Shul School Newsletter

Week of Sunday, October 29th, 2023

Dear Parents,

This week our students covered a range of topics in Shul School. Gan began learning about Shabbat while Ilanot continued to learn about various stories from the Torah. The Parparim class explored Jewish symbols while the Devorim and Nesharim classes read the story of Abram and Sarai smashing the idols and how they actively chose to be Jewish and follow God. We can't wait to see what else we will learn about next week!

B'Shalom,

Chaviva Sands

Rabbi Hoffman

Visits the Classroom

Rabbi Hoffman visited the Gan and Ilanot classes this week. He spent time with them in their classrooms letting the students tell him about what they are learning. After, he taught the students some songs.

Gan Update

Teacher: Emma Baron

Today the Gan class began learning about Shabbat! They will be working over the next few classes to create their very own Shabbat boxes. This week, they practiced hiddur mitzvah, creating beautiful ritual objects, by collaging the outside of their Shabbat boxes. They will continue to observe hiddur mitzvah as they add more items to their Shabbat boxes over the next few weeks.

Please note, the next Gan class will take place on November 12th.

Ilanot Update

Teacher: Penina Berman

This week the Ilanot class reviewed material from their previous classes and learned a new story from the Torah. They began with a quick review of Rosh Hashanah and then finished their lesson on Noah's ark. They created the Ilanot Ark and each child drew the animals they wanted to include on their class ark.

Afterward, the Ilanot students learned about the Tower of Babel and the challenges the people faced when they no longer spoke the same language. In order to help the children understand the challenge of working together without a common language, they built a tower together once without speaking to each other and a second time while speaking to each other. They said it was much more difficult to build the tower when they couldn't talk to each other.

Parparim Update

Teacher: Scott Hart

This week the Parparim class learned about Jewish symbols. The students drew various Jewish symbols to showcase what they have learned and used their drawings to decorate the classroom. Isobel was enthusiastic about using her Hebrew skills and Reeva worked with Isobel on writing in Hebrew. Ezra drew and cut out the Star of David. Zachary spent time reading books from their classroom library to learn more about different Jewish symbols. It was a productive and fun class for all the students.

Devorim and Nesharim Update

Teacher: Ali Perez

This week, the Nesharim class focused on the story of Abram and Sarai smashing the idols and receiving the call to be G-d's chosen people, Am segulah. They discussed the blessings and struggles of Judaism's call to live differently from the people around us, tikkun olam, and how we can take pieces of broken things (like smashed idols) and put them back together to repair this broken world. As they discussed, they made picture frames out of pieces of sea glass - an example of how they can take pieces of something broken and turn them into something beautiful.

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