The first 5 of the 13 principles of faith in graphic icon form . . . to help make them memorable for students who are used to learning visually. #1 – G-d exists #2 – He is One #3 – He has no body #4 He is eternal #5 All prayers go to Him and not to an intermediary. Read More →
Tefillah: We discussed how ה’ is טוב לכל – to all and is good to ALL of his creations. We talked about not hurting animals unnecessarily I even mentioned how Rav Yaakov Yosef Herman would even feed cats in Yerushalayim because he was טוב to all of Hashem’s creations. Chumash – We reviewed a bit and did one more pasuk. The students were a little hyper because they had COLOR WAR. (My kids were on different teams. When they got off the bus today, my first grader had on this huge grin. I had assumed that he had won. No, he lost – he just hadRead More →
It’s COLOR WAR. Yellow & Blue. We still had davening and chumash for half a period. The kids lined up their desks into two lines facing each other. Tefillah: We were up to a great pasuk of Ashrei to give a pep talk for color war. חנון ורחום ה’ ארך אפים וגדל חסדו. – I talked about how we are supposed to imitate Hashem. The better we act, the bigger we are. חנון – be a gracious winner or loser – רחום – help out the weaker kids/kindergarten kids who seem overwhelmed ארך אפים – if someone annoys or upsets us, we should say overRead More →
Tefillah: הדר כבוד הודך, ודברי נפלאתיך אשיחה. ועזוז נוראתיך יאמרו, וגדלתך אספרנה. זכר רב טובך יביעו, וצדקתך ירננו… Meaning: The splendorous glory of Your power and Your wondrous deeds I shall discuss. And of Your awesome power they will speak, and Your greatness I shall relate. A recollection of Your abundant goodness they will utter and of Your righteousness they will sing exultantly…. Each of these three lines of Ashrei mentions different ways to communicate out loud. Focus: Why is it so important to vocalize these ideas? Activity: What are some things that are important to say? Why do you need to say them? What will happen to our opinionRead More →
Tefillah: Continue with ashrei Dor l Dor. Asked students to think of one thing they learned from a grandparent. Some of the answers were candy making, baseball. Who taught their grandparents baseball – they said their parents. I asked when baseball was invented – that was a debate was it in the 1800s or during the civil war. I mentioned how we have something that goes back generation to generation, further back than baseball or making candy – The Torah & believing in Hashem. The Torah goes back to Moshe. But believing in Hashem goes back to Avraham. When we say דור לדור it reminds us thatRead More →
Tefillah: We had the second graders join us because of some substitute timing. We reviewed that Ashrei = Happy and what makes us happy. We then translated the first few lines of Ashrei until בכל יום. I asked the students if they needed to thank their mothers today if they already did so yesterday? Why would we need to bless and appreciate Hashem every day? Should our feelings of thanks to our mother be the same each and every day? Before we said Ashrei, we thought of something we are happy for. We paused before בכל יום to think of what we would thank HashemRead More →
Intro: We are starting אשרי! We discussed אשרי means happy. What do we need to do to be happy? We need to focus on good things to appreciate them to be happy. In אשרי, we will focus on many things ה’ does which is why we are happy. Chumash: Review Pesukim 25-27. Translation sheets Learn pesukim 28-31 Draw shorashim on board 2) Ask questions: if יעקב thinks it is time to leave, what should the conversation go like? When do you think יעקב will want to go and why? Will לבן want him stay? How will he convince יעקב toRead More →
Today was a great day. The class did this awesome unit about the Civil War where each kid took one historical figure, researched his life and role in the Civil War, wrote journal entries from that perspective and then dressed in costume to present in a “town hall meeting” We went on a field trip today to Genessee Country Village & Museum – a living history museum where they recreate life from the 18th and 19th century. As a parent and co-teacher I came along. It was an awesome place. There was a pioneer homestead where they got to grind corn, carry a yoke, wash dishes andRead More →
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