Friday, August 30, 2013

First grade 8.30.2013

8.30.2013
Dear Parents,
We were very busy learning about Rosh Hashanah.
We learned a new song for the 12 Hebrew month, and we know that Rosh Hashnah starts on the first day of the first month of Tishri.

Rosh means "head" and Shanah means "year", together the two Hebrew words means: "head of the year". On Rosh Hashanh we go to "Bet-Keneset" (synagogue) and pray for a year of good health and peace. We need to think about the good things we did in the past year. We also promise to ourselves that in the year to come we will try to become better people by doing t'shuvah (repentance). We ask G-d to forgive us for any wrongs we have done.

- In "Bet-Kneset we pray from special prayer book call "Machzor".

-another name for Rosh Hashanah is Yom t'ruah, the day of blowing the shofar. The shofar is a ram's horn, and the sound reminds all Jews to return to Torah and to good deeds.

There are three types of shofar blasts blown on Rosh Hashanh, known as T'kee'ot:
T'kiah- a straight unbroken blast that ends sharply.
Shevarim- three broken sounds, like a shiver.
T'ruah- a group of nine short notes.

we made a circle with the symbols and their meanings:
Round challah (challah agulah)- we pray that our coming year will be unending just like the round challah
Apple and Honey (tapuach be dvash)- we ask G-d to send us a year of sweetness.
Head of a fish (rosh shel dag) we ask G-d to be as the head and not as the tail.
Pomegranate (rimon)- we ask G-d that our merits increase like (the seed of) a pomegranate.
Please look for the Hebrew folder on Tuesday with our special projects.

Parashat Hashavua - Parashat Nitzavim and Vayeilech
This Friday you will find in the folder a Parasha sheet with pictures and a summary of what is in the Parasha. Please encourage your child to explain to you what in the pictures.


Shabbat Shalom,    Morah Irit.

Monday, August 26, 2013

First week

8.22.2013
Dear Parents,

First grade is doing very well. In this week we started to learn how to ask for things only in Hebrew.

Here are some of the things we accomplished:
Prayer:
We are davening all together, reviewing what we already know.
We will be learning new prayer as the year goes on.

Hebrew:
We are working in 3 groups. Two groups work independently, and one group works with me. We are using a workbook called “Ivrit eem Morah Irit” (Hebrew with Morah Irit), where we learn to read, write, and sound out words.
This week we finished the letter Alef!

Parashat Hashavua
Every Friday you will find in the folder the Parasha in pictures, along with a summary. The first graders learned about the main ideas in the Parasha.
Please encourage your child to explain to you what in the pictures.

Chagim (Holidays):
We started with the month of Elul. We got to know all about the Shofar, and Moreh Dror has even come every morning to blow the Shofar for us.
We also started our unit on Rosh Hashanna.


Please Pass through the 1st grade hallway, and see our bulleting board, were the students wrote in Hebrew about themselves.
Shabbat Shalom
Morah Irit.