I love the letters I get from the teachers. Here's one from Morah Erin. Her enthusiasm is palpable.

Dear Parents and Friends,
What a wonderful beginning to a new year! First and foremost, I would like to say an official welcome to the Sh----- family. H------- joined us the first day back from winter break making First Grade student number eight (As the children and I would say- “Eight is great”!). She has been with us two weeks and has told me on more than one occasion that she is enjoying being at JAWC. Hats off to each of the other children for their genuine caring and helpfulness to make H-------’s transition a smooth one!

We have been busy learning about amphibians, reptiles and spiders the last few weeks. We experienced firsthand what it is like to have to molt like a snake at Science Lab last week. This week, we learned some amazing facts about spiders. Do you know?
1. What animal group spiders belong to and other animals in the same group?
2. How many eyes a spider has?
3. How many sets of spinnerets most spiders have?
4. If a spider’s web gets destroyed what it will sometimes do before building a new one?
Your children sure do-ask them and find out!

This week we followed directions to an experiment many of the children read about in one of our Leveled Reading books, Earth’s Riches. As each of them read this book, they asked/begged to make their own salt crystals. We now have several jars of colored salt crystals beginning to form along the edge of the window in our Science room. If you have a moment when you drop your child off in the morning or pick up in the afternoon, come in and take a peek!

Several of our students have been recipients of thank you letters recently. Several of the soldiers that we sent care packages to in December have sent us many beautiful letters. One soldier wrote: “Your kind words remind us why we are here and why we serve. It (your package) helped to soften the separation we feel at not being with our families. We feel honored and blessed to love in a nation and serve such fine young people like yourselves.” It is amazing how such a little bit of effort can have such a powerful impact!

We discussed the earthquake in Haiti this week. We learned: where Haiti is on the map, that for every one person who works, there is one person who does not and those who do work only make a little more than two dollars per day. At Shabbat Circle, Rabbi Aaron had each of the children give extra tzedakah so the school could make a donation to the disaster relief fund.

This afternoon, we read an amazing book that Syndey and her family brought in about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Hershel. It told of both of the men’s lives and struggles. It led to a discussion about prejudice, being open minded and standing up for what you believe in. WOW!

I am happy to announce that our Second Grade girls did a remarkable job reading at Temple Beth Or Preschool last month. They have been invited to come back this month to read to the four year old classes again! These young ladies are also going to pair up and be a “reading buddy” with a four year old from Hillel Preschool every Thursday afternoon beginning in February.

Another big Thank You goes to our fabulous Art Teacher, Debbie Secan. She came in this afternoon and did a lesson on shading, sketching animals and scratch art. I hung several of the student’s creations on the board and windows in our Science room. As I was hanging things up, one student remarked, “That’s A LOT of animals!” Please stop in and see the gallery we enjoyed making.
Have a fabulous l-o-n-g weekend,
Morah Erin