Setting the Table for Rosh Hashanah

My new job requires me to blog periodically about what is going on my the classroom, as part of keeping communication open with the parents.  The blog is behind password protection, so I cannot link directly to it, but my current post does not include any private information, and I'd like to share it here, without the original photos:

There are many ways we “set the table,” from the special dinner table for Rosh Hashanah to the preparation for the “meal” that is all of the learning this year.  In these first weeks of school, we have been preparing the students as if they are a table – going over rules and routines to ensure good learning and a safe and warm classroom community.  That is true in General Studies and in Jewish Studies, and also on the playground and during lunch.

Art by yours truly - the same thing my students were assigned.
They will cut out the many pictures they have drawn, and set
their own family's "Rosh Hashanah dinner table" with every-
thing from apples & honey and pomegranates for a sweet and
abundant new year to flowers for hiddur mitzvah (making our tradition beautiful).

In the afternoon, we have been studying special holiday sounds (Shofar), special blessings and prayers, the different things involved in Teshuvah (recognizing we have done something wrong, saying we are sorry, and trying not to repeat the behavior) — all setting the table for a meaningful holiday celebration.  We are also learning what actually goes on that special dinner table, including sweet foods, round foods, and even strange things like a fish head (so that we should be like the head, always going forward, and not like the tail; and so that Israel may be as abundant as the fish in the sea).

We also worked this week with 1st graders, being role models and partners, thinking about how G-d is like a “parent,” as we learned to chant the Avinu Malkeinu prayer.

With the new school year now fully underway, and the new year arriving next week, wishing you and yours a sweet and healthy year.

שנה טובה ומתוקה