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.