Building our edible Sukkah
Our third grade class began with a puzzle. Twenty six Hebrew letters were divided among the ten students in 3A and sent by mail to each student just before the first day of school. The carefully decorated letters arrived at school with the students on the first days; we put them up in a large pocket chart and looked at them for a day or two until one of the students unscrambled the first word in the puzzle (riddle) - b'hatzlacha (good luck, success.) It took another day of two to find the next word - talmidim (students, m.); from there it was simple to find talmidot (students, f.) and a second b'hatzlachah. You see the product in the photograph above.
B'hatzlachah is the theme and guiding spirit for our year in the Hebrew and Judaic Studies classes. We wish all our third graders success in all they undertake during this next year. We talked about their hopes and dreams in this classroom. Everyone wanted to learn more Hebrew, have good friends, learn a lot of Torah, learn about Jewish history, have interesting lessons (a challenge to me), and have a lot of fun. This lead us to list some rules we will need to reswpect in order for our hopes and dreams to come true. We listed these, as well; everyone agreed on being repectful of others, our selves and our environment. many students added - Treat others the way you want to be treated. Success and respect - fine themes as we consentrate on academics.
When we began the year, we were still in the Jewish month of Av, solid summer month; all we noted here was the sad destrution of the Temple in Jerusalem - twice. As we moved to the month of Elul, the 12th month on our Jewish calendar, we knew that Rosh Hashanah was fast approaching; as is customary each morning in Elul (except on Shabbat) the shofar is blown. We have done just that in our classroom, giving each student a chance to try his/her skill as a shofar blower with many successes. Do ask ask your student why this is done. We talked about the four steps in T'shuva; this is also a good question for your children.
Watching the lunar eclipse was a once in a lifetime experience. We were amazed by the sight filtered through special glasses. It was a good time to note that the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar.
We quickly turned our attention to holidays fast approaching in the month of Tishrei - the first month of the Jewish year. We read a library book called "Which Month Am I?" This gave us an opportunity to review the months of the Jewish calendar noting two things - first which holidays came in each month (several months have no holidays), and,second, in which month did each of our birthdays fall.All this information is noted on a chart in our room.
There was a lot to review and a lot to add to our understanding as Rosh Hashanah approaches. We easily recalled all the customs and ceremonies connected with this important holiday. There is only one mitzvah that the Torah says we must fulfill. Your third grader will be able to fill you in here. The library book "What Does the Greeting Shanah Tovah Say?" challenges us to write meaningful greetings, greetings that 'suit' the person you are greeting. This asked each of us to think of a meaningful personal greeting for each classmate. Each student will pick a name of a third grader out of a bag and send a special Shanah Tovah card to that student. This is part of a school-wide project!
The first field trip of the year was to Greenacres Honey Bee Farm. We learned how the honey bees made the honey we eat with apples on Rosh Hashanah.
Did you know that honey bees actually can communicate? We learned how this happens. We watched up close how bees gathered pollen and nectar as we waked from flower patch to flower patch. If you don't bother them they won't bother you. We saw a live bee hive and learned that there could only be one queen and all the workers ware females! We watched Joe Phelps (one of our guides) cut the tops of two sealed honey combs and extract the honey by centrifical force in an extractor. And finally, we got to taste the honey. We tasted three kinds - buckwheat, clover and one I can't remember. Please ask your student.
In keeping with our hope to learn a lot of Hebrew, we have read several of the Tal Am library books library. We began with "The Riddle at the Beginning of the Year' and noted that their riddle was much easier than the one our students received in the mail. We continued with "The Most Important Box"; there was competition among about a dozen boxes - first aid, candies, games, art supplies, musical instruments, tzedakah, to name a few; the students voted and split between tzedakh and first aid but tzedakah won out. But it turned out that the book had an entirely different box in mind - The Memory Box. This year the third graders will each have a Memory Box which they are decorating with much care. These Memory Boxes will be filled with special stories, projects, photos, drawings, cards - all special things that the third graders want to keep safe during this year and save as memories of third grade.