Keeping Connected with our Ed Director
Welcome Back to School
Keeping Connected September 2024
Welcome Back to School
The end of summer is always so bittersweet as we leave behind great memories of sun and fun, time with friends and family and a little relaxation before we move ahead to a new school year. We have been planning for the new school year all summer, but as we get closer, I get more excited to begin another year with students and families, and teachers and madrichim. There are some great ideas in store for the coming year.
Religious School begins on September 8, 2024 for all Preschoolers through 7th graders. Everyone will meet on Sunday mornings from 9am – 11am. The first day of school will be an all school gathering (with parents and students.) We will join together in community and get a chance to meet and greet your teacher and your class for the coming year. Please plan on attending on September 8 with your student(s). The School Committee (we’d love to have you on the committee) will be offering coffee, juice and munchkins.
Class Assignments are as follows:
- Preschoolers/ Kindergarten with Morah Lauren in Room 3.
- 1st – 3rd graders with Morah Kara in the Social Hall and Room 6.
- 4th – 5th graders with Moreh Rob in Room 2.
- 6th – 7th graders with Morah Dina in the Library. (Please join me in welcoming Dina Katz to our teaching staff this year!)
The School Committee (do you want to join?) is planning the first of many various community events throughout the year. On September 22, after school from 11am – 1pm, everyone is invited to join together at Sully’s Ice Cream stand for a Dine-In! Using a coupon that will be available to you, a portion of each sale will be contributed back to Congregation Shalom to help support the school. Mark your calendars now! It will be fun to hang out with friends and classmates and to meet other people in our temple school community.
Hebrew School begins on Wednesday, September 11, 2024 and runs from 4:15pm – 6:00pm, for all students in grades 4th – 7th. Students are welcome to bring a nut-free snack to class to eat during the first 10 minutes of class. Rabbi Perry, Moreh Rob and Morah Deborah will be teaching these classes, along with a strong group of madrichim.
Chai School will begin on October 16, 2024 and Chai School families will receive more information in the coming weeks.
The first Post Confirmation class for 11th and 12th graders is scheduled to meet on October 15, 2024 at Rabbi Perry’s home. More information will be shared in the coming weeks.
A calendar for the year, class lists and lots more information will be coming your way. Stay tuned!
Looking forward to the year ahead,
Deborah
Schedule for September
- Sunday, September 8 – Yom Rishon/First day of Religious School 9am-11am for students and families
- Wednesday, September 11 – First day of Hebrew School, 4:15pm-6:00pm
- Friday, September 13 – School dinner at 6pm, followed by Shabbat Services at 7pm, led by our new 6th and 7thgraders
- Sunday, September 15– Religious School for Preschoolers – 7th graders, 9am-11am
- Wednesday, September 18 – Hebrew School
- Friday, September 20 – Special Preschool/Kindergarten Tot Shabbat experience with pizza at 5:15pm followed by Tot Shabbat at 6pm
- Sunday, September 22 – Religious School for Preschoolers – 7th graders, 9am-11am
- Sunday, September 22 – After school Dine-In at Sully’s Ice Cream from 11am – 1pm
- Wednesday, September 25 – Hebrew School
- Friday, September 27 – Family Service at 7pm with Shabbat ShaBand (our teenager band!)
- Sunday, September 29 – Religious School for Preschoolers – 7th graders, 9am-11am
- Wednesday, October 2 – No Hebrew School, Rosh Hashanah begins
School Registration, Summer Hebrew Practice and More
Keeping Connected July 2024
School Registration, Summer Hebrew Practice and More
Summer is here and I hope you are all enjoying a little rest, relaxation and family time. It is well deserved for all!
SUMMER HEBREW PRACTICE
It is really important to have your students practice Hebrew a little bit this summer. Research shows that children’s reading ability will decline during the summer months without continued practice.
Click here to access a fun Summer Hebrew Bingo Board. The activities suggested on the board should take no more than 10 minutes each. Encourage your student to complete the entire Bingo board and bring it back to temple for a little prize.
As always, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions.
SCHOOL REGISTRATION
Thank you to all the families who submitted their registrations! We truly appreciate your promptness.
As we move into summer, we are beginning to make plans for the next school year. We are buying books and supplies, creating class lists and figuring out what the school will look like this coming year. It is important that we have an accurate count of how many students we will have. Please submit your forms as soon as possible. You can access the registration forms from the Learning tab on the temple’s website. Reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns.
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
The temple’s School Committee is a group of people who work together to provide for the educational needs of the school. We meet monthly (sometimes with snacks!) and work to help the school to be strong and successful. We are open to new thoughts and ideas. Anyone can be part of the School Committee. If you are interested in joining the committee or finding out more information, please reach out to me.
SUNDAY MORNING COMMUNICATION
For the past several years, during the school year, an email is sent out early on Sunday morning with information for the morning of classes. A few people have shared with me that the early Sunday morning note is not working for them. Please let me know if you find the Sunday note helpful, if you think there would be a better day/time to send it out or if it is simply clogging up your inbox. I appreciate your thoughts to help us go forward with communication.
Enjoy the summer,
Deborah
Todah Rabah and L’hitraot
Keeping Connected June 2024
Todah Rabah and L’hitraot
(Thank you and until we meet again)
Thank you again to everybody for helping to create a successful school year. So many great things happened during the course of the year and we were able to end the year with well-deserved fun celebrations! Teacher Appreciation on the last day of school was a wonderful morning with our community and the last Wednesday of Hebrew School allowed us to recognize our teachers and madrichim and enjoy a fun last day of Hebrew. I am so grateful to be part of this school community!
The summer will bring with it lots of work in continuing to figure out and design the school for next year, including class configurations, curriculum, staffing and so much more. Please send in your registration forms if you have not already done so. It is so important for us to have that information as we move ahead with plans for the next school year. I welcome any suggestions and questions as this important work continues throughout the next few months
As you know, we exceeded our goal with the plastics collection this year! We collected over 200 pounds of soft recyclable plastics. The donation container will remain in the entry way for a little while, but everyone is encouraged to bring your collected plastics directly to the donation container at your grocery store. We can continue with the idea of Shomrei Adama by everyone doing their part to help take care of the earth.
In conjunction with our plastic collection, we raised enough money to purchase a bench made from recycled plastics. We are awaiting the arrival of the bench any day now. Look for it the next time you are at Congregation Shalom.
The year is not over. There are still some end-of-the-year services that you will want to attend!
- Friday, June 7 – 6:15pm, This is the last Family Shabbat of the year. We will begin at 6:15pm with a free Shabbat Pizza dinner for all school families, followed by a music filled Shabbat at 7pm. Reach out to your friends and classmates and plan to come out for one more Shabbat dinner and service!
- Friday, June 14 – 6pm, Tot Shabbat – join us as the youngest members of our community join together in song and prayer and fun as we honor Shabbat. It is always a fun and spirited time. If you have never been, end the year with attending Shabbat. If you have been before, come back and celebrate Shabbat together!
- Friday, June 14 – 7pm, Graduation Shabbat – come and celebrate our young adults as they graduate and move on to their college experiences. This is always a moving and inspirational service as you hear about the journeys of these young adults and their own experiences at Congregation Shalom. It will be a Shabbat service that you won’t want to miss!
Wishing a wonderful summer, filled with a little Hebrew practice!
With gratitude,
Deborah
We are nearing the end and thinking about the beginning
Keeping Connected May 2024
Hello Friends,
As we quickly approach the end of the Religious School and Hebrew School year, we are also already thinking about and planning for next year.
There are lots of fun and exciting events, programs and services that mark the end of the temple school year. Please watch your emails for information on these end-of-the-year activities. Also, be ready for registration packets for the next school year to be sent out soon. The School Committee has been working hard to streamline the registration process and move it to online registration. We will not be able to roll that out this year due to time constraints, but the forms should be a little clearer this year and less repetitive. For the following year, hopefully it will all be online!More
One Goal I Have Is to Have Fun Every Day
Keeping Connected March 2024
Some of the students were recently tasked with the prompt:
Three goals I have for Hebrew School for the rest of the year are:
Here are some of their responses:
“to read Hebrew fluently”
“learn Torah Blessings”
“get better at listening”
“learn more prayers”
“to learn more about the Torah”
“to do things that help improve self-control in Hebrew School”
“to speak more Hebrew”
“eat more cookies”
“read Torah”
“learn melodies”
“to know all the letters and sounds”
“to be able to chant”
“to read Hebrew without vowels”
“to have fun everyday”
Hebrew School looks different these days at Congregation Shalom. On any Wednesday or Sunday morning, you will hear and see Hebrew all around you. Everyone is using Hebrew words throughout their time in temple school. You might hear someone say “Todah rabah for the crackers.” You might hear someone talk about the joy of coming together as a kehillah. You might hear students working on reading and chanting. You would see students working one on one with adults and madrichim. You would see students working with each other. You would hear students recording their Hebrew chanting on an IPad. You might see students moving their bodies to different Hebrew directions, reading from prayer books, singing songs in Hebrew, or jumping to different Hebrew letters on a rug. One day the students made Hebrew words out of Legos! Another day the students used air dry clay and created every letter in the Hebrew aleph-bet. The Preschoolers and Kindergartners colored all the Hebrew letters and have them proudly displayed in their classroom. Hebrew is everywhere in our building and in our curriculum. One day take some time to walk around the building and in and out of the classrooms and see how much Hebrew you can find.
I have shared this on many occasions but it bears repeating: Practicing Hebrew is important. The teachers and madrichim work very hard with the students to help them learn Hebrew but in order for all the hard work at school to make a difference, students need to practice a few times a week at home. It really only takes about 10 minutes three times a week to help the students retain what they work so hard on during class time. Unfortunately, the loss of Hebrew without practicing at home is great and leads to a lot of reteaching. Practicing Hebrew should not be a chore and should not be a negative experience. Have your student practice Hebrew to a family pet or a stuffed animal. Have your student practice Hebrew so you can hear them while you are preparing a meal. Have your student stand on a chair and chant one of the prayers and blessings. Have your student record themselves chanting or reading Hebrew. Enjoy a snack or a special drink while practicing Hebrew. Make a practice chart and once it is filled in, celebrate in a way that works for your family. Listen to your student practice. Encourage them. Praise them. You do not need to correct them. (We will work on that at school.) If you have a fun way of helping your student to practice Hebrew, let me know and we will share it with others. Let’s all work to make Hebrew learning fun everyday!
Schedule for March 2024
Friday, March 1
6:00pm – Shabbat Dinner for all
7:00pm – Family Shabbat led by the 4th/5th graders
Sunday, March 3
Religious School, 9:00am – 11:00am
Kitah Aleph, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Wednesday, March 6
Hebrew School, 4:15pm – 6:00pm
Sunday, March 10
Religious School, 9:00am – 11:00am
Kitah Aleph, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Wednesday, March 13
Hebrew School, 4:15pm – 6:00pm
Friday, March 15
Tot Shabbat – 6:00pm
Sunday, March 17
Religious School, 9:00am – 11:00am
Bagels, Blocks and Beyond Playgroup – 9am-10:30am
Kitah Aleph, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Kitah Aleph Parent Meeting – 11:30am
Tuesday, March 19
Post Confirmation at Rabbi Perry’s – 7:00pm-8:30pm
Wednesday, March 20
Hebrew School, 4:15pm – 6:00pm
Chai School, 6:15pm – 8:15pm
Sunday, March 24
Purim!
No regular classes but all are expected to attend Purim 10am – 12pm
Wednesday, March 27
Hebrew School, 4:15pm – 6:00pm
Chai School, 6:15pm – 8:15pm
Sunday, March 31
Religious School, 9:00am – 11:00am
Kitah Aleph, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Happy Birthday to the Trees!
February 2024 Keeping Connected
The Sunday morning Religious School gathered together on January 28 to celebrate Tu B’Shevat while the teachers had the opportunity to meet with parents for Parent/Teacher conferences. It was a successful morning, filled with joy and enthusiasm, song and prayer, and celebration. (and good conversations between teachers and parents!)
Our youngest students (preschool through 2nd grade) gathered together to explore all things about trees and helping to take care of the Earth. They engaged in songs about trees, talked about ways to help the world and got to participate in lots of different activities such as making a bird feeder out of Cheerios and painting a tree complete with their own ideas about ways to help the world using their hands. The students made their own edible trees (out of pretzel sticks and grapes) for snack and ended the morning by having a birthday party for trees, complete with party hats and playdough cake. It was a spirited morning, filled with lots of learning opportunities and fun.
The older students gathered together for a Tu B’Shevat seder. Ari joined us to accompany the group in beautiful music, though on several occasions, Ari dropped off her voice and the sanctuary was filled with song from the students – beautiful and inspiring. The students sat at mixed-age tables with their temple school community and interacted and participated all morning.
The students began the morning by sharing their own ideas of ways to help create a healthy Earth. They then worked together to create forests of trees out of air-dry clay which became the centerpieces for the seder table.
The seder proceeded as we talked about the seasons and represented them with four different cups of juice, going from white juice to pink juice to red juice and ending with dark red juice, each corresponding with a season. The students got to eat various foods – fruits with shells, fruits with pits and entirely edible fruits. Each time, the students shared their own ideas of how the idea of these different fruits could describe people. Their responses were impressive.
The students created long lists of all types of trees including fruit trees, family trees and the Tree of Life!
It was a wonderful morning, filled with laughter, joy, learning and prayer.
It continues to be a joy to spend Sunday mornings with the students of our school.
Deborah
Schedule for February 2024
- Friday, February 2
6:00pm – Pizza Dinner offered for all families ($5 per person)
7:00pm – Family Shabbat
- Sunday, February 4
6th/7th graders field trip to the mikveh
Religious School, 9:00am – 11:00am
Kitah Aleph, 11:00am – 12:15pm
- Wednesday, February 7
Hebrew School, 4:15pm – 6:00pm
Chai School, 6:15pm – 8:15pm
- Tuesday, February 13
Post Confirmation at Congregation Shalom – 7:00pm-8:30pm
- Wednesday, February 14
Hebrew School, 4:15pm – 6:00pm
- Sunday, February 18 – NO SCHOOL due to Massachusetts February vacation
- Wednesday, February 21 – NO SCHOOL due to Massachusetts February vacation
- Sunday, February 25 – NO SCHOOL due to Massachusetts February vacation
- Wednesday, February 28
Hebrew School, 4:15pm – 6:00pm
- Friday, March 1
6:00 pm – Shabbat dinner offered for all
7:00 pm – Family Shabbat, led by the 4th/5th grade class