• The PTA meeting has been postponed a week to Sunday, February 7. It is at co-chair Marie Levine's house (2303 Fox Cres.) at 7 pm. Everyone is welcome! Please RSVP to Marie.
• The SJCC has scholarship funding for immigrant children (children under 18 years who immigrated within the last 10 years) to take after-school enrichment programs, as well as life-guard training. Anyone interested in more information can email Maxine Miska or call her at 798-9818, ext 263.
  

Scientists in Kindergarten

Scientists in Grade Three
Students from grade 3 got to be structural engineers on Thursday, as they learned about stability and how to build strong bridges. Above, Jessica helps Yoav get his ruler to stay standing. Below, the class cheers as the Big Bad Wolf (Morah Yaffa in a hated Maple Leafs shirt) fails to blow down their straw structure. The students also got to build bridges from newspapers. Their goal was to have them strong enough to hold up 5 textbooks. They all succeeded! For more photos, see our photo gallery.

Scientists in Grade Seven
The 7th grade students all became chemists for half a day as the Scientists in School program taught them about solutions. They learned about pure substances and mixtures, and got to mix and match solutes and solvents. Above, Eric and Ethan create their solutions.

Scientists in Grade Eight
The 8th grade students learned more about cells from their Scientist. Above Caleb (dressed as his hero, Barack Obama) and Jacob learn to stain their slide before viewing it under the microscope.

CanWest Spelling Bee at Hillel
On Wednesday, Hillel held the school-wide CanWest Spelling Bee. Students from grades 4 to 8 participated. Last year's champion, Jared Roth, was back and won again, as most people expected. But everyone was delighted with the number of students who worked hard over the past months to compete. Jared is in grade 8 this year, so the field is wide open next year. Ander, from grade 4, made sure the spelling bee had an exciting finish, going at least 15 rounds with Jared before the end.

This week, two Hebrew Language Fluency groups put on plays for their classes.  The plays were entirely the students' work; they wrote and acted out them out.  On Tuesday, grade 3 students Yoav, Oren, Jonathan, and Harel presented Goldilocks and the Three Bears. On Friday, Rotem and Ander from grade 4 (above right, and behind the bench) and Justin (above left) from grade 5 presented Hansel and Gretel.

D'var Torah
During the Exodus, the people of Israel find a bitter water source called Marah. Despite the miracles they witnessed, they complain that they have no water to drink. Moshe prays to G-d, who indicates there is a stick of wood Moshe should use to sweeten the waters. Moshe then takes the wood, throws it into the water, and the water is sweetened.
It is not only intriguing that Moshe is able to use a piece of wood to sweeten the bitter water, but that the text indicates that G-d 'teaches' Moshe about the wood, rather than simply showing it to him.

In rabbinic literature, wood is symbolic of Torah, such as in the expression of Etz Chaim (tree of life). The Torah is the source of life for the Jewish people, much as water is the support of biological life. Sometimes, people perceive the Torah as something bitter, considering its many prohibitions and restrictions. It is therefore the responsibility of the teacher to sweeten the Torah and demonstrate its true beauty.

Our students must learn about the sweetness of Torah. As the rabbis tell us in Tractate Kiddushin, it must be presented as a 'sam chaim', an 'elixir of life', inspiring our students to pursue a life imbued with Torah values. To do otherwise would be a disservice to Torah, to its students and, by extension, the Jewish people.