SIHA Weekly for March 12, 2021

by admin | Mar 12, 2021 | Newsletter

Dvar Torah

This Shabbat, not only has TWO Parashot, [which happens often when there are not 2 months of Adar to accommodate all the Parashot, and when Holidays occur on Shabbat during the year, so we can not read the regular Parsha on that Shabbat], Vayakhel and Pekudei, but is also referred to as Parashat Hachodesh-Parsha of “the month”.

I will write a little about each.

Parashat Vayakhel

Parashat Vayakhel is the 4th Parasha discussing the Mishkan where Hashem positioned His presence for 40 years in the Midbar [wilderness], its furniture and the clothing of the Kohanim.
Each required tremendous skill and detail to create.
The craftsman with the most skill and in charge of all the work creating the Mishkan was B’tzalel. [The Gmara tells us that he was only 13 years old!]
Every time the Torah mentions B’tzalel it describes him as “B’tzalel son of Uri son of Chur”. [as an aside, Chur was the son of Miriam]
Why does the Torah always mention “Chur”?
The answer is; that when the Erev Rav [remember them from last week?] caused the Jews to sin with Egel Hazahav the golden Calf, a form of idolatry, very soon after Matan Torah, Chur stood up to the populace. He risked his life for Hashem’s honor, but was murdered by a mob while doing so!
Hashem promised that He would “reward” Chur for giving his life for the honor of Hashem. The reward was having a grandson who would design the Mishkan!
The question is; why didn’t Chur get rewarded with a son that would design the Mishkan, why did it “skip a generation”, why was it a “recessive gene”?
The message to us is an important one, a timely lifelong lesson.
We can not always have “instant gratification”.
We must trust in Hashem that if we do His will, He will repay us, but not immediately, necessarily. We do not understand Hashem’s infinite wisdom in His calculations. We who were born in the “5700’s” came in the middle of a story, so to speak. Sometimes we may see, for example: a wonderful child born to “not such wonderful people ” or vice versa. This idea of not seeing immediate reward and with the same understanding, immediate punishment helps us maintain our resolve to be faithful to Hashem and His Torah!
{adapted from Rabbi Yissoschor Frand on the Parasha with commentaries quoted from the Chofetz Chaim}.

Parashat Pikudei

At the culmination of FIVE Parashot describing the Mishkan the Torah says “the people brought the Mishkan to Moshe ”.
The Midrash says that from these words we learn the importance of “preserving the peace”.
How?
Maharal Diskin explains;Moshe could have gone around collecting gold, silver, etc for the Mishkan, but someone may have been insulted and wondered; “why did Moshe go to the other fellow first, before me?” etc.
Therefore Moshe had the people “bring the Mishkan to him” [to bring their donations to him] to avoid the above scenario.
When a Jewish couple get married, there is someone, usually a great Rabbi who officiates. This is called “Mesader Kiddushin”. There are great Chasidish Rebbes [Hasidic rabbis] who are sought after to officiate. Some have a rule; if you want him to officiate, the wedding must take place in his court/courtyard.
Why? The Rebbes are concerned that if they would travel for one and not [further] for another, that second person may be offended. [quoted from Shemen Hatov]
We learn from this seemingly insignificant act of Moshe Rabbeinu, not to collect materials necessary for the Mishkan, rather have people bring them to him, lest someone be insulted that Moshe collected from his peer before him!

Parashat Hachodesh

This Shabbat is called Parashat Hachodesh, because we read a special part of the Torah, besides the Parashot of the week, about the month of Nisan.
Sunday is Rosh Chodesh Nisan, the month in which Pesach occurs and is celebrated. The month of Geulah [redemption] from Egypt 3,333 years ago and the month [which we look forward to happening very soon] which we will be redeemed by Moshiach-the Messiah from this Galut-exile.
We read about the commandment of the original Korban Pesach taken in Egypt and the laws that will follow for all of destiny.
Hashem tells us about Makat B’chorot [plague of the first born] and that we will soon leave Egypt!
Hashem gives us the Commandments regarding eating Matza and not eating Chometz during Pesach.

May we all merit the coming of Moshiach Messiah and the final redemption “speedily in our days”
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Y.S. Kuritsky

Special Announcement

The eighth graders were visited by Mr. Stuart Waldman of Waldman properties, who spoke to the children about how to carve your way out in the business world. Thank you to Mr. Waldman for his time and wisdom! The 8th graders learned a lot!

Programming News

Dear parents.
Thank G-d, we had a wonderful week!
This was the last week of our Adar – spreading joy – contest. As soon as we come back to school, we will announce which class earned the prize for the most stickers on their class’s smiley face. Looking forward to seeing which class is going to win the really exciting prize..
On Sunday is Rosh Chodesh Nissan! The upcoming monthly contest is to…. clean our rooms of all Chometz for Pesach (Passover.)
Checklists for cleaning our rooms will be given out closer to Pesach, as well as emailed to the parents.
Any student who follows the guidelines for removing all Chometz from their bedrooms and cleaning it for Pesach will receive an exciting prize!
Have a wonderful Shabbat and an enjoyable restful weekend!
Best regards,
Miss Dershowitz

KRIAH ( aleph bet tutoring )

This week in Kriah with Ariella from third grade we practiced reading some of the Hebrew months while practicing the letters and nikoodot. Miss Weitzner is so proud of Ariella for doing a super job on this!!

– Miss.Weitzner

Judaics

Kindergarten and First Grade
We had a great week in Kindergarten and First Grade Judaics! This week we began to learn about Pesach! We know that on Pesach we cannot eat any flour except for in matzah or ground up matzah, because if flour and water are mixed together for more than 18 minutes it becomes chametz! We really enjoyed tasting Pesach cookies, made from potato flour, and watching videos of a matzah factory. We can’t wait to learn more about Pesach next week! Shabbat Shalom!

Second Grade
We had another wonderful week in 2nd grade. We learned why we celebrate Pesach and why the holiday is called Passover. We know we cannot have own any chometz for the 8 days of Passover.
Friday night as we would normally do since we are celebrating Shabbat, therefore the search is conducted Thursday night this year. We know that this Shabbat we complete the Book of Exodus-Sefer Shimot the second of the 5 Books of the Torah. We reviewed the whole Sefer Shimot this week as we read a sentence and drew a picture of the theme of all the Parshiot in Sefer Shimot. In the synagogue this Shabbat we read Parshat V’ykhail and Parshat Pikudei. We made a project depicting an aerial view of the Mishkon- the temporary shul the Jews were commanded to construct while in the desert after leaving Egypt. Shabbat Shalom!

Third Grade
Third graders started working on their Pesach Haggadah this week. While learning about each step of the Pesach preparations and the Seder night, they fill in and decorate each page of their Haggadah. The Haggadah contains all the specific details in each of the 15 steps plus some of the main parts that should be recited. The Haggadah are kept away from any source of Chametz so they can be used at the Pesach table.
They also continued practicing the correct spelling, order and translation of each of the 10 makkot.

Shabbat Shalom
Ms. Chaya

5th and 6th Girls
Dear parents.
We had a wonderful week, BH!
We started our Haggadahs and learned about Pesach. All the girls decorated their Haggadah covers beautifully!! I’m really looking forward to all of them truly knowing the Haggadah and all about the Pesach Seder.
We watched a great video about why bad things happen. You can ask your daughters why bad things happen and they can definitely tell you!
We learned about this week’s Parsha, (a double Parsha) Vayakhel and Pekudei, which is all about the building of the Mishkan.
Have a wonderful Shabbat!
Best regards,
Miss Dershowitz

5th and 6th Boys
This week we made a siyum on the 2nd chapter in Mishnayot Sukkah!
The boys worked hard , and we are looking forward to celebrating together.
We also began learning the Haggadah in earnest,
so we can be prepared for the Seder.
Shabbat Shalom!

7th and 8th Boys

This week the 7th and 8th grade boys took a test on Hilchot Tztzit and scored well. We also had our weekly Parashah test on the previous week’s Parsha. The boys scored well on the test on Parashat Ki TIsa as well!
The 7th grade boys, who were here in person {noah,Doron and Yisroel], took turns practicing the 19 B’rachot in Sh’mone Esre. They really were impressive.
Rabbi Kuritsky was out for a couple of days due to medical reasons. Thank G-d the test results were good.

Tzitzit Tzitzit Tzitzit

Not only are we learning, studying and scoring well on Hilchot [laws of]Tzitzit, but some boys are actually wearing them!
Yisroel Friedman, daily. Shai Koldin is not only wearing them, but keeping the Tzitzit [strings/fringes] out , proudly for all to see the Mitzvot of Hashem!
Rabbi Kuritsky brought in a beautiful book with pictures of the MIshkan,its furniture and clothing worn by the Kohanim, as a visual to to the Parasha, [not actual pictures, as we are not in possession of them since the destruction of the Beit Hamikdosh, over 2,000 years ago].
Rabbi Kuritsky and the boys also enjoyed looking at and studied a “timeline” book. The book has major events since 5,781 years ago when the world was created by Hashem.
We found this fascinating. We are now on zoom, but hope next week to meet in school in person and learn about Pesach!
Shabbat Shalom

Elementary School

Kindergarten

This week kindergarten practiced writing a letter. They worked on identifying the literary elements of a story and how to summarize a story. They also reviewed how to spell words that begin and end with blends. In math they reviewed addition and subtraction. They created a mini book to review all the different strategies that they can use to subtract. In science they continued to learn about magnets and they realized that the material an object is made of determines if it is magnetic. In social studies they continued to learn about community helpers. They also learned how they can help their community.

First Grade
Our first graders are learning so much this week. We are now adding and subtracting with two-digit numbers in Math. In Grammar we practiced using antonyms to compare animals. We read Eric Carle’s “A Tiny Seed” to discuss sequence of events through the life cycle of plants. In Science, we explored the idea of weather and clouds. Students identified how the cumulus, stratus, and cirrus clouds tell us about the weather. We also conducted a scientific experiment to see how water evaporates into the air! It has been a great week.

Second Grade
This week in ELA, the second graders have been mastering verbs and their irregular past tense forms. They also have been reading The BFG and using character traits to support their opinions about the best character. In math, the students have been practicing telling time to the nearest five minutes. They have also been working on understanding and using phrases such as “half past,” “quarter to,” and “quarter past.” This Saturday is Benjamin Portman’s eighth birthday. Happy birthday Ben!

Third Grade

This week Grade 3 students continued their journey into Mexico’s past. They explored the City of Tenochtitlan and and the early history of the Aztec people. During our Math lessons, students continued to work on their multiplication skills, were introduced to division, were able to connect grid mapping skills they learned in social studies to the construction of arrays, as well as discovering the ability to find the area of a shape using their multiplication skills. During our Grammar lessons, students practiced modifying verbs into their present tense form in order to achieve subject-verb agreement. They were also able to analyze the writing process of explanatory writing in order to help them strengthen their first drafts. During the Russian lessons, students learned letter Я vocabulary. They were also able to construct complete sentences using past vocabulary and the pronoun Я.

4B

4B has been focusing on test prep. We are preparing for our ELA and Math state tests. In math we finally finished fractions! We are now starting a new unit on decimals. In social studies we continue to learn about the Midwestern region of the United States. In some more exciting news, we had two birthdays to celebrate this week! Ari Usubov and Lila Havia, our newest student! We enjoyed goodies and sang happy birthday!

Fifth Grade
Greetings and salutations,

This week has been very busy for the 5th graders. In ELA they learned about pronouns and prefixes/suffixes. They practiced argumentative writing in preparation for the argumentative essay next week.
In social studies they continued learning about the Maya civilization. They even practiced doing math in the Maya way!

Middle School

Middle School ELA and Social Studies

6th Grade
This week has been all about our Argumentative Essay! Students were assigned topics, and did their research. Everyone wrote wonderful outlines! Mrs. Hazen would really like to commend Noah, Eva, and Madi for their diligence and attention to detail.
Later on in the week, we turned those outlines into our first drafts. We also took notes on effective introductions, practiced identifying strategies used in examples, and then wrote our own introductions.

In Social Studies, the 6th grade had a blast learning about the Qin Dynasty. They were particularly interested in the famous Terracotta Warriors.

7th Grade
This week has been all about our Argumentative Essay!
Students were divided into teams, and each team was assigned a topic and a position. Students got a chance to work together on researching their topic, and writing strong claims supported by relevant evidence. We reviewed how to make an outline, and created wonderful outlines that we then turned into our first draft. We also discussed effective ways to start our essays, looked at some examples, and wrote our introductions. Mrs. Hazen would really like to commend Gary and Tyler for being very hard-working!

In Social Studies, students wrapped up their study of the Age of Jackson with a study into Transcendentalism. We defined what it was, looked at some examples of transcendentalist writing, and then completed a nature-appreciation project. Everyone did a great job! Mrs. Hazen would really like to commend Ariella, Noah, and Yisroel for their awesome work!

In Social Studies, we wrapped up our lesson on the 1920s with a discussion of how the car changed American economy and way of life. Students took notes, had a great discussion on the economic boom of the 1920s, and took a quiz.

Middle School Math

5th grade started the unit on mixed operations with fractions and decimals.
6th grade reviewed how to determine if algebraic expressions are equal and practiced using the distributive property.
7th grade reviewed surface area and how to calculate it when there are overlapping sections in a prism.
7th grade honors learned about proportionality and slope.
8th grade reviewed how to graph equations given slope and y-intercept.
8th honors started the unit on operations with polynomials.

Middle School Science

7th Grade

Over the next couple of weeks students will be learning how our body systems function to maintain homeostasis. Students just finished up the Immune System and they all did well on their test. This week we are discovering the benefits and necessity of our skin. Students will be able to distinguish between the epidermis and the dermis, identify the functions of the skin and the role it plays to protect us from various pathogens and environmental toxins.

8th Grade Students

8th Grade will be investigating how humans are complex organisms that maintain a narrow set of internal conditions through a system of feedback and communication mechanisms between multiple organ systems. In this unit, students will explore how body systems interact to effectively monitor and respond to both internal and external environmental changes. Students complete both Making Connections (a NY State required lab) and a human thermoregulation laboratory, both of which focus on skills of experimental design.

SIHA Weekly for March 5, 2020

by admin | Mar 5, 2021 | Newsletter

Dvar Torah

Parashat Ki Tisa
This week’s Parsha talks about the terrible sin of the Eigel Hazahav, the Golden calf.
Moshe Rabbeinu went up to Heaven to receive the Luhot and learn the Torah with Hashem, G-d Himself.
Moshe told Klal yisrael that he would return in 40 days.He meant 40 complete days, besides the day that he went up. Klal yisrael made a mistake in calculation and included the day he went up.
When Moshe did not come down from heaven “on time” [according to their calculations] the Satan made it look like Moshe was “flying” in a bed in heaven, as if to signify that he was no longer alive. The, “Eirev Rav”, Egyptian converts who came out of Egypt with the Jews were instigating and demanding a new leader to replace Moshe. They came up with a plan to collect gold and toss it in a fire.The Satan helped things along and let a golden calf, “alive and kicking” come out of the fire. They proclaimed “this is your god who took you out of Egypt!” [referring to the golden calf]
This incited Hashem.
Avoda Zara , idol worship is a “slap in the face” to Hashem, a real living G-d.
Hashem told Moshe that He will not “go” with us, Bnei Yisrael anymore.

He described us Jews as “Am K’shei Oref” A stiff necked nation.

Later,the Jews do T’shuva and Moshe asks for forgiveness for us, Moshe requests that Hashem, once again “go” with us, using the fact that we are Am K’shei Oref, a stiff necked nation as a reason to go with us.

This is seemingly slightly contradictory. Hashem said earlier that because the Jews are stiff necked, that is why He will NOT continue to “go” with us. Now Moshe is using that exact character trait to convince Hashem to “go” with us?!

Reb Avigdor Miller Zecher Tzadik Livracha explains this seemingly strange phenomenon in the name of the Alter of Slabodka as follows;
Yes, the nature of a Jew is to be stiff necked, but this can be a positive attribute. We know that many Jews behind the iron curtain were “refuseniks”, not bending to the communists when it came to our religion. We Jews are intelligent people and are not easily swayed by the outside “forces”.
We are not easily impressionable like butter, but stiff like a rock.
It is easy to make an impression in butter, but it will not last. It is difficult to make an impression in a rock, but when it is impressed, it stays.
If we are shown with clear proof of what is right, then the impression stays.

Let us continue to be “a stiff necked nation” and not allow ourselves to be influenced by the outside world. Let us be influenced and convinced by real proofs of the truth of our Holy Torah, and religion.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Y.S. Kuritsky

Thank you!

A great, big, thank you to the Rabbi Uzhansky, Miss Ilanit, and everyone who donated to our Charidy drive! Without your help and good will, SIHA would not be what it is. 

Let’s keep standing together! 

Special Announcement

Happy birthday to:

• Yehuda Mirocznik in 8th grade!
• Hanna Kimerling in 4B!
• Anna Gershkovich in 7th Grade!
• Amiel Lavy in 8th grade!
• Diane Ashraf in 4A!
• Joseph Sulaymanov in Kindergarten!

Kriah

This week in Kriah We reviewed our aleph bet and nikudot. Great job to Liam and Ben from second grade for doing amazingly on their home work and for doing an amazing job on knowing the difficult aleph bet letters.

Miss Esti would like to congratulate Sarina from third grade for doing an excellent job on her yellow reader , she is trying so hard and is doing a great job with three letter hebrew words !! Wow we are so proud of her !
-Miss Esti

Programming News:

Dear parents,
We had a great week this week, thank G-d!
We are still trying to make others happy and spread joy all around us. Every class’s smiley face sign is overflowing with stickers. There is one more week to go – let’s keep it up!
We are all really looking forward to Pesach which will be on Sunday, March 28th. All of our classes are starting to learn about Pesach and creating their own beautiful Haggadahs. We will learn all about what to do at the Pesach Seder and every class will even have their own practice Seder in school before Pesach!!
We are really excited!
Have a wonderful Shabbat and enjoy your weekend!
Best regards,
Miss Dershowitz and Ms Esti

Shabbos contest
Miss Esti is so proud of the 2 girls who helped their parents prepare for Shabbat! Leah Yacobson and Diane Ashraf did a wonderful job! 

Judaics

Kindergarten and First Grade
Come check out our beautiful Kindergarten and First Grade classrooms! We have a new beautiful Pesach bulletin board and are jumping right in to begin learning about Pesach. This week we learnt about why we have pesach, and what we do special on Pesach, we know we do not eat chametz! Our first graders have already finished all their nekudot and are reading beautifully! In Kindergarten we learnt about the letter tzadik and enda tzadik. We now know all the enda letters, and know all the matches of letters and enda letters! We made a special letter-enda letter puzzle game and enjoyed playing it at home! Shabbat Shalom!

Second Grade
Passover is in the air in 2nd grade. The children are learning the Ma Nishtana (4 Questions) to be asked by the younger children at the Seder Table. We are working on decorating our beautiful Haggdahs which we can’t wait to show you as we prepare for Pesach. We enjoyed the project we made at the beginning of the week depicting the Jews working hard as slaves in Egypt. We are working on our Kriya skills and learning the weekly Parsha as well. Shabbat Shalom

Third Grade
What a special week this is for the 3rd graders! After greeting 2 of their zoom classmates in the classroom last week, this week, they greeted a new student!! Welcome to Mathew Kipnis! What a great way to start a week in Siha right on time for the Pesach story!
The 3rd graders were transported in time as the Pesach story came alive out of the Giant Pesach Book. WIth only a few weeks ahead before pesach, 3rd graders will be very busy getting ready for this special holiday over the next 3 weeks.
They are also learning to spell the 10 Makkot in Hebrew and translate them in the correct order.
The students also worked hard on their Aleph Champ reading and workbooks. Some of them were able to move on to the next color and they are all looking forward to move on next week as well.
Shabbat Shalom
Morah Chaya

Fourth Grade
4A

Yediot Klalliot
Everyday we review all that we learned.
3 fathers, 4 mothers, 4 couples buried in מערת המכפלה, the gematria for all the alef bet, 10 מכות and its meaning, the 12 Jewish months, the days of the week in Hebrew. What Hashem created on each day of the week. In addition the children can follow along with our Luach which we do daily. We sing the Parshiot in Berishet, Shmot, and this week we added Sefer Vayikra.

Yahadut
Purim was over, and we began with Pesach right away.
There is so much to learn and tell over. We learned what constitutes chometz, different halachos regarding chometz , for example, selling chometz with the Rabbi, one may not eat chometz or find chometz. We discussed that on Pesach Bnei Yisroel left Mitzrayim in the year 2448, and we are celebrating this neis 3333 years later. We became the great Jewish nation with the Torah as a result of Hashem freeing us to become His chosen nation. We also mentioned that it is a Mitzva to tell over the neis of Yeitzias Mitzrayim, and the more one discusses it the more praisworthy he is. To understand this concept Morah said over a Mashal ( parable) of a man who was saved from a drowning boat ride. This man came home and shared with his family over and over what it was like to experience this miracle. The fact that he kept on discussing in detail over and over shows how much he cared and appreciated the fact that he survived!

Halacha / Brachot
This week we learned in detail the rules for making a Haetz, Haadama, and Shehakol. The children wrote down the notes in their Halacha notebook, and they did overall very beatufilly on their Halacha quiz.

Chumash
We reviewed our Shorashim and we keep on singing the prefixes Otiot Brosh Mila.
In addition we are almost done Booklet #2 on Chumash. The children drew (HW) the chumash hebrew words on index cards, and IYH it will be hung up in the classroom.

Looking forward to another wonderful week!
Shabbat Shalom

4B
What a week, thank You Hashem. We are so lucky because Lila Havia joined our class and she adds such a wonderful Lila spirit! We are getting into the Pesach/ Passover spirit. We discuss spring cleaning, and why that would be necessary, according to the laws of which foods we are allowed to have in our house over Pesach. Our morning Shachrit is slowly advancing as we get more familiar with the words. A prayer that we began learning and our super proud of, and for good reason, is the silent Shemoneh Esrei at the end. We have been careful to wash the morning Netilat Yedayim too. Those who have not already washed at home, first thing upon arising(which is the prime time to practice this) go one by one to the bathroom to do this special mitzvah.Of Course we do the Mitzvah with that “fire in our heart” and like devoted servants to Hashem, with true loyalty. That’s why, we review the halchot/laws of how to wash, for example, the right hand has to go first. Our penmanship skills are picking up as we work to familiarize ourselves with the Aleph Bet. Parshah class has us finishing up our discussion of the holy appliances that were kept in the Bet Hamikdash, like this when Mashiach finally comes we will be familiar with the going- ons inside the Bet Hamikdash! Ofcourse, we are continuously working on our caring and giving, as well as not speaking Loshon Hora, in order to do our part to being Mashiach.

We began working on pre-chumash skills too. We are familiarizing ourselves with some hebrew (one letter) prefixes, shorashim/ three letter roots of words, and sight words that will be coming up in the Chumash that we’ll be learning shortly.
Shabbat Shalom
Morah Toba

5th and 6th Girls
Dear parents,
We had a wonderful week at Judaics class, Boruch Hashem!
Firstly, we get congratulations! Our class earned 475 marbles for great behavior and celebrated with an exciting waffle bar party! With lots of sprinkles, whipped cream and cookie dough ice cream, we enjoyed our delicious waffles together with our individual chocolate milk bottles. Yum??
Thank you to Ziva and Madi for all your help with warming up the waffles!
We learned about why it is so important to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim – the miraculous exodus of the Jewish people from their bondage in Egypt. We do so many Mitzvot in order to remember it and we wanted to know why.
The answer is in order to teach us that not only did G-d create the world, but He is involved and running each detail every single second! We see the miracles of splitting of the red sea, the ten plagues, the drowning of the Egyptians in the red sea and it teaches us how Hashem is involved and running the world each second. He created nature and He continuously recreates nature each second, and therefore can change nature any second – like during the exodus of the Jews from Egypt! We now see what an important lesson Yetziat Mitzrayim is for us in our lives. We truly must recognize Hashem’s hand in the world every moment! We learn this idea from all the miracles that G-d did for the Jewish people in Egypt.
Now that we know the importance of learning and knowing about Yetziat Mitzrayim, we can start learning all about Pesach (Passover) and the Haggadah. We’re looking forward!
We also continued in Perek Bet in Shemot, learning about the birth of Moshe Rabbeinu and how much he felt for the pain of every Jew, although he was living in Pharoah’s palace.
We learned all about this week’s Parsha, Parshat Ki Tisa.
We are all very much looking forward to speaking to a Rabbi in class on Monday to ask all of our many questions. If you’d like to submit any questions to ask him, you can email them to me or give them to your daughters to ask him themselves. Of course, questions are always welcome at any time:)
Have a wonderful Shabbat and an enjoyable weekend!
Looking forward to seeing all of your wonderful daughters next week!
Best regards,
Miss Dershowitz

7th and 8th Girls

Congratulations to us upon having completed our third Perek/ Chapter in Chumash this year! We can translate the phrases, recognize the three letter root of the words, explain the phrases according to how Rashi explains it and of course we can depict the story line. The life lessons that we gain from the storylines are exceptional. For example, we learnt a big lesson on humility by Moshe’s response to being chosen as the Jewish leader. We enjoyed our review games that we played prior to the test as well as the test itself, as it’s a good feeling to see how much info we have absorbed!We enjoyed our well deserved outing as a reward for our hard work. We also managed to find time to review the translations of some prayers that we say in our daily Shachrit by playing a really lively game of around the world (sorry about the noise level, Mrs U!). We also continued our discussion of the holy appliances that were kept in the Bet Hamikdash so that when Mashiach comes we’ll be familiar with them all. Thank you Hashem for setting us up all together in this beautiful, growth oriented setting! Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Toba

Elementary School

Kindergarten
This week kindergarten was very excited to begin reading from a new reader. They learned how to write a friendly letter. Kindergarten had so much fun celebrating Read Across America Day. They listened to many books, made fun crafts related to the stories, made a rhyming book, made a hat with rhyming words on it, they watched The Cat in the Hat, and they decorated cupcakes. In math they began reading and solving subtraction word problems. They learned a cool subtraction trick and played games to practice subtraction. In science they learned about magnets. They did a fun experiment to find out which items in the classroom were magnetic and which items were not magnetic. In social studies they learned about the community helpers that help people or animals that are sick or hurt.

Second Grade
This week in ELA, the second graders learned about irregular verbs and practiced how to write them in present tense and past tense. In math, the students have been hard at work telling time to the nearest five minutes. They also have been doing a great job reviewing concepts from the beginning of the year. In social studies, the second-graders have been using maps and map scales to find out the distance between two places.

Third Grade
This week grade three students welcomed Matthew to our class. We have been waiting for over a month and are so excited for him to learn alongside us this year. During our Grammar lessons students focused on explanatory writing. They learned the correct structure by analyzing strong pieces of writing and have completed their first draft. They also reviewed identifying the tense of an action verb with the concentration on the present tense verb with a singular and plural subject. During our Math lessons, they continued their unit review, but also began to work with analog and digital clocks. During Social Studies, students explored how Mexico City has changed from a small island on a lake to the huge capital it is today. They are now learning of the ways the Aztecs and the Spanish had changed the land over its long history. In Russian class, students reviewed what we have learned so far and are eager to explore new vocabulary and phrases we can use in class, at home, and in the future as we meet new friends.
Miss Sasha

4B
Test prep, test prep, test prep! 4B, with the help of our wonderful Mrs. Rosskamm, has been doing lots of test prep in order to prepare for the state test. We are learning how to properly annotate literature, structure our paragraphs, and find and sequence details from passages. In math, we are reviewing all of the operations with fractions. We can add fractions, subtract fractions, simplify fractions, multiply fractions with whole numbers, and answer word problems involving fractions. We are also reading a very interesting book called “Inside Out & Back Again,” about a young girl who lived in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Fifth Grade

Greetings and salutations!

This week has been quite busy. In ELA the students did a week long review for the unit test in grammar. They began their new novel, Moon over Manifest. 

In social studies they finished their Olmec heads project and began learning about the Maya civilization.

Middle School

Middle School ELA and Social Studies

6th grade
This week has been all about Argumentative Writing! We learned what argumentative writing is, and the different parts of an argument. Then, we practiced identifying claims and evidence, as well as writing claims and evidence of our own. We also had a lot of fun being detectives in an argumentative writing mystery game! Mrs. Hazen wants to commend Ilan, Eva, Madi, and Gabby for being the only students to correctly identify the culprit!

In social studies the 6th graders learned about three major Chinese philosophies. We had quite a few rather interesting class discussions!

In Social Studies, we wrapped up the Age of Jackson. We learned about Andrew Jackson’s presidency, the expansion of voting rights, and the Indian Removal Act. Students wrote an opinion piece about Andrew Jackson’s Legacy.

8th Grade
This week has been all about persuasive writing! We started with a review of what an argument is, and how to write effective claims and use supporting evidence. Then, we reviewed the three different rhetorical appeals: pathos, ethos, and logos. Students practiced identifying these appeals in writing, and wrote their own paragraphs using them!

In Social Studies, we wrapped up the end of World War I by learning about the Russian Revolution. We also learned about the three economic theories: Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism. Students discussed what these theories are, and how they would work in practice. Finally, students read primary documents about these three theories and had a great time in class discussing them!

Middle School Math

5th Grade – Finished the unit on integers, absolute value, GCF, LCM, and rational numbers.
6th Grade – reviewed percents, finished the unit on equivalent algebraic expressions
7th Grade – learned surface area and finished the unit on Geometry
7th Honors – learned square roots, exponents, scientific notation and finished that unit
8th Grade – how to graphically and algebraically solve for both intercepts and slope
8th Honors – finished chapter 5 on solving systems of linear equations, graphically, by elimination and substitutions
Everyone has a test on Tuesday

Middle School Science

7th Grade

Over the next couple of weeks students will be learning how our body systems function to maintain homeostasis. Students just finished up the Immune System and they all did well on their test. This week we are discovering the benefits and necessity of our skin. Students will be able to distinguish between the epidermis and the dermis, identify the functions of the skin and the role it plays to protect us from various pathogens and environmental toxins.

8th Grade Students

8th Grade will be investigating how humans are complex organisms that maintain a narrow set of internal conditions through a system of feedback and communication mechanisms between multiple organ systems. In this unit, students will explore how body systems interact to effectively monitor and respond to both internal and external environmental changes. Students complete both Making Connections (a NY State required lab) and a human thermoregulation laboratory, both of which focus on skills of experimental design.

Jewish History

7th grade learned about how Hashem took care of the Jewish people in the desert and examined pictures of what those miracles could have looked like if they would have taken place today.

8th grade learned about the fall of the Seleucid Greek Empire and the Rise of Rome and how that affected the Jewish people.

SIHA Weekly for February 26, 2021

by admin | Feb 26, 2021 | Newsletter

Dvar Torah

This week’s Parsha is Parashat Tetzaveh.
This week’s Parsha delineates the Kohen’s vestments, and the “furniture” of the Mishkan.
The Kohen Hedyot] the general Kohen had four garments;
Tunic, Turban, Sash and Breeches
The Kohen Gadol [high priest] had eight;
the four of the Kohen Hedyot and the following four;
Breastplate, Apron, Robe and Headplate.
The “furniture” consisted of the Aron Hakodesh, Menorah, Shulchan and Mizbeach
The Aron was where the broken Luchot [tablets] and a sefer Torah were placed.
On Yom Kippur The Kohen Gadol would go into the Kodesh Hakodashim [the holy of holies] to offer incense.
The Menorah was lit every evening. The Shulchan[table “” not found /]
was where the Lechem Hapanim [face bread] was placed and remained there the entire week, from Friday until Friday. Then it was distributed to the Kohanic families. There were many constant miracles in the Mishkan. Amongst them was that the bread remained fresh and warm the entire week.

It is important to remember and realize that the entire existence of the Mishkan was a mere 40 years in history yet the Torah gives FIVE long PArashot to go into detail about it. When contrasted to the creation of the entire universe;planet earth, mars, venus, jupiter etc and all the stars, sun and galaxies, the Torah only expends ONE HALF of a Parasha to describe it!
The lesson:
Hashem takes more pride in what we did for Him than what He maade for us!

Megilat Esther

In Megilat Esther, when Haman wants to malign us to King Achashveirosh he says “there is one nation that has their own laws”..
Let us remember and be proud of what even Haman the wicked recognized that we have our own set of laws i.e. the holy Torah.
Let us be proud and continue to keep it and uphold it.

Later in the story when Queen Esther prepares to plead on behalf of the Jews, she gives Mordechai the following instructions; “go gather all the Jews[to pray]”.
It is perhaps, the “gathering of the Jews” that plays a big part in thwarting our annihilation.
This is an important message; we Jews must “gather together”. Be there for eachother, care for each other, be nice to each other,and pray for each other.
Perhaps by doing so, we will merit another salvation, and have Moshiach come and build the third Beit Hamikdash!
Purim Sameach
Shabbat Shalom

Special Announcement

Thank you very, very much to the PTA for the Shalachmanot! Without our PTA, we wouldn’t have these wondrous memories to share!

Mr Steven Kaufman a beloved teacher in SIHA made sure to procure a ספר תורה to ensure that every student, boys and girls 5th-8th grade are able to hear פרשת זכור. Mr Kaufman brings the ספר תורה to school and reads it a few times to enable each student to be יוצא the מווה. All the students participated respectfully and appreciated the opportunity to fulfill this מצווה דאורייתא. Prior to reading, Mr. Kaufman gave a brief but clear explanation of the מצווה to give the students more of an appreciation for what they were about to partake in.‬

Mr. Kaufman reading from the Torah to the girls 7th and 8th Judaics classes

Programming News

Dear parents.
Wow, what a happy, fun, exciting, spirited week we had!! We all felt the exciting Purim spirit in the air!
The Carnival was amazing! We all had a wonderful time at the many fun booths, eating lots of Popcorn and Cotton Candy and earning tickets for the exciting carnival raffles. Everyone looked fantastic in their costumes – we could hardly figure out who was who!

carnival-1

Image 1 of 70

• Magnetic board – Sapir from 4B
• Pool table game – Sophie from 5th grade
• Jump rope – Ben from 3rd grade
• Light up mask – Lenny from 4A
• Puzzle box – Elinor from 1st grade
• Horse show game – Ethan from 6th grade
• Ring toss game – Ella from 4B

Major shout-out to the 8th graders who manned the booths and food machines and truly helped operate the carnival!!! We are so proud of you! Thanks for being amazing?
We really appreciate all the 8th grade parents who bought lots of stuff for the carnival booths! Thank you!

Contest update:
The competition is getting intense… Every time we make another person happy in any sort of way – smiling at them, giving a compliment, helping them, chatting, making someone feel good or giving someone a good laugh (in a nice way, of course!) – we add a sticker to our class’s big smiley face that’s hanging up on the wall.
It is unbelievable to see how many students are trying so hard to make others happy! Every class’s smiley faces are really truly filling up so much with stickers – there’s hardly any space for more! Lots of classes even had to come to us for more stickers?
We are so proud of you all! Keep it up – at home and in school!

Happy Purim????

Best regards,
Miss Dershowitz

Kriah

Miss Esti would like to congratulate Josh of 4B for working very hard on pronouncing the words on the Hebrew months. Great job Josh!! We are so proud of you!
Great job to Ariana of 4B for doing an amazing job at her hebrew script letters .
Thanks , Miss Esti

Judaics

Kindergarten and First Grade

We had a great week in Kindergarten and First Grade Judaics as we got ready for Purim! We decorated hamentaschen, made graggers, colored or wrote purim stories and made our very own purim puppets! We also learnt about the 4 mitzvot of Purim and can’t wait to show our families all we know and all we have made! Purim Sameach and Shabbat Shalom!
Second Grade
We had another exciting,fun filled week in 2nd grade. Practicing our reading skills while learning all about Purim in our Purim Booklets. The children all loved the carnival and enjoyed playing Bingo in class with the vocabulary words they learned for Purim. They can’t wait to celebrate the festive holiday. They know all 4 mitzvot of the day.

The 2nd grade received their siddurim in order to practice using them and be ready to receive them G-d willing in the spring with our families present. Rabbi Kuritsky told the students an inspiring story which conveyed the message of the importance of prayer and faith.

Have a Joyous Purim and Shabbat Shalom!

5th and 6th Boys
This week we had the grand S.I.H.A carnival in honor of Purim!
All the boys had a great time going to all the booths and enjoying the general happy atmosphere.
We did a special review of all the Mitzvot of Purim, which are 1: Listening to the purim story read from a Megillah 2:Mishloach Manot 3:Monetary gifts fts to the poor,
and 4:having a special party in honor of Purim.
We also told the Purim story with special effects.
Happy Purim and Shabbat Shalom!

7th and 8th Boys
This week 7th and 8th grade had a fabulous week of learning and discussing Kashrut.
We also went through the “Purim story” .
We began Hilchot Tzitzit with the hope and plan that boys will be motivated to wear them daily. Rabbi Kuritsky treated the boys to a “7-11” outing in acknowledgement of their participation.

Rabbi Kuritsky gives each boy in his 7th and 8th grade their individual box of Mishloach Manot, packed with Haman Tash, “spring pop” oodles and a can of coke, by Mrs. Kuritsky and daughters. The boys enjoyed it!

Miss Dershowitz’s 5th and  6th grade AMAZING PURIM PLAY

Rabi Kuritsky’s Great Grandmother visits the 8th grade’s fabulous carnival

Leam, Doron and Noah guarding the school’s Mishloach Manot

Yona the black dragon

Elementary School

Kindergarten
This week was a busy but super fun week in kindergarten! Kindergarten had so much fun at the Purim Carnival. They were so excited to wear their costumes, they loved all of the games they played at the carnival, and the children enjoyed eating all of the treats they won. After the carnival they played musical chairs while listening to Purim songs. They also celebrated the 100th day of school this week! They did fun math activities all day on Thursday to celebrate 100 days of kindergarten. They made a necklace with 100 beads, put 100 pompoms on a monster, made a gumball machine by painting 100 gumballs inside their machine, they went on a scavenger hunt to find 100 marbles that were hidden all over the classroom, they had a contest to see how many things they can do in 100 seconds, they listened to a story about 100 days of kindergarten, and they made the number 100 using cookies and pretzels. The class also learned how to read and spell words with blends at the end of the word, they did a super fun science experiment to discover which items in the classroom are magnetic, they learned about the community helpers that keep our community safe, and they played games to practice creating subtraction number sentences.

Second Grade

This week in math, the second-graders finished their math unit on money by taking a test. They all did great! They started a new unit on time and learned about telling time to the hour. In ELA, the second-grade finished a grammar unit on action verbs and helping verbs. They also continued to read The BFG and have been doing a great job at identifying character traits for the main characters! In social studies, the students learned about producers and consumers. They read about some of people’s first producers and how they made bread. On Tuesday, the second-grade had a blast at the Purim Carnival!

4B
4B had a really fun week! We had a blast at the Purim Carnival, hosted by our very own 8th graders! We played games, ate candy, and listened to music, all in fabulous costumes! But it wasn’t all fun and games this week! Academically, we are doing lots of test prep in ELA. In math we are learning how to find fractions of whole numbers, and practicing word problems with fractions.

Fifth Grade

Greetings and salutations!

This has been a less-busy but still fun week. In grammar we practiced with prefixes and suffixes as well as abbreviations. In writing we reviewed text structure as well as the authors point of view across multiple texts. We read about the Boston Tea Party from three different perspectives. 

In social studies, the students worked don their Olmec head project. I look forward to what the sculptures will look like when completed!

Middle School

Middle School ELA and Social Studies

6th Grade
This week was a less-busy but still exciting one!
In writing, we discussed how the structure of a poem can be used to determine the theme of a poem. We read some wonderful poems and talked about theme. We also continued our novel study of Bud, not Buddy. In grammar, we learned about subject and object pronouns.

In social studies, the students learned about three important philosophies – Confucianism, Daoism, and legalism. We had some amazing class discussions!

7th Grade

7th Grade had a busy week! In writing, we discussed the structure of plays and how plays show characterization, plot, and theme. We read excerpts of a play in class and wrote beautiful paragraphs. In test prep, we continued working on short answers. In reading, students continued their novel study of Farewell to Manzanar.

In social studies, students continued learning about the administration of president Andrew Jackson. We discussed the market revolution and the change from a more agrarian economy to one that’s more market-driven and based on manufacturing and trade. Students had wonderful time discussing this era in our history! Mrs. Hazen would especially like to commend Loam for his class participation!

8th Grade

8th graders had a very busy week, although it wasn’t academic! This week has been all about the holiday, Purim, and 8th graders worked very hard to create and run the carnival for the younger grades.
In ELA, we reviewed the structure of a poem. Students also wrote their own poems about an important character trait. They continued their novel study of the Outsiders.

In social studies, we triumphantly finished World War I and started discussing the effects of World War I on the world and Europe. We also discussed the Russian Revolution in particular and how the world changed after that event.

Middle School Math

5th grade finished their unit on area and perimeter of quadrilaterals and circles. 

Middle School Science

7th Grade Students

So a little story: Last Friday it snowed and rained and snowed again, making the snow quite heavy. As a result of cleaning snow off the roof of my daughter’s vehicle, I hurt my shoulder and my arm, so much so that I was absent on Monday and could barely lift my arm. When I came in on Tuesday, I told the 7th graders why I was absent and what was happening. At the end of my story, I asked them to say a prayer for me, so that I can feel better. Well needless to say, the next day my arm was approximately 50% better. So I asked them who prayed for me last night, because I feel relief in the pain level, Noah said, “Me, Mrs. G., I prayed for you!” THANK YOU, NOAH for your heart elt prayers as they were truly needed and I physically felt the result of your prayers, I couldn’t thank you enough. So sweet :):)

Over the next couple of weeks students will be learning how our body systems function to maintain homeostasis. Students just finished up the Immune System and they all did well on their test. This week we are discovering the benefits and necessity of our skin. Students will be able to distinguish between the epidermis and the dermis, identify the functions of the skin and the role it plays to protect us from various pathogens and environmental toxins.

8th Grade Students

Shout out to all staff and students that assisted with the Purim Carnival. Carnival was a big success!!!! Special thank you to Ms. Ety, Mrs. Belli and Mrs. Dinar. Thank you to all of the parents for purchasing items necessary for their child’s booth at the carnival and any monetary donations that made this event possible.

NEEDED: 8th Grade Parents: Recycle Cash-In for our 8th Grade Recycling program. Our 8th graders started a school wide Recycling Program, to offset some of the 8th grade costs and end of the year celebrations. However, we need your help. Students have been quite diligent in their collection and ensuring that our recycle bins are emptied, as we continue to bring in more bottles. Here is where you come in! Students will need a weekly volunteer, rotated among you, to take your child to the supermarket to cash in the bottles. The bottles are bagged in big recycling bags and the STUDENT needs to “CASH IN THE BOTTLES.” Mrs. Lavy did the first big bag, thank you Mrs. Lavy. Please reach out to me if you need assistance, otherwise perhaps in your 8th Grade Group Chat you can create some type of weekly schedule to “CASH IN.” Please let me know how I can be of further assistance.

8th Grade will be investigating how humans are complex organisms that maintain a narrow set of internal conditions through a system of feedback and communication mechanisms between multiple organ systems. In this unit, students will explore how body systems interact to effectively monitor and respond to both internal and external environmental changes. Students complete both Making Connections (a NY State required lab) and a human thermoregulation laboratory, both of which focus on skills of experimental design.

SIHA Weekly for February 19, 2021

by admin | Feb 19, 2021 | Newsletter

Dvar Torah Parsha Terumah

This week’s Parsha delineates the “furniture” of the Mishkan with all of their intricacies.
It discusses the Menorah [which many people say is now in the vatican in Rome with other vessels of the Beit Hamikdash since it was captured by the Romans many years ago], the Shulchan [the table] the Mizbeach[the Altar], and the Aron Hakodesh [where a sefer Torah and the Luchot are kept].
The Torah writes FIVE Parashot to describe the Mishkan and its furnishings. Compare this to LESS than ONE Parasha written to describe the creation of the ENTIRE universe!
What is the explanation?
An answer is; it is more important to Hashem G-d what WE Klal Yisroel,the Jewish people work on and create for Him, than His work, creating the entire universe which is for us!
A Pasuk says “V’asu Li Mikdash, Vshachanti B’socham” “make for Me a Mikdash and I will dwell in them”
A question arises; there was only ONE mikdash made. What is meant by I will rest in them?
A possible, and important answer is, “I will rest in them”, the word “them” refers to each person.
Hashem says, “make for Me a Mishkan” a resting place, and I will dwell in each Jew.

Let us work to make ourselves a proper resting place for HIM, for Hashem. He truly wants to rest and dwell in each one of us.

Let us keep one more meal or one more snack, kosher.
Let us keep one more hour on Shabbat.
Let us say one more prayer.
Hashem will love us and reward us even more!
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Y.S. Kuritsky

Programming News

Dear parents.
I hope you are doing well and having a happy month of Adar?

Contest for the month of Adar:
This month, we are going to work extra-hard to make eachother happy. For example, smiling at others, helping those in need, making another person feel good, chatting with someone who looks a little sad or lonely. There are so many things we can do to make another person happy. You can’t even imagine the impact of a nice smile, an encouraging word, an act of kindness. You can literally change their day, their week, their life!
Let’s work on making others happy and you’ll see that you will be a happier person too!
Every class has a large smiley face hanging up in their classroom, with many sheets of stickers. Every time a student goes out of their way to make another happy – It can be just giving them a smile! – they add a sticker to their class’s smiley face. The class with the most stickers on their smiley face will receive something really special for every student!!!

We are all getting very excited for Tuesday’s Purim Carnival! The 8th graders are working hard to prepare their booths and beautiful signs. Great job, we’re so proud of you?
Students will be wearing fun dress-up costumes to the carnival. Costumes should be brought in a bag and every class will change into their costumes when it is their turn at the carnival. Please ensure that your child’s costume is appropriate for a Yeshivah-Day-School.

We cannot forget to congratulate last week’s winners of the Making-Berachot-Out-Loud contest!
We are so proud of them! We are truly amazed at all of our wonderful students who filled out many many Berachot cards! Let’s work to continue making our Berachot out loud and answering Amen to one another’s Berachot.

Have a wonderful Shabbat! Enjoy your weekend!

Best regards,
Miss Dershowitz

Judaics

Kindergarten and First Grade

We had a super week in Kindergarten! We learnt, the letter Pay who has a popcorn inside! We have also been focusing on learning about Purim and making fun Purim projects! We can’t wait to bring them home!

In First Grade Judaics we are finishing up our second to last nekuda kubutz. We are very excited for next week when we will learn our very last nekuda! We have also been learning about the Purim Story and made a fill in the blank Purim Story! We know the story so well and can’t wait to tell it over at home!

Second Grade
We had a busy week in 2nd grade as we spent time working on our Kriya(reading) and learning all about Purim. This week’s Parsha Terumah , Hashem commands Moshe to build a mishkon (Sanctuary), symbolizing G-d’s presence among the people. The Jews voluntarily supplied the precious metals, gold,silver and precious stones. The Oron was the most sacred of the articles in the mishkon. Inside the Oron were the original 10 Commandments given by G-d on Har Sinai. We enjoyed making our own model of the Oron with the 2 Tablets of the 10 Commandments inside the Oron in class on Wednesday. Shabbat Shalom!

Fourth Grade

4th:

We had another great, Purim- spirited week here in 4B, thank you Hashem. The Purim story really came alive with the puppets that we made. We learnt all about the month of Adar and its symbolism. Parshah class has us exploring the holy appliances that we’re kept in the Beit Hamikdash, for example the Mizbeach/ table which was used to burn the fire offerings that the Jews would bring back in the day. We are working on our caring and giving, as well as not speaking Loshon Hora, because we know that this will help build the third and final Beit Hamikdash! Our note- taking skills are really picking up, by the way, we are becoming more and more comfortable with organizing our thoughts and presenting information on paper. We just love to be learning and growing together, virtual or live. Shabbat Shalom and stay warm!

Morah Toba

5th and 6th Girls

Dear parents.
Thank G-d, we had a wonderful week!
We continued on in Shemot Chapter 2 (Perek Bet) learning about the birth of Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses.) As soon as Moses was born, the room filled with light that shone from Moshe Rabbeinu’s face!!
The girls got their own beautiful benchers personally monogrammed with their names, which they will use to say Birkat Hamazon, the after-blessing of any kind of bread. We practiced benching together with our class and we’re working hard to remember to thank Hashem for our food, by benching after we eat bread.
We learned all about the Parsha portion this week, Parshat Terumah. Hashem commanded Moshe to build the Mishkan (Tabernacle) where G-d’s holy presence can rest in this world. We learned about what the Mishkan was made of and all about the many vessels that were used in the Mishkan.
A MAJOR CONGRATULATIONS to our wonderful 5th and 6th grade girls for earning a VERY exciting party by attaining 475 marbles for their participation in class!! We’re all looking forward to the party.
We are all very excitedly awaiting Purim, this upcoming Friday! We’ve been learning about the holiday of Purim, as well the fascinating story that is behind the holiday of Purim. G-d turned everything upside down and instead of our enemies killing the Jewish nation, the Jews killed out our enemies!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Shabbat Shalom!
Best regards,
Miss Dershowitz

5th and 6th Boys
This week we continued our journey through the mishna.
We also got deeper into the story of Purim as well as the Halachot.
We also added a new Bracha to the Shemona Esrai.
Shabbat Shalom!

7th and 8th Girls

Thank you Hashem for another wonderful week. Our daily Shachrit has been so,so beautiful lately. We call up a Chazanit or two every day to lead the davening, and they all do such a great job. Our Tefilot “soar and fly” and make our Morah very inspired. We enjoyed hearing about the symbolisms of the Month of Adar as well as some of the miraculous story of the history of Purim. Chumash class has us analyzing what “Hashem’s hand” means metaphorically speaking, as we know that He does not have a physical body. Hashem promised us, we read in the Chumash, that He’ll save our nation from Egypt with his”hand”. We’re still looking for a one word adjective that means “miracle- doing” and if anyone can think of one, please reach out to one of us. Shabbat Shalom !

Morah Toba

7th and 8th Boys
This week,
the boys came back to school enthusiastic and ready to learn.
We began with the story of Purim. Each boy took a turn reading from our summary. We discussed the story and the main lesson of Megilat Esther.
We learned that, although the entire Megillah can be read in shul in 30-45 minutes, the story written there encompassed a 7 year period!
When reading the Megillah we are “wowed” by the miracles; a king suddenly and for seemingly no logical reason kills his wife, out of all the thousands and possibly millions of girls, the only one chosen was a Jewish religious girl, who had not only no positive interest in being chosen as queen, but actually was opposed to being chosen. According to some commentaries Esther was 80 years old and had a sickly complexion! Mordechai “happens to have been part of the Sanhedrin the great [Jewish] court, necessitating being fluent in 70 languages”.
Mordechai “happens to overhear the conversation of Achashveirosh’s servants speaking in some strange language, plotting to murder the King. Only when all of these occurrences are pieced together do we see a plan and purpose. We discussed that were we to look back at our own life stories and see things in “hindsight” [which they say is 20 20} we would see a plan and purpose, and is NOT just a bunch of “happenings” or coincidences, thereby strengthening our belief in g-d.
On zoom, we studied a story from recent headlines. Our former president, Mr. D. Trump, hired a religious Jew as his lead lawyer. He comes into the capitol wearing a kepa/Yarmulke. [He removes it out of concern for “respect”]. When about to drink some water, he puts his hand on his head in order to say a Bracha respectfully to Hashem pur G-d. Wow! What a lesson for all of us who do not have such a challenge to cover our head.
We learned a lesson that serving Hashem and keeping Mitzvot in order to receive a reward is really the opposite! The serving Hashem and keeping the Mitzvot is really the reward and the motivation was really the means to get there.
We also learned that we must be careful not only to not speak Lashon hara in and of itself, but to avoid causing arguments.
We learned that one should not make a Bracha and have a snack immediately prior to washing and eating bread, as the Bracha Hamotzi on bread exempts the other Brachot .
We had almost a unanimous attendance on zoom. We also had a few “guests”; Chewy, Gary’s dog and Amiel’s dog!

Elementary School

Kindergarten
This week kindergarten continued to work on reading and spelling many ING words. They read a story about an egg falling out of a nest and how the two characters saved the egg so it can hatch. They also learned how to identify the problem and the solution in a story. In math they reviewed teen numbers by using ten frames and how to add a number to 9 using mental math. They practiced subtracting by playing many subtraction games. They really enjoyed playing subtraction bowling and who stole the cookie from the cookie jar to practice subtraction and writing number sentences. In social studies they learned all about what a community is, what places are in a community, and about community workers. They learned how firefighters help our community. In science they continued to learn about force. They brainstormed different experiments to conduct to discover how different heights of ramps change the speed of an object.

First grade

This week our fabulous first graders explored the parts of soil through an experiment. We placed soil in a bottle with water to see what would happen.

We observed that after a night of standing, the soil separated into three basic components: rock, humus, and minerals.

Also, the first graders created beautiful works of art using a blotting method. We love our colorful “LOVE” paintings.

This week in math, the second graders have been finishing up their unit on money. They also have been doing an amazing job at skip counting by 25! While learning about how to spend money in math, they also have been learning about the importance of saving money in social studies. In ELA, the second graders have continued researching their choice of animal for the informational book they are going to write and have been reading The BFG.

In science, 2nd graders started a new chapter about the Solar System. They learned what happens when Earth rotates. Students performed and created a model of Earth using a globe and a flashlight to show the causes of day and night.

Third Grade
This week grade 3 students learned to properly blend sentences and abbreviate words. In math class, they continued to develop their problem solving skills within multi step word problems. In Russian, they were introduced to two more letters along with a list of handy vocabulary words. During their Social Studies class, students reviewed the unit on natural resources and the many ways communities benefit from them, as well as ways we can harness and conserve energy and resources. They were able to use their acting skills while learning about recycling in a play called What About Recycling?. In computer class, students took their second quiz. They were able to demonstrate what they have learned about the different parts of a computer and the many types of files, programs, and folders there are. We were also thrilled to welcome two Zoomies who are now roomies! It has been great to finally have Ariella and Sarina live and in person.
Miss Sasha

In science, 3rd graders had fun making imprinted models and “fossils” of different tiny dinosaurs, shells and leaves using play dough and clay to show the way the fossils were formed and did they tell us about the Earth’s past.

Fourth Grade
4A

This week in math we continued to convert decimals with fractions, adding decimals with whole numbers and continued to prepare for the state exam.
In ELA we are continuing our unit on pronouns and story writing. Students wrote about their favorite character from a book or a movie. Students are also preparing for the state exam.
In Social Studies we reviewed for our test on chapter 7 Exploring the Midwest.

In science, 4th grade students learned and described soil samples, identified fossils fuels resources and their uses, recognized soil’s importance to living things.

4B

This week 4B is learning about adjectives and articles in grammar. We are still exploring the vast world of fractions in math. We are now learning how to multiply fractions and whole numbers! In social studies we are learning about the southern region of the United States. The lesson tied into the weather events that have crippled the power grid and caused many problems in Texas, so we had a discussion about that as well. Aside from that, I will encourage my students to play in the snow this weekend, as this season has given us a plethora!

In science, 4th grade students learned about renewable and nonrenewable resources. Using the Water Cycle diagram students will write a description about it.

Fifth Grade

This week has been pretty interesting for the 5th grade.
In ELA they continued to learn about adjectives. They practiced with comparative and superlative forms of adjectives as well as how to write better sentences.
They practiced the revising process of essay writing. The students also went over the author’s point of view in a text.

In social studies, the 5th grade finished learning about Teotihuacan. Next week, the students will begin their Olmec head project. I look forward to seeing all of their awesome work!
Ms. Tatic would really like to commend Ziva, Sofia, Alec, and Matthew for being very diligent students!

In science, 5th graders started a new chapter: “Weather and Climate”. During the science lessons students described how weather conditions were measured.

Middle School

Middle School ELA and Social Studies
6th Grade
6th graders had a great week!
In grammar, we learned all about personal, possessive, and indefinite pronouns. In writing, we learned about word choice and figurative language in fiction. Students wrote amazing paragraphs! In reading, we continued our novel study of Bud, not Buddy.
Mrs. Hazen would like to commend Madi and Gabby for being very hard workers, and Oren and Etai for always participating!

Happy Friday!
This week in Social Studies the 6th grade learned all about China’s Zhou Dynasty. They also started learning a bit about the Warring States Period that followed the fall of the Zhou dynasty.
Next week, they will learn about some of the philosophies that arose during the Warring States Period.

7th Grade
7th graders had a good week!
We continued learning about how to annotate nonfiction and fiction texts. We annotated a variety of texts and practiced answering multiple choice and short answer questions. In reading, the 7th grade continued their novel study of Farewell to Manzanar. In writing, we learned about figurative language in poetry, and analyzed some awesome poems. Mrs. Hazen would like to commend Noga and Yaffa for being very hard-working!

In social studies, the 7th grade wrapped up their study of the war of 1812. We read about the history of our National Anthem, and held an awesome zoomed general discussion about it. We also looked at the virtual museum display of the flag that inspired the song. Mrs. Hazen would really like to commend Lana and Yisroel for an awesome job participating in our discussion and our virtual museum tour.

8th Grade
8th Graders had a busy week! In grammar, we reviewed types of sentences, as well as subjects and predicates. We wrote some wonderful sentences!
In reading, we read poetry and discussed how a poem’s structure relates to its meaning. We learned about rhythm and rhyme, and wrote essays comparing two poems.
In reading, we continued our novel study of The outsiders.
Mrs. Hazen would like to commend Yosi Malka for writing an awesome essay.

In social studies, the 8th grade brought WWI to an end. We discussed the impact the end of WWI had on Europe and the world in general.

Middle School Math

Middle School Science

6th Graders learned about different types of weather fronts and applied their knowledge as a weather forecaster. After reading a weather forecast, students needed to complete a map showing the proper fronts moving in the proper direction across North America.

8th grade (Mrs. Belli’s Class)

Students learned the steps of Scientific Method. Mrs. Belli wants to mention Yosef and Orian for participating during the lesson and suggesting different questions and hypotheses.

Way to go Yosef and Orian!!!

Jewish History

7th grade sped through 210 years in Egypt in about 30 minutes. We then spent some time on some major questions like how do we know this all really happened? We had fun exploring the answer to this question through videos and discussions.

8th grade is learning about what happened after the Chanukah miracle. We also explored the timeline of Jewish History in more detail.

SIHA Weekly for February 12

by admin | Feb 12, 2021 | Newsletter

Dvar Torah

There is a famous story in the Gmara where a non Jew came to one of the great Torah leaders of that era, Shamai, and requested of him “teach me the whole Torah on one foot”, Shamai realized that his request was ridiculous, because it takes a lifetime to learn the whole Torah. Shamai sent him on his way.
He then came to Hillel, the other Torah giant of that time and said “teach me the entire Torah on one foot”.
Hillel told him “love your friend like yourself”!
The Gemara explains; how does one accomplish “loving his friend like himself”? The answer is; what you don’t like, don’t do to your friend!
This encompasses all the Mitzvot Bein Adam L’chaveiro [between man and his friend].

This week’s Parsha has many many Mitzvot Bein Adam Lechavero.
The Talmud has volumes based on this week’s Parsha!
This week’s Parsha gives us the laws about an Eved Ivri [a Hebrew-Jewish slave]. The Torah tells us that we must treat him very well. If, for example, there is only one pillow to sleep on, the master must give it to the slave.

The Parasha tells us what our responsibility is as;

• a paid watchman
• an unpaid watchman
• a renter
• a borrower.

The Torah gives us many details of these laws.
Why?
Because we have to know that, just as we would want our property watched/guarded properly, so too we must do so for our friend.
The Torah gives us laws regarding our property i.e. our animals, pets, livestock, etc., that damages another person’s property.
Why?
For the same reason. We must always know that we must be careful to treat each other as we would want to be treated and not do to another as we would not want to be done to us.
Therefore we can not steal, hurt, damage etc.
ALL of these laws are part of V’ahavta L’reiacha Kamocha-Love your friend as yourself.
As Jews, we must always bear this in mind. We really must try to study all the laws in order to properly fulfill this Mitzvah. The least we can do is to always keep in mind “would I want that to be done to me? Would I want to be treated like that? Would I want to be spoken to like that? Would I want my snack or toy taken from me? Would I want to be chosen last in a game?”
By being cognizant of each other’s feelings we will be on our way to “loving your friend as yourself” and keeping a major part of our holy Torah.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Y.S.Kuritsky

Special Announcement!

PURIM IS ALMOST HERE!

Dear Parents and Teachers,

One of the mitzvot of Purim is sending gifts of food, called Mishloach Manot (literally, “the sending of portions”) to acquaintances. Purim is a time to reflect on our friendship and achdut “unity” and come together as one nation. SIHA families are invited and encouraged to participate in this special mitzvah by joining our annual Purim tradition of sending Mishloach Manot to the SIHA community. When we are united, we merit Gd’s blessing and salvation. We give gifts of food on Purim to strengthen our bonds of friendship with our fellow Jews. We are looking forward to sharing the mitzvot of Purim with you.

Please click HERE to go to the SIHA Mishloach Manot Order Form!

ALL ORDERS MUST BE SUBMITTED BY FEB 15, 2021.

Thanks,
SIHA PTA

A great big SIHA congratulations to Students of the Month!

• Kindergarten – Ilan Kadymir
• First Grade – Joseph Cohen
• Second Grade – Daniella Usubov
• Third Grade – Mia Factor
• 4A – Diane Ashraf
• 4B – Shalom Danziger
• Fifth Grade – Joshua Gluck
• Middle School – Noam Tisona
• Middle School Judaics – Joshua Yarden-Kushel

Programming News

Students just finished up a Brachot Contest! This contest was created to get the students excited about making the proper Brachot every time they eat. The students learned which Brachot to make in their Judaics classes. In addition to this, we put up posters reminding the students of the various Brachot to make on the foods they eat and we encouraged them to encourage each other to say the Brachot! 

Everyone did an awesome job and Ms. Dershowitz and Ms. Esti are so proud of all the students who made Brachot this month. The winners of the Brachot contest over vacation are Mikai Oz from 6th Grade and Ethan Shenkman from 4B! 

In other news, today is Rosh Chodes Adar! In Rosh Chodes Adar, everyone is trying to lift everyone’s spirits and be happy, smiling and positive to their friends. On February 23, we will have a contest in honor of Purim. Everyone is going to dress up and have a great time! 

Judaics

Kindergarten and First Grade
We had a great week in Kindergarten and First Grade Judaics. In Kindergarten we have moved on to the next letter Ayin! Ayin says ah, just like Aleph! We know that Ayin has two straight arms up with eyes on top! In First Grade, we have moved on to our next nekuda, kubutz! We only have one more nekuda left and then we will be able to read everything in hebrew! This week we started our Purim preparations! We are learning so much and are so excited to make fun projects! Shabbat Shalom

Second Grade
We had another wonderful week practicing our reading skills and gaining speed and accuracy. We learn in this weeks Torah reading, Parsha Mishpatim that meat and milk cannot be cooked or eaten together and that we must return lost objects and cannot lie. We are learning about Purim and can’t believe this happy holiday is only two weeks ago. We had a special treat in honor of Rosh Chodesh Adar and Shabbat Party. Shabbat Shalom

Third Grade

How exciting it was to see the students live after 2 weeks! And we loved hearing the amazing story of Purim with the puppet show. We can’t wait to hear the end of the story!.

Fourth Grade
4A
There is nothing like a live class, what can I say! We cracked open our brand new. fresh smelling handwriting workbooks and got to work learning/ reviewing how to write the holy letters. We learnt that there are two Aleph Bet fonts, one which we use to read and one which we use to write. The prayer of “Elokay Neshamah” is becoming more and more fluent to us as we discuss the meaning of each word and review it in song form. This week’s Parshah, Parshat Mishpatim discusses 53 of the 613 Torah commandments. One which we discussed in depth is the commandment of giving an extra dose of kindness to a convert (to Judiasm), widow and orphan. Yedidot Klaliot has us singing and memorizing the 10 commandments that we received on the Luchot at Har Sinai. The week ended of course, in its usual blast of Shabbat spirit, but this week in a blast of something else too- Rosh Chodesh/ beginning of the month of Adar!! Adar is the month of happiness, the month in which Purim, when we celebrate our miraculous defeat against evil Haman, falls out . We enjoyed our happiness song and smiley classroom décor. Happy Rosh Chodesh Adar and Shabbat Shalom!

4B
This week we finished learning the information for the Bracha of Hamotzi. We also began learning the Jewish History time line from Creation until now. This will help us get a better idea to know in contex when the Miracle of Purim took place. We can not wait to learn all about Purim next week IY”H. We are reviewing every day all the facts for our upcoming Yediot Klaliot test next week IYH. We even played “around the classroom” review game. Morah was extremely proud of all the students! Keep it up.

5th and 6th grade Boys

This week in Mishnayot we learned about different ways one would be exempt from sitting in a Sukkah. We also learned in the parsha this week, about the Eved Ivri.  Ask your son!
We also started to learn the story of Purim from the Megillah.

7th and 8th Girls
We had another wonderful week here, oh we did. We covered quite some Chumash ground, discussing the famous first dialogue piece that Moshe had with Hashem regarding his mission to free the Jews from Egypt. We practiced our Hebrew reading together in partners, which gives us the chance to couch each other, which we do so finely. For around an hour one day, my seventh grade girls took me over. They came up one by one and received “the mike” and a Torah topic. And they spoke. The things that we’re coming out of their mouths were so beautiful, so precious and showed how much clarity they have. For example, Yaffa Bareket shared with us that the sweat that a woman sweats as a result of covering up in a modest style in the heat is something that is so valued and treasured in heaven. We enjoyed this weeks’ Parshah too, of course, which is about various Torah laws. Celebrating Rosh Chodesh Adar on Friday couldn’t not be the most joyous thing, as joy is a big Adar theme! We are thankful for having had another, literal and figurative, picture perfect week. Shabbat Shalom everyone!

7th and 8th Boys

Boys in 7th and 8th grade worked for weeks on the Mishnah in Perek Hakoness, the sixth Perek in Baba Kama.
They read and studied with Chavrusot-partners . They did many worksheets to solidify the information.
They were rewarded by Rabbi Kuritsky with a trip to Dairy Palace! The boys enjoyed; pizza, fries, drinks “Chicago’s” etc.
We look forward to more such accomplishments and rewards.

Elementary School

Kindergarten
This week kindergarten became the King of ING! They practiced reading and spelling many words by adding s or ing to the end of words and they made king of ing crowns. They also read a nonfiction story about a fox and a kit at the zoo. In math they finished making their addition book and they made a book all about the different strategies they can use to add. They began making a subtraction book and played games to practice subtraction. They also learned a cool trick to add any number to the number 9 using mental math. In social studies they learned about folktales from other countries. They listened to a folktale from Ghana about a spider called Anansi and they compared it to a folktale about a spider from America. In science they had so much fun reviewing about force, speed, and direction by building ramps. They worked together to build ramps and then they tested their ramps to see which ramp made the car go the greatest distance.

First Grade

This week our fabulous first graders explored the parts of soil through an experiment. We placed soil in a bottle with water to see what would happen. 
We observed that after a night of standing, the soil separated into three basic components: rock, humus, and minerals. 
Also, the first graders created beautiful works of art using a blotting method. We love our colorful “LOVE” paintings.

4B
4B is excited to be back in the building after a long break from in person learning! We wrote persuasive essays later in the week, after a grammar test on verbs earlier in the week. In math, we are diving deeper into fractions. We are learning how to subtract mixed numbers! Shalev Danziger received student of the month for January! I have noticed an improvement in his behavior and academics, which motivated me to choose him for the honor!

In Social Studies the 5th grade finished learning about the Olmec civilization and began to learn about the mysterious city of Teotihuacan.
They also made some wonderful Purim cards!

5th Grade learned how to calculate area and perimeter of new quadrilaterals. They are also learning how to do area and perimeter of composite shapes. Next week, we are learning whether or not to subtract the figure.
6th grade spent the week reviewing the unit on proportions, tax, discount, and challenging word problems. They took a test on their unit and they all worked very hard!

Middle School

Middle School ELA and Social Studies

6th Grade had a busy week!
In reading, we continued our novel study of Bud, not Buddy. We discussed the time period of the Great Depression and some period-specific vocabulary that our main character uses. We also looked at pictures of the era, and had awesome class discussions. In grammar, we reviewed common and proper nouns. In writing, we focused on how word choice shows the author’s tone.

Mrs. Hazen would like to commend Asher Hecht for being all-round awesome and earning honor roll last semester! 

Greetings!
This week has been an interesting week for the 6th grade in social studies. We continued our journey through ancient China. The class learned about the Shang dynasty in particular. They learned about how the Shang kings sought wisdom, the ancient Chinese writing style, and how the Shang made bronze, porcelain, and silk. The kids were particularly fascinated by the silk making process.
The 6th grade also made some amazing Purim cards!
Ms. Tatic

7th Grade had a good week!
In reading, we continued our novel study of Farewell to Manzanar. Students had some awesome class discussions! In grammar, this week has been an annotation review week. We discussed why we annotate, and looked at different ways to annotate fiction and non-fiction. We also discussed strategies for answering multiple choice questions and practiced on fiction and non-fiction test prep questions. In writing, we focused on the importance of figurative language and how it shows the mood and tone of a story.

In social studies, the 7th grade wrapped up our study of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency by learning about the Louisiana Purchase. The class had some great discussions, took notes, and even got to practice our map skills. We also started to learn all about the war of 1812! Students took a quiz, and everyone did a great job.

8th grade had a great week!
In reading, we continued our novel study of The Outsiders. We discussed characterization and made some great predictions. In grammar, we reviewed sentence structure. In writing, this week has been all about two new kinds of figurative language: analogy and allusion. We wrote our own examples, discussed how analogies and allusions create meaning in different kinds of writing, and wrote some great paragraphs.

In Social Studies, the 8th grade learned about the United States’ entry into World War I. We read about the sinking of the Lusitania, the Zimmerman Memo, and discussed the ways our country prepared to enter the war. We looked at some primary evidence, watched videos and re-enactments, and wrote wonderful paragraphs both on these themes and on the reasons why World War I was different from previous wars.

Middle School Math

Middle School Science

7th Grade Shoutouts

Jewish History
I was thrilled to be back and see all my students in person this week. We spent the week reviewing and getting back into it as we prepare to zoom to the finish line.
7th grade impressed me with how much knowledge they retained from 2 months ago and are eager to move forward. Our next unit races through the Jewish experience in Egypt and dwells on the Jews acceptance of the Torah.
8th grade is journeying into Ancient Greece as we learn the differences between the rule of the Alexandrian, Ptolemaic, and Seleucid Greeks, and how that affected the Jewish people.

SIHA Weekly for February 5, 2021

by admin | Feb 5, 2021 | Newsletter

Dvar Torah

Parashat Yitro
This week’s Parsha depicts the most monumental occasion of all times: Matan Torah –The giving of the Torah from G-d Himself to Bnei Yisrael. It is described as happening with great fanfare, thunder so loud that it can be “seen”, lightning, and the sound of a very loud and strong Shofar. It began with Hashem Himself saying the words of the Aseret Hadibrot -The Ten Commandments. Our forefathers found this too much and too fearful to bear, and they asked Moshe to deliver the rest of the commandments.
Out of all the Mitzvot that Hashem gave us He referred to only one as a Matana Tova – A Good Gift. That is the Holy Shabbos, Shabbat.
His words were, “In My vault, I have a Good Gift. I want to give it to Bnei Yisrael. Go and inform them.”
The Chofetz Chaim explains this with a parable.
There are many types of precious gems and many are so costly that only the wealthiest can afford them. Some are so precious that only a tremendously wealthy monarch will be able to procure them.Understandably, the wealthier/more powerful the monarch/king the finer, rarer and more precious will be the gems that he can afford and acquire.
It goes without saying that, Hashem, G-d of the entire universe, has all the silver, gold, and precious gems in His vault.
Nevertheless, out of all the possible array of gifts that Hashem could bestow on us, His nation, He chose the best. He chose Shabbos, Shabbat.
It is therefore incumbent on us, His people, the recipients of His great generous gift, to cherish it and treat it properly. There are hundreds, and with Rabbinical safeguards, thousands of nuances and intricacies necessary to properly “keep Shabbat”. Let us try a little harder to learn more about this gift, cherish it, revere it and appreciate it. We will be happier and of course our Father who loves us and gave us this “good gift” will smile at us and reward us.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Y.S. Kuritsky

Judaics

Kindergarten and First Grade
We had a great week in Kindergarten Judaics! We have been reviewing the aleph bet we know and are excited to continue with a new letter next week! In First Grade Judaics, we have been reviewing the nekudot, we did reading races, reading tic tac toe, and reading I-spy. We are excited to begin a new nekuda next week! This week we learnt about Parshas Yisro, we learnt how Hashem chose Har Sinai because he was so humble and about how Hashem gave the Jewish People the Torah! We are so lucky to have the Torah, that we can learn and do mitzvot! Shabbat Shalom!

Second Grade
Hope everyone had a pleasant school break. It was wonderful seeing everyone on zoom though not the same as in person. We spent time on practicing our reading, finding specific vowels and coloring them a certain color. We enjoyed watching a video about the Purim story and learning about Parshat Bshalach and Parshat Yitro. When the Jews saw the Egyptians behind them and the Red Sea in front of them they were very scared. They prayed to Hashem for help. We learn that no matter how things look, it is important to pray to G-d and to ask Hashem for whatever we need. There have been many situations where things didn’t look promising, however with hope and prayer things turned around for the better. We learned the 10 Commandments and how fortunate we are to be the Chosen People and have the Precious Torah as our Guidebook for Life. Shabbat Shalom!

Third Grade
Although this week we were on zoom, we managed to learn so much after a refreshing break and surrounded by snow. We watched a very interesting video on the story of Purim, going all the way back to Haman (the vilain) and Mordechay (the Tzaddik) before the whole Purim saga started. They both knew each other and once when they were stranded in the desert, Haman had to sell himself as a slave to Mordechay in exchange for some water.
We practiced our Hebrew reading skills and got tested successfully. We also got tested for our general knowledge, especially on Jewish calendar subjects such as the Jewish months, days, and holidays.
Last but not least, we learnt about the Parsha from last week and this week. THis week’s Parsha is about the 10 commandments. Our daily challenge is to now learn the 10 commandments in both Hebrew and english and in correct order.

Shabbat Shalom
Mrs Ivry

5th and 6th Boys
This week was “virtually” the best we have ever had!
This week we learned about the giving of the Torah,The 10 Commandments,
and the impact they can have on our lives.
As well ,we continued our journey through the Mishna.
Ask your son if you can make a Sukkah on a camel, or a tree…..
He can tell you!
Shabbat Shalom!

7th and 8th Boys
This week the 7th and 8th grades zoomed in on zoom. One boy was actually zooming in his car! One boy zoomed in from Mexico!
We davened together, with one boy at a time taking turns to lead. We covered Parsha and learned some laws of R’chilut [similar to LashonHara]. We even had a pretty nice attendance especially considering the circumstances. it was nice to see each other. We look forward to seeing each other in person this coming Monday, G-d willing.

Elementary School

Kindergarten
Kindergarten did an amazing job on zoom this week. I am so proud of them! They read a story about a blue ox. They learned how to identify the setting of a story. They learned how to read and spell many words with S blends. In math they practiced filling in the missing parts of number bonds. They did an excellent job figuring out where each number should go in a number bond and how to solve to find the missing whole or the missing parts. They also practiced adding and subtracting with the fact family 5,3,2. In science they learned all about force and speed. They learned about push and pull and that the amount of force they use can change the speed of an object. In social studies they learned about Groundhog’s Day. They made predictions, filled in a graph, and then they watched the groundhog Phil and the groundhog Chuck emerging from their burrows to see if their predictions were correct.

In science, students learned about how fossils are formed and why paleontologists study fossils.

Third Grade
This week grade 3 students reviewed the various parts of speech we have covered this school year (thus far). During our math lessons, students continued developing abilities to decipher multi step word problems. We concentrated on how to recognize which operation would be the most appropriate (and when) to use to solve during each step of the problem before we can reach the final result. They also began to review some of the rules of multiplication. During social studies, we continued to learn about Earth’s resources and how they contribute to a community’s growth and development. During computer class, students learned of the different formats and types of programs and files available to them on a computer.

In science, students started a new chapter about Earth’s resources. They learned about the differences between rocks and minerals. An “edible soil” project was given to students as a bonus along with a soil worksheet.

Miss Sasha

Fourth Grade

This week in math we reviewed operations on fractions and prepared for the test that is coming up on Monday.
In ELA for Explanatory writing unit we created a class recipe book of favorite dishes and desserts.
Completed reading comprehension packets for our preparation for the state test.
In Social Studies we explored the geography, climate, resources and major industries of the Midwest.

In science, students learned that Earthquakes and Volcanoes can cause rapid changes to Earth’s surface. Also the process of Weathering, erosion, deposition, and mountain building change Earth’s surface.

Fifth Grade

Greetings and salutations!
This has been a rather busy week for the 5th grade.
In grammar, the students learned about adjectives! They practiced identifying adjectives and the nouns that they describe. In writing, the 5th graders learned about compare and contrast text structure and cause and effect text structure. As a result of passages in writing the students also got to learn all sorts of facts about water, corals, kelp, and even tunamis and hurricanes.
They also continued to work on their essays on the theme of Holes.

In social studies, the 5th grade began learning about the earliest people to settle the western Hemisphere. They also started to learn about the Olmec civilization in Central America. In our journey to learn about the Olmecs, the students learned that natural rubber comes from rubber trees. They were very interested!

In math, 5th reviewed the area and perimeter of rectangles and triangles. They also learned how to find the value of a missing dimension given area or perimeter of a rectangle.

Ms. Ortiz would like to commend all of 5th grade for being incredibly attentive and always following directions!

In science, students learned and described the layers of the Earth, explained how mountains were formed, what causes volcanoes and Earthquakes.
A virtual mini-lab was performed from students and Mrs. Belli during science class.

Middle School

Middle School ELA and Social Studies
6th Grade had a pretty busy week!
In ELA, we wrote our essay on conflict in Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet. Students analyzed two different types of conflict in the novel and wrote a wonderful essay. Great job, everyone! We also started a new unit in vocabulary, and began our novel study of Christopher Paul Curtis’s novel, Bud, not Buddy.

Happy Friday everyone!
In social studies, the 6th grade began learning about the last of the river valley civilizations- ancient China! They learned about the geography of China. They also learned about Yu the Great and his heroic deeds. Finally, the 6th graders began learning about the Shang dynasty.
I’m looking forward to seeing the students in person and continuing this journey through the ancient world.
7th grade had a busy week as well!
In ELA, we discussed rhyme, alliteration, and repetition in both poetry and prose and how it can help with understanding the mood and meaning of fiction. Students wrote beautiful paragraphs practicing for the State Test!
We also started our next novel unit! Students are reading Jeanne Wakatsuki’s Farewell to Manzanar.
In Social Studies, we started our unit on Thomas Jefferson’s presidency and the lead-up to the War of 1812. We had a very productive class discussion on present-day mores vs. historic mores, and how our perspective can color our understanding of the past.

8th Graders had a good week!
In ELA, students reviewed different types of figurative language and their use in both poetry and prose to convey mood and theme. Students read poems, including a sonnet by Shakespeare, and wrote wonderful paragraphs discussing literary devices and mood.
We also started our next novel unit! We are reading S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. We began with a discussion of the era in which the novel was written.
In Social Studies, we learned about the causes of World War I. Through class discussion, short films, and both primary and secondary sources, students learned all about the atmosphere in Europe that led to the beginning of the war. Mrs. Hazen is particularly impressed with their hard work on our first quiz! Many students did a phenomenal job on it, especially Rachel, Taylor, Eliana, Yosi, and Orian!

Middle School Math

8th honors learned how to find the inverse of functions and execute different operations with two or more functions.

8th learned how to graph a linear equation in standard form and slope intercept form.

7th honors finished their module on experimental probability.

7th learned how to calculate the area of composite shapes.

6th finished the module on generating equivalent numerical expressions.

?Shoutouts:?

8H – Shai K. for being a very diligent worker especially while learning remotely.
8 – Rachel D. for always giving her best effort.
7H – Anna G. and Ariella S. for being very attentive while going over classwork and homework.
7 – Lana M. for showing me a different way to see a problem.
6 – Gabby F. for always logging in to my classes early.

Middle School Science

6th grade
Students learned the names and order of the layers of Earth’s atmosphere with a drawing activity. Students reviewed the different forms of energy transfer and identified the definition and diagram for each, then described or drew a real-world example of each.