Weekly School Newsletter

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Thursday, February 6, 2020

11 Shevat 5780

Message from Heather Moore, Head of School

Dear Parents,

On Monday, our entire school community gathered on the field for an aerial drone photo, dressed in spirit wear and lined up to form the letters SIA. Everyone’s teamwork for the photo was greatly appreciated and we are excited that the photo turned out so well! Big thanks to Patti Seeman, Elyssa Brinn, Janet Jenkins, Rashi Brashevitzky and Carin Simon for their planning and coordinating.

Yesterday, the author Steve Metzger visited our school. Mr. Metzger has written over 70 children’s books to include Pluto Visits Earth and Detective Blue! Mr. Metzger loves visiting schools and sharing the joy of children’s literature.

On Wednesay, Patti Seeman, our Development Director is attending Date with the State. This is a great opportunity to advocate for maintaining the Virginia Education Improvement Scholarships Tax credit program and other initiatives vital to our community.

Just a reminder , February 3 – 14, 2020 is Re-enrollment! All contracts are due by Friday, February 14, 2020. Please make sure you set up your account through Open Apply in order to re-enroll. You should have received an email on Monday with your login and a link to create an account. Email Carin Simon if you did not receive your Open Apply login.

Below you will see some reminders for next week. Shavuah Tov, wishing you all a wonderful week ahead!

Heather Moore

Head of School

UPCOMING EVENTS

Click here for full calendar.

2/10 Tu B'Shevat Seder; EY3 - EY4, 9:30am.

Primary Years Tu B'Shevat Celebration, 2:30pm

2/14 Family Shabbat Singalong, 9am

2/17 President's Day/ NO SCHOOL/ FULLCARE CLOSED

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

Click here for 2020-2021 School Calenda r.

Order for 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

Happy Birthday to the Trees!

By Rashi Brashevitzky, Director of Judaic Studies

Happy birthday to the trees! Tu B’Shvat, the New Year for the Trees is on Monday, the 15th day of Shevat! Tu B’Shvat marks the beginning of the season for the earliest blooming trees in Israel - and the start of the new fruit bearing cycle.

On Tu B’Shvat we reflect on the wonderful blessing of trees in our lives. Here at SIA, our Primary Years students are busy learning the parts of trees in Hebrew, exploring the many different ways trees impact our lives on a daily basis, drawing trees, inventing trees that could help solve global challenges, identifying the Shivat Ha’Minim (the 7 special fruits and grains of Israel) and more!

On Monday, February 10 at 2:30 pm, our Primary Years students will participate in a Tu B’Shvat STEAM Fair ! Our students will experience Tu B’Shvat through science, technology, engineering, art and math. The fair will be filled with a wide variety of activities ranging from squeezing juice to cupcake decorating, virtual reality to planting and more! Please be sure to sign up to join your Primary Year child/children for this fun celebration! Click here to RSVP!

Making Connections Through Literature

By Lorna Orleans, Director of the Early Years Program

Dear Families,

Children’s literature offers up many opportunities for preschoolers to make connections to experiences in their own lives and to the world around them.

This past week began with the monthly occurrence of Rosh Chodesh. The little sliver of the new moon appeared to remind us of the arrival of the Jewish month of Shevat. To make a connection to their earlier exploration of moon phases, EY4Lam students listened to Eric Carle’s story Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me . It so magically and whimsically illustrates the natural phenomenon of the waxing and waning cycle of the moon.

All of our EY friends are learning about the upcoming holiday of Tu’B Shevat during which we celebrate the gifts from trees.This week in particular EY3 friends in Morah Diana’s class explored the idea of feelings and traits like love, happiness, honesty and gratitude when they read The Happiness Tree and Picture a Tree . They are bridging their learning about Tu B’ Shevat to their unit on How We Express Ourselves. After hearing these stories they considered what choices they would make in representing trees in their art work. Can’t wait to see all of their art expressions!

Some of our two year old students made a connection with winter this past week through the classic children’s book by Ezra Jack Keats called The Snowy Day. While coastal Virginia does not abound in snowy days, EY2 teacher Jo Nossen made winter come alive by helping kids recreate scenes from the book. In the story Peter makes snow angels. No problem; a white sheet sufficed as snow while the kids spread their arms to create angel wings. Peter gets to throw snow balls. No snow here in Va. Beach, but crumpled paper made for a pseudo snowball shower. Peter awoke up to the wonders of a winter day in that timeless story and our two year olds got to act out some scenes and feel some of the magic of winter. Creating snow cookies was the cherry on top of all the fun.

Shavuah Tov! Have a wonderful week of learning and making connections.

Lorna Orleans

Director, SIA Early Years Program