May 1 recap

Intro: The students were able to find the words on the second page of the worksheets but weren't able to do the matching. So it was back to the drawing board for another way of teaching it so it sticks.

I asked the students questions from each line. "What word in line 1 tells us that Hashem made the world with his words?" שאמר
This specific reading of the text led to some very interesting questions that showed a deep comprehension.

• Why does it need to repeat the word מלך so many times? (we discussed themes in poetry.  I have a son in the class so I know that they are doing a unit on poetry in the afternoon.   I was mucho impressed that they had the academic vocabulary to discuss the ideas of literature, themes and poetry using appropriate terms. I made up a impromptu poem with a refrain to illustrate the concept) 
• Why does it not mention ה' by name until the second half? 
• Why do we need to say these praises each day? 
• What is the difference between אמר והיה העולם and עושה בראשית? 
• One student even noted that the first half talks about ideas similar to Yigdal and suggested that maybe after a long day involved in secular things we need to remind ourselves of Who ה' is and what we believe before we can praise Hashem. 

Chumash:  The room is all set up beautifully for learning Chumash. The shorashim, easy and hard words are up, the sheets from last unit have been emptied into their portfolios.  Some words on the felt were not in albhabetical order, so my advanced students volunteered to work alphabetizing them. This was helpful because they don't need to give their full attention to the other work and alphabetizing is a useful skill for looking up things in a glossary. The new pesukim linear translations are in and ready to be learned.

We are going to start with Pesukim 25-27. Translation sheets
1)  start off with doing the skill work on the board   עבדתיך' עבודתי שלחני ואתנה. I have two white boards so the shorashim went on the left board, the grammar rules went on the right.
The class figured out from the  the grammar rules on the board that the pesukim would be a conversation. I like to draw the new shorashim which keeps it more entertaining and teaches the vocabulary more naturally.

2) Ask questions:

•     if יעקב thinks it is time to leave, what should the conversation go like?
•    When do you think יעקב will want to go and why?
•     Will לבן want him stay? How will he convince יעקב to stay.

3) Read פסוקים inside the חומש

• call on students to read phrases
• read as a class
• kids ask questions based on the fact that the pesukim differ from what they expected. 
• read rashis
• read pesukim as a class

4) Fill in translations - the students paired themselves up. I sat in the back of the room. Some students like the security of working with me. Others prefer to work with friends.

•  Level 1 - with teacher/ friend
• Level 2 - with friend, and fill in שרשיםת גוף & זמן

 Limudei Kodesh: Discuss that Rabbi Akiva's students weren't נוהג כבוד זה בזה. Finish up halachos of sefira


Ivrit:  Using a book is much less fun than the free style journaling. Today, the book has a comic of a girl inviting her friend to a party. I don't want to repeat the boredom (for me and I assuming the kids) of reading as a group. We will have groups of 2 read the conversation to each other. Then they will pretend to invite a friend to a party.
In conversation: I reinforced רחוב ________ מספר ______ ש and אני מזמין,מזמינה
בשעה: ________  and להתראות>

Guided practice: Write a sentence inviting a friend to your house. Give the address and time. End the conversation politely: אני מזמינה אותך לביתי - רחוב אלמ מספר 33 בשעה 10. להתראות!

Homework: RT: כה-כז, R: כח-לב
Homework sheet with translating phrases and מי אמר למי
Write a conversation between 2 people, 1 inviting the other.

Skill: Understanding conversation, working as a group, holding a conversation.

April 30 recap

Intro: Give out these worksheets as a conclusion to ברוך שאמר -


Chumash:  


New Unit: Yaakov earning his own sheep by outsmarting  Lavan
Pre Perek Prep: Part 1 - without the binder for help
                         Part 2 - with the binder for help
Differentiation: Enrichment - kids who finish all words hang up cards
                        Remediation - Kids who don't know Part 1 words look up in binder
                      Other Remediation - Only do half of the words in Part 2, if they look familiar

Other Prep: The rest of this perek is dependant on understanding what are the goats and sheep referring to.
We will  color and label the goats on this worksheet.

Pirkei Avos: We didn't get a chance to do the individual projects for Perek 2 on Friday because of the test. Better late than never! (This bombed - the kids couldn't draw figures by copying from the board. Note to self- draw the people first! or teach them to draw using a grid)

Ivrit:  From Mikraa Migdalor, p75-76. A nice unit on greetings and introductions. We will practice some greetings, read the story. If time, we will write a journal entry about ourselves. (This was somewhat of a bore. I hate reading literature from a book. Next time, after putting the words on the board, I'm going to try having the students read the story on their own with a friend and then write up their own introduction of themselves.)

I bought my own Auto-Nikud software!

So, I was really excited about http://www.nakdan.com/Nakdan.aspx but it was only a trial period and I used it to much in the trial period. I realized that I loved not having to put in nekudos. I like nakdan, From what I could tell in the Israeli reviews was that it works 85% of the time.

Then I found out that Dagesh Pro was on sale for $69.95 and it comes with 10,000 graphics and auto-nikud. The extra features from Dagesh seemed worth the extra $20 that came with the shipping and tax.  I'll let you know how it goes

Pirkei Avos translated and formatted

Pirkei Avos 
Since Pirkei Avos is read between Pesach & Shavuos, I put together the text of pirkei avos with Nekudos, and the translation
Perek 1 translated
Perek 1 activities

Perek 2 translated

Perek 2 activities: For Mishna 1: Fold a paper staple in the middle and then cut the sides.


Mishna 4: Make a paper doll chain and separate one from the group
For

List of Biographies

List of Biographies
Why teach Gedolim?

Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel
Rav Aharon Kotler
Rav Henoch Leibowitz
Chofetz Chaim
The Rambam
R' Irving Bunim
Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook
Rav Yosef Sholom Elyashiv
The Ramban
Rav Moshe Feinstein
Baal HaTurim
Rav Ovadiah Yosef
Rav Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg

Sarah Schnerir
Rav Chaim Soloveitchik
Chazon Ish

April 26 recap

It will be a busy day

Intro: let the kids know the modified schedule.
Tefillah: We went straight into davening




Chumash:  Review: 
Shorashim - kids act out shorashim
Game - Prep: Filled a bag with yellow, orange and green papers.
Put kids in two lines in front of the felt boards for two teams
Round 1: Each kid put their hand in a bag and picked out a colored paper. They had to choose a flashcard from the felt board and translate. They had to identify the names (in orange). For the Imahos, they had to list their sons. For the Shevatim, they had to list the reason for their names. They write their name on a piece of paper and put it in my raffle box which will be picked next week.
Round 2: Each kid got 1 orange, 2 yellow and 1 green paper to "spend" They wrote down their initials first
on the papers. They went down the line and got to choose a word and try to translate.

Activities we didn't get to: Chavrusa time: Half the students move their chairs to inside of the U of desks facing a classmate. They take turns reading the hebrew, and their classmate translates into English. They switch for the next pasuk. After a buzzer rings after two minutes, everyone in the inner circles moves over one seat leaving their chumashim on the desk. I poll to see which pasuk everyone is up to and take the average. They read the pasukim with their new partner until the buzzer sounds.  If there are an odd number of students, the teacher gets to be a partner. Otherwise, I walk around and join different groups.


Gedolim unit: Chazon Ish - Many of my biographies were chosen because a student or a sibling was named after a gadol. I have a student name Avraham Yeshaya and it is his turn to be featured. PDF of biography

The Store: I give out Tip-Top dollars every day if certain objectives are met. Students also get paid for certain extras - such as learning over Yom Tov, davening over vacation, saying tehillim at home, and doing independent enrichment work. Every other Rosh Chodesh, we have a store. where they can pay for various prized. Today was the store - I had a student finish the whole sefer tehillim so he really raked it in!

Biography of the Chazon Ish

PDF of biography

Rav Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz (Chazon Ish)

(1878 -1953)

Rav Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz was born in Kosava, Lithuania to Rav Shmaryahu Yosef and Rasha Leah Karelitz. His parents had 6 children who died. His mother davened that she should have a son who would be a great tzaddik. He also had a brother Rav Meir Karelitz and a sister, Miriam. His sister married Rav Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, the Steipler Gaon. His nephew is y”blc Rav Chaim Kanievsky. He did not have any children

Rav Avraham Yeshaya was remarkable because he was able to learn for many hours at a time. He learned all of Torah. He also studied science and math and used all his knowledge to pasken halacha. During World War I, he never left the Beis Medrash even though there were battles going on close to where he was living. His wife ran a store, and he learned in the Beis Medrash. The non-Jews who shopped in the store would wait for him to come to the store to give them blessings.

Rav Avraham Yeshaya wanted to be private. When he was 13, he made a neder to learn Torah L’shma and not take money for it. Whenever he wrote Torah thoughts, he published his ideas anonymously and simply signed them “איש.” In 1912, he wrote a Sefer on Shulchan Aruch called Chazon Ish with no author. Soon, people discovered he was a Talmid Chacham and the author.

In 1913, there was the trial of Mendel Beilus who was accused of being a murderer in a blood libel. The Russian government also hed another trail to prove that Jews are murderers. The Chazon Ish ignored his wish to be anonymous and wrote a 24 page letter proving how much Jews value life.

By 1920, the Chazon Ish moved to Vilna and learned from the gaon Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, Although the Chazon Ish wanted to live quietly, there was much that needed to be done for the Jewish community after World War I and before World War II. Despite his lack of interest in power, he did as much as he could to help Vilna be run according to Torah.

The Chazon Ish wanted to perform the Mitzvos of Eretz Yisrael such as shemitta and teruma and maser that could only be done there. He said that the halacha is that a Jew must live in Israel if he can afford to do so. He thought that Jews should live in every and any part of Eretz Yisrael. He felt that a person’s neshama could become the greatest in Eretz Yisrael and that Jews needed to act with as much kedusha as possible when in the house of Hashem – Eretz Yisrael. In 1933, he, his wife and mother came to Tel Aviv. He planned to live in the same simple and anonymous way he tried in Vilna.

Rav Chaim Ozer, the Gadol haDor, had a different plan. Rav Chaim Ozer wrote to Rav Kook that ארי עלה מבבל, a lion has come up from Galus. The Jews of Eretz Yisrael should now ask all their shaylos to the Chazon Ish.

He first moved to Tel Aviv and was very upset that most homes did not have a mezuzah. He found a sponsor and arranged for 2,000 mezuzos to be sent from Vilna to Tel Aviv. He went around putting up mezuzos all over Tel Aviv.

He was asked to move to Bnei Brak which was just being built. Someone offered him a job as a mashgiach, but he refused. He only wanted to live from the income of selling his sefarim. The Chazon Ish refused to take any extra money for the sale of his sefarim and would mail back any extra money people gave him. The Chazon Ish rented a very simple apartment with no running water. He was so poor he didn’t even own a Shas. A Jew from Chicago, Baruch Meyers,asked if he could build a house for the Chazon Ish. The Chazon Ish refused. Mr. Meyers built the house anyway and convinced the Chazon Ish to live there. The Chazon Ish agreed on the condition he pay rent. The Chazon Ish moved in with all his broken, old furniture. Each month, Mr. Meyers refused to take the rent, so the Chazon Ish gave the rent money on his behalf to tzedaka. Now, the house is used for a Talmid Torah.

The Chazon Ish only spoke publicly two times. The first time, he was asked to speak on Rosh Hashana. The Chazon Ish agreed to speak in a side room. He quoted a Mishna in Pirkei Avos that says one should online live in a place of Torah- אינני דר אלא במקום תורה . The Chazon Ish repeated the Mishna and sat down. That was the whole speech. He helped guide Bnei Brak to live according to the highest standards in halacha. He made sure that Bnei Brak would have a cemetery, elementary schools, girls schools, yeshivos,  and everything a Jewish community needs to live according to the highest halachic standard.

The second time he spoke was when the Chazon Ish found out that the pump that supplied Bnai Brak with water was fixed on Shabbos by a Jew. One Jew may not benefit from the work done by another Jew on Shabbos. That Shabbos, the Chazon Ish went to the shul and said, “The water may not be used this Shabbos except for medical needs.” The next week, he funded the fixing of the pump so it would not break down again.

The Chazon Ish also answered many medical shailos. A man had a lung condition and asked if he should go outside Israel to an expert for a special surgery. The Chazon Ish told him that he would live if he stayed in Israel, and he would die if he left. When asked why, the Chazon Ish explained that there is a debate what the halacha is for an animal with a similar lung issue. According to the Mechaber, the posek of E”Y, the animal will live and is kosher. According to the Rama, the posek outside of E”Y, the animal is a traifa and will die. The Chazon Ish told him to stay in the place where it was paskened that he would live.

An American once asked him “How do you live?” He replied, “I live from doing others favors.”

In 1940, Rav Chaim Ozer died and had no children. The Chazon Ish then changed from a private person to helping all the Jews in Israel. The Chazon Ish felt he had to take over the job that Rav Chaim Ozer had done. He also lived at a time when Jewish life changed so much. The Holocaust ended in 1945 which was followed by the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The Chazon Ish was impacted greatly by these events. He had a heart attack at the kosel when he found out how many Jews were killed in the Holocaust. He felt he needed to take care of the Jews that remained.

He led Klal Yisrael even though he didn’t have any wealth or position. He helped build over 500 Mikvaos, and sent  many rabbis to secular communities to build Torah by building schools, kashrus, and shuls. He said that the chareidi community should participate in the elections for the Israel government even though it was run  by secular Jews. He also paskened some very important shailos such as where is the International Date Line, how large is a kzayis, how to keep shmitta and many other practical halachos.

In 1952, David Ben Gurion was the prime minister. There were issues that needed to be worked out that impacted the chareidi community. Ben Gurion met with Chazon Ish. The Chazon Ish was able to explain what the sensitivities of the Torah community are so that a compromise could be reached.

In the 1940s, people thought that Torah Jews would disappear. By the time the Chazon Ish died in 1953, because of his leadership, the Torah community was growning and blossoming. 

April 25 recap

Tefillah: We reviewed the  idea that ה'  gives us  eternal עולם הבא for the smallest Mitzva. I asked the students what was their easiest Mitzvah. One said tzitzis, another shouted out "I love You, Hashem" etc.

Today, we spoke about all the praises we give ה' at the end of ברוך שאמר. This is based on an idea I found on a great website Praying With Fire -  http://www.prayingwithfire.org/images/Newsletter52.pdf .
Activity: 

1. Ask each student how he would describe his grandmother in 1 word.
2. Get a big list
3. Asked would this word be enough to praise her if she was being praised at a dinner?
4. How would you describe her at a dinner? (Many words)
5. With Hashem, we praise ה' many ways and still can't fully appreciate His greatness.

Review: During ברוך שאמר we paused when we said  ברוך שכר טוב ליראיו , closed our eyes, and imagined that Hashem is putting away all our enjoyment in עולם הבא.

Chumash:  Review: First, we reviewed yesterday's pesukim. I read the translation incorrectly and the class had to correct them. is a little bit of a change. Then we did a worksheet that had the same words with different endings. The kids worked in self chosen groups and some worked with me.


פסוקים יט-כד - We learned פסוק יט by looking in Onkelos.
We learned the content of the Rashi's
We were running really short on time so we filled out the linear translation for pesukim כ-כב.
Best questions of the day: Why did יוסף's naming have a different structure?

Ivrit: Today we went back to using our text for the year Mikra'ah Migdalor Part II

1. I wrote the hard words that were in red on the board and using pictures, acting and other hebrew words got the kids to translate them. The students wrote the english of the words they needed over the hard words.
The story was a dialogue, so I split up the parts and had 4 different kids read the story. The exercise in the book was on חשב ש. . .

2. The students wrote sentence about what each one thought. By making the work more personal, they were more involved in the activity.
3. Students shared their sentences

4. We did the workbook exercises orally.

Limudei Kodesh.  We finally  read the story in hebrew about the students of Rabbi Akiva a great series called מעגל השנה written by צ רוזנברג. It is a 4 volume set on the Jewish year that was adapted to the English series Round and Round the Jewish year by Feldheim.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day - the Rosh chodesh store (a few days late because of technical difficulties, review for the Chumash test on Friday, gedolim, finishing up halachos of Sefira.

Make your own Picture Dictionary: online resources working together

Language is learned visually. A mother says "shoe" to a baby as she dresses him. She points to her nose and names it.

I try to provide as many visual cues for all my hebrew vocabulary lists. It takes me so much time to find the right Here is a great resource for this which requires a number of extra steps but will save you so much time having to find all the pictures yourself

Word lists

Enchanted Learning - An English Picture Dictionary

Choose a topic - 

Select all the pictures on the web page & Copy (Ctrl-C)

Make a usable format for the pictures

Open a New Microsoft Word Document and Paste 

Select all text (Ctrl-A)

Remove all hyperlinks (Ctrl-Shift-F9)

Convert table to text (paragraphs)

Prepare text to be converted into a new table: 

Replace line with tabs Find: ^l  Replace: ^t

Select all text (Ctrl-A) 

Convert text to table

Translating text into hebrew

Paste the words from Enchanted Learning into  translate.google.com

Select the translated hebrew text and paste it in a new word document

You will need to edit the text to make sure that all the words were translated correctly.

Prepare the hebrew text to be merged with the pictures

                                                  : Find: ^l^l  Replace with ^p

                                                   Find: ^p^l Replace with ^p

                                                   Find ^l Replace with " * "

Put in Nekudos 

Go to http://www.nakdan.com/Nakdan.aspx (you  will need to buy the program after a trial use)

Select approximately 10 lines from the hebrew document. 

Paste into the  area on the right.

If there is a word that has the wrong nekudos, click on the word. Additional options to choose will appear.

Click נקד הכול.

Copy all the Text with nekudos

Paste it back into the word document and select another 10 lines of text 

Keep adding nekudos until you have completed the whole document.

Get the hebrew text ready to be combine with English

Select All - Ctrl-A

Convert Text to Table (use * as the divider)

Select the two columns of text and copy

Combine hebrew, english, and pictures

Click on  the table with the english words

On the Layout Tab, select Properties

Change the table to right-to-left

Insert two columns to the left of the pictures

Select the columns

Paste your words

You can now use your new dictionary.

You can sort it, or put it in davka writer to do further editing.

It sounds complicated, but once you get the hang of it - it's a breeze.

april 24 recap

Tefillah: Reviewed the  idea from ברוך שאמר  that ה's does miracles   every day. This was a theme we really delved into with אדון עולם. Every day, before Tefilla, I asked each child to write one thing that was incredible that ה'  until we came up with 100 things. I think asking a similar question again will be over kill.

Today we are focusing on ברוך שכר טוב ליראיו based on an idea I found on a great website Praying With Fire - http://www.prayingwithfire.org/images/Newsletter50.pdf.
Activity: 

1. Ask each student to list a favorite thing and rate it on the scale of 1-10
2. Close your eyes and imagine that you get everything you enjoy x 1000.  
3. Ask what is the smallest easiest mitzvah they can do. 
4. Note that when they say  ברוך שכר טוב ליראיו  they will just have done a מצווה. We will pause, close our eyes, and imagine that Hashem is putting away all our enjoyment in עולם הבא.

Chumash:  Review: Today is a little bit of a change. We filled out the translation of yesterday's pesukim today instead of immediately after the lesson. With the video, some technology trouble and recess indoors,  I couldn't print off the translation sheets in time. It will be interesting to see how many students could do their homework without this writing exercise. I use the writing of the translation as guided practice/independent practice for translating the pasukim so the students are able to do the homework with little parental help. I'll chalk this up to action research

I asked 3 students to join me at the back table and gave the other students the option to work alone, with me, or in a group. There is a column for Shorashim, Pronoun and tense so when the students finished reviewing what we learned yesterday, they could do skill building exercises. When they were done with that, I let them translate the upcoming pesukim for today as much as possible. Go, Differentiated instruction


פסוקים יד-יח - Uh, Oh, cool pesukim alert - the story of the Dudaim and Reuven, Leah and Rochel.
Since our translation sheets were out, we learned by filling out out the sheets first. Most of the students were far less engaged when the English was there and analyzed the hebrew text less. Some weaker students actually were able to come up with more questions

Hard words: 
nouns:  קְצִיר חִטִּ֗ים דֽוּדָאִים֙ אֹתָ֔ם  חֲמִישִֽׁי שְׂכָרִ֔י
לָכֵן֙ הַֽמְעַט֙ שִׁפְחָתִ֖י דּֽוּדָאֵ֖י     בִּימֵ֣י
שרשים: מצא, שכר, שכב
וַיָּבֵ֣א   קַחְתֵּ֣ךְ שָׂכֹ֣ר שְׂכַרְתִּ֔יךָ נָתַ֥תִּי
 יִשְׁכַּ֤ב תָּב֔וֹא
לִקְרָאת֗וֹ

The kids love to have "Bais Medrash time" so when we finished learning the translation there was time for questions.
Best questions of the day: Pasuk 14 says that Reuven found dudaim in THE FIELD. Which field?
Rochel took Leah's husband? Isn't it the other way around
Best thought of the day: Leah must be davening for Rochel because that is why she got answered first.

Ivrit/: Limudei Kodesh. Since it is library day and long recess day, we will, do the grammar exercises at the end of the story. I wrote examples for Past Tense for he, she, and they in both kal and piel . We did one together and the rest independently. I was so proud that the students could conjugate II-י and III-ה with no problems

;Rabbi Akiva Story

As an introduction to sefira - I asked each student to write ;"How I can be like Rabbi Akiva." and then
     "What my students will be like when I am a תלמיד/ה חכם

We put a list of answers on the board

This was a spring board  into the story of the Aveilus of the students dying during sefira. I found the story in hebrew in a great series called מעגל השנה written by צ רוזנברג. It is a 4 volume set on the Jewish year that was adapted to the English series Round and Round the Jewish year by Feldheim.

online resources: Science Curricular materials

Are you looking for some hands-on science curricular materials

Free: check out http://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&tbo=1&q=Carolina+Biological+Supply+Co&btnG= for older versions of hands on science units that still have what to offer.

Also, you can go to http://www.caboces.org/mst/science-kits for some free science kits that meet NY State standards.

inexpensive: Finally, http://www.espsciencetime.org/ who have science kits which are relatively inexpensive. It might cost you more to print out the science units on your own printer than to order theirs online.

hebrew touch typing: online resource

Help your students learn how to type or you can  Learn hebrew Touch typing level by level

online resource: hebrew vocabulary lists

categories of hebrew vocabulary words- From anatomy to weather

Random Hebrew word arcade games

Click here for larger version

Click here for larger version

online games for common shorashim: level 3

Click here for larger version


אבד-lose, בטח-trust, בין-understand, גאל-save, גדל-grow, גור-live, גלה-reveal, דרש-seek, הלל-praise, הרג-kill, זבח-sacrifice, חלל-profane, ירה-shoot, יתר-remain, כבד-heavy, נבא-prophesy, נגע-smite, נוס-flee, נסע-travel, סבב-surround, ספר-tell, עזב-leave, פנה-turn, קבץ-gather, קדש-make holy, רוץ-run, רעה-shepherd, שאר-remain, שבע-satisfy, שוב-return, שכח-forget, שלך-send, שמח-happy, שנא-hate, שפך-pour, שרת-serve