October 3, :47 ט תשרי תשעה ערב יום כפור

Transcription

1 The Week in Words October 3, :47 ט תשרי תשעה ערב יום כפור

2 CALENDAR NOTES Erev Yom Kippur Friday, October 3 No Classes Succos Break Wednesday, October 8 Sunday, October 19 Classes Resume Monday, October 20 BIRKAS HABANIM The blessing of one s children on Erev Yom Kippur is an exceptionally beautiful and meaningful prayer. Its recitation during this sanctified time reminds us of the profound responsibilities and opportunities that our children present us with and offers us the privilege of bestowing our love upon them in a profound and sacred manner. Thank you for entrusting your precious children to us each day. Through our encouragement as parents and teachers, we ask Hashem to give us the knowledge and skills to lead as an example for our children and provide them with the tools they need to follow in the way of Hashem. In the spirit of the Yomim Noraim, the Early Childhood administration and staff would like to ask forgiveness from parents and children for anything that may have been said or done to impact you negatively in any way this past year. We would like to wish everyone a G mar Chasima Tova. May you all have a meaningful fast and a year filled with good health, happiness and Nachas.

3 We are excited to announce that Mrs. Minnie Schraga will be receiving the Aishes Chayil Award the YTCTE 30th Annual Dinner. Mrs. Schraga has been a very good friend of our Yeshiva for many years. Mrs. Schraga, mother of Mr. Shopsie Schraga, is well known in the Surfside community as well as the entire South Florida for her commitment to Torah growth in South Florida. Hernan and Paola Leonoff Guests of Honor Hernan and Paola Leonoff joined the Yeshiva Toras Chaim Toras Emes family in The Leonoffs are an integral part of the YTCTE family and the South Florida community. They are prime examples of people that want to help and will go out of their way to do so. Hernan and Paola, originally from Argentina, came to the United States in The Leonoffs moved to Aventura where they became active members of the South Florida Jewish Community and specifically the Aventura Shul. Hernan comes from a long history of entrepreneurs that built one of the largest and most renowned chain of retail optical stores in Argentina. Hernan became a partner in MG3 Developer in Hernan has worked tirelessly, with mesiras nefesh, behind the scenes on behalf of the Yeshiva. It is as a result of his efforts that we were able to move into our new facility at the beginning of this school year. Paola is involved with the JCS Kosher Food Bank. Paola coordinates the food drive at Klurman Elementary School every year. Paola is always eager to help in class productions; taking the initiative to make sure every detail is taken care of. Paola also volunteers for the Chevra Kadisha of South Florida. Hernan and Paola have played an integral role in the growth of the Yeshiva. They are encouraging and inspiring to any new families who are considering joining our YTCTE family. Hernan and Paola have four children, Sofia, Simcha, Dan and Orly. Sofia and Simcha are graduates of Klurman Elementary School and are currently attending Bais Yaakov. Dan is currently enrolled in the third grade at KES and Orly is currently in Pre-K at Hillel. We wish them continued hatzlocha in their wonderful ways and much nachas from all their children.

4 Nursery news JUDAIC STUDIES MOROT SHULAMIS & TAMI Yom Kippur was the theme of the week in the Nursery class. We learned that Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year. Everyone wears white on Yom Kippur. Even the Sefer Torah is dresses in a special white cover. We talked about why people wear sneakers or slippers to shul on this holy day. The yeladim enjoyed listening to the story of Yonah. Through the message of his story, they learned how all of their actions are observed by Hashem. To reinforce this concept, we learned the song "Hashem is Here." We talked about how important it is for each of us to do teshuva and say sorry to our friends for our wrongdoings. We sang the song Let s Be Friends and held hands. Lets be friends make amends now it's time to say I'm sorry. We learned about the minhag of Kapparos. Some people use a hen for this mitzvah while others use money. All the Nursery children made their own individual hens using feathers. We also learned the following Hebrew words and phrases: יום כפור אסור אכילה שתיה רחיצה נעילת נעליים יונה תרנגול כסף SECULAR STUDIES MOROT SHULAMIS & SUSAN We started a new unit on zoo animals. We talked about the animals that are found in the zoo and compared them to the types of animals people have as pets in their homes. The children had a great time making animal puppets and using them in puppet shows. What great imaginations the nursery children have. We also had such fun acting out and counting while doing the fingerplay, "Five Little Monkeys Sitting on a Tree." Five Little Monkeys Five little monkeys sitting in a tree Teasing Mr. Crocodile, you can't catch me Neh neh neh neh When snap... Oh oh only four monkeys in the tree For snack we enjoyed animal crackers and sang a silly animal song while eating our crackers. Animal Crackers Song Once I ate an elephant and then I ate a giraffe And then I ate a kangaroo and then it made me laugh. If you think its funny that I ate such a meal, Well all of them were animal crackers and none of them were real. During library center, the children enjoyed looking at books about animals that live in the zoo. They listened to the stories Mommy Mine by Tim Warnes, My School s A Zoo by Stu Smith, What Do You Say When A Monkey Acts This Way by Jane Belk Moncure and 1,2,3, To The Zoo A Counting Book by Eric Carle.

5 PRe-K PAGES JUDAIC STUDIES MOROT HEIDI & NECHAMA SECULAR STUDIES MORAH JUDY This week, we had a meaningful discussion about Yom Kippur. We discussed the concept of kaparos and how the chickens are given to poor people after being used as kaparos. We learned that on Yom Kippur Abbas and Imas fast, and do not wear leather shoes. It is also the day we ask Hashem for forgiveness. The children are all going to try very hard to play quietly at home or sit quietly at Shul so that their parents can daven and rest. The children decided to be extra careful in the way they play with one another during Aseres Yemei Teshuva. To help us reinforce saying I m sorry to our friends, we listened to the story, The Hardest Word by Jacqueline Jules. The children were fascinated by the story of Yonah. We listened to the story of Yonah in the Artscroll book by, Shmuel Blitz and the story Sneakers to Shul by Floreva G. Cohen. The children also started to learn about Chag HaSuccos. Some of the stories that the children listened to were Hillel Builds A House by Shoshana Lepon and Zayde s Special Esrogim by Aydel Lebovics. This week the Pre K children began their unit titled, Our Town and Community. We discussed the different things that are in our towns that allow us to follow the Torah and mitzvos, like the kosher stores and shuls. We built our own sukkahs, from recycled boxes and used them to create a temporary sukkah town. The children put their creativity to work decorating the sukkahs with paint and scraps of paper and glue. The Pre-K children also designed paper houses using different cut out shapes to resemble their own homes. They cut out simple shapes such as triangles, squares, rectangles and circles and put them together to build their homes. They created pretend streets and nature paths using a variety of materials. Some of the materials were even found in our own playground! They created life-like paved streets by mixing black powder paint, glue, sand and water together. We welcomed in the Fall season. In our Florida communities, the children observed little changes outside; however, they were able to see pictures and talk to relatives to understand that in other places the weather changes as do the trees and nature. As we discussed communities, we also spoke about ways that animal communities prepare for winter. Some new vocabulary words taught this week were: hibernate, community, town and grocery store. We also learned some vocabulary terms associated with a map like, near, far, next to and distance. In Science we observed seeds beginning to show roots for planting. We reviewed our water experiments, that consisted of water mixed with other substances, such as salt, oil, soda and sugar. The observations were documented with simple drawings. The children were especially amazed that no matter how much oil and water are mixed, the oil floats to the top. Salt on the other hand, always falls to the bottom. The Pre-K children learned the term for water is H2O.

6 kindergarten CORNER JUDAIC STUDIES MOROT BAYLA & RENA SECULAR STUDIES MOROT HEIDI & PEARLY With Rosh Hashana behind us we are now concentrating on Yom Kippur, which will be the culmination of the Aseres Yemei Teshuva. Although Hashem judges us on Rosh Hashana, we have a chance to seal our year for a shana tova by concentrating on teshuva, tefilla, and tzedaka during these important days. We learned that on Yom Kippur we refrain from eating, drinking, wearing leather shoes, and washing ourselves. We discussed how we can only wash our hands up to our knuckles. Instead of doing these normal daily routines, we are busy all day davening to Hashem to forgive us and grant us a year of brocha. The children also learned the story of Yonah and how he tried running away from Hashem when he was supposed to go to Ninveh to tell them to do Teshuva. Hashem sent a Dag Gadol to swallow Yonah. When he was in the dag s stomach he did teshuva and continued on to Ninveh to tell the people there to do teshuva as well. The people listened and did teshuva for their sins. We learned that if Hashem accepted the teshuva of the people of Ninveh who were reshaim, Hashem will certainly accept our teshuva. We are planning to make our housekeeping center into a pretend Sukkah. Eating, drinking, learning Torah, and even sleeping in the Sukkah remind us how Hashem protected us in the midbar while we lived in tents. We are learning about the Arbah Minim and practicing the bracha Al Netilas Lulav. We will be learning the concept of V Samachta B Chagecha - rejoicing during the holiday. We discussed that on Simchas Torah we finish reading the Torah and start to read it again from the very beginning. The children will create original flags and can t wait to dance with them on Simchas Torah! Best wishes for a G mar Chasima Tova. The children are moving along quickly with SUPERKIDS. We first learned about Cass and her love for cooking. She introduced us to the letter Cc and the sound it makes. Then along came Oswald, who enjoys making odd animals. He uses paper, glue, scissors, and other materials to create his animals. He introduced us to the letter Oo and its sound. Just like Oswald, each child in the class made their own odd animal using different materials. We put out all different types of materials including, tissue paper, cotton balls and feathers and each child put their creativity to work building their odd animal. Each child named their odd animal and wrote about them. The next SUPERKID character we learned about this week was Golly the super-pet. Golly is a dog that loves to sniff things. He sniffs everything. Some good smelling things and some bad smelling things like the garbage, YUCK! While learning all about Golly the children learned the capital and lower case letter Gg and the sound it makes. As usual the children identified pictures in the book that began with the letter Gg and learned vocabulary words beginning with the letter Gg. It is so exciting meeting all the SUPERKIDS characters and the students are learning so much from them. In math we reviewed the five frame. We discussed how it Is used and how it can make counting very simple. The children know, without even counting, that when every space of the frame is full there are five objects on it. On the same note the students learned that if the five frame is not filled up, then there are less than five objects on it. We also reviewed the concept and vocabulary term, set. The same object in a group is called a set. The children reviewed and practiced writing numbers 1-5. As a center game the children practice putting numbered tiles in order from 1-5. They discussed the process as they did it and the idea that each number is one more than the previous number. This was a great game and served as a foundation lesson for addition and subtraction.

7 Erev Yom Kippur 5775 Dear Parents, The concept of Teshuva is absolutely remarkable in that bad deeds can actually be forgiven and then erased. Over and beyond this Chessed, loving kindness from Hashem, is an added dimension of forgiveness for one who is Ma avir Al Midosav, known also as a vatran, one who overlooks slights, insults and humilia on. The Gemara in Rosh Hashana 17a tells us that for such a person, one who `overlooks that which would ordinarily bring forth an angry or harsh reac on, Hashem forgives all of his aveiros. Rav Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler zt l, as quoted in Sefer Sifsei Chaim (HaRav Chaim Friedlander zt l) explains that there is Din (strict judgment), and there is Rachamim (mercy not restricted to the usual rules of strict judgment). To qualify as one who has done Teshuva on his misdeeds, there is a certain formula to follow to achieve atonement. If one accomplishes this, then Al Pi Din (according to strict judgment), he has accomplished Teshuva and is `en tled to be forgiven. However, there is a person who can achieve forgiveness even without going through the normal procedure. One who is Ma avir Al Midosov, as a reward, or consequence for not following the normal `Din type reac on to an insult but instead acts humbly and mercifully and doesn t react as one normally would, merits receiving the same treatment from Hashem. Even though he didn t technically sa sfy the requirements of a proper Teshuva, he gets a free pass, if you will, because of his being Ma avir Al Midosov. This is an incredibly challenging a ribute to aspire to, and clearly, most of us have difficulty achieving it. If so, why even men on it? The answer is, it s important, very important, to know what there is to strive for, even if we only achieve par al success. In raising our children we need to ask ourselves are we modeling and teaching being easy going and forgiving, or do we tend more to the side of en tlement and standing up for our rights. If we stop and analyze ourselves and our own behavior and values, we would find jus fica on for either approach. Rav Dessler (in a simplified version of his explana on) demonstrates that Shammai and Hillel, the great Tannaim, represented the two opposing viewpoints of this very ques on. Shammai clearly felt that the honor of the Torah was so great it required the Din approach, while Hillel followed the Rachamim approach. Neither side was technically more right than the other. At the end of the day however, the one with more `clout in heaven was Hillel, because of the Rachamim approach. That s because Hashem was swayed, so to speak, to also deal with Hillel with Rachamim and not Din. Before we conclude which way we want our children to go, it behooves us to keep this in mind. A person who can be forgiving, easygoing and pleasant to deal with, is a person who has a lot going for him, and can an cipate a life blessed with benevolence and favor from Above. As we pour out our hearts to Hashem this Yom Kippur, let s keep this in mind in our yearning for a year of Bracha and Hatzlacha for ourselves, our children and for all of Klal Yisroel. With Best Wishes for a G mar Chasima Tova, Rabbi Kalman Baumann Principal

8 WEeKLY WRAP-UP