The Politz PressParsha : ToldotCandle Lighting Time: 4:24 PM November 16, 2012

How you can help our school, at no extra cost

to you!

Education to the school office.

a $3000 scrip obligation. Stop by the school office to purchase before your next trip to Shop Rite!

card, please make sure to cred-it it to Politz.

Mazal Tov or condolence card for you for a $10 donation to the scholarship fund!

and equipment just by shop-ping at Bottom Dollar Foods that just opened on Rt. 38. Bring your bottom dollar mem-bership card to the school of-

fice to register it.To View The Politz Press Online, visit www.politz.org

Parent Volunteer

Of the Week

Mrs. Vicki Miltz

For being the President of the PPA

Thank you!

Dear Parents,It’s been a week filled with an abundance of creative

and culturally enriching activities for our students. Monday was truly a “Day of Literacy” beginning when our younger students in Pre-K and Kindergarten traveled to the JCC where they listened to Jane Kohuth read her book, Estie the Mensch. The children enjoyed a follow-up activity that focused on what it means to be a mensch. Later that day, Ms. Kohuth came to Politz and spoke to our second through fifth graders. This time, her focus was on how an author uses the writing process, which begins with a much revised and edited manuscript and becomes a finished piece of literature. The highlight of Ms. Kohuth’s program was the announcement of the winners of the Young Author’s Writing Contest sponsored by the JCC Festi-val of Arts, Books and Culture. Mazal Tov to our winners -Shira Auslander and Moshe Dov Chaitoff –Grade 2; Ari Fein-erman and Fayga Mangel – Grade 3; Nachi Epstein – Grade 4; and Yael Mellul and Dassi Galapo – Grade 5. All of our stu-dents’ stories in Grades 2- 5 were entered in the contest and each story was creative, meaningful and reflective. Their illus-trations were priceless! Kol Hakavod to all of our students.

It was our pleasure to welcome Laly Lazan and Ali-za Ben Ner to Politz on Tuesday. These two incredibly talent-ed artists spoke to our Middle School students about their life in Israel and their passion for their particular genre of artwork. They showed some samples of their artwork, which is both unique and spectacular. Our students were in awe of these two master artists! Laly Lazan returned Wednesday afternoon and worked with our second and third graders helping them create intricate beautiful beaded necklaces. Politz parent, Sabrina Spector, Director of the JCC Festival of Arts, Books, and Cul-ture was kind enough to orchestrate these events for our stu-dents. We thank Sabrina for all the effort she put forth on behalf of our students.

As you are well aware, Israel is entangled in an ef-fort to quell the ongoing rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. On Thursday, Morah Limor Auslander, one of our Safa teachers, gave our middle school students an impassioned update about the situation. After viewing Netanyahu’s speech, Morah Limor showed the students pictures of Israeli citizens cowering in bunkers and in stairwells as they hoped and prayed that they would not be hit by the incoming rocket fire – in the city of Tel Aviv! She shared that her newly married brother was just called up to prepare for a possible ground war. Our students are keeping her brother, and all of Am Yisroel in Eretz Yisroel in their tefillot. We ask that you join us and keep him in mind, as well.

Mindful of the real troubles our brothers and sisters are facing in Israel, this has been a busy week at Politz. We, in the school faculty, are incredibly thankful to Alise Panitch, our dynamic, new Board President, and her inspired lay volunteers for the amazing energies that they are investing to help make Politz a better school. Their efforts will insure that Politz will continue to service all the Jewish children that want the re-markable benefits of a Jewish education. There was a tangible ruach at the two evening parent events of camaraderie and shared achrayut (responsibility) to help Politz continue to grow. A special thank you to all the parents that attended the events. Your involvement is critical to our ongoing success!

Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Avraham Glustein, Head of School

Mrs. Marilyn Roth, General Studies Director

Dates to Remember

November 18th- Kohelet Fellow-ships Global Day of Learning November 21st- Grades 2 & 4 -Thanksgiving Program- 3:20 parents invited

November 22-23rd- Thanksgiv-ing Break

November 30th- Report Cards sent home

December 3rd - No School- Parent/Teacher Conferences(K-8) Regular Nursery classes

December 13th- Grandparent Day/Chanukah Dinner & perfor-mances

Nachat Gram of the Week

Shlomo Levenbrown- Grade 4

This week’s Parnas Hayom Sponsor

Wednesday, November 14th was dedicated in memory of Yakov, son of Ilya Fastovsky & Olga Minkin by Irina Alksnis & Family.

We are honored and privileged to have Rabbi David Gutterman,

a most dynamic and sought after speaker, to lead our discussion group for the

Global Day of Learning.Please join us this Sunday, November 18th,

10 AM until noon in the Politz Beit Midrash.

The mission of the Global Day is to bring the Jewish people together once a year to cele-brate our foundational Jewish texts through community based learning. In the spirit of Rabbi Steinsaltz’s call, “Let my people

know,” this year’s Global Day will focus upon Jewish concepts of blessing and

gratitude.

All are welcome free of charge. This program is gen-erously sponsored by the Kohelet Foundation.

Please note: Kohelet Fellows, you must attend this event or the Politz learning day which

is scheduled for the spring.

Please note that if you would like to get in touch with your child’s teacher,  call the school office and leave a 

message  for  the  teacher.  Please do not call or text their personal cell phones, unless they have 

given you their number. 

Third Graders Reach For the Stars

Last week, the students of third grade had a wonderful cul-mination to their study of the so-lar system and related aspects of space – a trip to the Franklin Insti-tute in Philadelphia.

We began our visit in a most exciting way as we ventured to the Joel N. Bloom Observatory on the roof of the museum. Here, each child looked through the unique Zeiss refracting telescope which provided them with an optically safe view of the daytime sun. Their enthusiasm was fantastic, as they observed telescope-cre-ated images of the various plan-ets, stars, and nebulae, (each of which had been investigated in detail in class). This was followed by our tour of the Space Com-mand Exhibit. Here the class had a chance to examine equipment used by real astro-nauts, including authentic space suits and other devices that help humans adjust to space environ-ments, compare the weight of a lunchbox on vari-ous planets based on gravity, detect several of the constellations in a star-filled sky, and witness a realistic demonstration of the various phases of the moon.

The show at the Fels Planetarium was an-other highlight of our trip. In addition to gaining a

further understanding of the night sky, the students were introduced to the concept of ‘black holes’, including a demonstration of how stars first de-

velop, the evolution of a black hole, and finally, a simulated flight into a black hole in the cen-ter of the Milky Way galaxy.

The children’s awe and amazement through-out the afternoon truly confirmed the value of this educational experience – a clear example of the importance of bringing learning to life.

Fourth Grade Politics

The presidential election, that took place on November 6, 2012, brought about much debate and discussion in our fourth grade classroom. After watching the de-bates, the students shared their opinions regarding which candidate they thought would be the most qualified to lead our country. It was wonderful listening to the students express their opinions about why they chose a par-ticular candidate. All the students were very re-spectful as they listened to their peers express their ideas. As we continue learning new concepts in math, the students are able to build upon their previ-ous knowledge. This enables them to solve chal-lenging concepts using strategies they have become familiar with. The students have begun to learn the properties of addition and multiplication, as well as, the rules of subtraction and division. When learning about concepts related to money, taking your chil-dren to the supermarket is a wonderful way for them to practice making change. In class they worked in groups using coins and dollar bills to find how much change they would give when buying a product. What a great “hands on” approach to learn-ing! Writing, writing, and more writing is what the students are having fun doing. Creativity is strongly emphasized, along with using the correct writing mechanics. They enjoy sharing their journal writing, as well as, their poetry and sentences that focus on a specific concept in grammar. Map skills are an integral part of our social studies curriculum. The students are working to-

gether learning about the different regions in the United States. They are using their imaginations to show how the US government groups the states together into regions based on the economy. The maps displayed

in the hallway focus on what the states have in com-mon based on human activity. Thanksgiving is around the corner and we are thrilled to be working with our second grade friends rehearsing for this amazing holiday program. It will be wonderful watching the smiling faces in the audi-ence as we entertain you through song and poetry. We look forward to seeing everyone at our presenta-tion on Wednesday, November 21st.

Chai Lifeline Toy Drive is here! See attached flyer for details.

What’s happening with 5th & 6th Grade Boys?

It was with much excitement that the 5th Grade boys celebrated the beginning of learning Gemara. A beautiful Hatchalat Gemarah break-fast was served. Rabbi Davidowitz, our guest speaker, explained the importance of asking ques-tions as a way of gaining clarity in learning. The breakfast was well attended by parents and grandparents. There was tremendous nachat and pride as Rabbi Glustein handed each student his very own Gemara Brachot. We are looking for-ward to a productive year of learning.

The excitement continues as the 5th & 6th grade boys do some hands-on learning. As we complete our learning of Hilchot Tzizit the students will be making their own pair of Tzizit. This is a very exciting project, as the tzizit the boys will make, they will also wear. Looking forward to a great year.

Math By Mail Math by Mail is our new enrichment program, developed by the Weizmann Institute in Israel. This program allows our students to use cutting edge technology, when solving challenging math problems. MBM fosters creative and log-ical problem thinking skills and connects our students online with internationally acclaimed mathematicians. The students enrolled in this program went on a trip on Wednesday, Novem-ber 7th, to the Jewish Federation of Philadel-phia. This was a joint MBM program for the Jewish day schools in our area. The director of MBM, Yossi Elran, explained that math can be used to decode secret messages. The stu-dents were given the task of using their decod-ing skills to discover messages that took them on a collective scavenger hunt. It wasn’t easy, but they finally figured out the puzzle.

Mr. Becker’s Math Classes

The theme chosen for Mr. Becker’s math classes this year is, “Why do we need math?” Throughout the year as students learn new concepts, these concepts will be related to the real world. To jump start the theme, the middle school parents filled out a questionnaire in which they listed ways they use math in their everyday lives. From the surveys, students completed a poster based on their parents’ answers. The classes then com-pared and contrasted the parent responses. One of the conclusions reached was people use math everyday, even if they don’t realize it.

In conjunction with last year’s theme of relating math to the Jewish holidays, students completed an activity on “High Holiday Math”. They were asked to purchase shofrot and bags using the prices of a particular company. They were given a limited amount of mon-ey. The challenge was to stay within their budget. Our students took to challenge.

The Book Fair is coming…

The Scholastic Book Fair will be held December 10-December 14th.

If you can help with this event please contact Dan Eisenstein at Daniel.Eisenstein@thomsonreuters.com

Our Week in Photos…

Mazal Tov to the winners of the JCC writing contest!

Mazal Tov Rabbi & Morah (Nierenberg) Weinberger

Morah Limor talking to the Middle School students about the situation in Israel

Author of Estie the Mensch speaking to the students

8TH GRADE PROUDLY PRESENTS OUR FIRST RAFFLE

“Please Return To Tiffany”

Heart Tag Necklace Drawing will be held on Friday, December 7th

on an 18 inch Silver chain

One Ticket - $2.00

Three Tickets - $5.00

Seven Tickets- $10.00 Tickets can be purchased at student lunch or in the office

*A Great Chanukah Gift!*

Bulk orders will be boxed 

8th grade  proudly presents:  Thanksgiving 

DONUT SALE Wednesday, Nov. 21st 

$1.00 per donut 

______________________________ Name: 

Grade: 

Flavor:                           Total Amount Paid: ________ 

Strawberry*                  Total number of donuts: _______ 

Chocolate* 

Vanilla* 

*Note: All donuts have sprinkles and are pareve. 

Money Due On Monday, November 19th