Kitah Bet October 31

Posted on November 1, 2016

It feels so good to return to a (relatively) normal schedule now that the Jewish fall holidays are behind us!

 In Hebrew we were able to introduce two new letters and a vowel yesterday, the Alef, Mem and long “E” vowel.  We colored in the cards for them, and working with partners built words using the cards.  We learned the trick for remembering the “mem” is that it has two mountains, and for the Alef that it is silent and takes all of it’s sound from the accompanying vowel.  One student asked why we are learning these “tricks” for remembering the letters when she can remember them without these prompts.  I answered that for some students these little tricks make the learning process easier and that it’s fun for all of us.  In class we also have a large magnetic set (9″ x 11 1/2″) of the cards and we begin every Hebrew session by putting them on the whiteboard one by one  repeating the names, sounds and mnemonics for each letter.  This opening “ritual” is done with a bit of drama and a lot of humor and is most often accompanied with lots of smiles, laughter and hands held high hoping to be called on. We then create both real and nonsense words on the whiteboard, everyone loves to have a turn to show off how they can put the letters and vowels together to create words.  We will be using the personal cards during every class and it is important that every student bring them to every session.

We began our Torah studies and read about the story of creation.  We learned what was created on each day of the week and discussed what it may mean for humans to be created in G-d’s image.  Some of the ideas suggested are the need to continue G-d’s work of creation and taking responsibility for caring for the world that G-d created.  We also learned a rap song about the days of creation and played a game of Pictionary where the students had to guess what day of creation some of their classmates were drawing about on the whiteboard.

Margie & Joanne