PHDS/NEAT News
P r ov i d e n c e H e b r e w D a y S c h o o l / N e w E n g l a n d A c a d e my o f To r a h
Melava Malka Update
Volume , Issue
The Melave Malka is this Motzoei Shabbos, January 28, at 8 p.m. The committee has worked hard to plan an enjoyable evening, and we are looking forward
to seeing parents, board members, and friends of the school, as we celebrate
and are inspired together!
Professional Development
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January 27, 2017
29 Teves 5777
Dates to Remember:
January 28 – Building
Elaine Saklad Campaign Melave Malka
February 4–5 – NEAT
Production
Last Tuesday, Rabbi Weissmann had the opportunity to attend a professional development day for middle-school rebbeim, held in Brooklyn.
Hosted by Torah Umesorah, Rabbi Weissmann heard from a veteran rebbi
from Lakewood and a middle-school principal from Brooklyn, and exchanged ideas and advice with rebbeim from around the world. He came
back on Wednesday, excited by what he had learned, and is looking forward to implementing new concepts in his classroom and teaching.
Mrs. Weiner attended the Torah Umesorah Principals Conference in Phoenix, AZ, from Sunday to Tuesday of this week. It was a very intense two
and a half days and Mrs. Weiner is looking forward to sharing many concepts that she learned with the rest of the staff at upcoming staff meetings.
This trip was made possible with federal Title II funds, which are administered by the Providence school department.
Inside This Issue:
Shabbos Programming
2
Happy Birthday
2
Ki L’olam Chasdo
2
Seforim Sale
2
Classroom Chatter
2/3
From Rabbi Scheinerman
4
Mishmar!!!!!!!!
Thank you to Rabbi Raphie Schochet for sponsoring the snacks this week. Sponsorship of refreshments for
future weeks is available. Please contact Mrs. Karp at (401) 831-3215 to arrange a sponsorship.
Give ’n Get
Reminder: Please send in your time sheets at the end of the month. Since this is the last newsletter of
January, a time sheet is being included in this week’s family envelope.
Ms. Merav Minkin
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PHDS/NEAT News
Classroom Chatter
Shabbos Programming
This Week:

Pre-K 3 and Pre-K 4 are learning all about
the makkos in this and next week’s
parshiyos. Each class made their own versions of the first two plagues: blood and
frogs. We also made a large Mitzri with ten
makkos around him (to be completed next
week) with the end of the makkos in Parshas
Bo. We were also fooled into drinking clean
water, which, if you were a Mitzri, turned
out to be blood.

The Pre-K children brought their favorite
teddy bears to school to show their friends at
group time. Then they painted exact replicas
of their bears. The children learned that the
bear is one of the animals that hibernates in
the winter. The children especially liked going on a pretend bear hunt and listening to
Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Kindergarten is finishing a unit about safrus.
We read a number of books about this topic,
looked at real (no longer kosher) tefillin and
mezuzos, and are looking forward to a special visit from a sofer, Rabbi Taitelbaum, as
the final and most exciting part of this learning adventure
Third graders were introduced to RAISE this
week. RAISE is a template for expressive
writing: R – Restate the question; A – Answer the question; I – Include details; S –
Supporting evidence from the text; and E –
Extend your answer with a related question,
prediction, connection, or extra thought.
This form of writing not only benefits students by helping them to answer questions
to the best of their ability, but also builds a
foundation for writing in the years to come.
Third grade used this method while answering a question from their reading selection,
which in turn helped them with their book
reports. Great job by all, learning this new
and exciting concept.
The fourth graders continue to work hard
since we returned from the break. In math,
we are expanding our abilities in division
There is no Likras Shabbos .
Amen is at 4:45 p.m.
Bnos.is 2:30–3:30. Please enter through the Savoy
Street doors.
Ahavas Yisroel Group is 2:35–3:25.
There is no Pirchei.
Avos U’Banim is at 6:45 p.m. at the New England
Rabbinical College, 262 Blackstone Blvd.
To sign up to sponsor snacks there is a sign-up chart
on the bulletin board outside the school office, or you
may contact Mrs. Golden at 421-6996 or [email protected] to confirm which week you will
be sponsoring the snacks. Please contact Mrs. Golden
with any questions.
Happy Birthday

Happy Shevat birthday to Atara Bielory, Levi Yehuda
Golden, Aryeh Menchel, Eliyahu Minkin, Aron Dovid
Twersky, and Shoshana Raizel Yudkowsky.
Ki L’olam Chasdo

Thank you to Mr. Aaron and Mrs. Jordana Weisman
for sponsoring the Rosh Chodesh Shevat treats that
were distributed on Friday. We are in need of sponsors
in order to continue this program. Please contact Mrs.
Weiner to arrange a sponsorship.
Seforim Sale
The school is selling many seforim that are no longer
needed by the school. The books for sale are on display in the Savoy Foyer (with prices indicated) and
are available for purchase during school hours and
kollel hours (7:00–10:00 p.m. Sun-Thurs). Please enter through the Savoy Street doors if coming during
kollel hours.
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Page 3
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and will soon move on to decimals and fractions. Though the
steps are difficult for some
people to remember at first, we
are practicing hard to master
these skills. In reading, we are
coming close to the end of
Number the Stars. The students
have enjoyed this book tremendously, and have learned a
lot from our discussions. In
writing, we have been practicing the five steps of writing.
The students did a great job
last week in peer editing each
other’s work and this week we
will complete the fifth step as
the students rewrite their
drafts. Finally, we enjoyed
reading a story about a Jewish
boy who immigrated to Ellis
Island and became a famous
singer in America. As a follow
-up, students created their own
immigration stories based on
the facts we learned, which
they enjoyed sharing with the
class.
The fifth grade has been gearing up for the experience of
their lives: Matan Torah! They
are learning about the events
that led up to this special time
and have been working hard to
be able to recite what took
place on each of the days before the Torah was given.
The sixth-grade girls learned
about the choshen and the
gems it held. They learned the
stones’ names, colors, and
what was written on them. As
a culminating project, thanks
to an idea from Mrs. Lewin,
the girls made edible choshens
from graham crackers, fluff,
PHDS/NEAT News
and jelly beans. Yum!

Now that they have learned
about Korach and his followers, the seventh-grade girls
appreciate how terrible
machlokes is, yet how easy it
is to get caught up in it. The
“Korach-virus,” as they
dubbed it, is highly contagious and deadly. They know
to keep away…or get swallowed up.

In Social Studies, after the
students completed their unit
test on Moving West last
week, we are learning about
some of the social changes
that occurred in the United
States prior to the Civil War,
such as in schools, prisons,
medical breakthroughs, and
art. Students particularly enjoyed learning about Dorothea
Dix, an early pioneer in mental health and prison reform.
All this will lead us to the period right before the Civil
War, which will be our next
unit of discussion.
Seventh- and eighth-grade
students have been learning
all about the physical geography of Russia this week. We
have focused on land and climate. As a conclusion to this
chapter, students are now
working on creating a board
game, incorporating geographical facts about Russia
into their games, and some
time will be spent playing
each other’s games when they
are completed!
After watching an exciting
video about undersea geologic
formations, sixth-grade Earth


Science students worked on
making their own models of
sea-floor spreading and tectonic plate subduction before
wrapping up the chapter.
Now things are really shaking
in the lab as the students
learn about earthquakes, and
how to mitigate the loss of
life and structural damage
from this unstoppable and
unpredictable phenomenon.

The young biologists in Life
Science have embarked upon
a quest to understand the unusual organisms found in the
kingdom Protista. As they
study the microbial to the
macroscopic members of this
kingdom, they will also have
an opportunity for some more
microscope lab work, and
perhaps even spy some living
protists!
FOCUS ON NEAT CLASSES:

Mrs. Karp’s Yahadus class has
just completed its first battle.
We are waging war against the
yetzer horo. We are studying
his tactics, and where he can
be found. We are determined
to prevail!

Room 33 Geometry has begun
the chapter on polygons. Given
all of the information we have
learned thus far, we see these
geometric shapes from a whole
new angle!
Providence Hebrew Day School/
New England Academy of Torah
450 Elmgrove Avenue
Providence, RI 02906
(401) 331-5327
Faxt(401) 331-0030
Mrs. Bishop - ext. 10 or [email protected]
Rabbi Scheinerman - ext. 21 or
[email protected]
Mrs. Weiner - ext. 18 or [email protected]
Rabbi Lapin - ext. 15 or [email protected]
Mrs. Purec - ext. 26
Financial Office - ext. 11
Dear Parents,
This week’s Torah portion of V a’eira
contains the posuk, “V eyod’u Mitzrayim ki ani Hashem bintosi es yodi al
Mitzrayim – the Egyptians will know
that I am Hashem, when I stretch out
My hand over Mitzrayim.” The Degel
Machane Ephraim asks in the name of
the Baal Shem Tov zt”l: Why did Hashem need to break all the rules of nature just for the purpose of proving that
He is the Mighty One? Does Hashem
need all types of signs and miracles to
prove His omnipotence? The Nesivos
Sholom, quoting the Degel Machane
Ephraim, answers that the posuk does
not mean that the actual Egyptians
would learn about Hashem’s strength;
rather, the Torah understands that the
culture of Egypt had seeped into every one of us, and was now inher ently
part of us. Yet, even those whose value
system had strayed would recognize the
greatness of Hashem.
From the Desk of
Rabbi Peretz Scheinerman
impurity from the land in order
handprints and footprints of Hato eradicate the forces of evil that shem are all over them. Every so
were in Egypt.
often, Hashem reminds us that as
much as we are affected by our
The purification process of the
surroundings and its foreign culten plagues also allowed Bnei
Yisroel to witness the awesome ture, we can use these daily
events and bursts of faith and inpower of Hashem and to
spiration to strengthen ourselves
strengthen their belief in Hain our Torah study and perforshem, which was the ultimate
reason that they were worthy of mance of mitzvos to serve as a
lifeline and an opportunity to enredemption.
hance our faith in Him, and to
Returning to the initial peshat of spiritually uplift ourselves and
the Degel Machane Ephraim, we our families.
can apply the lesson that the miracles of Mitzrayim required Ha- This weekend, we will be celeshem to step out of the world of brating the completion of Phase
nature, as it were, and that these One of our building campaign at
events served as a sign for future a Melave Malka. We ask all pargenerations. We live in a genera- ents to join us on this important
occasion, to celebrate the work
tion where secular culture has
seeped into the walls of even the that is already enhancing and crefinest homes. Hashem performed ating a more comfortable learning
environment for our students and
great miracles in Egypt so that
The Nesivos Sholom explains that it
today, we, His children, can put staff. Special thanks to Mrs.
was worthwhile for Hashem to perform
on our “faith-tinted glasses” and Elaine Saklad and Mrs. Ruchama
all these miracles that defy nature in
Szendro for all their efforts on
witness, understand, and interorder to uplift Bnei Yisroel and to help
nalize that miracles happen right our behalf.
them reach their ultimate fulfillment as
in front of our eyes on a daily
Good Shabbos,
a nation. The slavery in Egypt was not
basis. Many day-to-day happen- Rabbi Peretz Scheinerman,
a punishment, but rather was a purificaings, politically and otherwise,
tion for them to be able to become the
Dean
seem to defy nature, reflecting
Am Hanivchar, the Chosen People. The
divine intervention; the
ten plagues were needed to remove the