What's new.....

Sunday morning we hosted the fourth grade for Tefillah in our classroom so they could see how the "big kids" do it. Each fifth grader sat next to a fourth grader and helped him/her follow along in the prayer book. Our class set a beautiful example - I was very proud of them.

As we continue to study the birth of modern zionism, we learned about Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and the re-birth of the Hebrew language last Thursday. We watched more of Pillar of Fire, and saw an interview with Ben-Yehuda's daughter describing what it was like to be some of the only children in the whole world who spoke Hebrew. Their father bought them a male dog and a female cat for the sole purpose of being able practice conjugating verbs in both masculine and feminine!

Yesterday we learned about the Balfour Declaration of 1917, Britian's statement of support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. We looked at four versions of the paper, including the final draft, which reads:

"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country". Click on the image above to see a copy of each of the drafts.

The class identified differences between earlier drafts and the final text. They noted that each draft gave less influence to the Zionist movement, and was increasingly less specific about how much land might be granted to a Jewish homeland. They also pointed out that only the final draft acknowledged the Muslims and Christians from the region, as well as the interests of world Jewry.

Chag Sameach v'chasher-

Morah Amy

Herzl joins us for a visit

Theodor Herzl joined us on Tuesday for a surprise visit. He told us about his experiences with anti-semitism as a journalist in France and Austria and role in the birth of the modern Zionist movement. Oddly, his beard kept falling off.

Our class watched several excerpts from the Israeli documentary series Pillar of Fire. We viewed footage from the infamous Dreyfus affair and an interview with a delegate from the Sixth Zionist Congress, recalling the decision whether or not to accept Britian's offer of a Jewish homeland in Uganda. Lastly, students pretended they were delegates at the Congress. They wrote and delivered speeches encouraging their fellow delegates to vote either for or against creating a Jewish state in Uganda. Here are 2 of the speeches - feel free to cast your vote in the comments section of the blog!

Jennie:
I think that we should vote for the Uganda Plan. I think we should because then we can have a place of our own. I also think that we should take this offer because then we could build up a great community for us to live in. Also, if we never get to Israel/Palestine then we waited for nothing. This is a good offer but if we turn it down we might not get another offer like this.

Isaiah S:
The idea is horrible.If the Jews should have a place to live, it should be Zion - only Zion. Was Uganda the promised land? NO! More than one person was promised Zion. All the Jews were promised Israel. I say we turn it down and wait for Zion. Whatever happens we should stick together.

Morah Amy

Into the Sea

We finished our map unit on Thursday with a map-making project. Every student was given a small map of Israel with a grid drawn on it, and a larger, blank grid. They attempted to copy the small map onto the larger grid in pencil, then labeled and colored the map. The completed maps are on display on our bulletin board, while some are still works in progress.

Today we learned a new song that you may or may not want to introduce to your seder. A parody of "Under the Sea" by the band Shlock Rock, it retells the story of the Exodus to a calypso beat.
Here's a link to hear a clip and read the lyrics of Into the Sea

Amy

Israel Map Puzzle

Today the students were given blank maps of Israel. They used several resources to label the major cities, bodies of water, regions and neighboring countries. After pooling our information on a large, blank classroom map, we set to work on a large puzzle of the map of Israel. Every student was given 5 pieces, and the class had to work cooperatively to put it all together. Our record time was a little over two minutes. Now that we are warmed up, on Tuesday, we'll work with an even larger version of the puzzle. It's 9 feet long and several feet wide. I think it will be a lot of fun. We'll also work on committing some of the most significant features of the map to memory, for a test at the end of the unit. During this time we'll also be studying Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem.

Today the Rabbi led a morning tefillah service for the older grades. After singing the Avot and Gevurot, he asked everyone to sit down. At the end of services, the Rabbi asked if there were any questions. 3 hands went up from our class with the same question : "Why didn't we do kedusha?"

Falafels and other Fun

Tuesday we celebrated the end of our Israel travel unit with a traditional Middle Eastern meal of falafel, pita bread, Israeli salad, hummus and tehina sauce. Joan and Jane supervised a portion of the class in cooking and setting the tables while I had the rest of the kids reviewing the Hebrew menus and preparing their travelogues to share with their families. It was probably the most fun we've had all year (and we do have a lot of fun in Hebrew school.) I'd thank Jane and Joan again, but I'm bordering on sycophantic.


Yesterday we watched an epsiode of the great public television series Globe Trekker , which follows the journey of an independent budget traveler through a particular region or country. We joined Justine Shapiro on her travels through Israel. You can read a summary of the episode at the link I provided.

I did want to alert you to a conversation that came up during the show, in case you want to follow up on it at home. During the show, Justine visits Hebron, and briefly interviews several Palestinians, one of whom complains about Israeli soldiers coming into houses to conduct searches at any hour, curfews, and the lack of civil rights for occupants of the West Bank. Several students were very interested and distressed by this description. I paused the dvd to explain to students that this was an extremely complex issue that we would be exploring in more depth later. I also explained that the laws for Palestinians in the West Bank are different than those for citizens of Israel, Arab or Jew. Lastly, I pointed out that there were many different perspectives on the issue of restrictions on Arabs in the West Bank - that many people in Israel (Jewish and Arab) are opposed to conditions there, while others feel that the military state is necessary to prevent terrorist attacks.

We have not yet discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We will begin our modern history unit in a couple of weeks, beginning with the birth of modern Zionism in the late 1800's. I will keep in touch with you about what and how I am presenting these sensitive topics.

We're back!

After a long vacation, and an extra day off for me thanks to an unpleasant stomach bug, we are back in full swing. We prepared menus for our upcoming falafel restaurant and practiced a little bit of restaurant vocabulary. In anticipation of Purim, we also watched the first half of the movie Esther, a surprisingly faithful retelling of the Megilla.

That's about all for now....

Also Amazing!

Our class did a spectacular job in the "Yom Shirah" assembly today. We performed three songs and the class looked and sounded great.

It was nice to see so many parents at school as well. Next time you are in the building, check out our display of blooming almond trees in the hallway outside of our classroom, created in honor of Tu B'Shevat. The art project got the best possible complement from Cathy Topal (expert art educator and CBI member) - "Look how different they all are." No cookie-cutter art for us! We do like cutting cookies, however. And on that topic, anyone interested in helping us bake hamentashen for Purim?

We have begun the Musaf Kedushah - probably the most challenging part of the Shabbat service. It's also a part of the service that students are expected to lead at their Bar/Bat-Mitzvah. We are also about halfway through our travel unit - we've been to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the Judean desert and the Negev. When we get back from February vacation we'll create visit an Israeli restaurant, with help from Rosie T's moms.

Amy

Amazing

Recently there have been some amazing things going on in our classroom.

Kids have been coming early, and asking for work to do before I have the "to do" list ready.

Some of our most reticent Hebrew readers have been volunteering to read aloud.

Students have been asking if it's ok to learn more of the prayer than is required.

Kids are teaching each other the Kedushah.

This is all really true.

Jerusalem

We've taken off and headed to Israel. First stop - Jerusalem.

Our class has been divided into travel groups. Each group is planning its own itinerary through the Holy Land. After a class-wide introduction to each city or region through books and videos, the group researches restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions and writes a report on their visit.

While researching restaurants, one student raised her hand and asked "What's falafel?" I learned that over half of our class has ever eaten falafel. So......I'm hoping I can get some parent support to create an Israeli cafe for the end of this unit. I can handle baking cookies with the class on my own, but definitely not frying falafel balls!

Go Fish!

Here we are practicing our numbers in Hebrew......

Rugelach!

Against all wisdom accrued in years of teaching and years of baking, I decided to try out a baking project with the class with no parent help and with no experience with the recipe. Foolhardy? Of course. Delicious? Just wait until you try them. Once you do, I'm sure you'll want the recipe - it's taken from Joan Nathan's website.

DOUGH

8 ounces cream cheese
2 sticks (1 CUP) unsalted butter
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 large egg
1/4 cup crystallized or granulated sugar

APRICOT FILLING

1 cup apricot jam
2 tablespoons cake crumbs (optional)
3/4 cup walnuts, broken up

OR CHOCOLATE FILLING

1 cup shaved bittersweet chocolate (about 8 ounces)
1/4 cup sugar

1. Place the cream cheese, butter, confectioners' sugar, salt, lemon juice, and vanilla in a food processor. Add the flour and pulse until a very soft dough is formed. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
   
2. Mix the ingredients for the filling of your choice and divide the dough into 4 balls. Roll the balls out into 4 circles, about 1/8 inch thick and spread with apricot filling or chocolate filling.
   
3. Cut into pie-shaped pieces an inch wide at the circumference. Roll up from the wide side to the center. Beat the egg and brush the top. Sprinkle with the crystallized sugar and place flat on a greased cookie sheet. (Alternately, roll out each ball to a rectangle, 1/4 inch thick. Top with the apricot filling or chocolate filling. Roll each rectangle into a jelly roll and cut into 1/2-inch pieces. Lay flat on a greased cookie sheet. Beat the egg, brush the tops of each cookie, and sprinkle with the crystallized sugar.)
   
4. Bake on a greased cookie sheet in a preheated 350-degree oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Yield: about 50 rugelach (D)

Crossword puzzles

We are concluding our unit on the religions of Israel with a veritable crossword puzzle fest. I don't think Last Thursday every student created a puzzle with at least 10 clues related to Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Today everyone had the chance to solve each others puzzles. I don't think Will Shortz has anything to worry about, but some of the puzzles were really well designed and executed.

Today we began our next unit - traveling through the state of Israel. To kick off our trip we watched a DVD of an aerial tour of the land shot from a helicopter. It gave only a few of us travel sickness. Thursday we'll beginning visiting and researching various regions and cities. Thanks so much to Rosie Tabachnick's moms who bought and donated a full set of Israel travel books to our class. We'll make good use of these over the next 2 months. Still moving along in Kedusha....

We'll be baking desserts for the class shabbat dinner - hope to see many of you there.

And Mohammed too!

Today we continued our brief unit on the religions of Israel with a lesson on Islam. We read about the story of Mohammed and some of the main beliefs and practices of Muslims. To conclude our unit I've asked every student to research holy sites in Israel of each of the three faiths - the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock. This brief homework assignment is due next Tuesday.

We've moved on to the Shabbat Morning Kedusha and are zipping right through a prayer that I thought would be very tricky to master. It's a strong testament to how much everyone's reading has progressed this year.

Jesus visits our class

In an attempt to better understand the people who consider Jersalem their home, we're doing a brief unit on Christianity and Islam. We are reading excerpts from two read-alouds - What I Believe and One World, Many Religions. Students are filling out matrices to compare some basic information about Jews, Christians and Muslims. Some interesting questions came up about Christianity that I was not able to answer, but I did encourage the class to ask Christian friends and/or family if they wanted to know more.

We've begun the Shabbat Kedushah, the section of the Amidah when we rise on our toes singing "Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh." I explained to the class that this movement was intended to emulate the movements of angels. I asked students to demonstrate how they thought angels might move, and sing the same section with those movements instead. It was very.....spirited. Not so much how I imagine angels, but who really knows?

We met with the third grade class to prepare for Yom Shirah, our annual music assembly on February 11th.

Shabbat Shalom-
Amy

Welcome Sarah Rose and Isaiah

We've started 2007 with 2 more students. Isaiah has returned from Oaxaca (with a great Mexican accent to his Hebrew) and Sarah Rose has joined anew. The more the merrier!

We are tying up a few loose ends from before vacation. We read about the seige on Masada, and took a web tour of the archaeological site. We'll be reading about the battle in depth in a read-aloud by Neal Waldman that we started today, although I'll be doing some selective editing of the very detailed account. At the end of the day we set up an archaeological museum in our classroom, with a display of Jewish coins from the period of the Judean revolt, that each student designed out of Sculpee.

We took time today to review the prayers we've learned so far, and will start to tackle the shabbat morning kedushah on Thursday. I'm trying to fit in a little more modern hebrew into our week as well. Today we read a story about a tricky crow with dove envy.

I hope to see all of you at our class Shabbat dinner in a few weeks. I plan to bring my own kids as well.

Morah Amy

$100!

Thanks to the generosity of our audience, our first effort raised $100 for the Abayudaya. We'll be investing this money in Abayudayan products to resell to the community, and hope that this kitty will grow and grow.

Were you at the concert? Why not post your comments here for the whole class to read?

Amy

Sweet music

Our performance of Ugandan Jewish music is finally coming together. The class knows the songs well and their voices sound lovely. I hope you will all be there to cheer them on.

In more musical highlights, our class led "Age-Old Story/They Would Not Bow Down" at all school sing today. It wasn't quite the same without their parents there to join in, but in the end it was almost as good as Sunday.

We reviewed the Chanukah blessings and Maoz Tzur and made some beeswax candles for your menorahs. I hope that everyone has a joyful first night of Chanukah tomorrow. Here's a link to a very touching, if somewhat schmaltzy video.

http://www.aish.com/movies/Chanukah_Miracles.asp

Amy

Parents, parents, everywhere

On Sunday parents were invited to join our classroom for "family education." With no particular guidance from above as to what that might mean, I thought I would give parents an opportunity to review the written work that students have been gathering in their Israel History folders since September.

After examining our class timeline, I asked parents to work with their children to write the "Story of Israel" from Abraham all the way to the Destruction of the Second Temple. And dicuss their work. In half an hour. Maybe you can see where I going with this......not quite enough time. Still, I saw some interesting conversations between parent and child about Ancient Israel. How often does that happen? So, I'll consider the morning a qualified success. Thanks to everyone who made it.

Morah Amy

Oh, Chanukah

All of the sudden Chanukah is sneaking right up on us. I imagine Christmas doesn't really ever sneak up on anyone. The music and lights seem to get going the day after Halloween, and they are anything but subtle. But Chanukah titpoes in, sometimes before it's even cold yet, and I'm not always ready.

Kitah Hay, however, will definitely be ready. Our history unit coincides so nicely with the calendar - we've just reached the period of the Maccabean rebellion and have been watching a great dvd that looks at the history of the era: Heritage: Civilization of the Jews. You can read about it at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/heritage/. We painted wooden dreidels yesterday, and will review some chanukah songs and berachot over the next week and a half.

In the meantime, we're practicing some Ugandan Jewish songs for our performance on December 17th. A flyer will come home on Sunday. The kids are sounding great!

I hope I'll most of you at our family education session on Sunday. We'll look at student potfolios and do a history activity together.

Morah Amy

All together now

After a short vacation, a bout of bronchitis and a trip to Atlanta, I'm happy to be back in the classroom with Kitah Hay. We are nearly finished the Gevurot section, the second paragraph, of the Amidah, and the class chants the Avot, the first paragraph, with confidence and accuracy.

In our Israel unit we looked at the reason some Israelites did return to Jerusalem after the fall of the Babylonian Empire, and some did not.

Our class will be organizing a small fundraiser along with Kitah Vav for the Abayudayan Ugandan Jewish Community. We'll be performing several songs on the last Sunday of Hebrew school before winter vacation. Parents are invited and asked to make a donation - more news to follow. So far, we have learned the Abayudayan melody for the Shema.

I hope everyone had a joyful Thanksgiving. Many thanks to Joan and Jane (the biggest fans of this blog - Hi!) who returned from their vacation with several Israel Guide Books for our classrom.

Amy