Category: TBI Happenings

Thank you for a great year

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Dearest 6th grade students and their families,

This year has been so much more than I had hoped it could be, considering all the restrictions we have had online and over zoom.  I could not be more proud of all that you have accomplished both in trope and in learning the lessons of LaBriut. Kol HaKavod to all of our students who through their hard work, and acts of loving-kindness, were able to achieve 1800+ and 3600+ Mitzvah Points!! I have special prizes to give you Sunday, May 9th, on the final day of school when we will see each other in person at TBI for the dedication of the Rabbi Weinberg Center for Jewish Learning. Stop by the 6th grade table in the parking lot to receive your own copy of our prayerbook, Mishkan T’filah for Travelers, pick up your Mitzvah Points prizes, draw or sign a message on our 6th grade 5781 poster, and participate in fun activities and projects. Continue reading →

Chesed Unit and The Haftarah Challenge

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How Far We Have Come
It is amazing to me how far we have come this year, and how much your students have achieved, even with all of the innate challenges of being remote. As it is now April 12th, we have just 4 more weeks of Hebrew and Religious School at TBI for this year. We have just completed our K’hillah/Community unit and this Sunday, we will begin our final unit of the year, Chesed. Check out this introductory video to learn a bit more about this unit: Continue reading →

Haftarah Trope and K’hillah Unit

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My apologies, it has been a few weeks since I have last had the opportunity to update our class blog. So much has happened, here is a recap:

Wednesdays – Haftarah Trope
After our students successfully completed the Torah Trope Challenge, we began our second and final Hebrew unit for this year, Haftarah Trope. Haftarah Trope shares all the same attributes as Torah Trope, except one. Both share the same symbols, the same clause families, the same color-coding, the same rules about each symbol, the same functions (as a m’chaber/connector or as a mafsik/separator), and where the symbol is placed still determines the syllabic stress of the word. The one difference is the melody; Haftarah has its own unique melody. In our first weeks of learning this new unit, the students have already learned: Continue reading →

Welcome to 6th Grade Online

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Welcome!
Shalom, I am Marla Aviva Bentley, the Director of Music at TBI and your student’s 6th grade Hebrew and Religious School teacher. This is my 10th year teaching at TBI, but for the first time, I am also a parent in my own class. My daughter, Hannah, will be my own student. Some teachers might see this as a challenge, but I am thrilled to teach this wonderful group of learners, most of whom I have known almost their whole lives. It is certainly a benefit to be both a parent and a teacher, and I hope that I will always provide you with the information you need, in a timely fashion, for us to have a wildly successful year together.

6th Grade Blog
Thus, for the past many years, I have created a blog dedicated to this class. Our 6th grade blog will be a consistent source of information to keep you up to date and to find everything you and your student needs in one convenient place. As a parent of two students who are learning remotely in the Deerfield school district, I feel your pain. There are too many links, too many websites, and places to find, check and understand your student’s assignments. I promise to make our class as streamlined as possible, and to have the links to everything you need always at your fingertips. At the end of this introduction, you will find links for Zoom for each class, and where information is on this website. Continue reading →

Celebrate the end of 6th grade with cheesecake

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Dear 6th Grade Families,
When I scheduled our final extra lesson for tomorrow, I had not realized the TBI Cheesecake Project would conflict. There will be no lesson tomorrow at 4:15 pm, instead, I encourage all of you to stop by TBI to pick up your free cheesecake and say farewell to your TBI teachers. I will be at TBI (at a safe social distance) waving to you. Pick up is available from 3:00-6:00 pm. Please observe all required protocols. If you have not already done so, please register on Shulcloud for this event: https://templebethisraelskokie.shulcloud.com/event/TheCheeseCakeProject

Continue reading →

Zoom Class on March 25, 2020

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Dear 6th Grade Families,
I hope you and your families are doing well. I know this time of isolation can be challenging for everyone, mentally and physically. Tomorrow, I am offering a Zoom Class for our 6th grade. We will meet from 4:15-5:00 pm, the call in/login information is below.
My goals for tomorrows class are as follows:
  1. Check in with each of the students
  2. Introduce them to the online Trope Academy
  3. Review known Haftarah clauses (Sof Pasuk, Etnachta, Katon)
  4. Continue working on Katon clause

Welcome to 6th Grade 5780

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ברוכים הבעים B’ruchim habaim, welcome to 6th Grade at Temple Beth Israel. My name is Marla Aviva Bentley and I will be your teacher. Most people call me Morah Marla מורה מרלה. This is my 9th year teaching at TBI and I am so excited to get to know you and start off this year! I have spent this summer working, studying, singing and praying. In June, I was installed as the President of the Guild of Temple Musicians. In July, I attended the North American Jewish Choral Festival for my work with HaZamir: The International Jewish Teen Choir. In August, I served on the סגל segel (faculty) of Kallah Atid at OSRUI. I just returned from a relaxing camping trip in Wisconsin with my family. It has been a busy summer, and I am really looking forward to beginning our school year together.

Visiting Old World Wisconsin

Camping in Kettle Moraine

This is our 6th grade blog. It will be the place you can keep up with what is happening in our classroom. Take a few minutes to explore the blog and it’s pages. To learn more about me, visit the About page. In 6th grade we will be exploring our relationship with God, delving into the prayers of  סדר קריאת התורה Seder Kriat HaTorah (the prayers surrounding the Torah service), learning Cantillation, or how to chant תורה Torah and הפטרה Haftarah, as well as continuing to speak, read and write in עברית Hebrew.

I look forward to meeting you and your parents, or catching up if I have taught your older sister or brother. We are going to learn so much this year, and have a great time doing it. See you Sunday!

Welcome to 6th Grade

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Welcome to 6th Grade!

It was so lovely meeting your students this past Wednesday. I am really looking forward to a fantastic year. During our first day we got to know one another, talked about class expectations, and looked through our textbooks and the materials in their binders.  I asked the students to write and reflect a little about what they are most looking forward to about their Bar or Bat Mitzvah (the day, the process, the entire experience), as well as what they are most nervous about for the Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Afterwards, we discussed their responses and discovered many people in class shared some of the same worries and some of the same things to be excited about. I think it helped to bond the students together, and I tried to calm many of their fears by assuring them of what we would learn this year, and how well prepared they would be. Continue reading →

Junior Youth Group

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6th Graders are eligible to join our TBI Junior Youth Group (JYG).  JYG is for TBI members in 6th, 7th and 8th Grade.  The first JYG event of the year is this Sunday, September 17 from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in the Multi-Purpose Room.  Pizza lunch will be served, and the cost is $5 per person.  For more information or to RSVP, contact our Junior Youth Group Director, Rachel Shaykin.

TBI-JYG Event 9-17-17

Our first day

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We had a great first day yesterday!  We got to know one another, discussed the expectations of our classroom, passed out books and materials and started our first trope lesson.  In the last few minutes of class I requested the students’ email addresses (if they wanted to receive email notices of new blog posts) and talked briefly about the blog.  Continue reading →

Trope Assignment

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During the last few classes we have learned so much in trope. We discussed how trope functions in three ways:

  1. Melody – each trope symbol has a given sound.
  2. Pronunciation (syllabic stress) – where the trope is located indicates the syllabic stress.
  3. Punctuation – each trope symbol tells you to connect (m’chaber) or separate (mafsik) from the symbol that follows.

Continue reading →

Welcome to 6th Grade 5777

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ברוכים הבאים כתה ד

My name is Marla Aviva Bentley and I am thrilled to welcome you to 6th grade at Temple Beth Israel.  This is my 6th year teaching at TBI.  In addition to being your teacher, I am also the temple Music Director.  I have two children, Hannah Jane (2nd grade) and Jaret (Kindergarten), and my husband of twelve years is Newell.  We live in Deerfield with our dogs, Duke and King. Continue reading →

Coming to a close

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We have had quite a year, and it is amazing to me that we are almost at the end of it. Our final T’filah (prayer) Project group presented the Mourner’s Kaddish today.  I am exceedingly proud of the effort, work and presentations of this class.  Your projects really inspired me!  Kol HaKavod.

Another major accomplishment, is our Tzedakah collection.  Thus far, this class has raised $290.90 to benefit the Wright-Way Animal Rescue in Morton Grove.  I am sure by the end of the year, we will be able to give them a check for $300.  Feel proud of your efforts – we are going to help a lot of animals. Continue reading →

B’nai Mitzvah Seminar

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As a reminder, B’nai Mitzvah Seminar will begin Sunday, March 13.  Seminar runs from 8:30 -10:00 a.m. with Rabbi Weinberg.  Following seminar, students will return to the 6th grade classroom to continue their learning.  Seminar is an opportunity for the 6th grade students and their parents to learn about the Bar/Bat Mitzvah process at Temple Beth Israel.  For your convenience, I have posted the letter from Rabbi with all the details here: 2016 B’nai Mitzvah Seminar letter.

First Avodah Project

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20150927-145834.jpgAvodah עבודה is the Hebrew word for service. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and that will be the focus of our first עבודה service project. To begin our efforts, the students made pink ribbons to decorate the sukkah and researched some facts about Breast Cancer. We also created a flyer encouraging the whole school and TBI Community to wear pink on Sunday, October 11th. Continue reading →

Shabbat at the Park

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The last Shabbat at the Park of this summer is coming up, Friday, August 21 at 6:30 p.m. at Lovelace Park in Evanston.  Bring a picnic dinner and dessert to share.  My family, especially my children, really look forward to these special Shabbatot outdoors.  Rabbi will be playing his guitar, I will be singing, families will be gathering to pray, eat and enjoy each others company.  I hope to see you there!

http://www.tbiskokie.org/pdf/Shabbat%20at%20the%20Beach%20Flyer%202015_v5%20at%20Lovelace%20Park.pdf

Elulpalooza

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Sunday, August 30th is Elulpalooza at TBI.  We will be celebrating the opening of Beit Midrash (school) with “Yom Space” (a space themed day).  In addition to meeting your teacher (me), seeing your new classroom and learning a bit about 6th grade, the morning will include:

  • BBQ Picnic from 11:00-1:00
  • Moon Walk
  • Puppet Play “Jews in Space”
  • Family activities and crafts
  • Planetarium experience
  • Space swag

Free and open to the public!  Invite your friends, and perspective TBI members.

http://www.skokienet.org/node/46855#.VcUWwZTvqN4.link