November 7, 2008 Cheshvan 9, 5768 Dear MJCDS Parents, What a joyous school week. On Monday we welcomed in a new student: Debbie Rudin, a delightful first grader, who brings our school number up to nine students. We are almost a ìminyanî! We also had an interesting morning session about the election. Starting with the Scholastic Newsí poem We Vote by Teddy Slater, students discussed voting and heard about this wonderful American right. They learned that not all American citizens always had the right to vote. At one time African Americans and women were not allowed to vote. They also named the candidates for president and vice president. They completed a graph and a voting activity that dealt with ballots. They thoroughly enjoyed this weekís edition of Scholastic News. Additionally, our students watched a live stream entitled Primaries to the Presidency: Kid Reports Recap Campaign 2008. Our students watched online kids talk about their experience as Scholastic News Reporters ‚ live! On Wednesday, Anna Abloveís mother, Tova Ablove, visited and shared a science lesson about rocks. Students learned how gneiss rocks are (i.e., they saw and felt a gneiss rock as well as sedimentary and igneous rocks). While a reading a story she pointed out various rocks and how they formed. Students did not really like the sulfur, but did appreciate the rose quartz. None were fooled by the foolís gold. A hearty todah rabah goes out to Dr. Ablove. On Wednesdays our students returned to the YMCA for their second swim lesson. Each is learning according to her ability. For our nine students we have three teachers in the water! On Thursday we had a visit from the cellist, Flora Van Wormer. She shared information about her instrument with the students. She preformed pieces that covered a variety of genres. This special treat gave students the opportunity to attune their ears to different types of music as well as compare this music to the harp pieces that they heard earlier this year. On Friday we had our first guest rabbi visit. Rabbi Rebecca Ben Gideon came to share our Kabbalat Shabbat celebration. She graciously shared her lovely voice and helped us with our prayer tunes. Students also were treated to hearing the story, God Likes Cookies Too! We are looking forward to Rabbi Milunís visit on Friday, November 14th. This week students continued to extend their Hebrew vocabulary by discussing how to learn Hebrew, ìby listening, by writing, by speaking, by playing, by coloring, and by cutting (out various art work).î They too grew their Hebrew vocabulary by catching up on our weekly parasha/Torah portion study. We have been working diligently at being in the right chronological story for the weekly Torah portion. We also have been extending our doing of mitzvoth. On Tuesday students wrote condolence letters to Senator Barack Obama. On Wednesday, November 26th students will be very busy as they will have swim lessons and at 1:30 pm they will have school pictures taken. Lifetouch Photographers will be here to take individual pictures as well as a class picture. Please know that both Jodi and Meisha will do their utmost to make certain your childís hair looks nice. If you would like to come in that day and help ìstyleî our childrenís hair that would be wonderful. Do feel free to join us on Fridays from 1:15 pm ‚ 2:00 pm for our class Kabbalat Shabbat. It is a very special and meaningful time. We do have a few requests though. One request is: please help your child remember to bring in some loose change for Fridays as tzeddekah. It helps us elevate our Shabbat good cheer as well as fulfill an important mitzvah. Another request is: to please join our Shabbat group quietly. While we love to have orchim/guests we want to make certain that our students continue to focus on the activity at hand. Students need to follow along in their Shabbat pamphlets and continue to participate in a positive manner. We thank you for your understanding in this matter. Moreover, we thank you for your help with sending well wishes and food to Jonathan Greenspan and his family. We understand that his mending time is coming along well. He is recovering! We continue to wish him a ìrefuah schlamaî a complete healing. Reminder: With the advent of cold weather please have your child(ren) bring a hat and gloves to school. Thank you for your help in this matter. Request: Please send in magazines that have pictures. We need pictures to use for various projects. We also would appreciate items that we could use for a dress up corner and/or house-keeping area. Just for fun: We have been learning to tell time. We have one clock set on Madison time. We have one clock with Hebrew letters set with time in Israel. Lianna asked, ìDo we read the time going backwards (i.e. in the opposite direction) because we read Hebrew like that!î Good observation! We have such smart students. Mazel tov to Jodi for being given the honor of reading Torah at the Women of Reform Judaism and Union for Reform Judaism Regional Biennial! We missed her on Friday, but knew she was doing a good job at her conference. Thank you to the Milun Family for donating items for the kindergartenersí dress up center. Until next timeÖ have a sweet Shabbat. Kol tuv, Meisha and Jodi