Worth the wait...

The one and only א (ALEPH)

We have learned the most famous letter in the Aleph-Bet, א (aleph). Aleph is different from the other letters we have learned because...א is silent unless it has a vowel. Here are some very important and interesting א words.

Red        Ah-dom        אדום

Lion        Ar-yeh        אריה

Mom          E-mah           אמא

Dad              Ah-ba              אבּא

Spring        Ah-vev          אביב

Letter (in a word) Oh-t       אות

The letter  (vav)

Vav makes a "v" sound, and looks like a ורד (vered: rose) It has a bud on the top and a thin stem.  Be careful...it looks like reish ר but the roof is very small in comparison. The following are the ו (vav) words that we learned. 

Pink       Va-roh-d   וָרֹוד

Forever Va-ed        ועד

Curtain Ve-lon וִילוֹן

Rose Veh-red וֶרֶד

Say "Shalom" to.....ק (KOOF)

 ק (koof) is the second letter we know that makes a "k" sound. We remember this letter by thinking of the top part as a קשת (keshet) rainbow. We also learned that קשת means headband. They do look a lot alike. Great words we learned included:

Rainbow         Keh-shet        קֶשֶׁת

Community       K-he-lah        קְהִלָּה

Monkey       Kof             קוֹף

  

Small            Ka-tan          קָטָן

Summer      Ka-yetz       קַיִץ

Cold          Kar              קַר

Holy           Ka-dosh     קָדוֹשׁ

The letter צ (TZADEE)

The letter צ makes a "tz" sound. A way to remember צ is to look at the triangles that the letter creates. The triangles look like pizza slices that were removed. When you say the word pizza, the sound that is created by the "zz" sound is identical to that of the letter. Here are some words we learned:

Color          Tseh-va            צֶבַע

Bird          Tsee-por          צִפּוֹר

Turtle         Tsav               צָב

North        Tsa-phone         צָפוֹן

Frog       Tsfar-day-ah        צְפַרְדֵּעַ

Tzedakah                          צְדָקָה

Yellow         Tsa-hov         צָהֹוב

Can you believe we learned our third vowel?!

Our new vowel is so Easy to remember.

This week we learned the Hebrew vowel known as a "chirik". The vowel makes an "e" sound. For example, the sound that is created by the letter "e" in the the word key. Like our other 2 vowels it is found underneath the letter. Here are the ways I teach the kids to remember its sound.

1.) It's one dot so it's so "E"asy to remember.

2.) Also, it looks like a single pea.

Sometimes this vowel is followed by the letter י (yud). Despite the addition of the י (yud) we still say only "e".

Rockin' ר and ד too!

THE LETTER ר (reish)

 The letter ר (reish) makes a "r" sound.  It is one of my favorites for obvious reasons. (My name starts with one!) ר (reish) also has a round roof. Here are some useful words that start with our new letter:

Spirit          Roo-ach           רוח

Legs          Rag-li-yeem     רגלים

Head              Rosh               ראש

Wednesday       Yom Reh-vee-e     יום רביעי

Street            R-chov           רחוב

THE LETTER ד (dalet)

Our letter this week was ד (dalet). ד makes a "d" sound and has a diving board. Once again, we had to use our eagle eyes to make sure that we didn't miss the diving board and think it was a ר (reish).

 ד Words:

Honey             D-vash                   דבש

Door                 Deh-let                  דלת

     Bee                 D-vo-rah                דבורה

Flag                Deh-gel                   דגל

Bear                   Dov                      דב

Glue                  Deh-vek               דבק

Teddy Bear        Doo-bee                  דובי

Our new letter ר and ד look very similar, so look closely

Newsletter # 1: Life after the Chagim (Holidays)

Whoohoo!  I am so proud of all your children have learned already.  We have learned lots of Hebrew letters and 3 vowels.

THE LETTER BET

The letter בּ BET makes a "b" sound and we remember who BET is by its belly button and bench in the back.  It also looks like a basketball hoop with a basketball.  Visual cues like these are very helpful in helping your child differentiate between letters. We will be using such cues for each of the letters of the Aleph-Bet

Bet has a twin brother named VET! 

The letter ת TAV makes a "t" sound and has a tail and sometimes a tickle spot.  Tav also happens to be the last letter of the Aleph-Bet.  

Here are some words we learned that start with a ת:

Torah                            תּוֹרָה

Baby            Tee-nok    תִּינוֹק

Date             Ta-mar     תָּמָר

Thank you    Toe-da     תּוֹדָה

THE LETTER LAMED 

The letter ל (lamed) makes a "l" sound. Lamed also looks like a lightening bolt. It's one of my favorites, and the kids too. Here are some words we learned that start with ל (lamed).

Why         La-mah            למה

Heart        Lehv                 לב

Lulav                                לולב

Lemon       Lee-mon         לימון

Bread         Le-chem           לחם

THE LETTER MEM

      The letter מ makes a "m" sound. We remember מ (mem) because it looks like a mountain or to some it looks like a mailbox (flag included).

Here are some useful words that begin with the letter מ:

Water                               Ma-yeem                         מַיִם

  Gift                           Ma-ta-na                     מַתָּנָה

Teacher (m)               Mo-reh                      מוֹרֶה

Teacher (f)                  Mo-rah                       מוֹרָה

THE LETTERS KAF / CHAF

Enjoy this little song to tell the difference between kaf and his brother chaf!

Kaf כּ makes a “k” sound like the “k” in kid. This letter is tricky because it looks a lot like a bet בּ. Everyone was sure to have eagle eyes to notice the difference. בּ (bet) has a belly button and a bench that goes to the back, while כּ has a “cough / kaf” drop. This cough drop helps him to say his name very clearly. We enjoyed using and practicing the following words:

Yes         kehn        כּן

  

Kippah                  כּיפה

Dog        Ke-lev    כּלב

Wall       Ko-tel      כּתל

Star        Ko-chav     כּוכב

Chair      Key-say   כּסא

THE LETTER (HAY)

ה (hay) is a fun letter because of the silly way you can remember its "h" sound. Imagine that the letter is a horse stall. The gap on the left is where you throw the hay to the horses. Also, you can think of hay as only having half of a side. It is important to note that ה is silent when it shows up at the end of a word. TIP: If it ends with just a ה there's nothing left to say.

 Here are some new words that start with a hay:

Mountain       Har                  הר

Parents         Ho-reem         הורים

Haggadah     Ha-ga-dah      הגדה

She                Hee                 היא

He                  Hoo                 הוא

Havdalah       Hav-da-lah     הבדלה

VOWELS WE KNOW

In addition to our new letters, we have learned vowels! They are the kamatz and patach . They both make the sound "ah" like Aqua. Or we remember the doctor says "open up and say ah". These vowels are only found under letters.

To read Hebrew, just like English, you take the letter sound and combine it with the vowel sound. I describe it as simple math. Just like 1+1=2, letter sound + vowel sound = whole sound.

                                                 For example , בּ plus a kamatz or patach = בָּ (bah)

KAMATZ

"ah"

  PATACH     

"ah"

3rd New Vowel

Our new vowel is the sh'va.  Its job is to tell us to say the sound (s) before and then stop.

    For example:  

The sh'va lets us know to say Riv-kah as 2 separate syllables.  Though this can be a hard concept, your children got it very easily. 

I am so proud of גן .  They are so excited about learning Hebrew.  My heart is full when your children stop to tell me that a word has a letter we've learned in it.  They truly understand that Hebrew is alive not just in my classroom, but everywhere.  

Rosh Hashanah Cards (Address needed)

I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful long weekend.  Last week in Judaics each child created a handmade Rosh Hashanah card to send to a special family member / friend.  I am all set to mail them,  but I need the name and address of the individual you and your child would like the card sent to. If possible,  please email me at rgood@davisacademy.org by tomorrow afternoon (Sept.5) at the latest.  The kids are so excited, and so am I.  Toda (Thanks!)

Back 2 School Night! You made it!