Dvar Torah
Dvar Torah Parashat B’ha’alolesecha
There is an interesting Mitzvah given to Moshe in this week’s Parasha.
To form trumpets .
Depending on how many “blows” or what type or with one or both of the trumpets, would signal something different, i.e. should only the princes come to the tent of meeting should all of the children of Israel come..
There are two more, yet very different occasions mentioned for use of these trumpets.
1 To announce a war.
2 To celebrate a happy occasion.
These seem contradictory.
Rabbi Yissoschor Frand explains the apparent incongruency based on what Rambam [Maimonides] writes regarding blowing the trumpets on fast days and troubled times. He writes that the trumpets is a way of crying out to Hashem to save us from our troubles and to remind us to repent.
Troubles come from sins.
Rabbi Frand says that this could answer the apparent contradiction. EVERYTHING comes from Hashem! The troubles AND the “good stuff”.
Therefore we “blow” at war time and at happy times to remind us that everything is from Him.
We tend to think that the bad stuff is from Hashem, and ask “why is He doing this?”, but when things are good, we say “hey, its to my credit”!
The sefer Shemen Hatov writes that if we remember to “blow the trumpets”-to thank Hashem when things are good, He will not ask us to remember Him “blow the trumpets”- for the opposite.
Let us all remember to “blow the trumpets” when He gives us good times so that we will not need to “blow the trumpets” in other instances.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Kuritsky
Special Announcement
Dear parents,
Thank G-d, we had a wonderful week at Siha!
Round of applause to all the incredible boys and girls who did a kindness a day throughout the days of Sefirat Haomer, and completed their charts!
They all enjoyed italian ices as their prize.
We are looking forward to a very exciting week here at Siha, week of June 14-18. Details will be forthcoming.
Shabbat Shalom! Have an enjoyable and restful weekend.
Best regards,
Miss Dershowitz
Judaics
Kindergarten and First Grade
We had a great week in Kindergarten Judaics! We have learnt our first nekuda that says ah, and are practicing putting it together with the aleph bet letters. We have also been practicing a lot for our graduation and are very excited!
In First Grade Judaics we have been practicing our script writing, the students are doing a great job! We have also been practicing for our siddur play and cannot wait fo June 15th!
Shabbat Shalom!
Second Grade
The 2nd graders are working very hard preparing for their Siddur Play which will G-d willing take place Tuesday June 15 at 11:00. We can’t wait to greet all our wonderful parents at this grand celebration. We are practicing and learning so much when we use our new Purple Aleph Champ workbooks. In this weeks Parsha Beha’aloscha we learned about Aharon Hakohein (Moshe’s brother) who was given the privilege of lighting the Menorah. We also learned about the severity of speaking or listening to Loshon hora. In Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers which is all about character development) we learned that our friend’s honor should be as important to us as our own honor.
Shabbat Shalom
Third grade
In 3rd grade we are getting ready to learn chumash in 4th grade. We are sharpening our reading skills and speed. We are also working on spelling with daily drills.
In dikduk we learned to combine an adjective to the noun by matching the form zachar nekeva Rabim and rabot. We used flashcards on the board to build words.
In Parsha we learnt about the mitzva to light the Golden Menorah daily on the Bet hamikdash and the special mitzva of pesach sheni, the second pesach.
Shabbat shalom
Mrs Ivry
Fourth Grade
4A
It was AMAZING to watch how fast the children are picking up on our Brand New subject of Chumash.
The children sing the pesukim with the translation beautifully. We played review games with new words. On Thursday the children learned in a :Chavruta Shaft” (2 pair learning) the sounds of them saying the pesukim sounded like a real live Bet Medrash, and the sounds of Torah learning was awesome!
The children are learning new concepts such as Shorashim , prefixes and suffixes to the text.
Shabbat Shalom,
Mrs. Bistritz
4B
Thank you Hashem for another wonderful week! It’s with such great enthusiasm that we open our Chumashim each day. Translating the words in the Chumash is a thrill, learning all about that fabulous first week of the world when it was being created is fascinating. Hashem’s intention in creation, we discussed, is to give. Lately we’ve been really busy filling up our “suitcases” with Mitzvot in order to receive eternal reward. Two girls expressed their disappointment in having to come late to school sometimes because they don’t like to miss any Davening, wow. We spoke all about the Jew’s eventful journey in the desert in this week’s Parshah. Our Hebrew handwriting continues to pick up as we practice each holy letter in our workbooks ( and sometimes on the white board).
Shabbat Shalom!
Morah Toba
5th and 6th Girls
Dear parents.
Thank G-d, we had a wonderful week!
Happy Bat Mitzvah to Lily! We all had a great time at her Bat Mitzvah party on Monday. We went around the table and the girls all gave her a Bat Mitzvah blessing.
We moved on in Shemoneh Esrei to learn the next few blessings. We had a very exciting Translation-A-Thon game, which tested the girls’ knowledge of the translation of the Shemoneh Esrei blessings.
Round of applause to Sophie and Ruti who got 83 points and won the prize???
We moved on in Chumash, learning about how the Jews were trapped on all sides, as the Egyptians chased them. They trusted in G-d tremendously and were therefore all fighting to jump into the sea, even before it split!
We learned the Parsha, Parshat Beha’alotcha, about the Jews encampment in the desert.
Shabbat Shalom! Have a restful weekend.
Best regards,
Miss Dershowitz
7th and 8th Girls
Thank you Hashem for another wonderful week! We began to speak all about the wonderful genes that we have from our Sara Imeinu, our mother, the first Jewish woman. She remained calm and serene all her life despite the many difficulties that she faced in her life because she believed and trusted in Hashem through thick and thin. She lit the first Shabbat candles which miraculously lasted from week to week. We spoke all about the importance and beauty of this Mitzvah. Hashem helps a woman bring serenity into her home as she lights. A Tefillah that we’re exploring is the Tefillah of Shema. We spoke about it’s significance and are now translating it’s beautiful phrases. We had great fun making potato kugel in honor of Shabbat!
Shabbat Shalom!
Morah Toba
7th and 8th Boys
7/8 boys blurb
We learned a lot about Parashat B’ha’alosecha.
We learned about Aharon ha’cohen lighting the Menorah.
Aharon and Moshe purifying The Levites, using three methods
A Sprinkling parah aduma water on them
B shaving them
C washing their clothes in the mikvah
L’viyim taking the place of the b’chorim first borns because they served the golden calf
Pesach Sheini
We also learned laws of washing hands properly according to halacha Rabbi Kuritsky did a live demonstration.
Shai Nisim Koldin did a demonstration on how to make havdalah on Saturday night, with grape juice, cinnamon and fire.
And more!
Amiel preparing the meat for the cholent
Elementary School
Kindergarten
This week kindergarten practiced spelling and reading words with the long E vowel sound. They worked in groups or they worked independently to research a topic they were interested in learning about. They filled in a graphic organizer about their topic by reading nonfiction books and watching videos about their topic. They picked topics such as cheetahs, sharks, whales, snakes, dinosaurs, butterflies, and astronauts to write about. They also read a story about children in a band. In math they became money experts. They used money to buy items in our fake store and they played games to practice counting money. They are even able to read and answer word problems about money! In science they learned all about the parts of the plant, what each part of the plant does, and they sang a fun song to help them remember the parts of a plant. The class also dissected a seed to learn about the parts of a seed. In social studies they learned about what is on a map and a globe and about the differences between maps and globes,
The children did an amazing job presenting their science fair projects to the class! They were all able to teach the class different ways to stay healthy. I am so proud of all of them and how well they presented their projects!
Ilan taught us which brand of chips are healthier to eat.
Liad taught us which bandage brand is better to buy because it will keep out germs the longest.
Joseph taught us which type of candy is not good for our teeth.
Emanuella taught us how our sense of smell can impact our sense of taste.
Ethan M. taught us which drink is not healthy because it has the most amount of sugar.
Max taught us which drink is not healthy for our teeth.
Alexander and Yosef taught us about our sense of taste.
First Grade
The fabulous first graders were busy with SATs this week. However, they did a great job with the Science Symposium. Students were excited to share all they learned about plants. We discovered sugar keeps flowers fresh longer than water alone. Students were delighted to see white carnations change to blue, green and yellow as the stems soaked in the food coloring. Lastly, we were surprised to observe that lemon juice could keep apples from browning. Overall, the Symposium was a success, thanks in large part to the contributions of our awesome first grade parents!!!
Second Grade
This week the second graders have been enjoying some of the warmer weather at the playground. In ELA, the students have been reading short stories. They also have been continuing to draft their research reports. In math, the second graders have moved on to the 4 times table. They’ve been continuing to use repeated addition and arrays to solve tougher problems. On top of that, the class has been reviewing math topics from earlier in the year!
Third Grade
This week grade 3 students have officially completed their 2021 Math and English S.A.T. exams and are very excited to explore new topics next week. During our Reading lessons (around the S.A.T. Prep.), students analyzed, compared, and contrasted folk tales, fables, and tall tales. They had read tall tales about Pecos Bill and his sweetheart, Slue-Foot Sue as well as a Russian folk tale The Golden Fish. During our Math lessons (around S.A.T. Prep.), students were able to learn the properties of three dimensional shapes. They are now able to identify the shape’s faces, edges, and vertices.
Miss Sasha
Fourth Grade
4A
This week in ELA we worked on our unit on adverbs, prepositions, and expository writing. We identified prepositions, prepositional phrases, combined complex sentences and used commas properly.
In Math we finished area and perimeter unit.
In Social Studies we reviewed and took the test on chapter 10 Living in the West.
4B
This week 4B was very busy! We had a grammar test on Monday, on pronouns. On Tuesday we had a social studies test on the states in the midwestern region of the United States. On Thursday we had a math test on operations with decimals. We are happy and relieved to be done with all of the tests this week, and are looking forward to our last few weeks together before the summer!
Fifth Grade
Greetings and salutations!
This has been an incredibly busy week for the 5th grade. I want to give a huge shout out to the 5th grade for hanging in there and doing their best during the Stanford Tests. They really worked hard! I’m incredibly proud of all of the 5th graders for their hard work this week!
In more mundane news, in social studies class the 5th grade continued to learn about the Age of Exploration!
In math, 5th grade practiced solving the percentage of numbers.
Middle School
Middle School ELA and Social Studies
Greetings!
Congratulations to the 6th graders for finishing their Stanford Tests!
In social studies news, the 6th grade has begun their journey into Ancient Rome. The class is excited to learn about the Romans and their impact on the world.
Great job 7th grade! The students worked very hard on their SATs this week.
In social studies, we wrapped up our Civil War unit and started learning about the Reformation Era. Students made a newspaper page reporting on a major Civil War battle!
8th graders had a busy week! In grammar, we reviewed active and passive voices. In writing, students reviewed evaluating an argument, and wrote beautiful paragraphs. In reading, we continued our novel study of The Book Thief!
In Social Studies, we wrapped up our World War II unit and took a test. Everyone did a great job! We also started our unit on the aftermath of Victory and the beginnings of the Cold War.
Middle School Math
6th grade finished learning about measures of central tendencies.
7th grade learned about theoretical probability.
7th grade honors finished the unit on solving of systems of linear equations.
8th grade practiced solving multi-step equations with parentheses.
8th grade honors is learning about arithmetic and geometric series.
Middle School Science
7th Grade Science
As a part of our journey through nutrition, the students are now learning how certain macromolecules affect our body. Sometimes the things that we eat give us energy and then very shortly thereafter, we crash. We get this overwhelming feeling of tiredness, loss of focus, and feelings of hunger. Students will be finishing up the year with a digestion project. Students will investigate various aspects of their diet and conduct research regarding their habits. Students will complete either a powerpoint presentation or an essay
8th Grade Science
As our SIHA Seniors wind down the year and finish up all of the necessary work to complete their Living Environment course, students are getting more and more excited about their next phase of life and their energy is quite invigorating. Students are completing their final LE Lab to fulfill their course requirements and sit for the NYS Regent. This lab allows students to investigate 7 different types of tests to determine the relationship between organisms. Once this is complete, we will be on a Regent Review until students sit for the exam, attendance is imperative.
Jewish History
7th grade is moving forward quickly into the Land of Israel. We learned about the fall of Yericho, the battle of Ai and the war against the Gevonim. Yehoshua stopped the sun when he needed more time!
8th grade is learning quite a bit of Roman history as we explore their interactions with the Jewish nation.