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.