SIHA weekly for December 25

by admin | Dec 25, 2020 | Newsletter

Reminder: Friday December 25 10th day of Teves is a fast day 5:50 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.

Dvar Torah

Parshas Vayegash

In this week’s parsha, Yosef finally reveals himself to his brothers. The shock , when they realize that the viceroy of Egypt that they have been dealing with and bowing down to, is none other than their “little brother” Yosef, whom they sold as a slave 22 years earlier and never dreamed he would even be alive, let alone royalty!
They were terrified. He could kill them. He could torture them. He could enslave them.
Nevertheless, Yosef’s reaction is totally different. He tells them “you had in mind to do bad, but Hashem G-d of the universe intended the whole episode for good! It had nothing to do with you, your actions or intentions. Yosef bears no grudge at all whatsoever. He understands that, nothing can happen without Hashem the Almighty willing it to be so.

Let us take a lesson from Yosef, for that is the reason it is written in the holy Torah. The next time a family member or friend [or even a foe] upsets us or G-d forbid harms us, we should try to remember that It is actually the hand of Hashem,and it is really, ultimately for our own benefit.

Rabbi Kuritsky
Curriculum Coordinator
Judaic Studies

Special Announcement

Congratulations to the 7th and 8th grade boys Mincha winners!
7th and 8th grade Mincha winners;
A few month ago, when we began davening Mincha in school, Rabbi Uzhansky incentivized the boys to Daven better by incentifying them with 3 raffles:

• $10 coupon
• $25 coupon
• Ipad

Doron Glickman is the first winner of a $10 Amazon coupon
Michael Clift is the winner of a $25 Amazon coupon
We are waiting a few days to pick the Ipad winner.
The boys are very excited about the raffle. One boy, Josh D., is quoted as saying “if I win, there will be a pizza party [paid for by Yehuda]”
We look forward to the boys to continue to daven nicely even without a raffle.

Oorah is coming to SIHA!
All students, boys and girls, will have a great time and win prizes! Stay tuned: more details in next week’s newsletter.

Programming News

Dear parents,
We had a great week! I’m so proud of Etai and Oren from 6th grade who turned off their electronics for a while on Shabbat!
This week, we will be starting a really exciting Shmirat Halashon program. We will work on speaking positively about others and earn really exciting prizes!
Shabbat Shalom!
Best,
Miss Dershowitz

Judaics

Kindergarten and First Grade
We had a great week in Kindergarten and First Grade Judaics! Our kindergarteners have learnt about long long lamed! We can a great job stretching out our hands and bodies into the shape of a lamed. We are all so really lucky because there are so many children in our class who have a lamed in their name like Liad, ShLomo, ALexander, DaLia, and ILan! In First Grade we are doing a great job reading four letter hebrew words and have begun learning the letter cholam. Cholam is a little confusing since there are two types but we are doing a great job! This week in both Kindergarten and First grade we discussed how proud we are to be children of Hashem, We are princes and princesses of Hashem our King. We know that when boys wear their kippah and tzitzit and girls dress tzniusly we are showing that we are proud to be those princes and princesses of Hashem! We are so proud to dress the right way! Morah Kaplan is especially proud that all the boys did a great job this week wearing their kippahs and making brachot on tzitzit and all the girls were dressed so tzniusly! We have so many mitzvah children in our class, Keep it up!

Second Grade
We had another productive busy week in 2nd grade. We reviewed much of Sefer Breishit (Genesis). We especially enjoyed the booklet we worked on in class on Wednesday reviewing the names of our Avot (Fathers) and Emohoit (Mothers) the first Jews in the world. There are so many lessons we learned from this week’s Parshat Vayegash. Yehuda, when pleading with the prime minister of Egypt not to keep his younger brother as a slave (Binyamin) got very angry. Then Yehuda spoke calmly. We discussed how important it is to speak politely and calmly when we want something. Yosef (The Prime minister of Egypt)sent the Egyptians out of the room before revealing his true identity as Yosef the missing brother in order not to embarrass his brothers. We learn that we have to be careful about people’s feelings and not to embarrass anyone. Yosef could have been angry at his brothers and could take revenge, however he was not angry
and did not take revenge. When Yosef was finally reunited with his elderly father Yaakov the first thing Yaakov did was say “Shma Yisroel” Thanking G-d and praising Hashem for being able to reunite. Shabbat Shalom!

Third Grade
After a fun-filled week of Chanukah, the students were eager to go back to school and learn more about Parsha and Jewish History. THe last few weeks’ Parsha stories were quite suspenseful and everyone was happy to hear the happy ending of Yosef and his brothers and his reunion with his long father Yaakov.

We started working on the Yediot Klaliot program and are excited to learn an overview of all the amazing Jewish Holidays throughout the year.
We continue learning Dikduk and are getting really good with prefixes!
For Kriah, we started reading in groups and will soon be using timers to work on our reading speed.
We also learned the History of the first Beth Hamikdash and how it was destroyed, starting on the 10th of tevet when Nevuchadnetzar besieged Jerusalem. Thai friday is a fast day because it was the beginning of the end of the Beth hamikdash which was destroyed 2 and a half years later on the 9th of Av. In all there are 4 fats connected to the destruction of the Temple. We love the Beth hamikdash and pray each day that Hashem should build us the 3rd Temple very soon.
Shabbat Shalom
Mrs. Ivry

Fourth Grade
This week we focused on beautiful stories and lessons on Tefila. We said stories from the Talmud and Parables with their lesson. We are continuing to learn a few halachot (Jewish Laws) a day. We are learning the laws of השכמת הבקר – (When we wake up in the morning) What we should and shouldn’t do. In Parshat Vayigash we learned how Yosef Hatzadik cared about his brother’s shame, and he sent out all his servants before he revealed himself. Every day we review what Hashem created on each day. We discussed that this Friday is a fast day. The reason is because on this day of Asara Btevet. (10th day of Tevet) the king of Bavel (Nevuchadnetzar) and his men surrounded the walls of Yerushaylaim (Jerusalem). This is one out of the four fasts that have to do with the Destruction of the Batei Hamikdash – Holy Temples. May it be rebuilt speedy in our days.
Shabbat Shalom!

Mrs. Bistritz

5th and 6th grade Girls
Dear parents.
We had a great week! We continued on in Chumash, learning about the backbreaking labor of the Jews in Egypt. No matter how much they tortured the Jews in order to destroy them, the Jews only multiplied more!! It’s a lesson for us all that no matter how hard and how many times in history, nations have tried to destroy us, we are alive and vibrant with Jewish life today!
We continued on in Jewish law, learning in depth about the Beracha of Mezonot and Hagafen. We make the blessing of Mezonot on any food with the 5 grains, besides for bread. We all enjoyed doughnuts and made the Beracha of Mezonot out loud. We make the blessing of Hagafen on wine and grape juice and we all enjoyed our cups of grape juice, making our berachot out loud.
Shout out to Ziva for pouring the cups of grape juice and handing them out to everyone!
Congratulations to our weekly Halacha raffle winner – Mia Portman!
We learned the weekly Parsha portion about Yosef revealing himself to his brothers. In order not to shock Yaakov too much, Serach, his granddaughter broke the news that Yosef was still alive while playing on her harp. Yosef was crying when he finally saw his father after 22 years and Yaakov was saying Shema, thanking Hashem for this moment. Wow, Yaakov wasn’t focused on embracing his son whom he missed so terribly, but thanking Hashem!!
We are all working our gratitude this week, learning from Yaakov to be thankful for all our gifts.
Shabbat Shalom!
Have a great weekend.
Best,
Ms Dershowitz

7th and 8th grade Boys
Judaic studies 7th/8th grade
This week we began a new Perek in Gamara1
The name of the Perek is Hakones. It is in Masechta Baba Kama [6th Perek]
We learned and reviewed Yedios Klalios .
We learned about the Parsha.We learned with Chavrusas [friends] learning partners. It went really well. The boys enjoyed it.

Elementary School

Kindergarten
This week kindergarten practiced reading and spelling many different words with the SH sound. They learned how to identify the beginning, middle, and end of a story. After listening to many read alouds about personal narratives they picked interesting topics to write their very own personal narrative. I can’t wait to read their writing! In math they continued to amaze me with the speed they are picking up addition and subtraction facts. They practiced counting everything by 2s. They counted by 2s to find out how many feet, eyes, knees, legs, arms, ears, shoulders, elbows, and even eyebrows we have in the classroom! They practiced adding and subtracting by 2 and played games to review the concept of addition. In social studies they learned about traditions. They did a wonderful job presenting their papers about their favorite family tradition. In science they learned all about liquids. They went on a scavenger hunt to find the most solids and liquids. They also did a directed drawing and made really cute snowmen and snowwomen. I was really impressed with how well the entire class followed directions!

Third Grade

This week Grade 3 students explored the Central Plains, Great Plains, and the Coastal Gulf Plains of the Central United States. They also discussed the purpose and importance of the invisible lines around the planet Earth such as the equator. In Math, students reviewed multiple mental math strategies for addition and subtraction. In Russian, they had taken a quiz on the /Aa/ sound words and are excited to begin a new letter next week. In Grammar, students practiced identifying common and proper nouns. This week they also had taken their first Computer quiz on virtual responsibility and security.

Students learned and explored how animals and plants depend on each other for food. Students are working also on winter theme art.

Miss Sasha

4A
This week in math we started a new unit Operations on Fractions. We worked on adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators.
In ELA we completed our unit on verbs and continued to write persuasive writing activities.
On Social Studies we reading and discussing resources, economy and people of the South.
In science, Students learned and explored factors that threaten the survival of a species.

4B
4B has entered the magical world of fractions! We know how to identify equivalent fractions, we know how to compare fractions, we know how to simplify fractions, we know how to find common denominators, and now we are learning how to add fractions! Very exciting stuff!! In ELA, we have been learning about verbs and verb tenses. We have also been doing a lot of test prep, learning how to properly annotate, and pull the main idea and key details from texts.
In science, students learned and explored factors that threaten the survival of species .
Mrs. Belli wants to mention Sapir Benlulu 4B Class. She got excellent scores on Quizzes! You could see happy tears on her eyes!

Fifth Grade
Greetings and salutations!
I hope everyone had a wonderful week!
The 5th grade had a good but busy week.
In grammar the 5th grade continued practicing with the perfect tenses. They also practiced typing a bit since their assignments required them to type.
In writing the students practiced using details to support inferences in literary texts. They read about King Arthur and (some) of his valiant knights. The students had a lot of fun reading the stories!
In reading we continued to read Holes and discuss what we read. We tried in the three stories within the book and how they connect to what is happening at Camp Green Lake with Stanley and Zero. Additionally, I am very proud to say that all of the 5th graders are doing an amazing job preparing their independent reading book project. I can’t wait until it is complete!

In math the 5th grade reviewed multiplying factions and continued on to learn and practice dividing fractions. I am happy to say that the students are very confident about their skills in multiplying and dividing fractions.

In science, Students learned and described interactions that occur within an ecosystem. Analized adaptive characteristics that result in an organism’s unique niche in an ecosystem.

In social studies the students learned about the past and culture of South America. They were particularly fascinated by the Inca and Machu Picchu. A lot of students were shocked when they saw what terraced farming looked like so high up in the mountains. Next week, we will be rounding off our unit on South America!

This week I would like to commend Matthew for his on point participation during class discussions!

Middle School

Middle School ELA
6th grade had a great week! In grammar, students learned about compound subjects and compound verbs. We also practiced finding subjects in inverted sentences and questions. Students also spent the week reviewing for our upcoming vocabulary test! In writing, we learned about connotative word meanings, and words that have a technical meaning. We also started our novel study of Hatchet by discussing different types of conflict!

7th grade had a busy week! In grammar, we learned about combining sentences in several different ways to create better sentence variety. Students also spent the week reviewing our vocabulary unit in preparation for the test next week. In writing, students learned about different types of text structure, and wrote beautiful paragraphs. We also continued our novel study of Milkweed!

8th grade had a good week! In grammar, we learned about three types of verbal phrases. Students practiced recognizing them in sentences, as well as writing their own. In writing, students reviewed different types of text structure. We discussed how text structure helps authors carry their ideas across. In ELA, students continued their novel study of The Giver!

Middle School Math

6th finished unit 2 on fractions and decimals.

7th grade finished module 4 on angle relations and are currently working on circumference.

8th grade learned how to solve rational equations and apply algebra to ratios, rates, and proportions.

Middle School Social Studies

6th grade took the Unit 2 exam this week and also began Unit 3: South Asia. Students learned about the geography and notable features of the region, as well as facts about each country located within it.

7th grade completed the final lesson of Unit 2, regarding the first phase of American abolition. Students learned about the concept of abolition, how it began in the New World, who the original leaders of the movement were, and what the pro-slavery argument was.

8th grade learned about the beginning of the fight of workers to form unions in order to protect themselves. The class then had a discussion about the current events issue of whether or not to raise the federal minimum wage. Students talked about the positive and negative aspects of the proposal and gave their thoughts on the matter.

Middle School Science

6th graders finished their Unit about the Earth’s Changing Surface.

SIHA Weekly for December 18

by admin | Dec 18, 2020 | Newsletter

Dvar Torah

Miracles! Miracles!
Who doesn’t want miracles to happen to them?
How can we even dream of expecting a miracle happening to/for us?
The Lubavitcher Rebbe is quoted as saying “if we want Hashem to do something for us against nature, we must also act against our nature”!
We see this concept in the miracle of Chanuka. A group of five men,Kohanim, people that were accustomed to serving in the Bais Hamikdosh- the Holy Temple, stand up to an entire Syrian-greek army of thousands of soldiers for the purpose of being able to serve Hashem properly, to be able to keep the Torah, with all the Mitzvos.
Hashem says “you acted out of your nature, I will make miracles for you that counter nature”.
Similarly, we find with Yosef Hatzadik. He is tempted daily, by Potifar’s wife, for a full year, yet he goes against nature and his natural desires and does not give in.
Hashem rewards Yosef by changing his status. In one quick moment he is elevated from a slave in a jail to becoming the viceroy [second to the king of Egypt, the largest and most powerful country at that time]!
All of us would love to have a miracle-something special happen to/for us that we know won’t happen “naturally”, but if we are willing to go out of our nature, to serve Hashem, we can look forward to Him [hashem] possibly, changing nature for us.
Chodesh Tov
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Yaakov kuritsky

Message from Dr. Uzhansky

וקבעו שמונת ימי חנוכה אלו, להודות ולהלל לשמך הגדול
And they established these eight days of Chanukah to express thanks and praise to Your great Name.

It seems that the Chachamim were telling us that the essence of Chanukah is to recognize all that Hashem did (and does) for us and to praise and thank Him. We know this is not for His benefit but rather for ours. Praising and thanking Hashem brings us closer to Him, which is the ultimate purpose of all the mitzvos.

Dear SIHA family especially to my dear students,

Thank you for giving me a reason to smile on this last night of Chanukah. The world may be caught in a vertex of chaos but tonight the little simple candles flickering gives me great comfort. The beauty of their light is just an external reminder of the light found within each of us always striving to go up, give warmth, and illuminate our uniqueness to the world around us. Children exude that light more so with their purity and profound potential. We, lucky to be in the world of education and as parents, can celebrate Chanukah, seeing that shine 365/24/7. Those neshamot are the gifts that keep on giving! ????

Chag Chanukah Sameach!!!
Morah Chana

Thank you to the PTA and all the SIHA Parents for being phenomenal this holiday season!

This was a week of fun and excitement for every SIHA student. We celebrated Chanuka with activities and play, culminating in the incredible Traveling Tykes Carnival in the middle of the week! Between the bounce-castle, the train, the slide, the cotton candy and the music, the students had a magical time!
2020 has been a trying year. Thank you, again, for making the end of the year amazing and memorable. The students will remember and appreciate your incredible dedication to making their childhoods special.

P.S. From all the staff, thank you very much for your amazing gifts this Chanukah season. We really appreciate them! 

Judaics

Kindergarten and First Grade
We had such a great week in Kindergarten and First Grade Judaics we did a lot of fun Channukah activities, come check it out!

On Monday, we made our very own doughnuts! Chocolate icing, vanilla icing, and sprinkles, we sure got sticky!! We also made our very own “finding Hashem” diaries where we are writing or drawing things to thank Hashem for, and places where we saw Hashem helping us. For example, Morah was running late to an appointment and when she came there was a parking space right in front of the building! Hashem had made that parking space open special for Morah! On Tuesday, we had the traveling tykes carnival! On Wednesday, we had a fun chanukah party and made our scratch off dreidels! On Thursday we had zoom school! and watched a fun Chanukah video. We also learnt about making the right choices! We read a special Danny, power to choose, story where we read and made the right choices , the choices Hashem would want, for Danny. We know Hashem is always watching us and knows everything we do and think and that we try to do our best. We spoke about how even if we make mistakes Hashem always loves us, no matter what, and we can try again next time. On Friday, we made our very own dreidel pinatas!

Second Grade
We had an exciting week of Chanukah beginning on Monday with reviewing our Chanukah booklets, our reading skills and icing our donuts with either chocolate or vanilla icing and colorful sprinkles. You can be sure we all enjoyed our snack on Monday. Tuesday was a blast participating in the Traveling Tykes carnival. Wednesday we read about Chana and her 7 sons in Hebrew. I was impressed how beautifully the children were able to read and understand the sentences in English. We also did a special Chanukah arts and crafts project and enjoyed special goodies in honor of the holiday. Thursday our snow day we zoomed away reviewing this weeks Parsha Mekaitz. We see how humble Yosef was. When he was called to interpret Pharaoh’s dream Yosef said “ the ability to interpret the dream was given only by Hashem,it is not due to my credit. We learn from Yosef to be humble and not brag or show off our talents. A special thanks to Miss Dershowitz for all her hard work in coordinating the outstanding projects and activities everyone enjoyed for Chanukah. Shabbat Shalom!

7th and 8th Grade Boys
This week, the 7th and 8th grade boys enjoyed a Chanukah party, as well as decorating [and eating] our very own doughnuts.
Each day of Chanuka, we lit the Menorah in our classroom and said the Brachos [without Hashem’s name]. We learned more about Chanuka and we contrasted the troubles that we had in the time of the Greek rulership, and the celebration, when the Chashmonaim were victorious over the Greeks vs the troubles we had in the time of the Persians, Haman etc, and the celebration when Mordechai and Esther were victorious.
This week on zoom the boys were challenged by Rabbi Kuritsky with a Gmara in P’sachim that discussed the Halacha regarding a situation where one is forced to benefit from something forbidden and chooses to enjoy.

Elementary School

Kindergarten
This week kindergarten learned to read and spell many words with the TH sound. Using the writing skill they learned about how to write a predictable book they wrote all about what they like to do on Chanukah. They also made a menorah. In Math they learned so many facts this week I can’t even keep up with the class! They just keep asking for more! I love their enthusiasm for learning how to add and subtract. We played two different types of dreidel games to practice adding and subtracting. It is in their red folder if you want them to teach you how to play. In social studies they finished sharing their family trees. They really loved getting to share all about their family and they were very proud of themselves. In science they learned all about solids and what makes an object solid. I am very proud of the class for how well they did for their first time on zoom. They were very focused and they all participated and tried their best!
Happy birthday to Alexander, Emanuella, and Ilan!

Third Grade
This week third grade students practiced modifying nouns into their plural forms. They not only were able to use the rules we had learned previously but are now able to identify and modify plural nouns into their irregular forms. Students also wrote and revised their positivity poems, creating wonderful pieces. In Social Studies, students continued to learn how climate and geography affects people and their decisions on where they live. In Computer class, they learned how to fortify their passwords to better secure their information and privacy.
Miss Sasha

4B
4B had a wild and crazy week! We had fun Chanukah events including decorating donuts, and going in a bouncy house and on a train ride courtesy of The Traveling Tykes! We also had a snow zoom day! In ELA, we learned about verbs, and how to make our verbs agree with our subjects when writing. In math we started learning about fractions. In social studies we talked about the 3 branches of government and what each one consists of.

Fifth Grade
Greetings and salutations!
This week in 5th grade has been pretty busy despite the holiday festivities.
In grammar, the 5th grade learned about the tricky perfect tenses. They continued to practice throughout the week and I am confident that the class will do quite well on their quiz next week.
In writing, the class practiced finding key details in stories and using them to summarize the plot of a story. This skill will surely come in handy for their upcoming independent reading book project! The class also wrote amazing positivity Haikus!
In reading, the class continued to read Holes. We discussed and analyzed the actions of the characters. We also began tying in the details of the parallel stories within the book and how they connect to what is going on with Stanley in the present.

In math, the students practiced multiplying fractions as well as multiplying mixed numbers. I am happy to say that the students seem very comfortable with multiplying fractions and mixed numbers alike!

Lastly, in Social Studies, the students continued their journey through South America. They learned about some of the amazing creatures that inhabit our neighbor to the south. The students also learned about the people that once lived there and about people that live there presently.

This week, I would like to commend Sophie Dym for her diligent work!

Middle School

Middle School ELA
6th Grade
Sixth Graders had a great week! In reading, we completed our novel study of The Lightning Thief! We discussed plot and climax, and wrote beautiful paragraphs. In grammar, students practiced identifying subjects and predicates in a variety of sentences. In writing, we learned about summarizing fictional texts, and wrote beautiful summaries of short stories, We also wrote wonderful haiku poems about our theme of the month: being positive.
7th Grade
Seventh graders had a busy week! We continued our novel study of Milkweed, and discussed setting. In Grammar, students learned about different types of sentences based on structure. They practiced identifying simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences. In writing, we discussed and wrote about the author’s tone, and how word choice helps us identify it. Students also wrote haiku poems!
8th Grade
Eighth graders had a good week! We continued our novel study of The Giver, and discussed character motivations. In grammar, students learned about different types of phrases. This week, we practiced identifying and writing with prepositional and appositive phrases. In writing, we discussed connotation and denotation of a word, and how word choice can change a story. Students also wrote haikus!

Middle School Math
6th finished the module on fraction operations. We have been working on challenging word problems.

7th has been working on geometry. We used kinetic sand to visualize the cross section of 3D figures. THey also learned about complementary and supplementary angles. I want to congratulate Lana Medik for diligently working on triangle contradictions.

8th started chapter two on algebraic properties. We worked on challenging word problems and will be learning how to solve liberal equations.

Ms. Ilanit enjoyed her snow day yesterday and 7th grade has a new classmate Shmuly.

7th grade learned about the document that allowed the Constitution to be ratified and go into effect: the Bill of Rights. Consisting of the first ten amendments to the new national government, this piece of legislation secures the basic rights of American citizens, including the freedoms of speech and religion, the right to own a firearm, and the guarantee of a trial by jury.

8th grade covered the political career of Theodore Roosevelt. Becoming America’s youngest chief executive after the assassination of President Mckinley in 1901, Roosevelt is now infamous as the “Trust Buster” and creator of the country’s system of national parks.

Middle School Science
7th grade has been diligently working through a unit on the Scientific Method. During this unit students are learning how to investigate like a scientist. Answering bigger questions and creating hypotheses to help investigate to find answers. Students learned how to identify independent and dependent variables and graph their findings.

8th grade has completed biochemical processes. During this time students learned the importance and inter-relatedness between cellular respiration and photosynthesis and how the reactants and products are necessary for each to function properly. They investigated how to make effective sourdough starters and the role that bacteria has in the fermentation process. They also completed a yeast respiration lab wherein they were able to see evidence of CO2 being released by the size of the balloon at the end of the experiment.

SIHA Weekly for December 11

by admin | Dec 11, 2020 | Newsletter

Dvar Torah Parshas Vayeishev

In this week’s Parsha, the tragic story of M’cheras Yosef is told. Besides being intrinsically horrific, the after effects are perhaps even more appalling.
[The Asara Harigei malchus- the Roman’s murdering of ten great innocent Torah scholars, generations later, is attributed to this chronicle]
The story basically is; the 10 [brothers besides Binyamin] Shevatim decide that Yosef is Chayav Meesa, to be sentenced to death, based on some of his actions.
Reuvein, the Bchor, first born son,decides to “push off” carrying out this sentence by having Yosef deposited in a pit [Rashi explains that in truth, Reuvein’s intention was to save him completely].
After Reuvein leaves, to spend time with his father, the brothers encounter a passing caravan of Arabs, Yehuda speaks up and says “why should we spill blood, let’s sell him instead as a slave”.
They do sell Yosef to the Arabs.
The Posuk states a seemingly unnecessary statement “the Arabs were carrying beautiful smelling perfumes”.
Why does the Torah deem this statement necessary?
Rashi explains that this was an unusual “load” for these Arabs, as they usually would transport and sell neft, foul smelling freight. Hashem arranged this so that the Tzadik, Yosef would not have to bear the foul smelling neft.

The question is; at the end of the day, Yosef was sold as a slave, and he would be a slave for the next 13 years! Who cares that he was transported with spices versus neft?

We can ask a similar question about the holiday of Chanuka.
We are all excited about the upcoming holiday. We were told by our Rabbis thousands of years ago to celebrate every year for 8 days!
The question is; if we study the era in history preceding Chanuka and after Chanuka, we find really hard and difficult times for us Jews!
Why the celebration, it was only for a short period of time that we enjoyed tranquility?

I heard a beautiful answer from my Rabbi in Lakewood, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Kahan shlita, that can answer both questions.

It is true that Yosef was being sold and transported as a slave, but the fact that the Arabs were carrying beautiful smelling perfumes and spices v.s. foul smelling neft, that was the norm for Arabs to transport, was a clear message to Yosef from Hashem. Hashem was telling him “I am with you”!

Hashem shone a light on Yosef in his time of darkness.

The same is true for Chanuka, although times were turbulent for us Jews prior to the events of the Greeks and the Chashmonaim, and they were turbulent and troublesome after the winning of the war against the Greeks, but since Hashem shined His light on us,

His message was clear “I am with you”!

That is plenty of reason for celebration!

Each of us in our own lives have gone through, or may be going through a “dark period”, but if we look, we will see the “light that Hashem is shining” on us.

An excursion:
I recently broke my patella [knee cap] while bike riding in Ohio this summer. This was a pretty dark period, for me. I meritted to see the “light that Hashem made shine” upon me, nevertheless. For example;
Within 60 seconds of falling on the bike trail, a registered nurse came and offered me help.
I was not with my family,as I had taken a group of “special adults” on an excursion.
How was I to get home back to New Jersey?
Hashem arranged that my chavrusa [learning partner] came to Ohio by plane for the same weekend with his wife and children. He [and his wife!] agreed to drive my van home with me and the special adults. {an 8 hour ride!}.
The list goes on and on…
May we all merit to see the “light of Hashem” shine on us, whether in dark times or in pleasant times, and may we merit seeing the coming of Moshiach and the “light” of redemption speedily in our days!
Shabbat Shalom
Happy Chanuka
Rabbi Kuritsky

Special Announcement! Chanukah is here! 

A great big thank you to the SIHA PTA for organizing an amazing week for the SIHA students! So many fun surprises are in store: Menorah making, Chanukah sale, gelt, Dreidels, projects, Sufganiot decorating, party, piñata making and the biggest of them all The Traveling Tykes Carnival is coming to us!!! Please look forward to it! 

Judaics

Kindergarten and First Grade
We had a great week in Kindergarten and First Grade Judaics! Our kindergarteners have learnt the letter kaf and enda kaf! We have a special song for these letters and can make our fingers into their shapes! In First Grade we have begun a new nekuda, shva! We are getting very good at reading three letter words in hebrew! This week we continued to learn about Channukah! We learnt how the weak Macabim won the war against the Greeks. We learnt how after the Jewish people cleaned up the Bet Hamikdash they could not find the special pure oil to light the menorah. Finally they found one jar, that was only supposed to last for one night. Hashem made a big miracle and the oil lasted for eight nights! In honor of Chanukah we decorated our very own menorahs, we can’t wait to use them at home!
Happy Channukah and Shabbat Shalom!
Morah Kaplan

Second Grade
We had a busy week getting through all the preparations for Chanukah. We hope all mothers in 2nd grade will enjoy the Chanukah Gift we made
especially for you and will think of us when you light the Shabbat candles. We are sure you are all enjoying the custom made Chanukah mat, menorah and all the other goodies we brought home to honor this wonderful festival. This week we still managed to practice our reading skills, learn about Chanukah and complete the weekly Parsha. In this weeks Parsha we discussed how the brothers were jealous of Yosef and how he was sold as a slave, worked for Potiphar and was thrown into jail where he interpreted the dreams which the butler and baker were
troubled by.
Have a Happy Chanukah and Shabbat Shalom.
Morah Spiegel

4B
We spent a lot of this week preparing for Chanukah. The children learned the Chanuka Story as well as some Halachos (Laws) of Chanuka!
Have a happy and enjoyable Chanuka!
Morah Bistriz

Love, Morah Bistritz

Judaics – Middle School

5th and 6th Grade Girls

Dear parents.
Wow, we had an amazing week.
We learned all about Chanukah. The Greeks were trying to force the Jews to assimilate to the Greek culture. Antiochus, their wicked king, decreed laws preventing the Jews from keeping Torah and Mitzvot. No keeping Shabbat, no keeping Kashrut, no learning Torah, no giving a Brit Milah. Any Jews caught breaking any of these laws was killed!
Lots of Jews went to hide in caves to learn Torah. They would learn with their Sefarim (Torah books), while there was a watchman at the door making sure that no Greek soldiers were coming. Whenever they saw a Greek soldier coming, the watchmen would quickly notify the people, who would then take out their dreidels and start to play. When the Greek soldiers walked in, hoping to find some torah-learning Jews to kill – the Jews were all playing dreidel!
In our classroom, we appointed watchmen to notify us when the Greeks were coming. We also appointed 2 students as Greek soldiers – who came marching into our classroom to kill whoever was learning Torah. The watchmen quickly notified everyone and the girls immediately took out their dreidels and began to play. We had a great time acting this out!
We painted and made beautiful glass cube Menorahs this week. Every girl did a great job and the Menorahs came out stunning!
We all wrapped our Chanukah lighting Brachot/songs card and candles beautifully and came home with a beautiful package (our students packed them for the whole school!!) with a dreidel and instructions, the Menorah contest and The Chanukah Post – Siha’s Chanukah Newspaper.
All the girls worked to say the blessing/beracha of Asher Yatzar after they went to the bathroom, thanking Hashem for the wisdom in our bodies and that we’re alive.
Our weekly Halacha – Jewish Law – raffle winner is Gabby Fishman! Great job, Gabby We had a great time going to 7-11 to get a Slurpee.
Happy Chanukah!
Have a great weekend!
Best,
Miss Dershowitz

5th and 6th Grade Boys
This week in Tefila we began giving a more in depth look into the Shemona Esrai.
We explained how the only one we can truly rely on is Hashem and how the prayer for healing (Refaeinu) has taken on more meaning during corona.
We also got into the Chanukah mode by Building our own Menoras and discussing some of the concepts of the Holiday. Stay tuned!
Rabbi Levy

7th and 8th Grade Girls
Our zoom ride this week was successful and enjoyable. We prepared our minds and hearts for this very meaningful week of light-styled festivities that are coming up. We learnt all about the true, deep meaning of light. Rabbi Charlie Harary spoke beautifully on this topic! We also learnt how to make the perfect Latkes, yummm.
Happy Chanukah!!
Morah Toba

7th and 8th Grade Boys
7th and 8th grade boys faced a real life challenge this week, quarantining at home and schooling on zoom!
It was really nice to see the boys, albeit on zoom and have their participation. This week, we took a 50+ question test on Chanukah facts. The boys scored well. We learned many points on this week’s Parsha, Parshas Vayeishev.
We also made our very own wooden Menorah. We painted, glued and put pieces together.
Rabbi Kuritsky

Elementary School

Kindergarten
This week kindergarten finished writing their first books! They did such an amazing job. They are very excited to read their books to the class. They also learned about Impolite Theo who makes the TH sound. They listened to read alouds all about Chanukah and made dreidel people. In math they used toys and number lines to help them understand the concept of adding 1 more and subtracting 1 less using mental math. They also had so much fun measuring the height of things using non standard tools. In science they learned how to describe the physical properties of different objects and they went on a scavenger hunt to find wood, metal, and plastic items. In social studies they made a family glyph. They made such beautiful family trees. They began sharing their family trees with the class and they loved getting to tell us all about their family.
Ms. Syetta

First Grade
Our first graders are really learning a lot. In addition to learning about the genres of Fantasy and Reality, the first grade has been solving number puzzles and subtraction equations. It is amazing to see how well they understand the relationship between numbers
Also, in celebration of Chanukah the first grade wrote paragraphs describing in detail their love for the season. They love lighting the menorah and eating the latkes. They were especially excited to design their own dreidel patterns! You may see them proudly displayed this week in our first grade classroom.
Mrs. Adams

Miss Sasha

Fourth Grade
4A
This week in math we changed mixed numbers to improper fractions, expressed fractions in simplest form, changed improper fractions to mixed numbers, added and subtracted fractions.
And ELA we worked on present tense verbs, identified main and helping verbs and worked on persuasive writing. We completed our first chapter book Inside Out and Back Again.
In Social Studies this week we reviewed and took a test on chapter four Living In The East.
Mrs. Shats
4B
4B had a fun week! Chanukah is upon us! We went down to the beautiful Chanukah sale that the PTA prepared for SIHA. It was truly bigger and better than ever before! The children bought toys, candy, and other trinkets. Many of them bought gifts for people as well! It was so nice to see my students being so selfless and using their money to buy gifts for their parents, classmates, and teachers as well! Happy Chanukah!
Mr. F

Fifth Grade
This week, the fifth graders practiced identifying verb tenses in grammar. In writing, we practiced finding themes in poems and writing about theme. In reading, we continued our novel study of Holes. We also continued working on our independent reading book project. In math, we finished off our unit on adding and subtracting fractions. In Social Studies, we continued our unit on geography of South America. Ms. Tatic would like to commend Charles Grego for being an amazing student!
Ms. Tatic

Middle School

Middle School ELA
6th Grade
Sixth graders had a great week! We spent the week reviewing. We went over different types of sentences, different ways to begin a sentence, and independent and dependent clauses. We also had a classwide Kahoot challenge. Oren Bilik got the highest score! Go Oren! After we wrapped up our unit on sentence variety, and had a grammar unit test. Everyone did great! In reading, we continued our novel study of The Lightning Thief.

7th grade
Seventh graders had a busy week! In grammar, we reviewed independent and dependent clauses, as well as three different sentence structures. Students wrote beautiful paragraphs. In writing, we wrapped up our unit on key details and themes in Literature. Mrs. Hazen would like to commend Ariella Shindelman for her wonderful writing!
In reading, we continued our novel study of Milkweed.

8th grade
Eighth graders had a good week! In grammar, we reviewed independent and dependent clauses, as well as four different sentence structures. Students put their skills to test with a grammar-themed Kahoot! Josh Osher got the highest score! Good job Josh!
In writing, students practiced identifying theme and key supporting details in literature. We also continued our novel study of The Giver.

Middle School Math
6th
We started the unit on number operations. We’re using the LCM and GCF to do operations with fractions.

7th
We started our unit on Geometry. This week we focused on scale drawing and finding the area. We will be going into geometric construction next week.

8th
We reviewed radical operations and exponent rules. The class did radicals beyond square root and cube root. They completed advanced problems with radicals.

Middle School Social Studies
6th grade continued to learn about arguably the greatest civilization in antiquity, Ancient Egypt. Students this week learned about the “Age of the Pyramid Builders” and the various Egyptian scripts used in society. The mysteries of the Rosetta Stone were also discussed. Students then practiced what they learned in class.

7th grade learned about the second, and current, government of the United States of America, the Constitution. All seven articles of the document were explored, including the requirements for each major federal position and the powers of each branch.

8th grade continued to explore the Gilded Age by learning about the impacts of the Industrial Revolution. Immigraton and urbanization were two significant topics examined over the course of the week.