Mrs.+Sechan's+Class

Dear Parents,

As the grade school years come to a close, some of your children are ready for a more challenging relationship with Judaism, one that addresses the questions they have about themselves and their world and takes into account their developing perspectives. In our class we spend a good portion of class discussing these viewpoints and raising questions and more questions! Many students are raising questions with which adults struggle and the important thing for you as parents to know is that every question is respected. Your children are doing an amazing job of sorting out what it means to be a positive Jew and an outstanding person.

We have finished our first chapter in our new Hebrew book after an intensive review. Our first chapter focused on the Avot v'Imahot prayer, and we have also been looking into the relationship each of our ancestors had with G-d, and why we want to link our prayers to the merits of our ancestors. We studied the text in the Torah which explains why the names of Abraham, Sarah and Jacob were changed by G-d, and we are paying close attention to the meaning of these names in preparation for research into what our own Hebrew names mean. We will be creating naming certificates that artistically represent the meaning of the names that our parents chose for us as we continue with our life cycle curriculum.

On a lighter note, the students attempted the job of sofer, one who writes the Torah in Hebrew calligraphy, and we did it the way scibes are currently writing Torahs: with a feather quill and ink! We attempted to write out the Shema and V'ahavta. Some of them were extremely persistent, because it was pretty difficult! I plan to keep their efforts to decorate the upstairs bulletin boards in January. There is no way I'm not showing off their incredible work!