8.31.2012

8.31.2012

Dear Parents,
We were very busy learning about the month of “Elul” and about Rosh Hashanah.
We learned a new song for the 12 Hebrew months, and we know that Rosh Hashnah starts on the first day of the first month of Tishri.
Prayer:
We learned the whole “Alenu  Leshabeach” at the end of the service. We added one more new prayer to our morning prayers:
“En ke elokenu” We love singing it with the music;
We are also saying the entire “Birkat Hamazon”. Please encourage your child to follow with his/ her finger along the words while he/she is davening or benching.
Hebrew:
Our small groups are running very well. We are using a workbook called “Me Ot L’Ot”, where we learn to read, write, and sound out Hebrew words. This week we finished the first “חוברת"- work book- up to the letter “Hey”. We learned the meaning of some of the Hebrew words and learned how to spell them as well. We focused on “ ה”  at the end of the Hebrew word  and on “ ה”  at the front of the Hebrew word which means “The”. We saw many examples of Hebrew sentences that start with “The”.
Ask your child to show you some of the sentences.
 I’m sending the workbook home to review and keep at home.
Parashat Hashavua - Parashat Ki Teitzei

This Friday you will find in the folder a Parasha sheet with pictures and a summary of what is in the Parasha. The first graders learned about the Mitzvah  of Hashavas Aveida. “השבת אבידה” which means we must return lost objects to their owner. A person cannot pretend that he does not see the object, and he must watch over the lost item until the owner returns for it. He/she also cannot use that object while it is in his/her possession. One must also ask the owner for signs in order to establish that the object is really his. We also learned about the Mitzvah of Tzitzit as well. We learned that there are 5 knots and 8 strings which add up to 13. We learned that there are 613 Mitzvot and looking at our Tzitzit reminds us to always be ready to follow the Mitzvot of Hashsem. Please encourage your child to explain to you what is in the other pictures as well.

Chagim (Holidays):
We continued learning our unit on Rosh Hashanna. We received our first “Tal Am” work book for the high holidays. We learned new songs and read a  Hebrew book call “שנה טובה” Shannah Tovah.


When you come to visit the school, please feel free to come to the 1^st grade hallway, and see our bulleting board!  The students have written about themselves.

Shabbat Shalom, 
      Morah Irit.

First week

24.8.2012

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

Here is some of our Subject 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 Me Ot L’Ot, where we learn to read, write, and sound out words.
This week we finished the letters Alef, Bet and Vet!

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.

first grrade 5.24.12

5-24-12Dear Parents,
Chag HaSiddur was fabulous. I’m very proud of all my students. The students loved doing it so much that they want to continue practicing. Thank you for coming.

“Chai Club”

This week I’m sending home 2 books: “Od Chala Bevakasha” (More Chalah please) for reading on Shabbat, and “Haotiyot Batorah Shelanu” (the letter in our Torah) for reading on Shavuot. These are the last two books for some students since they have finished reading 16 books already. Please encourage your child to read so they can also become members of our club. Please don’t send any books back to school tomorrow. We will continue with the Chai Club next week and we come back to our vocabulary words in the following week.

Hebrew Sentence of the week:

“ אני סופר/סופרת את ה______– I’m counting the ________

 For example: “ אני סופר/סופרת את העומר”(I’m counting the Omer), and in our parasha:  ה' סופר את בני ישראל (G-D is counting B’nai Yisrael).

Shalom:

This week we finished our unit on “Shalom Ba’Bayit U Ba’chots” (Shalom in the house and outside).  The “Shalom at Home” workbook focuses on the daily life of a Jewish child at home from waking up in the morning until going to bed at night.

This week we focused on the 4 different seasons. We learned about hot days and how important it is to drink water. I’m sending home the completed workbook. Please go over it with your child and let him/her share with you all we’ve learned.

Ariot 4:

This week we started Ariot 4 (the last book of Ariot).

We learned 2 stories:”פיל פילון” – (Pil Pilon) and “איפה העפיפון” (Where is the kite)

Shavuot:

This week we finished our Tal Am workbook unit on Pesach-Shavuot. We learned that from Passover until Shavout we count 49 days which is 7 weeks. Ask your child why we count these days.  We also learned that the B’nai Yisrael recieved the Torah on Har (Mt.) Sinai on “Vav Sivan” (6^th of the month of Sivan).We learned a new song about the 5 books of the Torah and the 4 names of “Shavuot”.

I’m sending home the completed workbook. Please go over it with your child and let him/her share with you all we’ve learned.

Parashat Hashavua: Parashat :במדבר""
This Friday we learned about how the Jewish People traveled in the desert. We also learned that the Mishkan was set up in the center of the camp with the tribe of Levi surrounding it. The rest of the tribes camped around the camp of Levi.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach from Morah Irit.

1.13.2012

1.13.2012

Wow! We can write a lot of words using only cursive letters.

Cursive Hebrew letters:

First grade 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:

 א=א, ב=ב, ג=ג, ד=ד, ה=ה, ו=ו, י=י, ן=ן, ס=ס

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.

Sentence of the week:
“כתב יד”- cursive hand writing
We are so busy to write:”בכתב יד יפה” (to write with nice cursive hand writing)

We started “Ariot 2 workbook” and “Ariot 2 CD”:
We started “Ariot 2” workbook, and Ariot 2 program on the computers.
Even though “Ariot 2” is more challenging,  it is even more fun to figure out the words in the  “Hachtava” (the spelling test at the end of each unit) and we are still able to figure out the words without help.

”My family” and “My house” unit:
We are supposed to start learning about our family and about our house in Hebrew. I asked a few weeks ago that you should send two pictures about your family.
1. A picture of the outside of your child’s house.

     2. A picture of your child’s family (a group picture of as many members of the family as possible).

Unfortunately, I’ve received pictures only from a few of the class and therefore I will have to push off teaching this unit for another two weeks. If you haven’t sent your pictures yet or you have sent only one of the pictures, please send your pictures this week!
At the end of this unit, the pictures will be posted in your child’s album. For your convenience you can send to school the SD card with your child (I promise to send it back the same day) or Email me the pictures and I will print it for you! (My Email is: iritkaravani@hotmail.com)

Parashat Hashavua-Parashat Shmot

The 1st grade began learning Sefer Shemot by studying the story of how the Jews became slaves in Egypt. They also learned about how Moshe was saved by the daughter of Paro and was raised in the house of Paro himself!

Homework:
First grade students are doing very well. We are ready to move to a higher level. We will have a small quiz every Thursday on the 5 words we have studied. Please look for our first list of words in the “Friday Hebrew Folder”. Please keep the words in an available place, sign the folder, and send the folder back.

To help your child study the words, each student will have a special notebook that he/she will take home on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with their homework assignment.
Every Monday, each student must write the words in Aleph-Bet order. Every Tuesday, they must write the words 3 times. And every Wednesday, they will have a word search puzzle with our week’s words.
This week because of the long weekend we will have our Homework on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The test will be on this Friday instead of Thursday.

For your convenience, I made flashcards to be practiced on line.

Please make sure your child is studying and doing his/her homework.

Please make sure your child is writing his/her homework with pencil only!

Please make sure the homework notebook is placed  back into your child’s  backpack.

Please make sure your child is using the cursive letter but make sure it is only cursive letter that we learned.

This is our first word list.

The test will be on Friday 1/18/12.

                          Pink וָרוֹד- 1  

Bear- 2 דֹב

Come-   3 בּוֹא

  Roof 4 גַג-     

Mr. - 5 אֲדוֹן

You can practice with flash card at:

http://www.flashcardmachine.com/1109491/w57b

Shabbat Shalom from Morah Irit Karavani.

12.15.11

Please don’t forget to come and see the 1^st grade recite the ברכות (blessings) for lighting the Hanukiyah and perform a play about the Hanukkah story! Our Hanukah performance will be next Tuesday in the school shul.

Hebrew Sentence of the week:
כִּי, נֵס גָדוֹל הָיָה! (Ki nes gadol haya) “because a big miracle happened”. (This is the answer for last week’s sentence: There are eight days of Hanukkah. Why?)

Hagim (Holidays):
We colored our own chart of the blessings for lighting the Chanukiyah. This chart is shaped like  a"סביבון" (driedel)/ Please use it for Chanukah and put it on the fridge for a decoration.
We have almost finished learning our Tal –At workbook for חנוכה Hanukkah! Every day we also practice asking:
כַּמָה נֵרוֹת אנחנו מַדְלִיקִים בַּלַיְלָה הַ____  (“How many candles do we light on the _____ night?”)
After we say each number, we light the Chanukiyah with the right number of candles.
In this way we practice the blessings for lighting the “Chanukiyah” (Chanukah menorah) and the song “הַנֵרוֹת הַלָלוּ” (Hanerot Halalu) -the song that we sing after lighting the Chanukiya as well.
We have also started a new workbook in English that teaches the students even more details about Chanukkah. I’m will send both workbooks B”H home on Wednesday with all the other art work we did (a chanukiyah, a sevivon box and the sevivon blessing.)

Parashat Hashavua:
This Friday you will find in your child’s folder a picture page with a summary of the story of Parashat: “וישב” – Vayeshev . We began learning the story of Yosef and his brothers and how Yosef was sold down to Egypt. We learned that Yosef is called a “Tzadik” because he always trusted in Hashem. He was able to keep his emotions inside himself and trust that Hashem had a special plan for him.  We learned that all the fights between Yosef and his brothers happened because Hashem wanted him to go to Egypt in order to save everyone from the terrible famine that would come.

Hebrew workbook:
This week we finished the workbook that teaches about the vowel sound “Segol” and “Tsereh”. We learned to spell words with all four of the vowels we have learned (“Ah”, “Ei” ,“O” and “Eh”). We also started learning the last vowel sound “Shoorook” sound “OO”.

First Grade Album:
We are working on a special album that reviews all the material we are learning in “Tal-Am” curriculum. Please send to school two of the following pictures (4”x6”):
1. A picture of the outside of your child’s house.
2. A picture of your child’s family (a group picture of as many members of the family as possible).
These pictures are very important for our learning in the class! You can e-mail me the picture and I will print it.
The due date is right after the winter break!


Coming after winter break:
I will be teaching a new unit on Hebrew script letters.
I will be adding a new weekly Hebrew homework and vocabulary test.
I will be starting a new unit on home & family (this is why the students need pictures of their home and family!)

Shabbat Shalom and have a great winter break!
Morah Irit

12.9.11

This week we learned more about חנוכה “Chanukkah.” We got to color our own Chanukiya that I made out of plaster of paris. We also made a “Sevivon” (Dreidel).

Hebrew Sentence of the week:
? שְמוֹנָה יָמִים בַּחֲנֻכָּה. לָמָה? (shmonah yamim ba Hanukkah. Lama?) – Eight days in Chanukkah. Why? (Ask your child to sing it to you. Next week you’ll find the answer.)

Hagim (Holidays):
We continued learning from our workbook for Hanukkah! We learned that we celebrate Chanukkah to remember the great miracles that Hashem did for us during that time. We are saying thank you to Hashem! “תוֹדָה, תוֹדָה אֱלוֹקִים. תוֹדָה עַל הַנִיסִים” (Todah, Todah Elokim. Todah al hanisim,)

Since Hanukkah is not going to be during school time we are pretending that Hanukkah is right now and we are lighting the candle every day. In this way we get to practice the blessings for lighting the “Chanukiyah” (Chanukah menorah) and the song “הַנֵרוֹת הַלָלוּ” (Hanerot Halalu) -the song that we sing after lighting the Chanukiya.

Parashat Hashavua:
This Friday you will find in your child’s folder a picture page with a summary of the story of Parashat: “וישלח” – Vayishlach . We learned that Yaakov prepared to meet Esav in 3 ways: 1- Shalom (peace- he send a מתנה present). 2-Tefilah (prayers to Hashem) and 3- Milchamah (war).
-Yaakov returned to the other side of the river to get the small כָּד –Kad (jar) that he had forgotten to take with him. Yaakov teaches us that we need to be responsibility for our things even if it is something not so expensive.

The “Asherey” Homework:

I’m very pleased to see that some of the students chose to participate in this activity.

I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear enough, but the signature paper need to come back in the Hebrew folder on Monday only after it is all signed! (only after your child read it to you at least nine times on a diffrent days).

First Grade Album:

We are working on a special album that includes all the subjects we are learning in “Tal-Am”. Please send to school (soon is better  - the latest time is after winter break).

two of the following pictures (4”x6”)

1. A picture of the outside of your child’s house.

2. A picture of your child’s family (a group picture of as many members of the family as possible).

These pictures are very important for our learning in the class!

You can Email me the picture and I will print it.

Shabbat Shalom, Morah Irit

12.2.11

Dear parents
This week we were busy studying about Chanukah.

Hagim (Holidays):
We started our new work book for Chanukah! We learned the story of Chanukah and we learned the Hebrew words: “Yehudim” (Jews) and “Yevanim” (Greeks).

Hebrew Sentence of the week:
אֲנִי אוֹמֵר/אוֹמֶרֶת תוֹדָה עַל...(Ani omer/omeret todah al…)
I’m saying thank you for …..
We learned last week (Thanksgiving week) to say thank you. This week we connected it to the Chanukah story. We learned the song: “Todah Elokim, Todah al Hanisim” (thank you G-d, thank you for the miracles.

Ariot: we started going to the computer lab and got to learn with the Ariot program on the computer.
We got to read stories listen to songs and practice skills by using games.

Hebrew workbook:
This week we continued our workbook which teaches about the vowel “Segol” and “Tsereh” (the short E sound). We learned to spell words with all four of the vowels we have learned (“Ah”, “Ei” ,“O” and “Eh”).

Parashat Hashavua:
This Friday you will find in their folder a picture page with a summary of the story of Parashat: “ויצא” (Vayeitzei). We learned that the 3 prayer services we say every day were established by each of our forefathers. We also learned the stories of Yaakov’s dream, how Lavan tricked Yaakov into marrying Leah and Rachel as well as the birth of the 12 sons of Yaakov.


Prayer:
We started to practice the blessing for lighting the “Chanukiyah” (Chanukah menorah).

Shabbat Shalom
Morah Irit.