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Kindergarteners Kaylia, Zohar, Take, and Daniel bring home freshly picked apples from their field trip to the County Line Orchard.
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This Week
by Miriam Schiller, Principal
Last Sunday, on a perfect sunny day, Akiba-Schechter families came together for a picnic across the street. As a mental experiment, I pretended to be an onlooker, i.e. someone new to Akiba, even as I was also a participant. Here's what I saw: old families, new families and alumni families mingling. Babies, toddlers, 8-year-olds, 15-year-olds. Northsiders and Southsiders, and everyone in between. 8th graders were painting the faces of 1st graders at one table and selling Akiba kippot at another for their trip to Israel. Volunteers behind the grill flipped burgers as they shared jokes. I saw an organic, authentic, diverse community of people enjoying life together.
One of the most noteworthy parts of
Sunday's picnic for me was seeing the alumni who attended the event. Almost all of last year's graduating class was there, and when I asked one of them how they had managed to travel to Hyde Park for the event sans parents, he laughed, "Oh, we Ubered together." Of course they did! Last year's graduating class had 15 students, and they attend seven different high schools. Yet, they managed to make it to the Picnic, and it was exhilarating to see them hugging each other, chatting with former teachers, and bubbling with conversation as they compared notes about 9th grade.
This past
Tuesday, we held our first Buddy event. I met with the 7th graders the day before and announced their Buddy assignments, and watched as they listened intently to hear the name of their 1st or 2nd grader. Many questions followed: "What does she look like?" "Can I bring him treat?" "Can I tell my buddy who I am ahead of time?" "When are their birthdays?" (Truthfully, the students had been asking for days when they would hold their first buddy event.)
On Tuesday morning, they quickly arrived after tefillah to pick up their Buddies and headed to Loeb Hall. In pairs, 6-year-olds and 14-year-olds made Rosh Hashana cards to be inserted in gift packages of challot and grape juice for people who will spend their Rosh Hashanah in the hospital.
How wonderful it was to watch our oldest students cheer on our youngest students, and work with them to create something beautiful together! "Look at what my Buddy made!" was a phrase I heard multiple times that morning. I love that our 7th/8th graders think about people outside of themselves, and I love that we make this such an integral part of the Akiba education.
As I start my 29th year as Head of School, I feel blessed to lead such a wonderful, diverse, and cohesive community. May we all be inscribed for a sweet 5777, a year of health and happiness.
Shabbat Shalom!
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A great time was had by all at our Annual All-School Picnic last Sunday; thankfully, the weather was perfect!
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Preschool
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The Kindergarten's first field trip to the County Line Apple Orchard on Thursday was a huge success. The children took home bags of apples that they picked themselves!
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Enjoying music with Leah in the Purple Room.
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In the Blue Room, the children have been learning about bees. Here, Wonah, Tamar, Jacob, Louie, Mendel and Sam watch how to draw the body parts of a bee.
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Mrs. Wiesenfeld's Gimmel students come up with dance moves for a catchy song they learned this week, focusing on important vocabulary words. Parents: Be sure to ask them to sing it to you, and show you their moves!
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Ms Levine's 5th/6th grade English Language Arts students are excited to make signs for Jason, a character in the novel Rukes
who cannot speak.
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During this month of Elul we invite students to bring a shofar to school and they have the opportunity to blow it with their davening group.
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Morah Ahuva's Kitah Dalet (4th grade Hebrew class) read Hebrew books to Morah Jessica's first graders.
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I found a really charming book by Yaffa Ganz called
The Little Old Lady Who Couldn't Fall Asleep. I thought this would be a great book to kick off the year with our 1st and 2nd graders. We read and discussed it and I was so proud of our students who all understood the moral of the story, namely that we need to care about our neighbors and friends and be considerate of them. They also knew the Hebrew:
(Love your neighbor as yourself.)
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1st through 4th graders have been helping Debbie make decisions about the posters in the Art Room. It seems she has put up too many and needs their help to know which ones to leave up and which to take down. Students are voting on their favorites, least-favorites, and which they are merely ambivalent about. Debbie is graphing the opinions from each class and also making one bigger graph, which will let them see aggregate results. So far she is finding the results of this vote somewhat surprising, and she is getting to know her students even better as a result of this fun and stimulating activity.
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Kindergarten through 4th grade artists used a variety of drawing and painting techniques and materials to create beautiful self-portraits. They explored line, shape, proportion, composition, and the use of oil-pastel/watercolor "resist."
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Car Magnets
We hope you all have received the Akiba-Schechter car magnets and are proudly displaying them! Each family should have received one magnet (at no cost); additional magnets are available for purchase for $5.00 each, and the proceeds will benefit the 8th grade trip to Israel. These magnets were a gift from the Parent Network. For those of you who may be new to our community, the Parent Network was our first parent organization (2009-2016), which formed the foundation for our new Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO). Thanks to Leslie Landman, Ree Grossman and Estie Spero for the magnets, and for their years of leadership.
Coming soon....
Sukkot will be here before you know it, and that means the 7th Akiba-Schechter Neighborhood
Sukkah Hop
will be coming soon. Details are still being worked out. Please check the Tuesday bulletin for the announcement of the date in your neighborhood!
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The Head of School Search Committee plans to hold
several informal meetings:
Sunday 9/25, 7:00 p.m. at Associated Talmud Torah; 3531 Madison Street, Skokie
Monday 9/26, 7:00 p.m. at Akiba
Tuesday 9/27, 5:00 p.m. at Plante Moran; 10 South Riverside, Chicago; Plante Moran Ground Floor Lobby Conference Center
Wednesday 9/28, Noon at Plante Moran; 10 South Riverside, Chicago; Plante Moran Ground Floor Lobby Conference Center
Wednesday 9/28, 7:00 p.m. at the home of Debbie Schwartz and Jim Faier; 656 Melrose, Chicago
RSVP to let us know which session you plan to attend.
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Every Day Hot Lunch
The Every Day Hot Lunch program is working well! More than 50 people prepaid their lunches until the end of the calendar or school year. In addition, we have 12-30 more a la carte orders every day. The menu for November-December will be published soon, and we will introduce more breakfast for lunch items including pancakes and waffles (yum!).
One of the students' favorite lunches is chicken schnitzel. The chef's secret: he never uses wheat flour or any kind of wheat breading. You would never guess that the schnitzel is "breaded" with ground oats!
We listen to your feedback, please
email Larisa Kenen. Menu item suggestions are welcome!
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Sukkot is coming! Buy your Lulav and Etrog from Akiba-Schechter
and a portion of the proceeds will go to the school.
Lulav and Etrog are provided and inspected by Rabbi Mordechai Raizman.
Set includes all four species: Lulav, Hadassim, Aravot and Etrog.
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Dates to Remember
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Tuesday, September 27
Picture Day (Grades 1-8)
Washington Park across from the school
Wednesday, September 28
Picture Day (Preschool & Kindergarten)
Monday & Tuesday,
October 3 & 4
Rosh Hashanah
No Classes
Tuesday, October 11
Erev Yom Kippur - Half Day
12:00 p.m. Preschool Dismissal
12:30 p.m. Grade School Dismissal
No Late Bus
Wednesday, October 12
Yom Kippur
No Classes
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8th Grade Trip to Israel
Fundraisers
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Challah for Rosh Hashana:
We will be selling freshly made challah dough next week,
Thursday September 29
. Please fill out this form
to choose the dough size (medium or large) and flavor (honey whole wheat, cinnamon raisin or plain). Medium size (enough for two medium challot) is $4.50 and Large (enough for two large challot) is $6.00. Contact Alise Gold
with any questions.
Affy Tapples:
Start off the new year sweet with a special Rosh Hashanah treat!
Buy a caramel apple, $2.00 each, at
12:00 p.m. and 3:30
p.m. on
Thursday, September 29
, and
Friday, September 30.
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...to former Blue Room teacher
Melissa Pariser on the birth of her baby girl, Aria Jane, on September 15.
...to
Jori Parker
in the Yellow Room and her entire family on the birth of a baby brother! Aiden Noah Parker was born September 1, 2016.
Mazal tov!
.
..to
Aaron Faier
and his family on his Bar Mitzvah this Shabbat.
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September 23, 2016
Volume 13, Issue 3
Candle Lighting:
6:25 p.m.
Parasha: Ki Tavo
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Don't forget to set up your amazonsmile account to benefit Akiba. Thank you!
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Affiliated with the Associated Talmud Torahs and supported by the Kehillah Jewish Education Fund
773-493-8880
Check out our new website!
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