More Letters, More Fun!!

  ק  KOOF

ק Koof makes a "k" sound and has a Keshet (rainbow) . Your child now knows 2 letters that make a "k" sound, (koof) and (kaf). Here are some words that begin with a koof:

                                                       Rainbow      Keh-shet      קֶשֶׁת

                                                  Community    K-he-lah         קְהִלָּה

                                                       Monkey         Kof              קוֹף

           Small          Ka-tan             קָטָן

      Summer          Ka-yetz           קַיִץ

         Cold              Kar                   קַר

        Holy             Ka-dosh               קָדוֹשׁ

      TSADEE  צ

Our letter last week was the letter צ (tsadee). צ makes a "ts" sound. A way to remember צ is to look at the triangles that the letter creates. The triangles look like pizza slices that were removed. When you say the word pizza, the sound that is created by the "zz" sound is identical to that of the letter. Here are some words we learned this week:

Color     Tseh-va     צֶבַע

Bird        Tsee-por     צִפּוֹר

Turtle     Tsav         צָב

North      Tsa-phone        צָפוֹן

Frog       Tsfar-day-ah     צְפַרְדֵּעַ

Tzedakah                       צְדָקָה

Yellow       Tsa-hov          צָהֹוב

Can you believe we learned our third vowel?!
 

This week we learned the Hebrew vowel known as a "chirik". The vowel makes an "e" sound. For example, the sound that is created by the letter "e" in the the word k"e"y. Like our other 2 vowels it is found underneath the letter. Here are the ways I teach the kids to remember its sound.

1.) It's one dot so it's so "E"asy to remember. 
2.) Also, it looks like a single pea.

Sometimes this vowel is followed by the letter י (yud). Despite the addition of the י (yud) we still say only "e".

Judaics Update:  

Captain Chesed came for a visit and Mechina earned their Chesed Badges! WOOHOO!

 Kibud Av V'Em  (Honoring Your Father and Mother)

Last week in Judaics, we focused on the mitzvah of honoring our parents. We discussed all that our parents give to us, and all we can do to honor them.  Mechina learned that it is a commandment (mitzvah)  to honor your parents. In addition, we spoke about the ways we fulfill this mitzvah now, as well as how we can fulfill it in the future.  We are even finishing up a secret surprise for you! Shh....

ALEF & VAV & MITZVOT TOO!

The one and only א (ALEPH)

       We have officially learned the most famous letter in the Aleph-Bet, א (aleph). Aleph is different from the other letters we have learned because...א is silent unless it has a vowel. NO VOWEL= NO SOUND. Here are some very important and interesting א words.

Red       Ah-dom        אדום

Lion     Ar-yeh       אריה

Mom     E-mah     אמא

Dad       Ah-ba     אבּא

Food      Oh-chel    אכל

Spring    Ah-vev    אביב

Letter (in a word) Oh-t     אות

VAV

Vav makes a "v" sound, and looks like a ורד (vered:rose) It has a bud on the top and a thin stem. .  Be careful, lots of people think it's a reish.  You have to look for a short top on ו (vav).The following are the ו (vav) words that we learned this week.

Pink       Va-roh-d     ורוד

Forever     Va-ed     ועד

Curtain       Ve-lon       וילון

Rose         Veh-red     ורד

Drumroll Please...Our New Letter is DALET

ד makes a "d" sound and has a diving board. Once again, we had to use our eagle eyes to make sure that we didn't miss the diving board and mistake it for a ר (reish).

Words we learned that start with the letter ד:

Honey     D-vash       דבש

Door        Deh-let      דלת

Bee          D-vo-rah  דבורה

Flag         Deh-gel      דגל

Bear         Dov            דב

Fish         Dag             דג

Glue        Deh-vek      דבק

"5 Book Strut" by Noam Katz

Oh Yeah! More New Letters!

More New Letters

This week, the letter ב (vet) will be our focus.  Just like several other Hebrew letters, vet is a fraternal twin! Yep, ב (vet) is בּ (bet)'s twin.  It is very easy to tell they are in the same family because the only difference is that vet has no belly button.  A great way to remember the difference, is to say:

  A  בּ (bet)  WITHOUT a bellybutton is a ב (vet).

In the past few weeks Mechina has also learned the letters

 כ (chaf) and ר (reish).

• כ (chaf) is a fraternal twin to the letter  כּ (kaf).  כ makes a "ch" sound, think of l'CHaim.  The sound is created at the back of the throat.

• ר (reish) makes a "r" sound and has a round roof. The fact that its roof is round will be important later on.

Judaics: Mitzvot

Along with all the Hebrew we are learning, we have also been learning about several mitzvot.

Bikur Cholim (Visiting the Sick)

To learn about this mitzvah we read the book Get Well Soon . It tells the story of a young boy that is eager to do the mitzvah of Bikur Cholim.  It shows all the ways that we can help those that are sick. Here are some examples we discussed:

1.) Making a card

2.) Bringing them food

3.) Visiting them and keeping them company

4.) Reading them a book

5.) Sending Flowers

In class we decided to create Refuah Sh'lema (Get Better) cards for patients at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. It was amazing seeing them so excited to help brighten another child's day.

TALMUD TORAH (Studying Torah)

For the past couple of week's we have focused on this mitzvah. Talmud Torah is the mitzvah of studying Torah. To do this Mitzvah, we learned the blessing for the study of Torah and began to read from a child's Torah. Much of our conversations have been  about why we study Torah. Torah study is important because the Torah teaches us lessons.  In addition, we are in the process of creating a beautiful Torah art project, complete with the blessing. It will be coming home next week.

Oh, and did I mention they are learning that the Torah has 5 books and that they are learning their names.

Saying Thank You to Our Veterans.

Mechina & Kindergarten created special posters for our Veteran's day Shabbat.

You Can Never Have Enough Pictures

Shabbat Helpers

Can you make a Hebrew Maze?