This week in kindergarten we started the day off learning about Tzedaka - צדקה. Tzedaka is an act of righteousness or charity. We learned that the reason we all bring some money to Sunday School and put it in our Tzedaka Box, is to help others. We talked about how there are people who don't have some of the basic things they need to live. Clothes, food, toothpaste, blankets, and toilet paper were things that we discussed that we all had at home and were always there. We learned that the small amount of money we bring each Sunday is actually a big help because it helps those people who truly need it.

     After the Tzedaka discussion, we reviewed last weeks Sukkot lesson and learned about a few more things that belong in a Sukkah. The Lulav and Etrog are a mix of a piece of fruit, Etrog (אתרוג) – the fruit of a citron tree that represents our heart, and a group of three different tree branches. Lulav (לולב) – a ripe, green, closed frond from a date palm tree that represent our spine. Hadass (הדס) – boughs with leaves from the myrtle tree that represent our eyes. Aravah (ערבה) – branches with leaves from the willow tree that represent our mouths. We learned that these are all parts of our body we use to communicate with G-d. We then went out to the Sukkah and recited the traditional payers for sitting in the Sukkah and holding the Lulav and Etrog.

     After being in the Sukkah we returned to the classroom and began our Hebrew lesson. I decided we needed a couple "fun to say" "everyday" words in Hebrew so we went with "zipper" reech-ratch ('רץ' ריץ) and "bottle" bak-book (בקבוק). Go ahead and ask your children they will help you with the pronunciation. After our vocabulary lesson we practiced writing and sounding out our next four letters of the Alef-Bet. Hay - ה, Vav - ו, Zayin - ז, and Chet - ח till the end of class.