Reminder: Friday December 25 10th day of Teves is a fast day 5:50 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.
Dvar Torah
Parshas Vayegash
In this week’s parsha, Yosef finally reveals himself to his brothers. The shock , when they realize that the viceroy of Egypt that they have been dealing with and bowing down to, is none other than their “little brother” Yosef, whom they sold as a slave 22 years earlier and never dreamed he would even be alive, let alone royalty!
They were terrified. He could kill them. He could torture them. He could enslave them.
Nevertheless, Yosef’s reaction is totally different. He tells them “you had in mind to do bad, but Hashem G-d of the universe intended the whole episode for good! It had nothing to do with you, your actions or intentions. Yosef bears no grudge at all whatsoever. He understands that, nothing can happen without Hashem the Almighty willing it to be so.
Let us take a lesson from Yosef, for that is the reason it is written in the holy Torah. The next time a family member or friend [or even a foe] upsets us or G-d forbid harms us, we should try to remember that It is actually the hand of Hashem,and it is really, ultimately for our own benefit.
Rabbi Kuritsky
Curriculum Coordinator
Judaic Studies
Special Announcement
Congratulations to the 7th and 8th grade boys Mincha winners!
7th and 8th grade Mincha winners;
A few month ago, when we began davening Mincha in school, Rabbi Uzhansky incentivized the boys to Daven better by incentifying them with 3 raffles:
- $10 coupon
- $25 coupon
- Ipad
Doron Glickman is the first winner of a $10 Amazon coupon
Michael Clift is the winner of a $25 Amazon coupon
We are waiting a few days to pick the Ipad winner.
The boys are very excited about the raffle. One boy, Josh D., is quoted as saying “if I win, there will be a pizza party [paid for by Yehuda]”
We look forward to the boys to continue to daven nicely even without a raffle.
Oorah is coming to SIHA!
All students, boys and girls, will have a great time and win prizes! Stay tuned: more details in next week’s newsletter.
Programming News
Dear parents,
We had a great week! I’m so proud of Etai and Oren from 6th grade who turned off their electronics for a while on Shabbat!
This week, we will be starting a really exciting Shmirat Halashon program. We will work on speaking positively about others and earn really exciting prizes!
Shabbat Shalom!
Best,
Miss Dershowitz
Judaics
Kindergarten and First Grade
We had a great week in Kindergarten and First Grade Judaics! Our kindergarteners have learnt about long long lamed! We can a great job stretching out our hands and bodies into the shape of a lamed. We are all so really lucky because there are so many children in our class who have a lamed in their name like Liad, ShLomo, ALexander, DaLia, and ILan! In First Grade we are doing a great job reading four letter hebrew words and have begun learning the letter cholam. Cholam is a little confusing since there are two types but we are doing a great job! This week in both Kindergarten and First grade we discussed how proud we are to be children of Hashem, We are princes and princesses of Hashem our King. We know that when boys wear their kippah and tzitzit and girls dress tzniusly we are showing that we are proud to be those princes and princesses of Hashem! We are so proud to dress the right way! Morah Kaplan is especially proud that all the boys did a great job this week wearing their kippahs and making brachot on tzitzit and all the girls were dressed so tzniusly! We have so many mitzvah children in our class, Keep it up!
Second Grade
We had another productive busy week in 2nd grade. We reviewed much of Sefer Breishit (Genesis). We especially enjoyed the booklet we worked on in class on Wednesday reviewing the names of our Avot (Fathers) and Emohoit (Mothers) the first Jews in the world. There are so many lessons we learned from this week’s Parshat Vayegash. Yehuda, when pleading with the prime minister of Egypt not to keep his younger brother as a slave (Binyamin) got very angry. Then Yehuda spoke calmly. We discussed how important it is to speak politely and calmly when we want something. Yosef (The Prime minister of Egypt)sent the Egyptians out of the room before revealing his true identity as Yosef the missing brother in order not to embarrass his brothers. We learn that we have to be careful about people’s feelings and not to embarrass anyone. Yosef could have been angry at his brothers and could take revenge, however he was not angry
and did not take revenge. When Yosef was finally reunited with his elderly father Yaakov the first thing Yaakov did was say “Shma Yisroel” Thanking G-d and praising Hashem for being able to reunite. Shabbat Shalom!
Third Grade
After a fun-filled week of Chanukah, the students were eager to go back to school and learn more about Parsha and Jewish History. THe last few weeks’ Parsha stories were quite suspenseful and everyone was happy to hear the happy ending of Yosef and his brothers and his reunion with his long father Yaakov.
We started working on the Yediot Klaliot program and are excited to learn an overview of all the amazing Jewish Holidays throughout the year.
We continue learning Dikduk and are getting really good with prefixes!
For Kriah, we started reading in groups and will soon be using timers to work on our reading speed.
We also learned the History of the first Beth Hamikdash and how it was destroyed, starting on the 10th of tevet when Nevuchadnetzar besieged Jerusalem. Thai friday is a fast day because it was the beginning of the end of the Beth hamikdash which was destroyed 2 and a half years later on the 9th of Av. In all there are 4 fats connected to the destruction of the Temple. We love the Beth hamikdash and pray each day that Hashem should build us the 3rd Temple very soon.
Shabbat Shalom
Mrs. Ivry
Fourth Grade
This week we focused on beautiful stories and lessons on Tefila. We said stories from the Talmud and Parables with their lesson. We are continuing to learn a few halachot (Jewish Laws) a day. We are learning the laws of השכמת הבקר – (When we wake up in the morning) What we should and shouldn’t do. In Parshat Vayigash we learned how Yosef Hatzadik cared about his brother’s shame, and he sent out all his servants before he revealed himself. Every day we review what Hashem created on each day. We discussed that this Friday is a fast day. The reason is because on this day of Asara Btevet. (10th day of Tevet) the king of Bavel (Nevuchadnetzar) and his men surrounded the walls of Yerushaylaim (Jerusalem). This is one out of the four fasts that have to do with the Destruction of the Batei Hamikdash – Holy Temples. May it be rebuilt speedy in our days.
Shabbat Shalom!
Mrs. Bistritz
5th and 6th grade Girls
Dear parents.
We had a great week! We continued on in Chumash, learning about the backbreaking labor of the Jews in Egypt. No matter how much they tortured the Jews in order to destroy them, the Jews only multiplied more!! It’s a lesson for us all that no matter how hard and how many times in history, nations have tried to destroy us, we are alive and vibrant with Jewish life today!
We continued on in Jewish law, learning in depth about the Beracha of Mezonot and Hagafen. We make the blessing of Mezonot on any food with the 5 grains, besides for bread. We all enjoyed doughnuts and made the Beracha of Mezonot out loud. We make the blessing of Hagafen on wine and grape juice and we all enjoyed our cups of grape juice, making our berachot out loud.
Shout out to Ziva for pouring the cups of grape juice and handing them out to everyone!
Congratulations to our weekly Halacha raffle winner – Mia Portman!
We learned the weekly Parsha portion about Yosef revealing himself to his brothers. In order not to shock Yaakov too much, Serach, his granddaughter broke the news that Yosef was still alive while playing on her harp. Yosef was crying when he finally saw his father after 22 years and Yaakov was saying Shema, thanking Hashem for this moment. Wow, Yaakov wasn’t focused on embracing his son whom he missed so terribly, but thanking Hashem!!
We are all working our gratitude this week, learning from Yaakov to be thankful for all our gifts.
Shabbat Shalom!
Have a great weekend.
Best,
Ms Dershowitz
7th and 8th grade Boys
Judaic studies 7th/8th grade
This week we began a new Perek in Gamara1
The name of the Perek is Hakones. It is in Masechta Baba Kama [6th Perek]
We learned and reviewed Yedios Klalios .
We learned about the Parsha.We learned with Chavrusas [friends] learning partners. It went really well. The boys enjoyed it.
Elementary School
Kindergarten
This week kindergarten practiced reading and spelling many different words with the SH sound. They learned how to identify the beginning, middle, and end of a story. After listening to many read alouds about personal narratives they picked interesting topics to write their very own personal narrative. I can’t wait to read their writing! In math they continued to amaze me with the speed they are picking up addition and subtraction facts. They practiced counting everything by 2s. They counted by 2s to find out how many feet, eyes, knees, legs, arms, ears, shoulders, elbows, and even eyebrows we have in the classroom! They practiced adding and subtracting by 2 and played games to review the concept of addition. In social studies they learned about traditions. They did a wonderful job presenting their papers about their favorite family tradition. In science they learned all about liquids. They went on a scavenger hunt to find the most solids and liquids. They also did a directed drawing and made really cute snowmen and snowwomen. I was really impressed with how well the entire class followed directions!
Second Grade
Second grade students learned and described the food chain and the food web in the Water Habitat.
Mrs. Belli wants to mention Michael Groys for an excellent description of his favorite Land Habitat.
Third Grade
This week Grade 3 students explored the Central Plains, Great Plains, and the Coastal Gulf Plains of the Central United States. They also discussed the purpose and importance of the invisible lines around the planet Earth such as the equator. In Math, students reviewed multiple mental math strategies for addition and subtraction. In Russian, they had taken a quiz on the /Aa/ sound words and are excited to begin a new letter next week. In Grammar, students practiced identifying common and proper nouns. This week they also had taken their first Computer quiz on virtual responsibility and security.
Students learned and explored how animals and plants depend on each other for food. Students are working also on winter theme art.
Miss Sasha
Fourth Grade
4A
This week in math we started a new unit Operations on Fractions. We worked on adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators.
In ELA we completed our unit on verbs and continued to write persuasive writing activities.
On Social Studies we reading and discussing resources, economy and people of the South.
In science, Students learned and explored factors that threaten the survival of a species.
4B
4B has entered the magical world of fractions! We know how to identify equivalent fractions, we know how to compare fractions, we know how to simplify fractions, we know how to find common denominators, and now we are learning how to add fractions! Very exciting stuff!! In ELA, we have been learning about verbs and verb tenses. We have also been doing a lot of test prep, learning how to properly annotate, and pull the main idea and key details from texts.
In science, students learned and explored factors that threaten the survival of species .
Mrs. Belli wants to mention Sapir Benlulu 4B Class. She got excellent scores on Quizzes! You could see happy tears on her eyes!
Fifth Grade
Greetings and salutations!
I hope everyone had a wonderful week!
The 5th grade had a good but busy week.
In grammar the 5th grade continued practicing with the perfect tenses. They also practiced typing a bit since their assignments required them to type.
In writing the students practiced using details to support inferences in literary texts. They read about King Arthur and (some) of his valiant knights. The students had a lot of fun reading the stories!
In reading we continued to read Holes and discuss what we read. We tried in the three stories within the book and how they connect to what is happening at Camp Green Lake with Stanley and Zero. Additionally, I am very proud to say that all of the 5th graders are doing an amazing job preparing their independent reading book project. I can’t wait until it is complete!
In math the 5th grade reviewed multiplying factions and continued on to learn and practice dividing fractions. I am happy to say that the students are very confident about their skills in multiplying and dividing fractions.
In science, Students learned and described interactions that occur within an ecosystem. Analized adaptive characteristics that result in an organism’s unique niche in an ecosystem.
In social studies the students learned about the past and culture of South America. They were particularly fascinated by the Inca and Machu Picchu. A lot of students were shocked when they saw what terraced farming looked like so high up in the mountains. Next week, we will be rounding off our unit on South America!
This week I would like to commend Matthew for his on point participation during class discussions!
Middle School
Middle School ELA
6th grade had a great week! In grammar, students learned about compound subjects and compound verbs. We also practiced finding subjects in inverted sentences and questions. Students also spent the week reviewing for our upcoming vocabulary test! In writing, we learned about connotative word meanings, and words that have a technical meaning. We also started our novel study of Hatchet by discussing different types of conflict!
7th grade had a busy week! In grammar, we learned about combining sentences in several different ways to create better sentence variety. Students also spent the week reviewing our vocabulary unit in preparation for the test next week. In writing, students learned about different types of text structure, and wrote beautiful paragraphs. We also continued our novel study of Milkweed!
8th grade had a good week! In grammar, we learned about three types of verbal phrases. Students practiced recognizing them in sentences, as well as writing their own. In writing, students reviewed different types of text structure. We discussed how text structure helps authors carry their ideas across. In ELA, students continued their novel study of The Giver!
Middle School Math
6th finished unit 2 on fractions and decimals.
7th grade finished module 4 on angle relations and are currently working on circumference.
8th grade learned how to solve rational equations and apply algebra to ratios, rates, and proportions.
Middle School Social Studies
6th grade took the Unit 2 exam this week and also began Unit 3: South Asia. Students learned about the geography and notable features of the region, as well as facts about each country located within it.
7th grade completed the final lesson of Unit 2, regarding the first phase of American abolition. Students learned about the concept of abolition, how it began in the New World, who the original leaders of the movement were, and what the pro-slavery argument was.
8th grade learned about the beginning of the fight of workers to form unions in order to protect themselves. The class then had a discussion about the current events issue of whether or not to raise the federal minimum wage. Students talked about the positive and negative aspects of the proposal and gave their thoughts on the matter.
Middle School Science
6th graders finished their Unit about the Earth’s Changing Surface.