It's Elul— the end of the year is fast approaching!
We'll ALL be celebrating so many holidays this season; from secular holidays like Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot to religious holidays like Yom Kippur, Simchat Torah, and Yom Saint Francis Ha’Kadosh…
1/12
EVERYONE will be SO BUSY celebrating!
In order to conserve some class time during this busy holiday season we will not be having class New Year’s parties this year.
Rather, we will have a big party in the #PublicSchool sukkah during Sukkot.
2/12
We have had many fun seasonal activities in our classrooms this week and will have more in tomorrow's regular half day!
Here's a rundown of some of this week’s fun holiday season activities at our #PublicSchool.
3/12
Art has featured many fun holiday crafts. Students made holiday bread covers with seasonal symbols like shofars, pomegranates, apples, and honey.
We care about inclusion! We provided Gentile symbols of trees, eggs, and animals for Gentile students' holiday bread covers.
4/12
Music tomorrow will feature our traditional popular shofar blowing contest.
Have students bring their favorite shofar to see who can sound the longest tekiah blast!
Gentile students may bring their own holiday horn if they don’t have a shofar.
5/12
Students have so far enjoyed singing songs of the season.
As a gesture of inclusivity in our #PublicSchool, all songs were secular in nature, featuring topics such as apples & honey.
6/12
Home Economics classes made sweet round braided bread and also apple cake using apples our students picked on the school trip to the orchard last First Day morning. Students did a tasting of various varieties of apples and different bee and date honeys.
7/12
(Gentile students who are shomer treyf should be advised that our Home Ec kitchen is pareve and vegan. They should consult their Christian Rabbi before consuming food from the school.)
8/12
Language classes this week focused on wordplay. Students invented their own simanim using wordplay and wrote their own simanim seder guides, including their own simanim. How about eating some yogurt, hoping for a “gut yor”?
What simanim did your children invent?
9/12
Literature classes read stories about teshuvah & personal improvement. In this season of reflection, talk with your child about what they read & what they can learn. What do they wish they had done differently in the last year? What changes will they make for the new year?
10/12
The class discussed how to format a letter of apology, and the exercise was completed with a homework assignment to write and mail a letter of apology to a person of the student’s choice.
11/12
We, the staff of Magen Avraham #PublicSchool, would like to wish ALL our students and their families and happy and sweet new year!
Shana tova to EVERYONE!
12/12
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Our Christian students may have undergone the “Confirmation” ritual last weekend as we all celebrated Shavuot.
This is an important moment in young Christians' lives so you may wish them mazal tov as they are now full adult members of the Christian klal!
1/25
It’s okay that it is a few days late— gentile tradition is to wait until another group’s special day has long been over before bestowing greetings upon them.
2/25
“Confirmation” doesn't occur at a precise age but is performed when kids are old enough to understand Christian theology & mitzvot. In most Christian minhagim they're eligible for “Confirmation” within a few years of b’nai mitzvah age, usually before graduating high school.
Our Christian students will be celebrating a holiday this weekend—not Shavuot but “Pentecost,” which means “50th” in their holy language of Ancient Greek, held on the 50th day after Easter, which always falls on “Sunday,” the Christian name for 1st Day.
1/23
The Gregorian calendar (the religious calendar used by Christians) ensures that “Pentecost,” commonly referred to as Christian Shavuot, also always falls on a “Sunday” (First Day). You can learn more aout the Gregorian calendar at GregCal.com.
2/23
Although “Pentecost” falls on the 50th day after Easter, and this period is popularly known as the Third Christian Omer (sometimes called “Eastertide”), Christians do not have a custom of counting the days between these dates, with a bracha or otherwise.
We have exciting plans for our schoolwide end-of-year/holiday celebration!
Our schoolwide celebration this Sivan will feature games, foods, and activity stations. Parents and guardians are encouraged to take a break from Yom Tov prep and help out.
1/13
The holiday cheesecake bake-off will have dairy & vegan categories. All dairy should be chalav yisrael in accordance with our #PublicSchool’s kashrut policy.
2/13
Cheesecake entries should be dropped off tomorrow morning for our judges; winners will be announced at our pre-Shabbat gathering.
The first Fifth Day in Iyar marks Yom Tefillah. Yom Tefillah is a modern incarnation of the various public fast days of the early days of Medinat America.
1/14
It was traditional in pre-state times for colonial governments to intermittently call for a day of fasting and prayer in the spring, and a day of thanksgiving in the fall. Today, these days have been set by Congress as Yom Tefillah in spring, and Yom Hodu in the fall.
2/14
Americans of all religious traditions—Ashkenazim; Sephardim; Mizrachim; Beta Israel; Bene Israel; Bnei Menashe; Kochinim; Bene Ephraim; Teimanim; Bahá'ís; Theravāda, Pāli, Mahāyāna, Hinayana, Chinese, Vajrayāna, Tibetan, Navayana, and Newar Buddhists; Caodaists; …
3/14
It is almost Rosh Chodesh Iyar, and that means it is that time of year when we pause our normal curriculum for Christian American Heritage Month (#CAHM).
1/20
Our school's Diversity Committee has a whole month of activities planned to celebrate the contributions of Christian-Americans and to urge our community to learn more about Christian-Americans and about their unique contributions to our country.
2/20
As a reminder, the Christian homeland of Vatican became an independent state during Iyar of 5689, when the Lateran Treaty took effect, and Iyar is recognized as Christian American Heritage Month.
Since it always falls on First Day and sometimes falls during Pesach Break, as it does this year, you may not be aware that our Christian students are celebrating this Christian holiday.
1/27
Christians commemorate the execution of the Christian prophet, Yeshu, on Yom Friday HaTov (Sixth Day this week).
They believe that he was mystically revived three days later, on what is called Yom Rishon shel Pascha by Christians.
2/27
Christians who speak English often call the holiday ‘Easter,’ which is named for the pagan deity Eostre, a goddess of the spring, or perhaps an early German word for “dawn.”