We have readily settled into third grade Judaic Studies this year as the ending of second grade seamlessly flowed into the beginning of third grade in a looping educational manner. One of our first activities connected to the Rosh Hashana new year, was to search the classroom for as many things as the students could think of that had a beginning and an end and then to label them with the Hebrew words for beginning and end.
The students came up with an incredible list of things in our classroom that had beginnings and endings, some tangible and some intangible – a sentence, the alphabet, love, the months of the year, the seasons, a human life, Jewish holidays, a piano keyboard to name a few!
The third graders continue to work on building their Hebrew language skills. They have had great success with the formal weekly assessment of a comprehension quiz. It is with motivation and seriousness that they approach their work on this.
The students have been fully engaged in the first entry for our Sensing the Holiday project. The third graders have discussed the ways we use multiple senses to experience the holiday of Rosh Hashana from hearing the call of the shofar to wake us up to self reflection, to smelling the round challah baking to tasting the sweet apples and honey for a wonderful year ahead. The students then incorporate this information into a collage which will become part of a year long holiday scrapbook. Building emotional connections makes for long term memories!
Wishing all of you a sweet new year, Shana Tova U’Mitukah!