Contact info:
Bonnie Pomerantz
Email:
BonniePom@comcast.net
Links:
coming soon! |
Our class meets every Sunday from 9:45am to 11:15am.
Weekly Letters
May 6
Good Evening All, Just a reminder that this coming Sunday will be our last meeting. Unfortunately, the Pomerantz family will not be attending class or the picnic :(
I just wanted to thank you for sharing your children with me this past year. I really enjoyed our classes! The children are all wonderful and I hope that they all came away with more knowledge regarding Torah, Avodah and G'milut Chasadim and Hebrew than when we started back in September.
Best of luck to the Friedman and Bussell families next year at B'Nai Jacob - you will all be missed! Keep in touch.
Talk to you soon. Have a great evening! Bonnie
April 29
Good Evening Everyone, We finished up our last lesson in the G'milut Chasadim section last week. I hope the children have learned that in our everyday lives we can always find something to do that will be an act of loving kindness. I thought it would be nice way to end our lesson by reading a book called The Eleventh
Commandment. It is a book written by children from all walks of life in the United States reflecting on how to make the world a better place. I then had the children come up with their own 11th commandment.
Here is what they came up with:
Thou shall always trust God.
Do not listen to people who could give us a bad drug.
Thou parents shall not always be thou boss of thou kids
Thou shall take care of thou pets
Pretty impressive!!!
This coming Sunday is Mitzvah day. We will have class from 10:30 until 1:00 where the children will be making something with toiletries that we will be donating to the homeless that afternoon. We will also watch an age appropriate movie about homelessness. If you would like to join us for pizza fundraiser ($5.00 per
person-includes 2 slices of pizza and a drink) at 1 please call the Temple office ASAP. If you are interested in the Homeward Bound walk for the
homeless, we are all going to meet at Headwaters Park at 1:30ish.
Still not sure if I will be in class on May 6 which is our last day of school. As soon as I know, I will let you know.
Any questions, please let me know. Have a great day! Talk to you soon. Bonnie
April 22
Hi Everyone, We had a good class last week. I think the children are starting to understand what g'milut chasadim means and even how it might relate to our everyday lives.
We are going to continue with lesson 7 and 8 on g'milut chasadim. The focus this week will be making a holiday connection. Last week we learned that our sacred texts, including the Torah can serve as a road map or guide in helping us to lead holy lives by finding opportunities to do g'milut chasadim. In these lessons,
we will learn that the Jewish calendar can function in a similar way. The Jewish holidays provide a wonderful opportunity for the children to make connections between familiar celebrations and the obligation to do g'milut chasadim. Almost all of our holidays include specific opportunities to perform acts of loving
kindness that can contribute to making our world a better and holier place.
As a reminder, next week, April 29, is Mitzvah day. I hope you will be able to join us. We will be having a shortened school day - the day will begin at 10:30 and conclude with pizza and drinks. (Tickets were sent home prior to spring break and either the money or the tickets need to be returned to me this Sunday for the
pizza.) Then we will all go down to Headwaters Park and participate in the Homeward Bound walk.
Our last session will be May 6. Followed by a picnic. In previous years, 3rd grade has had a snackfest on the last day of school. Unfortunately, I may not be at school that day - Rory has a lacrosse game in South Bend that day and we are waiting to hear what time the game begins - where we all bring in our favorite
snack(s) and have fun eating and talking about the past year and even playing Holigame one last time. I would like to do our snackfest this coming Sunday, April 22, 2007. The kids really enjoy bringing their favorite snacks and eating them throughout the morning! Please let me know if you would rather we not have a
snackfest.
Enjoy the weather! Have a great day. Talk to you all soon. Bonnie
April 15
Welcome Back Everyone, I hope you all had a nice break and stayed warm and dry!
We are meeting this Sunday. We are going to continue our CHAI lessons. We will be discussing a G'Milut Chasadim Road Map. We can discover the very essence of Judaism by studying our sacred texts. It is there that we can learn what is expected of us as Jews. In this lesson, we will examine a section of Talmud that may already be familiar to you since it appears in the daily service of our prayer books. By studying this list of "responsibilities without measure" it is our hope that your child will discover "rewards without measure."
If you have any questions, please let me know. I am looking forward to seeing everyone this weekend. Have a great evening! Talk to you soon. Bonnie
March 25
Good Evening Everyone, I just wanted to let you know that this coming Sunday, we will be joining the 4th graders for a "mock" Seder. We will be making matzoh and 2 different kinds of charoset. You are all invited. We will do this between 10:45 and 11:45 followed by our school-wide assembly.
We will also be discussing our 4th G'milut chasadim lesson: Our actions make a difference: caring is contagious. This lesson teaches that each of our actions makes a difference in the world and can have a ripple effect by causing more good actions.
Any questions, please let me know. Enjoy spring break! We will not be meeting April 1 or 8th. See you soon. Bonnie
March 18
Good Evening, I am sorry that I did not email you last week. The week slipped by me.
I wanted to again congratulate the children on the Purim play. They did an outstanding job!!! I am so proud of them!!!!
This week we will continue our discussion regarding Pesach and we will be making afikoman covers this coming Sunday, time permitting.
We are also going to be talking about G'milut Chasadim: helping others and helping ourselves as part of our CHAI curriculum. This lesson raises the issue of keeping a balance between helping others and taking care of oneself.
I just wanted to also let you know that we will be having a family ed on the 25th of March with the
4th grade class. We will be making matzoh and 2 different kinds of charoset and eating all of it! A note will be going home with the children this Sunday with some more information. I am hoping that at least one parent can attend. Jaki and I have done this for a few years now and the kids love it as do we!!!
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Looking forward to seeing you all soon. Have a wonderful evening. Bonnie
February 21
This coming Sunday, I will not be in class as I have a Temple Board development seminar all day. There will be a sub teaching our class.
We are going to spend all of our time - except Hebrew time - practicing our play. I will have the scripts in the classroom for everyone. If the children would like to bring their costumes, they may do so. We do have some costumes at Temple that they can also try on.
I just wanted you all to be aware that this is a play designed for older students (I have not told our children this) and they are working so very hard on it and doing a fabulous job!! I am so proud of them.
Our play will take place around 11:30 on the 4th of March. I hope you can all attend.
Any questions, please let me know. Have a great evening. Talk to you soon. Bonnie
January 21
Good Evening Everyone, Last weeks lesson went well. The kids enjoyed the
scavenger hunt.
This coming week we are going to use a Torah text to struggle with the question,
What do I do when god seems distant to me? We will see that sometimes the work of
avodah is more than searching (as in our scavenger hunt) and that it can by trying
to recognize or be aware of god during times of stress or challenge.
The kids keep asking if we can do the trust walk again. We will start out the
class with it and work it into our lesson.
Any questions, please let me know. Have a great week! See you all soon. Bonnie
January 14
Good Evening Everyone!
I hope you all had a restful winter break and a happy start to the new year!
We are back to school this Sunday and we will be beginning our next section of the CHAI
curriculum which is Avodah. Avodah is the work we do to find sacred connections to god,
community and self. This will tie into our Torah portion of CHAI by showing us that through
avodah we can make our lives and the world more kadosh/holy - which was the Torah portion
theme (Kadosh/Holy).
This first lesson entitled "Synagogue helps us make room for g-d" establishes the synagogue
and the people and symbols within it as a starting point for connecting with god. We will be
going on a scavenger hunt throughout the building looking for places and objects that remind
us or make us think of g-d. We will continue to build upon this with the other 8 lessons.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me. I look forward to
seeing everyone this Sunday. Enjoy the rest of the week! Bonnie
December 17
Hi All, I just wanted to let you know that we had a good class last week. We finished our
Torah portion of the CHAI curriculum.
The point I was trying to make throughout this part of the curriculum was how important it is
to hand down from generation to generation the laws, rules and teachings of the Torah. With
Ron's help (thank you) we were able to "pass" the Torah on to each other as if we were passing
it on to another generation.
We ended our discussion by determining what we thought was the most important law, rule or
teaching that we learned in this part of our curriculum. What we studied was:
December 10, 2006
Good Evening, I hope you are all staying warm and dry!!! I apologize
for the delay in getting this to you, but Rory had his concert last night
and I totally spaced out!!!
We had a much better class this past Sunday. We discussed a bit about
Torah and a bit about Hanukkah and we made our family Hanukkah gifts.
Before I forget, next Sunday, December 17 will be our Maccabiah games and
also the last class before winter break!!! Time flies.
This week we are going to be wrapping up our Torah portion of the CHAI
program. This week I am going to have the students reflect on the "Love
your fellow human being as you love yourself" from Leviticus 19:18.
They will reflect on how to carry out this verse in their lives and then
to consider ways in which the verse exemplifies living a life of
holiness. If time permits, we will create a booklet entitled, "My
Personal Guide to Holiness: A Bedside Companion".
Then we are going to determine what the children think is most important
in what they have learned from the Book Leviticus that they would like to
pass on to other people. The important point for us is to understand
that we as a people have been engaged in a long process of handing down
our laws, rules and teachings from one generation to the next. We will
think about what the Torah is trying to pass on and what we would like to
pass on to others. Then, hopefully with Charlene and Rabbi, we can
symbolically pass on the Torah to each other by handing the Torah scroll
to one another.
Any questions, please let me know. Have a wonderful week! Talk to you
soon. Bonnie
November 19
Good Evening, The kids had fun last week with our trust walk! Ask them about it along with
how we treat people with disabilities that we can see and disabilities that we cannot see.
They also wrote some nice poetry which I am going to be sharing with Charlene. This was
homework that the children did 2 weeks ago. Noah was absent but if he wants to do the poetry, it is page 7 of their workbook.
The homework that is due this Sunday, November 19, is page 11 of their workbook.
This week we will be discussing Tochecha (Rebuking others). This lesson focuses on the verse
in Leviticus that has to do with scolding another person for inappropriate behavior. We will
look at the following 3 main ideas:
1. We are required to tell someone when she or he has done something wrong;
2. There are very clear guidelines as to how this is to be done. The person who is
being rebuked must never be embarrassed in public; and
3. When we tell someone directly that he or she has done something wrong, we
protect ourselves from behaving unkindly toward that person in the future due to residual
anger from the incident in question.
If we run out of time, I will ask the children to complete page 13 of their workbook, Helping
others learn from mistakes activity. This will be due the following week.
I do believe that we are off next Sunday, November 26. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Bonnie
November 12
Good Evening, Last Sunday we spoke about how we can give "gifts" to god. We realized that
gifts do not always have to be something material. By helping someone cross the street, we
are giving a gift. By behaving, we are giving a gift. We have some really deep thinkers in
class - its wonderful!
The children do have a homework assignment that is due this Sunday. I have asked them to
complete page 7 of their workbook. They are asked to write a poem - this would be a great
time to discuss other ways we can give "gifts" that are not material in nature.
This week we are continuing our discussion regarding Torah. We will be talking about not
hurting those with obvious disabilities by taking advantage of their disabilities. We will
learn how to treat everyone. This lesson will focus on our actions toward others. We are all
god's creations and we need to treat each other with k'dushah/holiness.
There will be homework which the children and I will discuss at the end of class. To give you
a heads up, it will be to think of ways that you might have insulted someone or created an
obstacle for someone. They are to write down the situation as a journal entry on page 11 of
their workbooks. They will need to explain what they did, and if they could go back in time
what they might have done differently. They could illustrate their example if they would
like.
As always, any questions or concerns, please let me know. Have a great evening! Talk to you
soon. Bonnie
November 5
Hi, I hope everyone enjoyed Dan Nichols! I know I always like to hear him.
Our second lesson will focus on Sacrifice, Gifts and drawing near. We will understand that
Torah is an ongoing dialogue between the text and us, that it is real in our daily lives, it
is with us wherever we are, that developing the skills to study Torah is essential to
integrating Torah into our lives and the laws and rules found in the Torah can help us to live
lives filled with holy moments.
Please note below the homework that will be due this Sunday (from lesson 1). The homework I
will be giving this week is page 7 of their workbooks.
Just a reminder that on November 17 we will be having a dinner especially for 3rd - 4th
grade. I hope you can make it. If you would like to attend, please let me know ASAP as I
need to confirm with Nelson's by the 10th.
As always, any questions or concerns, please let me know. Have a great evening! Talk to you
soon. Bonnie
October 29
Good Evening, The kids and I had a good first CHAI lesson last week. We developed a
"working" definition of Kadosh/Holy - what we thought was holy. The children wanted me to
share it with you.
Kadosh/Holy:
Torah
Temple/Synagogue
Sun, Moon and stars
Aron Kodesh
Shabbat
Shofar
Church
Prayers
People
Life
Behaving
Being good
Respecting God
School
World
Holidays
Friends
Havdalah
Throughout the year, we will be refining this definition as we progress through our
curriculum.
I did give the children homework BUT it appears that we will not be doing our usual lesson
this week. We (all parents) are going to listen and ask questions of Rabbi Rembrandt as she
discusses the new CHAI curriculum. That begins at 10 am. Then we are going to be treated to a concert by Dan Nichols! I hope you can all make it.
We will continue with our 2nd CHAI lesson when we meet again on November 5.
Any questions, please feel free to email me. Have a great evening. Talk to you soon. Bonnie
Here is some more info that will be available on our class' homepage:
Class projects and pix
Stories we read, reflect on, and act out
Homework |