Krias Shema

Today, Ezra built and designed a Sof Zman Krias Shema chart for our class. He is learning about different halacha times and we wanted to find some creative ways to express what we have learned. He burned to words into the wood, glued down the number holders and will regularly change the time we need to say Shema by.

This week is 9:51am

Dvar Torah for Parshas Vayeitzei

                                 

Parshas Vayeitzei

     

Today, while learning all about this weeks Parshah of Vayeitzei, we created beautiful 12 Shvatim stained glass windows. Inspired by Marc Chagall and Moshe Moscovitz (two Jewish artist who created stained glass expressions of the twelve tribes of Israel) we traced and coloured these designs onto glass panes and hope to display them in our sun room at school.

Good Shabbos

Parshah Toldos

In honour of this week's Parshah we commemorated Yaakov's purchase of Eisav's birthright. We couldn't believe that anyone would sell their birthright for a bowl of lentil soup, so we made lentil soup. Some of us liked it so much we could see why Eusav sold his birthright, others just couldn't understand it. To top it off, we ate oir lentil soup in a bread bowl. בתאבון!

Rosetta Stone in Action

Our learners are enjoying the Rosetta Stone Hebrew program we have instituted. They are busy learning vocabulary, grammar and pronounciation. This is a great self directed learning that each learner is taking seriously. Don't believe me, just look at the pictures :)

Hashavas Aveida

Today at CLC we had the wonderful opportunity to return a lost object.

A few weeks ago Jonah found a woman's entrance key card and we took the opportunity to find its owner.

Luckily the lady's name was on the card and being that she is a public worker for Ontario health, her contact info was a Google search away.

She came today to pick it up and was very thankful!.

Great job Jonah!

11 Cheshvan

This past Tuesday was Yud Alef Cheshvan, the Yom Hilulah (day of passing) of Rochel Imeinu. She promised the Jewish people, her children, when they were leaving Israel during the Babylonian exile that they would one day return. She said, "Veshavu Banim LeGevulam" (my children will return to their land). 

In her honour we made a 3D artwork of her Kever (tomb) which is in Bait Lechem, just outside Yerushalayim. 

Also, we learned that to remember which day is her Hilulah, remember that the word Aim (mother) has the numerical value of 41 and 11 Cheshvan is 41 days after Rosh Hashanah.  

Blues and Jews

This year we will be learning music and to play the guitar. Here are a few pics from our first lesson on Electric Guitar. 

Parshat Vayeira

This week in the CLC ( which we all decided should also be know as the JCLC) we moved into our new building. Thank you to everyone who made this possible and made the transition so smooth. We are going to have a great year! 

This weeks Parshah tells us about Avraham's kindness and how he performed the mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim, even when he was in pain from his Bris Milah. In that honour, we at JCLC created our own testament to Hachnasat Orchim by creating a Welcome Mat to welcome guests to our school. Below you will see how each of the founding students got to inscribe their name on the mat. 

                              

Parshat Lech-Lecha

Today, we learned all about the Ten Tests of Avraham. Ask one of our Students to show you how well they memorized all ten, in order!!! Wow!
To celebrate this wonderful Parshah, we created coloured sand vases that display the passuk in which Hashem promises Avraham that his children will be as numerous as the sand of the earth. (Later in the Parshah he also compares the Jewish people to the stars in the sky).

Parshat Noach

Using the exact materials as Noach (well Noach probably used actual wood and not popsicle sticks and real tar rather than clay) we recreated, to scale, the Teiva. Then we took the Mabul Challenge to see if our scale Arks would float. Some students used their own novel design in the construction of their Teiva. In the end, Ezra was the only Ark builder I would trust...for a few minutes!


 Noah with his "To Scale Teiva"

 Chaim with his "SS-Jose BOATista"

Ezra with his "SS-FlatBottom"

Arielle with her "HMS-All About That Bass"

Shira and Jonah's ships shared the same fate, they sunk, and they refused the embarrassment of posting the pictures of this on the blog :)

Compost Box Project

At the Traurig Homeschool, the Students and I made a compost box for green and food materials. We want to lessen the amount of garbage we throw out, so we will be taking all compostable food stuffs, leaves and other materials and composting them over the year in our homemade compost box. The box was made out of 100% recyclable and recycled materials we found in the trash and on the side of the road by peoples houses.

We hope to use the future compost soil to grow some goodies to eat. Stay tuned for spring to see how we are doing.

Sustainable Sukkah Project

For the past two weeks at the CLC and Traurig Homeschool the Students learned about sustainability. This  term which we must always be aware of, always thinking about the environment and how we can protect its limited resources. 

To bring this subject to practicality, and to connect it with a Jewish lesson/value/mitzvah we applied what we learned about sustainability to building a Sukkah. We made sure our Sukkot were made from 100% recyclable and recycled materials and used only manual labour. Below are some pictures from both schools and a report written by the Traurig boys.

Enjoy, and have a happy and joyous Sukkot!

CLC:

Traurig:

By K. T.

 
I Used For My Sukkah by M. T.                B"H

1. Ping Pong Table
2. Extra wood pieces
3. Cereal Box
4. Milk Carton
5. Vacuum Bag
6. Kettle Box
7. Freezies Box
8. Shopping Bag
9. Tissue Box
10. Nail Box
11. Cream Cheese container
12. old bamboo pieces
13. old wood
14. reused nails
15. water bottle