Jewish Holidays 2017!

Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year. These primary students created fluffy rams to show where we get the shofar the rabbi blows to prepare us to bring in the new year.

Apples dipped in honey for a sweet new year!

Mrs. Sloane-Brenner always has so many fun songs to sing to help the students understand and enjoy their holidays!

Yom Kippur

The Day of Atonement

Students created their own rabbi tzedakah boxes for Yom Kippur.

One side of the scale measures our mitzvah (good deeds) and the other side are things we have done wrong and hope to improve.

Sukkot

Sukkot commemorates the years our ancestors spent wandering in the desert and living in temporary dwellings. They made sukkahs from many different materials.

Yummy! Edible sukkahs!

Each year, Beth Abraham sets up a sukkah behind the building. We enjoyed our lunches (and a cookie treat courtesy of Ms. Rochel!) out in the sukkah in the unseasonably mild weather!

Simchat Torah

The students created flags for Simchat Torah (which translates: the joy of the Torah) in which we finish reading the Torah and joyously begin reading it all over again. The adults march and dance around with the torahs while the children join in waving their flags.

Hillel Talent Show!

The Hillel Talent Show was an endeavor set up by some of the older students. They posted sign-up sheets around the school, created a sign to advertise, and judged the show. 

So many of the students participated and fun was certainly had by all. 

We had joke tellers, a mime, actors, hip-hop dancers, jumping rope expert, Irish dancer, Middle Eastern dancer, magician, and a bowler. 

Clearly, we have a wide variety of talents at Hillel!

Plein Air Paintings at Aullwood

Our first trip to Aullwood of the school year was for something we haven't yet done there: painting! We met Mr. Rowlands in a beautiful meadow at Aullwood and he taught us how to look at nature through an artist's eyes. 

Instead of painting in a classroom, the students experienced en plein air painting. This is a French term that means painting outdoors. 

Mr. Rowlands taught us to notice how the sky goes all the way down to meet the grass and that there is even sky in between the branches. Students learned about layering the paint helps the painting look more realistic. 

Using acrylic paint on canvas, the students began by painting the sky and then the grass.

We looked closely at plants and trees to help up include good details in our paintings.

Finally, once the sky and grass were dry, we added the tree and other details.

Primary Plein Air Paintings!