Kibitzer December 4, 2020

During outdoor play on Thursday the Kindergarten children had fun tracing their teacher Jamee in chalk.

#akibatogether

December 4, 2020

Volume 17, Issue 7

Candle Lighting: 4:00 p.m.

Parasha: Vayishlach

A Season of (Virtual) Events

by Carla Goldberg, Early Childhood Director

I hope that everyone had a nice Thanksgiving with their family. We are grateful to our whole Akiba community who kept each other safe by taking our social covenant so seriously. We were glad to be back in school this week and learning together.

Another holiday is coming in a few days that will also look different. Chanukah begins next Thursday, December 10. We recognize that we will not be able to gather in person to celebrate in our traditional ways, so we have created opportunities to be together virtually:

Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. in Miriam Kass's Zoom room, we will have a First Night of Chanukah Celebration to light the candles together, say the blessings and sing a few songs.
Preschool and Kindergarten families: Your children are creating unique Chanukiyot (menorahs), and you will have them to light at home on Thursday evening. We want to make sure to spread the light into each of our homes and out into the world!
The PTO will also be hosting a Chanukah Family Bingo on Sunday, December 13 at 2:00 p.m.

We hope that you will join us for these community events to celebrate the Festival of Lights.

Next week we are starting session two of our Teva Means Nature program. This is a family program for 0-6 year olds that will be a hybrid this session. We will have one day exploring at the park across the street from Akiba, and one day meeting virtually when we will read books, sing songs and create art together. We had such a wonderful first session (read about it here), and I want to invite you and your friends to join us for this new six-week session. Registration is going on right now; please share this information with your neighbors, colleagues and friends.

I am also thinking about how you can help us share the light of Akiba with prospective families. I have been hosting Virtual Information Sessions twice a month for families who want to learn about the magic that happens in our classrooms every day. I am also hosting monthly Family Zoom Shabbats on Friday at 3:00 p.m. for our current families and prospective families to gather and have that Shabbat feeling (see upcoming dates below). All of these events have been well attended. There is a lot of interest in attending Akiba next school year. You, our current parents, are the best Akiba Ambassadors, so please help us spread the word. One easy way is to like us and comment on Facebook, share our posts in your Facebook feeds and groups. If you have any ideas you would like to share, or people you would like me to contact, please email me. I am so proud of the work we do at Akiba, and I love talking to anyone about what makes Akiba unique, and why an Akiba education is the best gift that you can give your child.

Finally, I hope that you will be able to join our Akiba community this coming Tuesday, December 8 at 7:00 p.m. to celebrate and honor the life of Sharon Vadeboncoeur, beloved Akiba preschool teacher for over 20 years (RSVP here). Sharon certainly spread a lot of light into the world with the hundreds of children she taught at Akiba, and she is missed every day.

I hope to see you soon at one of these events! Chanukah Sameach and Shabbat Shalom!

Teva Means Nature - New Session

Session two of our Teva Means Nature program begins next week:

Session dates: December 8 - January 29

Either Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons or Thursday & Friday mornings

More info and register here...

Honoring Sharon

Join the Akiba-Schechter Early Childhood community in celebrating the life of

Sharon Vadeboncoeur

Tuesday, December 8 at 7:00 p.m.

For over 20 years, Sharon was a committed educator in our Early Childhood program, teaching more than 500 students and leaving a lasting legacy as a mentor to parents and her colleagues alike. We will share memories and honor Sharon together, virtually. We are gathering photographs of Sharon in the classroom throughout her career. You can share your photographs by

uploading them here.

The families of Sharon's last class, the 2015-2016 Purple Room, together with the Board of Directors, have made a generous seed gift to dedicate a classroom in her honor. Help us exceed our goal of $10,000 with your gift here and indicate Sharon's Room Dedication in the memo.

RSVP for Zoom link!

School under COVID-19 - For Your Reference

Social Covenant 2.0

Re-entry Plan & FAQs

Most Recent Health Update (December 1, 2020)

Dvar Torah

What is Chanukah?

by Rabbi David Bauman, Head of Judaic Studies and Community Engagement

The Babylonian Talmud in the tractate of Shabbat asks a strange but simple question, "What is Chanukah?" This question appears after several discussions, which examine how one is to light the lamps of the Chanukiyah (Menorah). One could assume that the Sages of the Talmud already knew what Chanukah is about since they were discussing the proper use of the Chanukiyah (Menorah). It is only at this point, that we find the famous story of the miracle of the jar of oil lasting for eight days.

During a recent discussion in my 7th/8th-grade Rabbinics class, as we were studying this special piece of Talmud in preparation for Chanukah, one student noticed that the root of the Hebrew word Chanukah (ח-נ-כ), meaning to dedicate, is the same root as the Hebrew word to educate (L'chnach). The class broke out into a discussion on the possible connections between the two. One student chimed in with the idea that the dreidel is a fun game that enabled the Jews to study Torah when they were not allowed. Another praised her parents and the teachers at Akiba-Schechter for dedicating themselves to making it possible to maintain a quality education during the COVID pandemic. A third student, who is graduating this year, dedicated himself to joining a Jewish youth group as a means of continuing his Jewish education after the Akiba-Schechter experience.

The festival of Chanukah calls on each of us to dedicate ourselves to self-growth through Jewish education. This is the message that students at Akiba-Schechter learn every day.

Shabbat Shalom and Chanukah Sameach!

Preschool

For Chanukah, the festival of light, preschoolers always undertake a study of light in its many manifestations. The Blue Room began by exploring the concept of light and shadow.

The Zoomers (aka Online Preschool) and the Kindergarten came together to celebrate Shabbat and sing some songs. The children illustrated their favorite Shabbat songs. When the children shared their pictures, everybody else tried to guess they had drawen, and which song was their favorite. Here are a few of the illustrations that were shared.

"Chanukah, Oh Chanukah, Come Light the Menorah!" In the Upstairs Preschool, Leo is making a still life drawing of menorah, see the result below:

Grades 1 - 8

The dreidel challenge: 1st/2nd graders had to build a dreidel that would hopefully spin.

4th grader Yoav shows off the pop-up Chanukah card he made in Art class.

The students in Mr. Esse's 3rd/4th General Studies class have been reading Louis Sacher's There's A Boy in the Girls' Bathroom and using it to learn how to annotate a book. They focused on identifying characteristics about the main character, Bradley Chalkers. The class has been reading the book together and discussing what parts to annotate. In the last week, the class transitioned into small groups, in which students are reading and annotating the book without teacher assistance. Mr. Esse has been blown away by how well they have been working through a sophisticated reading process. In this picture, Zohar, Lazer and Annette are working together.

8 Questions for an 8th Grader

In each issue of the Kibitzer, we feature one of our 8th graders. In this edition, it is Aviya Ezra:

Since when have you been at Akiba? This will be my fifth year at Akiba since I moved from Israel to Chicago.
What neighborhood do you live in? I live in Streeterville.
What do you hope to accomplish in 8th grade? How is being an 8th grader different from your previous grades at Akiba? This year I really hope to be a better leader and person in general. Being an 8th grader is so different and special than my previous years at Akiba because most grades now look up to us. It's also really different as this will be my final year at Akiba, and at the end of the year, I'm moving back to Israel.
What is your favorite subject at Akiba? My favorite subjects at Akiba are currently Art and Humanities. In both of these classes we get a variety of interesting and unique projects that I do not think I would have done if I were not a student at Akiba!
What do you think is special about Akiba? What do you particularly like and why? Akiba is extremely special because of the one-on-one attention that teachers give to the students. Additionally, I love the idea of how Akiba challenges the students, but at the same time supports them as needed.
If you have had your bat mitzvah or are preparing for it, what did you learn from it? I had my bat mitzvah last summer in Jerusalem. Although I did not read from the Torah, I learned how important my family is in different situations throughout my life.
When you’re not at school or doing homework, what do you like to do (hobbies, special interests)? When I am not doing homework, I love dancing at the Joffrey Ballet, drawing, running, and, of course, playing with my dog Gucci.
What do you want to be when you grow up? Although it might change in the future, I currently want to be a pediatrician or veterinarian.

PTO

Chanukah Family Bingo is back!

December 13 at 2:00 p.m.

RSVP via evite here

This is a virtual event. The PTO will send home everything you need to play. Please let us know if we need to make alternate arrangements for your family by commenting in the evite. Zoom link is in the evite.

Lots of smiles at Parents Zoom Night this week!

Our Thursday, November 19 Day of Learning was sponsored by Ali, Alex, Maya, Aiden, and Zeke Grange in honor of all the hard work by the administration and staff at Akiba-Schechter.

Our Friday, November 20 Day of Learning was sponsored by the Schwartz/Faier Family in loving memory of Arleen Schwartz, Z"L.

Admissions Information Session

Please tell family, friends and neighbors about these virtual meeting to learn more about Akiba-Schechter:

Tuesday, December 15, 12:30 p.m.

RSVP here.

Personal Zoom tours and conversations are available upon request.

Drop-in Zoom Family Shabbat Celebrations

Friday, December 11, 3:00 p.m.: RSVP here.

Condolences

...to Sylvia Midler (Blue Room) and her parents Esther Bowen and Aaron Midler on the loss of Esther’s mother and Sylvia’s grandmother Sue Bowen.

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