Tomorrow in the Second Grade...

We will return to our regularly scheduled lessons and talk about the synagogue as a house of prayer, or Beit Teffilah. Students will learn the ways that Jews pray and will talk about (and hopefully try on) the special clothing Jews wear during prayer. At the end of the lesson, we will have the chance to write our own Jewish prayers and to decorate kippot to wear in teffilah at the end of Hebrew school.

During Hebrew we will be learning the letter DALET, which makes a sound like a "D". After this lesson, we will have covered 6 letters. Students can now read actual words like Shabbat and shalom.

We will also be having our second Reading Raffle with the whole school tomorrow, before teffilah. In case this is still unclear, each week students bring home a sheet for Hebrew reading practice and an orange card. Every time your child practices reading the Hebrew sheet, sign the card. Completed cards will then be turned in once a month for a chance to win the Reading Raffle. It is really important for retention that students practice what we've learned throughout the week, and Reading Raffle is a great way to reward students for their hard work.

Today in the second grade....

Today we will be celebrating Sukkot, the next in our current string of holidays, which begins tomorrow night. We will continue our conversation from last week about how Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are meant to wipe our slates clean, so Sukkot starts our new year out with joy, with simha. We be making decorations for the synagogue's sukkah by writing our wishes for a joyous new year on strips of paper and stringing them into a paper chain. Our celebration will continue with some Sukkot songs and hopefully we will get to shake the lulav & etrog in the sukkah ourselves!

In Hebrew, we will be learning the letter LAMED, which makes a sound like an "L". We will also be learning a new vowel HOLAM which sounds like "oh". The picture at the top of this post is a review of what we covered.

For homework help, please refer to the workbook's website: www.tiyulim.torahaura.com
We're on lesson 4.

Hope you all have a happy Sukkot!

Tomorrow in the Second Grade...

This week's class will start with an exploration of the synagogue as a Beit Midrash, or "house of study." We will talk about how people of all ages - from second grade through adulthood - come to the synagogue to learn and study together. We will also think about rooms within our own synagogue where learning happens.

We will also be introduced to the letter TAV this week. Tav is a consonant that sounds like "t". By learning this letter and putting it together with the other letters we have learned (Shin and Bet) we are able to read the word Shabbat.

Speaking of chagim, or "holidays", we will also be talking about Yom Kippur, which begins this Friday night. Students will tell us what they already know about the holiday and then we will look at the idea of Teshuva, which literally means "return" and begins with the letter TAV. We will reflect on the past year's mistakes by using an analogy of a missed target on the board, and then we will "do teshuva" by literally returning to a clean slate.

Students will each bring home a sheet with their Hebrew homework for the week, but if your student missed class, the homework can also be found online at this link: http://www.tiyulim.torahaura.com/Script/S_Lesson_Three_Page_One/s_lesson_three_page_one.html

Have an easy fast!