It's a Contest!!! With no prize!!!

I have added some new Israeli music to the blog. Can anyone name the artist?

Amy

CD is almost finished

We added 2 more tracks to our prayer cd today, and should have the whole thing finished by next week. We've got a few microphone hogs, though I certainly won't name names.....

We watched part of a video today about the Holy Temple.
We learned a little bit about the building of the Temple and the rites and rituals that took place there. We'll be studying the period in Israeli history from the time of the Kings through the rule of the Maccabbes, with a particular focus on Jerusalem.

Cartoons, CDs and Calendar

Today we created calendars for the Hebrew month of Cheshvan. This is a potentially complicated task, involving calculating the hebrew letter equivalent of each date, as well as writing the month, year and days of the week all in Hebrew. We have practiced this skill twice before, but I was really impressed with how easily and successfully everyone completed the work. Afterwards, we recorded two more prayers for our class tefillah cd. It seems there's nothing quite so powerful as a microphone to get everyone to really show off what they've learned.

After recess, we made a comic strip of the story of the showdown between Dagon, the Phillistine idol, and the Ark of the Covenant. I'll try to remember to scan one or two frames so that I can post them here. For now, the work is hanging up on the bulletin board in the hallway, so please check it out.

Remember that there is an Open House on Sunday. Last year it was in the evening, and not one parent from Kitah Hay showed up. Despite my best efforts, I haven't even met some of you yet, so I really hope to see most of you there.

Amy

More reading....

We're beginning to incorporate more Hebrew reading into our schedule. In addition to working our way through the Shabbat morning Amidah, we have added a Modern Hebrew component. We are working on reading with accuracy and basic comprehension. The vocabulary words we'll be emphasizing in our first story are colors and possessive pronouns.

We read an excerpt from the book of Samuel about a showdown between the Ark of the Covenant and the Phillistine god Dagon. Ask your child who won, and what unsightly affliction struck the Phillistines. We'll be making a comic strip about the story which I'll post on our bulletin board.

Please stop by and have a look at our class display on the bulletin board in the Religious school hallway. Our materials should be posted for the next three or four weeks.

Idol Worship in Northampton

When the Israelites settled in the land of Canaan, they were surrounded by polytheists. The Canaanites worshipped numerous Gods, including El, the father of the gods, the godess Asherah, and Baal, the God of lightning and thunder. Today, we learned about some of these deities, and considered what idols the Canaanites might worship if they lived amongst us. And yes, we created our own idols. But I promise, we didn't worship them. Really.

We're continuing to work on the Shabbat Amidah, and discussed why congregations and prayer books have varying traditions for including the names of the matriarchs. We also took a look at our Modern Hebrew text book, which we'll begin to work on regularly, now that the holidays are finally over.

Kitah Hay is responsible for the Hebrew School bulletin board for the next month. We'll have several assignments displayed by the end of the week, so please come take a look - with your child - so s/he can tell you a little bit about our work.

Walking in the Rain (well, not really)

The weather didn't look promising, but at the last minute the sun came out and rescued our sukkah trip. We headed up the bike path and enjoyed a snack in our damp but cozy sukkah. My daughters Ella and Zoe, my dog Zev and my husband Keith all popped in to say hi.

We made it back to school in time for recess and Shirah. We also recorded the first track for our prayer cd. I'll see if I can figure out how to post the recording on this site.

I hope I'll see some of you dancing on Simchat Torah~

Morah Amy

The Ark of the Covenant

Here are two artists' versions of what the Ark of the Covenant might have looked like. As we'll learn soon, no one really knows because no one knows what happened to the ark, except perhaps Steven Spielberg.

Today we read a description of the Ark from the Book of Exodus, and everyone attempted to draw what s/he imagined. Students - post your comments and let us know how you did! We also mapped out where the 12 tribes settled when they first entered the land of Canaan.

In Hebrew, we practiced the opening line of the Amidah, "Adonai Sifatai Tiftach, U-fi Yagid Tehillatecha" (Adonai, open up my lips that my mouth may declare your glory.) We worked on pronunciation, vocabulary and coreography.

We ended our day eating a snack in the sukkah and shaking the lulav and etrog. We celebrated the kashrut of Oreos, as I reminisced aloud about the days when they were made with pig fat. That was a hard time to be a Jew. If the weather is nice on Thursday we'll walk over to my house on Barrett Street and visit my family's sukkah.

Lastly, I'm posting one of the illustrations from my upcoming children's book, A Mezuzah on the Door, due out next Fall from Kar-Ben. The artist is Janice Fried, and I think she's great. Check out her website at www. janicefried.com .

Helping Hands

Today the first 20 minutes of Hebrew school was spent hand-delivering the hundreds of bags of food that were collected for the survival center. I'll report back when I find out how many pounds of food were collected this year.

I am pleased to report that everyone got at least a 100% on the map quiz today (I say "at least" because there was one extra credit question.) As the wife of a geography teacher, I can hold my head high at dinner tonight, knowing that at least a handful of children in Northampton know where the Euphrates River is.

After recess, it was time for art. I wish we had more time for art projects, but I do try to fit in one or two each month. Everyone illustrated a part of the story of the battle of Jericho, using the medium of torn-paper collage. In other words, no scissors were allowed - just glue sticks and construction paper. Precision is impossible; consequently, students often take greater risks, incorporating things in their pictures that they can't capture representationally.

Our class is responsible for the bulletin board next week, so you'll see these on display by Thursday.

Have a joyful Succot!

Morah Amy

Maps, maps, maps

In Hebrew we are focusing on solidifying everyone's phonetic skills. Every day begins with the same routine - letter of the day, independently preparing one or two pages in our prayer textbook, and reading practice with a partner. After everyone has finished we come together to review our work and read aloud together. I hope that in a few weeks we'll be ready to begin our modern Hebrew textbook with a room full of confident readers.

Our read-aloud today was the award winning High Holdiday book by Eric Kimmel, Gershon's Monster.

In our Israel unit we prepared for our first quiz - identifying the cities and bodies of water we have read about on a map of the Middle East. Students labeled the following: Ur, Haran, Jericho, the Tigris River, the Euphrates river, the Jordan River, the Red Sea, the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. I encourage everyone these points of interest on other maps you might have at home.

We re-read our skit recounting the story of Jericho, the first battle the Israelites fought in Canaan, and joined in a tentative chorus of "Johsua Fit de Battle of Jericho" which we'll share with the school at shirah on Thursday. Here's the chorus, so you can sing at home....

Joshua fit de battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho
Joshua fit de battle of Jericho
And the walls come a-tumblin' down

Morah Amy