October 2021   Keeping Connected

Whew! What a whirlwind it has been getting the school up and running this year. Thank you to everyone for your patience and flexibility as we continue to iron out somethings and make changes as they arise.

It has been a really wonderful start to the new school year at Congregation Shalom.It was lovely to see everyone for the parking lot meet and greet in September and then to welcome everyone back into the building on Sundays and remotely or in-person for Hebrew School on Wednesdays. There is an energetic tone in the air and a lot of joyous laughter and spirit as we all reconnect this year. I know that the teachers are thrilled to be back this year and are enjoying getting to know their new classes.

A little bit of housekeeping reminders:More

September 2021   Keeping Connected

The beginning of September has us looking forward to the new school year. I am excited for the year ahead as we approach another unique year for our temple school. The summer months have allowed me to meet some new families that will be joining our school. I invite you to reach out to people you may not know in the coming months and share a friendly hello and welcome.  In addition, I am thrilled to welcome Kristin Morris to our teaching team. Morah Kristin is an involved member of Congregation Shalom. She will be teaching our 5^th grade class this year.  Morah Kristin will be joined by the familiar faces of Morah Lauren (preschool and 6^th grade,) Moreh Rob (4th grade, Hebrew and Chai,) Moreh Rich (3^rd grade and Kitah Aleph,) Morah Amy (Hebrew and Chai School,) Morah Tymon (Hebrew) and myself (K-2) to create a dynamic and awesome teaching staff!More

JULY  2021    KEEPING CONNECTED

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 importance 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. After July 1, the late fee increases to $50. (If you have difficulties paying the deposit or late fees, please contact me at eddirector@congregationshalom.org to discuss your options.)

Cover Letter

Form A

Form B

Form C

Form D

Form E

Form F

Finally, please be on the lookout for a School Survey that will be coming out soon. We are interested in gathering information from you to help us make plans for the coming school year. Your participation in the survey will be important in helping us move forward in developing these plans. Thank you.

Enjoy the summer,

Deborah

JUNE 2021    KEEPING CONNECTED

As we approach June, we reflect upon the year behind us and look ahead to the next school year!  We had some exciting end of the year activities as we wrapped up an exciting, challenging, unique and successful school year.

I could list many great things about the year but I thought I would let the students share some of their thoughts.

• K-2 student – “I liked when we made Israel wind socks.”
• 3^rd grade student – “I like learning about the Dead Sea and making the egg float.”
• 4^th grade student – “I liked making the Tower of Babel.”
• 5^th grade student – “I like learning about King David.”
• 6^th grade student – “I liked the tenement museum tour.”
• 7^th grade student – “I enjoyed acting out life cycle events.”
• Kitah Aleph student – “I learned all the letters of the aleph-bet.”
• Kitah Bet student – “I enjoyed learning new words.”
• Kitah Gimel student – I liked reading and chanting.”
• Kitah Dalet student – “Learning Hebrew vocabulary was my favorite.”
• Kitah Hey student – “I enjoyed learning more about the torah.”

More

May 2021    Keeping Connected

It is May and what a beautiful time of the year. The grass is green. The flowers are in colorful bloom. I wake each morning to the songs of the birds. My resident groundhog (aptly named Phil) makes many appearances a day. Wildlife is everywhere. It is hard to not just sit and stare as nature takes its course during this time of the year! As I look at the calendar for May, I realize that there will not be a lot of time for sitting and staring as we all begin the end of the school year, with lots of milestones for so many students in our community. I really encourage you all to tune in to as many of the events and programs that you are able to as we finish up the school year this month.

In a beautiful cycle of Jewish life, we have the 3^rd graders leading the Friday night Shabbat and celebrating the wonderful accomplishment of having completed their first year of Hebrew with their Siyyum Ha’Sefer celebration, followed the very next week by Confirmation Shabbat, in which a dedicated and spirited group of our 10^th graders will stand before the congregation and confirm their connection to Judaism. Two weeks after that will be the Graduation Shabbat in which our 12^th grader gets to celebrate his Congregation Shalom journey before heading out to more adventures and experiences. In between all of these celebrations, we will mark the end of the school year for everyone, as students complete this year and begin to look forward to being a grade older next year!More

April 2021   Keeping Connected

Hello School Community Friends,

On my desk sits a sticky note titled “Things I Use to Know Nothing About.” I started this list when I took on this job almost two years ago. At first, the list was my own way of dealing with the feeling of being thrown into an unknown situation of helping to run the school in the interim and learning things that were new to me, such as how to send a note out through Constant Contact and how to use a Mac computer! As we all know, that first year took a very unexpected turn and my list of “Things I Use to Know Nothing About” grew exponentially. Things such as “video conferencing” and “scanning” were quickly added to the list. It’s a good thing that I love sticky notes because I started to need more than one note to continue listing the new things I had to learn! The list continues to grow, though I have noticed that I have been able to add a few things to the list that are now my choice to learn and not because I have to know those things for this job.

One day recently, I was sitting at my desk, overwhelmed with a very long list of things to do. (I am definitely a list maker.) My eyes fell upon my original list of “Things I Use to Know Nothing About” and it got me thinking. What would a similarly titled list look like for the students in our school? More