Dear Parents,

Welcome back to Chabad Hebrew School!

By now, you should have received our progress reports for your children. If there's anything you'd like to discuss that you read in the progress report, please do not hesitate to contact me. The best way to reach me is via email or cell at 203.676 5306. You can also try me at home at 212 256 0782 or at Chabad, at 212 864 5010 ext 114.

This Friday, our world was rocked with news from Paris, where Jewish shoppers preparing for Shabbat were gunned down and held hostage by Islamic terrorist. Things have been getting pretty bad in France for Jews for a while, but despite heightened awareness after a terribly violent week in Paris, obviously this Supermarket attack was unthinkable. So if your children ask you about this, what are you going to say? I would love to hear your words of wisdom to help sooth our kids worries and fears. I know our friends the Toubias must have family and friends who frequent that store, and they are probably worried about them as well.

For me, I think it's important to let them know that here the NYPD is doing what it can to keep us safe, and we need to live our lives without fear but be prepared what to do in case of an attack. At Chabad ELC, they do a drill every couple of months of what do in case of an attack, and it's a fine line between reassuring the children that everything will be OK and being prepared for the very, very remote possibility. We need to somehow set the balance for our kids. If yur kids are very fearful and anxious by nature, I would downplay it more. If they are less afraid, you can be more upfront with them.

For our part, we are going to make sure the gate at Chabad remains locked during HS hours.

May Hashem protect our brothers and sisters in France, and anywhere else they may be in danger.

See below for news on our upcoming ski trip; I hope you can join us next Sunday.

Shabbat Shalom U'Mevorach,

Sarah Alevsky

Details

PRE-K/KINDERGARTEN

This week we had a review of the Aleph Bet letters we learned so far. We sang our Aleph Bet song with extra vigor, and then we recorded it, so we can listen to it every class! ( Click here to hear the kids singing!) We did Aleph Bet poses with our bodies and wrote the letters, which earned us chocolate chips which we later baked into Aleph Bet shaped cookies.

Finally we are back to doing our Jewish Home project! We sang our Jewish Home song and did the motions to accompany it. We reviewed some of the mitzvot which we learned that we do in our home. In our living room at home, we welcome our guests. So we set up our table really nicely and we invited Morah Sarah to be our guest for our Aleph Bet cookie party! Just for fun, Morah Sarah pretended to be a rude guest - and from watching her we learnt how to be a proper guest. She came back in again, this time nicely, and showed us how we can be a gracious guest! We made sure to make our guest feel comfortable, by sharing food with her and by walking her to the door.

FIRST GRADE

This week was our 1st Tuesday back after vacation, so during snack,

each student received 4 jelly beans. We went around the table and each kid said 4 things about their vacation.

We learned about this week's Torah portion, Shemot, which is the first Parsha in the book of Shemot. We learned about how Moshe was born and saved by the Princess of Egypt Batya how he lived in Paraoah's palace, was forced to run away and then how Hashem appreared to him in the burning bush and told him to return to Egypt to tell the king to let the Jewish people go. We learned a song about the Parsha, (see the song here) and then we made baskets with Moshe inside when he was put into the Nile so that he could be saved.We also got mini baskets with a mini Moshe inside :)

SECOND GRADE

We got right back into the Ten Commandments on our first day back. We were introduced to the second commandment, that we are not to serve idols or other gods, just serve Hashem.

We discussed why people would serve idols or things in nature. Why do people think something that's made by them, or something in nature, has power?

We put together a puzzle of the world, and on the other side, when we finished assembling it and taping it together, it said Hashem - showing Hashem is the one taking care of the world and we don't need to go to other powers that we might think control things, because Hashem is the true Creator and Controller of the world.

We learned a text inside that showed how people used to worship idols, and then we listened to a story telling the story of young Avraham, how he broke the idols in his fathers shop. We finished off with a connect four review game to review all the information we had learned in the previous lessons! We made the entrance card raffle before we left.

THIRD GRADE

We came back to Chabad and we got right back to studying the book of Shemot. Morah Leah assigned different plagues to three groups of kids, and each group was responsible to research the plague. They collected a lot of interesting information about each plague from the Chumash, the Little Medrash says and other sources that Morah Leah brought in. We look forward to seeing the group's presentations on the different Makot! They will be using demonstrations, toys, and posters to teach.

FIFTH GRADE

This week we enjoyed a day we've all been waiting for at Hebrew school. We had a fun day as a reward for filling our star jar! We started off by baking a cake. There were 2 groups. One group made a chocolate batter while the other made vanilla. The 2 batters were combined to create a 2 layer cake.

The class then created "powerpoints". The groupwork was amazing! Each group used 5 slides (on paper) and their creativity to present one of the many topics learned in Hebrew school so far. One group depicted the Bet Hamikdash and its destruction, while the other depicted the rules of a kosher Menorah. We then played a review game where the 2 teams were challenged to come up with the answers to questions on the material we learned. The students took turns rolling a die. Depending on which number they rolled, was the type of questions asked.

We ended off by eating our delicious cake (with icing and sprinkles of course) along with a "food for thought" sheet about what we've think we've gained overall from from Hebrew school so far. Some of the answers were incredible! One student wrote: "I learned that the most important thing about Israel is the Bet Hamikdash."

Click on the photo below to see more pictures of this week!