November 7, :17

Transcription

1 The Week IN words November 7, :17 יד חשון תשעה פרשת וירא

2 CALENDAR NOTES Tuesday, November 11 Teacher Work Day. NO SCHOOL Monday, November 17 Friday, November 21 Book Fair Thursday, November 27 Thanksgiving. Classes from 9:00-11:45 Friday, November 28 NO SCHOOL

3 MAZEL TOV: Rabbi Binyomin and Sorah Luban on the forthcoming marriage of their daughter Pnina to Michoel Ettedgui. Mr. Jacob and Pearly Bagdadi on the birth of a daughter.

4 Nursery news JUDAIC STUDIES MOROT SHULAMIS & TAMI This week, we had so much fun learning about the Parsha. In this week s Parsha, we learned about Avraham Avinu and how he loved to do the mitzvah of Hachnasas Orchim, inviting guests. We learned that when we have guests, we must give them food to eat and drink and walk them to the door. We practiced this by inviting Morah Rena s Kindergarten into our classroom tent. The children also learned about the wicked people of S dom and how they were not nice to their guests. When the Malachim came to Lot s house, the people of S dom heard and wanted to hurt them. Hashem made them blind so that they couldn t find the door and Lot quickly left S dom. When they were out of S dom and Hashem was destroying the city, Lot s wife turned around to see what was happening and turned into a pillar of salt. To reinforce this concept, the children made a 3 dimensional project depicting the fire that was destroying S dom and Lot s wife made out of salt. The children also enjoyed learning a song from 613 Torah Avenue: From North to South, from East to West Avrohom s tent was open to guests Three malochim were sent Each to do something different A son you will have, Sara was told She laughed and said, "I m too old," The next malach came to destroy S dom The third came to heal Avrohom SECULAR STUDIES MOROT SHULAMIS & SUSAN Music month was so much fun! Creating a class orchestra was one of our favorite musical activities. The children made a conductor's baton and pretended that they were conductors as they listened to the music of the "Nutcracker Suite". We reviewed the song "Do, Re Mi. We also created and made humming cups. When using the cups, we talked about the vibrations that we heard and felt in our mouths. We marched around the school in a marching band just like they did in the book The Little Band by James Sage. The class was so excited to be able to act out the stories that we read in class. To reinforce our fine motor skills, the children worked with scissors. The children created guitars, drums, flutes and bells with all their paper cuttings. As one of our circle time activities, we sang the song "The Wheels On The Bus and illustrated the story with flannel board pictures. We also sang and danced acting out one of the student s favorite musical folk story, Abiyoyo by, Michael Hays. Here are the words, so that you can sing along with your children. They will love that! Abiyoyo Abiyoyo Yo Yo Yo Yo Yo Yo Abiyoyo Abiyoyo Yo YO YO Yo Yo Yo Chorus: Avrohom ran to the malochim To be machnis orchim The children had so much fun completing our Farm Unit this week. They made a duck puppet and even got to play with a real bunny rabbit. Every child enjoyed petting Foo Foo and some were even brave enough to hold her.

5 PRe-K PAGES JUDAIC STUDIES MOROT HEIDI & NECHAMA For Parashas Vayera, we learned about many important mitzvos. Hashem visited Avraham when he was not feeling well. From here, we learn the mitzvah of Bikur Cholim. Avraham and Sarah loved to have guests in their tents. From their example, we learn how important it is to invite guests into our homes. We discussed that the mitzvah of Bikur Cholim can be done in many different ways; you can visit someone, call them on the phone or send them a card or a gift to help them feel better. Avraham had the doors to his tent open in all directions. He would welcome people graciously and bring them food and water to drink. He would also try to teach his guests about Hashem. The children sang the following song (to the tune of This Old Man. ): In the Chumash, we often read How Avraham Avinu did many good deeds He would sit outside his tent all day and wait for guests to come his way. Avraham had a wife, Sara was her name They were very happy when three malachim came To give them a message from Hashem That a baby boy would be born to them And so it was, the time had come Sara had a baby and it was a son They called him Yitzchak, a tzadik was he Can you imagine such a happy family! We continued our unit on Tzevaim (colors). The children were busy making collages using many different materials. They had a lot of fun sorting objects and describing the colors that they were wearing. For our Hebrew language program we have been learning the names for the people in our families, such as Ima, Abba, Ach, Achot, Saba, Savta, Yeled, Yaldah, Tinok and Tinoket. We sang a song about people in our Mishpacha and talked about different types of families and that our class is a family as well! SECULAR STUDIES MORAH JUDY Letter Cc was our letter of the week. The children compiled a list of Cc words including, clown, clock, cat, cap, caterpillar and cook. They enjoyed a story about Casey Clown and Corey Cat. These two funny letter C characters were introduced on our whiteboard. They also listened to the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar by, Eric Carle. They completed a follow up art activity and created a crawling, colorful, caterpillar. This week, the Pre-K children explored the sounds and shapes of wind instruments. They compared how some instruments are woodwinds and others brass. As part of our letter Cc week we chose the clarinet as a favorite instrument. The children enjoyed hearing the stories Chrysanthemum by, Kevin Henkes and Brass by, Dee Lillegard. As a letter Cc science project, we planted carrots using carrot tops. We will document the growth of the plants. The children are very excited to see what happens. Thank you to Mrs. Berger, Noam's mother, who came in to represent the letter Bb. Mrs. Berger brought in many items beginning with the letter Bb. Thank you also to Esther s parents Mr. & Mrs. Smeke and her grandparents, who came in to the Pre-KII class with a box of English and Spanish C items. The children loved seeing all the items that started with the B and C sounds! Have a wonderful Shabbos!

6 kindergarten CORNER JUDAIC STUDIES MOROT BAYLA & RENA What an exciting fun filled week we had in Kindergarten. We were introduced to the letter hay this week and added many new words to our growing vocabulary. Kol H kavod to all the children who remembered to bring back their aleph bais review sheets. Great job! Our housekeeping center was changed into Avraham Avinu s tent to inspire us in our dramatic play activities. In our block center, we used the doll houses to help reinforce the Hebrew vocabulary words we learned in our "Mishpacha" unit. We learned phrases such as Abba holech l'beis kenesses" and " Imma Babayit". Parshas Vayera is full of many beautiful stories about Avraham Avinu. We can learn so many great lessons from his behavior. Avraham is so well known for his Hachnassas Orchim that even his nephew Lot practiced this beautiful mitzvah. The Yeladim learned that the mitzvah of Bikur Cholim is so important that Hashem came to visit Avraham when he was recovering from his Bris Milah. "Emor Meat V'aseh Harbeh" was the midah tovah that Avraham possessed. This midah was so apparent when Avraham would offer his guests bread, water and a scrumptious meal. We learned about the many challenges with which Hashem repeatedly tested Avraham, from sending away Hagar and her son Yishmael to Akeidas Yitzchok. The children were amazed at Avraham's continuous, unconditional love for Hashem. In connection with this week s parsha and the wonderful midos that Avraham possessed, we read the book, There s Room in my House by Malky Weinstock. Project Derech taught us about the importance of saying sorry after we do something wrong. The children did a great job making use of this midah. SECULAR STUDIES MOROT HEIDI & PEARLY This week, with the help of Doc the SUPERKID, the children learned how to blend two letter sounds. The children were very excited when they realized how easy it is. Doc, who likes to fix toys, had to fix all the toys that made the wrong sounds. The children read sounds like DA DA, CO CO, and AC AC. They matched each sound to the toy that makes that sound. The next Superkid will teach the children how to read three letter words. Children learn in different ways, by seeing, hearing, speaking, and touching. The lessons in this math unit gave children the opportunity to use all of their senses to build an understanding of numbers and number relationships. They learned to count and write numerals from 6-9. They practiced representing numbers using the ten frame and manipulating objects to represent different numbers. They also answered questions identifying how many objects there were in a given set. The composer that we learned about this week was Johann Sebastian Bach. When Bach was a child, his father taught him how to play the violin. Everyone in Bach s family was a musician. As Bach grew older, he learned how to play different instruments. For most of his life, Bach was a music teacher at a local school in Germany. During his spare time he would compose music and perform at a local coffee house. We listened to his music as well as the music of other famous composers and danced to the rhythm of the songs. The students noticed how some songs had them dancing faster and some slower. They also commented on the mood of each song and how some songs made them feel sad and others happy. We continued working on our book of composers. The children can t wait to bring it home at the end of the unit.

7 Erev Shabbos Parashas Vayera 5775 Dear Parents, An interesting question is posed by the Sifsei Chachomim, the best known of the `super commentaries on Rashi, in this week s Parsha. The Torah relates that when Yishmael lay dying of thirst in the desert, Hashem responded to his cries and came to his rescue Ba Asher Hu Shom where he was. Rashi relates that a heavenly `debate ensued, with the Malachim questioning how Hashem could save one whose descendants would in the future cause the Jews to die of thirst, by miraculously causing a well to appear. Hashem s response was Ba Asher Hu Shom right now he s a Tzaddik, these Aveiros haven t taken place yet, and therefore he deserves to be saved. The Sifsei Chachomim (OS Pey) questions why this situation with Yishmael should be different from the law of a Ben Sorer U Moreh, the stubborn and rebellious son, about whom the Halacha says (if such a case would ever occur) that he would be put to death on account of future (anticipated) sins and crimes. One of his answers (brought in Parshas Ki Seitzei 21:20 Os Nun) is that there was nothing in Yishmael s present behavior that indicated any connection to a future criminal behavior of causing Jews to die from thirst. However, in the case of the Ben Sorer U Moreh, he was already involved with taking his father s money (without permission), in order to bankroll his drunkenness and gluttony, that would ultimately lead to robbery and murder. I believe we can glean an important lesson from this insight of the Sifsei Chachomim. In analyzing our children s behavior, it is imperative that we distinguish between childish mischief and carelessness on the one hand, and a manifestation of poor Midos, on the other. If a child is careless with his belongings, walks on the couch with his shoes on, makes a lot of noise, doesn t respond immediately to an adult instruction, gets annoyed with and even hits a sibling in most cases this is behavior that will be outgrown and will not impact on the child once he or she grows up. However, even if a child is seemingly well behaved, but is quietly dishonest, disrespectful, lazy, selfish, overly jealous or cruel to others or even animals, those behaviors reflect an inner value system. If such behavior is not redirected, the child could turn into a dishonest, disrespectful, lazy, selfish, jealous, cruel adult, R L. (G-d Forbid) We need to look with a discerning eye to our children s behavior, and respond accordingly. While childish behavior needs to be extinguished, and is most disruptive and annoying to the parents, it is not where to focus most of your energies. The area that requires the most attention and effort is your children s Midos. By keeping in mind where to put your energies, you ll save your strength for where it s really needed. Your goal should not be how can I get him to stop annoying me today, but rather - what will my child look like when he or she is 20 years old. And what can I do to help him develop to his fullest potential. May Hashem bless your efforts with Nachas and success. Best wishes for a wonderful Shabbos, Rabbi Kalman Baumann Principal

8 WEeKLY WRAP-UP