Sunday, May 9 (Update from Michelle Nelson)
Happy Mother’s Day Everyone!
I hope you were able to connect with family, spend some time outdoors or just relax on this lovely Sunday.
It’s hard to believe that this morning was our last Sunday morning class together. It seems like this year has flown by! We finished our final story which is about Joseph and talked about the importance of forgiveness, we drew illustrations for our Torah stories and had one last trip to Israel with Grover.
Next week we will be together again for our Siyyum to end the year with the whole school. I hope to see you on Sunday afternoon in person at Temple Israel too! Please see emails from Robin for more information about next Sunday.
It has been my pleasure to spend the year with your students and I can’t wait for a time when we can learn together in person!
Michelle
Sunday, May 2 (Update from Michelle Nelson)
Hello PK/K/1 Families!
I hope that you were all able to enjoy the wonderful weather this afternoon!
Today we took a quick trip to Israel with our friend Grover to see some of the sights in the northern part of the country. We discussed how all the places Grover has taken look a little different just like the different parts of the United States. We explored ways to get along with other people by sharing and being respectful as part of our study of the story of Jacob and Esau and read our very last Torah story for the first time. Our movement break today was all the tricky letters from our Aleph Bet Yoga!
Next week we will wrap up our study of Joseph as well as continue working on an illustration project we started today.
Students illustrated their first page of a project we are working on. Ask them to share and explain the illustration to you.
I look forward to seeing everyone again next Sunday!
Michelle
Sunday, April 11, 2021 (Update From Michelle)
Hello PK/K/1 Families!
It was so lovely to be back together with all of our friends. We heard knock-knock jokes in the later class and shared our favorite ways to eat matzah in the early session!
Both classes helped us fill in some of the details of our Torah stories today. Our fill-in-the-blank activity allowed everyone to share some information about our stories and help us to complete summaries with missing words. In celebration of Yom Ha’atzmaut, our movement break was some fun Israeli dancing filled with tons of jumping and hand motions. I even saw some guest dancers joining us from your homes! In our new story today we met Jacob and Esau, the twin sons of Rebecca and Issac. We learned that Jacob took two special things that belonged to Esau and ran away from home because Esau was so mad.
When we are together next, we will read the story of Jacob and Esau from a different source to see if there are any details we can add. We will be exploring the idea of respect and we will be meeting Jacob’s favorite son, Joseph.
Ask your student to share their favorite Torah story with you. They are really good at retelling stories!
Our next class will be on May 2nd. Enjoy the next two Sundays as a part of your April Vacation!
Michelle
Sunday, March 21, 2021 (Update from Michelle)
Hello PK/K/1 Families!
Congratulations to the Grade 1 students and families on their Wimple Presentations. It was so wonderful to spend the afternoon with you to celebrate.
Passover is coming and the students are well prepared! They are looking forward to finding the afikomen and eating charoset, but aren’t as excited for maror. Each group shared their best recipe for salt water too! Today we unscrambled pictures and put them in the order that they go in in the Torah. It was a great way to review all of our stories. To conclude our study of Rebecca and to reflect on her kindness we made our very own Kindness Calendars. Students identified four things they could do over the next week to show kindness to others.
When we return on April 11th we will meet Jacob and Esau, Isaac and Rebecca’s sons. This story will spark some learning about keeping the peace, doing the right thing and being honest.
Ask your student to share their Kindness Calendar with you. There are some great ideas on there like picking up trash to help the Earth, giving your families hugs, helping to clean and cook for Passover and much more!
Our next meeting will take place on April 11. We are observing Passover the next two Sundays.
I wish you all a sweet Passover.
Michelle
Sunday, March 14, 2021 (Update from Michelle Nelson)
Hello PK/K/1 Families!
As much as losing that hour of sleep wasn’t my favorite, the extra sunlight in the afternoon is so great! It’s almost spring!
Having everyone together is always so much fun! Today is Rosh Chodesh, the start of a new month. We welcomed Nissan by looking at the moon phases and learning that the New Moon is the moon that is present on Rosh Chodesh. Some students even knew that the New Moon is the one that you can’t see. We read the story of Rebecca from a different source and heard that Rebecca was chosen to be Isaac’s wife because she was like Abraham, she saw that something needed to be done and ran and hurried and did it. To review our Torah stories we played Bingo! Students were given clues about the words we were looking for and worked to get four in a row. It was a blast for everyone!
Next week we will be finishing our study of Rebecca by looking into the quality of kindness and doing mitzvot for others. We will be making a kindness calendar together.
For our movement break today we played Shimon Omer. Ask your child to share with you some of the motions and Hebrew words we used.
Have a wonderful week!
Michelle
Sunday, March 7, 2021 (Update from Michelle Nelson)
Hello PK/K/1 Families!
Today was filled with fascinating conversations! We discussed how the moon looks when it’s a new Jewish month, learned about life on a kibbutz and chatted about The Kotel. Today was the last time we will meet in the month of Adar, next month will be Nissan, meaning there will be a New Moon soon. On a Kibbutz everyone shares the responsibilities and works together. They need to be kind and patient which we saw in a quick video about Israel. People pray and put notes in the wall at the Kotel which was the picture on the puzzle we made as a group by earning pieces for each part of the Torah stories we could accurately retell.
Next week we will be playing some fun group games to help us review our Torah stories. We will also be brainstorming acts of kindness that we can do during the week.
Our new Torah story was about Rebecca, the woman who is chosen to marry Isaac. Ask your student to share what was special about Rebecca that made the servant think she would be a good wife for Isaac.
Next week all students will meet at our regular Zoom link at 10:00am. We will be learning altogether!
Have a wonderful week!
Michelle
Sunday Update from Michelle Nelson (February 7, 2021)
Hello PK/K/1 Families!
Today we were joined in class by Sponge Bob Square Pants, a doctor, some animals and more as we celebrated Purim together! Students shared about how they celebrated the holiday by dressing up, eating hamantaschen and hearing the Megillah reading. We met our new friend Melanie who will be joining us to learn each Sunday morning. Something that she likes about being Jewish is all of the connections she has made to other people through Temple Israel, going to Jewish overnight camp and taking trips to Israel. We helped get Melanie caught up on our Torah stories by sharing the main idea of the ones we already know. We also took a quick virtual trip to Mt. Carmel where they make special pita which we think would taste delicious with hummus or falafel. Students also noticed some differences between the market on Mt. Carmel and the one they shop with their families.
Next week we will meet Rebecca, the woman who is chosen to marry Isaac. We will also be thinking about acts of kindness, like the one that Rebecca does in the story and how we can be kind to others too.
To introduce ourselves to Melanie, students drew something to represent what they like about being Jewish. Ask your student to share their drawing with you.
Have a wonderful week!
Michelle
Sunday Update from Michelle Nelson (February 7, 2021)
Hello PK/K/1 Families!
What an exciting experience we had today! It was a pleasure to share a story with Ambassador Meron! The students in our class asked great questions and made wonderful connections to the story and to Ambassador Meron too! In the classroom, we learned about the job of the people that work in a Consulate and discussed what it means to be Israeli. We explored the Kinneret in Israel, where most of the drinking water in Israel comes from, and read about how Abraham and Sarah were told they would have a son. We finished our morning by identifying which groups represented a minyan, a group of at least ten Jewish people.
When we meet again, we will be learning about Rebecca, the woman who is chosen to marry Isaac. We will also visit a new place in Israel and start a unit on kindness to others.
Ask your student which animals from the story Ambassador Meron shared were their favorites and why. I personally like the dove best of all.
Our next class is on Sunday, February 28th. Enjoy the February break!
Michelle
Sunday Update from Michelle Nelson (January 31, 2021)
Hello PK/K/1 Families!
Today started with our quick tour of Tzvat. Tzvat is a city in Israel known for the many artists who live and work there. The city is one thousand years old and is made of intricate bricks. Before reading our new story we took turns sharing the most important parts of the stories we already know. Students are quickly becoming experts on the story of Creation and Adam and Eve. Our new story focuses on Abraham. God chooses Abraham to be the father of a great nation but Abraham and his wife Sarah have no children. Finally, when Abraham and Sarah are very old, they have a son named Issac. We learned that Abraham once questioned God. God noticed that the people in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were not good people. God told Abraham that the cities would be destroyed and Abraham asked if God could spare the cities if there were at least ten good people there. It turned out that there was only one good family. God told this family to leave the cities and then they were destroyed.
Next week we will have a special guest reader in our class from 10:15-10:45, Ambassador Meron Reuben from the Israeli Consulate in Boston. Please check your emails from Robin for more information about this program. In the classroom we will continue our study of Abraham by focusing on how Abraham helps others..
We’ve been practicing our Hebrew in class. Ask your student to share some of the Hebrew they might know. We are working on numbers, parts of the body like hands, mouth and head, and greetings too.
Have a wonderful week!
Michelle
Sunday Update from Michelle – January 24, 2020
Hello PK/K/1 Families!
It is always such a pleasure to spend Sunday mornings with the students in PK/K/1!
Today we got a quick virtual tour of Jaffa, the port city of Israel on the Mediterranean Sea. We learned that it is 3000 years old! Natick isn’t even 400 years old. For our movement break, we practiced tree pose on both feet to get us ready for the upcoming Tu B’Shevat holiday. Our learning related to the Tower of Babel had students thinking about what it means to be humble and how doing something for other people benefits everyone.
Next week we will complete our study of the Tower of Babel and visit a new city in Israel. Our 1st-grade students will be invited to participate in a WImple Workshop with their families from 10-11am.
Every student made and shared their own tower during our class today. Ask your student to describe their tower, what it was made of, and how it was shaped.
Have a wonderful week!
Michelle
Mid-Week Update from Cheryl – Thursday, January 21, 2021
Hello PK/K/1 families –
Last week in Religious School we started talking about Tu B’Shevat. We had a wonderful guest read a story about planting trees in Israel. We talked about why we should celebrate trees. Our guest taught us the 7 species of fruit/grain mentioned in the Torah.
This coming week we will continue to talk about Tu B’Shevat and celebrating trees and other living things. Please make sure your child has their Tu B’Shevat pamphlet available.
Ask your child if they remember what the communities in Israel that helped turn the desert green are called!
A good Shabbat and week to all,
Cheryl Gelfand
Sunday Update from Michelle – Sunday, January 10, 2021
Hello PK/K/1 Families!
Happy New Year to you all! I hope that the fresh start to 2021 has been great so far and that you are all looking forward to a new secular year.
To start our new secular year together we began with a new story. Today we read the Tower of Babel. This story is about the people wanting to build a tower all the way to the heavens. God did not agree with this decision and made it challenging for the people to communicate so that they could not build their tower.
Next time we meet, we will continue our learning about the Tower of Babel and will practice building together over Zoom. Our Kindergarten students will be learning a new letter, samech.
Students loved our virtual trip to Israel so much that we are continuing to visit different cities during our time together through quick video postcards. Today we traveled to Eilat. Ask your students about the Eilat area and what activities you can enjoy there.
Our next Sunday morning class will be on January 24th. There is no class next Sunday morning but I do look forward to seeing you for Tefilah on Shabbat morning.
Michelle
Sunday Update from Michelle – Sunday, December 20, 2020
Hello PK/K/1 Families!
It is so hard to believe that today was the last Sunday morning class of 2020! It seems like time is flying by.
Today we concluded our visit to Israel with Ayal. We explored the shuk where you can buy tons of food items. We shopped with Ayal to get the ingredients to make our own hummus. I was super impressed by the delicious looking hummus you made and that everyone gave it a try. When we met together as a class, we reflected on our Israel trip and learned a little more about Tel Aviv, did some drawing and practiced our Hebrew numbers during our movement break. We finished up our study of Noah’s Ark by thinking about what it means to “walk with God”. We decided that it means to do the things that God wants us to do which lead us to a discussion about following the rules and doing the right thing so that everyone can be safe and happy.
When we return in 2021 we will be focusing on the Tower of Babel before we meet Abraham and his family. We will continue to review all the stories we have already read together and will use our movement breaks to engage with vocabulary, numbers, holidays and more.
Students made Thank You pictures for Ayal. Ask your student what they drew. If you can take a quick picture of it and send it back to me sometime this week, we can forward them to Ayal along with the picture of us sharing our pictures which you can view attached to this email
Our next Sunday morning class will be on January 10th. We will have the next two Sundays off as a part of Winter Break. I hope you enjoy the time off with your families.
Michelle
Sunday, December 13, 2020 – Update from Michelle
Happy Hanukkah!
Thank you so much for sharing such lovely Hanukkah greetings and the incredibly generous gift. It was a wonderful surprise and the messages you included truly brightened my day.
Our third visit to Israel was filled with tons of things to see! We traveled all over Israel and learned about the different climates and geographical features. At the end of the session we had the opportunity to create our own watercolor masterpieces. I can’t wait to see them all! When we met together as a class we learned more about Haifa, Boston’s sister city in Israel, and compared some of the features they both have in common like being on the water, having a port and having a building with a golden dome. We read a story called Professor Noah’s Spaceship which is a different way of retelling the story of Noah and during our movement break we pretended that we were dreidels by spinning and then doing the yoga move for one of the letters on the dreidel. Each student got to choose a letter and it was super silly and fun.
Next week is our final visit to Israel. We will be exploring through taste and smell. Make sure you have your bags, are near a blender and have a can opener and spatula available. We will be finishing our study of the story of Noah when we meet together as a class for our last class session of 2020.
Please ask your student to share with you their watercolor of Israel. Ask them to share why they chose to draw this landscape and how it is different than where we live or even the other places in Israel.
Have a wonderful week!
Michelle
Sunday, December 13, 2020 – Update from Cheryl
Hello PK/K/1 families –
Last week in Religious School we continued our discussion of Chanukah. The students remembered so much from our previous discussions! We also had a dance party to the Maccabeats Candlelight. We talked about how the candles should be set up in the hanukkiah and how they should be lit.
This coming week we will light Chanukah candles (virtually). We will then move to talking about Israel based on today’s tour with Ayal. The Chanukah dance party will also continue!
My apologies to anyone who had trouble getting into class this past week. I had to change my Zoom links. The spreadsheet has now been properly updated and will send you to the correct place going forward.
Thank you,
Cheryl
Sunday, December 6, 2020 – Update from Cheryl
Hello PK/K/1 families –
Last week in Religious School we continued our discussion of Chanukah by reading the Chanukah story. We learned how Antiochus made it against the law to act Jewishly and took over the Temple. We learned about a small group of Jews called the Maccabees who stood up to King Antiochus. We talked about the fact that we are actually celebrating two miracles – winning the war against such a large army and the oil that lasted for 8 days.
This coming week we will work on how to light the candles and the blessings we say. We will also play virtual dreidel. Please make sure your child has the “Celebrating Hanukkah” pamphlet available for class. If you have a dreidel, they can also have that with them and we will talk about how to play dreidel.
Ask your student what animal the Greeks had in their army!
Thank you,
Cheryl
Sunday, December 6, 2020 – Update from Michelle
Hello everyone!
It was so nice to see everyone after a week off. Students are very excited about Hanukkah starting this week and I can’t wait to hear about your candle lightings when we meet next week.
Today we began studying Noah’s Ark. This is always a fan favorite story and is something that kids know tons about. For the occasion we invited students to bring animals of all kinds to join us today. We had a hippopotamus, a lion, a unicorn, a lizard, a lion and so many more! We read about Noah building the ark which was used to save two of each of the animals from a flood and how Noah knew it was safe to get off the ark. God realizes that making the flood wasn’t a good choice and makes a promise not to do it again. The rainbow is a symbol of that promise. We finished our day with a song about Noah’s Ark that we sang with Anna in October.
Next week we will continue our trip to Israel. Please refer to Robin’s email about the trip and schedule for additional information. When we meet together in class we will continue our study of Noah’s Ark by hearing a different version of the story and singing songs about the animals on the Ark.
We have continued to play Shimon Omer, Simon Says, as a movement break during our class. We have been focusing on the Hebrew words for eyes, nose, mouth, head and hands, Ash your student which words they remember.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
Happy Hanukkah!
Michelle
Sunday, November 29, 2020 – Update from Cheryl (Holidays)
Hello PK/K/1 families –
Last week in Religious School we started our discussion of Chanukah. As always, I was amazed and delighted by the knowledge they already have. They knew about the miracle of the oil, the foods we eat, and how long we celebrate Chanukah for. We also learned that in Israel the dreidel has one letter that is different than our dreidel.
This coming week we will read the story of Chanukah and talk about ways we celebrate, including how to light the candles. Please make sure your child has both the “Story of Hanukkah” pamphlet and the “Celebrating Hanukkah” pamphlet available for class. If you have a dreidel, they can also have that with them and we will talk about how to play dreidel.
Ask your student what their favorite Chanukah food is!
Thank you,
Cheryl
