Thanksgiving Fun

Although it was a short week at school, it was certainly a busy one. We have begun our unit on Thanksgiving and the children heard the story of how the Pilgrims left England on a ship named The Mayflower, arriving in Massachusetts. The Native Americans, who were already here, helped to teach them many things, including how to plant corn and other vegetables. Thanksgiving is often compared to the holiday of Sukkot, as each is reflective of the harvest. Following an excellent first harvest in America, the Pilgrims and Native Americans joined together for a big feast. We have read several Thanksgiving books and have begun to learn many songs and poems. We will be having our own “feast” with our friends from the Owl class in observance of Thanksgiving. During the next few weeks there will be a lot of cooking and making of decorations to help us prepare for this celebration! We have talked about what it means to be thankful. As a way to combine being thankful and performing a mitzvah, or good deed, we ask that each child bring a non perishable food item to school between now and Thanksgiving. We will package these items together and donate them to a local food pantry. Allowing your child to help select the item that he or she will donate helps to make this a meaningful experience.

We have begun our weekly collection of Tzedakah. We ask that you please send some coins to school with your children for them to drop into our Tzedakah box each week as part of our Shabbat celebration. If you would like to send in several coins in a small zip lock bag, we can hold them and give a few to your child each week. We will tell you when your supply is getting low so that you can send in some more. Thank you to Charlie’s family for being our first Shabbat family. We look forward to each of you having this special honor. Please remember that you are welcome to join us for Shabbat on ANY Friday at 12:00 noon.

During the next week I will be making calls to each of you to touch base. If there is a specific time that is or is not good for phone calls, (such as when is “too late”), please tell me, or drop me an e mail at rmaple@ohabei.org. I will try my best to call when it will be convenient for you.

Special reminders:

This Saturday, November 13th, TOS will host it’s first Shabbat morning Tot Shabbat. We hope to see you there.

Mark your calendar. On Friday, December 3rd at 11:30AM we will host our second annual Chanukah Family Celebration. More details will be sent home as the events for the day are confirmed. It is our hope that each family will be able to participate. If you will not be able to attend, please feel free to extend the invitation to a friend, grandparent, nanny, etc.

We hope that you will take advantage of our trial enrichment class. Coupons were distributed to each child. Please note that 24 hours notice is necessary so that the teachers can prepare properly for the correct number of children.

Have a wonderful week,

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica