1. Go to our website www. www.hillelpgh.org
2. Click on "Schedule a Parent Teacher Conference" (under Parent Links) You will be taken to a page with a listing of teachers.
3. Click on one of your child's teachers, and fill in the form with your child's name and your email address.
4. When you click submit, you will receive an email that contains a link. Click on the link in the email and you will be taken to a page where you can pick a time slot with the teacher.
5. After you submit the form, you will be given an option to sign in for another  teacher for that child. Repeat the  last two steps for each of your child's teachers.

Exciting Times for the Nursery

Morah Leah - [email protected]

This week in Nursery the students made crowns for Chodesh Kislev which looked liked a Menorah. We introduced the letter "A" and the children are decorating a large letter "A" with the Hebrew letter "Aleph" glued on one side, and pictures of "Apples" on the other. We are also learning about farm "Animals" and growing vegetables on a farm. The children will be making a real vegetable salad.  "Adama" (the blessing we make on vegetables) also begins with letter "A." The students will be making an art project by cutting out pictures of vegetables and gluing them into a vegetable garden. 

This week, we are learning about the sixth day of creation (animals) and will be making some animal puppets such as a duck, a cow, and a sheep. We will be listening to animal songs such as "Old MacDonald" and "B-I-N-G-O" and will be hearing many stories about all kinds of animals, including baby animals and wild animals.  We will take a pretend trip to the zoo and act out the different animal sounds and movements with a song.

Finally, we went on a "Fall Hunt." The weather was beautiful, so we took a camera and a bag and set out to find things fall-related. We found many leaves, some seeds falling out of trees, some bare trees, and we even found pumpkins! We used this as a "Teachable Moment" and made up a song: "We found pumpkins which begins with 'P.' How many pumpkins? 1-2-3!"

Students work to improve their personal fitness levels everyday in physical education class. Student warm-ups include push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, running, and stretching, which are all on a progressive week by week level. This enables students to try and improve their fitness levels weekly. Beyond warm-ups, action packed fitness based lessons, such as ultimate football, are used not only to teach students the basics of football but also to increase the student's fitness levels. Ultimate football is a fast paced, action packed activity that teaches sportsmanship, cooperation, teamwork, and hard work as well as catching and throwing the basics of football.

What can parents or caregivers do? To start, a full sixty minutes of play or physical activity outside the school setting would be fantastic. Activities can range from basketball or football in the street to helping with landscaping around the house. After all, recent research shows better brain function after exercise enables students to become more focused on academics after getting a good workout. And who wouldn't want that?

Parents, if you have any questions or concerns, I can be reached at [email protected].