Bnos Yisroel incorporates an annual performance for each grade into the curriculum. In First grade we celebrate the Siddur Play. It is a culmination of the review of letters and nekudos. This milestone marks the time that students can begin to read tefillos from inside a siddur!

The First Grade Siddur play, led by our first grade moros and morah Suri Schwartz, our music teacher, is all about shevach, bakasha and hodaah. The principal, Mrs. Itzkowitz, explains to the students each year, “The siddur you receive at this play is the same siddur that you will use until you are bubbies. This is a lifetime accomplishment. You might have to wait until you are older to drive a car but you can daven from a siddur now as a six year old and Be’H for many years to come!” The event is attended by parents and grandparents who join in celebrating this milestone. In addition to the Siddur, each girl receives a special gift wrapped picture wearing her costume and holding a siddur. It is our goal that this event generates excitement to embark on their new journey of tefillah to Hashem.

Our year long program titled, לבי במזרח is in full swing. The students are enjoying the experiential monthly assemblies with mock tours to cities in ארץ ישראל utilizing slide shows, sound effects and more. Some places they visited recently were Yeshivas Mir, Bnei Brak, and Rav Chaim Kanievsky’s home. These are followed by weekly mini assemblies each Friday. Students have taken turns bringing home a special class album with pictures of the places they visited, a class travel bag is refilled with souvenirs and newsletters.

Recently, we explored the topic of “avira d Eretz Yisroel machkim”. Mrs. Turk taught that Torah wisdom is intensified in Eretz Yisroel. To illustrate this point the Elementary played a custom designed A Yiddishe Kop game. Pictures were presented of scenes from everyday life in Eretz Yisroel. Students were challenged to solve riddles based on the pictures. Some of the pictures included:

A Bus with a sign that says “mipnei seiva takum”
Signs on the walls of the streets announcing mechiras chametz, Simchas Bais Hashoeva or the time for Shabbos candle lighting
Corona Vaccination sign with a pasuk “vnishmartem meod lnafshosechem”

A related concept of tefilla kneged hamikdash was discussed and depicted . At the assembly famous shuls such as the Churva and Belz shul were visited. A take home lesson was the idea that from Baltimore we turn in the direction of mizrach-East to direct our tefillos toward the makom hamikdash. That week’s assembly included a paint party with Morah Paisley where each student designed a mizrach sign for her home. All of these activities are bringing the students to a new level of connection to Eretz Yisroel during this shemita year.