2005 DJC School Report

A few reminders about upcoming events:

THIS THURSDAY (March 9th) is the PURIM CARNIVAL...All parents need to be there for 5:30pm to be with your child!
School is closed—Thursday March 16th for March Break
School is closed—April 14th and 20th for Passover

Submitted by Jason Leizer, DJC Jewish Studies Program

he DJC has had an exciting beginning to a fabulous school year. I want to thank everybody once more for your hard work and dedication—teachers, teaching assistants, Debbie, Siobhan, Education Committee, DJC board and community, parents and most importantly the students.

Michelle Brown – Kita 1
Senior Kindergarten/Kita 1 has started off on an exciting foot. Our class has been following a thematic teaching model where each month the teachers and students are focused on a particular topic. The month of September featured a concentration on the High Holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur and the festival of Sukkot. With the discussion around harvest and related topics we touched upon some environmental and community building issues too.

Our introduction to Aleph Bet involves letter recognition and a vocabulary word with each letter. We always have a visual and craft approach in addition to the recommended text.

We have tried to maintain a fun and enjoyable approach to Jewish Studies and for this reason try to tie snacks and crafts in with each week’s focus. It helps familiarize the children with food and themes, words and traditions that are involved with each holiday. November focused on Shabbat and children were able to make fabric challah covers and their very own Shabbat boxes, they also sampled challah at one snack time and did cut out cookie aleph bet letters to mention a few of the hands on activities we have introduced this far.

The coming winter will involve take home gardens that will introduce children to some of the plant life that is associated with Tu Bshvat and the concept of tzedakah will also be a focus for January.

Shula Goldzweig, Max Rannie (teaching assistant) – Kita 2
Kita 2 is a pleasure to teach, and we have been spending our time doing some of the following: In Mitzvot we learned about tzedaka (charity), To Tell the Truth, Shalom Bayit (where members of the family love and help one another), Honoring your Mother and Father, and Visiting the Sick. Before class break, we say the blessing “Borei Minei Mezonot” and then enjoy some cookies.

In our Hebrew workbook, we have covered the letters “Shin”, “Bet”, “Tav”, “Nun”, “Lamed”, “Gimel”, “Samech”, and “Vav”. We also learned the words “Yeled” (boy), “Yaldah” (girl), “Ema” (mother), “Aba” (father), “Saba” (grandfather), “Savta” (grandmother), “Tinok” (baby boy), “Tinoket” (baby girl), “Shabbat”, “Nerot” (candles), “Bayit” (house), “Luach” (chalkboard), “Gir” (chalk), and “Sefer” (book).

In Jewish Life Cycle, we talked about how Jewish people celebrate birth, baby naming, Brit Milah (Circumcision), and Pidyon Haben (redemption of first born son).

And for Chanukah we read the story of Chanukah, learned the blessings for lighting the Menorah, found out why we eat latkes, talked about the Sivivon (dreidel) and the letters on it, and learned a few Chanukah songs.

Brenda Capp – Kita 3
In Kita 3 we have been taking an exciting journey into the world of the Torah. We have learned about the Six Days of Creation, Adam and Eve and eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Cain and Abel, Noah’s Ark and we have starting to learn about our Forefathers—Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We have been continuing to learn the Hebrew Alphabet and have expanded our Hebrew vocabulary. And we have been doing lots of mitzvahs each week and sharing them with the rest of the class.

We are looking forward to learning more Bible stories and continuing to do acts of kindness.

Sara Price, Shauna Capp (teaching assistant) – Kita 4
Kita 4 has very creative students. Using drawing and performing as learning tools, the students have studied all sorts of interesting subjects. Almost each week, they learn a new set of Hebrew vocabulary around which they try to create short skits. Through games, they have studied about Maimonedes’ “8 Levels of Tzedakah” and explored the differences between Orthodox and Conservative Judaism.

Lately, we have reviewed the story and customs of Chanukah through stories, songs and art. A special thank you goes to Shauna Cappe, the class assistant, who has played an integral part in teaching the students. Have a great winter break and we’ll see you in January.

Rina Goldberg – Kita 5
This first term with Kita 5 (HaKofim She’mazchikim) has been a huge success! We began our journey together by filling out “Jewish identity cards”. We then reflected on our names and our identities and made a commitment to make personal goals to help us improve ourselves in the new year.

We introduced the tzedakah unit with the viewing of the movie Pay it Forward. We considered the question posed by the teacher in the movie, “How would you change the world?” We then added mitzvah goals to our personal goals on our identity cards. We added all of the mitzvoth that we accomplished on to our class mitzvah tree. We reinforced the different ways of giving tzedakah through a fun and lively Tzedakah Idol contest! All of the candidates represented Maimonides’ levels of giving tzedakah. We even made our own tzedakah boxes so that we can give tzedakah at home!

We discovered the differences between people by our disabilities obstacle course and discussed how to treat others who have disabilities. We feasted the way others in the world would eat and decided to work together to beat world hunger. A guest educator from TorahthaTevah did an exciting program with us and the Grade 6 class about how to improve in our treatment the environment and animals.

Assaf Weisz – Kita 6
Kita 6 this year are focusing on Tikkun Olam & issues surrounding social justice. Luckily, this is a topic that affords a great deal of creativity in how these issues are presented and digested. We have looked at a number of issues up to this point: Tikkun Olam, tumultuous times in Jewish history, world poverty, discrimination, the influence of media towards both negative and positive ends, evaluating role models, discussing our priorities as individuals and as citizens, and more.

As a group we have all contributed to the establishment of class rules and reinforcement of an expectation for respect and insight. Typically, these issues have been presented through demonstrative games, media, etc., to trigger interest, and then are discussed in order to internalize them. In broader terms, the goal of this year is to bring about awareness about what’s going on in the world, and how we as Jews not only fit into the scheme, but mend the problems. To emphasize the need for action as well as discussion, the grade 6’s have been asked to consider what Tikkun Olam project they would like to embark on in the second half of the year. I look forward to it as I’m sure we all do.

Lauren Malach – B’nai Mitzvah Program
The B'nai Mitzvah class has been enjoying an engaging and creative program since the fall. As pre- Bar and Bat Mitzvah students we began by looking at what it means to become a Bar or Bat Mitzvah and how we could involve ourselves in our community as young people. We got the year off to a great start by organizing and coordinating a very successful youth program on yom Kippur. As leaders of the service we got a chance to test out our public speaking and our role as young leaders. We went on a number of field trips, one to the Holocaust Museum where we met and spoke with Magda Hilf, an Auschwitz survivor.

We also helped sort clothes for Out of the Cold, a city-wide inter-faith program that shelters homeless people during the cold winter months. We have been practicing our public speaking and are looking forward to planning a group project in the New Year. So far, so fun.

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