Shalom Kitah Gimel Students and Families.
Today students led the Blessings for Torah Study and cookies and the attendance conversation.
Modern Hebrew Language
Students were given 2 minutes to look over the vocabulary words which they’d been assigned last week for homework. We then applied these words to the Surprise Box game. Each student, in turn, reached into the Surprise Box and pulled out an object representing a vocabulary word such as iparon (pencil), sefer (book), machberet (notebook), and even shulchan (table – a very small one). Students named the object in Hebrew and used that Hebrew word in a sentence pattern based on positive and negative possessive forms. (“I have,” “I don’t have”). The class responded by using the form “You have.” (Yeish l’cha or Yeish Lach)
Following the Surprise Box activity, I held up items that had been in the Box and said a Hebrew sentence using the possessive form Yeish Li (I have). Depending on whether or not the item I held up matched my sentence, students had to respond with a “Yes” or “No” Hebrew sentence using possessive form.
Students completed 3 written exercises in Chapter 5 of their Hebrew text, Shalom Ivrit. These exercises reviewed use of maculine and feminine forms for verbs and adjectives and knowledge of vocabulary.
I reminded the students that reviewing vocabulary assigned for homework is absolutely necessary in order to participate fully in the language activities which we do in class. Our motto now is “Ten Minutes!” – meaning “Please review vocabulary words assigned for homework at least 10 minutes each day.”
Please encourage students to set aside 10 Minutes daily for Hebrew homework. It really makes a difference in their progress.
Torah Study
Prior to discussing this week’s Torah Portion, Va-Yak’hel, we reviewed the highlights of the five previous Torah Portions. In the five previous Portions, God gives the children of Israel the Ten Commandments directly. Then to Moses, alone, God communicates a code of laws; elaborate instructions for building the Mishkan (Portable Tabernacle) and its furnishing; and directions for the Priest’s clothing, ornaments, and ritual utensils.
In Va-Yak’hel, the children of Israel, under the direction of Betzalel actually build and craft as God had instructed.
We noted that the children of Israel are warned three times to oberve Shabbat.
Students suggested that the Israelites might be so busy building the Mishkan that they might forget shabbat.
Also, as a student pointed out, in the Portion Ki Tissa, the Israelites even forgot that God had freed them from Egypt and created a Golden Calf to worship.
We observed that in Va-Yak’hel, God is present through Betzalel whose skills and creativity are divinely inspired.
As they lined up for T’fila, students examined modern Hebrew used in an Israeli calendar on the wall. They also used Hebrew nouns and adjectives in sentences as their “Ticket Out.”
In T’fila, students practiced four lines of Torah Trope, including new Trope symbols. They found the new Trope symbols in the V’Ahavta Prayer – and applied the melodies to the Prayer words. Next week the Cantor said we’ll move “beyond V’Ahavta.”
L’Hitraot – See you soon,
Morah Ronni
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