Thank You God

Each Friday morning, we add a new poster to our Modim Anachnu Lach prayer. We started by thanking God for sunshine and our families. The Kohavim class wanted to thank God for nature and illustrated so many items from nature- grass, trees, seeds, beans and more. The Ruach class was next and chose to thank God for God. They illustrated their concept of how God made the world and designed a detailed world from a huge variety of materials. And last week the Shemesh class said they wanted to say thank you to God for school. Since their class name means "sun" they made a collage of a sun and each added a painted ray. I look forward to seeing how our whole school prayer develops over the course of the year as each class takes turns adding to it.

Modim Anachnu Lach- Thank You God

Modim Anachnu Lach is a prayer that is traditionally said the Saturday morning service at Temple Beth Shalom. The prayerbook translates the prayer as "we acknowledge with thanks that You, Adonai, are our God and the God of our ancestors forever."

In our own TBSCC version, we have made those words and ideas more accessible to young children by simplifying both the Hebrew and English words. We added the American Sign Language so that the children have a visual representation of the words they are reciting.

Each week, a different class has a chance to brainstorm an item for which they give thanks. The children spend the week creating a poster to represent their idea. On Fridays, we share the poster at our Shabbat celebration and together, we say, "Thank you God for ______. Modim Anachnu Lach." This is a great and very simple prayer to try at home.

V'ahavta

Visitors to our Shabbat celebration often comment on the fact that even our youngest children know the Hebrew words to the first line of the V'ahavta. Using the hand motions to help them remember the words, we often hear the children reciting them in the classroom. As they get older, this familiarity will support them in learning to read Hebrew, including the rest of the V'ahavta prayer. And you shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. V'ahavta Et Adonai Elochecha, B'chol L'vavcha Uv'col Nafsh'cha Uv'chol M'odecha.

Vahavta

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.

V’ahavta et Adonai Elohecha, b’chol l’vavcha uv’chol nafsh’cha uv’chol m’odecha.

Shabbat Shindig Mezuzah Making!!

The Tel Aviv class was so excited to welcome parents, grandparents, and siblings into our class for our Shabbat Shindig! We started off by sharing a bit of what we had learned about muzuzot this past week and the Tel Aviv class lead everyone in a beautiful singing of the Shama! The children showed their family members the muzuzot they had created and got to work on creating a personal klaf, a personal scroll to put inside of the mezuzah. There were English and Hebrew blessings to choose from and parents had the opportunity to write their own blessings. Children glued the blessings in and drew pictures around the words. Then the scrolls were taped up and muzuzot were ready to take home!

I am so pleased of how proud each student was of the mezuzah they had created. Lily and Hannah’s families have already sent in pictures of their mezuzah on their doorposts! If anyone else has hung them up please share! We would love to see! It has definitely been a neat and creative week and we were so glad to have families come in to share it with us. Thanks so much for visiting and learning with us. It was a wonderful morning!

Our Prayers, and Hopes...

We built the Kotel once again, and kept it up long enough to place our drawings, prayers and blessings in the cracks between the "stones".

Don't tell Anybody~ but I AM listening to you mom!!!

We don't always think our children are listening to us as we try to provide them with life lessons such as an appreciation of our spiritual gift of prayer.

Well today imagine this touching moment...

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn around...

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch the ground...

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, show your shoe...

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, go upstairs...

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, say your prayers....

Immediately our friend, Eli started reciting the Shema

"Shema Israel, Adonai Elohanu, Adonai

Many times we don't think our children our listening to us, but this is just one example that they are. What a beautiful moment!!!

Where Did the Torah Go?

The children know that when the torah comes out, we all stand to greet it.  Each week they look forward to the silly game of where's torah.  Could the torah be under the chair?  Outside?  Where's the torah?  We always seem to find the torah in the end, safe and snug in the ark, and just waiting for us to sing the shema.

Where Did the Torah Go?

The children know that when the torah comes out, we all stand to greet it.  Each week they look forward to the silly game of where's torah.  Could the torah be under the chair?  Outside?  Where's the torah?  We always seem to find the torah in the end, safe and snug in the ark, and just waiting for us to sing the shema.

Shema

The Unicorn class was all lined up and walking down the hallway to the sanctuary for our school Shabbat service.  When the children spontaneously started to recite the shema, we were able to capture this bit on camera. 

Shema

The Unicorn class was all lined up and walking down the hallway to the sanctuary for our school Shabbat service.  When the children spontaneously started to recite the shema, we were able to capture this bit on camera. 

Shema