Thursday, April 9 and Monday, April 13

The students have been reading much of the book of Kings. On Thursday, we completed "Absalom is Tricked," and on Monday, we began "O Absalom, My Son, My Son." We talked a lot about the conflict between David's love for his son, and how terribly Absalom has treated David. David mourns Absalom's death even though Absalom was trying to kill him!
The students are also making great progress in Ramah 5. Please remember to have your child practice reading Hebrew 5 minutes/day, 5 days/week. The prayer the students are learning for Ramah 5 is the Friday night kiddush. They can practice with the Mitkadem recording here or my recording here.
Because of school vacation, we will not meet for Jr. Congregation or KIRS next week. To stay on track to meet our goals for this year, I am asking that students complete the following work by Monday, April 28:

• Read Hebrew 5 minutes/day, 5 days/week
• Complete the Parshat Shmini assignment
• Read "Who Will be King?" and complete 3 of the activities in the packet
• Practice Torah Service (4th graders) or Musaf (5th graders) prayers to prepare for assessment after break. Recordings can be found here.
• For Torah Service: Ein Kamocha, Av HaRachamim, V'yihi Binsoa, Bei Ana, Shema, Torah Blessings for Aliyah (bonus) V'zot HaTorah, Lecha Adonai
• For Musaf: Amidah blessings 1 and 2, Yismechu, Sim Shalom, Ein Keloheinu, Aleinu, Adon Olam
• Complete any make-up work

All of these assignments were distributed on Monday. If you have any questions about them, please let me know. Thanks in advance for your help!