Upcoming Events. Thursday, Nissan 10 th, 5773 March 21 st, Principal s News. Dear MJDS Parents,

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1 בס"ד Maimonides Jewish Day School 6612 SW Capitol Highway Portland, OR Phone: Principal s News Dear MJDS Parents, Tuition is due for April, please submit you payment. Pesach break information: Thursday, Nissan 10 th, 5773 March 21 st, 2013 Upcoming Events Friday March 22 nd through Wednesday Aril 3 rd Pesach Break. School resumes Thursday April 4 th. Friday March 22 nd through Wednesday Aril 3 rd - No School. School resumes Thursday April 4 th 8:20am We would like to give Yasher Koach to all our teachers for all their efforts, hard work and extra time given to ensure your child/ren will have a meaningful Pesach. Have a wonderful Chag with your childen. Please give us Nachas and feedback by telling us how your child/ren helped you get ready for the Chag and how well they participated during the Seder. Chag Pesach Kosher v Sameach! Mrs. Devora Wilhelm & MJDS

2 Kindergarten and 1 st Grade, Dear Parents, It is a pleasure to welcome Avital to our K-1 class! K-1 children have done a beautiful job of welcoming her and I am very proud of their kindness and inclusivity. In General Studies we have had a wonderful week: Math: Beginning multiplication! Children understand the x sign as another way to say groups of. So when they see the number sentence 2x3 = 6, they are learning to read it as 2 groups of 3 = 6. We continue to work on addition and subtraction math facts. The children have the foundational understandings of the operations, and now we will work on memorizing basic facts. The goal is for them to know that, for example, 2+5=7 without having to think about it; just the same as sight words in language. Enclosed in the Pesach Fun Packet are math pages that students may complete for review. Literacy: We have been learning about parts of speech nouns, verbs and adjectives! We played a fun game based on nouns, verbs and adjectives we identified in our story, The Other Three Bears. Our reading program provides three different levels of the story, enabling all of us to be sharing the same content at the appropriate level. Science: We checked on our rain gauges, measured the difference between where we began and how much higher our water lines are. The children remembered all about evaporation, collection and precipitation and understand how this relates to our measurements! (So smart!) Information for You: I will be undergoing some necessary surgery on April 3 rd. I was hoping to have the procedure during Pesach, but the schedule was already full. I have completely prepared a wonderful unit about houses our own and different dwellings around the world that integrates mapping, reading, writing, and art (and of course, math!). Morah Sami will be with the children every day for two weeks, after which time I hope to return to the classroom. Wishing you all a wonderful Pesach! Morah Sharon In Jewish Studies We are about to celebrate a holiday that is focused on children. It is a special Mitzvah to tell over the story of Pesach "Vhigadita L'vincha, and you should tell it to your children". The culmination of our month of learning and experiencing Pesach will be experienced at your Seder. (Maybe it's been about as long as you have been preparing for Passover). This year we have focused on the idea of going from slavery to freedom, and that the Seder is designed to help us experience the slavery and freedom. We celebrate the Chag because every year on Pesach we experience freedom again.

3 Through all the laws and customs of the Seder night, what we are really emphasizing is the most important thing about ourselves: Once we were slaves and now we are free." As we go through the rituals and recite the Haggadah, and as we discuss the written text and what lies beyond it, we must bring ourselves to understand ever more deeply that we shall truly be redeemed only when we take it upon ourselves to fulfill our need to live in our own unique way, each student who they are- that is when we become truly free. The student's Haggadot are beautiful pieces of individual work that were created to have them be involved in the Seder. You will notice that they used multiple techniques. Although the final product is very beautiful the process was extremely important as well. The dictations you see on each page are the words of the students. It is a combination of what the students learned at school and what they remember from home. In team effort Morah Ariana, Morah Sharon and I were able to cover writing, reading, singing, reflective questioning, gluing, creating etc. all in relation to Pesach. Wishing you a Chag Kosher V'Sameach and may we experience the ultimate freedom with the coming of Moshiach! Morah Simi Second through Fifth Grade Jewish Studies News Dear 2 nd and 3 rd Grade Parents, We started our Pesach Unit with introducing how we prepare for Pesach 30 days in advance. We created a diagram in class with all the minhagim of the Month of Nissan, including giving Maos Chitim, no tachnun, we say a special bracha on fruit trees, and the Nasi which we say from Rosh Chodesh until the 12 th of Nissan. The children then each got one or two minhagim of Nissan to decorate and together we made a class collage with all our drawings. We went on to the history of Pesach and discussed why we even celebrate this Yom Tov. We played Pass the Present and in order to get the prize, the child had to answer a question on the story of Pesach. We then played Blabble where the children sat around and told each other the story of Pesach making sure to go in chronological order. We highlighted Shabbos Hagadol, the Big Shabbos where Hashem made a big miracle and the Egyptian firstborns killed their fathers and a civil war broke out. This is also a big Shabbos since the Jews fulfilled two mitzvot on that day; brit milah and Korbon Pesach. The Shabbos before Pesach every year is now called Shabbos Hagadol where the Rabbi makes an extra long speech and we read part of the Haggadah. We moved on to the name of Pesach itself and discovered that Pesach actually has four names! We practiced our kesiva skills by writing all the names of Pesach on a paper as neat as we could. Then, we played a matching game, trying to figure out the reason behind each name. We were proud to see how many we got right!

4 We then explored the concept of Chometz vs. Matza. Each child was given a balloon to blow. The children were asked to explain the difference between the balloon before and after it was blown. We discussed how ego is like air and blows us up. Matza is flat and teaches us humility. As a class we then discussed how Matza is made and then we got to create our very own Matza, making sure it took us less than 18 minutes! We looked inside the Torah and saw the source for the mitzvah of only eating Matza for 8 days. We went on to learn about what Pesach really is for us. It seems like it s a nice story of what happened thousands of years ago, but why do we celebrate it every year? We discussed how really, leaving Egypt can happen every day. Egypt is our yetzer ha rah who tries to hold us back from reaching our full potential. It tells us, Na, its too hard! I can t be a good Jew etc. When we go beyond that, we are leaving our personal Egypt! We created Matza bags personifying the concept of bchol dor v dor - in every generation; we have the ability to leave our personal Egypt. After understanding what Pesach is all about, we continued to the practicals of getting our homes really ready for Pesach. We created a Bedikas Chometz kit to help us on the night before Erev Pesach as well as a magnet for Erev Pesach itself to remind us when to stop eating Chometz and when to burn the Chometz. We learned how the table should be set for the Seder and got to measure out 3.5 oz, the minimum amount our kiddush cups can be. We created our own Ka arahs with the seven special foods that go on it; the marror (bitter herbs), chazeres (lettuce), zroyah (broiled bone), beitza (egg), charoses (apple, nut, wine mixture), and karpas (vegetable). We matched the reasons for each of the foods to the food. To make sure we remembered all what we learned regarding Chometz, Erev Pesach, and Shabbos Hagadol, we created a checklist to bring home and help us out as we go along. Our highlight was creating our very own Haggadah with each of the Simanei ha Seder (the order of the Seder) decorated and explained by the children themselves! Each Siman was explained in class and followed by a few minutes where the children filled out a, did you know paper and/or this Siman represents freedom because. For Maggid, besides for learning it as a class, the children each researched and explored one paragraph that spoke to them. First, they wrote what they already knew and wrote down what they would like to know. Then, they were given information on their topic and chose 1-2 questions they found the answers to. With that information, they created their own page as creatively as they can and can t wait to share it by the Pesach Seder. To wrap it all up, we had our own Model Seder where the children went through all the steps in the Seder and made sure they are able to actively participate in their Seder next week. May we celebrate this coming Pesach in Jerusalem! Moshiach Now Ms. Zwiebel Dear 4th and 5th Grade Parents, We learned a lot on the holiday of Pesach! We focused on many different areas. First we learned all about the month of Nissan. To start the lesson I brought into class a cake mix, party bag, and a tea bag, and asked the boys to figure out what the three have in common. We realized how

5 each of them need preparation in order to be used. We discussed how good things need to be prepared before. So too, with the upcoming holiday, Pesach; we need to start learning about it 30 days before. Each boy filled in a web diagram about the different names and minhagim of the month of Nissan. Then, each boy taught to the class one of the four names of Pesach and the reason behind its name. We discussed the idea that Hashem calls Pesach Chag Hamatzot because we eat Matza for longer than we eat Korbon Pesach. This shows us how important our mitzvot are in Hashem s eyes. We call it Pesach because we are reminding Hashem that we want the Bais Hamikdosh to be rebuilt, enabling us to bring the Korbon Pesach again. To review the story of Pesach we played a really fun game of Around the World with questions on the Pesach story. We then went into depth on Matza. We discussed how it is made and got to make it ourselves! We discussed how Matza represents humility and the concept of humility vs. egotism. We focused on the many preparations for Pesach and especially the preparations required on Erev Pesach. First, we discussed the special Shabbos before Pesach, called Shabbos Ha gadol. We discussed the reasons for this special name and the customs we do on this day.i brought the Pessukim from the Torah showing how we have to rid ourselves from Chometz. We did a model cleaning and Bedikas Chometz in our classroom just like we will be doing at home. It was very interesting to note that Bedikas Chometz is not an actual mitzvah but a means to get to the mitzvah in the Torah; to have a Chometz-free home. We made sure to discuss what would happen if we were to find any Chometz in our possession on Pesach. We also got to make our own Bidkat Chometz kits. Erv Pesach itself, we stop eating Chometz at the time that the Korbon Pesach was brought (this year 11:13 am) since the Korbon wasn t allowed to be given as long as there was any Chometz in a person s possessions. We then have another hour to burn the remaining Chometz. The Torah tells us that Biur Chometz s requirement is only to nullify it in our hearts, but since the Sages weren t sure if we could do it, they established that we have to empty our homes completely and burn all Chometz we own. Any Chometz we want to keep for after Pesach, we give to a local Rabbi and he sells it for us to a non Jew. Actually preparing for the Seder itself, we discussed the significance of the 4 cups of wine, the Seder plate and all the items on the Seder plate. We then went into depths on the Haggadah itself. We learned the fifteen steps of the Seder using the Haggada and many beautiful insights on a few of the steps. A big chunk of our time was used learning the actual meanings of words we say in the 5th step of the Seder, Maggid. It was very inspiration for the class to take Maggid to a higher level. Take a look at what the boys wrote in there Haggadahs. This year as our Pesach project we got to make Matza bags from scratch. First, each boy had to work out a plan how they were going to make their Matza cover. They had to make a list of materials they would need and they had to think about how their Matza cover will present the concept of Pesach they chose to show. Each one of them really came out beautiful and meaningful. We learned about the extra teffilos we add in our davening on Pesach.

6 We spoke about the last 2 days of Pesach and how we are celebrating being saved and becoming a nation, rather than the Egyptians suffering. Because we don t rejoice while others suffer. Some have the custom to stay up all night on the 7th day of Pesach to celebrate the miracle by learning torah. Lastly we learned all about counting the Omer, how to do it, what we say and what the halchos are if we forget etc. Pesach Sameach! Moshiach Now! Mrs. Rivkin, Ms. Wilhelm