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Shabbat Parashat Vaera | שבת פרשת וארא
Candle Lighting: 4:31
pm
I Shabbat Ends: 5:40 pm
January 12, 2018 I כ״ה טֵבֵת
תשע״ח
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From our Principal, Deganit Ronen
Parashat V'erah details the first seven Makot that Hashem brought on the mitzrim. The first three Makot: Dam, Tz'fardea and Kinim--Blood, Frogs and Lice--were initiated through the water and the earth. Feeling grateful to the water, as the Nile River saved him when he was placed in a basket as an infant, and to the earth, as he was able to hide the mitzri that he struck in the ground, Moshe Rabbeinu did not want to be the one to initiate those makot. Hashem, therefore, asked Aharon to be the one to start those makot.
Moshe showed a sincere Hakarat Hatov to those inanimate objects. What a strong message to take from this single act--if Moshe feels Hakarat Hatov to inanimate objects, how much more so should we have Hakarat Hatov to those around us.
This Monday, we are given the opportunity to teach our children about Hakarat Hatov as well. Martin Luther King Day is a day to unite with those around us--not only those
like
us, but anyone around us. It's a day to bridge gaps, realize how connected we all can be, and show appreciation for those in our community that we might not always remember to thank.
Kitah Aleph and Bet created a wonderful idea of having each child perform one act of gratitude, whether to a family member or someone in their community. Let's all take the same opportunity as a school and pick one act to do on Monday that will impact a family or community member, however large or small. - THANK YOU MORAH KIM!
Below are two links which lists age appropriate services that can be done:
Over the coming weeks, we will be reminded through emails from the school about showing gratitude to those who stand by your side each and every day, who help guide you as parents, who strengthen your children's learning and development, who invest their time and energy to create a better world around us...
Please show your Hakarat Hatov and join us on February 25th at our Annual Event celebrating our "Attitude of Gratitude," which promises to be a wonderful, warm and fun evening for all.
Shabbat Shalom,
Deganit
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Enjoy a ruach and Torah-filled Shabbat with WTA families, faculty, and friends!
Friday Night Dinner Sponsorship - Sign Up
Potluck lunch at host homes - Sign Up
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_________________________________________________
(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
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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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Full STEAM ahead to our inaugural Family STEAM Night! We have planned activities, bought supplies, and can't wait to have all of you enjoy a night of fun and learning here at WTA. Please mark your calendars for Wednesday evening January 24, because this will be too good to miss!
Art - אומנות
This week in Art, our younger students worked to finish their winter tree painting projects, and the results have been beautiful. Older students continued working diligently on their mandalas and are nearing completion. The fourth graders continue to beautify their display boards for their upcoming Mesibat Navi. Shabbat Shalom!
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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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We are painting with ICE! Shorashim each made their own colored water. We left them outside to freeze. Due to the warm weather, we had to place them in the freezer after. We loved seeing how the water was now hard, and we watched it melt as we painted.
Click
here
to read the Shorashim weekly newsletter.
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Jonathan, who works at Wave Hill, a N.Y. Public Garden and Cultural Center, visited Pre-K on Tuesday! We explored various fruits and vegetables to discover where seeds are found and how different they can look.
Click here to read the Pre-K weekly newsletter.
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Kindergarten has been learning about winter. We read a story about a bear hibernating through the winter. We also compared different stories about bears. We identified which stories were real and which were fantasy. In math, we compared numbers. We played several games during center time to practice less than, greater than, and equal.
שלג, שלג, שלג ...
After a cold and snowy weekend, Gan ילדים continued the עונת החורף unit and got busy by making a snowman - איש שלג.
Click
here to read the full Kindergarten Judaic Studies Newsletter.
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In math this week, we worked on ways to remember addition facts and the students enjoyed being able to play even more games to reinforce those facts.
In science, we continue to learn how we can use our senses to explore, observe and discover the world around us. Thus far, we have tested the limits of our sense of taste, smell, touch and this week, sound. Yes, even a cotton ball makes an identifiable sound!
The first grade continued to learn about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the struggles of the civil rights movement. We watched a clip of the "I Have a Dream" speech and read several other books. This week we also enjoyed eating millet - a traditional grain from Africa. Many of the children asked for seconds and thirds and several parents have emailed asking for the recipe: to that end I am including it here. Millet can be found in any health food store. Saute the millet seeds in a heavy bottom pot, with a small amount of oil, until they smell like popcorn. Add water at a ratio of two and a quarter to one, season with a sprinkle of poultry seasoning and a spoonful of powdered consume. Bring to a boil, cover tightly, lower the heat to a simmer and let it cook for 20 minutes or until all the water is absorbed. Turn off heat, and let it stand covered for another few minutes. Enjoy!
As this Monday is MLK Day and recognized as a national service day, I have asked that each child perform a service. The service can be for the family or community. I have always known these experiences to be so rewarding and educational. Here is a link that lists age appropriate services:
I have sent home a homework sheet to be filled in with what your child did and most importantly how they felt or what they learned from the experience. Look for it in their homework folder.
We completed our unit of the letter ח; our vocabulary list included the words חגיגה, משפחה, אח, אחות, חדש, חדשה. The children are using context clues and their knowledge of letters and vowels to read with comprehension and fluency. Reading online with Ariotcal continues to be fun and engaging. Each day the children spend time writing simple answers to questions.
We began our unit of טו בשבט, ראש השנה לאילנות. We are learning to name, read and write the various parts of the אילן/עץ. Appreciating fruits we eat and saying בורא פרי העץ is becoming even more meaningful.
Each day we add a new line to "אשרי" during our morning tefilot. We are now on the letter י, and the children are excited about discovering which letter of the Hebrew Alphabet is missing in this תפילה written in the form of an acrostic.
We had a lively discussion about the role of מכות מצרים Hashem inflicted on the Egyptians in פרשת וארא. Most children suggested that enslaving the עברים and not setting them free was the reason Hashem punished the מצרים. The children remembered the plagues by name and sang many of the songs they learned last year when preparing for their K model seder.
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General Studies:
Second grade has been hard at work mastering the skills needed to add with carrying over, and subtract with borrowing. Each child gains understanding and proficiency at his/her own rate, and they are usually working on a variety of different assignments simultaneously. However, they each will take the time to stop and help each other in the most caring and sweet ways.
Many of our budding authors have finished a story, some are already edited and the child is working on the final product before "publication." We are in need of a name and logo image for WTA's publishing company and are currently accepting any ideas.
The second grade continued to learn about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the struggles of the civil rights movement. We watched a clip of the "I Have a Dream" speech and read several other books. This week we also enjoyed eating millet a traditional grain from Africa. Many of the children asked for seconds and thirds and several parents have emailed asking for the recipe: to that end, I am including it here. Millet can be found in any health food store. Saute the millet seeds in a heavy bottom pot, with a small amount of oil, until they smell like popcorn. Add water at a ratio of two and a quarter to one, season with a sprinkle of poultry seasoning and a spoonful of powdered consume. Bring to a boil, cover tightly, lower the heat to a simmer and let it cook for 20 minutes or until all the water is absorbed. Turn off heat, and let it stand covered for another few minutes. Enjoy!
As this Monday is MLK Day and recognized as a national service day, I have asked that each child perform a service. The service can be for the family or community. I have always known these experiences to be so rewarding and educational. Here is a link that lists age appropriate services:
I have sent home a homework sheet to be filled in with what your child did and most importantly how they felt or what they learned from the experience. Look for it in their homework folder.
We have been busy putting the final touches on our Mesibat Chumash play. It's great to see that the students actually did not forget their parts over the extended vacation! We are having fun learning how to locate a Parasha, Perek and Pasuk so that we will be ready to put this skill to good use when opening our own Chumashim.
The students were able to examine the shorashim in a list of words, match the nouns to their corresponding verbs and then form coherent sentences. We will focus on identifying shorashim in Chumash studies as well.
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General Studies:
Highlighting Science:
Students read and responded to an informational text, "Seeing Stars." It included the colors of stars, how far away they are, their sizes, what they are, constellations, and more.
On Friday, third graders will be learning that Amphibians are cold blooded; vertebrate have wet, slimy skin, lay slimy eggs in the water, breathe through their skin, have gills as opposed to lungs for breathing, among other characteristics. The session will be topped off with some spectacular video footage of some awesome amphibians!
Judaic Studies:
So much news in the 3rd grade!
Since Tu bishvat is coming up, we started to learn about the life cycle of a tree, and took that opportunity to discover other natural cycles: the cycle of a year, a month, a week, a day, and the water cycle as well. We watched a beautiful video on the iTalam website which helped us make a connection between the natural cycles and the word creation.
In Hebrew, we continued to learn about objects we find in the kitchen.
In Tefila, we are working on making our davaning more meaningful. Students write their Tefilot every morning, and some choose to share them with their friends and teachers.
We also learned that Tefila is the "work of the heart"- עבודה שבלב.
In Parashat hashavua, we added a Talam workbook to our weekly learning. The focus of the workbook is to find a connection between symbols in our tradition and concepts the Torah teaches us - for exemple, eating Charoset on Leil haSeder symbolizes חומר Bnei Israel used to build cities for Paroh.
In Chumash, we finished parashat Vayerah! Chazak chazak venitchazek!
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Fourth graders are engaged in some rich content, vocabulary, and meaningful connections as they read and examine the realistic fiction story The Bridge to Terabithia. Top that off with working on mastering Long Division, and we've got much of the next couple of weeks spoken for.
Judaic Studies:
Preparations for Mesibat Navi gave us many opportunities to learn new things, but some of the most important lessons we learned had to do with how we act when our normal class routine has changed. Are we able to work independently? To maximize our abilities and the time we spend on a certain task? To try hard and not give up? To cooperate with friends and lead without hurting other people feelings? To be excited without losing control? To be patient when waiting for help? As well as many other challenges. We think that Kitah Dalet succeeded! And we all are looking forward to celebrating together on Wednesday at our amazing Mesibat Navi!
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General Studies:
ELA and SS
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We are steadily moving along with our poetry unit, and starting our final products! The boys have learned so much about poetry - from all of the different types, to how to play with it and change it up using poetry breaks, different rhyming patterns, and mixing up the organization of the stanzas. We will be making a booklet of all of the poems that we have produced (there are many!) and each student will then choose their favorite to submit to a national poetry contest. We will keep you posted!
Judaic and Hebrew Studies:
Hebrew -
To mark the week of תחיית השפה העברית we mentioned Eliezer Ben Yehuda in our class this week. We discussed and read the poem בֶּן-יְהוּדָה מַמְצִיא מִלִּים / מירי צללזון about Ben Yehuda's effort to invent new words to respond to the needs of his time. Following Ben Yehuda's lead, we tried to listen to sounds in nature and guess the new words he coined (if טיפטוף is the sound drops make when dripping from a faucet טיף טיף טיף, then a clock ticking is תקתוק).
The students have used names of fruits and currency to "make", "sell" and "buy" smoothies in a smoothie bar in Israel. We practiced forming questions in a spontaneous conversation and in writing to practice an interaction between a seller (מוכר) and a buyer (קונה).
We compared the ingredients the students like to put in their smoothies; and what makes it is a healthy treat.
Tanach -
In Chumash, we are learning about עשרת המכות The class was split into three groups, and each group focused on three specific מכות. Each group answer the following questions: Did Moshe warn Pharaoh prior to this specific מכה? What was the מכה? What was the reaction of Pharaoh's advisors? What was Pharaoh's reaction?
Now the students are busy building a webpage and look forward to sharing it with you so that you too can learn all about עשרת המכות with us.
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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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