Hi Yad b'yad!

I hope you all had a meaningful and insightful Yom Kippur. I really enjoyed seeing many of the YBY students at the Kol Nidrei program on Tuesday night! The chaggim (holidays) just keep coming and Sukkot is coming up right around the corner (begins on Sunday night). Check out the video below to learn more about the holiday through the creative teachings of G-dCast.

We definitely got YBY off to a great start last Sunday! I really enjoyed learning about your unique family traditions and experiences and seeing impressive art and writing skills from the students! Thanks again to the Setton family for providing us with excellent bagels to kick off the year. I really appreciate those families who have already signed up for breakfast slots throughout the upcoming weeks. Here's what I have so far for the rest of 2012:

10/7: Weiss and Roseman
10/21: Paykel and ??
11/11: Meezan and ??
12/2: ?? and ??
12/16: Sofaer and ??

As you can see, we need some more sign ups! Please email me to sign up for a date. I'll continue to bring the sign up sheet to YBY family mornings as well.

I look forward to seeing all the kids this Sunday for another great week. Parents- don't forget to join us for a special all school tfillah in the Sanctuary at 10:40!

B'Shalom,
Julie

Introductions and First Day

Hi Yad b'Yad Families!

We had an excellent first day this past Sunday! It was so great to see all of your students' smiling faces and chat with many of you at drop off. I am sure we'll have much more time to chat and get to know one another as the year goes on and I look forward to speaking with each of you.

As we talked about in class, YBY is such a special program because we have students in three grades (the only in religious school!) and we get to spend class time with our parents every other week. We learned about the theme of the year (middot and mitzvot - values and actions) and talked about how middot can be represented by our hearts and heads while mitzvot are performed with our hands. Ask your student(s) to show you these meanings using the hand movements we learned!

A big highlight of the morning was decorating the classroom with our self portraits. We certainly have some talented artists on our hands! Check out this photo of our newly decorated bulletin board that includes everyone in the YBY class!

Self portraits of the Yad b'Yad shining stars! 

Be sure to check them out next time you are in the classroom!

As a reminder, we do not have Sunday School this week, but I hope you will all join the Temple Isaiah community at Rosh Hashanah services. Complete service information can be found at http://www.temple-isaiah.org/worship/high-holy-days/. I look forward to seeing you at services and on Sunday, 9/23 at 9:00 am for our first Family Day. 

Shana Tova,

Julie

L'Shanah Tovah (Happy New Year)!

Welcome to a new year of Yad b'Yad! I hope you all had wonderful summers and enjoyed the gorgeous weather and amazing Olympics action as much as I did!

I am so excited to welcome you all to Yad b'Yad (YBY) this year! We have a great year planned that includes fun activities and opportunities for community building both within and outside of the classroom. We have many new faces (including a new teacher and two new TAs!) as well as many returning faces from last year's class and I know we will create a wonderful, unique and welcoming community together this year!

Bridget (my YBY co-teacher), our TAs and I are looking forward to seeing you all this Sunday, 9/9/12 at 10:00 AM (note the different time!) in Room 101 (the first room to your right as you enter the Talmud Torah Center). Kids will then stay with us while parents will head to the sanctuary for a parent orientation and schmooze with the clergy and other religious school parents!

Can't wait to see you Sunday! Please feel free to contact me with any questions now and throughout the year at bressler.julie@gmail.com.


L'Shalom,

Julie