Happy Channuka! - Highlights from Nov. 30 - Dec. 4

Happy Channuka to all readers!

Over the last week, I've finished up the Chanukka units in each class, and hopefully sent the kids home to celebrate with knowledge of the prayers, candle lighting rituals, and the meaning of our celebrations.

I've seen a lot of knowledge passed around from grade 2 to grade 9. Our students know about this holiday, appreciate its importance, and how it connects to our past and present in the form of physical and spiritual threats.

Some grades are busy preparing decorations, others preparing songs and skits for our assembly on Friday.

In grade 4/5, we talked about the connection between Chanuka and Joseph. How Joseph went from the darkness of the pit to the light of Pharaoh's castle. The Maccabim also went through this transition from darkness to light, and the connections made were encouraging and meaningful.

In junior high options, the grade 7s did a drum circle with Ben, while the 8s and 9s battled it out on our home-made stock market experiment. They suggested some strategies and some ways to make the exercise more realistic, and the learning was exciting.

I'm excited for grade 3 a lot this week. They have been practicing their animal drawings, and are now prepared to create paintings as a final piece for this unit. Furthermore, they get to watch a home-made movie about Chanukka at Talmud Torah, and try to compare it to the real story of Channuka.

Next week is a lot of review and finishing up old projects, so this week is a bit of a wind-down to all of the units we've been working on. Grade 2 reviews the Chanuka rituals and starts their last art project of 2015. Grade 7/8 starts to work on their Vayera Divrei Torah, and grade 9 continues to read from The Israelis (ch. 4).

Some pictures from last week, and I'll update perhaps for some thoughts on this week's parasha.

Parashat Vayeshev

On a great suggestion, I would like to talk about Parashat HaShavua, which I'll talk to my classes about tomorrow, for some Shabbat dinner conversation.

Parashat Vayeshev is definitely my favourite parasha. Joseph is the favourite son of Jacob, gets sold into slavery, reads dreams for the men in jail, and is called before Pharaoh.

Why do the brothers hate Joseph?
Why is Jacob made to suffer?
How does Joseph continually become the favourite?

And how do we connect this to our lives? Do we brag sometimes? Do we have premonitions in our dreams? Do we persevere like Joseph and work hard for reward despite tough circumstances or do we give up and get down on ourselves when we face challenges?

Good shabbos, I hope everyone has a challah to marvel!

Some Pictures from 2015

Soccer team selfie

Sukkah selfie with grade 3

Gr. 2 blowing home made shofars

Junior high cityscapes and Simchat Torah paintings

Grade 4/5 hamsa's in sugar

Simchat Bat with Gr. 9 - the baby girl touches the Torah

Shofar service paintings

Jewish plastecine with grade 2

Volleyball team selfie

Junior highs painting in Options

Highlights from Nov. 24-28th

First of all, my apologies as I forgot to say that amongst the classes that I teach, there is also Kindergarten phys-ed, in which we this week had a great time with "Can we go out to play?" and learning to do somersaults.

In grade 3, students performed silent scenes that re-told the story of Channuka, and in grade 6 Art, we worked on some decorations for the Chanuka assembly. Make sure to come check them out Friday, Dec. 11th, 1:15 PM.

For gym in JH, we tried out "scooterball," which was more tiring than we planned, and we went to the Capital City Gymnastics Center to practice all those gymnastics moves on pro equipment. We even saw some gymnasts practicing, and they were amazing! Aside from the gymnastics, there was an amazing bus ride back to the school where there were shabbat songs being sung as opposed the regular 99 bottles of root-beer. It made me think - maybe we should do shabbat on a bus - a shab-bus....

Grade 2 also painted some Chanuka decorations in their art classes, and grades 4 and 5 were working on their Chanuka surprises learning graphic art.

This week, grade 7 and 8 will start to study Parashat Vayera, and grade 9 will finish up with their Chanuka unit and begin to study from "The Israelis," by Donna Rosenthal (2008), about the diverse backgrounds and lives of the many groups that make up the population of Israel.

Here are some pictures from gymnastics, and I'll make a new post that has some of my favorite pictures from the year so far...

Some Highlights from the week of November 16-20

JS 4/5:
In learning about Joseph and his brothers, the class is working on "Create-a-Kit" projects, where they must summarize the story in their own words, find pictures related to the story, create a crossword puzzle, and possibly a game, having to do with the story. The summaries have been very impressive and I especially like the picture that was chosen that has a dad hugging his son while his other son looks on with the words "I don't choose favorites!"

JS 9:
Students found articles related to Jewish/Israeli news and shared their analyses with the class. Topics such as the Lone Wolf Intifada and the meeting between Obama and Netanyahu, as well as Netanyahu's proclamation to promote pluralistic Judaism, were discussed at a promisingly high level.

JS 7/8/9:
Secrets of Channukah revealed! Do you know why the Greeks built gymnasiums all around Jerusalem, and used them just as effectively as idols to force Jewish conversion? Your kids do!

Options (drama):
Scenes were presented with Eyal and Karin's "Luba the Cashier" being a smashing success.

Gym 6:
Think you can jump through a hoop? How bout while doing a flip??

Anyways, I can't promise to give a fantastic update of every class every week, but I do hope to continue writing, as reflecting and communicating are some key aspects of succeeding in this work. I also hope to post lots of pictures! For now, let's consider it an experiment. And let's be in touch.

September/October

In this post I just want to give you an idea of what has been learned up to this point. A Cole's notes version.
In the coming weeks, I want to put into more detail what has happened in class while studying these topics, and post some photos of work.

JS 2 - Studied Parashat Bereshit up until the creation of Adam and Eve, participate in Shabbat services every Friday, learned about Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and are learning about Channukah.

Art 2 - painted beautiful landscapes learning to use watercolors, have learned drawing techniques for different animals, and different techniques for drawing humans.

JS 3- Studied Parashat Noach, Lech Lecha, and Vayera, participate in Shabbat services every week with Shoshana, learned about High Holidays, and are studying about Chanukah.

Art 3 - Learned about drawing still life for Rosh Hashannah, painted geometric patterns, learned different techniques for drawing realistic animals, and learned about using negative space to create pieces.

JS 4/5 - Studied parashat Toldot, Vayetze, and Vayechi, and are working on Vayeshev, Miketz, and Vayigash, and participate in Shabbat every Friday. Right now studying Channukah.

Art 4/5 - created watercolor paintings to represent the blowing of the shofar, created stamps, and are learning to do graphic illustration. They also have sketchbooks to work on drawing techniques when they finish other work.

Art 6 - created watercolor paintings to represent the blowing of the shofar (displayed in the hall), learned to resize images using graphs, ending up with painted Torahs, and are working on pastel resist watercolor paintings of cityscapes.

Gym 6 - learned techniques and participated in games of soccer, volleyball, and gymnastics, including creating their own gymnastics routines with the skills practiced

JS 7/8 - studied parashat Bereshit, Noah, and Lech Lecha, currently studying Channukah. In History learned about the beginning of Monotheism. They also work on a "Genius Project" where they give their interests a "Jewish flavour," creating board games, magazines, and art related to their Jewish studies. Finally, they participate in Shabbat services every Friday.

JS 9 - Studied Herzl and Zionism, and Israeli current events, as well as Yom Kippur and Brit Milah. They also work on a "Genius Project" where they give their interests a "Jewish flavour," creating board games, magazines, art, and music related to their Jewish studies. Finally, they participate in Shabbat services every Friday.


Options 7/8/9 - In monthly units, they learned painting techniques in watercolor and tempra in September/October. For three weeks they learned and performed monologues, and after that learned one act plays and presented them. In December and January they will be split into two groups, with one learning music with Ben, and one participating in an artificial stock market simulation... more on that next week.

Gym 7/8/9 - as with grade 6, the students learned skills and participated in games of soccer and volleyball, and learned skills of gymnastics. They are not creating their own routines, but are having a field trip to the Gymnastics Center this Friday.

So: if you want to know a little more, please shoot me an email and I can fill you in! If you come in and see me, I can even show you some work that has been completed. 

Welcome to Moreh Ari's Class Blog

Welcome, I'm really happy to be trying this experiment in helping to bridge the gap between parents and my classroom. I am often proud of the work that I do with my students, and am confident that you will be interested in knowing what's happening.

I want to be upfront: I definitely would love to post often and meaningfully, but I have to be realistic. I teach all of the following subjects:

JS 2
Art 2
JS 3
Art 3
JS 4/5
Art 5
Art 6
Gym 6
JS 7/8
JS 9
Options 7/8/9
Gym 7/8/9

In addition to this I coach and manage sports teams, right now basketball and curling. In my spare time I tutor 3 students to prepare them for their bar and bat mitzvahs and serve on the board of directors for Beth Shalom. I do not always have time to follow through on new projects, but I do encourage you to nag me for updates!

With that said, let me catch you up to speed on what's been happening in my classes over the last few months. Ready, set, go!