Shalom Religious School Parents!

The Kindergarten Class learned about Noah and the Ark this morning. They read The Littlest Pair and talked about the Great Flood in the book of Genesis. They colored pictures of different kinds of animals and paired them up on our class Ark. Parents, please remember that Consecration is December 4th. Please make sure your child is practicing their consecration songs, "Tree of Life," "Good Shabbat to You," "Little Torah," and The Shema.

The 1st Grade told the story of Joseph and his multi-colored coat. They discussed the meaning of being a good person and learning from mistakes we make. We then decorated our own dream coats, made flip books and comic books of the story of Joseph. It was a lot of fun!

The 2nd Grade learned about reaching out to strangers from the Torah portion Mishpatim. They discussed who are safe and unsafe strangers. Students divided up into role play groups and acted out the Jewish value of welcoming guests / being kind to (safe) strangers. It was so cute!

The 3rd Grade in Hebrew continued to work in their Aleph Bet Quest book, and they reviewed reading and continued with lesson 9. They are making great progress, and the room switch to the Library has been great! In Religious School, the 3rd graders further discussed the lesson of Hillel's Golden Rule. We then make our own personal collages out of craft supplies and magazine cut-outs about what the Golden Rule means to each of us. We also talked about how the Golden Rule relates to other aspects of being Jewish and having Jewish families.

The 4th Grade classpracticed reading aloud today and worked in their Mitkadem notebooks. They also played Hebrew memory flashcard games and Hebrew Bingo. They also discussed how Thanksgiving is actually a Jewish holiday and during services they came up with prayers of Thanksgiving.

The 5th Grade in Hebrew split up into two smaller groups and finished the prayers of the Shema and its blessings section of the service. The kids are doing a great job with their Hebrew reading skills! The Religious School class learned about the Jewish kingdom of Khazaria, where are entire kingdom converts to Judaism during the middle ages. We also learned about the Jews of the Middle Ages and Rabbi Lowl and the Golem of Prague.

The 6th Grade worked on the Yotzeir and V'ahavtah in preparation for the students' First Aliyah services - they are loving working on reading skills and are improving dramatically! They also did Mitkadem today and are having a great time there.

The 7th Grade after some technical difficulties last week finally got to watch most of the documentary Paperclips, about a middle school class that collected paper clips to learn about the depth and breadth of the Holocaust. They are looking forward to finishing the very end and using it as a discussion piece in the class after Thanksgiving.

The High School Classes

• Pray Ball: discussed the new movie The Blind Side about NFL player Michael Oher and his journey from being homeless to going through High School, College and playing in the NFL. We talked about the mitzvah of hospitality to strangers which was depicted in the movie.
• Tattoo Jews: discussed different Jewish responses to being Gay and Jewish in 2009. They watched part of a documentary called Trembling Before G-d, which chronicles the stories of same-sex couples living in the Orthodox Jewish world. We then discussed an article about Reform Judaism ordaining the first Trangender Rabbi in 2008.
• Tikkun Olam Green Class: in Tikkun Olam the class continued to work on their garden project and are trying to quickly finish preparing the soil before it freezes in the winter. They'll have some great vegetables this Spring!