Today in the second grade....

In class today we will be talking about the Hebrew word Simha, which means joyous occasion. We will be making a Simha Web on the board with drawings of all the students' favorite Simhas and then we will do an activity about Simhas that are celebrated in the Beit K'nesset (a vocab word from last week that means "house of gathering.")

Then we will have a class celebration of Rosh Hashana, a Simha coming up on Thursday, where we will create oragami shofars and decorate them with shins and shana tovas. If time allows, we will also be playing a shofar game where students will practice their knowledge of shofar calls such as tekiah, shevarim, teruah, and everyone's favorite, tekiah gedolah.

After snack is Hebrew. Today we will be learning BET, which we will read in combination with the letter and vowels we learned last week.
Bet (consonant) says "b"
Shin (consonant) says "sh"
Kamatz (vowel) says "ah"
Patah (vowel) says "ah"

We will also be reading a story about Jerusalem as it relates to the origins of the Hebrew language.

Homework for this week will be pages 3 and 4 of the homework workbook. The books will be staying at ARS, so each student will take home a copy of the homework each week. If your student misses class for some reason, please email me and I will send you a scanned copy of this week's homework.

Have a happy and healthy new year!

Welcome to Second Grade at ARS!

Hello parents of second graders!

I just officially took on the post of second grade teacher this week and I am thrilled to be working with your children! We have already had two great classes where we:

• Played some fun ice breaker games
• Reviewed Hebrew basics (that it's read right to left, that vowels are under letters, etc) and had a Hebrew Letter Scavenger Hunt in the chapel
• Practiced reading and writing the letter Shin and vowels Kammatz and Patah
• Learned that a synagogue can be a Beit K'nesset (house of gathering), Beit Midrash (house of study), and a Beit Tefillah (house of worship)

This coming year's curriculum will consist of two parts. First, we will be doing a series of lessons about building Jewish life which focus on the synagogue as a dynamic place and the importance of mitzvot. These lessons will be supplemented by Torah Aura packets that will be completed in class and then sent home.

Second, the Hebrew program will consist of furthering the students' knowledge of Hebrew, focusing on letter recognition, reading and writing. In addition, they will learn the meaning of some Hebrew words, how Hebrew became a spoken language again and they will be comfortable performing some basic prayers.

Homework:
Each week the students will come home with one double-sided homework sheet from their Hebrew books. They should complete this homework and bring it back the following class. A short class once a week is enough to give them the knowledge they need to learn Hebrew, but practice throughout the week is essential for retention. Each class will build upon what was done the week before, so simply, if a student did not do their homework, they will not be prepared for the next class and they will fall behind. This is frustrating for all parties involved - you as the parent, me as the teacher, the rest of the class that has to slow down their lesson, but most importantly, it is frustrating for the student. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to do homework consistently.

You can help your child with homework, if he/she needs help whether or not you know Hebrew as there are English instructions. You can also refer to the text's online counterpart www.tiyulim.torahaura.com and select the lesson. Of course, if your child has further trouble with the assignments, I would be happy to provide help, but the effort has to be there on the student's part and your encouragement is vital.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or comments!
staceybg@bu.edu
267-261-1468

Here's to a great year!

Stacey Goodman