Kibitzer May 4, 2018

Last week, a delegation of thirteen early-childhood educators from China visited Akiba on a study tour. They loved Caramel, the Purple Room's pet guinea pig, just as much as everyone else does!

#IlluminateAkiba

From the Desk of

As I huddled in the corner in the fetal position Wednesday night as the sky opened up with what I can only imagine Noah would have thought was too much rain, explosive thunder and blinding lightning, I thought of this quote from the great Hasidic master, Rabbi Shneur Zalman: "As lightning springs out of its concealment in dark clouds to flash through the world, so the divine light, embedded in matter, emerges through charitable deeds... Thus, through charity, a sort of divine revelation occurs in the soul."

At the start of this week, we sent out the first invitation to our annual fundraiser honoring Barbara Simon, who is retiring after thirty-five years of tremendous dedication to the Akiba-Schechter. I am excited that next week I will be interviewing her for our podcast and share more about our honoree. However, Barb and I met yesterday to talk about the event, the fundraising needs of the school, and the meaning of giving to Akiba. Why do we give?

This year many will give to Akiba to honor Barbara as the founder of our preschool and beloved longtime teacher of the Purple Room. Many will also provide support for our scholarship fund that ensures access to what I know to be the best Jewish day school in the country. Others will give to support the development and integration of innovative programming that differentiates us and sets up our students for success in a rapidly changing world. There are those who will give because they give to Jewish education in Chicago and believe in Jewish continuity. Then there are those who will support us for all these reasons. However, there is no doubt in my mind that for whatever reason you give to Akiba, your giving is an act of kindness that is nothing short of divine. As Winston Churchill said, "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

I want to thank all those who have already given to our annual campaign and are supporting Akiba-Schechter, the Hyde Park community and Jewish education. We need to raise another $225k to reach our annual fundraising goal of $500k to support our students and the work we do. I invite you all to participate in the annual fundraiser this year by registering below for the event (or by clicking here), placing an ad in the ad book and becoming one of the event sponsors. Thank you!

Shabbat Shalom,

Dr. Eliezer Jones

Head of School

From the Preschool

Carla explains the deep study of blue and white that ultimately led to the kids in Parent/Tot creating Israeli flags.

Our Preschool: Founded by Barbara Simon and now a Model for Early-Childhood Education

By Carla Goldberg

Preschool Director

We had the pleasure of having thirteen early childhood educators from China visit Akiba-Schechter last week. They were touring several cities in the United States, and Akiba was their destination to see early childhood education in Chicago. This delegation was hosted by the Erikson Institute, which has chosen a few early childhood centers for the teachers and directors to visit and explore while they are on their tour. We are honored that for the past two years we have been that school for Chicago, and that we are seen as a school at the forefront of early childhood education. Please see the note below from Yinna, the organizer of the delegation:

Thanks again for hosting another group of delegations successfully. During the reflection last day, they mentioned Akiba again and again and you know, it is their favorite. The participants felt so welcomed, enjoyed the experience talking with the teachers, and deeply appreciated your guide and explanations. They also like the presentation about the long-term project, and felt delighted that teachers were interested to know more about programs in China (a two-way interaction). I personally enjoyed the visit and learned so much from you and your team. A true presentation of leadership and community! Please help to spread our gratitude to your dedicated team!

As I reflect on what we have built here at Akiba and the knowledge of early childhood education that we can share with the world, I think about our founder of the preschool, Barbara Simon. Barbara started Akiba's preschool 35 years ago and has worked with passion, commitment and dedication to Akiba and its families from the moment our doors opened. We have grown and changed over the years, and yet we remain committed to Barbara's vision of being the best play-based preschool in Chicago and beyond. Barbara has given so much to her students and families over the years, and we invite everyone to honor and celebrate Barb and Akiba on June 24 at Akiba's Annual Fundraiser. Please help acknowledge this incredible school that Barb built, and support our fundraiser by attending the event, becoming a sponsor and creating an ad for our ad book. There are many ways to be involved, and we need everyone's participation to make this event a success and meet our fundraising goals this year. Please invite your family, friends and grandparents to join us and celebrate Akiba-Schechter and Barbara Simon on June 24!

Barb in the Purple Room (this picture was taken when we celebrated Dr. Seuss)

Dvar Torah

Lag B'Omer - Then and Now

By Rabbi Holman, Judaics Director

On Lag B'Omer, we remember Rabbi Akiva and his generation. Theirs was a time when Roman persecution made the study of Jewish laws and traditions punishable by death. It was also a time when the Torah was being threatened from within, and this threat went largely unnoticed. Rabbi Akiva's 12,000 pairs of students, most of whom were great Torah scholars, had a character flaw, which made the transmission of Torah to the next generation impossible. They studied intensely and yet missed the greatest lesson, which is inherent in every Torah subject - the necessity to respect one another. Unfit to teach Torah to the next generation, they all died from a throat disease known then as "askara." Lag B'Omer recalls this event and the eventual survival of Torah through five new students. This near calamity of losing our precious Torah is the cause of our quasi-mourning during this time of year for the past 32 days. During the middle of the 20th century, we saw the weakening of our Torah heritage through the Holocaust in Europe and assimilation here in America. Today the resurgence of Torah study is nothing but miraculous, with the growth of Jewish day schools at an unprecedented rate. As we remember the dedication of Rabbi Akiva today, may we continue to grow in our own dedication to Torah study.

Shabbat Shalom!

Preschool

The Yellow Room hosted families and later their 1st/2nd grade buddies in their bakery this morning.

Yellow Room Bakery

The Yellow Room kids celebrated the culmination of their bakery study with the opening of their cafe this morning. This has been an in-depth study and involved the kids taking on several different "jobs," such as:

Contractors - worked on the trays for the bakery's food and figured out the arrangement of the counter and seating by making blueprints of the bakery

Signage Team - created labels for the food and the various signs that were hung in the bakery.

Bakers - decided on the final menu, wrote the recipes and figured out what ingredients were needed for:

* The Yellow Room Special: orange cake with chocolate frosting

* Tuna Sandwich

* Chocolate Croissant

* Coffee, Hot Chocolate, & Water

Sylas and Louie work on their books in the Kindergarten.

Young Author Time

It is young author time in the Kindergarten. Every year, when the school year begins to wind down, the Kindergarten children use everything they have learned over the course of the year to create their very own book. They are the author and the illustrator. They take great care in the details of each page, including the use of inventive spelling, sight words and punctuation. They also pay special attention to their illustrations, making each page come alive with their imagination.

The Green Room has been learning about caterpillars and their amazing metamorphosis. The children have been observing real caterpillars and creating beautiful caterpillar art.

Grades 1-8

Biography bottles by Mrs. Leonard's 3rd/4th graders

Biography Bottles

Have you seen these awesome Biography Bottles in Room 204? Mrs. Leonard's 3rd/4th graders read biographies of famous people, learned a lot, and created these amazing bottles to represent the person they studied! The bottles in the picture above present:

Paul Revere (by Ari Frankel)

Walt Disney (by Ike Noth)

Abigail Adams (by Maayan Weichner)

Charlie Chaplin (by Coby Silverman)

Louisa May Alcott (by Solje Elia)

Betsy Ross (behind with the orange hair) (by Megill Hameiri)

Lou Gehrig (by Asher Radutny)

Eleanor Roosevelt (by Sami Berlin)

Chuck Jones (by Ilan Landman-Feigelson)

The kids gave informative presentations, and they also created ChatterPix presentations (see one below).

Walt Disney tells you a bit about himself!
Chatterbox created by Ike Noth

Whether they are curled up with a pillow, paired up in a corner, snuggled against a table or bookshelf, or simply lying on the rug, the Great Classmates in Miss Friedman's 1st/2nd grade LOVE to read in the Cozy Corner whenever they can. After finishing their morning writing assignment, there's always a group either reading independently or reading together. That's right, THEY LOVE TO READ! They also love being read to by Ms. Harris and Miss Friedman. Their funny voices always make them laugh. #readingisfun

Morah Bat El's 8th grade is practicing a conversation in Hebrew preparing for their trip to Israel.

Our Chidon competitors at the National Finals in New York last weekend.
Mazal tov to Yaakov who placed 7th in the 6th/7th grade division!

Mr. Millner's class sorts character taits into a Venn diagram.

Shadow Children

Mr. Millner's Language Arts class is right in the middle of Among the Hidden. They finally met the other "Shadow Child," and the students have been working in groups to create a Venn diagram, comparing and contrasting the two Shadow Children in this book. They have been comparing how these two characters survived, what they know, their upbringing, and what they might do now that they have met one another. Needless to say, the students are very excited to see how the rest of the novel unfolds. They will be meeting in their first book club group next week where the students will discuss various question prompts in a smaller setting.

In Morah Dorit's Kitah Dalet, Ariel and Toby work together on a Shavuot word search.

Mrs. Brackman's Tefillah_(prayer) group has been enjoying the beautiful weather praying outdoors.

Chesed Project

Elyasheve works at the sewing machine.

Mrs. Crook's 7th/8th grade Tefillah group has gotten involved in a Chesed project. Thanks to Aviva, they learned a lot about children with Down Syndrome and decided to sew stuffed toys that offer a lot of tactile stimulation, which they plan to give to children. They found sewing patterns and ordered free fabric swatches online. Now they are using their templates to cut out fronts, backs, tails, and ears to make stuffed animals to donate to children's charities.

In addition to hand and machine sewing, this group of students is learning so much more. They have been collaborating by working together to figure out the sewing directions. They have learned to anticipate what notions they needed to bring: needles, thread, scissors, bodkins or wooden sticks to stuff the fiberfill in the legs and tails. They have swapped and shared useful items and 'maker' knowledge at every step. In addition, t heir camaraderie and good humor are also making it fun!

Izzy using her toy pig as a cat toy, Raizel sewing, Ava with her toy elephant.

Art with Debbie

1st and 2nd grade students created vivid "cracked wax" pictures by drawing boldly and solidly with bright colors of oil pastel. Next they crumpled their drawings tightly into a ball twice, and then applied black tempera paint to the resulting cracks.

3rd and 4th grade students are working on cityscapes in 2-point perspective. They are carefully drafting their skyscrapers from a bird's-eye perspective and are off to a truly magnificent start!

Save the Date for our Annual Fundraiser:

Akiba Summer Program

Click here.

Afternoon Explorers Boutique

Create a Jewish Legacy

Thank you to our donors who are already participating in Create a Jewish Legacy.

Find out more about making planned gifts and bequests here.

Refuah Shleimah

...to preschool teacher Melinda Deegan, and librarian Thea Crook.

Mazal Tov

... to Raizel Landman-Feigelson and her family on her Bat Mitzvah this Shabbat.

Volunteers Needed

...for the Greater Chicago Jewish Festival on Sunday, June 10, 2018. There are multiple time slots available. The festival has food, music, activities for kids, and more. Let's make Akiba's presence known at this fantastic event! Please contact Kelli Harris.

ATT Summer Program

It's time to register for the Nathan & Shirley Rothner ATT Summer Program. Have your child experience an awesome summer. Make new friends, learn new skills and develop talents with sewing, drama, sports, art, science, rocketry, dance, cooking, magic, robotics, self-defense, computer programming, daily trips and more. For more information call Susan Feuer/Shelley Stopek at 773-973-2828, www.att.org to view brochure and apply online.

Dates to Remember

Wednesday, May 16

Kitah Alef Siddur Presentation

2:00 PM

Thursday, May 17

Afternoon Explorers Boutique

1:30 - 3:30 PM, Atrium

Friday, May 18

Orchestra/Hand-Chime Concert

10:00 AM

Loeb Hall

Monday, May 21