WEST HEMPSTEAD BREAKFAST HELD IN SUPPORT OF CAHAL

On Sunday morning, February 1st, 2009, the West Hempstead community held a Breakfast in support of CAHAL. The guest of honor was Randi Silber, Director of Pupil Personnel Services for the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County for the past 8 years. Randi, an outstanding teacher and advocate for special education, has had a tremendous impact on many of HANC’s children and those who have attended the CAHAL kindergarten class in HANC.

CAHAL’s Executive Director, Shimmie Ehrenreich, greeted the nearly 200 people in attendance. He thanked Randi for all her efforts on behalf of CAHAL and the West Hempstead community. He also read a stirring letter from Rabbi Benjamin Yasgur, principal of HANC’s elementary school, who was unable to attend. Rabbi Yehuda Kelemer, Mora D’asra of the Young Israel of West Hempstead, and Naomi Nadata, Program Director of CAHAL, spoke eloquently while offering tribute to Randi. Randi followed with an emotional speech about her relationship with the children she services at HANC. The featured speaker was Dr. David Pelcovitz, noted psychologist and author, who has published and lectured extensively on a variety of topics related to education, parenting and child mental health. His inspiring words had the entire audience captivated.

Special thank you goes to Mauzone’s Catering by Celebration who provided the delicious cuisine, Eli Kahn of Neshoma Orchestra for providing the sound system, and Jared Ehrenreich and Zachary Stern who volunteered to baby-sit for the young children during the program. Most of all we thank Randi Silber for allowing us to impose on her privacy and accept an honor in order for CAHAL to have a successful fundraising event. The breakfast raised much-needed funds for CAHAL’s Scholarship Fund.

Chanukah Toy Drive for Chai Lifeline

In order to make Chanukah very special for children who are ill, the Bnos Bais Yaakov 3-4 grade students took charge of the Chai Lifeline toy drive campaign that involved the entire school. For a period of three weeks, all the students from young to old enthusiastically brought in to school all sorts of toys. Very rapidly, the designated shelves in the CAHAL classroom started to fill up with lavish toys and shortly after, the room that once felt like a classroom with aligned desks and a large, white board in the center, turned into a “toy store.” The toys ranged from books, building blocks, dolls, Teddy Bears, puzzles and crafts-sets, to cars, trucks, board games, jewelry and puppets.

In return for the new toys that the students donated, the 3-4 grade students wrote a Chessed receipt as a token of appreciation. Day after day, the toys pilled up neatly on the shelves awaiting their pick up and departure to the hospital.  Right before Chanukah, the students organized and packed all the toys in aligned boxes ready to be distributed to the unfortunately ill children. How many toys were collected? An amazing amount of 396 toys. Chai Lifeline came to collect the toys and delivered them to the final destination.  The unbelievable Toy Drive was made possible by all the determined students and parents that cheerfully participated, and made this past Chanukah a memorable time for the sick children at the hospital. The kindness and efforts of the Bnos Bais Yaacov students touched the hearts of the children of Chai Lifeline. We are very proud of our BBY 3-4 grade class for spearheading this Toy Drive.

CAHAL Kindergarten Joins with HANC 6th Grade
By Melody Harris, Kindergarten Teacher

The CAHAL kindergartners have made some new friends at HANC through sharing work and play time together. Our nine boys paired up with sixth grade girls who have volunteered to come into our room and assist with some fun-filled learning projects. When we learned about winter, our topic in science was “states of matter”. The girls helped the children look through magazines to find pictures of objects that were solids and liquids. Then they cut, categorized and pasted them onto a sheet in the boys’ science journals.

When Purim “rolled” around, the girls returned to our class to listen to each boy retell the entire Purim story while they worked together to order the 15 pages they had made for their Megillot. They glued them into a long scroll that stretched from one end of the room to the other! Then the children all enjoyed carnival games together in the room, Haman Bean Bag Toss and Haman Bowling, and a Purim story and songs. The girls assisted once again for our special brachot project. Each boy made a placemat that was divided into 6 sections, one for each bracha that is made for the foods we eat. The girls helped them in searching through magazines to find pictures of food to illustrate each bracha, then cutting and pasting them into the right category. These learning experiences were enjoyed by all the children, big and small, and both the CAHAL kindergarten and HANC sixth grade teachers were so proud of their respective students.

Torah Reward Dollars at HAFTR
By Rabbi Moshe Waxman

The CAHAL third grade class at HAFTR has an amazing behavior movement program. The students are rewarded with Torah “dollars” throughout the school day for their positive behavior. Each student has an envelope where he or she keeps his or her accumulated “reward money.” Every Friday the students of HAFTR 3E go shopping at a store and buy fabulous prizes with their money. The goal is for the students to work towards a long-term reward while at the same time, experience handling money. As a reward for good behavior since the beginning of the school year, on Wednesday, November 12, 2008, the entire 3E class took a field trip to a bakery on Central Avenue. Each student chose a pastry. The students of 3E are working towards their next reward event by listening to their teachers, acting friendly towards their classmates, doing their homework and being responsible third graders.