Shalom Religious School Parents!

The Kindergarten Class continued to celebrate Tu B'Shevat, our Jewish Arbor day. They colored pictures of trees before constructing their own Classroom Greenhouse. They planted 5 different types of flowers inside for now and will transplant them outside when the weather warms up. They also made great Tu B'Shevat tee shirts with sharpies and rubbing alcohol. What a fun morning!

The 1st Grade Classes spent the morning learning about Tu B'Shevat and its connection to Jews throughout the world and our environment. The first graders planted seedlings this morning that will be planted outside when the weather gets warmer.

The 2nd Grade Class learned this morning about the holiday of Tu B'Shevat. They reviewed the meaning of the holiday and discussed many different ways to celebrate it. They made fun fun plants out of cups and candy! They also made trees out of construction paper and learned a poem about trees. It was a great time!

The 3rd Grade Class in Hebrew continued working in their Aleph-Bet Quest books for the first part of the class. During the second part of the class, the kids broke up into small groups and worked on Hebrew reading skills with teachers and madrichim (aides). They are concentrating on working on reading with the students for the next few weeks. During their Judaic Studies class, the students learned about Tu B'Shevat and did a great art project relating to Tu B'Shevat.

The 4th Grade class in Hebrew split up into groups again today and worked on Hebrew reading. Students with stronger Hebrew skills worked out of the prayerbook, and students who need a little more help decoding Hebrew letters worked from a Hebrew workbook with teachers and madrichim (aides). During Judaic Studies the students came up with many reasons why trees and planting new trees in Israel is important. They talked about Jewish National Fund too. They made trees out of cups and candy... lots of fun!

The 5th Grade Class in Hebrew continued working in small groups today on decoding and effectively reading Hebrew from the siddur (prayerbook). They are improving by leaps and bounds each week. In their Judaica class the students continued talking about religious folklore and the Yiddish film called "The Dybbuk." They talked about World War I and the part played by Trumpeldor and the NILI.

The 6th Grade Classes in Hebrew worked this morning in the prayerbook on reading and pronunciation of prayers in the Shabbat morning service. During their Judaic Studies class they continued in the CHAI curriculum learning about the story of the Tower of Babel in the book of Genesis. The kids made a human pyramid and other complicated tasks to demonstrate how important communication is, and related that to the story of Babel. They had a great time!

The 7th Grade Class learned about Tu B'Shevat this morning and related the holiday of the New Year for Trees to the importance of being environmentally conservative in our world today.