Weekly School Newsletter

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Thursday, February 19, 2020

24 Shevat 5780

Message from Heather Moore, Head of School

Dear Parents,

It was wonderful seeing so many parents join us for our SIA Family Shabbat Sing-a-long this past Friday. It was such a wonderful experience for all our students, faculty and school community or “Kehillah”! We truly appreciate everyone’s participation and enjoyed all the singing and dancing together! Thank you so much to Mrs. Brashevitzky and Morah Lisa for organizing another wonderful Shabbat! We look forward to our next SIA Family Shabbat Sing-a-long on March 13, 2020.

Jewish Community Survey

The Jewish Federation of Tidewater has created a 2020 survey for our entire community. Please complete the survey and share your thoughts. The s urvey is open to ALL FAMILIES. The survey aims to learn what people want in Tidewater’s Jewish community. The information will help make it possible to better serve all of Jewish Tidewater.

The survey takes approximately 15 minutes to complete and is anonymous! Every Jewish adult or adult living in a Jewish home in Tidewater, age 18 and over, is eligible to participate. The survey is designed to give a voice to ANYONE and EVERYONE who identifies as Jewish, regardless of affiliation or belief.

Please, click here to take the survey or go to JewishTidewater.org .

Chumash Presentation

The Chumash presentation, where second grade students are presented with their own Chumashim or Bible, is on Thursday, February 20, 2020 at 6:00 PM. We are keeping an eye on the weather, and will notify if we have to postpone due to snow. The second graders are very excited to showcase all they have learned.

Below you will see some reminders for next week.

Shavuah Tov, wishing you all a wonderful week ahead!

Heather Moore

Head of School

Shabbat Singalong Fun

UPCOMING EVENTS

Click here for full calendar.

2/20 Second Grade Chumash (Bible) Presentation

3/10 Purim/ Noon Dismissal/Fullcare Open

3/13 Family Shabbat Singalong, 9am

3/23 - 3/26 Scholastic Book Fair

3/31 All School Spring Conferences, 4pm - 7pm

4/7 EY2-EY4 Model Seder, 9:30am-10:30am;

PY K-5 Seder , 2:15pm

4/8 - 4/17 Spring/Passover Break

4/9-4/10 Fullcare closed

4/13 - 4/17 Early Years Spring Break Session

Click here for 2020-2021 School Calenda r.

Order LUNCH February

To order lunch: orgsonline.com

School code: 432HAOTVA

(for first time sign-ups)

Menu will show when you are assigned a school.

To cancel lunch:

If you have a scheduled lunch and your child will not be in school, you must cancel by 9:30 a.m. that day and email Benita Watts at ops@ujft.org or call Linda Bridges at 424-4327 to make sure the lunch is cancelled - credit will be applied to your account. If you don't cancel the lunch, you will be charged.

Lunches:

$3.30 for Early Years (EY 2-EY 4)

$5.50 for Primary Years (K-5)

Lunch not available

for toddler classes

SIA at the Norfolk International Airport

Thirty SIA Primary Years Students in grades K-5 had their art work selected to represent our school at this year’s Norfolk International Airport Art Show. The work will be on display now through the end of February. The exhibition is located on the second floor main lobby near the shops and food court, on the far left. Congratulations to all of our young artists! We are so proud of our talented students!

Grade 5 Visits USS Wisconsin

Last week, Grade 5 students toured the USS Wisconsin as part of their Chumash (Torah text) study of the verses regarding the building of Noach's ark. The 5th graders are currently comparing many aspects of the battleship and ark.

Being a Community

By Lorna Orleans, Director of the Early Years Program

Dear Families

One of our school’s core values is Kehillah or Community. Nurturing community in any organization is the key to building a sense of belonging and a joint sense of purpose. We have a song for this idea in our Jewish tradition called Hine Ma Tov. The translation says, “How good it is, how sweet it is, for brothers and sisters to sit together in peace.” A well known Jewish singer/songwriter, Miss Emily, wrote a song about this and we sing it each week at our preschool sing-a-long time.

Click here for the song link to sing along!

We actually framed this past week with community gatherings. We began on Monday with our weekly Havdalah time where we gather to say goodbye to the sweetness of Shabbat and wish one another a good week with songs. It also happened to be the holiday of Tu B’ Shevat, a time when we honor trees for the gifts they bring to us. Our three and four year students came together with family and friends for a seder to taste the seven species and celebrate trees with song performances. Our two year old students came together in their classrooms to taste the seven species as well. We ended the week on Friday with our monthly all-school family Shabbat sing-a-long. Every week in our classrooms we come together as individual mini communities to celebrate Shabbat with a candle lighting.

Coming together for joyful occasions nurtures a strength of spirit that we can rely on when we need to come together in challenging times. We are all so grateful to be able share celebratory gatherings in the Strelitz Early Years Program.

Shavua Tov,

Lorna Orleans