4th Grade: Simchat Torah and V’Zot HaBrachah
Have you ever had a book that you loved so much that, as soon as it was over, you could hardly wait to read it AGAIN? For Simchat Torah, that’s exactly what the Jewish People do with our favorite book, the Torah — when we get all the way to the end of the Torah, we throw it a huge dance party, and we start reading all over again!
Thank you to everyone who was able to come to the Simchat Torah celebration at CBE. There was crazy unexpected record turn-out, and it was so fun to dance with everyone! Don’t worry if you missed it, though – it’ll come back around for you next year, too.
Yael and Edan write:
In Hebrew Through Movement, 4th grade worked on these verbs – to touch, to draw. Nouns: apple, candle/s, honey. They were also introduced and continued working on different body parts – head, eyes, mouth, nose, ears, hands, belly and legs. They are currently working on the different colors.
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Lauren Hart writes:
Hi Parents! This week we played a super fun and interactive game where we dealt with problems for Moses and the Israelites from the last portions of the Torah. We split into two teams and both were given time to figure out answers that were mostly acted out! They love to get up on their feet and act so I’m looking forward to more of that in the coming weeks. On Tuesday we celebrated Simchat Torah by making tiny Torahs that are inscribed with a blessing, or with something special and/or secret to each child. We also illustrated the very last and very first verses of the Torah. It was lots of fun!
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and from me, Morah Leora:
Our 4th Graders understand that scholars love finding problems in Torah text! With our Bucket O’ Problems game, students considered and tried to solve issues from the last portions of the Torah. (Lauren Hart played this game too! To expand, here’s an example of the problems the students faced: Imagine you’re Moses, and you don’t get to enter the Promised Land, even though you worked super hard and were a great leader. Moses accepted his fate, but, do you think this is a problem? What would you do? — Bonus, would your answer change if you were 120 years old?) (Another example: What if we get to the Promised Land, but there are already people living there, who won’t let us in?) (Or, what if we’re living happily in the Promised Land, and several years later, new people want to move in, too? Should they get to live in the Promised Land with us, even though they didn’t fight for it?) We had fascinating discussions, which ranged from explorations of midrashim, to peaceful and not-so-peaceful solutions to impending biblical war, to immigration issues that subtly reflected what they know of modern America. Our empathetic scholars really know how to dig in and make connections and solutions.