Dear Fourth Grade Families,

We hope you had a wonderful summer! Welcome to an exciting year of learning in FOURTH GRADE! This first week was like a whirlwind … which MIGHT be due to when Labor Day landed and adding in orientation days.

This year, the fourth grade team includes both new and returning teachers. Humanities teacher, Hilary Davis, Hebrew teacher Rimma Berenshtein, Hebrew teacher Tomer Yaney, and Science teacher Sammi Butwin are excited to continue with these amazing kids, working together to create our fourth grade community. New to the team is Phyllis Sussman, who will be teaching 4th grade Judaic Studies, and new to the staff is Justin Schwaber, our new math teacher (for 3rd and 4th grade), both of whom are thrilled to be joining the team.

The team’s email addresses are:

• Hilary Davis: hdavis@hannahsenesh.org 
• Rimma Berenshtein: rberenshtein@hannahsenesh.org 
• Tomer Yaney: tyaney@hannahsenesh.org 
• Justin Schwaber: jschwaber@hannahsenesh.org
• Phyllis Sussman: psussman@hannahsenesh.org 
• Sammi Butwin: sbutwin@hannahsenesh.org

TO EMAIL THE ENTIRE TEAM, PLEASE USE

THIS EMAIL ADDRESS:

4thgradeteam2020@hannahsenesh.org 

 

PODS

In each pod, like our own little communities, we have created three different mascots. We have:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pod A — the Yellow Wolves                      Pod B — the Green Dogs          Pod C — the Blue Pandas 

DISMISSAL

We 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 pick-up, directly to the whole team the day before. If there happens to be a last-minute or urgent change, please send communication by 12:00 pm the latest. Especially with this year’s daily schedule, 12pm is the latest that the team will be checking emails, specifically regarding dismissal. We appreciate your mindfulness, as we are not on email throughout the day. 

Items to make sure your child packs each day:

• Face Mask — to protect themselves and others from spreading any germs
• Water Bottle — to keep hydrated throughout the day
  • a reminder that using the water fountain is NOT an option at this time
• Sweater/Sweatshirt/layers — with COVID regulations, windows will ALWAYS be kept open. This means that it can get VERY cold in any of our three classrooms (116, 117, 118)

Events Coming Up:

• Back to School Night on Monday, September 28 @ 7pm [on Zoom — link to come]

 

Thank you for your help and partnership. We are looking forward to the first day of school!

All the best,

The Fourth Grade Team!

Judaics with Phyllis

I am so excited for the opportunity to teach your children Judaics this year!  Years ago I was the 4th grade Judaics teacher at Senesh, and it is such a treat to be back in the classroom.  On Thursday we participated in our first Covid friendly tefila.  Since we are not able to sing in school this year, we listened to the inspiring song “We Rise” by Batya Levine (in connection to our weekly Torah portion – Nitzavim – which means “You Stand”) and drew/wrote in our tefila journals.  This year we will draw upon silent tefila, journaling, listening to prayers from around the world and even yoga to enhance our understanding and connection to Jewish prayer. Students also reflected on the ways that our pod communities will take responsibility for each other this year in response to the quote “All of Israel (or Pods 4A, 4B and 4C) is Responsible for One Another.”