Parents "Pop-In" Day

Thank you to all the parents that came to visit our classroom on parents "pop-in" day. It was wonderful to have you with us!

The festival of Matan Torah, the Giving of the Torah

We have been learning about the festival Shavuot. "Shavuot" means "weeks" because it falls exactly seven weeks after the second day of Passover. Seven weeks is counted because after leaving Egypt, the Israelites reached Mt. Sinai and camped there. The holiday celebrates 3 different events.

First is the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. Based on this aspect of the festival, we talked about the Ten Commandments in class. I told the kids the biblical story of Moses's assent to the peak of Mt. Sinai, and his receipt there of the Ten Commandments written on two tablets. And about those tablets, we made replicas in class, which the kids already brought home and which are also shown in the photographs below.

Second is the harvesting of wheat in Israel. We talked about the wheat harvest in Israel, and how in ancient times wheat was brought to the Temple as part of the Shavuot festival.

Third is the ripening of the fruits in Israel. Like the wheat, in ancient Israel, the best fruit was also brought to the Temple during Shavuot. I also showed the kids pictures of the "seven species" (shevat ha'minim) of fruit and grains that were primarily grown and consumed in ancient Israel. The traditional shevat ha'minim are:

Olives (zayit in Hebrew)

Grapes (geffen)

Figs (te'enah)

Pomegranates (reemon)

Dates (tamar)

Wheat (cheeyta)

Barley (se'ora)

Maccabiah Games and 8th Grade Farewell!!!

What an exciting week we had! The children had a great time throwing a going away party for the 8th graders, their "bigs", who are leaving for their class trip to Israel soon. We made them chamsas as gifts, which are traditional Jewish good luck charms with a travelling prayer on the back. We had a great time putting them together.

We also had fun getting ready for and cheering on the teams in Yavneh's annual Maccabiah games on Friday, May 4th. The first through eighth grades were divided into 6 teams, with each team designated by a different color.

Yom Ha'atzmaut Continued

We have been continuing our lessons on Israel Independence Day. The vocabulary words that we are learning are all related to Yom Ha’atzmaut. Some of the words are:

-- Degel – flag

-- Kachol – blue

-- Lavan – white

-- Magen David – Star of David

-- Yonah - dove

-- Passim – stripes or lines

We had our classroom celebration for Israel's 59th birthday, and two special guests joined us: Lee and Ori, chaverot (friends) from Israel. They told the kids about Israel and the city of Netanya, where they are from. Netanya happens to be a sister city to Cincinnati! They brought 3-D pictures and 3-D glasses to give the kids a virtual tour of Israel.

We danced, we sang, and we ended the party with a rendition of happy birthday, and blue and white cupcakes.

We will continue learning about Israel and special places in Israel, and share the items in our Israel exhibit. Thanks to all for sending pieces for the exhibit.

Also, thanks to everyone for coming to the Israel Memorial Day ceremony. The kids performed beautifully. I was so proud of them.