Grade 3 – Gimel Goings On

It has been a busy few weeks in the Gimel Class and students have been hard at work on a variety of activities.

Hebrew
This month we focused on learning the prayer, Ein Keloheinu, which is sung at the end of the Musaf service on Shabbat and Holidays.  Students are doing a great job learning to read and sing it and I enjoy receiving their Google Voice calls.  Please keep practicing at home.

Torah
This year we are studying some of the stories from the Book of Exodus with a focus on Jewish values and how they can be applied in the community.  We have completed our unit on courage where students discussed this concept as it relates to the story of the midwives saving the Israelite babies from being drowned and Pharaoh’s daughter being drowned.  Students have also explored this concept in the context of their own lives and community.  Gimel students shared good insights as to how they can show courage in their own community such as standing up to bullying, helping others and being considerate.
In our next unit we will focus on the concept of leadership.

Holidays
Before we know it, Tu Bishvat (Birthday of Trees) will be upon us.  This unit was introduced with a story called G-ds World which explores how the world looked at the time of Creation.  Students then visualized and illustrated what they think “G-ds World” looks like.   The final project for this was a technology project in the form of a class power point on Google Slides.  Each student worked on a slide where they photographed their illustration to import into a slide and typed their description into the slide.  Students had so much fun using the school iPads to complete this project.

Yesterday students started working on a Tu Bishvat scavenger hunt.  In groups they researched some aspects of Tu Bishvat and completed a graphic organizer to organize their information.  During this week they will transfer it onto index cards and make a wall hanging.

Programs
On Sunday, January 8,  we were visited by Gary Alpert who presented a program on hearing disabilities.   Students enjoyed hearing Gary’s first hand account of what it was like to grow up and live with a hearing disability.  Students learned the alef bet in sign language, learned to finger spell their names, participated in a lip reading activity and saw what a hearing aid looks like.  Thank you to Gary and the parent volunteers!

The same day we were also visited by Olympic fencer, Eli Dershwitz.  He spoke to the students about his experiences in the Olympics, competition, and good sportsmanship.  He also shared that he grew up at Temple Israel, attended the pre school and Hebrew School (same class as my son!) and celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at the Temple.  Thank you to Eli for his informative presentation and autographs for the students.

Synaplex
Synaplex is this Saturday,  January 28.  Their will be programming and snack for the children from 9:15-10:30 followed by a family service at 10:30 and then the Birkot Hashachar banner presentation at 11:30.  Please click on the link below to let us know if you will be attending.  We hope to see everyone there!

Elana