Seekers Updates 1/6-7 & 1/13-14

Kita Alef with Stephanie

These past two weeks, we finished learning the full Aleph-bet song! Each student took a turn leading it while the rest of the class echoed them, and they're improving fast. We played an Aleph bet flash card game and everyone is getting better at recognizing individual letters. We then drew in our Aleph bet coloring books.

In Judaics we learned about the ritual objects like the Torah, kiddush cup, siddur, and tallit, through a story improvised from characters the kids requested. Thenext week, we learned that there are five books in the Torah and their names, focusing on how there are five books of the Torah like five fingers on our hands.

Kita Bet with Batya and Susanne

On January 7th, Kita Bet students learned the Hebrew letters yud and kaf through movement. We also learned more about ahava (love) and tzedek (justice). We discussed how to be straight and righteous in life. The kids all got to write something in the big heart drawn on the board that they feel they want to do in their daily lives to strengthen their ahava and tzedek.

This past week, Batya was out and Susanne subbed. In Hebrew, the class learned the difference between kaf and khaf and was introduced the patakh vowel. Children reviewed the letters they had previously learned by taking letters out of a box and presenting them to the class.

In Judaics, we introduced the book of Shemot (Exodus), literally, "names." We discussed the power of names and reputations. We learned the common term for God, "HaShem," literally meaning "the name."  We segued into learning about the Ba'al Shem Tov, the 18th century founder of Hasidism, and how he encouraged all to feel loved by Hashem and holy, whether or not they had a formal education. We also learned about niggunim and sang a niggun down the stairs on the way out of school!

Kita Gimmel with Yardena

In Hebrew, we played Hebrew bingo following by a game to familiarize ourselves with the new words we learned in bingo. We are working on our Hebrew books, each student at their own pace.

The previous class in Judaics we studied Tikkun Olam. Looking into the story of Noah we debated whether God was right to destroy the world. We talked about what we can do to make a difference and the children made posters of how we destroy and save our world.
Last week we worked on getting to know the essence of each of the 5 books of tghe Torah. Since we are in "Shemot," (Exodus but literally meaning "names"), we spoke about the significance of names. What is in a name? How do I make a name for myself?



Kita Daled with Heather

On January 7th, we played Jeopardy of terms and concepts we have learned in class since the start of school.

On the 14th, we learned about how names in the Torah can teach us about a character of place's development, meaning, or purpose. We talked about how names in Judaism are very significant. Students shared the stories of their names or their family names and we talked about how names come from all types of sources at different times in our lives.

Kitot Hey and Vav with Yonatan

Last week in class we covered the Jewish concept of Hakarat Ha-tov, or gratefulness. We talked about what we are grateful for in our lives. Each student shared who and what are they grateful for. We learned the modeh/modah ani prayer, and added our own gratefulness to the prayer. We then covered the 4 pillars of prayer - "wow, thx, oops and please," and found common denominators as a small community for them. Each group wrote their own skit connecting to their common denominators and these pillars. 

This past week, we learned the Ashrei prayer, its meaning, and the way we sing it in Hebrew. We also learned about the five books of the Torah, their Hebrew meaning and one story from each of the books. We learned about their own names, both English and Hebrew and discussed in pairs how and why they are connected to their own names.

Kita Zayn with Heather

On January 6th, we did review jeopardy of all the terms and concepts we have covered so far.

On January 14th, we learned about how names in the Torah can teach us about a character or place's development, meaning, or purpose and how names in Judaism are super important. We also read
“לכל איש יש שם", a song and poem by Chava Alberstein. Students shared the stories of their names or their families names and we talked about how names come from all types of sources at different times in our lives.