Week of Action: Tzedakkah, Card Writing, and Trip!

Yahadut: Tzedakkah (Charity)

As part of the school’s Week of Action, we are introducing Tzedakkah into our classroom. On Tuesday we read the book “Joey and the Giant Box” about a child who organizes a food bank in his class. This reminded us of the collections our school is doing this week. We visited the boxes in the lobby to see what our school was collecting, and created designs for a class tzedakkah box that show different forms of tzedakkah. Today we decorated personal tzedakkah baggies for storing money. We brainstormed ways that we might earn money at home in order to have our own personal tzedakkah to give in school. Please help your child to fill their tzedakkah baggies with 18 coins (detailed info about this was emailed as well).

Social Action Trip to the Cobble Hill Health Center

In writing class the second graders made cards to give to the residents at the Cobble Hill Health Center. We brainstormed what we could write about that would make a resident feel good. Second graders wrote questions, shared what they enjoyed about the last visit to the center, and drew pictures of things they thought the residents would enjoy. At Cobble Hill the class proudly presented the cards to the residents, reading in clear, loud voices, and sharing their pictures. Many residents shared that they will hang their cards on the walls of their room, and that these will make them feel good every time they read them. After the trip, several students shared that making something for the residents that made them happy, in turn made the second graders happy too!

At the visit we sang two songs as a class: Alert Awake, Alive, and We Shall Overcome. Many of the residents sang along to the latter song, and one resident shared that her mother used to sing her that. It was very touching, as was observing the students interacting in a respectful, kind way with the residents. While some parts of the trip were challenging for students, it was also apparent that the children felt more comfortable on this second visit. We were so proud of them! We took time today during kabbalat shabbat to process and wrap of this Week of Action by sharing aspects of the trip that were nice or challenging.

Thank you to all the parent volunteers who joined!

Israel with the Shinshinim

Elal and Zohar took us to the Safari in Ramat Gan this week. We watched a video from inside the safari, played an animal guessing game, and created our own safari! The students were eager to share their knowledge about various animals, and to learn more from each other.