Toras Emes E.C.E. Parashas Acharai Mos Kedoshim April 19, 2013 7:28 PM ERETZ YISROEL PROGRAM In the early childhood program this week, the children learned that the Torah describes Eretz Yisroel as a land flowing with milk and honey - Eretz Zavas Chalov U Dvash. To illustrate this concept, the children baked and ate honey cupcakes and drank milk. Of course, they also learned TO SING the song Eretz Zavas Chalov U Dvash. Thank you to Mrs. Miriam Lehrfield - for speaking to the preschool children about the history of Am Yisroel in Eretz Yisroel at THE assembly this week. Welcome to our two new Kindergarten children: Chava Goodman and Esther Goodman Conference Night Tuesday, April 30 6:40 9:00 p.m. Nursery, Pre-K I, K I, K II Please call the office to make an appointment to meet with your child s teachers. CHINESE AUCTION UPDATE Our 9th Annual Chinese Auction is under way. By now you should have received the auction booklets in the mail. Make sure to go through it as we have added amazing new items this year and visit ytcteam.org/auction to choose your prizes and earn a free Bonus Gift. Hope to see you all on May 26! Newsletter 1
NURSERY MORAH TAMI The letter Alef was introduced to the Nursery children this week. They learned the following new Hebrew vocabulary words: אבא אמא אוירון אניה אחד אמת אופניים They also sang the song: I Wish I Were an Aviron I wish I were an aviron I d fly across the sea I d fly to Eretz Yisroel Oh won t you come with me NURSERY - MORAH SUSAN What an enjoyable week we had as we continued our unit on rhyming. We reviewed the nursery rhymes that we learned last week. We also learned three new nursery rhymes. Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick, and Little Miss Muffet. We had so much fun acting out these nursery rhymes. We jumped over a candlestick and sat next to Little Miss Muffet and the Spider. As our art activities, we made a fish in a dish and a cat in a hat. We also created a Little Miss Muffet. The children enjoyed working with rhyming cards and puzzles during our center time. During library time, we listened to poems from the books Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes by Brian Wildsmith, Hop On Pop by Dr. Seuss and Mary Had a Little Lamb by Sara Josepha Habe. We learned a new finger play this week called Where is Fishy. In commemoration of Yom Ha atzmaut, we learned about Yerushalayim, built a Kotel, wrote kvitlach and listened to the story Sammy Spider s First Trip to Israel by Sylvia Rouss. The yeladim performed beautifully at our Yom Ha atzmaut program. They sang songs about Eretz Yisroel and did a dance. We had lots of fun making a booklet featuring the letter alef. We discussed the middah of emes and how important it is to always tell the truth. To help understand this concept, we listened to the story Eli And His Little White Lie by Goldie Golding. For parshios Acharai Mos-Kedoshim, we talked about the mitzvos of kibud av va eim, keeping Shabbos and giving respect to the elderly and to talmidei chachomim. The children were amazed to discover that although Rabbi Akiva did not start learning alef-bais until he was forty years old, he went on to become a great talmid chocham. They were sad to hear about the students of Rabbi Akiva who did not keep the mitzvah of V ahavta L reacha Kamocha. We listened to two stories about friendship, Rainbow Fish and Rainbow Fish to the Rescue both by Marcus Pfister. Newsletter 2
PRE-KI, II & III MOROT ETTIE & HEIDI This week s parshios, Acharei-Mos and Kedoshim taught us many important concepts. We discussed how important it is to be kind to each other, to speak in a nice way, and how to keep ourselves kadosh. We also spoke about the mitzvos of kibud av va aim, kashrus and speaking with derech eretz. We continued learning about Rabbi Akiva. We also learned about Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and have been counting serfiras ha omer every day in school. The letter Ayin was introduced this week. Some of the vocabulary words we learned were: עוגה, עוגי-ה, עננים, עף, עינים, עט To commemorate Yom Ha atzmaut, each class sang songs about Eretz Yisroel in the auditorium. Our class sang Eretz Zavas Chalav U dvash, Amar Rabbi Akiva and Ani Ma amin. Some of the stories we listened to this week were: Let s Learn About Kibbud Av V Eim by Bruriah D., Danny Three Times by Leibel Estrin, How the Mitzvah Giraffe Got His Long Neck by David Sokoloff and Take Me to the Holy Land by Tsivia Yanofsky. Have a wonderful Shabbos! PRE-KI, II & III-MOROT JUDY & NECHAMA The Pre-K children continued their Around The World unit. This week the children visited Eretz Yisrael. They learned many interesting acts about the life of Jewish people in Israel. They saw on the class globe, how tiny the land of Israel is compared to other countries. Of course, Hebrew being the language of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisroel is so exciting for the children. Many of the children were happy to share information about the families that they have in Israel. For snack, we had Israeli salad and the children made maps and flags of Israel. Favorite places to visit in Israel that we learned about were the Kotel, Masada, The Dead Sea and Yerushalayim. They learned new songs about Israel which had lyrics describing the beauty of our land of Israel. They experimented with salt water and plain water, discovering the idea of sink and float. The letter of the week was the letter Pp. The children came up with words such as plant, plum, pink, purple, pilot, pop, pencil, pen and pickles. A favorite poem the children enjoyed was Peter Piper. The children learned that Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck is about 8 quarts. Some of our favorite books this week were, Pretzel by H.A. Rey, The Princess and the Pea by Janet Stevens, Penelope s Pen Pal by Linda Silbert and Baby Penguin at Home on the Ice by Lori Nelson. One of the highlights of our week was making pickles. The children enjoyed the process and tasting homemade pickles. Newsletter 3
KINDERGARTEN I, II & III-MOROT BAYLA AND RENA Kedushas Eretz Yisroel was discussed this week. We saw beautiful pictures of Eretz Yisroel and many of the holy sites which our people have longed to see throughout our history. We explored the book Take Me To The Holy Land by Tsivia Yanofsky and became familiar with the cities of Tzfat, Teveriyah and Yerushalayim. Each class learned some songs about Eretz Yisroel and performed for the other classes. We all davened to Hashem to bring peace to Israel and bring the Moshiach. Then we can all live in Eretz Yisroel and do the special mitzvos that one can only perform in Eretz Yisroel. We are progressing very nicely in our Hebrew readers. A new nekuda, the cholam was taught this week. The children read several cholam words such as olam, gadol and Torah. (Please continue reviewing all the nekudos taught so far). For Parshios Acharei Mos-Kadoshim, we learned that we must be careful not to follow in the ways of other nations of the world because we are an Am Kadosh. There were many beautiful mitzvos to learn in this week s parshios and we tried to touch upon some of them. We learned the Pasuk Kedoshim Tehiyu Ki Kadosh Ani and what that means to Bnei Yisroel. We talked about shatnez and the combinations which we are forbidden to mix together, such as two seeds in the same field as well as wearing garments made of wool and linen. We are all trying to live our lives in accordance with the famous pasuk from this week s parsha Vahavta l reacha kamocha which is especially appropriate during Sefiras HaOmer. In perek shlishi of Pirkei Avos we discussed the mishneh Chavivin Yisroel Shenikreu Banim La Makom. We feel very special that we are Hashem s children and that he loves us. KINDERGARTEN I, II & III MOROT BERNEY & HEIDI The letter Ww was introduced this week. We listened to the story Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak which led to a discussion about wild animals. We began our unit on Eretz Yisroel. We even made our own passports which we used on our pretend trip to Eretz Yisroel on Friday. When we arrived in Israel, we looked at a map of Israel to see the locations of the Kotel, the Negev and the Galil. The children learned what passports are used for, and had a chance to write their first and last names, their eye color, hair color, where they live, etc. In math, we continued our unit on money, computing the values of different coins using pennies, nickels and dimes. In our math booklets, the children had the opportunity to use coins to purchase items with different values. Note: We will be doing a special project that requires magazine pictures of flowers. If anyone has these magazines in their house (like Burpee Seed Catalogs), please send them in with your child. Speaking of flowers, our sunflowers are beginning to get much taller! How exciting! Have a wonderful Shabbos! Newsletter 4
Erev Shabbos Parashas Acharei Mos-Kedoshim 5773 Dear Parents, This coming week will feature our 6 th Accreditation Visit in the 25 years that our school has been accredited by AISF The Association of Independent Schools of Florida. In advance of the committee s visit on Wednesday, the entire staff is feverishly preparing, sprucing up the classrooms, hallways and outside areas. Special lessons are being prepared and the students will be asked to come in official uniform, parents will be asked to enable and encourage the children to arrive on time and to be particularly attentive and well-behaved throughout the day The question that our children (and parents) may be asking is, don t we believe that Emes - truth is the most important Midah? Why are we giving people an impression that they wouldn t get on a different day? We know things don t run or look like this on a typical school day. Isn t that a false impression? There are (at least) two valid answers to this question. The straightforward answer is that it is expected when an accreditation committee visits, that the entire school is putting its best foot forward. They are looking to see the best we have to offer. If we didn t do our best, then that would be giving a false impression, because we wouldn t be showing what we are capable of when we try our best. The other answer is similar to one given for the famous question asked about Yom Kippur, which we learn much about from this week s Parsha. Why do we expend so much effort to reach a high spiritual level on Yom Kippur, and get emotionally inspired as Yom Kippur reaches its climax, only to drop back down the very next morning (if not sooner)? Why does Hashem forgive us for all our sins just because we were inspired and sincerely felt bad for a few hours? I have heard the answer that the level we reach on Yom Kippur shows who we truly are. I can get close to Hashem, I can be sincere in wanting to learn more, be more caring, do more Mitzvos, have more Kavana in Davening. It s on the remaining 353 days of the year that we are not truly ourselves. We are subject to so many outside influences, pressures and distractions. Who we truly are is evident when those outside factors are removed. Therefore, rather than being a fluke, an exception, our conduct on Yom Kippur reflects the real me - who I really want to be, am striving for and have now achieved! -continued- Newsletter 5
page 2 When one tries his or her best, and rises above the influences and distractions that usually drag one down, that person can discover who he really is and what he is capable of. Most people, and especially children are shackled by low expectations and assumptions of failure, because they rarely if ever function under optimum conditions. The work and focus to be one s best is well worth the time and effort, even if only occasionally, because through it one can discover the greatness that lies within. When a child has a model of how things could and should be, then he can be guided and inspired to reach his true inner potential. If our children could internalize the lesson that demonstrating one s best effort can propel him to heights he never fathomed he could reach, we will not only earn a five-year certificate, but more importantly, we will be giving our children a gift for eternity. May you soar to great heights on this and every Shabbos, Rabbi Kalman Baumann Principal Newsletter 6