This has been an incredible first week of school at The Silver Academy! It has been such a joy to welcome our students for what promises to be a wonderful school year.
Our theme this year is Kehilah, community. On Monday, our first day of school, we had an opening assembly outside. The students formed two half circles, the inner circle was our K-3rd grade students, the outer circle was our 4th-8th grade students. After a short discussion of the attributes of a community, the younger students turned around to the older students and everyone met a new friend. They each shared a bit about themselves. One of our 2nd grade students was paired with a 7th grade student who is new to our school. The two of them had a lovely conversation and on the way back into the school after the assembly, the 2nd grade student commented that he was so glad that he could get to know the new student and welcome her to our school! Later in the week I saw them waving hi to each other, obviously happy to see each other.
Throughout the week our students have been working on building their school community. During the rest of the school year, we will be exploring various aspects of our community. We will welcome guests (many via Zoom) from different parts of our community to teach us about the work they do. Some of our guests will be from various parts of the Jewish community, while others will be guests from beyond our Jewish community. We will be engaging in a variety of community service projects to do what we can to help make the communities in which we live better.
I hope that you, our larger Silver Academy community, will join us this year to help our students meet the members of our community and learn about the amazing people in the community that surrounds them. Please contact me at ssofian@silveracademypa.org if you would like to Zoom into a classroom to share a bit about yourself, read a story with students, or even just visit with some of our students. We look forward to welcoming our community into our school!
Shabbat Shalom,
Samara