Friday, January 25, 2013

פרשת שירה

1-25-13
Dear Parents,
This week we prepared food for the birds. Please read about our parasha to understand why.

Cursive Hebrew letters:
Last week, we started to learn how to write cursive Hebrew letters. In this unit, we are focusing on forming the letters correctly and reading words written in cursive script. This week, we were practicing the letters up to “ז” .
I know the students are very excited about writing their words in cursive,  but it is extremely important not to let them write it yet! The students are allowed to use Hebrew cursive letters only for the letters we have learned in the class. The students may think they know how to form the letters,  but if they are forming it incorrectly,  it will be very hard to fix their mistakes later.

“My library” הַסִפְרִיָה שֶלִי "   
This week’s book is called:"עץ גדול עץ קטן" -“Etz Gadol Etz Katan?” (Big tree, small tree). When we read the book, we clapped our hands each time we read the words “Gadol Gadol” (big). We snapped every time we read the words “Katan Katan” (small).
Please encourage your child to read it aloud to you over the weekend and clap your hands and snap to follow to the story. It is a great way to practice all the vocabulary we have learned.

Ariot:
This week Ariot is going to Li’elle’s home.

Parashat Hashavua:
This Shabbat is Shabbat Shirah, (The Shabbat of Song). The Shabbat on which the parsha of Beshalach is read is called Shabbat Shirah, because it contains the song sung by Israel after the splitting of the Red Sea.


One of the customs associated with this Shabbat is to place crumbs outside for the birds to eat. We read in the Torah on this week about G-d giving the "מן" (“Maan”) to the nation of Israel, for their sustenance. Moshe told the nation of Israel that the Maan would not fall on Shabbat,  and therefore they should collect a double portion on Friday.  Datan
and Aviram, who wanted to embarrass Moshe and weaken his authority, took Maan they had collected on Friday, and after dark placed it out on the ground. When morning came, they hoped that people would think that the Maan did indeed fall on Shabbat, and Moshe was wrong.  However, no Maan was found on Shabbat morning. Why?  Because the birds carried it away before the nation awoke. Therefore, the nation indeed trusted  Moshe and respected the sanctity of the Shabbat. To reward the birds for this noble deed, we feed them the week on which we read of the surrounding incident, the week of Beshalach.
  There is an additional reason why we feed the birds this week. The chirping of birds is not just idle song. It is the way that birds praise G-d for providing them with their needs. Because, this week, we too sing praises of G-d for providing for us in the desert, we recognize the constant song of praise chirped by the birds by providing for their needs.

Tu B’Shvat:
This week we finished learning about the tree parts, and we started learning of “שבעת המינים” – Shivat Haminim (the 7 species). We learned that there are two main things that we do on “Tu Bi’shvat”: 1) we plant a tree, or give money for planting a tree in Israel. 2.we eat the special fruits of the land of Israel.

Seder Tu Bi’shvat:
Today 1A and 1B celebrated together Tu Bi’shvat. We had a “seder” over fruits from “שִׁבְעַת הַמִּינִים” – Shivat Haminim (the 7 species). We practiced the ברכות-Berachot (blessing) over the special fruits and learned which blessing we should say first.

Homework:
Please make sure your child is writing his/her homework with pencil only!
Please make sure the homework notebook in placed  back into your child’s  backpack.
It is extremely important to have it in class on time, otherwise I can’t post their homework.

Vocabulary words:
 This week’s words will be from the story” Hagiga Ba’mishpacha” from “Ariot 2” workbook
The test will be on Thursday, 1-31-13.
Party, Celebration חֲגִיגָה -
Familyמִשְׁפָּחָה -
Brother- אָח
Sister אָחוֹת -
Uncle דּוֹד
Aunt דּוֹדָה -
Grandfather סַבָּא
Grandmother סָבְתָא -
You can practice with flash card at:
 http://www.flashcardmachine.com/1145973/v49t
Shabbat Shalom,
Morah Irit

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