August 30: Welcome Back!

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

Welcome back to another year at Hannah Senesh Community Day School! Your teaching team is hard at work getting our spaces and selves ready to welcome students on September 4th, and we are so excited to meet (and re-meet) them. This year, the fourth grade team includes both new and returning teachers and specialists that your child will meet in the first few weeks of school.

Mike Steele is excited to join the fourth grade staff as the general studies teacher. He comes to Hannah Senesh after two years of teaching fifth grade at PS 133 in Park Slope and seven years as a high school drama director in Princeton, NJ. Mike is excited to get to know the students and their families and looks forward to a great school year!

Aliza Donath will be returning to teach Judaic Studies. She is joined by Margaret Piraino, who will be teaching while Aliza is on maternity leave from mid October – mid January, at which point Aliza will return for the rest of the year. Margaret comes to us by way of Congregation Rodeph Sholom on the Upper West Side, where she taught preschool and 4th grade.

Ilana Swisa will teach Hebrew and Tomer Yanai will teach Hebrew Heritage. All of us are eager to get started! Our email addresses are listed below:

Mike Steele: msteele@hannahsenesh.org

Aliza Donath: adonath@hannahsenesh.org

Margaret Piraino: mpiraino@hannahsenesh.org

Ilana Swisa: iswisa@hannahsenesh.org

Tomer Yanai: tyanai@hannahsenesh.org

Dismissal Procedures:  The classroom teachers are responsible for the dismissal of your children and will be maintaining the bus and dismissal lists for your child’s class. Please send all communication regarding dismissal, bus and pickup, directly to Mike Steele the day before. For last minute and urgent changes, please send communication by 12:00 pm on the day of in order to receive a confirmation email from the teachers. Teachers will be checking email at this time and creating the day’s final dismissal list. **We appreciate your mindfulness, as teachers are working with the children in the afternoon and are unable to check for emails.** Thank you for your help and partnership.

Birthdays: Birthday celebrations in fourth grade consists of two parts. First, each child is invited to wear the infamous fourth grade “birthday cape” around school on the day of their birthday. This has become a recognized symbol around the school for staff and students to wish them a happy birthday! We end the day with a short (10 minute) celebration where parents and siblings are invited to join the class. As your child’s birthday month (or half birthday month for summer kids) approaches, we will reach out to you to coordinate you coming in.

Helpful Tip: Please send your child to school with a sweater. Our powerful air conditioning system can make for a chilly classroom!

Thank you and we are looking forward to seeing you all at Back to School Night on September 13!

Best Wishes,

The Fourth Grade Team