring different things like toys, books and even our friends, using rulers and measuring tape. We also focused on weight by carrying different items around the room including real bricks (just like the Jews in Mitzrayim). We ended the week by comparing and measuring two types of dough. One with yeast and one without. It was very fun! Ask your child what the results were.

7 Erev Shabbos Parashas Metzora Shabbos HaGadol 5776 Dear Parents, Observing children s behavior in the last few days of school before Pesach break, one can sense that something is up. They re jumpier, less patient, less tolerant of others and just plain crankier. Could it, might it have something to do with what s going on at home? Overworked Moms, tense moments in the Pesach cleaning adventure, wavering bedtimes, `alternative supper menus and times these are very likely ingredients. This is no small or laughing matter. The good news is there is something we can do about it. First, allow me to share an incredible observation of the Tolna Rebbe, Shlita, renowned for his insights in Chinuch. I always ask little children which Yom Tov they enjoy more, Pesach or Sukkos. I ve asked hundreds of children almost all say Sukkos. Some say it s because of the Simchas Beis HaShoeivah, while others say it s because the Sukka is fun. But most say the real reason. On Pesach, Ima is nervous about a mess, Abba is nervous about the k zeisim, everyone is nervous Yom Tov is meant to be joyous. It doesn t have to be a time of anxiety. In the Lifelines column in last week s Mishpacha magazine, a woman told her story of anxiety, tension and Shalom Bayis busting experiences in observing Pesach in the early years of her marriage. She and her husband came from diametrically opposed upbringings as it related to Pesach preparations and observance. She was from the `Chometz in the garage only, for a full week before Yom Tov household, he came from a home where `cooking macaroni a few hours before Bedikas Chometz was just fine. One year, her husband prevailed upon her to attend a pre-pesach shiur being given by their shul Rav. This is the essence of what he was quoted as saying: A lot of work goes into making Pesach, so it s important to know what s critical and what s just a nice thing to do. Eating matzah is a mitzvah d oreysa (from the Torah). That s critical. Telling your children the story of Yetzias Mitzrayim (Exodus) is also a d oreysa, so that s also critical. I should stress, though, that the fulfillment of the mitzvah of V Higadata L Vincha (and you shall tell to your son) is very much dependent on the parents Shalom Bayis. When we give over a mesorah (tradition) it has to be palatable to our children, and if the atmosphere between the parents is tense, they re not going to want to recreate what they saw growing up. So if there s a lot of arguing in your house before Pesach - even if it s done behind closed doors then chances are, you are not giving your children a positive example of what Pesach and Yiddishkeit are supposed to be about. Next critical item is Simchas Yom Tov. Pesach is one of the Shalosh Regalim, so there s a mitzvah d oraysa of simcha (joy). Simcha has halachic parameters, such as drinking wine and eating meat for men, and buying new clothing or jewelry for women, but on the most basic level, simcha means to be happy. Then we have the issurim (prohibitions) of eating and owning chometz. The Shulchan Aruch lays down the basic rules of how to eliminate chometz, but Klal Yisrael are kedoshim (holy), and we have developed all sorts of beautiful minhagim and chumras (extra stringencies) over the generations to help us avoid even the tiniest mashehu (speck) of chometz. It should be obvious, though, that if the chumras are causing tension and strife in the home, and preventing you from being b simcha, then you need to reevaluate your priorities. To paraphrase another memorable line from the column remember neither you nor your family is supposed to be the Korban Pesach Best wishes for a rejuvenating Shabbos filled with anticipation for the Simcha of Yom Tov, Rabbi Kalman Baumann

8 WEeKLY WRAP-UP