Fifth grade is having a great year in Jewish studies so far! We just started our main Torah unit of the Parasha “Vayeshev” – the beginning of the story of Yosef (Joseph). We have already noticed that many of the main themes of the Yakov (Jacob) story – sibling rivalry, jealousy, parental favoritism – are present even just in the first few sentences of the Yosef story. We will also soon meet Rashi – the ancient French Torah commentator – as we try to take our learning to a deeper level. This is sure to be a juicy and exciting unit, stay tuned for more fun learning!!

Fifth grade is also working very hard to learn the long but important prayer of “Ashrei” – we have already reached the 8th line, so we are about a quarter of the way there. So far, I am very impressed with Fifth grade’s “growth mindset” towards making mistakes but trying and improving with each new day. I can’t wait until we finish this beautiful prayer and the Fifth graders can proudly follow along with the rest of their peers during Thursday’s Tefillah. We are also learning a special service called “Hallel” which is recited on special days such as Sukkot or Rosh Chodesh – the new Hebrew month.
Fifth grade is having a great year so far, and I can’t wait to see what they learn next!!!