October 23, :27

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1 The Week IN words October 23, :27 י חשון תשעו פרשת לך לך

2 Mrs. Naomi Bloom Lifetime Achievement Award It is with tremendous gratitude and honor that we present this year s Lifetime Achievement Award to Mrs. Naomi Bloom. For more than three decades Morah Bloom as she is affectionately known by all, has lead our Early Childhood program from its humble beginnings in two small houses on Northwest 2 nd Avenue to its present, state of the art, brand new building on our South Campus. Under Mrs. Bloom s tutelage, our ECE program, has earned an outstanding reputation for excellence in education coupled with dedicated teachers, appreciative parents and happy children. Her love and devotion for each and every child, parent, and teacher has laid the foundation to create a true Torah environment where children are able to thrive and flourish. Under her administration the ECE program experienced tremendous growth from a mere 50 to 130 students and has earned various accreditations and awards to become the current Early Childhood we are proud to call our own. Please join us as we pay tribute to Mrs. Naomi Bloom, our special Lifetime Achievement honoree, and express Hakoras Hatov for all that she has done to shape the future generations of Klal Yisroel.

3 MAZEL TOV Mr. Isaac and Dorit Akrish on the Bar Mitzvah of their son Daniel. Mr. Akiva and Rachelli Mendoza on the Bar Mitzvah of their son Yishai. Parenting Classes - At Home! Monday is the deadline to sign up for the Dina Friedman classes (an was sent out earlier this week) presented by the Chanoch Lnaar organization. A series of 38 classes in parenting and well-being is provided through MP3 recordings, allowing you to listen at your convenience, in the comfort of your own home. A weekly Q & A session with Mrs. Friedman allows you to participate in a live session via telephone. These sessions are recorded and can also be accessed at any time. For further information call or visit There will be division wide pictures taken this coming Tuesday, October 27. Stay tuned for information regarding what to wear. Please make sure to have your child(ren) in school on time. RED BAG ALERT You should have received your child s red cinch sack last Friday. These bags are to be used each Friday to send home the flyers and the wonderful projects the children complete each week. Please remember to send the emptied bag back to school each Monday.

4 Nursery news NURSERY I-MORAH TAMI NURSERY II MORAH MIRIAM If you happened to pass by the Nursery this week, you would have heard strange noises coming from our classroom-the sounds of chickens (tarnegolet), roosters (tarnegol), ducks (barvaz), sheep (kivsa),cows (parah), cats (chatul), dogs (kelev) and horses (sus). These were the sounds associated with the farm unit we completed. We taught the children how to say the names of these animals in Hebrew and played Farm Lotto. We made class farm puppets and sang the song, La Dod Moshe Hayta Chava. The children loved learning about the animals and pretending to be farm animals. We learned the following words in conjunction with this unit: חוה איכר שדה ירקות פרות Parashas Lech Lecha was taught this week. The children were fascinated to learn that Avraham discovered the existence of Hashem when he was only three years old-the same age as the children in Nursery. We also talked about the story of Avraham and the idols and the promise that Hashem made to Avraham, that his children would be as many as the sand and stars. We enjoyed listening to the story, A Little Boy Named Avram by Dina Rosenfeld. Our Hebrew Language Program this week focused on the Farm and the Parsha. We learned the words: כוכים חול חנות פסלים NURSERY I MORAH SUSAN We had a very exciting week in Nursery. The class learned a new chant in our Afternoon Meeting and enjoyed greeting one another each day. We sang, hands on our head, eyes on me, are you ready, then count 1, 2,3!!!! Each child also got a turn to share during the Afternoon Meeting. We started a new unit on Feelings. We discussed various feelings including, happy, sad, angry, shy, lonely and excited. We also looked at many pictures expressing different feelings and played with "feelings puppets". In our art center we created a "happy sad" picture on a paper plate and created happy faces using play dough. During our library center we read several books on feelings. The children looked through the books and identified the feelings being depicted. Our book of the week was The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. After reading the book we made our very own kissing hands. In music and movement activities we have learned the song "If you believe in yourself." The children are so excited to perform the song for their friends in Pre-k! The Parsha of the week is lech lecha! Avram was a big tzaddik who always davened to Hashem. He also listened to whatever Hashem told him. So when Hashem said to GO! he packed up his bags and went even though he did not know where to go. We had lots of fun acting out the stories we learned. Morah called out, GO!! and we all got up, took our lunch bags and went all around the classroom! We also learned how Avram s sheep were careful not to eat from grass that wasn t theirs. We spoke about how careful we have to be not to take any of our friend s toys or snacks. We made a food scene to represent Avram and lot s sheep. Hashem promised Avram that he would have as many children as the stars. We made star papers showing how each of us is one of those special stars. The children used their glue sticks all by themselves to complete their projects! They were so proud! We started a unit on thanking Hashem. This week we focused on thanking Hashem for colors. We read a book about how boring the world would be with no color in it. We all agreed that colors make things pretty and make us feel happy. We loved singing and dancing to our color song with all the names of the colors in Hebrew! After learning the color names in Hebrew, each child was assigned a color and had to sort through a variety of art materials on the table and make a collage using only their color. We played a matching game on the Morah s board to help us remember the colors. Words we learned this week: אדם צהב כחול ירוק סגול ורוד כתום לבן שחור NURSERY II MORAH SHULAMIS This week we started the unit on feelings. We discussed many feelings that can be expressed such as happy, sad, angry, shy and scared. The children were shown many pictures depicting different feelings and had the opportunity to play with feelings puppets. We made a happy/sad face project using paper plates. We also made mood bears. The children had so much fun making the mood bear and playing with them. We read many books on feelings including, the llama llama books by Anna Dewdney. Other stories read to the children included, I Was So Mad by Mercer Mayer, And Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin. The children looked through books from the class library on the topic of feelings. During music time, we learned the action song Five little Ducks", "If you are happy and you know it" and "Mitzvos make us happy" (uncle Moishy). Five little ducks went swimming one day Over the pond and far away When mama duck said quack quack quack How do you feel when you play like that. I feel happy when I play Over the pond and far away When mama duck says quack quack quack I come running running back...

5 PRe-K PAGES JUDAIC STUDIES MOROT NECHAMA & SHULAMIS The children loved learning Parsha this week. We learned that in the beginning of the parsha, Hashem tells Avram to leave Charan, where he lived with his father Terach. Hashem promised Avram that he would have as many children as the stars in the sky, and the sand on the ground. After learning the parsha we completed an art project to represent Hashem s promise to Avram. Hashem gave Avram many tests. Avram had full faith in Hashem and passed all the tests that were given to him without complaining. In relation to the parsha we listened to the stories; Who Is The Builder by Genendel Krohn, A Little Boy Named Avram by Dina Rosenfeld and The Ten Tests of Avraham by Shoshana Lepon. We continued our unit on Tzevaim (colors). The children had a lot of fun singing songs and playing color games using their new knowledge of the color names in Hebrew. Our Hebrew letters of the week were beis and vais. Some of the vocabulary words that we focused on were: בקר ביצה בית ספר בית כנסת בגדים בבה בית לולב כוכב זבוב SECULAR STUDIES MORAH JUDY We continued learning about Animals this week. The children have been observing our Hermit Crabs changing shells. The Hermit Crabs are nocturnal, so they do most of their shell changing activities at night, but we are able to observe what changed overnight when we get to school in the morning. The children learned all about bats. Some bat facts that we learned were, that they are nocturnal, they hang upside down and they have long bony like fingers in their wings. A favorite book we read was Stellaluna by Janell Cannon. The story was about a Fruit Bat names Stellaluna. She befriends three baby birds, and goes through many adventures with them. After reading the book we compared bats to birds and found many similarities and differences. The Pre-K Children made their own bats that are hanging in our class bat cave. This week our letter of the week was the letter Bb. We had a surprise visitor, Moshe Dov's Bubbie from Chicago. She brought in her bbb...bag, that contained a bbb...book, titled, Brown Bear Brown Bear by Eric Carle. The children found many Bb words throughout the story. They were so delighted by her visit that they invited her to join our class again. This week to start off a class kindness project we read the book, How Full Is Your Bucket? for Kids by Tom Rath. This book is about a boy who learns how to fill up his imaginary bucket, each time he performs an act of kindness. After reading the book, the children began filling up their class bucket with balls each time they did an act of kindness for their friends. Friday is Show and Tell day. Please help your child choose a small item from home that relates to the unit, or letter of the week. They can also tell a story, sing a song, or share a picture with the class on Fridays. The children are so excited to be making alef -beis projects in their very own alef beis sefer!

6 kindergarten CORNER JUDAIC STUDIES MOROT BAYLA, ESTY & RENA We have been so busy here in Kindergarten! We are learning and playing and bonding and forming wonderful friendships. Our days are full of exciting activities and productive lessons. This week we were introduced to not one, but TWO new letters of the Aleph-Bais! Bais and Vais! We learned the chant, Bais has a dot and the Vais does not to help us remember which letter is which. We thought of many words that begin with the letter Bais and learned that there are no words that begin with a Vais. Parsha is a real highlight! The story keeps getting more and more interesting. The children sit so quietly and focused, waiting to hear all the story details. They are really retaining the information being taught. Each class completed a beautiful sand art project to represent Hashem s promise to Avraham. We have begun to daven with a siddur! We are trying hard to follow along and keep the place. We feel really grown up now that we can daven the way adults do. It s beautiful to watch how the children take super good care of their siddurim! Please remember to complete the homework and return the folder and the red bags to school on Monday. Thank you! SECULAR STUDIES MOROT HEIDI & PEARLY This week we completed our first Superkids book representing the letter C (/k/sound)! As a culminating activity, we made cool cups (orange juice pops) from Cass s cookbook. We filled our cups with orange juice and marked the cup with a line to show where the orange juice stopped. After our cool cups froze we noticed that the orange juice rose above the line that we had made. The children learned that as liquid freezes it expands. We also used the big book Corduroy by Dan Freeman, to reinforce the /k/ sound. We began a new letter book focusing on the letter O and its short sound. The children were introduced to a new SUPERKIDS character named Oswald, and his odd animals. We compiled a list of words beginning with the short O sound and drew pictures to depict the O words the children though of. We listened to a CD about Oswald and practiced short O sound recognition in our letter books. In Math, we continued working in our Go Math workbooks. We practiced writing the numbers 1-5, matched sets of numbers and wrote the correct numbers corresponding to various objects in our books. We are continuing to explore different types of weather. The children are busy making a weather diagram which they can use to mark the weather for each day. This week we introduced journal writing. As the year progresses, the children will use inventive spelling and sight words to write and fill up their journals. Another exciting development in our class is the arrival of 3 new computers! Every week, your child will have the opportunity to use the computer two times to complete the Waterford Early Reading, Math and Science Program. Each session is timed for 15 minutes. Each child works at his/her own pace and each program is specifically designed for individual use. The children have been very enthusiastic about the computers and using the program!

7 Erev Shabbos Parashas Lech Lecha 5776 Dear Parents, How appropriate that the worldwide Shabbos Project 2015 coincides with the Parsha that introduces us to Avraham Avinu s world of Chesed. Two important facets of Avraham s chesed have a direct bearing on the goals we are striving to achieve this Shabbos. Avraham truly loved his fellow man. That love found expression in tending to his fellow s physical needs for food and shelter. Avraham understood that the essence of humanity is to emulate Hashem s traits of kindness and goodness, and he devoted himself to the wellbeing of every individual he could possibly help. This concern for the physical wellbeing of others was only half the picture. Avraham s love was so strong and so deep that he nurtured the soul of his fellow as well. This was true concern for others it started with the here and now, but his care stretched to eternity. Avraham s focus on the needs of others was not at the expense of his own family. The Torah makes several indirect references to the fact that he enlisted the help of his children in the care of others. Most famously, by the incident with the three angels in next week s Parsha the Torah tells us (Bereishis 18:7 see Rashi) Avraham had Yishmael participate by preparing the food to serve the guests. It is an everlasting lesson in the appropriate manner of being mechanech our children to do chesed. We know what the Shabbos Project offers those who have heretofore been denied the beautiful heritage of Shabbos. Do we know what the Shabbos Project has to offer us and our families? At whatever level we are participating in the Shabbos Project, we mustn t lose sight of our children. They are integral to our efforts in presenting the splendor of Shabbos to outsiders. When guests enter our home, or join us in a communal Seudah, they are entering an environment that is bewildering; Halachos, Minhagim, Tefilos, Zemiros, Bentching, Divrei Torah, family traditions, just plain `shtick what are they to make of it? No matter how spectacular the food and presentation are, reactions and judgments will be made primarily over two aspects of the experience; the level of warmth conveyed toward them, and the impression the children will make on them. That is something almost anyone can relate to. Our children are happy, lively, comfortable with Shabbos and Torah & Mitzvos, knowledgeable and genuine. They convey an aura that is completely unknown in the outside world. When they say over their Divrei Torah and their Parsha sheets, guests are simply amazed. Lest you think that such children only reside in those picture-perfect families (who always exist somewhere else!), step back and envision your children through the eyes of an uninitiated Jew you will realize what a treasure you have. Even if the Zemiros last only 4 seconds and the kids bicker a bit, (OK, a lot!) even if your child can t remember some detail about the Parsha, they still represent a commodity that the nonobservant can only dream about. Realize the tremendous opportunity that we have. If our children can make such a tremendous impact, it compels us to involve them as much as possible before, during and after. Speak with them about the fact it is such a privilege to be a Torah Jew and we naturally want this goodness for others as well. The children will want to participate and are excited to be involved. Enable them to be active participants. Let them help with set up, decorating the room, planning their role during the meal and Shabbos. Encourage their presence and contributions during the meal. This win-win will capture the hearts of your guests, and greatly enhance the chinuch of your children. With best wishes for a unified, connected and child-oriented Shabbos, Rabbi Kalman Baumann

8 WEeKLY WRAP-UP