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Shabbat Parashat Bo | שבת פרשת בא
Candle Lighting: 4:39
pm
I Shabbat Ends: 5:48 pm
January 19, 2018 I ג׳ בִּשְׁבָט תשע״ח
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From our Head of School, Rabbi Rami Strosberg
It was the final straw. After the plague of the firstborn convinced the Egyptians to let the Jews leave Egypt, the Jews are commanded to sanctify their firstborn sons and animals. Rav Yisrael Friedman of Rizhin teaches that this is a good piece of advice in serving God. A Jew can dedicate his first thoughts each day to the worship of God. Through this foundation, one can direct all of his activities in the coming day to be for a Kidush Hashem, sanctifying God's name. At school, we start the day with a moment of tefilah and a contribution to Tzedaka in order to set ourselves up with this mindset. It is a powerful beginning and it ignites the learning and tone for the day ahead. (Based on a Dvar Torah from Rav Moshe Crystal)
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Rami Strosberg
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From our Principal, Deganit Ronen
Dear Parents,
Our first mitzvah...!
In Parashat Bo, Bnei Yisrael receives their first commandment to do a mitzvah--the first mitzvah out of 613 mitzvot that we are commanded to do.
Kiddush Hachodesh
. We are obligated to look up at the moon at the beginning of each new month, check out the moon's shape and size and then declare that it is
Rosh Chodesh
.
Rav Shalom Noach Berezovsky point out: Why is this the first mitzvah that Hashem asks of us and what is this mitzvah trying to tell us right here in this Parasha? The first thing that Hashem said to Bnei Yisrael is that we must always start
anew
and
renew
ourselves. The sun is a great light and very strong, but there is nothing new about it at any point in its existence. However, the moon is constantly changing and teaches us about renewal and growth.
This is the first commandment, and it reflects our reality on earth, in every generation and every day. In this story of yetziat mizrayim, the Torah gave the Jews the power to overcome all situations, the power to correct wrongdoings and to fix anything that needs fixing from now until the end of time. The Torah is not a memoir of what was in the past, but a way of life for everyone - from the past through the future. It is a current, living guide. The entire mission for man in this world is to bring himself out of Mitzrayim. We must know and remember that everything written in the Torah belongs to and touches everyone in the present, and the Torah begins with renewal.
As we enter Shabbat, we should remember this first mitzvah of renewal. This weekend (... as every weekend...) should give us all time to renew our energy, both emotionally and physically, and return back on Monday with excitement and a thirst for learning.
Mazal Tov and thank you to all of our wonderful 4th grade students and Teachers for a beautiful and a very successful Mesibat Navi! It is evident to us all how much creativity and energy you invested in this special moment. My Brachah to you is: שתלכו מחיל אל חיל - May you go from strength to strength!
I am so excited to spend Shabbat in White Plains with some of our WTA family as we learn, daven and renew!
Shabbat Shalom,
Deganit
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!מזל טוב כיתה ד
Mazal tov to Kitah Dalet who celebrated their Mesibat Navi this week! Our students created a beautiful "living museum" which told the history of the Jewish people from the time of creation all the way to Yehoshua. כל הכבוד!
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This Sunday!
Mesibat Chumash
(2nd Grade)
_________________________________________________
STEAM Night
for parents and students grades 1-5
_________________________________________________
Drama Chug Presents: The Wizard of Oz
Mesibat Mishnah
(5th Grade)
___________________________________________________
Mesibat Siddur
(1st Grade)
February 4, 2018 | 10:30 am
______________________________________________________
Shomrei Torah Annual Event
Sunday, February 25, 2018 | 7:00 pm
הכרת הטוב
Expressing our gratitude and
honoring
Deb and Rabbi Rami Strosberg
our past Presidents
Kevin Shacknofsky | Shlomo Ressler | David Bessler
and our incredible
WTA Faculty
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Our fourth grade has been enjoying experimenting with simple machines. By now they should all be experts at driving a nail and screwing wood together. They are learning all the ways in which simple machines make our work so much easier.
DON'T FORGET STEAM NIGHT this coming Wednesday! I can't wait for all the fun-filled ways to explore, learn and grow! See you there!
Art - אומנות
There is so much going on at WTA! Students have been working hard in classes and to prepare for chagigot and mesibot. This week in art, the goal was pure fun and carefree enjoyment. Students in all classes made their very own toys! The children decorated two circles using their own color and pattern choices. We first reviewed the primary colors and, in the older classes, the secondary and complimentary colors. After the circles were completed, they were cut out, glued onto a cardboard circle, and a string was attached. Students were shown how to twirl the circle around so that when it spun, the colors on the circle appeared to mix together and create new colors. (If yellow and red were used in coloring the circle, it appeared to be orange when spun...) We essentially created old-fashioned fidget spinners - it was truly a blast!
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Click here to import our calendar into your personal calendar
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דף יומי לילדים
Each week we will share a copy of Daf Yomi L'yeladim with you, and you will have the
opportunity to gain a love of learning and share the experience of delving into the Talmud with your children.
For a link to this week's copy in English
click here,
for Hebrew
click here
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פרנס היום - Sponsor A Day of Learning
Sponsor Limud Torah at WTA on a specific date in honor of a simcha, anniversary, birthday, or in memory of a loved one.
Please
click here
to sponsor.
Kartise Bracha (Tribute Cards)
Pay tribute while supporting WTA. Starting at only $18, you can send a tribute card in someone's memory or honor. Click
here to order.
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this
Shop with Giftcards
Buy popular brand name gift cards through our scrip program and support WTA!
Click
here for more information.
WTA Webstore
Check out our WTA Spirit Wear such as skirts, kippahs, headbands and much more! Click
here to shop now!
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This week in Music we had a special treat. Rabbi Rami brought in his ukelele. It looked like his guitar, only much smaller. We listened to the sounds it made and he played us a few of our favorite songs, like Hashem Melech.
 
Click
here
to read the Shorashim weekly newsletter.
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We are so excited to hear Pre-K chanting the poem "yad shel choref."
זהו ענן
וזו מטריה
זה כובע
וזאת כפפה
,וזאת הטיפה
שנשרה לי
,על העורף
וביחד כל היד שלי:
חורף
Click here to read the Pre-K weekly newsletter.
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Kindergarten is excited to learn about the different ways things move. We learned about the difference between a push and a pull. We sorted pictures in a Venn Diagram. We even found some things that moved both ways. We then read a nonfiction article about the way different things move in the snow. We are also learning about polar animals. We read the story
"If You Could Go To Antarctica," and then we wrote stories about our own Arctic adventures.
Judaic Studies:
טו׳ בשבט הגיע חג לאילנות...
Gan ילדים started a new unit about טו בשבט and the students planted different seeds in their very own planters! We
learned why trees (עצים) are very important, and that in Israel it's a מצווה from the Torah to plant a tree as the verse says,
״וכי תבואו אל הארץ ונטעתם כל עץ...״
Click here to read the full Judaic Studies Newsletter
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There are times that I am just so beyond proud and pleased to be part of the WTA family. This week as I read through the services that the children performed for MLK Day, their own insights into what they learned and how they felt, I was overcome by the level of love and caring that was generated. The services ranged from writing a letter to the president, to helping with the family laundry, bringing blankets to an animal shelter, making packages for the homeless, cookies for the police department and many more! All of them were heartwarming and educational. Thank you to all the families that shared what was done on that day. To any family that has not yet had an opportunity it is never too late to engage your child in acts of chesed. Remember to ask them how it felt and what they learned.
This week the first grade started a unit on measurement. They were regaled with the "origins" of the terms foot, ruler and yard with the story of King Edgar of England.
"Each of his subjects paced off his land size with his own sized pace, overlapping
each other's land and annoying the king with their constant bickering.
The king declared that his foot would be the measurement that everyone used
and ordered that everyone should create sticks for themselves of exactly that
size. These sticks were to be called rulers because he was the ruler of the land and
the measurement unit would be called one foot. A yard would be the distance
from his nose to the tip of his finger. And that is what we use to this very day."
Wink, Wink
Even with this silly story as an introduction, the students understood that measurement needs to be the same for all people. We introduced the term "units of measure" and explained that in most of the world and in science class the metric system is used, so we will learn to use both.
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The second grade enjoyed an entire morning of writing this week. Now you might be thinking, "Enjoyed?" but yes they not only ask for writing time, complain if we don't manage to fit it in, but they even send me emails reminding me to make sure we get writing time. They are enjoying the freedom to create in any number of writing genres and modalities. Some like to hand-write while some type and others dictate to either a teacher or a computer typing program, but they are all creating.
In Math this week, we've taken a break from computations to learn about measurement. While we started with nonstandard units of measurement, the children know that standards are needed in measurements that are communicated to others. They are becoming familiar with both the English and metric systems.
Our study of living things has moved on to amphibians and lizards as the students learned that life began in the seas and transitioned to land through amphibians. They watched several short (really gross um.. I mean interesting) videos about frogs, salamanders and newts.
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This week's
Reading Street
selection is
A Symphony of Whales.
While it is considered fiction, it is based on some things that have really happened. I often tell the students what a storyteller once told me: There is something true in every story. In this story, many Beluga Whales are stuck in water that is surrounded by ice in the Arctic. People take poles to break the ice and feed the whales from their meager rations. They send a distress call which reaches a Russian icebreaker ship. When they finally get their break through the ice, the whales are afraid to follow the ship to freedom. The ship amplifies the sound of whale song. That doesn't work. The main character had a series of dreams that helped the whales, including the last one in which there was both music played by people and whales. When the icebreaker played classical music, the whales sang and followed the ship to freedom.
Speaking of following a ship to freedom, Students are engrossed in the story
January's Sparrow
, by Patricia Polacco. It is a moving true story about a slave family in Kentucky that crosses the river and runs away to Indiana to avoid being sold at auction and split up.
Besides these great stories, students have been absorbed in reading books from our class library, and sharing them with classmates. A real love of literature keeps growing.
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This week, most students are finishing the second third of
Bridge to Terabithia.
This Newberry Award winning work of realistic fiction touches on many meaningful themes: friendship, being your true self, following your dreams and interests, bullying and rising above it, and dealing with loss. As a storyteller told me, there is something true in every story. The theme of overcoming loss and grief in
Bridge to Terabithia
is based on the experience of the author's daughter. She captures the depth of emotion and eventually how life can and must go on. Students continue to examine connections between literature and life in
Bridge to Terabithia
, along with rich vocabulary, and challenging spelling words.
After Mesibat Navi, we had a few minutes before lunch. After sharing the highlights of the day, students became engrossed in the story
January's Sparrow
, by Patricia Polacco. It is a moving true story about a slave family in Kentucky that crosses the river and runs away to Indiana to avoid being sold at auction and split up. They asked a number of questions about this time period in American History.
Besides these great stories, students have been absorbed in reading books from our class library, sharing them with classmates, and elaborating in their Response Logs. A real love of literature keeps growing.
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Math -
Over the last few weeks, we have been working on our new unit of Fraction Multiplication. This enhances their ability to
apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication. They will now be able to multiply a fraction or multiply a whole number by a fraction. They are currently learning different ways to understand the concept of a mixed number, and how to use them when multiplying two mixed numbers by each other. Through the completion of these concepts, they will be able to use fractions and mixed numbers in real world situations; such as recipes and building,
ELA and SS
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In ELA, the students are adding the last touches to their final product poems and producing illustrations to their favorite pieces. We are reviewing all of the terrific poetry terms and aspects of poetry in preparation for our poetry test next week. We have also begun our literature study of the great book, Holes, by Louis Sacher! The students are thoroughly enjoying the book and are looking forward to how this tale will turn out for the doomed main character, Stanley. We are also starting to brainstorm on an exciting project that we will complete for the book.
In Social Studies, we are now exploring ancient religions from around the world. This week we began the study of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, etc. We will begin blogging about these religions and how they shaped and changed the world.
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Community Events and Programs
Mikvah of New Rochelle Event
Join us for an evening of food, fun and mystery in support of the Mikvah of New Rochelle on Motzaei Shabbat, February 3 at 8:00pm at YINR. Click here for event details. To be included in the Scroll of Honor and to make a reservation (RSVP by January 23), click here.
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1000 Pinebrook Blvd
New Rochelle, NY 10804
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