Week 5 10-2

Thank you to those of you who were able join us on our trip to Harsens Island. What a great time. It is always so nice to spend time as a group in such a gorgeous setting.
During Social Studies this week we will turn our attention to Sukkoth. We are beginning a quick week of looking at a wonderful holiday celebrated by the Jewish faith called Sukkoth, pronounced with a hard t at the end. (It is spelled many ways so you may see different variations of this.) Sukkoth is a celebration of the fall harvest and has many deep and wonderful connections to both nature and giving thanks. We will not be digging into the religious meaning of the holiday except for the history behind its origins. It is a very moving celebration of how grateful we are for the blessings in our life. Karen Cohen will be in on Wednesday morning to share some of the meaning with us and we look forward to hearing from her. This is becoming a tradition in our classroom and it was wonderful today to see the excited looks on the faces of the students who participated last year. While we could go into more detail about the history and meaning of Sukkoth it is best that you hear it from your children. They will be able to tell you in words that we could never put together. So please be sure to ask lots of questions this week.

This event is not just a chance to party but a way to come together as a class. We will be asking the students to build and decorate the Sukkoth, not an easy task, reinforcing the group work skills we try so hard to foster.

We open this celebration to anyone who would like to attend. We will be in the Sukkah on Friday at 3:00 singing and giving celebration. We will also have soup and bread as a little late day treat. Please feel free to join our family in celebration, but as always, we respect the fact that many of you have to work and can not join us, and hope that you do not feel obligated.

We could use some help gathering things to represent the fall harvest and your kids may come home asking. If you are interesting in helping, we could use gourds, corn stalks, pumpkins, Indian corn, popcorn strings, or anything you think may make the Sukkoth interesting. (we try to keep it natural)

We will also begin word study this week and continue with math and creative writing.