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Posted in Uncategorized
ELC
Hats, boots and snowflakes are hanging in the Toddler classroom. The children had a great time creating these symbols of winter and identifying them in both English and Hebrew. They are also enjoying “finger” poems which are fun to recite and which help them reinforce their counting skills.
K is for kangaroo, kitchen and kite. We had so much fun making kites which are “flying” from our ceiling. Nursery also learned about Parshat Shmot, and each child made their very own baby Moshe in a basket.
Why do birds fly south in the winter? Why do bears sleep all winter long? These were some of the questions that Kindergarten discussed this week when they learned about migration and hibernation. The children were fascinated by the behaviors of these animals. In conjunction with Parshat Shmot, kindergarteners made sticks that “magically” transformed from a snake to a stick.
Songs, activities and projects about penguins kept the Primer children busy this week. They even went outside to huddle like penguins! The students were eager to begin Sefer Shmot and learn about baby Moshe. They also became familiar with many Hebrew words associated with winter.
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Mazal Tov Kitah Aleph
This past Sunday, our Kitah Aleph children were thrilled to partake in their long awaited Siddur party. They worked so hard preparing for this special occasion and, with great pride and beautiful smiles, the children performed their Siddur presentation to perfection! Their family and friends sat in awe as they watched the children sing songs, recite their parts and receive their new siddurim. We would like to thank Morah Simona, Morah Hadassah, Mrs. McDermott, Mrs. Ross, Morah Adi, Morah Michal, Morah Mazal, and our very talented music teacher, Mrs. Irene Lopukhin, for their hard work and dedication. In addition, we would like to thank Mrs. Alkobi, Mrs. Ansel, Mrs. Davidson, Mrs.Goldzal, Mrs. Jacobs, Mrs. Masri, Mrs. Milman, Mrs. Mushnick, and Mrs. Nussenblatt, who volunteered their time and effort to help make this year’s siddur party the success that it was.
A special thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Abokhiyayev, owners of L’Esti’s Desserts, for donating the magnificent siddur cake. The cake was admired by all of us for its beauty and taste.
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SST – Fun
Last Friday students in grades 1-3 enjoyed an SST program with Morah Sheila. The theme was Hakarat Hatov, being thankful for all that we have. As we recently celebrated the chag of Chanukah, we tried to impress upon the children the importance of being thankful to everyone for all the gifts and treats that they received during the Chag. We also focused on our appreciation of all that Hashem gives us, as well as our family and teachers.
This year’s theme is “We’re on the ball with our Midot Tovot” and our activity was based on a soccer game. The children first ran a relay race with the goal of finding different “soccer” balls, many of which had special messages of thanks on them. If the “ball” had a message of thanks on it, the student then had the opportunity to kick a real soccer ball into a goal to earn ten extra points for their team. The students had a wonderful time playing the activity and made sure to say “thank you” to Morah Sheila for the fun filled activity and for the treats they received.
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Third Grade
Students in 3J are busy learning the Halachot of Shmirat Halashon and are trying very hard to make sure that the words they speak are positive and constructive. As a special activity, they made special Lashon Tov buttons. They are very proud to wear these buttons and hope that they will remind them to speak nicely to their friends and family. The children learned a beautiful song about Shmirat Halashon that we video taped for your enjoyment. Click on the image below to share the Nachat!
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Science
What is made of candy and fizzes and shoots ten feet into the sky? The 6th grade “Mentos and Coke fountain”! 6th grade had some “explosive” moments learning about the chemical reactions which cause the famous fountain. The experiment was a great way to launch a unit about food chemistry and chemical bonding that students are due to begin learning soon.
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Salute to Israel Parade
Save the Date
The annual Israel Day Parade will take place on on Sunday, June 3. We are planning a “paint the props” night on Motzei Shabbat, March 10th . We are hoping that all parents will come join the fun as we prepare the props that will be carried by the JFS students in grades 4-8. This project will involve a tremendous amount of work, and we are kindly asking all our parents for their help. For more information, please click here to see the attached flyer. |
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Our Parsha Corner
Parshat Shmot ויאמר לרשע למה תכה רעך – שמות ב:י”ג
“And he said to the wrongdoer, Why do you strike your brother?
Shemot 2:13 The Torah forbids us to strike another Jew (Sefer HaChinuch Mitzvah 595). This negative precept is found in Devarim 23:3, where the Torah warns an officer of the court not to strike more lashes than a judge has determined to be fitting for the sinner. Now, from this injunction there is also an admonition against striking any Jewish person, for if we are commanded not to strike a sinner, how much more so should we not strike any other person.
This is very relevant because, unfortunately, students are often tempted to “hit” each other. We must learn from our Torah and how it characterizes this individual: it calls him a Rasha, a wicked person. We know this terrible appellation is usually reserved for our enemies like Haman Harasha, Paroh Harasha or Esav Harasha. Clearly, the Torah is conveying how serious this act is. Let us learn from this week’s Parsha and refrain from this bad trait and act appropriately as Jews should. |
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JFS Jottings
Second Grade Chumash Party: Thursday, February 16, 2012 – 9:30 at the Main Center. JFS Dinner: Sunday, March 11,2011 Please save the date!
Shabbat Shalom Parshat Shmot
Candle Lighting Time – 4:33 |
Posted in Uncategorized
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ELC
Winter “slipped” in while we were enjoying Chanukah, and we are now taking the opportunity to learn all about it. The toddlers were taught about winter weather and warm clothing and they are working on projects related to this topic.
Nursery’s letter of the week was the letter J. They had fun jumping, making jewelry and eating yummy Jello. This week’s Parsha, Vayechi, has the famous Hamalach Hagoel passage in it and the children made special bed time pillows decorated with their pictures on them.
The winter season encourages us to think “white” and kindergarten children made their very own version of the book It Looked Like Spilt Milk. They also made a beautiful Shema project to hang in their rooms. Primer children are also enjoying their unit on winter, especially the discussions about what snowmen can have, which is our sight word of the week. In Hebrew, they are learning the words associated with winter clothing. As Parshat Vayechi is the last Parsha of Sefer Bereishit, they are looking forward to a special siyum this Friday.
A pajama party in school? In honor of this week’s Parsha, the entire ELC participated in a fun filled pajama party. Everyone wore pajamas, drank hot cocoa and had a bedtime snack. Each class also wrote their own book about bedtime routines. A great time was had by all!
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Kitah Aleph
Kitah Aleph students are very busy practicing for their upcoming Siddur party. This special performance will take place on Sunday, January 8th at 10:00AM at the Main Center. The children cannot wait to share their excitement and hard work with their family and friends.
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History Comes Alive in Fifth Grade – Mrs. Davis
Betsy Ross, Walt Disney, Benjamin Franklin….These are just a few of the many famous people who visited Mrs. Davis’ fifth grade class. Her students did an excellent job on the written portion of the biography report. The oral presentations were most exciting as each student dressed up and presented special projects that they created to portray the lives of their famous personalities. Their next book report will involve a mystery novel and a “board game”. Sounds very intriguing!!
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Fifth Grade – Mrs. Kellerman
We have been very busy writing about the winter season. Some students chose to write fiction stories, and others chose non-fiction. Class 5P created a beautiful bulletin board with a fireplace as the background. When the students were asked how they feel about their class, they replied, “We are a “warm” family in our classroom”.
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Sixth and Seventh Grade Boys’ Trip
Rabbi Uzhansky’s sixth and seventh grade students were so happy to have the opportunity to meet the renowned boxer, Mr. Uri Foreman. They joined Mr. Foreman at the gym and watched while he trained. Mr. Foreman discussed with the students the difficulties of combining his profession with his dedication to being Jewish, and how he succeeds at both. The students were especially excited when they were able to join him in the rink and learn a few boxing moves.
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Sixth Grade Girls’ Shabbaton
Our 6th grade girls participated in a Shabbaton in Lakewood, New Jersey this past Shabbat. A Shabbaton is a wonderful vehicle for students to experience Shabbat in a unique atmosphere, enhance class Achdut (unity) and afford them the opportunity to share their special talents with their friends and teachers. Thank you so much to Morah Leah Birnbaum for hosting and planning this special event. “I had a great time on the Shabbaton. We played fun games, stayed by wonderful hosts and ate lots of snacks and candy. The best part of the Shabbaton was that we got to spend Shabbos with our friends and especially with our Morah who made all this possible!” Written by Chani Weintraub
Morah Birnbaum was very kind, With a Shabbaton on her mind. Kitah Vav, her very best class, She took us to Lakewood, to her house. We played games all Shabbos long, Our aim was for all of us to get along. When we had to say goodbye, Kitah Vav started to cry. The only thing we have to say, Is thank you for letting us stay. Hopefully, we will have another Shabbaton, And then we will write another poem. Thank you again! With all our love, Kitah Vav. By: Rachel Duenyas, Danielle Ohana, Zahava Durchin
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Science Mrs. Grant Ice Cream
6th grade recently had an extra tasty dose of science. Using the “quick” ice cream-making process as a model for freezing point depression, the students mixed and made their own creamy concoctions. This tasty treat was a perfect way to end the unit on “solutions”.
Geodes
The 8th graders “dug out” their mining skills to crack open some geodes and reveal the beautiful crystals inside. The geode project was an excellent way for students to add to their knowledge of rock classification and crystal properties.
Mrs. Weintraub 7th grade science class worked on a special lesson to learn about the properties of yeast. They learned how yeast reproduces and what it needs to survive. Yeast was put into three cups of water. In cup A, they put in room temperature tap water, in cup B warm water, and in cup C warm water and sugar. The students then predicted what would happen in each cup and why. The majority of students predicted that the warm water in cups B&C would activate the yeast. What actually happened was that cup C had the most activity. The sugar is eaten by the yeast which then creates a carbon dioxide gas which bubbles in the water. Don’t be surprised if your daughter or son becomes very interesting in baking Challahs for Shabbos!
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E2K
Four times a year, the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE) sponsors an “International Riddle Contest”. Our seventh grade class was given a very challenging math and science enrichment assignment. We are very proud to announce that Michelle Steiman was our school winner! She solved and explained the solution to a very intriguing puzzle called Calculation Sudoku. She was one of thirty seven winners from schools around the globe!
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Girls’ Basketball Team
Our 6-8 grade girls on the JFS basketball team are having so much fun playing various teams from other schools. Although they lost to Noam last week, they still get an “A for effort”! Better luck next time!
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JFS Welcomes back Morah Galila Our entire faculty is so excited to welcome back Morah Galila. Morah Galila is a veteran JFS staff member who has worked in the second grade class for many years. We wish her continued good health and much Nachat from her beautiful family. |
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4th grade Candy Sale
We are so proud of our 4th graders for organizing their own Tzedakah Candy Sale for Bikur Cholim. All our students were so excited to participate in this Mitzvah project and they certainly enjoyed eating the delicious candies that they bought!   |
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After School Cooking Class
Who ever heard of a smiley face on a pizza? The students in grades 1-3 are enjoying their after-school baking and cooking class. At the first session, they created delicious sprinkle- covered chocolate truffles and we are sure that many of the treats did not make it home as the students could not wait to eat them. “Create you own pizza” was the theme of the second session. They created interesting designs on the pizza dough by using various colorful vegetables and cheeses. One student even made a smiley face! They could not wait to share their culinary skills with their families.
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Our Parsha Corner
Parshat Va’yechi In this week’s Parsha, Shimon and Levi do not receive a blessing from Yaakov. Instead, he curses their anger. Yaakov had been very upset when Shimon and Levi wiped out the city of Shechem, as their actions put everyone in danger. The Mishnah says in Pirkei Avot, “Who is strong? One who can control his Yetzer Harah.” The commentators explain that this refers to someone who can control his anger. When we think of someone who is strong, we often think of someone who can bend metal bars or lift heavy weights. The Mishnah tells us that controlling our anger requires an even greater sense of inner strength. This is also what Yaakov was telling Shimon and Levi. True strength is not wiping out a city, but controlling anger and stopping to think if that is the correct course of action. Let us learn from this the importance of being able to control our anger and consider our actions. If someone does something to get us angry, instead of reacting out of anger by hitting or shouting, let’s try to control our anger and figure out what a proper response should be. |
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JFS Jottings First Grade Siddur Party: Sunday, January 8, 2012 – 10:00AM at the Main Center. Second Grade Chumash Party: Thursday, February 16, 2012 – 9:30 at the Main Center. Keep Kids Safe Workshop: Tuesday evening, January 10, 2012 – 8:30PM at the Young Israel of Staten Island – 835 Forest Hill Road. For more information, please click here to view the flyer.
Shabbat Shalom
Parshat Vayechi
Candle Lighting Time – 4:26 |
Posted in JFS - New
| Week of 12/30/11 - To view the archives please click here.
It’s so hard to believe that Chanukah is over. We had an absolutely wonderful time in school. Every class enjoyed Chanukah parties, sufganiot, chocolate coins and cookie treats, and games and activities in their own classrooms. Joining in school- wide activities added to the Ruach of this special Chag. We will all miss this very special time of year. These are special memories that we will treasure forever.
This past week our students in grades 1-8 participated in the long awaited Chinese Auction. All the Derech Donuts that were earned during the month of Kislev were put to good use. Many very lucky students won prizes which included: extra points on tests, “no homework nights”, assorted snacks, ice cream, pizza luncheons, sodas, homemade cookies, potato kugels, tutoring, Slurpees, Dunkin Donut gift cards, games, prizes, “Bentching assistant for a day” and one-on-one basketball games with the teachers. We thank our entire staff for their wonderful donations to this program and for their dedication and efforts on behalf of our student body. We also thank the eighth graders for their help in collating the Chinese Auction booklets.
Morah Fishman and her 5th grade girls performed a beautiful Chanukah play for students in grades 1-5. The girls were so well prepared and they sang and recited their parts to perfection. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Morah Fishman for her hard work and creativity. Broadway – here we come!!! We video-taped their performance for your viewing pleasure and we hope you enjoy and shep as much Nachat as we did.
Our JFS choir delighted us with their beautiful and sweet voices as they sang many popular Chanukah songs. Not only did they sing at some of our assemblies, but they also took their “show on the road “when they sang at the Staten Island Borough Hall Chanukah celebration. Thank you to Mrs. Irene Lopukhin, our very talented music teacher, for the time and effort that she spent preparing the girls. Once again, we would like to thank Mrs. Alina Lukyanov for helping us organize this exceptional event.
JFS Jottings
First Grade Siddur Party: Sunday, January 8, 2012 – 10:00AM at the Main Center
Second Grade Chumash Party: Thursday, February 16, 2012 – 9:30 at the Main Center
Shabbat Shalom
Parshat Vayigash
Candle Lighting Time: 4:20
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Posted in Uncategorized
| ELC |
| Main Center – Chanukah |
Posted in JFS - New
Posted in JFS - New
ELC
ELC children are happily preparing for Chanukah. Our toddlers made their very own Chanukah wrapping paper and decorated beautiful dreidels.
Nursery’s color of the week was white and the letter of the week was F. The children had a great time feather painting. Morah Diane dressed up as a dreidel to officially welcome in all the Chanukah preparations. Nursery also made a surprise gift for mommy and daddy.
Kindergarten children are working on their math skills. They did leaf graphing, leaf counting and candle math. They "hand painted" a Chanukiah. The children especially enjoyed a vanilla party which they had in conjunction with their Hebrew letter of the week, vav.
Primer students dressed up and danced to 50′s music to celebrate the 50th day of school. They had so much fun. We can’t wait to see what the 100th day will bring! We also introduced the "an" family this week. In Hebrew literature, we read the book Hello Hello Abba to go along with the letter hey, which led us into a game of telephone. We also discussed the Parsha and how Yaakov prepares to meet Esav. The children can’t wait to learn what happens next.
Stay tuned for more great ELC happenings!
Kitah Aleph News
Kitah Aleph was so pleased to complete their first Kriyah booklet. As a culminating activity, Morah Simona and her class enjoyed a delicious party. The students are looking forward to beginning the next level booklet. Thank you to all the parents who sent in the treats for this special occasion.
Our Kitah Aleph is also very busy practicing for their upcoming Siddur party, which is scheduled to take place on Sunday, January 8 at 9:30AM in the Main Center. The Siddur play is traditionally a highlight of the first grade and the children are looking forward to sharing this special milestone with their family and friends.
Fourth Grade Boys Siyum
Mazal Tov to Rabbi Loebenstein and his fourth grade class for completing Parshat Vayishlach. They celebrated with an exciting siyum which included singing, dancing and, of course, delicious snacks. As a culminating review activity, they acted out eighteen different scenes from the Parsha. We are so proud of the entire class!
Chessed Corner
Fifth Grade Girls’ Cookie Sale
Our fifth grade girls’ class had a very successful cookie sale this week for Bikur Cholim. Students in grades one through three were so excited to buy the cookies and were so proud to be a part of this important Mitzvah. Thank you to the parents of the fifth grade girls for donating the cookies.
Seventh Grade Girls’ Cupcake Sale
Everyone who entered our school this week was immediately drawn to the delicious smells that emanated from the lunchroom. Our seventh grade girls were very busy baking cupcakes for their upcoming fundraiser for Bikur Cholim. The sale was very successful and we are so appreciative to the parents of this class for donating the ingredients for this project.
Chanukah
Chanukah is in the air and the excitement for this upcoming Chag is certainly felt by all who visit our Main Center. The main lobby is beautifully adorned with the colorful decorations that grades one through three created at our most recent SST program.
PTA CONFERENCES
It was so wonderful to welcome all the parents who attended Parent-Teacher conferences this past Wednesday evening. We would like to express our appreciation to the PTA for funding our new computerized program for scheduling appointments with faculty. Many parents told us that the new system made the evening much more organized, productive and efficient. A special hakarat hatov to Mrs. Linda Edelman and Mrs. Karen Goldstein for their efforts and time spent on this most important project.
JFS JOTTINGS…
Picture Day: Picture Day will take place on Thursday, December 29 at the ELC and on Tuesday, December 13 at the Main Center.
Chanukah Sale: The PTA Chanukah sale will take place on Wednesday, December 14 at the ELC and on Thursday, December 15 at the Main Center.
JFS Wine Sale at Young Israel Chanukah Boutique: The Jewish Foundation School will be selling wine at the Young Israel Chanukah boutique which will take place on Saturday night, December 10. Purchasing wine at the boutique will benefit our school.
Box Tops for Education: We are very excited to learn that Box Tops for Education is offering a new way to help schools financially. For all you on-line shoppers, simply sign up with JFS at boxtops4education.com (you can search for our school by name in the search bar), then click on "earn" and "shop marketplace" to see all the popular stores that will meet all your shopping needs. With Chanukah just around the corner, shopping for your family and friends on- line will generate a tremendous number of box tops for our school.
Shabbat Shalom from everyone at JFS
Parshat Vayishlach
Candle lighting time: 4:11
Posted in JFS - New
ELC
Posted in JFS - New
American Express Program: American Express is offering a unique opportunity for you to support JFS. You can donate $25.00 to JFS and it will cost you absolutely nothing! You simply need to register your card today and notify our office. On Motzei Shabbos, November 26, your donation will be processed and American Express will then grant you a credit on your statement. We thank you in advance for taking the time to help support JFS! For more information, please click here.
Posted in JFS - New
JEWISH FOUNDATION SCHOOL OF STATEN ISLAND
Posted in JFS - New
