Message from Heather Moore, Head of School
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Dear Parents,
This past Tuesday, we held our
31st Annual Bob Josephberg Classic Golf Tournament.
This tournament is our school’s biggest fundraiser, and we truly can’t thank the donors enough for their generous support. A special thank you to
Bob Josephberg,
Angela Jenkins
,
Nathan
and
Ilana Benson,
and all the volunteers who came out to support our school. Thank you to our parents who volunteered at the tournament:
Laura Allegood, Kerri Bradley, David Cardon, Brigitte & Drew Gottlieb, Aaron Kass, Rebecca Levitt, Utomwen Udaughan, Jarek Tobos and Peter VanNimwegen.
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Golfers enjoying the tournament.
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Tournament chairs Ilana and Nathan Benson
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This week is full of activities at SIA:
- Early Years Picture Day today and tomorrow. Primary Years Picture Day is Wednesday, September 25, 2019
- In preparation for Rosh Hashanah students in grades 3-5 will participate in a Shofar Factory on Tuesday, September 24, 2019. Students will learn about the Shofar, where it comes from and how they are made.
- Primary Years Parent-Teacher conferences are Wednesday, September 25, 2019 4:00-7:00pm. Please note, interim report cards for Primary Years students will be sent home in your child’s backpack next week.
- Thursday, September 26, 2019 is the SGA Souper Jersey Day-bring a can of soup and wear your team jersey.
Please remember, Monday, September 30 and Tuesday, October 1, 2019 is Rosh Hashanah and there is No School both days.
FULLCARE is closed on Monday, September 30 and open on Tuesday, October 1, 2019.
Wishing you good health, happiness, peace and prosperity, today and all through the year! L’shanah Tovah!
Heather Moore
Head of School
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Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year
By Rashi Brashevitzky, Judaic Studies Director
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Rosh Hashanah
is in the air at SIA. Our Primary Years students
are exploring and discovering all things
Rosh Hashanah
on a daily basis. As the
Jewish New Year
rolls in we have students taking apart pomegranates and counting the pomegranate arils, tasting them and learning about their significance in the Rosh Hashanah celebration. Ever wonder where a Shofar comes from? Our students have been investigating the different types of animal horns which can be used, as well as learning about these animals and their habitats. While learning about communities and rights and responsibilities, one group of students also studied the habits of bees and how they function as a community to deliver our sweet, sweet honey to dip our apples in, as is a tradition on Rosh Hashanah. Students have baked round Challah while learning about the tradition of eating round Challah on Rosh Hashanah. The sound of the Shofar has filled the air as students practice making the correct number of blasts for each of the Shofar sounds. Classrooms are filled with students practicing the special prayers and songs for this special holiday.
I smile as I walk through the halls, knowing that our students will head home for Rosh Hashanah prepared to share their new knowledge with their friends and families. Here are some ideas for Rosh Hashanah discussion starters for your family:
- What does the sound of the Shofar tell you?
- When we eat the pomegranate and hope for a year filled with Mitzvot (good deeds/G-ds commandments), what are some Mitzvot and good deeds you will try to do this year?
- If you perform the Tashlich ceremony at a body of water, what are some mistakes that you will send off and how will you try to do better in the coming year?
- Why do you think we eat Challah that is round?
As we prepare to welcome in the Jewish year 5780, I wish each of you a beautiful and sweet new year. May G-d open His treasure chest of blessings and give us a year filled with happiness and joy, learning and discovery, peace and good health, friendship and kindness.
L’Shana Tova U’Mituka! May we all be blessed with a sweet new year!
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Jacob Berkovich, Fourth Grader,
Blowing the Shofar
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Kindergarten Students eating apples
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Early Years News - Teaching Across the Disciplines
By Lorna Orleans, Director of the Early Years Program
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Dear Parents,
So much of early childhood learning is an integration of content material across the disciplines. Young learners are natural inquirers and it is seldom that we separate out the study of various subject areas. For example, learning about the rituals and the iconic symbols of Rosh Hashanah, like the shofar, apples and honey as well as the pomegranate naturally leads to science, art and math explorations.
Learning never takes place in a vacuum, especially in the curious minds of preschoolers. So, when Morah Nicole Gamboa explained to her group of 4 year old students that Rosh Hashanah was the world’s birthday, a question from one of her students led to a science inquiry. “If the earth is in space, how do we know when it’s the Earth’s birthday in space?” This question extended to learning about the earth’s revolutions around the sun over a year’s time. Hence a birthday happens!
When our classes all had taste tests of red, yellow and green apples to dip in honey, this opportunity led to counting and graphing their favorites.
All of our classes expressed what they are learning about Rosh Hashanah through art. After reading
Happy Birthday World
three year old students wanted to paint a picture of the entire world and a group painting activity ensued. Others worked on fine motor control as they painted apples with red, green and yellow paint.
After exploring various artists through an inquiry into
How Do We Express Ourselves?
, EY4Lam made Jackson Pollack-like art and added "pop art" apples of red, green and yellow, a nod to Rosh Hashanah learning.
Learning about Rosh Hashanah and the sweet new year is extended with wonderful children’s literature and music. The children are even learning Hebrew vocabulary like
tapuach
for apple and
d'vash
for honey. Below are links to two favorite Rosh Hashanah songs
I encourage you to read the newsletters coming home from your child's individual teachers. They are rich in detail and give you a real glimpse into daily, ongoing learning.
Shavua Tov
Lorna Orleans
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Three year old students paint their version of planet Earth after reading
Happy Birthday World.
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Developing fine motor control while painting apples.
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Like all of our classes, two year olds students counted and graphed their favorite tasting apple after a taste test.
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Students explore the inside of a pomegranate and wonder about how many seeds there are.
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United Jewish Federation of Tidewater
invites you to IGNITE 2020!
Alfred H. Moses, former U.S. Ambassador to Romania and author of
Bucharest Diary: Romania’s Journey from Darkness to Light
is the evening’s featured speaker
Thursday, September 26, 7:30 pm
Sandler Family Campus
Help spark our 2020 Community Campaign and the Lee and Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival!
Alfred H. Moses will discuss his book,
Bucharest Diary: Romania’s Journey from Darkness to Light
, offering first-hand colorful stories of the diplomacy that helped Romania recover from four decades of communist rule.
An American attorney in the 1970s, Moses was approached in Bucharest by young Jews seeking help to emigrate to Israel. This became his mission until the communist regime fell in 1989. Before that, he periodically met with dictator Nicolae Ceausescu to persuade him to allow increased Jewish emigration. This experience deepened Moses’ interest in Romania—culminating in his appointment as ambassador to the country by President Bill Clinton in 1994.
Alfred H. Moses currently serves as chairman of UN Watch (Geneva). He served as national president of the American Jewish Committee, special counsel to President Carter (1980–81), U.S. ambassador to Romania (1994–97), and special presidential envoy for the Cyprus conflict (1999–2001). In 2002 he was awarded Romania’s Marc Cruce Medal (Order for Merit) the only American to be so honored.
To learn more about Alfred H. Moses, or to Register,
click here
.
United Jewish Federation of Tidewater
5000 Corporate Woods Dr., Suite 200 | Virginia Beach, Virginia 23462
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I Want to Pray but What Do I Say?
A Lunch & Learn With Amy Lefcoe
Wednesday, September 25, 12:00 pm at the Simon Family JCC
In a world with increasingly more questions than answers, more and more people are seeking the serenity that only comes from a relationship with G-d. Come explore this unique opportunity to open your heart and find the words with “
I Want to Pray but What Do I Say?”,
a discussion led by community member and teacher, Amy Lefcoe,
from 12 pm to 1 pm at the Simon Family JCC.
FREE and open to the community, lunch included. RSVP required by Monday, September 23. To register, visit
jewishva.org/whatdoisay
, call 757-321-2304, or stop by the Simon Family JCC Front Desk.
To learn more about programs like this one, contact Sierra Lautman, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Director of Jewish Innovation, at 757-965-6107 or
slautman@ujft.org
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